Between Venus & Mars (The Soul Mate Tree Book 3) Page 9

  Drawing her close once again, he rolled her under him. Rising up over, his eyes widened as he shifted his weight, then descended to capture the peak of her breast with his lips.

  As he sucked and laved her nipple, Zana discovered new heights of arousal. She’d never experienced anything approaching this intensity. The damp heat between her legs erupted like magma inside a volcano. “Oh, by the gods!”

  She never imagined, watching the bull mount the cows in the barnyard, that sex would feel anything like this. And he hadn’t even put his thing in her yet.

  He released her breast with a soft pop. “You doing okay?”

  “I . . . never . . .” She panted, her mind in such a whirl she could barely put words together. “It’s so intense.”

  “Do you need me to slow down?”

  “No!” Gods, no.

  His fingers played at the waistband of her slacks. “Then it’s time to remove these.”

  She was ready. Ready for him to have all of her. Show her, possess her, take her wherever he wanted.

  He released the magna-lock just below her navel, and the slacks loosened enough for him to slide them down her legs.

  Now, only the thin material of her panties protected her secret place from him.

  Her center pulsed and clenched with need. She needed to be touched by him. Touched and so much more.

  The heat rising in her cheeks, almost as hot as the inferno between her thighs, she slid her panties down and off. Desire drove her now. There was no room for embarrassment. This was her soul mate, the man who was meant to possess all of her.

  Just when she thought it couldn’t get any more intense, when she didn’t think she could handle more, his fingers slid along her folds and around the nub at the apex of her thighs.

  “Oh, oh, oh.” She writhed under his manipulations. Wave after erotic wave washed through her. “So good. Gods, so good.”

  She came apart in his hands, quivering as his fingers caressed the epicenter of her being. Her mind whirled and her body quaked as wave after wave of ecstasy rolled over her.

  “That’s it. Ride it.” His calm tone was so reassuring. “Ride it out, my starshine.”

  Slowly, her fractured center returned, and she found herself once again. “Did we? Was that—”

  “Not yet.” His smile was gentle, his eyes so warm. “You just got a little ahead of me.”

  “Oh, I . . . I’m sorry.” Though she really wasn’t. It had been amazing.

  “Nothing to be sorry about.” His lips closed on hers. Soft, warm, and wonderful, his kiss had her heart thundering in her ears.

  His cock prodded her leg.

  Need and desire rose within her once again. Did he feel it too?

  Reaching between them, she took hold of him, squeezing gently. At the quick pulsing within the silky stiff shaft, a smile curved her lips.

  Breathing heavily, he broke the kiss. His gaze zeroed in on her, and it certainly wasn’t pain she saw there.

  Curiosity prickled the back of her mind. “What does it feel like?”

  “I’ve never been a woman, but I know a few people that have been both, and they tell me it feels a lot like this.”

  His hand cupped the juncture of her thighs, fingers slid along her folds, then sank into her. At the same time, his thumb found that sensitive nubbin again, sending another wave of passion shooting through her.

  “Oh, my.” She squeezed him tighter.

  “Oh, my,” he echoed back, grinning wide.

  His fingers moved inside her, exploring her depths. Slick with her juices, he slid them out.

  “Your body’s ready. Are you?”

  Could she be any more ready?

  She nodded.

  “Then it’s time for this.” He held up the foil package, tore it open, and extracted a round, flat object.

  He positioned his knees between her legs. Moving her hand aside, he rolled the rubbery covering over himself.

  “It’ll keep you from impregnating me?” Why didn’t they have these on her planet?

  He nodded. “Exactly, just relax.”

  He positioned his cock at her entrance, sliding the head up and down through the moisture collecting there. Then he pushed in.

  So thick, so wonderful.

  Only part way in, he stopped. She felt the barrier, the resistance.

  Gods, I’m too small for him. How would he ever be satisfied with her?

  He pushed, gently easing deeper.

  She stretched, then tore. Momentary shock, a pinch of pain, followed by the wonderful feel of him going deeper.

  All the way in now, he paused, captured her gaze. “You okay?”

  She couldn’t help but smile. “More than okay.”

  He pulled almost all the way out, then slowly sank back in. Every centimeter of him sliding along her channel sent another wave of passion rolling over her.

  “Oh.” Her voice jumped an octave.

  Again and again he pulled out and pushed in, his pace increasing with each thrust.

  Her body quivered, alive with sensation. So intense, pulsing with passionate heat.

  A tide rose from deep inside her, cresting, threatening to break boundaries of sensation she’d never experienced before. Her ears rang and her mind shattered. Unable to contain the emotion, the sheer impact of what he was doing to her, she screamed.

  Kyle grew even larger, pressing against her inner walls. Then, with one last, deep thrust, she felt his release. His face a mask of ecstatic agony, he pumped and pulsed within. His cry was primal, animalistic, and oh, so erotic.

  Taken even higher than before, another cry torn from her, she shattered once again. Her body shook in climax, out of control, sensual waves rocking her for long moments.

  Slowly the storm passed. Still, she quivered, like thunder rumbling on the distant horizon.

