The King and I: Celestial Soul-Mates, Book 1 (5 page)

Her eyelids fell closed as she eased downward again, swallowing him slowly until every considerable inch of him disappeared inside her. She groaned at the exquisite pleasure of it. He pulsed inside her and she groaned again. She lifted, then lowered her body.

Oh, God, this sexy man’s immense, rock-hard cock inside her felt amazing. She spiraled and it compressed against every part of her vagina. She started a pulsing motion, up and down, as he thrust into her, then pulled out, then in, then out. He went so deep inside she thought she’d weep at the intense pleasure.

She rode an astonishing wave of delight, close to orgasm, but not quite. He rolled her over, then thrust even deeper inside her. A joyful agony surged through her as he pounded into her with deep, long strokes of that incredibly huge cock.

“More,” she cried. “More. More!”

Then it swept through her like a tidal wave. Ecstasy like she’d never experienced before. She screamed at the intensity. It went on and on. It would ebb, then he’d shift and thrust some more and it would climb again, throwing her into another orgasm. Two. Three. Four.

She lost count.

Finally, it built to an unbelievable crescendo and she moaned from the very center of her being. He groaned and thrust deeply, freezing for an instant while they both shattered into orgasmic fragments, then they collapsed.

“My God, that was the most incredible pleasure I’ve ever experienced.”

He kissed her and smiled wickedly. “That won’t be the last time you say that tonight, my love.”

Chapter Seven

When Aria awoke, she found herself wrapped in Tai’s arms, his solid chest against her back, his hands folded around her chest and one hand cupped lightly over the swell of her breast.

Nothing had ever felt so right in her life.

Nevertheless, uncertainty scrolled through her. Lust had overwhelmed her and she’d had sex with a stranger. A tightness gripped her chest. An alien. A man who had kidnapped her and torn her from her home, with no intent of returning her. Ever.

How could she have allowed this to happen?

His lips grazed the back of her neck and a rush of desire washed through her.

Oh, yeah. That’s how.

“You’re awake.” His voice sounded husky from sleep. A sexy rumble.

She rolled to her back, staying within the circle of his arms.

“Mm hm,” she murmured.

He didn’t look like an alien. His silver-gray eyes shone at her with warmth. As she gazed at him, her heart swelled with emotion. Warm and powerful.

A realization swept through her. This was
love.

She
loved
him.

But how could she love a man she’d just met?

She remembered when Lisa, a woman at work, had told her about the first time she’d seen her baby. She’d said she’d felt instant, compelling love. She’d known she would do anything for the child, even lay down her life.

That’s how Aria felt. She could not imagine this man not being in her life. Never seeing his face again. His eyes. His devilish smile. Never hearing his deep voice. Never feeling his exquisite touch.

She would rather die right now than give him up.

And that presented a problem. Because he’d told her she was soul-mate to his king, not him.

She ran her hand across his cheek, feeling the coarseness of new beard growth. He lowered his face to hers. The feel of his lips brushing hers in a heady kiss sent spirals of electricity swarming through her. She matched her mouth firmly to his and speared her tongue between his lips, then curled it around his. His fingers slid along her scalp and cupped the back of her head as his tongue snuggled against hers, following her movements in a warm, erotic dance.

The rhythm of her breathing accelerated. Her hands stroked over his shoulders, then down his back. She pulled him closer and arched against him, crushing her body to his—but it wasn’t enough. A blinding need to immerse herself in him, to become one with him, blasted through her.

Her tongue swirled around the inside of his lips while her hands slid to his chest. One stroked the tight, hard muscles of his well-defined abs. The other found his nipple and teased it between her fingertips. She parted from his lips and covered his other nipple with her mouth. Her tongue dabbed mercilessly, then she sucked. Hard.

His quick, indrawn breath encouraged her. His cock pulsed and hardened against her belly. Her hand slid down over his stomach to his erection, then she wrapped her fingers around it, loving the feel of rock-hard muscle under skin as soft as kid leather.

She gazed at him. “Tai, I love you.”

The glow in his eyes froze. She felt him withdraw before he even moved a muscle.

