Mercenaries (28 page)

First step to doing that, of course, was to get him the hell off her. The good news was that he couldn't hold her like this forever. If nothing else, he'd have to let go to try to get his ship's communications systems working again so he could call his Tribeship.

Which meant he was going to have to secure her somehow. He probably had a set of mag restraints on his fighter; everybody did.

She couldn't afford to let him tie her up. The situation would be completely out of her hands then. There'd be no way she could keep him from taking her back to his Tribeship, where he could rape her at his leisure.

Which meant she had to get Alrigo busy doing something else
now
.

The choice was obvious, if galling, particularly given her rash declaration of a few minutes earlier. She was going to have to have sex with him.

Her hormones gave a muted little cheer. Cassidy snarled at them.
This is just business. The idea is to distract the son of a bitch, sucker him into dropping his guard so I can bash his skull in and get loose.

Unfortunately, Alrigo would probably realize she was planning something if she simply offered to bang him. She had to make him believe she was being overcome by those damn pheromones of his. Then once his dick started doing his thinking for him, his ass was hers.

CASSIDY collapsed against Rune, panting, so furious he could smell her rage. According to his sensors, she'd exhausted herself.

Not surprising, since he, too, was feeling the effects of their brawl. She'd fought him with a stubborn fury that made no allowances for his superior strength. Fought him so long, he'd thought she'd never give up.

Rune wasn't at all sure she'd given up now. More than likely, she was scheming to overcome him by trickery.

He had no intention of being overcome. He did, however, have every intention of seducing her into yielding to their mutual desire.

Fury wasn't the only emotion his keen sense of smell detected in her scent.

Rune lowered his head until he could whisper into one delicate ear. “It will not be so unpleasant being my wife, Cassidy.” He breathed out slowly, letting the warmth gust against the curve of her jaw. “I am very, very good.”

Cassidy went still. He heard her swallow and smiled. “What you are,” she said in a low, tight voice, “is very, very egotistical.”

“Perhaps.” Rune eyed the delicate flesh of her lobe. It looked soft and pale against the gold of her hair. “But then, perhaps not.” He nuzzled the delicate nubbin, licked it tenderly. Her flesh tasted deliciously feminine, reminding him of the three endless months since he'd last had a woman.

If he could make her his, he would no longer be dependent on the whim of the Mahiris. He could make love to her whenever he wanted, however he wanted.

“Cut it out, Alrigo.” But her voice wasn't quite steady. Good. He'd make it more unsteady yet.

Delicately Rune licked her ear, then took the lobe between his teeth. And, with exquisite care, took a careful bite. Suckled slowly as she stiffened against him. “But your flesh is so sweet,” he purred.

“Let me go.”

“No. I wonder how your mouth would taste.”

“You wouldn't like it. It's full of sharp teeth.” The words were gritted, but the scent of female heat was rising.

“And I'll wager you bite, don't you?” He twisted his head so he could reach her throat, then pressed his mouth against a straining tendon running from her jaw. Her skin felt like satinweb against his lips. “But then, so do I.” He raked his teeth across it until her breath caught. “Ahhhhh. Very nice. But . . . it strikes me that you're overdressed. All this armor leaves so little bare flesh for my teeth. . . .”

Taking a chance, he released his hold on her throat and trailed his fingers across the front of her armored suit. Even as he did it, he waited for her to launch another furious attack with her free hand.

But she didn't. Instead she simply lay across him, breathing hard from exertion—and, he suspected, more than a little arousal.

Rune allowed himself a slight smile. Either his pheromones were getting to her, or she'd decided to try to lull him into complacency. Most likely both; there was definitely arousal in her scent, but she was too ruthlessly disciplined to let it matter. So she was playing him—but he was playing her, too.

They'd discover who played with more skill.

He found the seal of her armor. Located the first clip. Pulled it. It opened with a sigh. “Mmmmm,” he breathed. “That's better, isn't it? It's probably hot in that suit.”

Rune opened another clip. The edges of the suit sprang open, revealing the upper curves of her breasts. He gazed down the arrow of cleavage, shamelessly admiring them. “Pretty. So full and pale.”

His gloved hand found another clip. Snap. The arrow lengthened. Her white flesh seemed to swell under his gaze as if silently begging for his touch.

“Is that any”—he smiled—“cooler?”

“Go to hell.”

“Not right now. I have another destination in mind.” His hand continued down the line of clips. Snap. Snap. Snap. The arrow widened, revealing her smooth belly right down to a glimpse of blonde curls right at the top of her groin. She squirmed, as if unable to help herself.

It was not a gesture of rejection.

Smoothly, as if he had every right, Rune reached a hand down her open neckline and claimed one of those lovely breasts. It felt deliciously yielding, and he longed to take off his gloves so he could enjoy the sensation.

When she spoke again, her voice was tight with control. “You're quite the bastard, aren't you?”

“Sometimes.” He found her hard jutting nipple. Delicately plucked. Listened as she caught her breath. “And then, again, sometimes I'm not.”

A
LRIGO caressed her slowly, his fingers gentle and skilled on her nipples as he plucked them into a hot ache. Despite her determination to remain unaffected, Cassidy's breathing grew rough with hunger.

He paused in his erotic assault only to lift his hand to his mouth and catch the fingertip of a glove between his teeth so he could work it off. “I find I need to touch you,” he told her, tossing the gauntlet aside. “Skin to skin.”

Something about the way he said “skin” made her heart leap in a hard thump. It began to pound in earnest when his long fingers took her again.

