“I'm sorry. I don't mean to. I'm human, remember? I'm new at this telepathy thing. I don't always realize I'm blocking.”
He smiled, nodded once, and pushed the door open. They walked into the cabin together. This was the first time she'd ever been alone with Xinot. He'd always come with either Ian or Darc. Once with Arnec, but Arnec was still on the Gar ship. She worried about him. About all of them. Especially Finn. Definitely Finn.
“Tor is there as well.” Xinot stared out the front window for a moment, as if he might actually see the alien star cruiser. “I've been trying to connect with him.” He turned away from the window, walked directly into the bedroom, and sat on the edge of her bed.
Feeling a little awkward in her own cabin, Lizzie followed and sat down beside him. She folded her hands in her lap to keep from stroking his smooth skin. “Are you and Tor close?”
Xinot put his arm around her shoulders and hugged her. She leaned against him, close enough to feel his soft sigh. “Both Tor and Bane are my brothers. We've been together all this time, ever since we so foolishly went aboard the Gar vessel against our parents' wishes. We saw our world destroyed, knew our mother, father, and sisters were gone. Now Bane is out fighting crazy humans and Tor is still aboard the Gar vessel. I worry for both of them, for their safety.”
“They'll be all right.” Lizzie brushed the thick hair back from his eyes. “I refuse to believe the mission will go wrong. You just have to have faith in whatever power watches over us.”
Xinot turned and wrapped both arms around her. “I have felt Nyria close tonight. When Niah healed me, our goddess was there. When I was falling through space without any sense of direction, she guided me to you and your wonderful imagination.”
He kissed her, his lips warm and surprisingly soft, moving slowly over hers until Lizzie felt as if he'd drawn part of her into himself. “I need your strength, Lizzie. When we made love, I felt so powerful that nothing could stop me. Love me now. I will need your strength tonight, because my brothers will need mine.”
She flashed for a moment on what was happening right nowâthat Rodie, Morgan, and Finn were on the Gar ship and she had no idea how they were doing, that there were men trying to break through the perimeter fencing here to damage the DEO-MAP site, and Zianne was in the dream shack, growing weaker by the minute.
And Liz was here with a man she hardly knew, an alien who was learning how to survive on her world by picking information out of her brain, and thisâhow much she needed him, how much her body craved his touchâwas probably the last thing she should be thinking of right now, but it was the only thing she wanted.
Xinot was looking at her with those sapphire blue eyes and her heart was pounding like an out-of-control metronome. He traced the line of her chin with his fingertips, then followed that line with his lips and tongue, and she reveled in his open fascination with her, his blatant curiosity.
So far, with each encounter she'd had with any of the Nyrians, she'd been the one to take the lead.
For now, she turned herself over to Xinot, knowing full well she'd take charge at some point. Finn thought she was kidding with the whips and cuffs. Someday she'd have to show him there was more than a bit of the dominatrix in sweet little Lizzie.
She wondered how Xinot was going to react when she turned his explorations back on him. The sound of his name rolled through her mind. The way he pronounced it sounded almost French.
Zino
with a very soft
z,
long
i,
and silent
t
. She whispered his name and felt his lips curve against her cheek. Then he was slowly tugging her cotton shirt free of her pants, peeling the soft fabric across her ribs, over her head, off her arms. Tugging at her sweats until she kicked them off along with her panties.
She stretched, loving the feel of the cool air washing so much exposed skin. Loving even more the look of appreciation in Xinot's eyes. “How come I'm naked and you're still dressed?” She turned and knelt beside him, and then gently pushed her fingertip against the middle of his chest. He toppled over, but he took Lizzie with him. She sprawled across his powerful body, more aware of her petite size and feminine curves than she could ever recall.
And much too aware of the curve of his erection tenting his pants. She ran her fingers over his flat belly, following the narrow trail of dark blond hair that started at his navel and dipped beneath his waistband. Wrapping her fingers around his thick shaft, she squeezed him just enough to get his attention.
He groaned and arched into her touch.
“Make the pants go away,” she said. He laughed and Lizzie decided it was a lot easier to shove them down herself, over his lean hips, down his long legs. When she pushed them past his feet, he kicked them off. “Grab the headboard.” She placed his hands on the oak bars and wrapped his fingers around them. “Do not let go.”
He didn't say a word, but his intent gaze never left her face. She scooted down his legs and straddled his knees, leaned over, and nuzzled the smooth, warm skin beside his sac. All the Nyrian men she'd seen had created forms totally different from one another. Some had body hair, others didn't or, like Xinot, had very little. A touch under his navel, blond tufts beneath his arms and a dusting on his legs, but none at his groin.
Some of the men were dark skinned, others, like Xinot, were fair with an almost California surfer, blond-haired, blue-eyed look. All were large, well-formed men, just as the women were each uniquely beautiful. The one thing they all seemed to have in common was the subtle scent of vanilla and honey.
Lizzie inhaled as she pressed her lips against the side of Xinot's shaft and ran her tongue around the thick base. Not merely the scent, but the taste as well, and all of it addictive.
She tried to remember what she and Xinot had done when they'd been together, but it had been so crazy, having sex with more than one man at a time, her memories were a little scrambled.
Not in her wildest fantasies had she ever imagined what her Nyrians had given her in reality. It was hard to recall which of the four men she'd actually gone down on. Her mind was filled with delicious memories of so many hands and searching lips and thick, erect cocks. Never in her life had she done anything as remotely wild, nor had she felt so free and comfortable in her own body.
