Sons of Lyra: Runaway Hearts (5 page)

There was a hint of
darkness and anger in his voice. She hoped he didn’t suspect what
she was up to. He shouldn’t be so disturbed to find a popular
Minervan drink on a Minervan ship, heading to a Minervan space
station. She was overreacting.

Before she had time to
refuse his offer, his hand was against her back. He ran it up to
the back of her neck, tickling it when his fingers cradled her and
sending another wave of tingles racing down her spine. She fought
the temptation to close her eyes over the warmth and sensuality of
his caress, and stared at him. She’d forgotten just how seductive a
Minervan way of serving it could be. He held the glass between his
index finger and thumb and brought it to her lips. His little
finger brushed her jaw line. She closed her eyes now, unable to
stop herself. The cold glass touched her lips and she drank the
liquid down. It went straight to her head. Her eyes opened when he
lowered the glass, tracing it down her neck to her chest, teasing
the curve of her breasts. She swallowed hard and stared into his
eyes.

He smiled.

Her heart
pounded.

Damn him.

She pushed him off her and
straightened herself out. “You’re a little presumptuous to think
you can do that to a woman you don’t know.”

He knocked back his drink
and refilled the glasses. She looked at him. There wasn’t even the
slightest hint of it affecting him. His feelings were stable—calm
and collected. She couldn’t detect any change in them. Two glasses
of Koji should be enough to start getting him tipsy. Was his
stomach made of Varkan steel?

She ate a little more food
to bolster her defences against the drink. There was no way she was
going to get drunk before him. She had to make it go to his head
somehow.

He picked up his glass.
She took it from him, making sure that her fingers touched his in
the process. He looked at her. She smiled and wet her lips. His
gaze fell to them, darkening with desire.

“
I know another
Minervan way of serving,” she said in a calm whisper, gunning for
seductive and succeeding. “Would you let me show you?”

He nodded. She knocked her
own drink back to give herself a little courage and ignored the hot
fire that swept through her veins. She just had to hold it together
a little longer and then she could get out of here.

She stood and he raised a
brow at her when she handed him the drink. “Hold this a
moment.”

His eyes shot to her legs
when she hitched the long front panel of her dress up, gradually
exposing herself. His gaze followed the hem of her dress as it
rose, revealing her shins at first and then her knees and finally
her thighs. The visible hunger painted on his face was enough to
make her give him a brief flash of her underwear before she
regained control and lowered the dress to cover them. She wasn’t
supposed to be actually seducing him. This was just about getting
away. None of this was real.

His eyes fixed on one spot
and his brow rose. He was looking at her thigh. She traced her
fingers along the band around it to the small knife it held. His
gaze darkened. Did the thought of her carrying a weapon affect him
in a sexual way? He looked positively hungry for her now. She undid
the buckle and removed the knife and holster from her leg. With a
smile, she tossed it onto the table. His attention flicked there
for a moment and then focused on her exposed thighs
again.

She walked over to stand
in front of him, her dress still hitched up. He leaned back when
she pressed one knee into the couch beside his thigh. His eyes were
wide now, dark but fascinated. Her heart raced, sending her head
spinning with the alcohol. Nerves made her tremble. She just wanted
to get away. If she fed him the shot this way, the alcohol would go
to his head. It had nothing to do with wanting to feel his hands on
her, or his lips against hers.

She brought her other knee
up, pressed it into the couch beside his other thigh, and held his
gaze as she lowered herself to sit on his lap.

He swallowed. She smiled
and took the glass from his hand. His hand fell to the couch. She
pooled the front part of her dress between her thighs and cocked
her head to one side, waiting. He didn’t react as she thought he
would. She’d expected his hands to go to her thighs, to touch her.
Presented with so much flesh, most men would have reacted that way.
Not him though. His eyes didn’t leave hers.

She bit her lip and
brought the glass up, taking a sip with half closed eyes. His gaze
was intent, powerful. Her head felt light and spun a little. The
Koji was getting to her, enough that she didn’t care that she was
sitting on his lap in an intimate position about to do the most
sensual and seductive thing she’d ever done.

Her tongue poked out,
capturing a stray drop of Koji on the rim of the glass. His lips
parted.

Leaning towards him, she
pressed one hand against his chest and was surprised at the
hardness of it. She’d been right. Hidden beneath the shirt was a
toned body. A voice at the back of her mind said she’d give
anything to see it. She shooed it away and focused on him. He was
feeling aroused. Good.

Time to turn up the
heat.

She ran her hand up and
around his neck, burying her fingers into his dark hair. His eyes
narrowed, fire burning brightly in them. She brought the glass to
his lips, skimming it across them, lacing them with the Koji. He
closed his eyes. Perfect.

Her heart thundered with
adrenaline and her eyes zeroed in on his mouth. She denied her own
rising desire and ran the glass along his lips again. This time he
licked them after she’d made a pass. Her own tongue ran over her
lips, mimicking his. She took another sip of the drink and told
herself to get on with it and stop teasing him. She wanted to tease
him though. She wanted to torture him until he snapped and some
primal instinct inside him took over.

She shifted on his lap and
his jaw muscles tensed. He liked that. She glanced at his hands.
She moved again and his fingers flexed and inched closer to her
thighs.

She brought the glass to
his lips. He parted them and she tilted the glass, slowly tipping
the liquid into his mouth. He frowned. His hands went to her
thighs, sending a jolt through her that electrified every nerve
ending in her body and made her groin throb. He slid them higher.
She pressed her cheek against his, trying to steel herself against
the effect he was having on her. Her fingers tipped the glass up
and then it fell from them, tumbling to the floor as his hands
reached her backside and pulled her closer.

