Alien Heart (6 page)

“You are my life now.”

“Heart, body, spirit.”

Her fingers tightened around him, and she let out a raw gasp when his cock pushed into her.

“God—Kiele—”

“Say the words, Anji.” Need edged his voice.

“Heart, body, spirit.”

“Now, I need you to kiss my wrist.” He let go of her and lifted his left arm out of the water. “After you say these words.” He whispered in his own language against her lips. “We are one.”

She shivered, the reality of what she was doing like a slap. “Kiele—I don’t—”

“Look at me,
t’anling
.” He didn’t sound angry, and she expected angry. This was the equivalent of leaving someone at the altar—or running away just before saying those two words that would tie the couple together for life. In this case, three words. “You are the unexpected, smart, beautiful alien who hurtled into my life, and stole my heart. But I will not finish the ritual, Anji, if you have any doubt.”

She stared at him, his words bringing out a fact she’d never thought of—she was just as alien to him. His trust in her had to be given with the same amount of fear, doubt, and uncertainty she was feeling. That he had wanted to do this with her since their first night together told Anji he believed in them, even knowing the very real backlash he’d take from his own people.

If that wasn’t love, she didn’t know what was.

She let go of him and framed his face, her fingers brushing the scales that traced his hairline. He was an alien, but she didn’t care. She hadn’t cared, since before the first time he kissed her. The thought of living tomorrow, and every day after that without him was like a fist pummeling her heart.

“I can’t—” She cleared her throat, and talked fast when she saw the despair in his eyes. “I can’t live another day not knowing you’re mine, Kiele. Forever—that’s what I want with you. Forever.”

He kissed her, his lips, his touch so tender tears stung her eyes. “Say the words,
t’anling
, and you will get exactly what you want.”

Anji took his left hand, looking into his eyes when she spoke. “We are one.” She brushed her lips over the inside of his wrist—and let out a cry as hot liquid filled her. “Kiele—”

He closed his hands around her hips and drove himself in to the hilt.

A different kind of heat filled her, like nothing she’d ever felt. It spiraled through her, and she could almost see the tendrils as they wrapped around her heart, pulling her into Kiele physically and emotionally, filling her with a kind of peace and joy she’d never experienced.

“You feel the joining,” he whispered.

“Is this what it’s supposed to feel like?”

She arched into him as he slowly stroked her. “Peace,” he murmured, brushing her lips. “Joy so deep it becomes part of you. Love.” He pulled her in, taking himself deeper.

“Yes—” Her fingers dug into his shoulders. With his cock so hot and thick inside her, surrounded by the cool water, her head was spinning. “Kiele—I can’t think—”

“No need. Simply feel, my heart.” He thrust into her, moving faster now. “Anji—I need to take you under the water.”

Panic shot through her and she stilled. “What?”

“Trust me, breathe into me. The joining has traditionally been finished while the couple is immersed.”

“You forgot that detail.”

He ran one hand down her back, cool and soothing against her hot skin. “Even in the water, you are so warm.”

“Stop avoiding, Kiele.”

“You were already nervous. I thought to—”

“Trap me first, then spring the happy news on me?”

“Bring you close to fulfillment, so we would need to spend as little time under the water as possible. Anji—I would never hold back information without good reason.”

Realization struck her. “This is why you asked if I was afraid of the water.”

“Part of it. For the rest—water is my life, and I could not share that life with you if you feared the one source that makes me who I am.”

“You could have told me. Sure, I might have been a little freaked out by it, but I trust you, Kiele. I seriously don’t think you would have gone to all this trouble just to drown me in a tub.”

Laughter burst out of him. “You never fail to surprise me, Anji.”

“Right back at you, T’An. Can I ask one favor?”

“Anything, love.”

She shivered, liking the way she felt when he said that. Loving the way he felt inside her. She had never been so comfortable talking to a man while he made love to her. And this was making love—not the vaguely unsatisfying sex she’d had with other men. An alien finally captured her heart, showed her that she
could
love.

“Can I kiss your wrist again? We already did the joining thing, so it’s not like I’d be tempting you—and I really need a distraction—”

“I would be thrilled.” He cradled her cheek. “I meant what I said before, Anji. You can breathe into me. I can give you the oxygen you need.”

“You can?”

“It is a technique we discovered, with other species who cannot breathe under water. Most of the time, it is used as a lifesaving option, but sometimes, it comes in handy for more intimate reasons.”

“Like making love under water. Are there any other details you saved?”

A faint blush edged his cheeks. “It is optional, but many who mate wear matching tattoos, to show that they belong to each other. I would like to do this, Anji.”

“We’ll talk.” God, he was adorable. Matching tattoos—she could go with that, as long as they weren’t over the top, and in a discreet spot. “We will definitely talk. Now, where were we?”

He pressed his wrist to her lips and she almost climaxed as heat poured into her.

“Anji—”

“Yes—God, Kiele, yes—”

He cut her off with his lips and took her under.

Anji panicked at first, surrounded by water again. But Kiele’s arms were around her, his lips warm on hers, and his breath even warmer. She opened her eyes, long enough to see his face, her hair floating around them, the cool water that embraced her. Then he started moving inside her and she forgot where she was.

Every thrust took him deeper, and he was so thick, so hot—she didn’t remember him feeling like this before, being so aware of him like this. Her fingers dug into his arms, her mouth fused to his, her body so hot even the water didn’t cool her.

