Sienna, page 7
He shook his head. “I don’t joke about life and death scenarios. The Dronians might return at any moment, and frankly I’d prefer to be miles away from them when that happens. This bike will get us away faster than travelling on foot.”
She swallowed heavily, then climbed onto the precariously thin handlebars, hoping she didn’t flash any incoming cars with her uncovered lady bits. It would take everything she had just to balance. “Then what are we waiting for?”
Chapter Eleven
Gray pedaled hard, all the while wishing the bike, which had been left under the house from the last tenant, was bigger and faster. It wasn’t even geared. His legs were far too long to make riding the bike comfortable.
He glared at the woman seated in front of him. He should have known Sienna would adapt to her position on the front handlebars as easily as she’d adapted to her life here on Earth.
He only wished he could say the same. He missed his people and his world, and that was despite the fact he’d been pigeonholed a mercenary without conscience. If only his people knew how wrong they were. He wasn’t even getting paid for this mission. His only payment was ensuring his world, and the very people who presumed the worse of him, weren’t eradicated.
The road inclined sharply and he managed to pedal for another couple of minutes before he took his feet off the pedals and onto the ground. Sienna jumped down with a heavy exhalation, clearly delighted to be off the precarious handlebars.
Bongo stayed in the basket, his head hanging over the edge and his tongue lolling out, while Gray pushed the bike uphill, Sienna walking beside him. That she didn’t try to escape was surprising. But then, she knew better now than to try, he’d scoop her up like a wayward kitten in her human form. Add in the threat of returning Dronians and she knew she was safer with him.
But did she also realize he was willing to hurt her now to get the truth? She had to sense as much as he did that time was running out. Unless the Dronians decided to destroy the entire township of New Faxian along with its surrounds, the bastards mightn’t ever capture or kill the seven remaining Strazanian survivors.
Sienna glanced up at him. “You could ditch the bike. It’d be faster without having to push it uphill.”
“Bongo is safe in the basket.” A car’s headlights swept over them, the driver seemingly blind to them on the shoulder of the road as he drove past them with barely an inch to spare. Gray shook his head. “Safer,” he corrected somberly.
She looked up at the dark sky, a hint of stars showing through the thinning clouds. “It’s taking what remaining strength I have just to climb this hill.”
He nodded. “I’ll find you something to eat when we get home.”
“Home?” she repeated dully.
He stopped, one hand holding the bike up while he reached out with his other hand to cup her chin. “This is our home now,” he said softly.
Her eyes glinted. “You still have your real home to return to,” she bit out. “I don’t.”
He nodded. “You’re right, I do. And I’ll do everything in my power to see that my home, my world, stays peaceful and unspoiled by warfare.”
“Everything?” she repeated scathingly.
“Yes,” he said emotionlessly, pushing down any compassion or feelings he had for this woman. “Everything.”
“Then it’s a good thing I’m well versed in pain.”
“Why are you fighting this?” he asked hoarsely. “You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by telling me what you know.”
She began walking again, as though an automaton heading to the scrapyard. “I know your type. You’ll extract what information you can from me, and then you’ll destroy me.”
He could shout to the rooftops that he’d never harm her, but it’d only fall on deaf ears. Instead he said quietly, “You don’t have much faith in me, do you?”
“You’re here for one reason only, and that doesn’t include being friends with me.”
“I could never be friends with you,” he said huskily, his dick tightening uncomfortably.
“What do you mean?” she asked, her voice edged with caution while he sensed reckless excitement thrumming deep inside her.
He understood exactly. As much as he’d been in denial, he wanted Sienna with an urgency that was bordering on insanity. Seeing her in her primary form had only tipped that need straight into dangerous territory. She could easily become is obsession, an addiction he didn’t want to quit.
“I mean,” he said at last, his voice thick with desire. “We could only ever be enemies...or lovers.”
She nodded. “You’re probably right.” Then she lifted her chin and said pointedly, “Which means we’ll only ever be enemies.”
He couldn’t stop the grin that spread across his face. “That sounds too much like a challenge. And I did always love a good challenge.”
Her breath hitched and her shoulders tensed, and he swore her breasts had hardened beneath his T-shirt. He swallowed hard. He wanted nothing more than undress her again to take his fill of her gorgeous breasts, then lick her nipples into hard arrows before he kissed his way down lower, between her thighs, where he’d taste the ultimate prize.
His dick was harder than an anvil when they finally got to the house he’d set up with Gorema technology, making them safe. Or as safe as they could be with Dronians looking for them.
Bongo jumped out of the basket and ran to the grass in the front yard to relieve his bladder, while Gray parked the bike back under the house. Sienna waited on the bottom step, her features angelic in the soft glow of the solar lights.
She inhaled deep, her nostrils flaring. “The Dronians haven’t been here,” she declared. “I’d know their stench from miles away.”
He nodded. “You and me both. Why do they stink so badly?”
“Other than the fact they won’t go near water so they never bathe?” she asked. Then her eyes flashed and she bit out, “You really are good at acquiring information, aren’t you?”
