Then his mouth was on me, suckling deep as one long finger dipped into my body. The combination of being restrained, of being so worked up, was too much.

I came right then, breaking apart into a billion pieces as my body spasmed against his mouth. He worked me until I whimpered, coming close to release again. Then he rose, his strange eyes piercing me.

With one hand, he tugged his pants down and kicked them off. Sweet, mindless aftershocks rocked me as he moved up me once more, pinning my arms above my head. I felt his hard, long length against my core.

My hands itched to touch him, but he wasn’t having it. Flicking his tongue over my tightened nipple, he settled between my thighs.

“Wait,”

I said breathlessly. Hunter lifted his head and his look said seriously?

I almost laughed.

“What about protection?”

A smile quirked his lips.

“I can’t get you pregnant and we don’t get diseases.

Doesn’t work that way.”

“Human. Alien,” I said, letting out a nervous laugh.

“I should’ve thought of that.”

“I doubt it’s something normally considered.” With his free hand, he traced the line of my jaw and then slid it down between my breasts to the flare of my hip, eliciting a shiver from me.

“You’re beautiful.

Every part of you.”

I felt that way when he touched me like this. “I want to touch you.”

“I know.”

But he didn’t let go of my wrists. He held them above my head as my breath froze, then redoubled as I felt him against me, pushing in inch by delicious inch. The initial stretch held a delicious bite.

Hunter lowered his head, nuzzling my throat.

“Goddamn, you feel so good. You kill me, you know? Fucking kill me.”

I was sure he was the one doing the killing.

Tipping my hips up, I took him in fully. My gasp of pleasure was lost in his groan as my back arched clear.

He was a tremendous presence in my body, stretching me until the feeling of sublime fullness curled my toes against the sheets.

“Oh God, Hunter…”

I yearned to wrap my arms around him, but he held me still. A fine tremor worked its way through him and his grip tightened on my wrists until the bite became almost painful.

Opening my eyes, I sucked in air.

His features were sharper, taut, and his eyes were churning brighter flecks of blue. The temp of his skin seemed to drop.

“Hunter?”

He stretched his head to the side, and the thick cords of muscle stood out.

His eyes closed, and I could tell he was fighting it; the darker need in him to feed. An eternity passed before his lashes lifted. His eyes were brighter than normal, but his face had lost the sharpness. He began to move, pulling back until just the tip of him pressed in, and then thrusting forward until there wasn’t an inch between us. The friction of each withdrawal and subsequent return built a crazy storm of emotion that quickly turned into a swirling knot of deep tension.

Hunter maintained that slow, torturous tempo until a fine sheen of sweat broke out over his forehead and bare, hairless chest. I was close, my fingers twisting around empty air as the rhythm increased.

“You feel so perfect,” he said, kissing me again as one hand settled on my hip, and I knew at that moment he’d wrangled in the beast.

In response, I wrapped my legs around his waist, seeming to seat him even deeper. Hunter growled low in his throat as I hooked my ankles.

He caught the edge of my lips in a little nip and then growled, “I’m going to fuck you. Hard.”

Before I could point out that he were doing just that, Hunter drove into me over and over again, stopping in between thrusts to grind against me. Each time he did so, the friction licked through me like sweet flames.

Then his head dipped, his teeth catching a rosy bud as he drove into me again.

The release shattered through me as I called out his name in a hoarse shout, and I felt him shudder around me, in me, and then he joined me, toppling over the edge in a powerful rush. And I knew that neither of us would be the same again.

Chapter 21

My heart was still racing minutes later, even when he pulled out of me, causing tiny sparks of ecstasy to ricochet through my body. He let go of my wrists, but I didn’t move my arms. I was nothing more than jelly at that point.

Clasping the sides of my face gently, he tipped my chin up and kissed me again, a long and deep kiss that was more like staking a claim than anything else. When he rolled off me, I expected him to put space between us, but he brought me along with him, tucking my body against his side.

I placed my hand on his cool chest, surprised to feel a heart thudding under it. One of these days I was really going to need to figure out the whole alien/human body thing and how it worked, but right now wasn’t the time for a physiology lesson.

“That…that was amazing,” I said, closing my eyes.

“I know.” He traced an idle circle over my hip. “It was even better than what I imagined, and I have a pretty ferocious imagination.”

I smiled at that. In the back of my head, I had so many questions. What did this mean for us? Did having sex change anything? I still needed to reclaim my life with or without Hunter, but did he want to be a part of that life? Could he? And was the warmth blossoming deep in my chest a signal of something more than post-orgasmic bliss?

But I wasn’t ready to give voice to those questions.

I snuggled closer, sliding my leg along his. “There’s something I can’t figure out.”

