Runner's Moon Trilogy Megabook Series (10 page)

Hannah finished her examination, finally stopping in front of him. Laying her hands flat on his chest, she slid them upward until she reached his neck. Without her saying a word, he already knew what she was going to do. And what she wanted him to do. Her lemony scent filled the room with its thick aroma, lifting his hopes into the stars and beyond.

"Kiss me," she whispered against his lips.

His whole body tensed as he leaned over to take her lips.

He kept his hands away from her, afraid of touching her, scared she would flinch at the feel of his huge clawed hands holding her. But she had given him permission to have her mouth.

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He kissed her, savoring her, letting her taste and explore him as he breathed her odor. Her tongue gently swiped over his teeth and plunged inward to find his tongue. Minute irritation tinged the air. A second later, Hannah pulled back.

"I'm not made of glass, Jeb. Hold me, dammit."

"But—" He sought her face to find her eyes drilling into his.

There was no mistaking the look in them that swept him deep into their maelstrom. Her body pressed hard against his as her voice whispered low and demanding, "I told you I loved you. I don't care what the package looks like on the outside. Inside you're still Jeb Morr. You're still the person who loves me as much as I do you. That sweet, strong, brave man ... or alien. Can you make love in your human self? Or do you have to be your real self?"

"I must be my real self," he murmured, fighting the heavy need quickly overtaking him as he held her tightly against him. "That's why I've held back. Why I—"

"Shh. It's okay. Now that we got the introductions out of the way, show me how a Ruinos male makes love to the woman he wants to spend the rest of his life with."

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If she closed her eyes, she could not tell the difference between when it was Jeb who picked her up and carried her, and when it was this enormous green-skinned being from another world holding her. He still smelled like Jeb; like a warm, pine-scented fire.

Iron-hard muscles took her over to the bed and laid her down on top of the covers. When calloused hands tenderly brushed hair out of her face, she opened her eyes to find him sitting beside her, leaning over her, and scanning her face with serious intent.

"What?" she whispered.

"I cannot believe my good fortune," he whispered back in a voice filled with emotion. She saw the glitter of tears in his eyes, and she reached up to trap one on her fingertip. Jeb watched silently as she stuck the finger in her mouth. Her eyes widened in surprise.

"It's salty."

"Why does that surprise you?" he chuckled softly.

"I dunno. Maybe I thought it was going to be, you know, different."

"My blood is red, as well."

She shifted slightly, causing her thin nightgown to pull tighter across her breasts. His eyes dropped to the sight of them. To the view he had of her pale pink nipples trying to poke through the cotton fabric.

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"Do Ruinos women look like me?" she asked in a tiny voice. The thin slits in his flat nose sniffed a second before he reached over to run the back of his fingers over her undamaged cheek. She could see desire coming into his eyes.

The golden flecks glittered with his growing need.

"In what aspect?" he questioned in return. "Other than the fact they have the same skin color I do and no body hair?"

"Yeah." She nodded slightly. His fingers continued to stroke her cheek, moving down to include her neck and gently grazing the top of her collarbone. She could see his other hand where it lay on top of the headboard, supporting him as he leaned over her. The large hand with its long, thick fingers and enormous claws that almost looked like talons.

He had killed with those hands. He had rendered and shredded his enemies and other victims until the grooves on the undersides of those wickedly sharp tips were coated with dried blood. Yet as he touched her, she felt as safe as a small child in her mother's arms. Hannah closed her eyes to revel in the sensation.

"Do you like that?" Jeb's deep voice rumbled.

"It's nice." In fact it felt so nice, she could purr.

He moved slightly, and then she felt him trying to undo the tiny buttons on the front of her nightgown. She reached up to help him when she suddenly felt cool air rush over her skin.

Opening her eyes in astonishment, she found herself looking directly into his eyes; his alien face so close to hers she could lift her chin and kiss him.

"Hannah, I don't know what to do. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

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"Uh-huh. You've only made love to one of your own kind."

"I had a joining of bodies," Jeb quickly corrected her. "If the joining is not meant to become permanent, we go our separate ways."

"Why?"

"Because without it becoming permanent, our females cannot reproduce."

Giving him a puzzled stare, Hannah asked, "You mean, if you're not meant to be together, then you can't have babies?"

He grinned at her, and in that instant she could see vestiges of his human appearance. "Exactly."

