in a long time. She’d forgotten what it was like to have someone in her corner.
Her uncertainty over staying with him slipped away. For the time being, this was exactly where she wanted to be. She’d deal with the consequences another day.
“Thank you for what you did today.” Done with clinging, she brushed her lips against his chest, right across his heart.
He sucked in a breath.
She hid a watery smile. Such power to know she could have an effect on such a strong, stoic man.
“You saved me.” She kissed his chest again. “You saved my colleagues.” Another kiss.
“I didn’t do it for them.” His voice had dropped to that low rumble she’d come to associate with unbelievable pleasure.
“It was still incredibly brave.” She traced her tongue over one flat nipple reveling in the way it tightened in her mouth. “I know you said not to call you a hero, but I can’t help it. That’s what you are to me.”
He drew back as far as his hold would allow, his eyes haunted. “I’m no hero.”
She had no interest in arguing. Her hands slid down the hard planes of his stomach to cup his thickening cock. “Whoever you are, whatever you are, I’m glad you’re here with me.”
He let out a low groan, but he didn’t lean in to her touch. “I’m…I’m still messed up inside.” His gaze shifted from hers. “On edge. We should wait. I… I don’t think I can be gentle.”
That damn stinging returned to her eyes. “I don’t want gentle.” Though the fact that he was willing to hold off for her touched her all over again. “I want you. I want what you’ve given me these last few days.” Confident once more, she pressed butterfly kisses along his collarbone and throat while her hand stroked his hardening length. “I want you to take me like you did that first time. And then the next. And the next. I want to scream and writhe and beg.”
She paused, awareness dawning. “It wasn’t until I crashed on this planet and met you that I learned what pleasure was.” What it was like to be touched as if I mattered. “Between scratching and clawing to feed my family, I’d forgotten such things were even allowed.” She ran her tongue along the firm line of his jaw. “You reminded me of that, Convict. I don’t want to forget. Especially now.” She didn’t want to be afraid to feel. Especially not for such an incredible man.
His nostrils flared. “Call me Caine.”
“Caine?” The word tasted strange on her tongue. “Is that your name?”
“It was.”
Several heartbeats passed in silence while she found her voice.
“It suits,” she got out at last, feeling she’d won the greatest of prizes. “Touch me, Caine.”
At the sound of his name, he froze. Then, with a ravenous growl, his mouth was skimming over her throat, making her moan, while his hands roamed everywhere. Marking her. Claiming her. Pleasuring her.
He’d said he couldn’t be gentle, but his touch was whisper soft. Making her feel clean once again. Safe. Cherished. Closer to another human being than she’d ever felt in her life. Proving once again there was beauty to be found at the unlikeliest of times, in the unlikeliest of places, with the unlikeliest of men.
*****
Caine’s heart gave a little thump. It felt weird to hear her call him by his real name. But he couldn’t deny he liked it. A lot more than he’d thought he would.
He wasn’t even sure why he’d told her. Except he suddenly couldn’t stand her calling him Convict. Not when it put him in the same category as the animal who’d hurt her.
A fast death had been too good for the bastard. But he hadn’t wanted to upset his fighter girl any more than she already was.
Last time he’d killed, it had been methodical and deliberate and driven by the grim determination that it needed to be done, that an obligation was owed. Not this time. There’d been no careful logic, no sense of a debt due. No, this time the urge to kill had been far more primal. More instinctive. A predator protecting what was his.
Somehow, in the space of a few days, his fighter girl had moved from being a convenience to something far more.
Which wasn’t smart. Wanting someone was one thing. But needing someone was altogether different.
He’d learned long ago to avoid the latter.
“Come inside me.” Her voice was low and hoarse, her hand guiding his to her wet center. Refusing his retreat.