“Please, just listen to me,” he said, a pained note creeping into his voice. Her weak thrashing kept pressing the lush curve of her ass against his cock. She was making him hard. He didn’t want her to feel his erection pressing against her captive body, to ratchet her fear even higher.
But she felt it. He knew the instant she noticed his response. Her flailing renewed, and she screamed as she fought against him.
He was aware that humans—especially human females—could make shrill alarm calls. He hadn’t realized quite how shrill. The noise was like a needle being driven into both ears. The sound, sharp and painful, wavered and warped inside his head. He almost dropped her. She was going to crack his skull open. She was going to call every predator within ten leagues. And she was going to alert the traffickers to her exact location.
Asier turned her in his arms, fisted his hand in her hair—exquisitely soft—and pressed his lips to hers.
He’d never before intoxicated a female who hadn’t asked for it. The Scaeven toxin was an evolutionary adaptation that allowed a species who produced only male offspring to subdue the females of other compatible species long enough to breed them. Nowadays, in more enlightened times, the toxin was an aphrodisiac Scaevens shared with willing bed partners.
Asier felt a significant measure of his own self-respect fall away as he parted his lips against hers and swept the tip of his tongue over her lush bottom lip. Within seconds, she relaxed against him, soft and pliant.
Asier pulled back to see the dreamy, dazed look in her eyes, the rosy flush in her pale cheeks. He stared at her alien beauty, transfixed. He cupped her face with his hand, arrested by the stark contrast of his iron skin against her velvety, shell-colored cheek. Her glacially blue eyes gazed languidly into his, her lips parting.
Another beat passed before Asier realized his mistake.
The dangerous lure of human females lay not just in their visual beauty, or the tactile pleasure of their soft flesh—as if those weren’t trouble enough. No. Beneath those obvious enticements, something much more subtle, more beguiling, more insidious, worked a powerful spell over male desire. Pheromones.
He’d breathed in the scent of her. Tasted her on his lips. Without his even realizing it, she’d sunk into his blood, raced through his veins, taken over his mind. She was a sexual bomb, and he’d been caught in the blast.
A gust of wind swept through the tree tops, sending leaves fluttering down and bringing in a wave of cold air. It did nothing to cool the heat of his skin, the simmering inferno inside of him. He stood frozen in place, caught in the thrall of something he’d never before been on the receiving end of.
He wasn’t alone in his debility. The human female stirred against him, letting out a shuddering sigh. She looked up at him, drunk with desire. She brought her arms up to circle his neck and spread her legs to straddle his waist. She clung to him, exactly as he’d wished for, her body molded to his, her pelvis grinding hot circles against his cock.
Forbidden, Asier tried to remind himself. She’s not—
Her thighs squeezed his waist as she lifted herself higher, bringing them face to face. She pressed her lips to his again. The taste and smell of her flooded his senses, blotting out thought.
He was lost.
He became a creature of pure sensation. He clutched her body against his and devoured her with lips and tongues and teeth. She met his fervor with her own, gasping and sighing as she consumed him with wild, open-mouthed kisses. Her tongue teased against his fangs, twined with his tongue. Her delicate hands roved over his body, leaving a trail of sparks in their wake. She writhed in his arms—no longer trying to escape, but to bring herself closer, closer.
He couldn’t get her close enough. He couldn’t feel her enough, taste her enough, be far enough inside of her. He throbbed with the urgent need to take her, claim her. He would fill her little body with his cock, fill her with his seed, fill her with his child. She’d be his forever.
She whimpered as one of his canine teeth pierced her lower lip. He tasted her blood, iron and salt. He sucked the injured lip between his, licking the wound. She moaned into his mouth while her hands sought the fastener on his jacket. She opened it, and cold air rushed against his skin—only heightening the intensity of feeling.
He sank to his knees with her, laid her on the ground. He reached for the tab on the collar of her flight suit, found the zipper.
The wind whipped again, making the trees dance and sway. Leaves fluttered to the ground.
He drew the zipper down her body. Down, down, down. Beneath the flight suit she wore nothing. He ran his big hand down the exposed swath of creamy soft skin. She arched her back, pressing up into his touch. The flight suit parted, revealing the perfect, lush mounds of her breasts. Up-pointed nipples, as pink as her swollen lips, hardened to points in the cold. He slid his hands up to cup them, feel them. He swept his thumbs over her peaked nipples, and she bucked against him, letting out a moan that had his cock pulsing in response.
Above them, lightning cracked across the sky.
Asier slid down her body, bent his head to take one of those sweet pink points into his mouth. She cried out, arching up to him. Her hands cradled the back of his head, holding fast as he worshipped her breasts with lips and tongue and teeth.
Lightning flashed again. The wind roared through the trees.
He slid one big hand into her suit, feeling the warm, smooth heat of her skin as he reached down, down, down, until he found the place he was looking for. Soft, downy hair covered a pillowy mound. He dragged his middle finger along the seam, dipping in to find her slick and wet and needy for him. She rolled her hips up, urging his touch deeper. He pushed his finger inside of her and felt the slick, hot, squeeze of her body. A shudder rippled through her. Her panting turned to keening.
Inside her. He needed his cock inside her, needed to thrust into the hot clutch of that tight pussy over and over and over, needed to fill her with his seed, claim her, get her with his child, make her his—
Another crack of lightning, and the sky opened. A deluge of icy cold rain fell on them. It was a shocking blast of cold, painful in its intensity. Asier jolted when it hit them, and the human let out a gasp that had nothing to do with arousal.
The wind howled, driving the rain against them. The drops stung as they pelted against his skin. It would feel like torture to the soft-skinned creature tucked beneath his body.
Asier looked down at her. His need for her had not abated, but his mind had returned to him with the frozen dousing.
He zipped her flight suit closed, gathered her in his arms, and got to his feet. She clung to him, pressing her face into his shoulder, but she did not writhe against him, did not try to resume where they had left off. Bending his head against the harsh, driving rain, he carried her across the ridge. Squinting, he scanned for shelter.
Beneath an overhanging ledge, a narrow opening in the cliff face offered the best cover. Switching the human to a one-armed carry, he reached for his electron gun and shot a single blast into the cave’s opening. Light danced in a spectral web around a narrow cavern. It was big enough for the both of them, and empty of spiders. He crouched, carrying the human inside, and deposited her on the dry, rocky floor.
He was soaked through, and freezing, but he would survive. The human, on the other hand, was not so hardy. She curled in on herself, clutching her knees to her chest, shaking with cold. Her teeth chattered. Her lovely pink lips had paled to nearly the same color as her skin, which had gone pallid. She needed help.