But of all the men she'd tasted over the past couple of nights, she didn't think Xinot was one of them. She wondered if his lovemaking would feel the same, if his ejaculate tasted the same as the others.
It shouldn't be all that hard to find out.
She ran her tongue along his shaft, all the way to the tip. His foreskin was partially retracted behind the dark, plum-shaped glans, and she ran her tongue beneath the soft folds of skin.
He groaned when she found the tiny slit at the end. She played her tongue around the tip and he arched his hips closer when she traced the smooth contours. There were a few drops of pre-cum there, and he was sweet, just as sweet as she'd imagined. She took him deep, sliding her lips over the thickly veined surface of his cock, grasping the base with her fist so he wouldn't choke her.
Some men she could swallow, but not this one. He was too thick, too long, too much.
But he tasted so good. She cupped his sac in one hand and lightly fondled his balls while she sucked, using her tongue and teeth and lips until his hips were jerking and his chest billowing up and down with each harsh breath.
It was Darc who had explained to her what sex actually felt like for the Nyrians. They'd taken the energy from fantasyâeven from the stories Zianne had shared with them when she was first involved with Macâand realized that it was unlike anything they'd ever known before.
But now, since they'd all experienced not only intimate fantasies firsthand, but the actual sexual acts themselves, the rush of real sex was beyond description. Power so rich, so pure that it fired their veins as if they'd absorbed the energy from an exploding star. Add that to the ability now to feel those sensations with their human bodies, and it was no wonder none of them could get enough.
Oddly, though, they'd not had sex with each other. Not unless there'd been one of the dream team arranging it. None of them really knew what to do without a human lover leading the way.
As far as Liz could tell, Xinot was proof that the Nyrians would figure it all out soon enough. His hands came down on her head, holding her still. She raised her eyes and looked at him, smiling around her mouthful of his erection.
Bad boy. You're not supposed to let go of the headboard.
“I can't let you do this alone.” His voice sounded much deeper than she recalled, and he had a frantic look in his eyes. “Turn around. I have to taste you. I must have my mouth on you.”
She slipped her lips along the full length of his erection, freeing him slowly, and did as he asked. “I don't think I'm going to taste nearly as good as you do,” she said. And she was actually sorry about that, because she couldn't wait to get him back in her mouth.
“I'll be the judge of that,” he said as he wrapped his big hands around her thighs and held her over his mouth.
She leaned close and took as much of him in her mouth as she could, but this time Xinot was using his tongue on her, playing her as if he'd done this many times before. Every touch was perfect, each sweep of his tongue or nip of sharp teeth. Perfect.
Then she realized he would know what she liked, because he was taking her desire straight from her mind. Without hesitation, Lizzie slipped into Xinot's thoughts, found the pleasure she was giving him, and discovered what he liked best.
Her tongue slipping beneath his foreskin again, stretching the skin gently behind the broad crown. Her fingers rolling his hard testicles and squeezing him almost to the point of pain, tugging on his sac, running her fingers along his perineum and circling the sensitive ring of his anus. He liked that a lot, and she pressed against him, and then pressed again.
He groaned and the vibration traveled across her clit. She sucked deeper, pressed harder. He used his fingers to penetrate her sheath while his tongue did amazing things to her clit, and while she hadn't planned to come this way, the first tendrils of her burgeoning climax were growing, building upon themselves, until the sweep of his tongue and the thrust of his fingers, the sweet taste of his seed and the intimacy of touching him, tasting him, being touched and tasted was all too much, too intense.
His tongue speared her deep as Lizzie pressed against his sphincter and slipped past that tight ring of muscle with her middle finger. His muscles clamped down on her finger, his lips tightened around her clit, and his cock jerked in her mouth. She felt his cry against her sensitive folds and the harsh sweep of his tongue over a clitoris almost too sensitive to touch.
She wanted to cry out, but her mouth was filled with his pulsing cock and the sweet honeyed taste of him. She held on to his sac, squeezing none too gently but it only made him come harder. His hips bucked against her, his anal muscles clamped around her finger, and their minds linked in the midst of total sensual chaos.
With a final jerk, something opened up between them. A connection to another mind, so faint, so terribly far away. She could barely understand what was little more than a whisper, but Xinot cried out again.
Not in sexual ecstasy. Not this time. No, this time he cried out in fear and pain. Lizzie knew he'd connected with his brother.
Not with Bane, who was merely on the far side of the plateau. No, he'd linked with Tor, trapped aboard the Gar ship that was hurtling toward Earth, only minutes away from total destruction.
Body still trembling, the taste of Xinot still fresh on her lips, Lizzie rolled away from him and grabbed up her clothes from the floor. “We have to get to the dream shack. Somehow we need to get them off that ship.”
Xinot nodded as he pulled his pants up over his hips. “I'm calling Bane and the others. We need them together. All of them. Women and men. We can combine our minds, share power that way. They're injured. One of the Gar managed to shoot them just as they disassembled, and it's disrupted their energy. They can't leave the ship without help.”
“How much time do they have?”
“Tor said maybe ten, fifteen minutes at the most. They shut down at the last minute, but he's not sure how long they've been unconscious. They're locked in a service bay with the door blocked so the Gar can't get at them, but they're trapped by their inability to reach us. They lack the strength. Rodie and Nattoch are the worst. They're both injured but okay as long as they stay in their energy forms.”
Liz grabbed her phone as they raced across the compound. Her cabin was at the front of the property, one of the farthest from the dream shack. The sun was down but the sky still fairly bright. She heard the staccato beat of gunfire echoing across the plateau, and the steady roar of the chopper down by the front gate.
A loud explosion rocked the night.