  Warmth, satisfaction, and exhaustion.

  Kyle cocooned her, his weight on his elbows, his hot breath on her neck. Her breasts, nipples oh so sensitive, pressed against his heaving chest.

  He was still inside her, the pressure only somewhat diminished.

  Joined by more than just their bodies, she discovered a closeness to someone on a level she’d never felt before.

  She drew in a deep breath and a sigh escaped on the exhale.

  Kyle pushed up.

  His brilliant smile, those melted butter eyes.

  He pulled out and rolled to his side, taking her with him. His fingers slid into her hair, playing with the locks at her temples. “You are one amazing woman, Zana Starchild.”

  His kiss, firm yet gentle, melted her insides. Could anything be better than this?

  “I’d really like to do that again.” Butterflies erupted in her stomach at just the thought, and not from nervousness this time.

  “Whatever the lady wants.” He chuckled. “We have all night, and a full box of condoms.”

  Chapter 10

  Kyle woke, his head swimming with questions, yet his heart beating warmly in his chest.

  Zana spooned into him, her naked butt prodding his cock back to life.

  They’d roused to make love three more times during the night. The sensual musk of their activities hung heavy in the air as the sun’s rays found the ship’s porthole to fill the chamber with soft illumination.

  Kyle buried his nose in Zana’s hair, and breathed in her essence. The heat of her body against his caused tantalizing sensations wherever skin met skin. He should have been sated, but all he could think of was wanting more of her.

  I’m a Galactic Marshal. She’s a . . .

  Criminal? Technically, yes.

  Also heroic, amazing. Everything she’d done wrong was for the right reasons. And what harm had she cause
d? Marshals had been turning a blind eye to activities on the rim for decades, especially if they didn’t affect the Core Worlds.

  Other Marshals, not him. The law was the law.

  Or was it? Had she done anything that would affect anyone other than her tribe? And she’d potentially saved thousands of galactic citizens.

  Zana shifted. Her fingers snaked down to lock around his wrist, then guided his hand up to cup her breast. The erect nipple rolled under his palm.

  “You are pure evil.” A full erection accompanied his whispered plea.

  She giggled. “I know.”

  Bixby reported the ship ready for travel long before Zana was ready to leave the bed. Kyle had introduced her to a world as different and wonderful as Old Earth, and she found herself reluctant to leave either. Every warning, hint, or innuendo she’d ever gleaned on Konga 10 about sex, had fallen so far short of the reality.

  Kyle spent some time in the head and exited clean and dressed. “We should get going.”

  Sigh.

  Zana pulled herself from the bedding and trundled toward the head. An extended cleansing cycle in the auto-bathing chamber lifted her spirits somewhat.

  That, and the realization she’d been successful in her mission, sent warmth through her stomach. She had a scanner full of live cells and a hold full of livestock in cryo. Konga 10’s recovery was well on its way. She just needed to get the ship home.

  Kyle sat at the controls of the spacecraft, looking at monitors and thingies like he knew what he was doing.

  She handed him the data pad with the Starships for Dummies instruction manual her uncle had downloaded for her. “Do you need this?”

  To his credit, he did not laugh. Just that warm, amazing smile as he passed the tablet back to her. “I’ve flown a few of these before.”

  “Good, because I’ve only flown it once, and I crashed.”

  “Don’t sell yourself short.” He pointed to some indecipherable scrawl on one of the monitors. “This ship was in pretty rough shape before we fixed it up. You did an amazing job getting it here.”

  He pointed at one line of data. “And what happened at the last jump point?”

  “Pirates waiting.” That had been touch-and-go. “I talked them out of blasting me. But we can’t go back through there.”

  Kyle studied the data on the screen in silence for a few more moments. “A Cantonian bulk cruiser, maximum crew of eight, two phase cannons and a few photon torpedoes? I don’t think they’ll be a problem, especially with our updated weaponry.”

  She leaned over his shoulder, studying the gibberish on the screen, trying to make any sense of it. “Cool.” Then she nibbled his earlobe.

  “No problem. Unless you distract me, that is.” He turned in the seat, knocking her knees and spilling her into his lap.

  His arms wrapped around her and he drew her in close. “So kiss me now, then we’ll take off.”

  Kyle engaged the ion drive, throttling to the ship’s maximum sub-light speed.

  The blue and green of Old Earth receded in the viewpoint, engulfed by the inky blackness of space. The coppery brilliance of Venus passed by the starboard porthole as the ship rocketed toward the Sun.

  Heading toward the center of the solar system in order to exit seemed counterintuitive, but using the blazing star’s gravity to slingshot the ship toward the system’s edge would actually save them a few hours.

  An arc around the Sun had them close to lightspeed as they flew past Mars toward the orbits of the system’s gas giants and their first jump point.

  “Time to see if those pirate friends of yours are still there.” Kyle’s hand hovered over the hyperdrive controls.

  Zana, sitting beside him in the co-pilot’s seat, buckled her seatbelt. “They’re no friends of mine.”

  She stuck her tongue out at him.

  Kyle chuckled. “Three, two, one.”

