Ultimate Passage: New Beginnings: Box Set ( Books 1-4) (11 page)

M
arissa’s touch
on his thigh, near the almost-healed wound, felt like his flesh was on fire. Not from pain, but from desire. The need to have her touch him radiated from her fingertips to his loins, traveling, searing his entire body. Finn rubbed his head. “I’m confused. My body’s been acting—feeling—strange, different. My mind too. Everything seems off sometimes. Makes me wonder why. Maybe it’s the human food.”

“How can that be?”

“Not sure. I’m a soldier. Not a scientist.”

“Now I’m the one who’s confused.”

He took her hand in his, bringing her nearer. Her face showed the conflict she felt at his betrayal. And it showed something else. He wasn’t sure he could diagnose it, but—

He pulled her even closer. At first she resisted, holding back, but he didn’t relinquish his hold.

When she was leaning over him, he took her other hand in his and settled her next to him on the bed. Her leg was lined up with his, his bare thigh against hers. His skin was aware of her body heat like nothing he’d ever felt before, and his breathing became shallower.

He raised his eyes from their legs and looked into hers. Her pupils dilated, then contracted. She cleared her throat in a way that he’d already become familiar with. She licked her bottom lip, driving him over the edge—almost.

“Finn.” Her voice was throaty, lingering on every nerve in his body, pressing him with the need to have her. “I’m confused. And I know I should be worried, pissed, frustrated, betrayed—I should feel all those things, but I can’t—I don’t.”

“I never meant to hurt you. If I could have avoided deceiving you, I would have. If I could have stopped you from thinking I was something I’m not, I would have.”

“I know. But where does that leave us now?”

He pressed his lips against hers, inhaling her scent. All woman. All human. His tongue touched her bottom lip. She moaned, and his shaft filled with need, pressing against his briefs. She’d see it. Then she’d think—

S
he was more confused
than he was. Or was she? This beautiful man with dark, predatory eyes and
wings
—
jeez, don’t fucking forget the wings!
—was on this bed in a very—

She avoided looking down at his state of arousal again. Avoided it, because it made her want him so much more. And she didn’t want to want him. She didn’t understand wanting him. Was it okay that he had lied to her? Was it self-preservation? It didn’t feel the way it did when Joey lied. Not at all.

Finn’s face was honest, his eyes clear, and it was obvious it pained him to lie to her.

“What are we doing?” She couldn’t keep the whisper back, though she wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer to that. If she could handle the answer.

He put a finger on the button on her shirt, then under it, slipping beneath the fabric. His fingertip brushed her skin lightly, nothing more than a graze, sending a typhoon of sensations throughout her body. Her breath was held hostage in her lungs, burning now, while she waited for his next move.

He unbuttoned a button, then two fingers slipped into her blouse, then another. He raised his hand and almost delicately traced the contour of her breast. Her nipple pressed against the fabric, seeking freedom from its satin casing, seeking the warmth and roughness of his hands. Confusion battled desire. Anger and frustration no longer factored into the equation.

“I don’t want to do something you don’t want.” His breath was warm on her cheek.

What she wanted was to feel every inch of him on and in every bit of her. But what she needed to do was run away from this man who wasn’t even human. Who was much more than human. A being she didn’t understand.

“How can you seem so real, and yet be so surreal?” Her thoughts flowed from her mind to her lips. She couldn’t have stopped saying that if she’d wanted to.

“How can you?” He unbuttoned the next button, never taking his eyes off her face. Then he moved to another and another. The room’s air flow cooled her flesh. Marissa closed her eyes as he pushed her top off her shoulders. She fought to control the pure yearning that flowed through her nerves, her blood, her tendons, and coursed throughout her body.

“Look at me.” His voice brooked no hesitation.

She opened her eyes. His face had a faint greenish hue that alternated with a purple shade.

“Do you want me to convert? I can make my skin human and the wings can completely vanish.”

Good grief. She’d forgotten about his wings. One minute they were there, stretched out and now, they weren’t. “What did you do with them?”

“Nothing. They’re furled. You know, wrapped up.”

“I want to touch them.”

He picked her up and shifted her onto his lap so she was facing him. He put his hands over hers, raised them and put them on his shoulders. “Touch them.”

