Creations 1: The Perfect Creation (4 page)

“But how do I know you’re any good?”

She frowned, not having anticipated anything but a “yes”. He thought to refuse her?

Erin? Hell, she’d been genetically enhanced to appeal to
all
males. Why was this one so different? She could see he was anything but unaroused. His raspy breathing, dilated pupils and stiffening shaft under those trousers clearly displayed desire. The scent of need filled the air, the subtle aroma a blending of her pheromones and his.

“I don’t understand.” Not his question, or her sudden instinct to submit to this male, to offer him her subservience.
Oh shit. This is not good. Stay strong. Don’t give in.
The knowledge that Cheltam held some innate power over her steeled her will, and Erin resolved that should he accept her offer, no matter how physically close their association might bring them, she’d keep him mentally compartmentalised.

Already the male intrigued her, and they had yet to share intimacies. Erin needed to keep her focus on Blue Rim and her family. She had to in order to survive. Ryen and Anin depended on her. Erin had no time to spare on a criminal mastermind, no matter how attractive she found him.

He smiled, and her heartbeat stuttered, shocking her. She’d experienced a similar feeling when in that bar where the couples fornicated.
Sexual desire.
She didn’t have time to worry about it, however, because Cheltam leaned forward and jiggled his restraints.

“I require proof, Erin. A savvy businessman never agrees to an unknown, untested product. Show me what you can do, and I’ll think about it. Now how about you start with my cuffs, and we’ll go from there?”

She immediately shook her head. “No. But you have a point.” Logically, the male needed to know if she could stimulate him past arousal to climax. Anin had often described Synster’s quick journey to repletion and his satisfaction afterward. Perhaps if Erin brought Cheltam the same pleasure, he’d be more inclined not only to believe in her worth, but to help her as well. And if she worked him just right, she could gratify her urge to please him without him learning the truth behind her need.

She shoved him back against the seat and spread his thighs wide. Leaning closer to inspect the closure of his trousers, when she found it, she peeled the top of his pants apart.

“What are you doing?” Cheltam’s voice sounded strangled, and she glanced at him in surprise.

“I’m proving myself, as requested.” She quickly lifted him with ease as she lowered the cloth, pushing it down past his hips to his thighs.

“How strong
are
you?”

“As strong as I need to be.”
But not strong enough to take down Blue Rim, not without your
help. And, dammit all, not strong enough to resist
you
.
Determined to prove she would be worth his help, she drew on what she’d learned from Anin’s experience and got to work.

Rafe was so out of his element here it wasn’t funny. Needing to gather as much information from his kidnapper as possible, he’d done his best to ferret answers. Her name was Erin. She had an unnatural ability to enthrall males with a latent sexuality he found fascinating, as well as a beauty that captivated. She had strength and quickness in dangerous quantities, and a logical mindset to meet her objectives, no matter the obstacle.

Unfortunately for her, Rafe considered himself to be a huge obstacle. Erin needed his help to take down Blue Rim, and he knew for a fact Sernal had been investigating that very company, because he’d assigned the task to Gar. The reason behind this kidnapping was beginning to take shape, or at least, it had before she’d lifted him off his ass, as if he weighed no more than a feather, and stripped him to his knees.

Damn
. The woman seemed to really want his help, but could he let her—“
Oh, shit.
” He stared incredulously at her small yet strong hand wrapped around his cock. The feel of her soft palm around him aroused him unbearably, and his Xema senses warned him she possessed a dangerous quantity of pheromones adding to her allure. Not that her looks needed much help.

She distracted him by pulling on his shaft, pumping him up and down, slower then faster, and he concentrated all of his attention on holding back, when he wanted so very badly to come all over her.
Control, Rafe, where’s your precious control?
Gritting his teeth, he tried to dampen his arousal, and the effort made him sweat.

She wasn’t a typical beauty, in any way. Though she possessed a slender build and all the right curves in all the right places, her colouring was too foreign to be anything but stunning. That tan skin that now glittered with gold flecks. Those ripe lips and alien eyes, the colours swirling, as if expressing her emotions. Such a dark purple around the lighter blue, magnifying the pinpoint of heat in that golden pupil. Erin had an uncanny strength, but her touch right now… Rafe wondered if she might have been manipulated by Eyran scientists to bestow sexual pleasure at its finest. He could readily believe it as he watched her handling him.

