Arik: Alien Adoption Agency #7 Read online

  She gasped lightly, and he knew she felt it too.

  His chest warmed with hope.

  “H-how will you find your mate on a frozen frontier moon,” she asked softly.

  “I don’t need to,” he said softly. “I’ve already found her.”

  He waited, knowing she would need to process.

  She lifted her chin and let him see those beautiful hazel eyes.

  “Are you saying…?” Her question trailed off, as if she didn’t want to form the words.

  Fear nearly crushed the breath out of him. But he was Invicta, and would not give up so easily.

  “Lucy, you are my mate,” he told her. “I’ve known it since the moment we met.”

  Her eyes flashed up to meet his.

  He held his breath, waiting to see fear, or even disgust.

  Instead, he saw curiosity mixed with raw hunger.

  “Lucy,” he groaned.

  “How did you know?” she asked softly.

  “I felt it from the moment we first locked eyes,” he told her, gazing down at her hand in his and slowly, deliberately stroking the back of her hand with his thumb. “I know it from every touch. Do you feel it too?”

  The air seemed to vibrate with anticipation.

  Lucy swallowed and nodded slowly.

  Thank the gods…

  “But this isn’t permanent for you yet,” he told her, hating the words, but needing her to know the truth. “You have a choice. You are not a slave to the desire you feel.”

  “And you?” she asked.

  “The bond has not been sealed,” he told her, his voice rough. “We are not inseparable until that happens. But my dragon’s soul is bonded to yours. Even if you choose not to accept my claim, I will never crave another.”

  “Never?” She breathed out the word and it seemed to crystallize in the air.

  He shook his head, searching her eyes for an answer.

  “And if I accept?” she asked.

  “Then I will be yours forever,” he told her. “It will be my honor to pleasure and protect you for all your days.”

  She looked away from him, as if she were embarrassed. But he could see the color rising in her cheeks, and the dragon could sense her heartbeat fluttering faster.

  “Do not be embarrassed, my mate,” Arik told her. “Pleasure is meant to be given freely between us. It is what we are made for. May I show you?”

  She bit her lip.

  “I will not claim you now,” he assured her. “I will only give you a taste.”

  “Just a taste?” she echoed.

  The dragon practically purred in his chest at her mirrored words, a sure display of a mate’s willingness.

  “Come,” he said.

  He leaned down and paused, forcing her to meet him halfway.

  When she tilted her chin up and closed her eyes, a symphony of joy seemed to play in his chest.

  He brushed his lips softly against hers, a teasing touch that unfurled a flame of desire in his belly.

  Lucy moaned lightly, her mouth seeking his again.

  He prayed to all the gods for the strength to please her without claiming her as he pressed his lips to hers in earnest, giving her the deeper kiss she craved.

  Her little hands went to his chest, molding his muscles, sliding up around his neck to twist in his hair, pulling him closer.

  Desire shot through him like a lightning bolt. He grasped her to him, forgetting to be gentle.

  Her form was so soft, her supple curves melting under his big hands. She moaned against his mouth, pressing her breasts against his chest, driving him wild with frantic need.

  With a herculean effort, he was able to restrain himself.

  “Easy, my love,” he murmured, pulling back.

  She gazed up at him, panting lightly, her eyes hazy with need, and it took all he had not to rip her clothing from her frame and take her roughly on the ground.

  “Lie back for me,” he told her instead, amazed that his voice was a rasp instead of a roar. “Let me soothe you.”

  His words hung unheeded in the air for a moment.

  Then she lay back slowly, sending his dragon into a frenzy.

  12

  Lucy

  Lucy lay back on the cold stone floor of the ledge.

  Her thick fur cloak protected her from the hard rocky surface, and somehow, though the cold tried to seep through it to reach its icy fingers inside her, she was heated from within.

  “Beautiful,” Arik sighed as he caged her body with his. There was something wild and foreign in his eyes, as if she were looking at two men at once.

