Dangerous Lovers (177 page)

She giggled and admitted, “I really miss the transmuters. I didn’t realize how much I depended on them. They spoiled me.”

Jurek smiled. “I’ll remember to make sure I send you back there every now and then to get your fix.”

Hmmm, I’d rather get my fix of you.

It became very quiet in the room again. She sipped her wine and flicked an imaginary piece of lint off her dress.

“Am I making you nervous?” The sound of his voice was like a gentle breeze against her skin, causing goose bumps to sprout up all over her body.

“No,” she blurted out too quickly. She sighed deeply and looked him in the eye. “Yes.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know,” she glanced down and stared at her ugly fingernails.

“Yes, you do.”

Still staring at her hands, she admitted, “I, um, you’re intimidating. I don’t know anything about you other than you’re very powerful and you frighten me sometimes. Well, a lot actually. I know you want me to follow your orders or directions or whatever, but I worry about fucking things up. I want to fight and I want to be strong, but I worry I can’t meet your expectations.”

“Is that all?”

“Yeah,” she lifted her eyes again to his. The swirling silver in them always seemed to take her breath away with their uncommon beauty. “No, there’s a lot more, but I’m sure you don’t want to hear it all.”

“Tell me.”

“No,” she shook her head, looking away.

“Liasare, you know I always get my way. Tell me.” His rich voice resonated within her, making her belly tighten as she squirmed on the couch.

“Well, you don’t know anything about me.”

“I know a lot about you.”

“Like what? You don’t know what my favorite color is, or my favorite book. You don’t know what my favorite movie is or where I’d love to go if I could go anywhere in the universe. You don’t even know my favorite food.”

“Those things are of no consequence to me Liasare.” He flicked his hand through the air.

“But they are to me!” she insisted.

“Why? Why are they so important?”

She sat up straighter and said, “Because some of those things make me happy.”

“You know what Liasare, you’re right. I don’t know what your favorite color is, or if you’d like to have a manicure, or if you prefer your fingernails to be pink or red. I don’t have a fucking clue if you like ruffles better than lace, or if you have a favorite flower, or whether you’d rather get flowers or chocolates on your birthday. I also don’t know if you have a desire for a grand wedding and a fancy white gown and a cake that’s ten feet tall or if you’d prefer an intimate affair with only your closest family and friends present. I don’t know if you like to go to a spa and have a massage and be pampered, or if you prefer the outdoors and sit in the sun and feel its warmth on your skin. But I
do
know this. I
do
know the most
important
thing about you. And that is you’d
die
for someone you love. You’d give up
your
life
for your brother. That, little girl, is more important to me that all that other bullshit you’re so hell bent on pointing out I don’t fucking know about you. Open your eyes Liasare. The world you once knew is dying a rapid death. Those things you seem to think are important may not exist in another six months. What will exist is the fact that I’ll be by your side, fighting and protecting you. And that I chose you, a warrior, to stand by my side.”

“That’s all fine and good and all of that may be important, but Jurek, sometimes I need chocolate and flowers to make me happy,” she insisted. “What makes you happy? Do you even know?” she whispered.

“I don’t have a fucking clue,” he snapped. “I can’t even remember the last time I was happy. When was the last time you were happy? You don’t seem to talk about having much happiness in your life as I recall.”

She whipped her head around to him, narrowed her eyes and reminisced. “Oh, I remember it well,” she softly said with a smile. “It was when Tommy and I stole that stupid speedster. Whoever would have thought that a flying motorcycle could have made two dumb kids so ecstatic? I remember every blasted thing about that flight and I swear I’ve never felt that happy since. I never knew that feeling even existed. It was incredible. We laughed about it because we felt so
free
. We wanted the feeling to last forever. Everyone needs to feel that feeling sometime and I believe it’s within each of us.”

Jurek was quiet for a moment as he watched her. He noticed how her eyes lit up like a beacon in middle of the darkest night. They
glowed
with her happiness; he didn’t think he’d ever seen anything like it.

“Don’t be going all Pollyanna on me now,” his voice was dripping sarcasm.

“Polly who?”

“Christ! You don’t know who Pollyanna is and you act like her half the time. It’s the optimistic principle based on a character from a book.”

“Oh. Well, maybe you should read the book Jurek.”

“Very funny Liasare.”

“I wasn’t trying to be funny. I’m just saying that every now and again I need to have things around that maybe, on some small level, can make me happy. Or maybe if not happy, make me think happy thoughts, at least for a few minutes anyway.” She stood up, straightened her dress just because, and walked over to the refrigerator to get the bottle of wine.

“Why, so you can go out and kill a bunch of Xanthians with a smile on your face?” his sarcasm lacing his words.

His words stopped her in her tracks and she thought about what he said. “Yeah, I guess so. Maybe I do need something to put a smile on my face. Even though they’re disgusting, killing Xanthians is so brutal that maybe a little something to cheer me up on occasion would make the job a bit easier to stomach.”

He snorted, “Maybe I should get you a gas mask. Then you’d stop bitching about the nasty smell of them.”

