“Not that it’s any concern of yours,” she muttered. Straightening, she tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “I suppose you’d like to see the station?”
Davin licked his lips and smiled his slow, half smile. “I wouldn’t miss it. Lead on, Doc.”
Not wanting to be caught under his devouring look for too long, Sara crossed her arms across her chest and walked out of the room, Davin half a step behind her. As Sara led him through the corridors, she could feel her skin tingle from his nearness. Her body would lead her down a dangerous path with him if she wasn’t careful.
When he leaned his head down so it was near her ear, she shivered.
“So is this a silent tour? I should try to guess what it is I’m seeing?”
Sara cringed. “Sorry. I guess that crack on my head didn’t knock any manners into me.”
Davin reached up and brushed a strand of her hair that’d escaped her ponytail.
“Consider yourself forgiven.”
He draped his arm around her shoulder and Sara felt his body heat penetrate her. It should be a criminal offense to have that much sex appeal and use it on a woman in public. She tried to ignore the strange looks people gave her as they passed by. Not wanting to give him the satisfaction of letting him know he’d gotten to her, Sara acted like she didn’t have a care in the world.
“We’re coming up to the bazaar. It looks better now than it did a year ago. The Ecada tore this place apart when they attacked us.” Her thoughts threatened to drift back to the day of the attack, so she gave her head a soft shake and quickly regretted the motion when it made her head throb. The pain brought her back to the present. “Tore it apart.”
She looked up to see him frown and nod.
“I heard about the attack from some of the traders out on the rim. I’m surprised you’re here to tell the tale.”
“If it wasn’t for Haylie and Kamran, we wouldn’t be. And Sean too, though he wouldn’t admit to his part in helping.”
She felt her heart ache at the thought of Sean and the shell of a man he’d turned into since the Ecada were defeated. She’d tried to work with him over the past few months, but nothing seemed to help. He hated himself for the part, however outside of his control, he’d played.
“And where were you during the attack? On the front lines, saving lives, I imagine.”
21
For a moment she thought he was being flippant. It wasn’t until she looked into his eyes that she realized he was serious. Sara stopped walking and turned to face him. The crowd and noise around her seemed to fade away until there was only Davin.
“It was horrible,” she whispered. The pain and fear she’d felt came rushing back in a heartbeat. “They kept bringing the bodies to us to patch up, but we couldn’t keep up. I couldn’t even look at their faces, knowing I would heal them just so they’d be thrown back into the fight. And Ecada broke through the front lines and almost wiped out me and my team.”
Sara swayed, her head suddenly feeling dizzy. Davin’s arms were around her as she leaned hard against him. The strength and warmth from his body seemed to seep into her, giving her a slight boost but not enough to help her overcome the overwhelming pull of her emotions.
“I think you hit your head a bit harder than you realized. I need to get you back to med bay,” he said with more concern than a stranger really should.
“My quarters are closer. I have a med kit there.”
She tried to walk away, but Davin scooped her up in his arms. Sara would have fought him under normal conditions, but it was easier to give in. If anyone thought it odd that their chief of medical was being carried away by an alien they’d never seen before, no one said anything.
Davin managed to get her close to her quarters with little direction on her part.
When she was only a short distance away, she tried to get him to put her down so she could walk under her own power.
“And lose my chance to touch your sweet ass, I don’t think so,” he said in a voice loud enough to turn the head of a passing engineer.
“Do you try to embarrass people?” she said, her face flaming.
“People? No. Apparently just you. This yours?”
“Thank god. I’d hate to have to share this honor.”
Still, he didn’t set her down. Instead, Sara was forced to lean over and press her hand against the ID scanner to unlock her door.
The air inside was cool as the door whooshed shut behind them. Davin walked across her small living room and set her gently on her couch. Instead of moving away, he sat down beside her and began to remove his gloves.
“Nice place. Roomy.”
Suddenly feeling nervous being this close to him, all alone, Sara began to chatter away. “You should have seen the room we had when we first arrived. They had us sharing quarters in a place half this size. Thank god I was sharing with Haylie or I would have gone—what the hell are you doing?”
Davin had tossed his gloves aside on the coffee table and reached up to place his hand in the middle of her chest.
“I’m making your head better. Now sit still.”
22
“I don’t think so, buddy. I’ve just met you, you’re the reason I have a bump on my head in the first place and now you want to feel me up!”
“Feel you up?”
The confused look on his face was almost cute. Sara sighed and rolled her eyes.
“Touching my breasts. You know, these things.”
She motioned her hands in front of her breasts as if to cup them. Davin’s gaze followed her action and she watched as he licked his lips.
“Perhaps we’ll save that for another time. Right now, I simply want to heal your wound.”
Dropping her hands in her lap, Sara shook her head. “And how to do you propose to do that?”
“What do you know about my people?” He said the words quietly, his normal teasing tone surprisingly gone.
“Nothing.” She shrugged, sneaking a glance at his arms. “Who did Kamran say your people are?”
“Raqulians.”
Unable to stop herself anymore, Sara reached up and traced her finger down along his arm. She could almost feel the lines of the tattoo and the intricate patters woven on his skin.
“Do all your people have these?” she spoke quietly, enjoying the feeling of touching him.
Davin didn’t move. His eyes were fixed on her face while she stared at where her finger connected with his skin.
“We do, but they are different depending on which cast you are born into. And which cast you pledge yourself to.”
She continued to trace the tattoo all the way down his forearm to the top of his hands. When she started to retrace her path, he caught her wrist, lifting it an inch.
