Rockstar Romance: Julian (Contemporary New Adult Bad Boy Rock Star Romance) (Hard Rock Star Series Book 3) (59 page)

She bucked her hips against his slow, incredibly long strokes, aware that she was emitting a single low, continuous moan as Jax pushed his body against her. She wrapped her thighs around his muscular waist, gasping as his thick shaft pulsed inside the dripping walls of her pussy. His hips started to move faster, and his eyes closed as the pleasure moved through his body in waves. Ada started to grip her breasts again, drawing pinpricks of blood as ecstasy swept over her.

“Ada,” Jax panted, and pulled her hands from her body. “Ada, I’m going to come soon, you feel incredible!” His hips moved forward vigorously, slipping past the sensitive button inside her pussy that Tod used to have to try so hard to find with his fingers. Jax’s length meant he met it easily, and Ada’s body was so embroiled in bliss that for a moment she forgot to breathe. Then the Hyppo’s strokes started to increase in speed, and Ada cried out, desperately taking in air as her body was pounded into the soft soil. Jax was repeating her name as he thrusted inside her hot, wet pussy, frantically pumping toward his own apex of desire.

The sounds of his body slamming against hers mixed together with their lusty moans, filling the cave with a chaotic, carnal symphony. The light from his lamp made his body glisten, and the pureness of his beauty seized her heart and brought tears to Ada’s eyes. An odd sensation---like a key turning in a lock inside her---flooded her and filled her with boundless joy as his brown eyes met hers, and Ada screamed as the soaking wet walls of her pussy contracted around Jax’s heavy cock.

For a moment, their bodies seemed to meld into one, and she saw and understood everything he did: what she really was, what the Hyppo people had seen inside cypeople---what she’d really been all along. At the same moment, she saw a deep well of fondness for her from Jax, a well nearly as fresh as the bruise Ada sustained when she’d fallen backward; she saw that as he’d healed her, his energy had been mingling with hers, tasting her as she was now tasting him. She saw his kindness, his desire to help her unlock her innate ability to experience the full richness of life, and the overwhelming nature of the feeling he got when he gazed at her emerald eyes against the milk chocolate of her oval face---that gigantic, trembling sensation she knew so well:
awe.
She’d never seen herself look so terribly beautiful, and as she felt herself return to her body, she realized she was tearing up again.

The Hyppo threw his head back, letting out a long, passionate cry as his cock twitched and then grew still inside her. Ada felt another surge of heat as her body seemed to absorb his energy, even as he pulled away and collapsed on the ground next to her, panting. His beautiful features seemed too calm and blissful, especially since Ada’s own mind was reeling with the shock of the truth he’d shown her the moment before. Ada drew a shaky breath as she watched his body return to its brilliant golden honey tone.

“We
all
have empathy boards?” Ada whispered.

“Yes,” Jax answered immediately. He seemed to hear her heart hammering in fear, because the next moment he’d grabbed her hand and was pulsing a gentle energy into the skin of her palm. It cooled her terror, and she could breathe again. Ada asked the next question that sprang to her lips.

“Why don’t they tell us? Why don’t they let us
all
be Pathos?”

“Well, they claim it’s for your own good,” Jax answered, and his voice made it clear that he didn’t agree. His third eye blinked, irritated. “But our people think it’s because it made you something more human than they could be…or something simply
more.”

Ada tried to wrap her mind around the pronouncement, finding it exceedingly difficult. “So what did it for me? The furry thing?” She tried to remember what he’d called it, and was surprised to find it zoom to the front of her mind: “A Bezoar?”

“Yes,” Jax said again. “Electrical activity stimulates the empathy board. A large enough shock will awaken it, and for Pathos, it’s usually done at birth. But for you, and cypeople like you…even the simple act of thinking, living, and learning generates enough electricity in the soft part of your brain that it can jostle the empathy board.”

Ada laughed darkly as bitterness washed over her for the first time, acidic and invigorating. “So, we don’t have undersized empathy centers?”

Jax laughed sadly. “No, just deactivated ones. It seems that cypeople like you are happening more and more, though---both naturally awakening very slowly, and through accidents like…” Jax stretched one of his golden arms toward the dead Bezoar.

“And the ones they kill?” she asked as anxiety gripped her heart again. “Are they just…waking up? Why won’t the ships recognize them?”

