she mumbled, holding onto his hair to keep his mouth locked at the squirm-inducing spot where her neck met her shoulder.
“Give me,” Axis groaned as he gathered her hair in one of his big hands and tugged her head back.
Nova whimpered at the total control he had over her movements. He was gentle yet purposeful as he pulled, giving her no choice but to submit. When his fingers caught on a snarl, he apologized with a line of soft kisses down the column that led to the first stripe of red fabric that bound her breasts.
Despite his tender care, her scalp burned at the accidental abuse, causing her eyes to tear.
“I’m so sorry, bright one,” he whispered between pecks. “Come. I think we both deserve a hot shower, don’t you?”
She blinked at the question. Two seconds ago, she would have said absolutely nothing in this world would have been able to tear her away from getting it on with the hunky alien she’d married. The moment he said “hot shower” the game changed.
Plus, who said she had to choose one or the other?
“Take one with me?” she asked, leaning back to look into the face she was coming to quickly really, really like if not love.
“It might be a tight fit,” he teased, giving her ass a squeeze with his big palm as he boosted her up, “but I think it would work.”
“Lead the way,” Nova instructed, giving her heels a little kick where they rested above the ass she had big plans on fondling later. “Giddyup!”
Axis stumbled with a snort, unable to stop his own laughter from filling the room as she giggled and squealed at the action.
“I’m not going to drop you, bright one.”
“I know,” she said quickly, the humor dying from her voice as she realized how deep her trust in Axis truly ran. “Believe me, I know. You would never have stopped looking for me.”
It wasn’t a question that hung between them. It was the truth.
“Never,” he affirmed with a nod as he cleared the doorway into the bathroom. Tapping her thighs to get her to release him, Axis lowered her to the floor. “You were mine from the moment I saw you. I can’t explain it. Our race isn’t one that has a biological reaction between mates, yet that is the closest explanation for what I feel.”
“Humans call it love at first sight,” Nova agreed with a nod, even as the word made her chest feel tight. “I didn’t believe in it before…” She’d never even considered it a possibility before. Love at first sight required a leap of faith, and there hadn’t been a lot of people in her past who she’d been able to put faith into. She’d come to expect relationships to end, regardless of who they were with, which was why what she had with Axis scared the shit out of her. Nothing ever worked out for her, and that wasn’t her throwing a pity party; it was the simple truth. The examples were endless and started from the day she was found in an abandoned car. “Don’t fuck this up, okay? I don’t want to have to shoot you.”
Axis chuckled, breaking the tension that had filled the small bathroom during her internal freak out. The seriousness of their little talk had put a small damper on the horniness that had raged through her downstairs, but it hadn’t been completely wiped out. Nova hooked her thumbs in the waistband of her short leather skirt and pushed it down past her hips.
Completely bare beneath the flounce of fabric, Nova ran her fingers through the curly bush at the top of her mound. Axis obviously enjoyed the tease, considering the look he gave her was hot enough to have her panting. If there was one thing she knew for sure after their handful of stolen moments, it was that he loved her body. Every roll, dimple, and stretch mark had been kissed or stroked during their short marriage—some more than once. His adoration was apparent. “Your turn.”
“Don’t take off anymore,” he instructed gruffly as he stripped quickly. His tunic went flying through the doorway followed by his boots and pants in quick order.
“Why?” Nova asked with a pout. She wanted to be just as naked as he was.
“Bright one,” he began as he tickled one of his fingers into a slit on her colorful corset that—lucky for her—was directly over a nipple.
“Yeah-h-h?” Nova’s breath caught as he strummed the hard nub until it