Out of This World

Chapter 19

“This is not going to happen just because we’re here alone,” Kellan said into my hair.

I held him tight. “How about terror? Can it happen because of the terror?”

“No.”

“Okay.” I tightened my legs on him. “How about in case we die?”

He groaned. “We’re not going to die, damn it.” His arms gathered me in even closer, and he buried his face in the crook of my neck.

God, I loved the feel of that, his rough jaw skimming over my tender skin, his mouth pressing against my throat, tasting me as if he couldn’t help himself. I loved the feel of his body, all six feet two of lean hard muscle and hot libido. Plus he had this way of moving, sort of like a cat, at least when he could see. Had he always moved like that? Hard to believe I’d never noticed…

And then there were those liquid, sky blue eyes, or how about the coup de grâce, that always, no matter whether we’d been lost in the woods, flying in a tin can or just plain running from unknown bad guys, he always smelled warm and sexy and one-hundred-percent pure, yummy male?

Slipping my fingers into his unruly hair, I held his head close. In reply, he kissed my throat, then my jaw, while his hand, low on my spine, urged me even closer. He felt so good against me, and I turned my head so I could nibble at the corner of his sexy mouth.

His fingers curled into the back of the sweatshirt I wore. “I no longer have enough blood in my brain to make a rational decision here. Rach…” he said when I tightened my fingers in his hair.

I kissed him, and he responded, and in that moment, all alone with him like this, adrenaline flowing, fear wild, there was nowhere else I’d rather have been.

Kel made a low, rough sound in his throat again, the one that said he had to be inside me, buried deep, now. Yesterday. Then he lifted his head, his eyes revealing everything he felt, all the pent-up need warring with careful restraint. “You’re killing me.”

Because he loved me. He loved me, and I knew it. The knowledge bathed me, and something deep within me opened to it for the first time.

“Jesus.” His laugh was wry as his hands came up to my hips, rocking them to his most impressive hard-on, which was nestled nicely between my legs. “I’m like Pavlov’s dog with you. Touch me-hell, just look at me-and I get hard.”

I leaned forward and kissed his jaw, then nipped the same spot. “Love me,” I whispered against his mouth, running my hands up and down his tense arms, taut with strength and quivering with rigid control, which I intended to shatter. “Please love me, Kel.”

With a groan, he kissed me deeply, thoroughly, until I curled, warm and totally aroused, around his body, feeling the sensual pull of his mouth, of his hands as they ran restlessly up and down my back.

Straightening, I pulled off the sweatshirt, then let the straps of my camisole top fall. The top slipped to my waist. Lifting his hands, I put them over my bared breasts, so he could tell in the dark what I’d done.

His fingers knew what to do, and in no time I was out of control, melting with desire, and needing him to get on with it. But he just keep kissing me, deep, melting, languid kisses, along with those slow, sure strokes of his hands over my ribs, my breasts.

“Rachel,” he breathed, as if I were something special, something to treasure. He slipped his hands down the back of my pj bottoms, tracing a finger over my thong, the long line of which he traced down, down, down…

“Still not doing this,” he said, panting a bit now.

“Okay.”

Oh, he was wrong, so very wrong. In fact, if he stopped now, the very tips of his capable, long-fingered, work-roughened hands a fraction of an inch from where I needed them more than I needed my next gulp of air, it was possible I would cry.

“Look for them again,” he said.

“Huh?”

“The pirates. The others. Anyone.” He slid a finger beneath the thong. “Where are they?”

I tried to focus, barely managing it. “I-I don’t know.”

And another finger. “Look, damn it.”

Not easy, but I tried again. “I still don’t see anyone.” Reaching down, I pulled on the fly of his Levi’s. Pop.

Pop.

Pop.

I revealed a wedge of his tanned, taut, flat abs, and spread the jeans open as far as I could. Slipping my fingers inside, I found more hot, silky, smooth, hard flesh, and realized something I hadn’t realized in Gert’s office, because I’d already been too far gone then. “Commando, Kel?”

I could see his blush lighting up the night. “Yeah, uh, yeah.”

I let out a breathless laugh, and stroked him, loving the sound of pleasure it tugged from deep in his throat. His sexy eyes were at half-staff, the expression on his face an image I figured just might dictate my fantasies for a long time to come. “Maybe I’ll adopt the policy.”

A low sound rumbled from his chest as he continued to stroke those fingers over me. “Look again.”

“Kel-”

“Look.”

I tried to focus to do just that, but what I really wanted to know was how the hell he’d learn to touch a woman like that.

“Rach?”

“Still nothing,” I gasped, but then I couldn’t talk because he was doing things to the inside of my mouth with his tongue, to the inside of my body with his fingers…I wanted more, so much more. I wanted that tongue on my breasts, my belly…I wanted it all.