Jax hesitated. “The ships recognize them, but they really are corrupted. Because of the capacity for natural activation, there’s also the capacity for the board to be activated…inefficiently.”

An icy sheet of dread settled over Ada, and she whimpered involuntarily. Jax squeezed her hand again, and calm rolled through her muscles and slowly melted her fear. “So they are suffering,” she said through gritted teeth, “but it’s the humans’ fault?” Jax didn’t answer, but because she’d already tasted all of his knowledge, she could see the
yes
clearly in her mind.

Ada locked eyes with Jax as they both sat up on the soft floor of the cave. “What will they do now that I’m…like
this?
Will they kill me?” Her heartbeat sped up. “Will you report me?”

“They likely already know,” Jax said, and Ada saw in her mind that it was true. It was unsettling having access to someone else’s information---it was like having a giant library in her head. It would take some getting used to.

“But they’ll want to use you as a poster child, most likely, and claim they didn’t know it was possible to the public. They’ll try hard to do anything that would upset the population, and once the population finds out you’re more identical than they thought---” Jax shrugged, and Ada answered for him.

“They’ll want the engineers to answer for it. Maybe not now, but eventually.” She didn’t know if wars were started over things like this on Earth, but she didn’t want to find out. “Come on, we have to get back to the hub.” She sprinted to the mouth of the cave, and Jax followed.

Jax stopped her with a hand on her shoulder, surprise clear in all three of his eyes. “Why me? I mean, I would like to tag along,” he said bashfully. “But why do I have to accompany you?”

“You can back me up,” Ada said urgently as she dropped to her hands and knees and pushed through the hole. “Also…I kind of don’t want to be without you. Is that weird?”

“Not at all,” Jax said behind the sheet of aluminum.

There were no weighted boots to hold her down, so she hesitated as she stood outside the cave. Her alloy frame was far heavier than a human’s, but this planet’s gravity was also very different. Jax frowned at her when he slipped through.

“What’s wrong?”

Ada pointed to her ship. “I need to get over there quickly, but…” she pointed at her naked body. Jax laughed in understanding and grabbed her hand.

“Why didn’t you just say so?”

Ada turned to ask what he meant, but a wave of nausea knocked her focus askew. She doubled over, gasping from the strength of it; it took her a few seconds to catch her breath. She stood up---and nearly fell over again when she saw she was standing right beneath her ship. Jax was grinning at her foolishly. It suited his handsome face, somehow. She felt warmth squeeze her heart, and she let herself enjoy it this time.
What is it?
She shook her head roughly.

“I forgot you guys could teleport, but I didn’t realize you could bring passengers,” Ada admitted. She looked up. “Just a second.” She looked around in the dirt, and sure enough, she found the bubble she’d dropped earlier. She pressed it and waited for it to spring around her.

When it did, she dropped into a squat and jumped as high as she could; Jax let out a low whistle, and she felt her whole body blush as she rose gracefully into the air, floating harmlessly above the force field. Her palm pressed the ship’s access panel, and for the first time in her life, she forgot to feel fear as she waited for it to open---and for the first time ever, it stayed closed. Ada had a moment to register what had happened before she went sailing back to the surface of Oro and into Jax’s arms.

She realized she was crying again just as he caught her. She wiped her tears away angrily as he held her in his strong arms, cradling her to his broad chest as she the bubble’s field dropped away and she finally broke down. Oddly, most of her tears weren’t sad; the first feeling she’d felt when the panel blinked red was the same boundless joy she’d felt when Jax’s energy locked with hers---the feeling of knowing, finally, who and what she was.

As the sea of emotions quieted inside her, she made a decision. She’d go back---and force them to activate the other cypeople. She didn’t know how, but he had more knowledge then they were counting on. She was determined and felt reinforced by the limitless energy of the new bond she’d formed. She took a breath and focused on Jax’s words.

“It’s okay,” he was saying. “I can teleport us; we’re not far from Earth’s hub. It’s okay… it’s okay.”

“Jax,” Ada cried. “Shut up and take me home.” His body rumbled as he laughed.

“Fine,” he said warmly, and kissed her forehead. “Hold on.”

His lips left an unbearable tingle behind, a gentle, velvety warmth that squeezed her heart and had nothing to do with their nakedness. It grew to a burning heat, and she was still trying to name it when he started to teleport them. She had the sensation of being pressed through a hole the size of a marble, but she felt so full of the feeling that it blocked out everything else; her last thought before her lungs started to pull in air was a single word, and her mind screamed it as sure as it new her own name:

Love.

