Read Online Parallel Seduction by Deidre Knight - Free Book Online Page B

and he gave her jeans a fierce tug, pulling them all the way down along her hips.
    "You've got a real way with me," he whispered against her cheek, licking her face with the tip of his tongue.
    Scott was making her feel things that no human man had ever done before; he even reacted to her differently in bed, with his aggression and his blatant needs. It was hard to say where his alien nature began and his warrior self ended. It all mixed together, making him an unstoppably aggressive lover. Lover, Hope thought, sliding her palms up underneath his soft T-shirt, feeling the warmth of his masculine skin, the play and pull of his muscled back. He has always been my lover.
    "In that dream," he purred against her lips, "we were strangers. But you're no stranger to me, Hope."
    With his fingers he rubbed her between the legs again, alternating between stroking her slick wetness and thrusting inside of her. With one hand she stilled him, drawing in ragged breaths. "Scott, please."
    "You bet!" he cried, and rolled atop of her almost completely. But then he groaned, and not from arousal.
    "Damn my legs. Damn it all to hell!"
    She gave his chest a light shove, pushing him back off of her. "It's okay to go slow here, you know." Still holding her, he kept one hard leg between both of hers, collapsing onto his side again.
    "Slow doesn't work for me. Not how I operate."
    She laughed. "I can pretty much see that."
    "It feels like we need to rush. Anything can happen here, Hope. Between us, in this war. I don't want to hesitate or poke around."
    "Um, seems you love to poke around."
    He snickered. "You're a very bad girl."
    "With a taste for very bad boys, quite obviously." She felt him shift on the bed, and their shared pillow pushed down. He was leaning on his elbow, studying her, she could tell. "Look, I want you," he said. "Not a little bit, and not later. It's intense and it's now. We've got to fucking seize this thing, Harper. Just go for it, and not think why."
    Her heart rate gyrated insanely, causing her to struggle for breath. Light-headed, she wondered if getting hot and bothered was threatening her insulin levels. Despite what he was saying, she knew she had to slow down, absolutely had to. Besides, there were things she wanted to know about him. She zipped up her pants and turned toward him, trying desperately to see his features, but it was impossible. Only the dimmest, vague outlines of his face were visible to her: the dark head of hair, the much lighter skin. A wave of melancholy crested over her; she'd finally found him. All these years of mediocre love and mediocre relationships and she'd found her guy, but she'd never gotten to truly see him.
    "I need to see you," she blurted in frustration. "You know everything about me, and I can't see worth shit."
    Gently he took hold of both her hands and drew them to his face. "Then see me. I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere."
    With her fingertips she outlined his full lips, feeling the way they turned up at the corners in a slight smile. Working outward in a circular pattern, she took in every line of his face, every detail—the rough beard growth, the weathered feel of his skin. His nose was long and straight, but had a bit of a bump in its bridge.
    "You broke your nose," she observed, rubbing her finger back and forth over the slight ridge in his bone structure.
    "Some Antousian bastard slammed me in the face with his K-12 a few years back."
    She cocked her head, exploring other planes of his face. Thick eyebrows—she'd seen those during his captivity, when the lighting had been better—and seen them even closer in her visions of him. They arched elegantly and were surprisingly soft, and she ran her fingertips back and forth, playing with the silky hairs. Then, feeling downward, she rubbed the bridge of his nose again.
    "Why didn't you let the healers fix this?" she asked.
    He snorted. "They did. You're feeling the result."
    "Not bad, Dillon. I kinda like it." It was a