“This is exactly what I meant to do.” Zander stood, stretching out to make sure he hadn’t accidently pulled anything with his less than graceful entrance.
The room they’d climbed into had probably at one time been some kind of sitting room. But currently there was nowhere to sit. There was nothing in fact. No furnishings, no lights, not even a window shade to hide them from view.
Maia closed the window they’d come in, shutting out the cool breeze. “Now what?” she asked, rubbing her hands up and down her arms.
Zander moved from room to room, opening closets as he went. “These houses haven’t been in use for a long time now. I was hoping we’d luck out and find one that was furnished or had something useful in it. Let’s check upstairs,” he said as they completed a tour of the first floor.
Upstairs they found more empty rooms. In the last room, the one that would have been the master if it were still in use, they found a closet full of old linens. Bed sheets and a couple of knit blankets would have to suffice for the time being. There was also a small stone fireplace, perfect for a little fire if they could manage to find firewood.
“I’m going to go see if I can scrounge up some firewood and a match. I’ll be back in a few.” Zander watched for a moment as Maia shook out the blankets and sheets, his thoughts instantly turning to imagine her laying in the sheets naked, waiting for him.
He really hoped he’d get to lie in bed with her again sometime. He missed having her wrapped in his arms, snuggled beside him. But would he ever get that chance again if they were on the run and she was actually able to get home?
Chapter Twenty-Two
Maia peeled off her wet clothes as soon as she heard Zander’s footsteps disappear down the stairs. It wasn’t that she was embarrassed to get naked in front of him. Nope. She would love nothing more than to strip down and be at his mercy again.
But she couldn’t do that.
She’d seen the way he’d looked at her with her clothes sticking to her like a second skin. She felt his hand on her butt as he’d helped her through the window. And she’d seen the way his mind had wandered as she’d unfolded the sheets. He’d gotten that glassy-eyed look again; the same look he’d had in his eyes the first time he’d seen her laying in his bed, waiting for him to join her.
If only she could climb into these sheets now. She longed to have his strong body pressing against hers. To have him moving inside her—making her feel things that no other, in all her eternity, had ever made her feel before.
But being with him again, it would only break her heart more when she had to leave him behind to go home.
As much as she was having fun here on Earth—having the best sex of her eternity with Zander—she knew she had to leave it all behind soon. As the eldest daughter, it was her responsibility to protect her sisters, and she couldn’t do that here. No, she needed to get home, make sure everyone was well and accounted for, then she needed to stay put and protect them.
It didn’t matter that she was beginning to like the smell of the air here on Earth. It didn’t matter that she felt more at home with Zander than she ever had anywhere else. And it certainly didn’t matter that every time she thought about waking up in her own bed again—alone—her chest constricted.
She’d made it this long in life without having someone by her side and she’d find a way to get back into the swing of that routine again as soon as she was home and all of this was behind her.
She’d go for a swim each morning in the Calliope Springs. She’d take a much needed mini-vacation with her sisters to Venus for some retail therapy.
She would not miss the noise of Earth or the pollution of the cars. She would not miss crisp evening air and being wrapped in a warm leather coat that smelled like Earthly hunkiness and cologne. And she certainly wouldn’t miss staring up at the stars while lying on her back in the rooftop garden of Zander’s apartment.
And she would not cry when she had to say goodbye tonight.
And maybe someday, she’d actually believe all the lies she was forced to tell herself today.
Maia bit her lower lip to hold back the sob threatening to give away her tough exterior and pulled her ugly zebra-stripe, pink horror show of a bag over her head and let it drop to the floor. A puddle of water instantly formed around it, but when she zipped it open, the contents appeared mostly dry. Somehow Zeus had made the inside of the bag waterproof. The thing was a fashion curse, but damn it to Hades, it was also bordering on indestructible.
Maybe she’d consider letting Zeus live for his accessory choice after all.
That was, of course, if her new favorite shoes survived inside the bag. If not, Zeus would find himself on a quest for a replacement pair of silver sparkly stilettos because seriously, torture devices that they were, they were also the sexiest shoes she’d ever owned.
As she unbuttoned her blouse, she suddenly noticed exactly how see-through the light blue material had become when it got wet. She may as well have been only wearing her bra for all the protection the shirt provided. She laid it open on the hardwood floor right in front of the fireplace, praying Zander would find some wood and a magic match or two so they could have a fire tonight. There was no way their clothes would dry otherwise.
Laying her bra beside her shirt, she wiggled out of her sandals, jeans and panties and laid them on the floor too. It looked like a mini collection you might see in a shop window. She admired it for a moment, imagining what fun she would have shopping with her sisters again once she knew they were all safe. Maybe she’d treat them all to a trip somewhere, just so she could spend some quality time with them. She hadn’t realized how important each of them were to her mental and emotional wellbeing until she didn’t have them near her.
She sniffled and blinked away the tears the betrayed her by pooling in her eyes. She was stronger than this and she would prove it by getting home and keeping them safe.
Turning from the clothes to reach for a blanket, she found herself very naked in the big bedroom and watched by Zander who stood in the doorway. In his arms, a small pile of kindling and a package of paper napkins looked like the solution to their wet clothes problems. On his face, an expression of lust and a smirk of amusement looked like a complication to an already tricky problem where he was concerned.
And by the look of his now too-tight pants, he carried wood in more places than just his arms.
“You have wood—firewood! How…” she cleared her throat. “How did you manage to find firewood?”
“I just had to look in the right place.”