THE END

Life.

"You actually have to climb up the stairs in order for you to get to the top, Jake," Hava called down the staircase.

Her voice traveled down the double helix of the stairwell and found Jake, who was leaned with his back against the wall and his eyes closed as he seemed to struggle to catch his breath.

"There are a lot more stairs than I thought there were going to be," he managed through his labored breaths.

"You do realize that the statue is more than 300 feet tall, right?"

Jake glared up at her.

"That is not helpful."

Hava grinned and skipped her way back down the stairs toward Jake. She reached out and grabbed his hand, tugging him gently.

"I promise that you are not going to die walking up that Statue of Liberty," she said as she guided him up the next few steps, "That almost never happens."

"Almost never?" Jake said in a tone that was nearly a shriek, stopping in his tracks and tugging her back toward him to force Hava to stop and turn back to him.

"I was kidding. With your ridiculous fear of heights, what possessed you to come with me on a tour of a 300-foot statue that requires walking up a tiny little spiral staircase?"

"Because you are my best friend and I want to be supportive and encouraging in your academic and professional ventures."

"Did you read that directly out of a manual or have you been formulating it for just the right situation when something like this would show up?"

"A little of both maybe," Jake said.

He sighed and started following her as she made her way back up the stairs, looking defeated as he took each step carefully and slowly. Hava felt the excitement building inside her as they continued to climb, each step bringing them further up into the iconic landmark she had been dreaming of seeing her entire life.

"Thank goodness," Josh said, straightening up from where he was leaning on the handrail as they approached, "I thought you had fallen and tumbled back down to the bottom. I hate when that happens."

Jake turned promptly and started back down the stairs, gripping the handrail like it was giving him life as he made his way away from her.

"He was kidding," Hava called after him, "Tell him you were kidding," she said, turning back to Josh.

"I was kidding," Josh called obediently.

Jake stopped, but didn't turn around to look at them. He still gripped the handrail, but his shoulders seemed to have relaxed a little since he had started his retreat.

"I swear if I hear one more thing about falling or tripping or explosions or any other general death-related things, I am going to just stop where I am and camp out for the rest of my life. I will live on pretzels, coffee, and the lost hopes and dreams that drift up from the city streets. You two will have to figure out how to integrate me into the tour."

"Oh, no. That is not my job," Hava said, grabbing Jake by the back of the shirt and pulling him back up the stairs toward her, "I am not the tour guide extraordinaire around here. I'm just the history buff."

"Nerd," Josh said.

"Buff," Hava retorted, "Besides, I don't have enough drama in me to be the tour guide."

Josh grinned at her and started up the rest of the spiral staircase toward the statue's crown. Even though when he first arrived in New York to act and had to take a position as a tour guide in order to survive when the roles weren't as plentiful as he would like them to be he complained, Hava could see that her cousin was thriving in his new position. Their tiny hometown had never been right for him, and they had spent many nights huddled up in their makeshift fort in the living room of their grandmother's home talking about his dreams of running away to New York so that he could be on Broadway.

The little off-Broadway theater that he had gotten his first role in wasn't exactly what he had had in mind, but Hava could see that Josh had absolutely made the right decision by breaking free and pursuing his dreams.

As these thoughts ran through her mind, Hava felt the smile on her face fade and a tightness form in her chest. She was still in that tiny hometown, wondering what she was supposed to be doing with her life.

Far removed from the dramatic and musical talents of her favorite cousin, Hava was more the quiet and studious type who more frequently lost herself in textbooks and old volumes about American history than went out and did the types of things that people her age did. Though she was passionate about her studies and knew that she wanted to pursue something that involved the history that she loved so much, but she didn't know what that was. So many people had suggested teaching, but Hava didn't feel like her heart was in being a teacher. She wanted to do something that would take her out of her comfort zone like Josh had done and put her in a position to make a truly lasting and significant impact in her own right rather than hoping that her teaching methods would touch someone who could go on to make a difference in the world.

Now as she climbed the final few stairs into the crown of the Statue of Liberty and looked out of the glass observation window at the city beyond, she felt like it had taken her so long to get out of the little bubble she had grown up in and into the city that she didn't think she could ever go back and be the same. It was like something was waiting for her just beyond the glass. She just had to figure out what it was and go after it.