Ultimate Passage: New Beginnings: Box Set ( Books 1-4) (14 page)

T
he colonel stopped
the car at a parking spot, and let Finn and Marissa out to have a moment alone. She didn’t understand why Finn didn’t want her to know what he and Kal had been saying, but she respected his privacy, though it frustrated the hell out of her. She respected it because she knew she was safe, that he wasn’t planning anything that would hurt her.

“Kal looks just like you. You could pass for twins.”

“Yes, we have been told we favor each other.”

“He looks sad. Like he’s...” Marissa struggled with the words.

“He may be. But he’ll be okay. The question is, what are we going to do?”

“We?”

“You don’t think I’d leave you, do you?”

“No, but are you staying on Earth?”

“I think it’s for the best. What about your father’s dream? The restaurant?”

“I think my father’s dream would be to see me happy. And you make me happy. Now I have to find a job, though.”

“Kal and the faction have made arrangements. You don’t have to work. But we do have to be careful. One, they will still want to harvest you. And two, we can’t have children.”

Marissa had never given much thought to the idea of getting pregnant. Sure, she’d figured one day she’d find the right guy, and do the two-point-five-kids thing. But now it sounded like that wasn’t possible. Probably because of Finn being Asazi. That he couldn’t get her pregnant. She didn’t want him to feel bad about that.

“I’m okay with that,” she reassured him.

T
hree days
later they pulled into the parking lot of a hotel near Tucson, Arizona. Finn had decided that the best course of action would be to pick the Asazi-owned property that was closest to the next harvesting. That way he could see his cousin again.

“So what are you going to do about Kal?” Marisa asked.

I’ll see him when they come back.”

“More harvesting?” She drew in a deep breath.

He knew she was against that, and that there’d be arguments to come over it. He didn’t believe in it himself anymore. He wasn’t sure he ever had. “Yes, that’s why they’re coming. But I also have a way to leave him a message, on a website. He can contact me through that if he needs to.”

“And you’re a hundred percent sure you don’t want to return home?”

“There’s no reason to.”

He kissed her. He
was
home, as far as he was concerned.

THE END

The Series Continues . . .

E
motions wreak havoc
on an Asazi soldier when he discovers the human he loves is pregnant with the child that could kill her.

F
inn has a new mission
. Save Marissa. Any way he can. That's no easy task when Marissa is the most stubborn, headstrong woman--correction--human he's ever met.

A
spitfire Texan
finds herself in love with a man who isn't supposed to have emotions, and isn't even a man, except, he's more man than any man she's ever met before. And now she's pregnant with his child. A child that could kill her.

M
arissa jumped
out of the frying pan and into the fire when she fell in love with Finn. Now he says the only way to save her life is to take her to his planet? I don't think so.

F
inn’s phone vibrated a message
. He pulled it out of his pocket, expecting to see an
I love you
text from Marissa. Instead, he found a whole different kind of message.

Marissa:
I’m pregnant.

Finn dropped the phone as if it were a live rattlesnake. Rattlesnakes were something he’d become accustomed to in the last few weeks in Arizona on the land the Asazi used as one of their settling areas. The compound was remote and isolated. Snakes were the nearest thing Finn and Marissa had for company. Snakes, rabbits, coyotes, birds of prey, scorpions.

He picked up the phone and pocketed it. He’d been walking the perimeter of the fencing, making sure it was secure, and that there was no chance they’d aroused any suspicions or curiosity among the local humans. He scanned the horizon for witnesses. There was no time to waste and running would take longer. He lifted off, using the powerful Asazi wings which had only gotten stronger since he’d discovered them a few weeks ago. He’d become convinced of one thing: that it wasn’t Earth food that gave him the ability to fly; it was probably the absence of Asazi food. He wondered what could be in it, and wanted to ask Kal, but also did not believe that Kal would know the answer. Kal would not hide this from him. He was certain of that. They’d always been closer than brothers. Kal would not keep secrets from him.

Like you don’t keep them from him?
The voice of doubt cast aspersions on his relationship with Kal. He shoved those thoughts aside and brought his mind to his current problem. A much more pressing one. Hopefully Marissa was wrong. Very wrong.