  “Arik?” she breathed. “Your eyes…”

  “The dragon is close to the surface,” he told her, the rumble of his voice vibrating in her blood. “He needs to see you, to scent you, just for a moment.”

  Lucy held perfectly still, trying to find the dragon in his eyes and understand what it might want from her.

  Then Arik’s mouth was crashing down on hers, hungry and frantic, and there was no more thinking.

  She kissed him back with everything she had, willing to suffocate happily as their tongues twined together, his hips coming down to pin hers to the rocky floor.

  She was seeing stars by the time he pulled back slightly to look at her again.

  “Mine,” he rasped, pressing his forehead to hers.

  Lucy was melting around the fire of him. Everything in her simmered and buzzed with anticipation.

  He kissed her cheeks, and the shadow between her jaw and her neck.

  She arched her back, needing more.

  He licked and sucked a path down her neck, the scrape of his teeth on her flesh a fiery counterpart to the sweet pleasure.

  She closed her eyes as his thumb ran down the slide on her shirt, revealing her tender flesh to the frigid air.

  “Oh, Lucy,” he groaned.

  She opened her eyes to see him gazing at her breasts, his eyes hazy with need.

  Her exposed breasts seemed all the more naked compared to the warm fur beneath her. Her nipples were hardened pebbles. Looking down at herself, she felt wanton and wild.

  He fell on her, licking one sensitive nipple into his hot mouth and she let out her breath in a low moan.

  Arik flicked the little kernel with his tongue as he sucked, sending shockwaves down her spine.

  Just as she felt herself coming to a boil, he let go and moved to the other breast, teasing and tormenting one and then the other until she was trembling all over.

  “Arik,” she whimpered.

  But he nuzzled the undersides of her breasts and licked a trail down her belly.

  The world seemed to stop spinning on its axis.

  Arik moved his thumb down the slide of her breeches, snatching them off along with her boots in one whipping motion as if her clothing had offended him.

  Lucy gazed up at him, mesmerized by the wild hunger in his eyes. She was naked now, with only the cloak beneath her. She wondered what she must look like to him.

  After all, she was a simple Terran woman, and he was… well, the kind of man who was mistaken for an intergalactic stripper.

  “Lucy,” he breathed, his voice soft with adoration.

  Any doubt melted like ice under a colliding star. She held her arms up, needing his touch more than she needed her next breath.

  But he only crawled backward, pressing her thighs apart, inhaling her scent as if it were intoxicating.

  She waited, her breath coming in quick pants.

  Slowly, so slowly, he lowered his face and ran his tongue lightly against her opening.

  Lucy moaned brokenly.

  He growled and fell on her as if he were a starving man.

  The sensations were so acute, the pleasure sharp as pain. She whined and lifted her hips, trying to find a way to bear it.

  Then his arm was heavy against her belly, holding her still, and there was nothing for her to do but absorb each lash of his tongue, as her body coiled tighter and tighter, craving relief.

  The air was still but for her breathing and the sweet, wet sounds of his mouth on her hungry sex.

  Arik pleasured her cruelly, bringing her to the brink of ecstasy and then slowing his hurricane pace until the white-hot pleasure was just out of reach.

  Again and again he fed on her, but stopped before she could detonate.

  Her heart pounded like a drum, and she felt anchored to her physical body in a way she had never experienced before. Nothing mattered but the next swipe of Arik’s clever tongue. She closed her eyes and clenched the cloak in her hands, wondering how much of this she could take without being allowed to taste sweet relief.

  As if she had spoken the words aloud, he teased her opening with a fingertip and then pressed it inside, massaging her firmly as he finally lavished her stiff little pearl with the attention it craved.

  The pleasure shot her into the stars and at last it broke.

  Lucy felt herself splinter, and she sobbed out his name as the pleasure tightened down again and again until she envisioned it as blinding light shooting out of her pores.