“You like this.” She nodded and continued to jerk him off. “Very much.”

“Yeah.” Rafe tried to stem the arousal pooling in his blood, to maintain some command over his body. But being tied up and helpless under her touch aroused him even more. And that scent of hers wrapped around his brain as tightly as her fist around his cock. “So you’re going to prove yourself invaluable with your body, hmm?” he said thickly, willing himself to hold back.

She stilled and cocked her head. “You aren’t responding as I’d thought.” What the hell more did she want? He was ready to blow as it was.

Erin shook her head. “You’re still too aware.”

“Aware of wh—
blessed Flor,
” he moaned, as she enveloped him with her mouth.

She caressed him with her tongue and took him all the way to the back of her throat.

“Oh, yeah. That’s it. Suck it, baby, swallow me.” Rafe could do nothing more than listen to his body as he fucked her incredible mouth. Jolts of electricity shot through him, and he could feel his energy seeking that elusive plain that every Xema sought:
wainu
—a state of utter peace on a spiritual plateau that only a perfect union might create. And it looked, amazingly, as if the union of his shaft and just her mouth would take him there.

She moaned around him, taking him deeper, her movements so attuned to his needs it was as if they’d known each other forever as opposed to having just met. Rafe lost himself to the splendour of her scent and touch, his orgasm thundering all too near.

He shouted his bliss as he came in her mouth, his climax explosive. The heat of her mouth sucked him deeper, pushing him to give her everything inside of him. The climax took him by surprise, as much as he’d expected it. Because with the physical release, he also experienced a spiritual catharsis, a remedy to the constant restlessness plaguing him.
Wainu
.

She’d taken him to
wainu
.

Erin, Flor grant her, swallowed all of his seed before she released him and put his clothes once again to rights. Rafe could only sit there, staring at her in a daze as his spirit dwelled in the perfection of the moment. Erin seemed content to wait.

Moments later, Rafe took a deep breath. “That was…how did you…”

“You liked it.” She smiled, pleased, and Rafe noted the flush staining her cheeks, her heavy breathing just now settling down.

“Yeah, you could say that.” He took another deep breath, wondering what the hell to do now. He’d violated Sernal’s strict policy against fraternization between peacekeepers and the criminal class. He still needed to know more about Blue Rim and Erin’s part in the labs.

And hell, if what she said were true, then prison ships were illegally selling their human cargo as slaves to science. An unlawful, not to mention immoral, dealing. Sernal would definitely want that stopped.

Yet it was Erin herself that gave him pause. Rafe wanted her,
badly
. Aside from this mission, aside from her problems, he wanted to sink deep into the intriguing female and cement the connection he could all but feel as he wavered on
wainu’s
edge. He’d had plenty of sex before, but not every orgasm could take him to utter bliss, and especially not from contact with a virtual stranger. One touch of Erin’s mouth, in this damned uncomfortable vehicle, while
tied up
, and he’d shot his load like a pubescent youth. Yet for all that, he’d seen ecstasy made real.

The responsible side of Rafe told him to take the case and use Erin’s information, and
only
Erin’s information. But the male, the Xema within, demanded he heed his instincts to challenge the female and gauge her innate worth. That he see what lay beneath the surface of her beauty to find the heat within in a test as old as the Xema line.
Shit.
Though he knew he had to help her, he only hoped he could get to the point where he could focus on the case and not her delectable body.

“Okay, I’ll help you.”

Her grin widened. “My body for a techie, your ammunitions and a ship to take us there?”

Hell, yes,
his body shouted. But his damned conscience just had to intervene.
No, Rafe.

She’s desperate. Your job is to help people, not to take advantage of them.
Then again, he wasn’t Rafe right now. He was Cheltam. “There are conditions.” Her grin faltered. “I don’t ever go into a situation without knowing the facts. I want details, Erin. I want to know everything you know about Blue Rim. And I want to know what rotten peacemakers are laying in bed with the lab. Those guys will be the first to go,” he said roughly, his aversion to corrupt lawmen both in keeping with Cheltam’s image and adhering to his own principles.