“Just one thing?” The amusement in his tone increased the smile on my face.

“Why would the government allow an alien to achieve such power by becoming a senator?” I asked. “Seems like they’re just asking for trouble.”

Hunter rolled onto his side, facing me. “I think the government believes that they can always control them, that by allowing them to obtain power by human standards, the Luxen will be satisfied.”

The whole Luxen/human/Arum politics fascinated me.

“And they’re not?

Being a senator is a pretty powerful gig.”

“Being a senator is nothing to a race of aliens that ruled their galaxy for thousands of years.” He reached out, spreading his large hand along my shoulder. “But humans— no offense—still think they’re top of the food chain. Just like the Luxen did when we first came along. It’s their ignorance that has blinded them to what the Luxen are truly capable of.”

I shivered, partly due to what he said and partly due to the skimming of his hand down my arm. The back of his knuckles brushed my breasts and I wiggled closer. His sex was hard again or maybe it had never softened. A thick and demanding proud length that jutted between us.

Oh wow.

Refocusing on his face, I flushed when I saw his knowing smirk. “What are the Luxen truly capable of?”

“Anything.

Everything.”

His hand drifted over my thigh. “If they wanted to take over Earth, they could.”

“Would they?” When he tugged me against him, I let out a little gasp. “Would they do that?”

Hunter gave a lopsided shrug. “I don’t know, but one day the Luxen population will grow. They could outnumber the humans.”

His hand had slid around the curve of my rear, his finger slipping dangerously close. “What about the Arum?”

“Do we want to rule Earth?” His other arm, the one I’d been lying on, tightened around me.

“Arum care very little to rule an entire species.

We’re much more concerned about things that pleasure us.”

My brows rose at that.

“We need to get on the road soon,”

he said.

“There’s a place I need to go.”

“Okay.”

“But we have a couple more minutes.”

Heat flowed through my body. “For…?”

Another smile tipped his lips, and then he rolled me on top of him in one fluid motion, seating himself in one hard thrust. “This.”

Arching my back, I placed my hands on his shoulders to steady myself as he grasped my hips.

Through half open eyes, I saw him watch where we were joined as he lifted me up and slid me back down.

Then his eyes flicked up, meeting mine. In that moment, the world seemed to stop, as cheesy as that sounded— it was just us. There was nothing else, and I was lost in him.

… Sex had never felt like this before. Instead of being all about satisfying an urge and getting off, it became about completion of a different sort. Even in those moments while I held her after the first time, I knew how unalike this was from my previous exploits. And after the second time, I wanted her close…and I wanted her again.

Hell, I wanted her about a hundred times more.

As I watched her change into a pair of jeans and a plain shirt, I wanted to take her again. From behind.

Against the wall. On the floor. Wherever.

If I kept thinking like this, we’d never get on the road and I needed to badly. I’d come close to feeding off her earlier. How I didn’t was beyond me, but I wasn’t pushing my luck.

“You ready?” I asked, voice coming off a little gruff.

She glanced at me and nodded. “Ready when you are.”

It was late afternoon, but the heat was picking up, promising there’d be a long and hot summer ahead.

She was buckling herself in when I climbed into the Porsche.

Sitting back, she turned to me. “Where are we going?”

“To a place outside of Martinsburg,” I answered, scanning the front of the motel before pulling out.

“We’re a couple hours out from there.”

“Martinsburg?”

She frowned. “What’s there?”

“Someone who can give me what I need.”

“Really?” She folded her arms, and a cute expression pinched her face. “Do tell.”

I chuckled. “Opal.”

Confusion swept across her face. “Opal? Like in the gemstone opal or some old lady named Opal?”

“Gemstones have a weird effect on us and the Luxen. Sometimes good.

Sometimes bad. It has to do with the refracting and absorption of light.”

Serena stared at me like I had started speaking in a different language.

A smile pulled at my lips.

“Obsidian is deadly to the Arum. I carry one, but I have to be careful with it.

The gemstone fractures lights and shadows and it cuts through us like nothing else. One good swipe and that’s all you need.”

“And you carry one?”

She looked at me like I was insane. “Does it affect the Luxen the same?”

“Nope, but onyx— another type of gemstone —really messes them up.

In large quantities it could probably put them down or make them wish they were dead, but opal is different.”

I had to admit; it felt strange talking about these things with a human. “Opal is a whole different story.”

“How?” she asked.

Taking the exit to the main highway heading east, the tires of the Porsche smoothly ate away the miles as I explained exactly what a piece, even the tiniest, could do.

“Opal has the ability to refract and reflect specific wavelengths of light, changing the speed and direction. For the Luxen, it’s like a power booster.