EIGHT
TAYLOR WOKE SMILING, her heart stuttering in her chest, and feeling high off of…him.
But the moment that the night’s events replayed in her mind and she realized she was in a deserted, chilly cave far away from their destination, and that she was in the arms of Vikan, but not her Vikan, that smile faded.
Again, she felt the loss of him as sharply as a blade to the chest and it didn’t make any damn sense.
Sometime during the night, they’d changed positions. Taylor was pressed face-first into Vikan’s bare chest, her breath fanning out over one of his pierced nipples. It took her only another moment to realize that she’d never seen him shirtless before, but in her dreams, she’d known what he looked like, she’d known that the small bar pierced through his nipple was gold and that he had a long scar just above his left pectoral muscle.
Going crazy, she thought, but instead of panic, she felt…resignation. Like she was starting to accept what was happening, like she was actually buying into what Vikan had told her.
Because what other explanation was there? None of the other women had dreams like hers. She’d asked, fishing for possible answers. They all slept as peacefully as they possible could while she’d been racked by strange, vivid scenes of him, of her, sometimes erotic, sometimes not, just like the one she’d just woken from.
They’d been sitting on the shores of Lopitax. And she knew that name for some reason but she couldn’t recall if it was just because Vikan had said it before…or because she’d seen it.
Vikan was awake. When she pulled her face away from his chest, he was watching her. Taylor shivered against him, but not because she was cold. It was because those eyes were so familiar.
“What did you dream?” he asked her, his first question. His voice was husky from sleep and Taylor found some small comfort in that, knowing that even though he was an alien, his voice still changed upon waking.
Something in his eyes made her soften and before she even had a chance to think about it, the words slipped from her lips, “You know what I dreamt.”
Vikan’s expression didn’t change. His fingers spanned over her lower back since her tunic had ridden up during the night. Her sex was bare and exposed, but Vikan didn’t look down. His leg was thrown over her own, a thoroughly possessive yet intimate embrace.
It struck her just how entangled they’d become during the night and Taylor, although she’d never been one to blush, felt warmth spread over her cheeks.
Struggling to sit up, she pushed his legs away and yanked down her tunic to cover herself. He already seemed to know her mind, he already seemed to know something she didn’t. The least she could do was keep her body private from him, to preserve some of her modesty before he took that as well.
Because judging by the look in his eyes, judging by the fluttering in her stomach, Taylor feared that soon, he just might know her in that way.
Especially if she kept visiting the Vikan in her dreams. One day, upon waking, she might confuse the two and act without thinking.
Because the Vikan in her dreams? They’d explored every inch of one another.
Sitting there, she looked over at the two suns that rose steadily from the horizon. With surprise, she saw an ocean, spread out before their cave and the tide was coming in, but it wasn’t close enough yet to cause alarm.
So like her dream. A sunrise over a gleaming sea, with Vikan next to her.
The dream last night had been different than the ones she’d been experiencing the weeks before.
Except Taylor couldn’t put her finger on why.
For one, her dream Vikan had held back from her sexually, which he never did. And while he’d been the same affectionate male she’d come to expect once she slept, last night it had almost seemed like he needed that affection, that contact.
“What do you think of, female?” he murmured, also sitting up.
She couldn’t tell him.
“Nothing,” she replied, cutting off the tangling string of her thoughts until her mind went blank. “We should get going.”
Vikan was silent as he stood from the cave floor and Taylor sucked in a small breath at the sight of him. Without his shirt on, he seemed even more massive. Broad shoulders, defined arms, a sculpted chest that led to lean hips, which led to strong thighs that could probably crush a tree trunk. He surpassed seven feet tall easily and had to crouch slightly in the cave to avoid hitting his curling black horns, which were slightly lifted from his crown.
And the bulge in his pants?
It looked like the size of her forearm and was impossible not to see now that she’d felt his erection pressed up against her for the majority of the night.
That connection pulled tight between them as Taylor ran her eyes over his bared chest and arms, seeing the thin silver lines of scars that crisscrossed his body. Kate had said the Luxirians were warriors of some kind, that they waged wars and battled for a living.
And Vikan?
He definitely looked like a warrior.
Taylor swallowed and she realized that her sex was warm and wet, her heartbeat fluttering in her throat.
But who could blame her?
Vikan’s nostrils flared and all at once, Taylor remembered he’d said something about smelling her arousal back on the hovercraft. Again, her face flamed and she forced herself to look away, clearing her throat, all while willing her body back under control.
