Amusement filled his eyes, and he shook his head.
“Never, never. There was no ‘messing about.’ Besides, most people I know are related to me in some way.”
She nodded absently, her eyes intent on his lips again. She wanted to kiss him, to be his first… oh god, he’d never… Shit, Cam was going to rip her a new one about this.
“Would you want to?” Her question was out in the open before she could stop it, and her cheeks burned. “Kiss, I mean. Like… kiss a human?”
He’d been dancing with her, yes, and it had been as hot as hell… but how did she know they didn’t all dance like that? Perhaps it didn’t mean the same thing in Lathar culture as it did here?
“You’re overthinking,” he murmured, sliding a big hand down her back to cup her ass. When he pulled her up against him again, she gasped. He was still hard, long and thick, and that would never fit…
“Yes,” he rumbled, his voice deeper than any she had ever heard before. It stroked along her skin, rumbling through her veins, and her clit throbbed in response. Her eyes widened a little more. If he could do that with just a word, she was completely and utterly fucked.
“Yes, I’d like to try kissing. I’d like to kiss you.”
She nodded dumbly, hands around his upper arms in a vise-like grip.
He smiled, a fang catching on his full lower lip, and bent his head.
“You’ll have to show me what to do,” he murmured and brushed those sinful lips against hers.
She couldn’t stop the whimper that rose in her throat, her lips parting automatically in invitation. He growled, a low rumble deep in his chest that made her pussy clench savagely, and deepened the kiss.
There was none of the fumbling or hesitation she’d have expected from somebody who was inexperienced. Instead, he slid his tongue past her lips with the self-assurance of a man who knew what he was doing. Then he kissed the breath out of her with an expertise that was devastating.
His tongue slid against hers, tempting her to join him in an erotic tangle. It was warm, rougher than human, and were those tiny ridges down the center? Holy hell, they were. Another whimper escaped her as she wound her arms around his neck, spearing her fingers through the hair caught back at his nape.
He pulled her closer as she freed it from the tie, running her hands through the silken strands. She couldn’t get enough of him, pressed against him again from breast to hips, her soft belly cradling the hardness of his erection.
He hissed as she pulled back, running her tongue against the side of his upper fang. In the heat of the moment she forgot to be careful and flinched at a sharp pain against her tongue as the copper taste of blood filled her mouth. He growled and pulled away quickly to look down at her in concern.
“Are you okay?” he asked with a firm hand under her jaw to tilt her head up so he could take a look. She nodded as his thumb pressed against her lip and he forced her gently to open her mouth. The unspoken dominance in the movement got to her on levels she hadn’t realized existed.
Damn, it should be illegal to be that sexy.
“It’s just a little cut,” he said, running his thumb gently over her lower lip and scrambling her brain. “I’m sorry.”
His repentant expression snapped her out of it. She nipped at his thumb and then grinned as he jerked his head back, nostrils flaring as surprise filled his eyes.
“Don’t be sorry,” she told him, with what she hoped was a sultry smile on her lips. “It was my fault… And besides, some humans like a little pain and danger with their pleasure.”
Before she could say too much, she pulled away, palming her comms unit and checking the time. “Dammit, it’s after eleven.”
He watched her with that unreadable gaze again. It was strange dealing with somebody who looked so human yet her instincts told her wasn’t human at all. “What does that mean?”
She sighed and ran her hand through her hair again. “It means the last train has already gone back to the base. I’m not going to get you back in there tonight. You’ll have to come with me.”
Turning, she walked away down the alley before she could do something stupid… like crowd him against the wall and climb him like a tree. Just because he was a guy didn’t mean his first time should be in some grubby back alley. He deserved a bed, comfort, and romance. Whatever counted as romance for an alien. And he was an alien. She couldn’t discount that. What he found sexy, she might not.
So she needed to get him back to her place. But no way could she risk taking him on the subway with so many cameras. They’d have to walk.
A walk under the moonlight with a sexy as hell guy? Yeah, she wasn’t going to complain about that. Plus it would give her time to figure out what the fuck she was gonna do with him when they got home. Other than do her best not to jump his bones, of course. She had to give him time, go slow…
She paused to look over her shoulder when she realized he wasn’t following. His gaze flicked up from her ass, and he looked guilty. She sighed shaking her head. Men… they were all the same, no matter the species.
“Well come on then if you’re coming.”
“Where are we going?”
He caught up to her in three long strides. Reaching out, she snagged his hand in hers, forcing him to slow down to match her pace.
“My place. Do your best to act human please,” she muttered in an undertone as they joined the crowds on the main walkway. “They’re not looking for you out here, but people do notice differences. And there are cameras. I’m gonna do my best to avoid them.”
“Don’t worry about the cameras… I can…” He shrugged, looking around with interest. “Just don’t worry about the cameras. I got that covered.”
What did he mean by that?
She didn’t get the chance to ask as the crowds closed in around them. Conversation was impossible until they reached her apartment block, but that didn’t stop her alien companion taking every opportunity to touch her. An arm around her waist, a hand on her back, turning her into him to shield her from the crush of the crowd… Every single one of them protective and possessive in a way that made her blood heat up.
Her breathing was compromised by the time they reached her front door and she pressed her thumb to the ID plate. Her building was a little more upmarket than most and was a world away from the rat holes she and Cam had grown up in. She at least had some form of home security, and although the lobby downstairs was unattended, it had a twenty-four-hour security feed.
“They’re going to have seen you coming here,” she hissed as the door to her place opened and they stepped inside.
“I told you." He grinned, his expression boyish and charming. “I got it covered.”
She stopped a few steps into the room and folded her arms, her patience running out. “Okay, handsome, just how are you going to sort that out?”
The smile drained from his face, and for a moment he looked far older and infinitely more dangerous. Her breath caught in the back of her throat, her heart stalling for a moment. He’d warned her he was a predator and had she taken any heed? No… no she had not. Instead, she’d invited him into her home. Where she was alone with him…
Fuck’s sake, Elise, an inner voice that sounded a lot like Cam hissed. This was how women got dead. She knew better than this.