AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Please don’t ask if you don’t want to hear the answer.
Please don’t—of course he doesn’t want to hear the real answer. Light years out of your league. Remember?
Idiot. I’m an idiot.
The voices stopped the moment he reached for her. He brushed his fingers across her cheekbone before slipping them into her hair.
She trembled, part of her wondering if this was what prey felt like the moment before the predator struck.
“What will you miss the most? The forest? The freedom?” He leaned in slightly, his mouth quirking into a smile that made her insides quiver. “Don’t tell me it’s the bark spiders.”
She laughed softly. “Ugh. No. Definitely not them. It’s not a what I’ll miss. It’s who.”
“Do I get to know the name of this person?” he teased. She could tell by the heat in his eyes he already knew the answer. Holy hell. He knew, and he wasn’t pulling away. She should move right now. Step back and lay out all the reasons this couldn’t happen. Only she didn’t.
Screw it. She’d already gone this far. Why not go all the way? She laid her hand lightly on his chest and whispered a single word. “You.”
“Re’veth,” he swore softly, his eyes still locked on hers. “I was afraid you’d say that.” Then his fingers tightened in her hair and tugged her head back. His other arm caught her around the waist and pulled her up hard against him.
Then he growled her name just before his mouth crashed down on hers, and the world around them vanished in a blast of white-hot heat.
She moaned, closed her eyes, and kissed him back.
8
Until this moment, Axe believed nothing could break him. He’d survived wars, endured abuse at the hands of his corporate owners, and withstood years of solitude and experiments on Reamus Research Station.
He was wrong.
The moment Rin confessed that she would miss him, he broke. He hauled her into his arms and gave in to the desires that had built up over the last few days. He savored the taste of her lips and the lush softness of her curves where they fit against him. Her hair felt like spun silk against his roughened hands, and her mouth was sweeter than honey.
Her moan of desire fanned the flames of his need for her. She’d been a constant presence in his mind since they’d met. She was a collection of intriguing contradictions—a scientific mind combined with a caring heart and a cheerful outlook on life. He’d never known anyone like her. It was easy to relax around her, to joke and laugh in ways he’d observed but never experienced for himself.
Now he’d had a taste, he wanted more. When it came to Rin, he wanted everything.
Needs he’d forced himself to deny for years roared to life like rocket fuel poured over the embers of a dying fire.
Her small hand moved to the collar of his shirt, catching hold of it and twisting it around her fingers as she rose up on her toes to kiss him back. He guided her to the nearest tree and pressed her up against it. His mouth never left hers as he shifted his grip on her waist and hair, drawing his hands down over her breasts and the leather straps that held the pauldron in place on her shoulder. One by one, he unbuckled the straps, freeing her breasts from beneath the leather. He palmed them through her shirt, feeling the warm weight in his hands. Her nipples tightened to hard peaks beneath his touch.
Rin arched her back and uttered a low, breathy moan that threatened to shatter what was left of his wits. Then she reached between them to cup the bulge of his cock in her hand, and he was lost.
“Rin,” he groaned her name as she gripped him through the fabric of his pants. Not even he was sure what he meant by it. Was it a warning or a demand she continue?
“Yes,” was all she said.
It was enough.
Or it would have been… if Amun hadn’t chosen that moment to bombard him with images accompanied by a sense of urgent uncertainty Axe translated as “What is this and what should I do about it?”
“This better be important, bird!” he spoke the words aloud, so Rin knew about the interruption.
“One image at a time, Hera. I can’t focus when you send them that fast,” Rin said at almost the same moment.
Apparently, both their companions were determined to ruin the moment. “This is why I was happy on my own,” he muttered, his mood darkening quickly. “No one around to interrupt me.”
Rin laughed and pulled him in for one last kiss. “If you were by yourself right now, there’d be nothing to interrupt.”
And just like that, his anger vanished.