He shrugged. It’d been an innocent enough question, but who was he to claim innocence when she’d only ever see him as guilty. “I guess it’s a perk of my job. You get good at reading others.”
She curled her lip. “Just how many victims have you hunted down? How much bounty have you received for you work?”
He folded his arms, made defensive somehow by her scorn. He was only glad he’d never admitted he’d been an assassin before he’d left that business behind for the far less bloody business of capturing and returning criminals and fugitives, dangerous people who he’d never classify as a victim.
The only victim he’d ever pursued was Sienna. But he couldn’t let that get in the way of his mission. She might be innocent, but she had information he desperately needed, and he’d use whatever tool he had in his arsenal.
His dick jerked and a shiver went through him. Including sex.
Chapter Twelve
That Gray didn’t bother answering Sienna’s question as he escorted her upstairs and inside his house—fortress—told her more than enough. He didn’t want to admit how many luckless people he’d delivered back to custody or the money he’d earned doing it.
The bastard was probably rich beyond compare thanks to his ruthlessness.
He flicked on the kitchen light, then led her to the island counter, where she sat on one of the stools with her arms crossed while he dug into the pantry and retrieved a large can. After opening it, he spooned something brown and disgusting out of it and into Bongo’s dish. The dog wagged his tail and whined with anticipation. The moment Gray set the dish onto the floor, Bongo devoured its contents with gusto.
Gray turned to her. “Are you hungry?”
Sienna wanted to scream at him to go to hell and throw whatever he offered across the room, or even better, at his face, but she was nutrient deprived enough. Not even the brief stint in the river had given her what she needed. And her body still needed to digest food to keep hunger at bay. “I am.”
He nodded, then opened the freezer door of the refrigerator and pulled out a foil tray. He peeled off the plastic top, turned on the oven, then slid the tray inside. “Readymade lasagna it is.”
At this point, a kilo of mealworms would have been edible. “It’s a bit late for dinner now, isn’t it?”
“You can call it a very early breakfast if you prefer.” He checked the oven’s timer. “It will take a good half-an-hour to cook. In the meantime, we’ll shower and get the nasty splatters off our skin.”
She peered at her arms. She couldn’t see anything. But then she was as unlikely to see their blood and gore as she was to see their physical form. “I have splatters?”
He nodded. “You do.” He looked at his own arms with a grimace. “We both do.”
“That’s disgusting.”
His mouth curled into a humorless smile. “We lived and they died. That’s all I care about.”
“I’d smell them on me!”
He nodded. “Except you’ve grown immune to it, just that same as I have.”
He ushered her down the hallway and back into the bedroom—prison cell—before he followed her into the bathroom. She turned to him when he lifted his foot and the entire boot simply fell away from his foot.
“What are you doing?”
He lifted his other foot to detach his boot before he looked up at her. “I’m having a shower too.”
She shook her head. “You can shower in your own bathroom.”
He smirked. “Sorry, that’s not going to happen. We stay together now at all cost.”
She shook her head. “If this is because I tried to escape, I won’t try again—”
“I don’t believe you.”
She sucked a breath through her teeth, her gaze dropping to the sizeable lump at his crotch. “I felt your erection earlier, I’m not going to have a shower with you.”
“Why? Don’t you trust yourself?”
Heat flooded through her. The sheer arrogance of the man! “It’s you I don’t trust!”
He detached his under-armor with gently-prying fingers. “You have my word I won’t seduce you in the shower.”
That a faint surge of disappointment took away from her relief only made her angrier. “Why would I trust your word?”
“Why wouldn’t you? I want to gain your trust. This seems as good a place as any to start.”
“If you think not screwing me while we shower will give me an urge to fill your ears with my apparently vast knowledge of Dronians, think again.”
His face tightened. “Don’t make me force you to talk, Sienna.”
She glared. “Then don’t force me to stay here as your prisoner.”
He peeled off his under-armor, then placed it on a hook on the wall. That it was the first time she’d seen his superb musculature seemed to hit home as she stared at his flexing back muscles, his deep, pink scars that clashed with his brown and gold striations and made her more transfixed. He’d fought in a lot of battles, and won. He was a survivor, too.
He turned around, his powerful abs making her mouth go dry. “Shirt off,” he said softly, a wry smile curling his lips.
“Go fuck yourself,” she said tightly, even as she found herself pulling off her T-shirt and glaring back up at his smug face.
“I might have to do that...later,” he conceded, glancing down at his arousal as though it was a nuisance he’d have to deal with at some point.
Opening the shower door, he stepped inside and flicked on the taps. It gave her ample time to admire his slightly paler brown and gold striated ass cheeks, the colors darkening up his spine and into the corded strength of his shoulders. Then he turned to her, his striated cock still rearing up like a stallion’s and his ball-sack heavy beneath.
“The temperature is perfect,” he said. “Come and join me.”
Steam suddenly undulated in the air, drawing her in. As soon as the hot water hit her skin, she sighed softly. Whatever Dronian muck had splattered her skin, she wanted it off. Gray took the soap off the ledge in the wall, and then rubbed it in his hands, making lather. Putting the soap back, he kneaded her body with his sudsy hands, washing her thoroughly.
