Marcus (10 page)

“Because I’m good at killing.”

She made a scoffing noise. “You’re a good
leader, who always puts his team first. Who goes into combat time
and again to give humanity’s survivors a fighting chance.”

“Have you seen my face? It sure as hell
isn’t pretty.” He looked down and saw his blood-covered hands
resting on her skin. “Shit, I’m still covered in blood.” He pulled
them back. “Sometimes I think it doesn’t matter how hard I scrub,
they’ll never be clean.”

Her face softened. She stroked a finger over
his knuckles. “And sometimes I think I’ll never be anything but a
frivolous, useless society girl who thinks of no one but herself.”
She looked away. “You would have hated who I was before.”

He gripped her shoulders. “Bullshit. You’re
the best damn comms officer a squad could ever have. And you think
of
everybody
but yourself.”

A small smile tilted her lips. “Guess we’ll
both have to learn to see ourselves through the other’s eyes.”

He stared at his tanned, scarred hand
resting under hers. “I shouldn’t be touching you. I’ve been trying
to stay away from you for months.”

“You have?” She pressed her palms against
the armor on his chest. “Why?”

“You’re too good for me.”

“I don’t believe that.” She raised up on her
tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his mouth. “Well, I’ll just have to
show you how bad I can be.”

Marcus groaned and yanked her up. He closed
his mouth over hers. He knew the kiss was too hard, too hungry, too
raw, but she pressed harder against him, making mewling noises in
her throat.

And she kissed him back like she couldn’t
get enough of him. Her fingers had slid under his armor at the
neck, her thumbs stroking his skin.

He pulled back. “Shit. I’m getting raptor
blood all over you.”

“I already have dried canid blood
everywhere.” Her hands went to the fastenings of his armor. “Let’s
get this off you, and then why don’t we both get clean?”

Shit
. His cock leaped, not just at
her words but at the undiluted desire in her eyes. Elle naked and
wet in his shower… “The water’ll be cold.”

She smiled. “Right now, I couldn’t possibly
feel cold.”

***

Elle pulled off the last piece of Marcus’
armor and set it aside. Underneath he wore black cargo trousers and
an olive-green T-shirt.

He gripped the neck of his shirt and ripped
it over his head.

The air left Elle’s lungs in a wild rush. He
was so…hard.

His broad shoulders were roped in muscle and
his stomach was hard ridge after hard ridge. He looked like he was
sculpted from granite. His dark skin was crisscrossed with scars.
Nothing neat or faint. These were rough and ugly, the badges of
courage for a soldier. She touched one, an uneven starburst near
his right shoulder. She traced another long, ragged scar that cut
down his side.

He stepped back and with a flick of his
wrist, undid his cargo trousers and pushed them off.

Now her mouth went dry. She’d dreamed so
many times of Marcus naked before her. There was more heavy muscle
in his solid, powerful thighs. And a thick—very thick—cock rose up,
rock hard.

“Come on,” he rasped and pushed her toward
the tiny adjoining bathroom.

His bathroom looked like hers. Small, but
functional with a white sink under a mirror and a small shower
stall done in faded green tiles. Marcus slid back the shower door
and flicked on the water.

He helped her strip off her underwear and
urged her in. Elle tipped her face up to the spray. Thankfully it
wasn’t too cold yet, but still only lukewarm at best. Regardless,
it felt good to wash the blood and grime away. She felt her muscles
relax one by one.

Then Marcus squeezed into the stall behind
her.

Now she didn’t feel relaxed at all.

He was so big and the shower was so small.
His large, hot body pressed against the back of hers. His hard cock
brushed the cleft of her bottom and she shivered.

The water fell over them and he reached
around and squirted some soap from the dispenser.

Then he started rubbing it over her arms,
her shoulders, her back. She knew he was scrubbing away the canid
blood.

“Sorry, my soap doesn’t smell like flowers
like whatever you usually use.”

God, he’d noticed what she smelled like. Her
heart did a tiny flutter. No, his soap didn’t smell like hers. It
smelled like Marcus. Something simple, clean, with a hint of
musk.