Still straddling him, I lifted up on my knees and straightened a leg, trying to get my pj bottoms off, all in tune with his low, rough groan. The sound inspired me, drove me on. Unfortunately, with my desire and hunger leading the way, all finesse went out the window. So did grace. I did get my thigh out, and then bent my knee and-

“Oomph,” Kellan said as I nailed him.

Yeah, there was the way to seduce a man: knee him in the nuts. “Oh my God. Did I get your-”

“No.”

“Are you sure?” I ran my hands down his belly, lower, cupping him.

Another sound escaped him, this one not of pain. “I’m okay.”

“Whew.” But I didn’t move my hands. He was aroused, hugely so, and I have to admit, I couldn’t get enough of that either. I struggled with my pj’s for another moment, before Kellan’s hands held me still. Wrapping one arm around my waist, he effortlessly hoisted me up, freeing my leg.

I took advantage of the freedom by wrapping my fingers tighter around him and stroking the very tip of him over my damp flesh.

“Jesus.”

Then I let the very tip of him inside.

Gripping my hips, his head fell back against the couch. His eyes were shut, his jaw tight, the tendons in his neck standing out in bold relief, much like the part of him I held in my hands right this very minute. It excited me, knowing what I did to him, and as unbelievable as it seemed, given our precarious, unknown situation, I was so turned on I couldn’t stop squirming.

“Look again,” he demanded, jaw tight.

“Nothing,” I gasped, wondering how it was he managed to keep his wits, when I couldn’t keep mine.

The darkness continued to swirl all around us, creating that sense of intimacy that felt startling. Before Kel, it’d been a while since I’d been with anybody. Maybe yesterday I could have attributed some of my urgency to that most basic human need of being held, swept away, loved.

Comforted.

But, now I knew it was more than that; it was Kel. Kel did this to me. I’d already learned he was an incredibly earthy and giving lover. His kisses were heart-stopping, as were his roughened hands, busy exploring every inch of me, urging me even closer, so that my world became a blur of bare skin, rough sighs and a building hunger I needed assuaged.

He stroked a hand down my belly, then lower, lazily rasping a thumb just where I needed it, making me rock my hips against him with a dark, needy sound.

“Good?” he whispered.

“So good.”

He kissed me again, keeping his fingers in tune with the kiss, until my world shrank, until nothing else mattered. The sound he made when he sank a finger into me and found me so wet nearly sent me over the edge all by itself.

“See anyone yet?”

“Kel.”

“Check. Please?”

Not easy, but I tried. I could still see nothing, and when I said so, he rewarded me with more of those mind-blowing strokes of his thumb, over and over, slowly first, then speeding as my hips began to pump, when I finally lost it, coming completely undone all over him. “Oh my God,” I gasped, clinging to him as the shudders took me. “God.” I sagged down over him, forehead to his shoulder, panting for breath in his ear.

Beneath me, he was still hard, gloriously so, and I lifted my head, finding myself a little unnerved and embarrassed by how fast I’d gone off.

He kissed my shoulder, my neck. “Better?” he murmured.

Did he think that was it, that I’d just needed the edge taken off, and we were done? Not by a long shot, big guy. “More.”

Game, he slid his hands back down my body, but I shook my head, lifting up, wrapping my fingers around him and then sinking back down so that he slid deep inside me.

Instantly I was back on the edge. He hadn’t even begun to move, and already my toes were curling, my body tightening. I rocked my hips and gasped in pure pleasure.

“Rach-” He gripped my hips hard, holding me still, when I didn’t want to be still. “Don’t-”

But he was filling me to bursting, and the heat and joy of it took over. My insides trembled as much as my fingers when I cupped his jaw, stroking his chest with palms that felt hot and achy. He was just so magnificent, I couldn’t stop. I ran my fingers down to his abs. I loved touching him there, loved the sound he made, the way his breathing went all ragged, as if he couldn’t control himself.

“If you move,” he grated out, “I’ll-”

“If you don’t move, I’ll-”

“No, Christ! I’m not-” He groaned. “We can’t-”

I rocked my hips.

Swearing, he laced his fingers through mine, as if he couldn’t handle my touching him, my name another rough rumble from his chest, as he eased my legs farther apart by spreading his.

Now I couldn’t move, but it also caused him to thrust up even higher within me, and I clutched at him, gasping in pleasure.

“Oh fuck,” he said in a strained voice. “Stay still.”

Was he kidding? Stay still, with him buried to the hilt inside of me. It was all too much, seeing him sprawled beneath me, jaw tight, muscles quivering, flesh and hard sinew damp, breath coming in short, choppy bursts…”Kel.”

