to kiss.
Finally, after long, drugging moments, she broke the kiss and lifted her head to smile at him.
“Yeah, I think that means you like me…”
He’d kissed Indra. He’d broken his own rules and kissed a female.
The tiny pulse in the corner of Nyek’s jaw throbbed as he piloted the small shuttle through the upper atmosphere of the second planet they were to search today.
The first had been a bust. Dropping down into the upper atmosphere to perform a scan, he’d found no evidence of the Latharian alloy their ships were made of anywhere on the planet. So they’d moved on, silence stretching out between them ever since he’d put her from his lap after that second kiss.
He’d felt both kisses right down to his bones. What the hells had come over him? As soon as she’d said that about the Lathar… about giving a female a good time, he’d snapped. Jealousy had raged through him. The need to know which males she’d allowed into her bed filled him until he could think of nothing else but finding out who. Then ripping those males limb from limb so she would never look at them again.
The depth of it had staggered him, but not as much as his reaction to her. She’d challenged him and something within him had responded with a deep, soul-searing need to crush her to him. To find out what she tasted like. What she felt like against his body as he claimed her mouth for his own.
He’d never kissed any female before, but it hadn’t made a difference.
As soon as his lips had touched hers, he’d known what to do. He was driven not by thought or the faith that had been his guiding light for so long but by a blazing need. His lips had crashed down over hers, mouth claiming hers in a fury of anger and heat he didn’t understand and couldn’t fight—hadn’t wanted to fight.
It had only been after, when she’d questioned him and discovered his inexperience, that he’d felt shame and guilt. Shame for forcing himself on a female without her consent and guilt for breaking his unspoken vows to the lady. He hadn’t lied when he’d told Indra that no Latharian religion required celibacy, but he’d never expected to meet a female, much less be tempted by one.
“Draanth,” he hissed as they dropped lower into the atmosphere. A light storm raged below them. “Too much interference, I’m going to have to take us lower.”
“Into that?” Alarm laced Indra’s voice but he wasn’t surprised. These were the first words they’d spoken since she’d kissed him. And he’d enjoyed it, the little niggle in the back of his head reminded him. He’d kissed her back, liked her in the way she’d suggested.
“The shields will hold,” he told her curtly. “We will be perfectly safe. I just need to take us lower so I can scan the planet.”
“Uh-huh… you’re the boss.” Her voice was dismissive as she wrapped herself tightly in his jacket again. He’d never been so jealous of his own clothing in his life.
She could be sitting in your lap, that damnable little voice reminded him. If you hadn’t pitched her off you with some stupid excuse about false impressions.
He ignored it, knowing he’d been a draanthic idiot. Even worse, he wanted her in his lap again. Wanted more of her soft kisses… more of the harder ones when he took what he wanted, safe in the knowledge she liked it too. Heat surged through him and he bit back a growl as they hit the first clouds, turbulence battering the small shuttle.
Within a minute it dawned on him that he’d been wrong about the storm. It wasn’t as light as he’d thought. Within two minutes, they were really in trouble.
“Strap in,” he ordered, having to shout above the sound of the storm buffering against the shields. “I’m going to try and take us out of it.”
If she answered, he didn’t hear her. He was too busy concentrating on holding the shuttle steady. He hadn’t counted on the storm being this vicious. They were buffeted from all directions. The little vessel rocked and rolled as the inertial dampers screamed warnings. He swore. He couldn’t attain altitude. No matter what he tried, it felt like something held the shuttle down in the chaos of the storm, a hand of god pressing them down so they could be ripped apart.
Fear rolled through him, not for himself but for the female safely buckled in next