He kept scrubbing. “So wrong to see alien
blood on this skin.” His hands slipped into her hair, lathering it.
“And this hair…” He worked the soap into the strands, lifting the
wet mass off the back of her neck “I’ve had dreams about all this
hair.”

Elle shivered and let her head drop back
against his shoulder. “I’ve dreamed of more than your hair.”

He let out a short laugh. “I’ve dreamed of
you naked in my bed—hell, naked
anywhere
—since the first
moment I saw you.”

She stilled. “You’ve wanted me since
then?”

“Yes. Those big, blue eyes watching me. I
figured you must have been scared to death of me.”

She smiled. “Hardly. I was mesmerized. You
were so big, strong…maybe a little intimidating. But I’ve never
been scared of you. You’re a protector, Marcus. Anyone—man, woman
or child—knows that the instant they see you.”

He leaned down and nipped the side of her
neck. Just rough enough to excite. She gasped.

“But what if you need protection from
me
?”

As he kissed her neck, teeth scraping in the
most erotic way, his soapy hands slipped down and cupped her
breasts.

She cried out, arching into his touch.

“You like that?” He flicked his fingers over
her nipples. “These are beautiful breasts, Elle. Not too big, not
too small. Perfect.”

God, she wanted to touch him, but he kept
her caged with his big body, touching her all over with those slick
hands. The glide of wet skin against wet skin was intoxicating. His
hands slid lower, sliding down her belly, leaving her
quivering.

One hand slipped between her legs. His
fingers grazed across her clit and her hips rocked into his touch,
a whimper coming from her throat.

“I know, baby.” He explored her with a soft,
teasing caress. He ran his finger through her folds.

She whimpered again. “More.”

A masculine chuckle. “Greedy girl.” His
finger touched her clit.

He rubbed and her legs went weak. He kept
caressing her with firm, slick circles.

He held her up, and pleasure was a wild,
growing warmth that was taking her over. God, she needed to come.
The water, much cooler now, continued to pour over their heads. It
was just the two of them, locked together, Elle straining against
Marcus. There was no one else in the world but them and the
pleasure.

“Enough,” he growled and flicked off the
water.

Startled, Elle blinked. “I’m so close—”

“I know, baby. But the first time I make you
come, I want it to be around my cock.”

His words made her lower body spasm.

He pushed her out of the shower and didn’t
bother with a towel. He scooped her up, and in a few quick strides
reached his bunk. He dropped her onto the covers. “I can’t wait any
longer. Got to be inside you.”

The sheets smelled like him—dark and
masculine. He knelt beside the bed, his strong hands sliding up her
thighs.

“So damn beautiful.” He stroked a hand over
her stomach, a finger playing with the dark curls at the juncture
of her thighs.

Elle’s eyelids fluttered and she bit her
lip. She was going to combust if he didn’t do something, anything,
soon. “Touch me.”

He slid one thick finger inside her. She
reared up, crying out.

“That’s it, baby.” He worked his finger
inside her, his thumb putting glorious pressure on her clit.

Sensation was a raw, primal electricity
running through every nerve in her body. The slippery edge of
release was rising up to meet her and she wanted to go over. So
badly.

“No.” His thumb moved away and he leaned
down and sucked a nipple into his mouth.

“Marcus!”

“You aren’t coming without me inside you. So
deep you feel every inch of me.”

Another spasm rocked her. “
Yes
.” She
wanted him inside her too.

He lapped at her breast, then pulled back.
His finger slipped out of her and then he was gripping her hips and
dragging her to the side of the bed. He pushed her knees up and
out, opening her to him.

Elle had the fleeting thought she should be
embarrassed, but the hungry look on his face just made her feel hot
and wanted.

He circled his cock with one hand, pumped it
once, then pressed it between her open legs. He circled her
entrance with the thick head.

Elle was panting. She needed him so badly.
“I’m so empty, Marcus. Fill me up.”

With a groan, he reared up and slid inside
her with one hard thrust.

Her cry echoed through the small room. He
was so thick, and he stretched her hard. A pleasure-pain that
pushed her right to the edge.

He planted his hands either side of her on
the bed and started moving. “Can’t go slow this time, Elle.”