“No condom,” he ground out.

How bad was it that I’d completely forgotten? Very bad. Very, very bad! “Why don’t you carry condoms, damn it?”

“I did! Yours. We used it.”

“Why didn’t you take two?”

His laugh was self-deprecating. “Because never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d need that one, much less more. But believe me, when we get out of here, I’m going to carry a damn box around for the rest of my life. Now please God, Rach, get off.”

“But you didn’t get to-”

“No, but I’m going to-”

He sounded so desperate that I was overcome by an unexpected blinding rush of affection. Slipping off him caused another ragged groan from his lips, but I just whispered “shh” and sank to my knees between his thighs.

“Rach-”

“Shh,” I said again, and put my lips to his hip.

And then a few inches over to the right.

His head thunked back against the couch, his fingers tunneling into my hair, as if he couldn’t help himself. “You don’t have to-Jesus.”

I’d moved my mouth again.

“We need to get up.” His voice was weak now, a mere whisper.

“Hmm.” I loved the taste of him. “But you’re already up, Kel.”

“Funny.”

“I try.” My hair fell over my shoulder and stroked his belly, making him jump a little and his muscles quiver.

The power of that-making this long, rangy, leanly muscled man quiver-rushed through me. Suddenly I felt like a superhero, like I could do anything.

And what I wanted was to drive him right off the edge of sanity, the way he’d done me.

“Rach.”

“Right here.” I took my tongue on a little tour, and his fingers tightened in my hair. He said something completely unintelligible, the rough sound turning me on just as much as what I was doing to him did.

“You need to look out for-”

“We’re okay. I’ve got you,” I promised, trying to give him back some of the security he’d given me.

And as he went over, he held on to me, the both of us lost. Just as together we were found.

As simple and as terrifying as that.

We were still breathing like absused racehorses when he stroked a damp strand of hair from my cheek. “Every time we do that, it gets harder.”

I stood up and looked for my camisole. The last I’d seen it, it’d been sailing across the room. “Thank God for hard.”

“I don’t want to joke about this.”

Where the hell was my top? “What do you want?”

“You.”

I turned back to him. “You just had me.”

“You know what I mean.”

I did know. Just as I was beginning to know how deep my feelings for him really were, despite my hang-ups.

But I really liked how things were right now. The close friendship. The new benefits. Everything that made a good relationship, without the word “relationship” attached to it, so that nothing could be taken away.

Not one single thing.

But I looked into his gorgeous eyes, saw the wanting, the yearning, and felt my heart crack, because he didn’t-wouldn’t-understand.

Proving it, he stood up with a long sigh, his shirt wrinkled, pants opened, looking unfairly sexy.

As he’d been doing all his life, he shoved his fingers through his hair in lieu of a comb. “Look, next time, well, there shouldn’t be a next time.”

My stomach clenched. “So you’re saying what? You don’t want to see me anymore?”

“Not if we’re only going to play at this thing.”

“But-”

I broke off at the sudden pounding of a fist on the door. “Omigod.” I’d forgotten to keep looking!

“Here.” Kellan tossed me my pj bottoms. “Goddamnit, I knew it.”

“Really?” I hopped on one leg while shoving my other into the bottoms. “You knew it, huh?”

“Yes.”

“You knew we were going to come to the Twilight Zone and get hit by lightning, then locked in an attic by a couple of crazies whose favorite words are ‘the swap’ and ‘abilities.’”

He threw me my camisole, which had ended up on the floor. I caught it in the face. I pulled it away and scowled at him as he buttoned up his jeans and grabbed the gun.

“Hurry,” he said.

I opened my mouth, but he clapped his hand over it and pulled me flush to his body. The body that had just sent me into screaming ecstasy and back. “Shh.”

The pounding came again, making the door shudder.

Hell, the walls and the floor shuddered, too. And in spite of being mad and hurt, I allowed myself to cling to Kel.

“We know you’re in there!” yelled a terrifyingly gruff and angry voice. “Open up!”

Whoever it was, he was furious, and I somehow managed to focus on the door-

“Uh-oh,” I whispered.

“Yeah,” Kellan muttered. “Definitely uh-oh.”

“What do we do?”

“You open the fuck up, that’s what you do!” yelled the scary voice from the other side of the door. “Open now, or you’ll be sorry.”

Kellan tried to see in the dark. “We need a better place to hide.”

“You think?”

“Any more of those handy closets-that-aren’t-really-closets around?”

How he remained calm, while the hair on the back of my neck was standing straight up and my knees and teeth were knocking together, was beyond me. I searched the room and tried to focus.

But a gunshot rang in the night, shattering both the unnatural quiet and the bolt on the door, not to mention shaving a few years off my life.