It was the dream, she reasoned. She was always horny and on edge in her dreams, but those needs were usually taken care of by dream Vikan…which he hadn’t taken care of in the previous dream.
“There is no shame in wanting your male,” she heard, his voice caressing her skin like dark velvet.
“You’re not mine,” she found herself whispering.
Vikan hesitated, but then said, “I am, female. You will realize it eventually.”
Taylor shook her head but knew it was pointless to argue with him.
“Let’s just go,” she said. She made it two steps to the entrance of the cave before dread filled her stomach. She remembered she didn’t have shoes.
Vikan swiped his shirt off the ground and before she could say anything, he ripped it in two, folding the material over a couple times until it was sufficiently padded.
“Wait here,” he ordered, placing the two pieces of shirt on the ground beside her. Taylor watched as he left the cave, veering the way they’d come last night.
And for the first time, as she listened to the hushed quiet of the cave, Taylor felt a sense of fear. What if he didn’t come back? What if something happened to him? She might clash a little with real-life Vikan, but it didn’t mean that she wanted him gone, especially since she was on a strange alien planet with no idea where in the world she was supposed to be heading.
Nibbling on the corner of her bottom lip, a nervous habit she never quite broke, she decided screw it, and walked to the entrance of the cave, her makeshift shoes in hand, before hopping down onto the impossibly soft sand. She sunk in to her ankles, but looked around for Vikan. When she couldn’t see him, panic set in.
Deep breaths, she told herself. She was being ridiculous. Vikan wouldn’t just leave her. She knew that, somewhere deep inside.
“Taylor,” she heard, but the voice sounded angry. Still, all she felt was relief and she cursed herself for being so impulsive. It wasn’t like her.
Doubting people, however, was definitely like her. She didn’t like that she was that way. But people she cared for, loved even, with the exception of her grandmother, had always disappointed her, to the point that Taylor almost expected it about anyone she grew too close to.
“I told you to stay inside,” he bit out, eyes darting from her to the beach to the long blades of sandpaper grass they’d travelled through last night. “It is dangerous!”
He immediately scooped her up in his arms—Taylor didn’t even protest—and brought her back into the confines of the cave.
His expression was pulled tight and his jaw was ticking. Without thinking, she reached up to touch his cheek and she murmured, “I’m sorry. I thought…”
Once they were safely back inside, it took him a moment to compose himself, even though he didn’t relinquish his hold on her.
“Anything could have—,” he cut himself off with a growl. His eyes glowed when he met her eyes. “Do not let its beauty fool you. We are not near my outpost and there are dangerous beasts that roam these shores. If I had not been there to protect you…”
Taylor felt his chest shudder against her skin and she knew she really fucked up. Despite that fact that Taylor still wan’t certain that she was his mate, he seemed certain about her, had told her so, despite the fact he’d told her he wasn’t happy about it.
She could see he was shaken and she hadn’t done much more than take a few steps outside the cave.
“I’m sorry, Vikan,” she repeated again, her fingers still touching his cheek. “I thought an ugly thing after you left. That you might not come back.”
Vikan’s eyes flared. “You know I would not leave you. Ever,” he bit out. “Even if you were not my mate, you are still a female. Luxirian males will never allow harm to come to a female.”
“I know,” Taylor murmured. “I know. I just…” she pressed her lips together, her fingers still clutching the pieces of the padded shirt he’d crafted for her. “I don’t trust people easily. I don’t know if I ever truly trust them, okay? A part of me knows that you wouldn’t have left me. The other part…well, the other part expects you to.”
It was the most honest thing she’d shared with anyone in a very long time.
Vikan regarded her for what seemed like centuries, but eventually, his muscles loosened and the rumbling growl that reverberated in his chest died down.
Taylor felt herself relax and slowly her fingers dropped from his face.
“We must be careful as we journey towards Lopixa,” was what he said. “Vow to me that you will not venture anywhere without me or disobey an order.”
Taylor said slowly, “I promise I won’t go anywhere without you. But I can’t promise that I’ll obey you.”
“Luxiva,” he rumbled warningly.
“It’s not my nature. I do what I think is best for me,” she told him.
“I know what is best for us both,” he countered. “You will trust me in this.”
“Not if you’re going to be bossy about it,” she replied, huffing out a small breath. Already, they were back to fighting. But instead of it ruffling her feathers, it felt…like a strange kind of communication.