He pushed himself to a sitting position, propped against the pillows. “No, you don’t.”

She sat cross-legged, tucking the sheets around her waist. “Yes, I do.” She reached out and stroked his cheek but he pulled away.

“You just think you do. We’ve shared a lot of intimacy and you’re not used to that.”

“No.” She shook her head in emphasis. “That’s not it. I really love you. And if you tell me you don’t love me, I won’t believe you.”

He stared her straight in the eye.

“I don’t love you.”

Aria’s eyes widened as a crushing pain started around her heart, then spread through every cell of her body. She’d said she wouldn’t believe him, but now, staring at his icy, gray eyes, she wasn’t so sure. Could she have read him so wrong?

“But…the way you touch me…” She cursed herself as tears prickled at her eyes.

His gaze softened. “Don’t get me wrong, Aria. I care about you.”

Anger flared in her. She flung herself away, wrapping the sheet around her nakedness, then stormed across the room.

“I know, we can be friends, right?”

She clutched the sheet to her body like a flimsy barrier. How could she have let this happen? Tears threatened, but she blinked them back. She’d opened her heart, let love in for the first time in her life, and…

She swallowed the huge lump that had formed in her throat.

Oh, God, he didn’t even want her.

“I won’t marry this king of yours.” She murmured the promise in a quavering voice. “I won’t have anything to do with him.”

“Yes, you will.”

The kindness in his voice infuriated her. Her back straightened and her head swiveled toward him.

“Are you going to force me?” She glared. “Are you going to hold me down while he takes me? Because that’s what it’s going to take.”

She thought she saw a flicker of pain in his eyes, but it quickly disappeared.

“That won’t be necessary. When you meet him, you’ll know. He is your
tanash’ae
.”

Her heart ached at his calm statement. “I don’t care about your nattatie and tanashays. They mean nothing to me.”

She couldn’t just give up. She had to convince him. Tucking the sheet around her, she walked to the bed and sat beside him.

“The only thing that means anything to me is this.” Planting her hands on his cheeks, she met his lips with red hot passion. Sparks flared as she stroked his lips with her tongue, then ravaged his mouth with pulsing strokes. She brought his hand to her breast, cupping him around her.

When she was satisfied his breath was quick, when his cock flooded with blood and inflated with need, she pulled the covers from him and grabbed his erection, then climbed on top of him, impaling herself on his cock. She stared straight into his eyes as she moved up, then down. Continuing in a delicious rhythm, she pumped him, squeezing without mercy. He twitched inside her. She sped up, thrusting up and down, feeling his huge, rock-hard cock stroking her insides, sending her to heaven. His breathing increased and she knew he was close.

“I won’t make love with anyone but you. I love you. You said I would know my tanashay when I felt his touch. Well, I have felt his touch. There is no doubt in my mind. You are my soul-mate.”

“No, Aria,” he mumbled, then gasped as she spiraled her hips and pulsed her vaginal muscles around him. “You’re wrong.” But his words held no conviction.

Then he stiffened and held her tight. She felt his sperm shoot into her, filling her with his life-giving seed.

She kissed him, rough and hard, then slid her calves under his knees and thrust harder. Rapture erupted inside her and she screamed her release. His hands wrapped around her waist and he moved her up and down, extending her pleasure. Pure joy washed over her, melting her senses into one gargantuan wave of ecstasy. An orgasm so complete, it became the entire universe, consuming every synapse, every atom of her being. As it subsided and she became mortal again, she felt as if she had been reborn. Changed in a fundamental way.

As she stared into his eyes, she knew he was her
tanash’ae.
And he knew it, but for some reason denied it to himself. The knowledge lay buried deep inside him and something in him would not let it emerge.

He drew her close to him and she snuggled against his chest.

“Don’t you see, Aria? I must deliver you to the king. Whatever you think you feel for me is just your mind reflecting your growing awareness of him.”

She leaned back so she could see him.

“You don’t really believe that.”

He stroked her cheek, as if he couldn’t stop himself from touching her.