“Agreed. And in return, I shall pleasure you whenever you like.” He narrowed his gaze, curious at the innocence in her gaze that contradicted the skill she’d just shown with both her hand and mouth. His interest in the woman was growing in leaps and bounds.

“So long as you’re willing. I’m not a rapist.”

She studied him curiously. “How very odd for a criminal of your calibre. Morals, Cheltam?” Her lips quirked.

“You have a problem with that?” He hoped he wasn’t giving anything away, but even when he played Cheltam, Rafe treated females with respect. They adored him; they didn’t fear him. He couldn’t help that notion of chivalry when it came to the fairer sex.

Protectiveness had been bred into his bones.

Erin shook her head. “I don’t think rape would ever be necessary with you. The rumours are that you’ve never begged for female companionship, but rather your women beg for you.”

Rafe grinned. “You going to beg, baby?”

“I’m not one of your women. And my name is not ‘baby’.” He lost his grin, needing to remind her, and himself, who was in charge, no matter his current state. “You want my help, you’re whatever I say you are. Now get rid of the cuffs.” Her hands moved and she grimaced, shoving them behind her back. “I’ll take them off, just as soon as we seal the deal.”

A typical Mardu custom, one even thieves and smugglers observed, and one he couldn’t argue. The woman had done her homework.

Glancing at him, she sighed. “I supposed a handshake won’t work.”

“A kiss.” Rafe steeled himself against a return of the lust he’d previously felt, but he refused to let this opportunity pass. For one thing, he needed to show her he was in charge.

And for another, it bothered him on a fundamental level that he’d received pleasure when she had not.

“Fine.” She leaned close, but he shook his head.

“No. Straddle me with your thighs, then kiss me. And do exactly as I say.”

“Just to seal the deal?”

“Do you want my help or not?” he asked coolly, and her resistance disappeared. Erin quickly straddled him, waiting. “Good girl. I like submissive.” The glare she flashed him made him chuckle. “Now slip one hand down your trousers.”

“
What?
”

“You heard me. Do it.” His stare brooked no refusal. And though she looked confused, she almost eagerly put her hand down her pants. “Now kiss me, and as your lips touch mine, I want you to take one finger and stroke those lower lips, the ones hiding that wet core of yours.”

A rosy flush caused the sparkle in her cheeks to glow brighter. The rover surprised them both by coming to a complete stop, but Rafe continued, needing to make his point.

“But, we’re here and I—”

“I’m not going to tell you again. You want my help, you do it my way. Yes or no?” Erin swallowed, but lust soon consumed the confusion in her gaze. He felt her hand moving between them, saw the excitement she tried to hide, and nodded.

“Now kiss me, and when you do, I want you to rub that tight little nub between your legs.”

She audibly swallowed, licked her lips, and made him wish he had the strength to fuck her again right now. But the
wainu
had taken a chunk out of his already low energy reserves, and he needed time to refuel. Watching her take her pleasure would surely help.

Erin’s kiss, when it came, had a hesitancy he wouldn’t have expected. Her soft lips melted under his, allowing him all the control he thought he’d have to fight for. She gave no protest when his tongue slowly pierced her mouth. If anything, her fingers moved faster over her clit, and her tongue shyly met his as she offered a small moan.

Rafe explored her mouth thoroughly, addicted to her honeyed taste that was like nothing he’d ever sensed before. The scent, flavour and feel of her taunted him as he fought the restraints at his back. He had half a mind to call upon his inner strength, but knew exposing his Xema abilities wasn’t necessary, not now. Though he felt like he’d die if he couldn’t touch her, he made do with her mouth.

After kissing her until he could no longer breathe, he pulled away to trail his mouth down her neck. Kissing her delicious skin up and down, he returned to the shell of her ear and whispered his commands while alternately teasing her sensitive lobe.

“So sexy,” he murmured and pressed his teeth against her soft flesh. Pleased at her shiver, he continued. “How does it feel, touching yourself against me?”