It couldn’t be. There was no way she was pregnant. He’d been careful. He’d had her be careful. They’d taken all the precautions necessary for humans not to become pregnant.

He flew at a furious pace, his heart pounding in his chest. When the ranch house they lived in came into view he scanned the yard for Marissa. Nothing. The pickup was parked in the driveway. He landed with a thud, anxious to see if it was true. To see if she was pregnant.

To make sure she was alive.

Kal’s words resonated in his mind, reverberating in his heart.
One warning. Do not let her get pregnant. Human women die giving birth to Asazi babies. Your mother did, and every other one before her.

Now Finn had failed. She was pregnant, and she would die giving birth to their child. A child he’d tried to prevent. When could this have happened?

Something crossed his mind. If she miscarried the child, before it became large enough to kill her, then she would live. His love would live.

He sprinted across the yard, slammed through the door, and ran through the house to find her. He burst into the kitchen.

Marissa dropped the pan she was holding, and it clattered to the ground. “What the hell! You scared me.” She focused on him, eyes scanning his face, surveying, taking measure. “Finn, what’s wrong? Why are you out of breath?”

F
inn had run
into the room, a film of sweat glistening on his skin, refracting its purplish-blue color, the tiny scales shifting and glimmering. Considering her news, it was odd for him to be that color. The color of worry and sadness. His face was a mask of concern. She would have thought he’d be happy, overjoyed.

He paused, leaning against the doorjamb, almost seeming to need the support, his chest heaving with every breath.

She studied his sexiness, still stunned that this man was a part of her life. His eyes glowed in the afternoon sunlight, catching the rays, his face sporting a few days’ beard. She warmed at the memory of what that scruff had done to the tender flesh between her legs this morning.

She approached him and slipped her hand inside his shirt, ran her fingertips along his pecs, then down into the waistband of his pants. He sucked a breath in, his shaft instantly responding to her touch, firming with the same hardness he’d had earlier that morning when they’d made love.

Behind him, his wings flared, opening with a whoosh of air and sound. They were longer than he was tall, magnificently diaphanous, but oh-so-very-male on his muscled body.

“It’s hot outside. You’ve worked up a sweat.” Marissa unbuttoned and unzipped his pants in one smooth move. She knelt next to him, inhaling his scent, all man, all sweat.

She rose and grabbed his hand. As she led him to the shower, she imagined lathering and pleasuring him under the water spray.

She was yanked back by his unmoving stance. His body was a statue, his arm outstretched, his hand still in hers, a frown creasing his forehead. What was wrong with him? He’d never given their sexual play a second thought before. She tugged his fingers. “Come on. Join me in the shower.”

S
he stripped her top off
. One hand went behind her back and the bra was loosened. She made a slow show of removing it, lowering it slowly until one nipple then the other was revealed, both pebbled, cresting, rosy red buds waiting for his touch.

A part of him wanted to take the offering. To take this woman and complete the act. They hadn’t been able to get enough of each other since they’d first started.

The other part reminded him that she was pregnant. That she could die in a few short months if nothing was done about the pregnancy. Done? What could be done? He knew the options. But he wasn’t sure about her stance on the matter.

She took her breasts in her hands, weighing them, angling her fingers perfectly to be able to pinch a nipple and roll it between the fingers of each hand. With every motion, he became harder and harder, and the part of him that wanted to rationalize the problem grew more and more detached.

She dropped to her knees in front of him. Eyes on his face, she pushed his already open pants down to his knees. The way she licked her lips, with her tongue so close to his shaft, created a tremor that passed through his body.

As if in slow motion, she opened her mouth. With her eyes still glued on his, she took the head of his sex in, sealing it in with her lips, and sucked on it gently while her hands still weighed, hefted, rolled, and pinched her breasts.

The moan that came from his mouth didn’t even sound like his own voice. He arched his hips, putting his hands on his back to keep from grabbing her head and shoving his entirety into her hot, wet mouth.

“Marissa.” His voice was a hiss. He needed to concentrate, but the only thing that he could concentrate on was the pull of her mouth, the way it took him in deeper, the way the head of his member pushed against the back of her throat.