“Look, never mind. I just thought that ...” She stopped and waved her hand through the air, dismissing her thought. “No, forget it. It doesn’t matter. However, just for the record, I don’t like pink at all. In fact, I hate it. It reminds me of the color of my scars. I’ve never had a manicure, see,” she held up her hands and wiggled her fingers so he could have a look at her ugly fingernails, “and I’ve never even been in a salon so I don’t have any idea about what a massage would be like. I prefer the outdoors over anything. Waterfalls are my favorites, although I’ve only ever seen one. I adore chocolate, but I was only allowed to have it on the rarest of occasions, so I look at it as a very special treat. I dislike both lace and ruffles; they’re just not my type,” she said, wrinkling her nose. “I’m not very refined as you’ve probably already figured out by my deplorable table manners. I was never taught about all the different forks and spoons and such and all that kind of stuff makes me extremely uncomfortable. I actually find it quite intimidating. As for the wedding thing, I never allowed myself to indulge in those kinds of thoughts because you saw what I looked like. Who in his right mind would’ve wanted to marry someone who looked like me? I never filled my head with impossible things that could never be. Oh, and I adore the feeling of the sun on my face. Now that my scars are gone I guess I could find out what it would be to actually put on a bathing suit and feel the warmth of it on my entire body. That’s something I’ve never experienced before. That’s also why I’m so disgustingly pale. And finally, if there were one thing I could have every day of my life, it would be a fresh bouquet of flowers. Flowers are a gift from God and should be treasured for their beauty and luscious scents. Now, if I die tomorrow, you can say you knew what my favorite things were. Good night Jurek.” She turned and headed for the door.

Jurek felt like she had sliced him open and poured acid on his wounds, and he deserved every ounce of it, and then some. He’d never been so ashamed of how he’d treated anyone in his life. She’d stripped herself bare and exposed her inner feelings for him to see. She been thrown into something she hadn’t asked for. Her goal in coming to Earth was to find the only person who’d ever shown her kindness and instead she had been introduced to one tragedy after another. Then when she tries to have a simple conversation with him, he acts like a fucking condescending asshole and tells her what makes her happy doesn’t mean a goddamn thing to anyone but her.

I’m such a fucking worthless piece of shit. How could I treat her like that?

“Liasare, stop. Please don’t leave.” He stared at her, his eyes filled with remorse. “You can’t go without eating. Our food will be arriving any minute, and I’m not letting this go to waste. Take it back to your room if you must, but wait.”

She eyed him for a moment and said, “I seem to have lost my appetite.”

“I didn’t mean to piss you off. I’m sorry. I don’t know why I said those things. I guess I just thought a reality check was in order.”

“No shit Jurek. Some reality check. Everything with you is like a bucket of ice cold water in the face.”

Before she knew what hit her, he was holding her and kissing her. And it was one of his knock your socks off kinds of kisses. He was all over her, hands, mouth, taking, demanding and her head was spinning with the ferocity of it. She was on the couch, flat on her back, with him on top. He ran his hand beneath her dress, sliding it along her thigh, massaging it, while he ran his tongue along her neck from her ear to the base of her throat. He spread her legs and began to massage the inside of her thigh, sliding her dress up even further.

Gliding down her body, his mouth took over where his hand had been, kissing, licking and nibbling the inside of her thigh until she thought she would go crazy. He groaned, as if he was in pain, from holding himself in check for so long.

Liasare threaded her fingers through Jurek’s hair, feeling its thick waves as she drew him even closer to her. She knew she wanted more, needed more. His exotic scent fueled her desire, as he continued to push her toward the brink of ultimate pleasure.

Jurek was lost in his passion, tasting Liasare’s pleasure as it built in her. He could feel it surrounding him, and it urged him to go further. Pushing her dress up higher, he slid his fingers under the elastic of her thong and with a quick snap, popped the thing right off of her.

When she felt her panties give way, Liasare sucked in her breath. Raising herself to her elbows, their eyes locked.

Last chance,
his thought assailed her.

Was this a challenge, she wondered? Because if so, she was definitely up to it. Reaching for his head, she guided him to her and moaned when his tongue found her, and began its sweet torture. Jurek’s current flowed through her, sending a wave of molten heat coursing through her veins, waking every cell, every nerve ending in her body. She arched her back and called his name. Every angry word that had been shared between them faded away. Just when she thought nothing could feel sweeter, he ran his hands along her hips and back around beneath her, lifting her closer to him, bringing her to climax. Her world shattered into a million stars. She wanted to feel him next to her, his skin on hers, but their clothing was in the way. Suddenly it was gone, ripped away like magic. She smiled knowing Jurek had read her mind. Now she wanted him on top of her so she could feel his heart beating, she wanted his lips on hers; she wanted her hands on him everywhere and his scent on her. Before she could finish the thought, he was there, looming over her, his mouth crushing hers, possessing her, filling her, tasting her.

“You unman me Liasare,” he muttered into her mouth. “You reduce me to a mass of weakened, helpless flesh. I can’t think straight when I’m near you.” He kissed her again, not gently, but aggressively, as if he were marking her as his own. He drew back his head and stared at her for a long moment, his eyes half hidden under a heavy fringe of inky lashes, “Don’t ever think about leaving here. I won’t allow it.
Ever
. Under
any
circumstance.”

He rolled off of her, stood and stared at her. “How did you remove our clothes Liasare?”

Standing there naked, he was the most magnificent thing Liasare had ever seen. Not hesitating a second, she moved before him and touched him. Her shyness was absent for a change, and she had always wanted this, nothing but this. She dipped her fingers along the steps of the muscles on his abdomen, feeling the indentations and planes, reveling in the tautness of them. Running her hands from his abs to his chest, she felt the sculpted muscles flex beneath her hands as he moved. She didn’t stop there. Walking around until she was directly behind him, she traced the muscles of his shoulders, back and finally his spectacular ass. When she was finished inspecting and touching him, she faced him again, leaned into him and wrapped her arms around him.

“You didn’t answer me. How did you remove our clothes?” he asked as he enfolded her within his arms.

“I didn’t; you did.”

“No, Liasare. I certainly did not. Although I’ll confess the thought crossed my mind, I was too busy with ... other things.”

She looked up at him, her face turning a vivid shade of pink and she blurted out, “What? You mean you didn’t do that?”