He groaned against her lips and drove himself into her. She arched up, meeting every fast, deep stroke, straining toward the climax racing at her. His cock filled her, throbbing and huge, and that sense of belonging only to him pushed her higher, heightened every touch, every thrust—

Her body clamped around his cock and she felt him stiffen, his hands curled around her ass as he pounded into her, every inch of him taking her higher. He lifted her and they broke the surface of the water, both of them gasping.

“Kiele—”

“I need—to hear your voice, feel your breath, touch you—”

“What about the—joining?” God, she could barely think, never mind talk.

“You feel it, know in your heart we are joined already.”

“God, yes. Please don’t stop.”

“Never. Hold on to me, Anji.”

She wrapped her legs around his waist and arched into him, taking him in so deep she knew no man had ever touched her there before. His hand slid up, over her ribs, and found her breast. She cried out when his fingers teased her aching nipple.

“God—Kiele—I need faster.”

He gave her faster, and she rode him, her body screaming for release. She let out a gasp when he moved, pinning her against the side of the tub. His hands gripped the thick edge, giving him more leverage, and he thrust up, changing the angle, his cock pressing into her clit.

“Anji—” He panted, words she didn’t understand wrapping around her as he drove into her, the water swirling around them with the force of his body moving against her, inside her.

“Kiele—oh God—”

She arched her back, grabbing on to his shoulders as the orgasm ripped through her. He kept thrusting into her, wave after hot wave threatening to drown her. Nothing she’d experienced had ever felt this powerful, this right. His release triggered a second, even more stunning orgasm, and she clung to him, afraid she was going to fly apart if she didn’t have an anchor.

He spilled himself inside her, and she clenched around him, holding him deep inside, letting him fill her.

“Anji—” He captured her lips in a hot, desperate kiss, and her need spiraled up again, his long, hot release setting off another shuddering orgasm. “Anji—”

His body arched, and he shocked the hell out of her by climaxing again. No human man had ever done
that
. His cock pulsed inside her, the feel of him so incredible she never wanted to let him go. He pressed his wrist to her lips and she kissed him, actually screaming when hot liquid pumped into her, finding the one spot no man ever seemed to be able to touch.

Kiele drove himself into her, and the friction, the heat, the hard length of him inside her had her clenching around him. She fell into her third orgasm, only his body holding her upright as she rode him. With a last, deep thrust he collapsed against her, groaning when she still moved against his cock, her body refusing to stop until the last waves of her orgasm crashed through her.

Finally she relaxed, fighting for breath, completely spent.

“Good God,” she whispered. “What—how—”

He lifted his head, sweat dripping off him despite the fact they sat in now cold water. “We are able to climax more than once, but only when the connection is so deep with our partner we truly lose all sense of control.”

“That scares you, doesn’t it?”

“More than a little. I knew we had a special bond,
t’anling
, but this…” his voice faded, and he swallowed. “This is only talked about. None I know have ever experienced it.” He leaned in to kiss her, and she gasped against his lips when he moved inside her, already starting to grow hard again. “You are deeper in my heart than I thought.”

“That’s good to—know.” Her voice broke as he got even harder, pressing into her core. “Since we mated and everything.”

“Speaking of mating.” He moaned as he slid out of her, then back in, slow and torturous. “I want you again, Anji Suun Pearce, with a need my body will not let me ignore.”

“Is that my name now?”

“The female always keeps her name,” he kissed his way down her throat, then back up, her heart pounding by the time he reached her mouth. “To respect her family, where she came from.”

“I like it.” She moaned when he stroked her again.

“As do I.”

“Kiele.” Fighting to breathe, she wrapped her arms around his neck. “Can we do round two in bed? The water’s a little too cold for me.”

“Of course.”

He eased out of her, both of them gasping at the separation. Anji had never felt so empty before, like she had just lost the other half of her. Whatever had happened between them, she was different. Changed. Tied to him in a way she never thought she would want to be tied to anyone—God, never mind an alien.

By the time she pulled herself out of her thoughts, Kiele had her out of the tub. He wrapped a long, wide towel around her, and wrapped a second around his waist before he headed to the bed. The crisp, surprisingly absorbent cloth obscured the view of his really spectacular ass, but when he bent over to pull back the covers, she forgot about that when she saw his back.

“Kiele—your gills…” The damage was healed. Oh, the scar was still there, but the blood, the ugly bruising around his gills—all of it, gone. “Just being in the water did that?”

“Come here, Anji.” He held out his hand, sat with her on the end of the bed. “One of the side effects of us evolving to exist underwater was the ability to regenerate. It is also a weakness. Without the water that sustains us, we cannot survive.”

“At all?”

“We have the immersion cycles because they are necessary. If my gills dry out completely, I will not survive. It is an excruciating way to die.” He sighed, wrapping his arms around her. “I should have told you all there is to know of my people, before you tied yourself to me.”

“Kiele.” She looked up at him, those jewel green eyes dimmed by—whatever he thought she’d hate about him. How did she know that? “I know that your people are honorable, and strong, and worthy of trust. That was all I needed to fall for you. The rest is gravy.”

His chuckle vibrated through her, warm and—arousing.

“You are a delight, my heart. I will enjoy spending our lives together learning about you.”

“Here’s the first thing. Your laughter turns me on. Hell, you turn me on, Kiele Suun. Now kiss me, have your way with me.”

He did, lifting her until she straddled him. Anji freed her lips and leaned back. “This time we’re doing it human style.”

Anticipation flashed in his eyes—and she was on her back before she could blink. He crawled over her, naked now, using his teeth to slide the towel off her breasts. Anji bowed off the bed when those teeth scraped over her nipple.