Which reminds me...

"Jeb? I'm not on the pill. I mean, you didn't pack them when you took me away."

"It won't matter if we were not meant to be." He lowered his face before answering her. She could see the top of his skull, the smooth, rich green skin. Impulsively she reached up to touch it.

Warm. Soft. The skull beneath was firm. Pulling him toward her, she kissed it. And kissed it again. Oh, God, she could kiss every inch of him.

"If we're not meant to be? How will you know?" Damn, but her voice wouldn't stop wavering. Neither would the tears stop stinging her nose.

Beneath her hands, he shook his head. "It won't matter, Hannah. I'm not leaving you." He raised his face to look at her. In the soft lamplight, she could see tears running down his cheek. "Maybe it'll be different because you're human. But believe me when I tell you, I'll never leave you, Hannah. I 134

won't..." His voice cracked, forcing him to swallow before he could continue. "I can't leave you. You've taken too much of my inner self."

"Your heart?"

"Yes. My heart."

Reaching up, she brushed away the wetness on those dark green cheeks. "I have never been this happy in my life. I can't remember the last time I wasn't afraid of being hit. Pain and hurt have been a part of my life for so long, I never dared to dream of loving a man who didn't hit me."

"Even if you are not meant to be my life partner, I could never hit you," Jeb promised.

Hannah smiled at him. "I know that. I guess that's why seeing the real you doesn't upset me." Her fingers continued to roam over his head. His small ears were fanlike. At her touch, they spread outward like a flower blossoming in sunlight. "What was her name?"

"Who?"

"The woman you joined with ten years ago."

"Tiron. The Arra tried to force joinings upon us, hoping to increase the population."

His eyes drifted to a spot over her shoulder. Even for a Ruinos, she recognized what he was doing. "Did you care for her?"

"I did. I still do. She was an innocent like me, but I never loved her to the depth I feel for you." His soft brown eyes came back to her. "That doesn't bother you?"

"No," Hannah admitted, surprising herself with the truth.

"And do you understand why?"

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"Please tell me."

Shifting her body, she reached under her arms and grabbed her nightgown, lifting it over her head. Jeb took it from her hands and flung it over the side of the bed. "There has to be a reason why you're on my world," she said, taking his face between her hands. "There has to be some cosmic reason why you found me in Laughlin. Why we were drawn to each other. I believe it's because we were meant to be together. I believe it's because God chose us to save each other. You saved me from a life of misery, just like I'm saving you from a life of loneliness."

She pulled his face down to kiss him. Jeb ran his hands behind her shoulders and drew her up against him. His mouth was sinfully addictive. His taste alone could keep her permanently glued to his exotic difference. Even now his tongue was building the embers between her legs into a roaring bonfire.

He began to pull away; she reluctantly allowed him to withdraw from their deepening kiss. "Tell me what pleasures you," he breathed, his voice guttural and so damn sexy. "Tell me where to touch you. How to touch you. Don't hold anything back."

"I will if you'll do the same for me."

She opened her eyes to see the glittering gold flecks literally dancing in his eyes. Oh, he had the most magical, mesmerizing eyes.

"Kiss me all over. Lick me. That'll get us started." She needed to feel his mouth on her, and it was the only thing she 136

could think of. Instinctively she cupped her breasts, lifting the hard, eager tips toward him.

He saw her movement and bent over them. She watched as his lipless mouth closed over the closest pink button. She felt his tongue like spiky velvet flick over it. A rope of pure lust jerked tightly, knotted, and she nearly climaxed when his hands closed over the full globes and squeezed.

When he bent over to take the other nipple in his mouth, she could feel her thighs sliding together as her juices flowed into overdrive. Arching her back she could sense his heat just beyond her reach. The tantalizing feel of his heavy weight was making her crazy.

"Can you lie on top of me?"

She heard him shifting, kneeling above her. The single sheet remained between them as he lowered his body against hers. The thickness rising from his groin nearly speared her.

Hannah recalled the sight of his manhood when he had taken off his pants and changed into his Ruinos form. Slack, it was still larger than Carl had been fully erect. No telling how much bigger it could get, and she let her imagination run wild with visions of becoming impaled on the steel-hard staff.