  The stars elongated as the craft entered the faster-than-light warp lane, hitting warp three before slowing toward the exit point.

  “I thought I told you not to come back, rim rat.” The coarse voice crackled over the intercom almost immediately upon entry. “Now I’m going to have to board you. You better hope you have something valuable enough in your hold to bargain with.”

  Kyle switched off the com, shaking his head. “They are so screwed.”

  He brought up his gunnery controls and locked targets on both phase cannons and their impulse engine.

  His ion drives whined as he throttled them to maximum and executed a turn to port to take him over the pirate vessel. As he passed, the golden beam of his craft’s phase cannon cut a ragged line across the hull of the other ship.

  Zana cheered. “Holy shit!”

  Kyle checked the scanners. One phase cannon disabled, and impulse drive offline. The pirates’ other cannon, still targeted, was facing away from them.

  He chuckled. “They’re dead in the water.”

  The pirates would barely be able to turn their ship, let alone maneuver. They couldn’t get any of their other weaponry pointed toward the TRS-90.

  His second pass took out the second phase cannon and the photon torpedo tube. Scanning showed life support fully operative. The pirates were safe, but trapped, unable to move.

  He switched the com back on, sending a ship-to-ship signal. “Cantonian cruiser, I am dispatching a message to the nearest Galactic Marshal Headquarters. Do you have enough food and supplies for two days?”

  Someone should get here by then.

  “Fuck you.” The com signal went dead on the other side.

  Kyle shrugged. He’d tried.

  He connected to the Galaxynet in the sector and sent out a citizen’s arrest report and the battle data file. He could have sent it as an official, sanctioned bust and gotten credit for the collar, but damn it, he was on vacation. And he planned on staying on vacation. Let someone else handle the frackin’ paperwork.

  “That was amazing.” Zana’s eyes were wide, her cheeks flushed. So sweet. So sexy.

  Kyle chuckled. “Guys like those, who prey on the weak and unsuspecting, don’t know how to handle someone who can fight back.”

  “How’d you learn to fly like that?”

  Though he’d told her he was part of the team looking for her uncle ten years ago, he’d never actually admitted being a Galactic Marshal—that he trained in ship-to-ship combat constantly. Rim rats tended to have a dim view of galactic law enforcement.

  And being an undercover agent, Kyle had made lying one of his specialties. He could lie to just about anyone and sell it—a good skill to have when undercover in some of the most dangerous situations in the galaxy.

  Still, lying to Zana felt wrong. He wasn’t undercover, he was on vacation. At some point he’d have to come clean.

  But not yet.

  “I spent a few years in Fleet as a gunnery sergeant.” It wasn’t a lie, just not the whole truth. He’d learned run-and-gun skills in Fleet. He’d honed them with daily use as a Galactic Marshal.

  He lined up for the next jump with a chill in the pit of his stomach. If she knew what he was, would it make a difference?

  He wasn’t ready to find out.

  Home.

  Zana’s heart warmed as the white, mostly ice-covered planet grew larger through the viewport. The small green island, the only habitable area on the planet, floated in the thin blue strip of liquid water around the equator.

  A little pile of nothing by galactic standards. To Zana it was everything—her whole world and everyone she knew up to a few days ago.

  She sent a message via Galaxynet to her uncle’s terminal saying the mission was a success and they were about to land. Of course with the slow connection out here, it was probable they would touch down before the message arrived.
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br />   “Land there.” Zana pointed to the display. “That’s the pastureland. We can get the animals out of cryo and grazing as soon as possible.”

  Retros fired and the ship’s descent slowed.

  Through the porthole she saw people gathering below. Like ants, unidentifiable at this height. She hoped the group included her mother and father, and her Uncle Onwin and Aunt Val.

  Gods, she’d missed them.

  They’d landed, not crashed, but actually landed in the middle of a large, fenced-in pasture. The grasses long, green and lush from not having been grazed in months.

  Zana extended the ramp from the cargo bay as Kyle brought the animals out of cryo. A cacophony of moos, clucks, oinks, and bleats rose behind her as she set foot once again on her home planet. She took in a deep breath of the earthy fresh air.

  “Zana. You did it!” Her mother’s voice rose above the cheers of the small crowd gathered at the foot of the ramp.

  How in the world did her mother know she’d done it from just looking at her? Was it that obvious that she’d done it?

  Shaunna Starchild rushed up the Zana and wrapped sturdy arms around her. “I am so proud of you.”

  Her father joined her mother, hugging them both together, a broad smile across his face. “You’ve saved us all.”

  Oh, the animals.

  Duh.

  Cattle and pigs led a procession from the cargo hold to the grassy fields. Cheers and praise rose from the crowd as some of the farmers went to examine the animals.

  A group of boys herded the chickens toward the coops near the fencing.

  Zana slid the live cell samples from her belt, handing them to her father. “Here are some species I didn’t have time to track down when we were gathering this lot. And I brought fish samples as well.”

  Kyle waved his arms, ushering the last of the animals, a group of sheep, down the ramp.

  Her father raised an eyebrow. “And who is this?”