She wound her legs around his waist. “I
don’t want slow.”

He moved faster, his hard thrusts thumping
her into the bed. The intense look on his rough face took her
breath away.

Her orgasm built so fast, she wasn’t ready
for it. Her hands twisted in the sheets and then all the feeling in
her exploded. She screamed his name, her hips jerking up.

He leaned over her. Slick skin against slick
skin. He didn’t pause in his hard thrusts.

He didn’t give her a chance to relax or come
down. His big body kept powering inside hers.

“Again,” he growled.

Oh, God
. “I…I can’t.” She’d never
come more than once with any other lover, and sometimes she never
came at all, unless she did the job herself.

“Yes, you can.” He gripped her hips, tilting
them. It made him slide deeper and she moaned. “With me this
time.”

He kept moving, the new angle igniting
something inside her. Incredibly, she felt a second orgasm
building, faster and more intense than the first.

She moaned, her body shivering. Her hands
grabbed at his shoulders, her nails scoring his skin as she tried
to find some anchor in the chaos.

Then her release slammed into her.
Sweet
oblivion.

A second later, he dragged her closer and
thrust into her to the hilt. He held himself there, groaning as his
release hit and he poured himself inside her.

Marcus dropped onto the bed beside her and
pulled her into the curve of his body. Elle wasn’t sure she’d ever
be able to move again. Her body felt light and heavy at the same
time.

She pressed her lips to his damp
shoulder.

He kissed her temple. “Never, ever risk
yourself again.”

Her insides went warm. “Marcus.”

“Never again.” He tugged her closer and
buried his face in her hair.

Marcus tightened his arms around Elle. She
was here, in his bunk, naked, his seed drying on her thighs.

Nothing had ever felt so right.

“I can’t promise never to risk myself,” she
said quietly. “The world’s gone to hell, Marcus. We all have to
fight to survive.”

Her words cut through his gut. He felt a
driving need to protect her, from everything. But he knew she was
right, dammit. In the ruin of the Earth, all of them had to
fight.

“You do it from the Comms Control Room.”

Her fingers brushed the stubble on his
cheek, stroking. “I hate knowing you’re out there, fighting. I have
to hear it all, my mind imagining every gun shot, every raptor
bearing down on you.”

He gripped her hand. “It’s what I’m trained
for. Baby, you promise me you’ll never pull a stunt like you did
with that rex again.”

Her blue eyes flashed. “I’d do it again if I
had to.”

Marcus sighed. He loved her courage as much
as her quiet intelligence and her gorgeous body. But he never, ever
wanted to relive that moment with the rex again. “Then you deserve
your punishment.”

She raised up on her elbow, her eyes wide.
“Punishment?”

He sat and pulled her over his lap. “Told
you I’d have to spank you.”

“You can’t be serious!” She squirmed, trying
to get away.

He held her still with one hand on her lower
back. “I want you safe, Elle. Even from yourself.” Jesus, the
creamy curves of her ass taunted him. He gave her a light tap with
his open palm.

She jerked. “Marcus!”

He liked the contrast of his big, darker
hand against her pale skin. He slapped her other cheek.

She squealed and he knew he didn’t have it
in him to cause her any real pain. He caressed the soft globe,
marveling at how smooth her skin was.

When she moved against him, pushing up into
his palm, he paused. “You like it?”

She looked back over her shoulder, her face
flushed. “No, I love it. I like you touching me. In any way.”

“Good.” She loved his touch. Him, a rough,
crude soldier. “Because I love touching you. But I don’t want to
spank this delectable ass.” He caressed her bottom again, running a
finger between her cheeks and down until he slid into her tight,
wet heat.

“Oh.” She moved into his touch. “That’s so
good.”

He thrust his finger in and out, then slid a
second one inside her. She ground down against his lap and no doubt
she felt his cock against her hip, hard as steel.

Marcus pulled her up, swiveling her to face
him, her legs straddling him. “I didn’t ask you about
protection.”

“It’s okay—”

“No. It’s not. I said I’d protect you, so I
should have thought of it. I have a contraceptive implant and I’m
healthy.”