“Aria, maybe it will help you understand if I tell you the king is actually my brother. He and I share a very strong connection, a sort of psychic bond. I am deeply affected by you, but it’s because I feel his link with you. But it’s his link, not mine.”

“How can you be sure?”

Something flickered in his eyes and she wanted to believe it was uncertainty. “I just do.”

They sat for long moments staring into each other’s eyes. As he grew more distant, Aria felt hope drain away. Finally, she eased off him. His flaccid penis slipped out of her, leaving her feeling empty.

She slumped back onto the pillows and stared at the ceiling.

A few moments later, he pushed himself from the bed.

“I’m needed on the bridge. We should be arriving on
Sa’oul
within the next few hours.”

He disappeared into the bathroom. When he emerged several minutes later, he was dressed in his uniform, his dark, wavy hair damp from a shower. He paused at the door, his back to her for a long moment, then he proceeded forward without looking back.

Once the door slid closed behind him, Aria sank into the pillows and let her tears flow. Her mother had loved her other children more than Aria, giving her up for adoption. Aria hadn’t been important enough to love. Her chest clenched painfully. Now Tai felt the same way. His love for his king—his brother—was greater than his love for her.

Chapter Eight

Tai marched from his quarters, jagged emotions twisting through him. Loyalty to his brother, who was also his king. Knowledge that Aria was to be Zander’s wife, not Tai’s. Compelling need to be with Aria, to hold her in his arms, to join with her, to have her in his life always.

The memory of her soft, supple body in his arms, responding to his lovemaking, tore through him, ripping at his heart. His feelings for her were stronger than anything he’d ever felt before. Even his feelings for Zander.

He stopped at the door to the bridge and stabbed at the button. The mechanism automatically checked his fingerprint and DNA against the database and the door slid open.

Could it be that Aria really was Tai’s
tanash’ae,
not Zander?

He remembered when he’d told Aria that what he felt was his brother’s link.
How do you know?
she’d asked him.

He knew because…Zander had told him.

He marched onto the bridge. Terrien and Baryn glanced up from their stations, smiles tingeing their lips—until they saw Tai’s face. Their smiles faded and both men locked their gazes on their consoles.

Of course,
they’d
be happy. They’d both found their
tanash’ae
.

He settled into the command chair and displayed the ship’s status on his monitor, then stared at it with unseeing eyes.

Zander would not claim Aria was his
tanash’ae
if it wasn’t true. Tai could depend on Zander’s judgment above all else. That had been clear ever since their parents had died, leaving the throne to the older of the two twins. A difficult task for a thirteen-year-old, but Zander had brought
Sa’oul
to great prosperity and social freedom. Their people were happy and it was because of Zander’s excellent leadership.

Tai stabbed a button on his console and his monitor displayed blackness sprinkled with distant stars. A small, orange ball hung in the center.
Sa’oul.

A tinge of guilt crept through him. Zander had sent Tai to fetch Aria, entrusting his greatest treasure to Tai. How could Tai even entertain the thought of keeping Aria for himself? And what sense did that make? This link he felt for Aria was only a reflection of Zander’s link with her. The real link.

He focused on the stats displaying below the picture on his monitor, but a nagging thought kept pushing at his consciousness.

What if Tai’s was the real link? What if what Zander felt was the reflection of Tai’s link with Aria rather than the other way around?

The thought unsettled him more than he cared to admit.

Aria watched out the small portal in the bedroom. A great orange ball of a planet loomed outside.

Several hours had passed since Tai had left her alone. Casey had come by to tell her they would be arriving soon and Aria should get ready.

Aria’s heart sank. Soon she would be transported from this ship and handed over to the king. Tai’s brother. She would be expected to fall in love with him and live happily ever after, just like in a fairy tale. This fairy tale would have no happy ending, however. Tai would disappear into space to pursue whatever mission his brother commanded and forget all about Aria, or at least suppress thoughts of her—probably quite successfully. He seemed very good at it.

She sighed, wiping away a tear. She’d been torn from her family at a young age and thrown into homes with no real connection. She would cope here. She would be a queen, or a concubine, or whatever this planet did with arranged mates for their king. She had no doubt she would be well cared for.