“Touch is a very powerful thing for my people. It has the power to heal, the power to kill. Or the power to arouse.”
Sara’s gaze shot to his and she could see it. See the desire dancing in his golden eyes, the tightness of his jaw as he swallowed hard. Her heart began to pound and she found herself being drawn into his arousal. Her nipples hardened and she couldn’t get enough air into her lungs.
“I’ve only just met you,” she said, her voice shaking.
“I brought you here to heal your head. Not claim you as my mate.”
She shivered at the thought of being in his bed, under him as he slammed his cock hard into her. That is, if he had a cock. Sara looked down between his legs and could see the outline of a large bulge straining in his pants. Davin took her hand that he was holding and pressed it to his cock.
23
“I trust we are compatible,” he drawled, a sexy half smile on his face.
Whether it was from the concussion or her own ignored desires, Sara wrapped her hand around his shaft and squeezed. She sucked in a breath, amazed at his girth. “I thought you weren’t going to…do this?”
“Can you blame me? A beautiful temptress is sitting practically on top of me, devouring me with her eyes.” He chuckled. “But you are correct.”
Gently, he lifted her wrist again, this time placing it back in her lap. Sara flexed her fingers and bit down on her bottom lip. “So how do you want to heal me?”
“Do you trust me?” He asked the words with all seriousness, even though his eyes were twinkling.
“No,” she snorted. “I just met you.”
“Fair enough. I’m going to place my hand on your chest, like I did with my co-pilot.
You’ll feel a tingle, but that should be all.”
Sara couldn’t help but frown. “And that will fix a concussion?”
Davin shrugged. “Ready?”
“No.”
Sara jumped up on unsteady legs and made her way over to the med kit she had stuffed in the corner. It took her a minute, but she found the medical scanner hiding under the compresses and sedatives. Standing up, she quickly scanned herself to confirm she still had the concussion.
“Don’t believe me?” he asked chuckling.
“I just want a baseline comparison. In case anything else changes. Can never be too careful around you aliens.”
“Did you ever stop to consider that the humans in the sector are the aliens? This is
my
home.”
She frowned as she made her way back to the couch. “I never looked at it that way.”
Davin sat up on the couch when Sara rejoined him. She placed the medical scanner on the table in front of her, took a deep breath and tried to relax. Her whole body seemed to tingle from his closeness and her heart was racing. Once he was done with her, she needed him to get the hell out.
“Ready,” she said in a voice far calmer than she felt.
When she looked up into his eyes, she felt the instant attraction again. Her nipples tightened as he raised his hand and gently pressed it to the middle of her chest, in between her breasts. He didn’t look away from her, instead keeping his gaze locked to hers.
The tingling began in her chest. It felt as if a warm compress now lay against her naked skin and was sending out waves of heat. Instead of the warmth going into her body, it seemed to travel along the surface of her skin, over her breasts to the tips of her 24
nipples, teasing each one. She wanted to look down to see if he’d moved his hand but she knew he hadn’t.
His eyes were dancing with amusement, teasing her, as if he really were caressing her, only from the inside. When Sara went to frown, she found she couldn’t move her lips. After a final tweak of pleasure, she felt the warmth finally move from her breasts to deeper inside her chest. The warmth seemed to envelop her lungs, muscles, even her ribs as Davin probed deeper. Slowly, he moved from her chest to her neck and into her head.
For a moment, Sara swore he was trying to kill her. The room seemed to go dark and her head began to spin. She had to lean forward fully onto his hand for support.
The world was tilting out of control and she could barely hold on for the ride.
“Shh, you’re okay,” Davin’s voice drifted to her ears, sounding as if he were far away. “It’s been a while since I’ve done this.”
Her entire head was tingling now. Every hair alive with energy, every muscle being massaged from the inside out. And suddenly she felt it—felt the area of her brain where there was damage. Davin’s other hand was now on her head, rubbing slow circles around the injury. The headache she’d had since waking up in med bay an hour ago was suddenly gone.
It took Sara several blinks for her vision to clear. Once it did, she realized Davin’s face was only inches away from hers. The hand on her head was massaging her hair, drifting down to the back of her neck to caress her tense muscles.
“How did you do that?” she whispered.
“I told you. It’s a gift some of my people have. Very common.”
Sara wasn’t sure if she had leaned forward or if Davin had tugged her head closer.
Either way their lips were close to brushing together.
“Did you fix me?” As she spoke, her eyes searched his, looking for something, anything that should be scaring her off.
“You didn’t need fixing,
shara
.”
His hand on her chest didn’t shift position, but she felt his fingers flex against her uniform.
“I haven’t seen a more beautiful woman in the entire sector. And I’ve seen quite a few.”
“I bet you have.”
Davin chuckled. “Jealous,
shara
? I forgot about that with human women. It’s been a long time since I met one.”
When she started to pull away, Davin increased his grip.
“Let me go,” she said the words more with annoyance than fear. She wasn’t used to being out of control, and with Davin she felt her grip definitely slipping.
“We haven’t talked about my payment. I’m not in the habit of performing services and not getting paid.”
25
The way his eyes dipped down to her lips, Sara knew exactly what he wanted when it came to
payment
.
“You’re a bastard, Davin.”
But her heart was beating loud and hard. He only smiled and moved his hand from the middle of her chest to cover her heart.
“Then why are you so excited. I have to assume you’re excited. You don’t look like the type to scare easily.”