She ran her fingers over his tense shoulder muscles, their bulging mass a reminder of his maleness. She encountered resistance at the points of his shoulder blades, bone covered with what felt like the softest of fabrics. “They don’t even feel like skin. They aren’t feathered.”

Finn’s laugh was soft and gentle. “No. We aren’t birds, you know.” His hands were on her shoulders, tracing tiny circles that expanded as he lowered them down her back to her bra. With the slightest hint of a struggle he unclasped the bra and slid it down. She shrugged it off, then put her hands on his shoulders again. He pulled her close, her breasts pressed against his naked flesh.

Against her sex, his shaft was hard, insistent.

Marissa shifted, pushing her sundress away, his hardness pressed against her folds, separated from her only by the sheer pink panties she’d put on this morning. Damp panties, a testament to the desire she felt for him.

He moved his hips, pressing his shaft against her clit, back and forth. The gasp she made didn’t even sound like her own voice.

“Finn.”

Marissa leaned to the side, reached under the leg band of her panties and shoved them out of the way. She rose on her knees, then lowered herself until the tip of him was pressing against her entrance.

Finn placed his hands on her hips. Lifting his body, he entered her the slightest bit, his eyes closed and a low groan escaping his lips.

Marissa breathed out, waiting, hoping, feeling his heat pressing, promising against her lust-slick folds.

With a sudden burst he drew her onto him, filling her, expanding her, completing her. Every bit of her was full, almost painfully so.

“Damn.” Her words were uttered, barely.

“Are you okay?” He rocked her back and forth, then raised and lowered her on his shaft, her juices making sloppy noises that turned her on even more.

She couldn’t answer him; she didn’t trust her voice. She nodded and ground on him, taking him in deeper, enjoying the pain that suffused the pleasure.

He leaned against the headboard while she rocked on him, and she reached between her folds, touching her clit, rubbing it, each touch making the next one more frantic.

When Finn joined his fingers with hers, spreading her open, watching what she was doing, then doing what she did, she slammed herself onto him, time after time, her wetness increasing, and her tempo wild. A release was building up like a tidal wave. She leaned back, hoping to postpone it, not wanting to yield to the overwhelming sensations that threatened to send her out of control. “Stop, god, stop.”

Instead of stopping, Finn put an arm around her and turned her over. She watched in the mirror, his face a vision of lust, sexiness, and intensity—and all of it with a tinge of colors that drifted from green to a light purple.

Behind her he spread her legs, put his forearm under her and raised her up and backward. He pushed her legs apart, and she raised her hips, ready, wanting.

Finn drove into her with a grunt that paralleled her own at the sensation of being filled.

He pumped her body mercilessly, each pump bringing her closer and closer to the same tidal pool that had threatened her earlier.

“Stop holding back. I want to see you as you are. As you can be,” Finn demanded.

With his words, his glorious wings expanded behind him.

A surge like an electric current flowed through her, and a scream followed in its wake as shudders and spasms shook her body. Her back arched, then she pushed against him, taking more of him into her pulsing, contracting muscles.

With a cry and a grimace on his sexy face, his expression one of pure ecstasy, he pulled her tight against him, filling her. Pressure pushed against her as he came undone inside her.

She collapsed on the bed, still wracked with an occasional spasm.

He lay next to her, touching her skin, running his fingers over her back. “I never would have imagined that was what it would be like.” His voice was breathless, exerted, exhausted. “So much lost control.”

“I’ve never felt anything that intense. Wait. What do you mean? You mean you didn’t imagine that’s what it would be like with a human?”

“With anyone. Asazi don’t do that—this—it.” His fingers traveled lower, over the curve of her bottom, toward her thigh.

“Ever? Then how’d you know what to do?”

His fingers went lower, between her legs, swirling through the juices they’d made. “There was a video, at my hotel.”

“That’s called porn. It’s not quite like the real thing.”

“I’m convinced of that.”

“How do your women get pregnant, if you don’t—you know...”

“Our children are planned, and it depends on the—”

When he stopped, she knew what he was going to say, and didn’t want to say. The reason he’d met her. The reason he was here. What he had to do with her.

“So what’s your plan? For me? For you?”

“I have not fully formulated one. One thing I am certain of, is that I don’t plan to return. I don’t think I can.”

“You can stay with me.”

