"Yes. I need something to help me sleep."
"Natural or synthetic?"
"Whatever works. I stayed up all night last night reading … " she caught herself, but it was already too late.
"Reading? While Montgomery slept beside you?"
Sheena sighed and nodded. "Pretty much."
Nate walked to a nearby cabinet and pulled out a pack of three capsules. He brought it back and held it out. When Sheena went to take it from him, he lifted it out of reach.
"What if I said I wanted to help you get to sleep myself-no drugs needed?"
"Nate … that's not a good idea."
"Kiss me and tell me that," Nate ordered. "I think it's the best idea I've had in ages. I'm tired of dreaming about you. I want the real thing."
"You dreamed about me?" Sheena asked.
"Yes, but you weren't naked in the dream. All we did was talk. Total waste of Delta waves."
Guilt was a heavy burden. Sighing, Sheena held out a hand. "I think I'll take the pills."
Mirroring her sigh, Nate lowered his hand and put the packet in her palm. Two seconds later he had Sheena in his arms. His mouth on hers was the only good thing that had happened to him that day.
"Sleep with me," he whispered, when he let her go. "Let me take care of you. I'll kill anyone who interrupts us this time."
"Don't do this to me. I'm so tired," Sheena whispered. "I have no fight left."
"I know. That's why I'm making my move while I can. Tomorrow you'll hate me again."
"I don't hate you. Why do you keep saying that?" Sheena asked wearily.
Nate pushed back her hair with fingers still holding the packet of pills. "Maybe because I hate myself for letting you go. No other woman ever took your place in my bed or my heart. We're not done, Sheena MacNamara. And nothing you did or did not do with General Montgomery last night changes that. I still want you as much as I ever have."
Sheena shuddered in his arms, hearing what she'd longed to hear from the man who had always owned her heart. Without thinking of the cost, she gave the words back. "Nothing happened last night with Scott, and I turned him down this morning. He'd have just been a substitute. I still want you too."
"Good. Stay with me tonight. You won't need the sleep tablets. I promise."
His mouth was suddenly on hers again, his lips sliding across Sheena's lips. Her urgent kiss helped him believe what he desperately needed to believe.
Sheena shook her head, resistance at an all time low. "How can I do this? You won't talk to me. I can't trust you. Your mother-I don't know what she's up to with Bri. We'll only end up hurting each other again. This isn't going to work, Nate."
"It will work for tonight. We'll make it work at least for tonight. Please give me one more chance."
"Berg is here," Berg said from the doorway.
"Sheena?" Nate asked.
Sighing, Sheena looked at her handsome escort. Most of the aliens were like Toorg and Berg-handsome, well-built, and concerned for any female they came across.
"It's okay Berg. I'll be going with the Admiral to his quarters. I'll send a com message to Brianna to let her know."
Nodding once, the tall, bare chested guard disappeared.
Then she was being dragged down the hall at a striding clip she could barely keep up with.
"Undress me," Nate ordered gruffly.
Face flushed with an arousal already flaming out of control, Sheena deftly tore the fasteners of his slacks open. Nate wore nothing underneath them. Her roaming hands found him hard and already throbbing for her.
Her whimper as she stroked him spurred Nate to get her naked too. Her shirt was tugged over her head. The other clothing she wore soon followed. Nate's hands were in her hair, down her arms, and roaming over her breasts as he got reacquainted with them.
When one large hand with seriously talented fingers slid between her legs, her knees buckled. Seconds later she was airborne as Nate lifted and carried her to bed.
He laid her among the covers and slid his body over hers. Her legs opened to him, quivering when he groaned in her ear at the invitation.
"Just like this?" Nate asked in a rough whisper.
"Yes … gods, yes," Sheena replied.
She ran her hands through his hair and over his shoulders again. She arched as he worked himself inside her with as much patience as he could wrestle from them both. When it was done, they fit together like two parts of a whole. But then they always had.
The mother of all orgasms tore through her needy body on the first long stroke he made. It spun out with the twenty that followed the first.