As she had asked, Jeb had begun licking her, alternating between his tongue and his mouth. Every now and then he would drop a kiss to her skin, then sniff. He was working his way up to her throat after totally demolishing her sanity with his complete domination of her breasts. Still pulsing in his grasp, they felt plumped and lovingly bruised.

A low moan was wrenched out of her when he lightly nipped the underside of her jaw. Another delicate sniff 137

followed. "Are you smelling me?" she tried to ask. It was difficult to tell if she was able to speak at all. There should be a law against what she was feeling. There was no way on earth to describe the fiery cinders inside her making her writhe under him.

"I'm drowning in the scent of your lust," he growled in her ear. "You smell delicious, all wet and burning. I could dine on you all night."

"Don't let me stop you."

She felt him release her breasts, only to grab her hips. Or so she thought. The sheet was literally ripped away from her trembling body and a second later Jeb had grabbed her thighs and lowered himself back down upon her. Time dropped dead in its tracks when he started from her upper abdomen and worked his way down. As he savored her skin, her smell, and the salty moisture beading on her flesh, those huge hands dragged the tips of their claws over her body. Hannah cried out from the feelings the act ignited in her. Gentle yet demanding. Dangerous but loving. A tear slipped down the side of her face.

She continued to touch his face and head. Her fingers followed the undulating motions as he fed on her. She tried to watch him as he feasted, but too many times the sharp, piercing pleasure washing over her nerve endings was too much to withstand. Her body jerked from the sensations, and she could feel his manhood press harder against her legs. If she didn't know any better, it seemed to get larger, thicker, and longer with every passing minute.

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Jeb moved his hands downward. Hannah gasped as his thumbs reached between the juncture of her thighs and separated them. Wide. Wider. Automatically she raised her knees.

"You're making my mouth water," a voice hovered over her.

"Can you lick me there?" she pleaded softly, her eyes tightly shut as her whole body quivered in anticipation. Carl never put his mouth there, only his fingers.

The world exploded when Jeb dove into her innermost core. Hannah tried to scream, but a hand covered her mouth a split-second before her orgasm erupted. He continued to suck and lick and nibble as wave after wave of pleasure rolled and washed over her like a surging tide. Her swollen nub tingled as the shockwaves continued. It wasn't until after the crests had peaked and were gently coming to a lull that he raised his face from between her legs. Hannah opened her eyes to see him staring deep into her eyes. His mouth and cheeks were shiny with her juices, and he was breathing heavily. Just below his chin she could see down the length of his body where his manhood raised—aimed, primed and ready.

"That was your first," Jeb stated flatly. The gold flecks in his eyes glittered like a thousand stars.

"My ... fir—"

She got no further. Suddenly he was over her. His hands no longer held her thighs. Instead they were flat against the mattress on either side of her head.

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"I cannot hold back any longer, Hannah. Forgive me," he begged, and a pole of pure satin and steel pierced her.

She cried out, lost in his invasion when his length continued to enter her. At some point she felt him stop and withdraw slightly before plunging back into her again. Her arms found his neck and locked themselves there.

Everywhere his piney, sun-baked scent permeated the room.

It was in the sheets, in the mattress ... in her skin. Inside her nose. It was in the walls of her lungs, and in the cells of her blood.

She called out to him, but she had no idea what. There was no sense of time or place as his body played havoc with hers, pistoning in and out with increasing speed. She could hear nothing but his heavy breathing and the wet, sucking sounds made by their flesh. There were tears on her face; some of them were hers.

He adjusted himself over her, then reached down with one hand to where their bodies fused. Hannah heard him gasp as a harder orgasm ripped through her and her muscles grabbed him like a vise. This time she had no chance to scream.

Perfection so intense ballooned hard and taut, then exploded.

Jeb choked on her name as his body went rigid, then shuddered as he emptied himself into her tight channel, buried all the way inside her. His heat was almost enough to singe her skin. Yet, miraculously, he managed not to crush her with his weight.

Sanity and stability gradually made their way back to the present at their own pace. The waves retreated but never completely left. Not while his erection remained thrust to the 140

hilt within her. Somehow she managed to turn her head to kiss his sweaty cheek.

Sweat. The man could sweat like a human. Hannah smiled wearily. It was a nice anomaly to know.

He was also panting. His face was buried in the pillow under her head. The fragile butterfly wing of an ear was close to her lips. "I love you," she managed to whisper into it.

If he replied, she never heard him. She was already deep inside her dreams.

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