  At last, she landed again, feeling the warm fur beneath her and the press of Arik’s kiss against her hip.

  “Beautiful,” he murmured, gazing up at her from between her thighs like a drunken prince.

  She held her arms out to him and he crawled up to lie beside her, pulling her close.

  “Sleep now, my mate,” he whispered into her hair.

  “But, you...”

  “Just a taste, my love,” he crooned.

  His body heat was incredible - like being held by a solar blanket.

  And beyond that, there was something right about being in his arms.

  She closed her eyes for just a moment to soak him in.

  13

  Lucy

  Lucy awoke to the sound of Flora chattering away.

  For a moment she forgot where she was, then it all came crashing back.

  You are my mate.

  Mine.

  She glanced down at her body to see that Arik had thoughtfully pulled her cloak around her and sealed the slide so that she wouldn’t be cold.

  “Did you have a good nap?” his deep voice asked from further back on the ledge.

  Gods, she had slept like a baby, but that didn’t address what had happened before she went to sleep.

  She glanced up at him, feeling her cheeks heat up.

  “Don’t be bashful now, darling,” he teased, arching one eyebrow. “You’ve already let me plunder your treasures.”

  She giggled in spite of herself.

  “Why am I giggling?” she wondered out loud. “We’re on a rock ledge in the middle of nowhere.”

  “Ah, but the volcanic activity has stopped,” Arik pointed out.

  She glanced out the window to find that he was right. The horizon was visible again. The rain of ashes had ceased, and there was no distant rumble of tectonic movement.

  “How long was I asleep?” she asked.

  “An hour or two,” he said carelessly. “We should probably head back, once we solve the problem at hand.”

  “What problem?” Lucy asked.

  “Flora is hungry,” he said darkly. “And there’s no telling how long before we can get her back to camp.”

  Well, that was a problem.

  “We could milk the bison,” Lucy said, gazing down at where the mother and baby slept beneath them under the overhang. “But we don’t have anything to catch the milk with.”

  “I’m not so sure that bison will let us milk her,” Arik said. “She’s been through a lot. But if we could pull it off, we do have one thing to put the milk in.”

  “What’s that?” Lucy asked.

  He pulled the flask out of his pocket.

  “Gods preserve us,” she said, rolling her eyes.

  “I’ll empty it first,” he said.

  “Just the residue of that stuff would hurt her little belly,” Lucy retorted. “Plus, I can’t have you drunk as a skunk in the middle of all this.”

  “Hold Flora,” he told her, leaping up and handing off the baby.

  She took the little one in her arms.

  Flora clung to her and banged her little head on her shoulder.

  “What’s she doing?” Lucy asked worriedly.

  “That’s her way of telling you she’s hungry,” Arik said.

  “We’re working on it, baby,” Lucy told her.

  Arik hopped down from the ledge to join the bison. Thankfully, they didn’t stir.

  Lucy watched as he poured the liquid from the flask onto the ground outside. He bent and picked up snow, cupping it in his palm and breathing on it gently.

  Instantly, he was holding a handful of water.

  He poured it into the flask, closed it and shook it up, dumping out the contents and repeating the procedure twice more.

  After the third time, he strode back to her and held out the flask.

  She held it to her nose.

  He had done a good job.

  “Okay,” she said. “That will probably work. But how do we convince the bison to let us milk her? She’s bound to be protective when she has a calf.”

  “I’ll just get started while she’s sleeping,” Arik said.

  “No,” Lucy said immediately.

  “Why not?” he asked.

  “It’s just… not right,” she said. “I’m not sure what we should do, but it’s definitely not that.”

  “Hm,” Arik said, observing the sleepy bison.

  Flora began to cry softly, breaking Lucy’s heart.

  “Don’t be frustrated, my love,” she told the baby. “I understand what you need, and we’re trying to figure out how to make it happen.”