That his touch sent shivers of pleasure through her body was a whole other issue she’d have to deal with. For now she was grateful just to get clean again and eliminate any bits of Dronian off her.
He turned her around and began to soap up her front. She closed her eyes, stifling a moan as his hands lingered on her breasts, making her want more. Was this his way of making her talk? Give her so much pleasure that she was willing to tell him everything just to get off?
He shampooed her hair then conditioned it next, his big hands delivering a most extraordinary scalp massage. Whatever tension she’d had simply evaporated, leaving her soft and compliant, and more than a little dazed.
After rinsing out her conditioner, he lifted her chin with a hand so that he trapped her gaze with his yellow stare. His pupils narrowed a little, as though he was seeing into her very soul. “You’re clean now,” he said huskily.
She swallowed hard as his gaze focused on her lips. He was going to kiss her! She sucked in a breath, her whole body tensing. He’d promised not to seduce her in the shower. Was he happy to break his word?
He lifted his stare back to hers, his pupils returning to normal before he smirked and raised his arms out to the sides. “Feel free to clean me in return.”
Her feel good vibes dissipated. She didn’t play games, not with an enemy. She wouldn’t risk being the loser. She glared at him. “I’m under no obligation to do anything.”
He shrugged idly, his arms dropping back to his sides. “Suit yourself.”
When he soaped himself up, paying particular attention to his torso and then his cock, she was all but burning up. How long since she’d been sexually fulfilled? Too long, clearly, and now the bastard was taunting her!
That human men had rarely tempted her into their bed didn’t help her present mood. She’d put off having sex with just any man because she knew she’d be disappointed.
She’d bet Gray wouldn’t disappoint.
He’d take her again and again and make her orgasm each and every time. He was so damn strong he’d easily hold her against the tiled wall one-handed while he fucked her and played with her clit with his free hand all at the same time.
Her breath caught in her throat when he stretched out one wing—the damn appendage took up all the remaining space in the shower stall—and he soaped it into a lather, then rinsed it off before shaking it and folding it behind his back. When he did the same to his other wing, she was all but quivering.
What was it about his wings that made her melt? Was it the extra power they gave him? Was it the fact she was no longer one of the most formidable beings on planet Earth?
He leaned close, his breath warm against her ear. “I can smell your arousal, Sienna,” he said softly. “I can pleasure you however you need. Just say the word and I’ll give you what you want.”
For a moment her every muscle clenched. Then outraged denial poured through her and she wrenched away from his hypnotic spell. “Nice try,” she said scathingly. “But I’m not falling for your bullshit. I know what you want from me, and it’s not just sex.”
She thrust open the shower’s glass door and stepped out onto the mat, then grabbing a towel, she wrapped it protectively around her even as he shut down the water and followed her out.
“Your loss,” he said matter-of-factly, his big body far too close to give her any peace of mind.
She stiffened. “Do you have another T-shirt I can borrow?”
“We really need to take you shopping, don’t we,” he murmured. He tugged the remaining towel off the rail and knotted it low on his hips. “Let’s find you something to wear. Then we’ll eat.”
She followed him down the hallway and into the master bedroom, her stomach doing crazy little backflips as she eyed off the huge bed. Did he sleep with his wings tucked close to his spine, or did he allow them to stretch out either side of him?
She bit into her bottom lip. Did he bring strange women home and fuck them in that same bed? Her stomach hollowed out, her blood turning to ice in her veins. For fuck’s sake! What did it matter to her if he’d screwed a hundred—a thousand!—different women? She loathed the man. Even if he tried to seduce her, his only objective would be to make her trust him so that he’d loosen her tongue.
That he’d enjoy himself in the process would be a secondary concern. All he cared about was achieving his goal. The moment he did that she’d be nothing more than a distant memory. If she was lucky, he might feel a momentary twinge of guilt and remorse.
He reached into his closet and took a bright red T-shirt off a hanger and handed it to her. This will be miles to big on you, but I guess that is the idea.”
She nodded. “I’d rather you weren’t staring at my tits and pussy while we’re eating dinner.”
He arched a brow. “And here I thought your species weren’t shy when it came to being nude.”
She left her towel on as she pulled the T-shirt over her head. Only once it had settled into place over her did she take off the towel underneath. “We’re not shy at all,” she conceded. “Not in front of people we trust.”
He sighed heavily. “You don’t trust me one bit, I get it, I really do. If I was in your shoes I wouldn’t trust me, either.”
He took off his towel, and she couldn’t help but stare at his cock. It was perfectly smooth; the striations of brown and gold making her salivate. What would he taste like? Did his kind enjoy oral sex like her kind did along with Earth people?
He went without underwear and instead drew on a pair of gray sweats, which did nothing to hide the bulge of his erection beneath. After pulling on a white T-shirt, he said, “Let’s eat,” his eyes gleaming as though he knew exactly what she hungered for.
Chapter Thirteen
If Sienna had hungered for sex earlier, the waft of scented steam from the lasagna as Gray dragged it out of the oven made her forget everything but her need to eat.