She swallowed. A cold breeze suddenly fluttered past her taut, naked nipples, awakening her to the realization that she was still very much unclothed and standing in the middle of the room while he looked on—appreciatively. The sensation sparked a heat inside her, deep in her belly. She shivered as his gaze and the breeze teased her skin equally.
“What about matches? How are we going to start the fire?” she asked, moving toward the blanket, finally feeling in control of her appendages again. She reached for the bed sheet lying on top of the pile.
“Don’t use that one,” he said as he crossed the room to the fireplace, his gaze skirting her entire body as he passed by within an inch of her. “We’re going to need to cover the windows with the sheets so no one will notice the light from the fire.”
Her body betrayed her again today by responding to his close proximity with an involuntary shudder. As his eyes took in the mounds of her heaving breasts, her breath hitched in her throat. Damn it. How was she supposed to walk away and go back to the stars when a mere gaze from him could leave her breathless?
“How, um,” her thoughts were too muddled to form the words she wanted.
“I raided the party and found a box of matches. Between the paper napkins and the few branches I collected on the way back, we should be able to light a fire long enough to heat this room if we close the door. Sharing a little body heat wouldn’t hurt either.”
She sucked in a quick breath at what his words implied. Despite her best efforts not to be with him again, it seemed her body might have other plans for her. Who was she to deny what her body wanted?
Dropping the sheet, she picked up one of the knit blankets instead, and wrapped it around her body, tucking in the edge to hold it in place. The knit yarn of the blanket rubbed against her nipples, forcing her to stifle a groan as she bent to retrieve the sheet from the floor so she could figure out a way to hang it in the window.
Zander glanced up from his place in front of the hearth, a smile pulling up one corner of his mouth before he set to work lighting the fire.
What? She was covered now and yet he still looked at her like she lay before him, naked on a bed of silk sheets. The man was incurable. How did she stand a chance of making it through the rest of the night in this little fire-lit room with him if he couldn’t even look at her wrapped safely in a blanket? Leaving him was going to be hard enough as it was without spending another night with him naked.
Maia worked in silence for a few minutes hanging the old sheets in the two windows in the room. Luckily, the old curtain rods still hung on the wall so she only had to drape the sheet and knot the corners around the rod. By the time she was done, Zander had a small fire glowing in the stone fireplace its warmth already starting to heat the small room. She closed the door to the room and sat on the floor, soaking in the heat of the fire. It instantly warmed her skin and slowly began penetrating deeper to warm the chill she still felt from being in her wet clothes.
As she stared at the fire, she saw Zander undress out of the corner of her eye. As if by its own volition, her head turned to watch him, unabashed. His body stretched with lean, strong muscles. The light of the fire cast a glow against his skin that flattered every smooth surface of his chest. And other areas.
Once his clothes were sprawled on the floor next to hers, he retrieved the last blanket and moved to her side in front of the fireplace. Instead of wrapping the blanket around himself, he spread it out on the floor and then laid down on top of it, stretching out on his side with one elbow propping him up.
Now the only thing he wore was a smile.
“Aren’t you Mr. Confidence laying there in the nude like that,” she teased. Truth was, he had every right in the world to be confident with a body like his.
“You’re not exactly hiding anything with that blanket of yours.”
She looked down at herself, wrapped safely in her blanket from his wandering gaze, which tortured her body without a single physical touch. Well damn it to Hades if he wasn’t right. The blanket she’d chose was a very open knit. Very open. Currently, one of her nipples protruded from one of the many, many holes, beading with the knowledge that he’d been getting an eyeful this entire time.
She opened her mouth to throw back a smart-assed comment, but she had none. In fact her mouth had suddenly gone dry. She licked her lips to moisten them.
“Why don’t you come and share your blanket with me, Maia?” he asked, his voice huskier than it had been a moment ago, having lost any hint of teasing. She couldn’t help but notice that he no longer appeared cold or waterlogged in any way. No. He was warming up rather quickly—and nicely.
Should she give in to the stirrings in her belly and let the night melt away around them while she found solace in his arms—in his touch? Or should she stay strong and huddle by the fireplace on her own through the night, trying to figure out what to do next? If Orion didn’t find them first, of course.
Screw it. There was no way to know what the next few minutes would bring, let alone the next few days. Why not enjoy the moment with Zander while she still had it? She foresaw many nights in front of a fireplace alone in her own bedroom back on Pleiades. No sense being alone now when she had an amazing man right here, right now, to spend the night with.
She crawled across the floor to him and sat back on her heels. Tugging the edge of her blanket free, it fell to her waist. Zander devoured her with hungry eyes.
***
If there were a woman more beautiful than Maia, then he’d never met her. She was without a doubt, beyond his wildest dreams, gorgeous. And he couldn’t get enough of her.
He wanted to be with her again tonight, and tomorrow, and the day after that. But as sure as she gazed at him with lust-filled eyes now, he knew there was a high probability she wouldn’t be here tomorrow.
Soon, too soon, she would go back to the stars and he’d have to find a way to go on with life without her. Was that even a possibility? Could he imagine going back to his regular life again, back before he’d met Maia, back before he knew there were more possibilities out there in the universe than he’d ever imagined before?
No.
Simple as that. No, he couldn’t go back to that life now that he knew Maia. So where did that leave him?
Right now, it left him lying here with Maia, in the warmth of a glowing fire and in the solitude of what could be one of their final moments together. Ever.
She looked so amazing, sitting there staring at him with her top half naked and her bottom half still wrapped in the blanket. He reached for her, stroking the soft skin of her hip before tugging the blanket lower. She leaned forward, hovering over him. He rolled onto his back and pulled her down on top of him.