  “Why don’t I walk with her while you get dressed?” Arik asked. “That usually cheers her up.”

  She nodded and he took the baby, heading for the best view over the plains to show her.

  Lucy scrambled into her clothing and boots, uncertain how she could have been so brazen an hour or two ago and so self-conscious now.

  By the time she was dressed, Flora was crying again.

  This time, her cries woke the baby bison. He scrambled to his feet and brayed once for his mother.

  The mama stood up and gave herself a good shake, sending a whiff of bison-scent through the space.

  The calf rooted around at her belly, and Lucy saw her opportunity.

  “Give me the flask,” she said, jumping down from the ledge and landing in a crouch. “Now is the perfect time.”

  “Won’t she be upset if you’re near her baby?” Arik asked.

  “Her milk has let down,” Lucy said. “It should be easier to milk her. Besides, feeding her baby releases endorphins. She’s probably at her friendliest.”

  “Be careful,” Arik said, tossing her the flask.

  She felt a flash of satisfaction when it landed in her hand. Though he had sworn to protect her, he also trusted her and respected her opinion.

  She was determined to prove him right for doing so.

  “Good girl,” she said in a calm, firm voice, placing one hand on the cow’s flank so as not to surprise her. “You’re a good mama to your baby, and you’re going to help ours today, too.”

  The cow snorted, but her ears were pricked up, not laid back. She was calm, and she was listening.

  “Your baby is going to have his snack,” Lucy said as she crouched and ran her hand down the cow’s belly. “And my baby will have a little snack too. Then your udders won’t be so swollen. Won’t that be nice?”

  The cow stamped the rocky floor once and then settled, allowing Lucy to stroke her belly, going slowly closer to the source of the milk.

  “There you go,” Lucy said firmly, taking hold of one udder and praying she knew what to do. She had seen this on the farms she helped evacuate during the Zyntine floods, but never done it herself.

  She grasped the teat gently, holding it with her thumb and index finger, then squeezed down her middle, ring and pinky fingers one by one.

  A hiss of milk hit the stone floor.

  “You did it,” Arik breathed.

  “Good girl,” Lucy praised the cow.

  She moved the flask into place for the second squeeze. Most of the milk wound up on the floor, but a bit made its way into the flask.

  Encouraged, she sped up a bit. The cow might be allowing her to do this now, but as soon as her baby was finished with his feeding, it might be a different story.

  For a few minutes that felt more like hours, Lucy worked away.

  At last, the flask was filled with warm milk.

  She backed away carefully, right into Arik’s arms.

  “Amazing,” he murmured into her hair. “You’re something else.”

  She felt a tingle go down her spine all over again.

  “Easy, cowboy,” she murmured. “We have a baby to feed.”

  They scrambled back onto the ledge, and she handed over the flask.

  “Don’t you want to do this after your hard work collecting it?” Arik asked.

  “She’s never drunk from a flask before,” Lucy said. “I hope.”

  “Of course not,” he retorted.

  She winked.

  “You were kidding,” he realized, grinning.

  “Anyway, you’re more experienced with her,” Lucy said. “She’s more likely to trust you and try her best.”

  For a moment, his usual cocky expression was gone, and his face was vulnerable.

  He was touched, Lucy realized. Touched by such a sensible and obvious statement. Of course, the baby loved and trusted him. He was her father. She had literally made herself in his image, with her fiery skin tone.

  Then he smiled his pirate smile again and got to work.

  Flora was already fussy, so it wasn’t easy to get her calm enough to try the flask. She grew frantic as she smelled the milk, but she tried to bat away the unfamiliar object in her quest for her usual cell of warm milk.

  “Flora,” Lucy sang, hoping she could distract the little one long enough for Arik to get the milk to her lips. “Flora girl, your milk is coming.”

  The baby blinked at her, momentarily caught up in the song.

  Arik held the flask to her lips and tilted it back slightly, just enough to get a taste into her mouth.