Finn grabbed the doorjamb for support. Who would have thought, a few weeks ago, that he’d be experiencing such all-consuming passion? Such lust? And such love for someone in this way?

Her green eyes mesmerized him, drawing him closer as she took him in, his shaft disappearing inside her mouth. He couldn’t lose her. He wouldn’t allow anything to take her away from him. Not even his child. He had to do something about it. But right now he couldn’t think; all he could do was enjoy.

Marissa rose to her feet, her body close to his, her nipples rubbing on his abdomen and chest while his shaft trailed along her naked torso. When she was fully standing, she took his hand in hers and pulled him toward the porch, walking backward, facing him, her breasts swaying, her free hand unsnapping her skirt. She let it drop and stepped out of it, still continuing her backward egress.

Outdoors? He opened his mouth to question her, but didn’t give in to the impulse. She occasionally had innovative ideas that led to interesting occurrences.

With only a pair of panties on, she turned away and drew him to the oversized stump on the porch that they used as a table. She led him to the chair across from the stump, but within reaching distance, if he stretched. She took a spot on the stump, back straight, legs slightly open, topless, the afternoon sun bathing her body in a golden light, the tiny light-colored hairs on her abdomen catching the rays and shining. She smiled at him and spread her legs more, her sex outlined by the almost-sheer fabric of her panties.

Then she ran an index finger between her fabric-covered lips.

Finn’s member twitched. She’d never touched herself for him before. It reminded him of that day in the hotel, and those videos he’d seen. His breathing was turning into panting as blood coursed through his body, followed by electric currents of desire.

He leaned forward, put his finger on hers, and let her trail both their fingers over her sex. He could feel the heat contained within. She traveled her hand up to the top of her panties and slipped her fingers inside, just barely passing the barrier of her waistband.

Finn’s finger separated from hers and traveled down to her lips, to her entrance. He pushed gently on the fabric with a fingertip, watching it enter her, watching his finger and the fabric making an indentation as it breached her body. His other hand crept to his shaft, almost of its own volition. He stroked his hardness as he poked his finger in deeper, wondering how much give her panties had, how far in he’d be able to put his finger while the fabric was creating a barricade.

Marissa’s moan broke him. Panties be damned. He shoved the fabric aside, marveling at her dark pink skin, the moisture making her folds sleek. Marissa spread her legs further apart and placed a hand on each side of her sex, pushing her flesh apart, giving him a better view of the area he wanted to sink into, to plumb the depths of.

Somehow he managed to rise to a stand. Aching to be deep within her, he took her hand and pulled her to her feet. Then he slipped a thumb into each side of her panties and pulled them down, turned Marissa around, and had her kneel on the stump. Taking her hands, he placed them on the wooden porch floor.

Her light brown ass was in the air, her folds beckoning, her breasts swaying. After stopping to tweak and roll each nipple, fueled by her whimpers of pleasure, Finn positioned himself perfectly behind her, placed his head against her entrance and ran it down toward her clit, then back up to her ass. He paused to enjoy watching her contract and flex with anticipation, her inner entrance almost winking at him.

Marissa pressed backward, tempting his member, almost taking him in, but he backed up. It wasn’t time yet.

“Finn. Now.” Her voice was desperate. “Please.”

Grabbing her hips, he drove into her with the fierceness of his emotions, his fears, his pleasures. He plumbed her depths, relishing the tightness of her enveloping his shaft, the way it spread her out before she closed back in around him, making a tight sheath that pulled him deeper, threatening to milk him prematurely. Finn pushed and plundered, taking, giving, driving, lost in the grip of her channel, unable to function or think of pleasing or pleasure, driven by the need to burst.

With every thrust, Marissa grunted and pushed back, her backward thrusts wild, matching his, her gasps loud.

Unable to contain himself, still not totally in control of the passions that drove him, Finn yanked her hips close and buried himself deep. He tried to stop the flow, but when she screamed and tightened in an orgasm, he fully lost the battle, matching her outcry, shuddering, filling her completely.