Had those words just come out of her mouth? Marissa wanted to bite her tongue. What the hell was she thinking? She had no job, and who knew what was up with him.

“My concern is that they will come for you.”

“I’m not safe? My house isn’t? Surely they can’t find me.”

“I don’t think you’re safe.”

“Because I’m a target. But you don’t know why? Really? And you have no idea? Not even a guess?”

“If I had to guess—I’d say they want your eggs, or genes, or something.”

What the hell. She sat upright. “So what’s your role in all of this? And why would you agree to do it?”

“I’m a soldier. It’s not optional. I’m supposed to bring you in.”

“And?”

“It doesn’t look like I will.”

“Why not?”

He rubbed his head. “I’m not sure.”

“Now what?”

“My career will be gone. I would probably be tried for treason if I return. I could end up in prison.”

She paused a moment, taking it all in. “All for me.”

“It seemed the right thing to do.”

She was curious about so much. She didn’t know where to start. “Why don’t your people relocate? Come back to Earth?”

He kissed the tip of her nose, his face a tint of green. “Could you move all of Earth’s population, all of them, today?”

Marissa pondered his question. It seemed silly at first, but she was starting to see where he was going. “No, we don’t have enough transportation, rockets, whatever.”

“Exactly. There may not be as many of us, but we still don’t have the means.”

“How did you leave Earth if this was long ago?”

“I don’t know. The Sacred Writings say we were moved during the Banishment. The writings are not exact. It’s like they speak in riddles at times. Our wings were rendered useless after our people broke certain tenets. We were banished to the place we live now.”

“So you have a god?”

“One I’m not really sure I believe in, to be honest.”

“And that tattoo?” She pointed to his arm.

“It’s an Asazi legend.”

“A woman? Who’s winged?”

He nodded. “Her child is to be the one who takes us home.”

“And Earth is home.” She nodded. “Interesting story.”

“That’s why I said, I’m not sure anymore what I believe in. I believe in things I can touch, things I know. I know I’m here. I know I have feelings for you. I know I can survive without Asazi food though I was led to believe I can’t. I know that I’m more human than I thought I was. I’m not sure about the rest of our people, and to what degree. They weren’t born of humans. Once, long ago, they were—some of them were.”

“But they look like you? You really could pass for one of us, minus the wings and the colorful skin. And the place you live now? Tell me about Asazi.”

“Asazi are my people. We live on Kormia. Its natives are called the Kormic. Kormia is beautiful, but full of danger, because of the Kormic. They will not rest until we are extinct, or dominated fully.”

This information was overwhelming, too much to digest. Now what? She waited for more, but he gave her nothing. They were both silent.

Car doors closed outside. Finn jumped to his feet. Pulling aside the drapes, he looked out the window. When he spoke, his voice was low. “Curses. They’re here. They’re going to the front office. Let’s go.”

She wanted to ask who was there, but she didn’t have a chance. He’d grabbed their clothes and her bag and they were in front of the door. Completely nude. Something in her wanted to react. Wanted to protest. But the urgency in his tone and manner corked all of her responses. If he thought it was that important, she wasn’t going to argue, not when it seemed that his mission was her safety.

He opened the door slowly, and soundlessly, they slipped onto the veranda, then she saw what he was looking at. A car, and a man next to it. Two other men were bound for the registration desk.

Finn led her the other way, still holding her hand in one of his and their things in the other.

They rounded the corner and slid down the outdoor metal stairs with stealth, hidden by the ice machine. Two more floors to go.

Her nudity bugged her, despite the direness of the situation. “Finn, can I get dressed, please?”

He froze, looking down. He clamped a hand over her face.

Marissa glanced in the same direction. A man was at the base of the stairs, looking the other away.

“Your wings.” Translucent webs extended behind him. The wings flapped, fanning her with air. “Unbelievable. And they don’t work? At all?” she mumbled under his hand, peeling his fingers away.

“No. Asazi wings don’t work. We cannot fly.”

“Um, then, why are your feet not touching the ground?”

He looked down. “Curses.” But he kept rising. “Curses. I can fly. I can. I’m not even sure how I’m controlling this—these—it.” He dropped to the floor and enveloped her in his arms. “Come here.”

She wanted to say,
Hell, no.
But she wrapped her arms around his neck.