Alrigo was right. It was so much hotter when bare flesh touched.

His fingertips were just slightly rough with calluses, and his hand felt deliciously warm as it cupped her. “Sweet,” he breathed. “And soft. So soft . . .”

With a muscular flex, he rolled them over. Her first impulse was to struggle, but then he turned her in his arms so they were face-to-face. His eyes were a pale, smoky silver. The deep tan of his face made them even more striking, particularly framed by those dark, long lashes of his.

Suddenly Cassidy realized he'd gathered both her wrists in one of his hands. Now he pinned them to the ground over her head. He was nuts if he thought he could hold her that way. His strength advantage, while considerable, wasn't enough to let him get away with it.

But her intent was to seduce him into lowering his guard, so she didn't fight. Instead, she gave in to the temptation to gaze up into that stern face while he studied hers.

He was a handsome bastard, she'd give him that. The knife-blade cheekbones and square chin contrasted with the sulky sensuality of his mouth. She was seriously tempted to bite that lush lower lip, just to see how it would taste.

He lowered his head. Cassidy caught her breath. Considered turning her face away. Didn't. And not just for strategy's sake.

One thing was immediately clear: Alrigo knew how to kiss. He started out warm and slow, a light brush of the lips that made her want more. Only when she started kissing him back did he deepen it, sipping at her lips, first the upper, then the lower, gently licking and nibbling.

Despite her firm intentions to kick his ass at the earliest opportunity, Cassidy found herself yielding, enjoying the hot sweep of his tongue. She returned the favor, determined to work her own erotic magic.

So they dueled with kisses and tender bites, growing bolder with each taste of hot skin.

Alrigo settled against her, his weight so welcome between her thighs, she grew impatient with their armor. She wanted to feel him naked against her, wanted to see what he looked like under all that hard plate. The edges of own her suit pressed against her nipples, teasing them until need roiled in her blood.

As if sensing her growing desperation, he left her mouth to string kisses along the line of her jaw, right to her throbbing pulse. For a moment he pressed the edges of his teeth to her jugular, not quite biting. The gesture of dominance and claiming made something ancient in her want to spread itself and yield.

Then he was working his way down again, right to the opening in her suit. With his free hand, he lifted one breast until its nipple popped free of her armor's parted neckline. He took the tight little point, sucking it gently into his mouth, raking it with his teeth until she squirmed at his skill. His male rumble of approval made her sex clench in hunger.

At last Alrigo released her wrists and sat up so he could grab the shoulders of her suit. “I want to see you,” he said, his voice low and rough, his eyes hot. “All of you.”

When he began stripping the suit down, she helped him, wriggling her way out of it. He paused to wrestle with her stubborn boots, and she sat watching him, her heart thumping hard, her bared breasts tight in the cool, springlike air.

As he tossed the first boot aside, Cassidy growled, “Strip.”

About to pull off her other boot, he stopped to look at her, dark brows lifted.

“I want to touch you,” she said. “Got a problem with that?”

His lips quirked. “No.”

She watched him as she took care of the rest of her clothing. The boot joined its mate, followed by her gloves, then the rest of her suit.

Rising to his feet, he reached for the seal of his own armor, his gaze challenging. Naked now, she licked her lips, palms braced in the soft, blue tinted vegetation as he revealed an arrow of brown, brawny chest.

Alrigo stripped as quickly as she had. When he was finished, he stood over her a moment, letting her look her fill at him even as he stared hungrily down at her.

Well, if I've got to seduce an enemy pilot, I sure as hell could have done worse,
Cassidy thought, taking in his sheer muscled size. The suit had actually minimized and compressed his brawn. He was all sculpted honey skin, covered with a fine ruff of dark hair. What she'd taken for a tan must be his natural skin color; the shade was too even to be anything else.

His cock was a thick, ruddy stalk thrusting from the cloud of soft hair at his groin. A single pearl of pre-cum glinted on its meaty, heart-shaped glans. His balls hung heavy between his braced thighs.

Cassidy didn't think she'd ever seen a more thoroughly
male
man, from his short-cropped hair to his big feet. Adding to the effect of delicious barbarism were odd designs on the skin around his nipples, belly button, and cock—not tattoos, exactly. Raised patterns, like intricate scars. Tribal markings of some kind.

“Where'd you get the marks?” Cassidy asked. Her voice was so low and rough with arousal, it startled her. She cleared her throat.

“The women of my ship,” he said, his voice equally rough. He sank to his knees beside her. “When I became a man.”

She looked at his urgent erection surrounded by its starburst of scarring. “Did it hurt?”

He smiled tightly. “Oh, yes. It was supposed to.”

Cassidy frowned, her mind conjuring an image of Alrigo stoically enduring while women sliced into his most delicate flesh. She found the idea a lot less satisfying than she'd have expected, considering his offenses against her.

Without conscious intent, she reached out, brushing her fingers against the taught muscle of his abdomen, feeling the slick, raised designs. He drew in a hard breath. She looked up to see heat blaze high in his eyes.

One big hand cupped the back of her head, and he kissed her again, his mouth intoxicating as he licked and sucked at her lips. He hooked an arm behind her waist and leaned her back as he started kissing his way down her bare throat. When Alrigo paused to nibble her collarbone, she caught his head. His short hair felt like a silken pelt against her fingers.

He found her breast, lifted it gently, teased the nipple with a thumb. “Lovely,” he rasped. “Such a pretty pink.” Then his mouth closed over the peak, suckled with a slow, seductive power that made her eyes close in bliss.