“Vrax,” he cursed, his voice edging on what she assumed was frustration. A thrill of smug amusement went through her and she tried to hide her small smile. But he saw it and his eyes narrowed. A purr started in his chest at the sight of it and he rasped, “You like to disobey me on purpose.”
Her only answer was an eyebrow raise.
“Very well,” he said, surprising her. “My female likes to use her claws, but know that I like it.”
Suddenly, Taylor didn’t feel so smug. Her smile dropped from her face, just as sudden, surprising desire rose in its place.
“Let us make an amendment,” he murmured and Taylor briefly glanced at his lips, wondering what it would be like to kiss him, even though she had a feeling she knew. She’d kissed him a thousand times in her dreams, after all. “In terms of your safety, you will obey me in all regards.”
“But I—,” he cut her off.
“In terms of anything else, I leave that decision up to you.”
Taylor stared at him, feeling vaguely like she’d just…lost. But she also felt like she kind of liked it?
Huffing out a small breath, she murmured, “Fine.”
“I want your vow,” he said, but his tone had morphed into something lighter. It took her only a moment to realize that her moody, broody kidnapper was teasing her.
And just like he claimed to like her claws…Taylor liked this.
But she wouldn’t let him see that.
“I promise that I’ll trust your judgment in terms of my safety,” she finally mumbled out. “Now put me down.”
With obvious reluctance, he did as she asked and she straightened, tugging the hem of her shirt down to cover her thighs. When his eyes lingered there, she got a little breathless.
To distract him—and herself—she said, “Well? Shouldn’t we be going?”
Vikan looked as if he shook himself and then pulled something out of a pocket of his leg coverings. They were long strings of the sandpaper grass.
“Sit,” he murmured, pulling the pieces of the shirt from her hand. He cocked his head to the side, watching her, and Taylor knew he was waiting to see if she would do as he asked.
Rolling her eyes, but strangely wanting to laugh, Taylor sat down on a little ledge of the cave wall. She watched as Vikan kneeled in front of her but she stilled when she saw his tongue dart out to lick the sandpaper edge of the grass.
Her sex gave a throb. His tongue was ridged, just as she knew it would be and she watched that tongue lick every blade of grass he’d collected.
She couldn’t help but remember one particularly vivid dream of him using that tongue on her. He’d spread her thighs wide enough that he could wedge his shoulders between them and then he’d buried his face in her pussy, licking long lines up her wet slit, before running the ridges of his tongue over her clit. He’d teased her mercilessly, bringing her right to the edge of orgasm, before stopping, only to do it over and over again. She’d begged him mindlessly by the end of it and finally, he’d plunged his cock inside her and she’d starting cumming almost immediately.
Taylor let out a small whimper, shocked by how easily her arousal controlled her body. Vikan froze, his pupils widening until his eyes appeared almost black.
“Female,” he bit out. Another warning. “I can smell your cunt.”
Of course he could, dammit.
The only thing she could think to say was, “Ignore it.”
“I cannot,” he growled.
“Then now you know how I felt last night,” she returned quickly. Remembering the feel of his cock against her ass did nothing to dissipate her arousal. It made it worse.
Vikan said nothing, but that growling purr echoed in the cave as he resumed his work. To the pieces of grass he’d just licked, he rubbed them quickly between his palm until she saw that the little sandpaper-like flecks fell off, leaving behind a smooth finish.
Quickly, he wove the strands together to make two pieces of twine. He reached forward for her left foot and her toes flexed when he cradled the sole. His fingers were strong, yet calloused and rough, just what Taylor thought a male’s hands should be like.
The small cave was filled with tension as he fastened one piece of his padded shirt to the bottom of her foot, before expertly wrapping the grass twine around, securing it around her ankle. His fingers lingered there once he was finished, his eyes darting up to hers briefly.
Before he could say anything—or do anything—she pulled her left foot from his grip and gave him her right one. Without hesitating, he made quick work of that foot and soon enough, Taylor had sandals. Surprisingly comfortable ones, she noticed, as she stood to test them out.
Now, if only he could make her some underwear and pants.
Biting her lip, she swallowed, trying to ignore the sexual tension running high between them. Now she understood the expression tension so thick you could cut it with a butter knife.
“Ready?” she asked quietly.
Vikan stood, standing so close she could feel the tantalizing heat from his body.
“Tev,” he replied, his voice like pure sin.
Taylor blew out a breath. “Let’s roll then.”
It was going to be a long day.