She breathed hard into his
ear, struggling for control, and dragged her cheek against his as
she drew back. Her eyes met his for a moment, long enough to see
all the desire and sense it in him, and then she closed hers. Her
hands captured his cheeks. She kissed him.

It wasn’t gentle or sweet.
It was rough, demanding and passionate, and she couldn’t stop
herself. Her mind screamed that she was supposed to be escaping
now, that the Koji had done its work and he was beyond tipsy. Her
heart screamed that she had to stay right here, where it felt so
good and warm, and where she felt so safe. Her body cried out for
his touch.

She leaned forwards,
pressing him into the back of the long seat and pinning him there
with her hands. They pushed against his shoulders, restraining him.
His hands caressed her thighs, stirring the fire inside her until
she felt a slave to her desire. Her teeth clashed with his as she
kissed him, their tongues tangling and breath hard against each
other’s lips. She didn’t care. She needed more. He tasted sweet
like Koji but he felt strong. His fingers flexed against her
backside, drawing her closer still. He raised his hips and ground
against her, eliciting a moan from her that she didn’t even try to
contain.

Her hips moved against
him, her heart pounding when she felt the evidence of his arousal
rubbing her crotch. She kissed him harder, lost in the hunger and
the feel of him.

This wasn’t supposed to
have happened.

She pushed off him but his
hands went to her back, stopping her from escaping.

She stared into his eyes.
This wasn’t right. She’d had it with men. They were nothing but
trouble. She had to get away.

His hands locked against
her, holding her tight. She frowned at him, pushed against his
chest and then pleaded him with her eyes to let her go.

“
Stay,” he
whispered and she stilled in his arms. There was such an earnest
look in his eyes and no trace of lust in his feelings. He wanted
her but it wasn’t empty desire feeding his hunger. She touched his
cheek, trying to decipher his feelings and needing the contact to
make them clearer. “I can protect you... whatever it is that you’re
running from, we can run together.”

They were tempting words,
an alluring promise that spoke to her heart and provoked a
response. It told her to stay. He was strong. Perhaps he could
protect her.

But he was
Lyran.

She turned her head away
from him, needing to see something other than his face in order to
make her decision. He was too tempting, too handsome and powerful.
She closed her eyes. Could he really protect her? Could
anyone?

She grabbed the bottle and
swigged it, needing the numbing affect to kill off the part of her
brain telling her that she was insane. He took the bottle from her
and she opened her eyes. He drank some and then leaned towards her.
She breathed in sharply when his tongue brushed her neck and he
kissed it. It sent tingles racing across her skin. Her eyes closed
again and she tilted her head back. His free hand tightened against
her upper back, supporting her as he kissed across her
chest.

Her hand found his and she
took the bottle again. She drank another mouthful and then reached
out behind her and placed it down on the table.

Even if he couldn’t
protect her, she still wanted this time with him.

His mouth reached her
breasts and he made fast work of the laces holding her dress
closed. She stared at the ceiling with a wide open mouth as he
exposed her to the cool air of the room. His fingers grazed her
nipple as he pulled the material away and then she moaned when his
lips fastened around it. She arched into him, her hand settling
against the back of his head while her other one went to his shirt.
She wanted it off him. She wanted to see him and feel
him.

She unbuttoned his shirt
and pushed the two sides apart, exposing his body. It was a
struggle to get him off her, but she shoved him until he gave up
and leaned back into the seat. Her eyes raked over his body. It was
stunning. Golden smooth skin stretched tight over pronounced
muscles that made her mouth water and her pussy throb.

She didn’t care if he was
Lyran or a criminal or that she didn’t know him. This attraction
was too strong to ignore. She had to have him. It would ruin her,
but it didn’t matter. Perhaps if she was tainted by another man,
her father wouldn’t be able to give her to the highest bidder.
Perhaps no one but this man would want her then.

She’d be happy if that
were the case.

Her fingers traced down
his chest to his stomach and from there to his trousers. She
unbuckled them, ignoring his weak protests, and slid her hand
inside to find his hard cock. It was bigger than she’d imagined it
would be. The skin was silken and hot. She kept one hand against
his chest as she wriggled out of her underwear, having to shift
onto one foot at a time to get them off. It was a farce and she was
thankful he didn’t laugh at how ridiculous she must have looked.
His eyes never left her face.

When she was free of her
underwear, she tugged his trousers down enough to release his cock.
It rested flat against his belly. She met his gaze and ran her
fingers down the length of it. His eyes darkened and narrowed. She
smiled, swallowed her nerves, and stroked it again. This time his
eyes rolled closed and he sighed.

She’d been taught well
about how to pleasure a man but all that knowledge was rapidly
leaving her as she sat astride his legs, treading the fine line
between going forwards and running away. If she did this, she would
spoil herself. No man would want her. Her father would kill
her.

If she did this, she would
be a woman and she would be happy that her first time hadn’t been
with a man she had been given to.

He was a man of her own
choosing.

He opened his eyes as she
took hold of his length, wrapping her fingers around it. His lips
parted as though he was going to say something and fear lanced
through her when she sensed he was going to tell her to stop. She
kissed him, silencing his words and distracting him. He couldn’t
stop her. She didn’t want to stop.

His hands wrapped around
her back, tight and strong, as she raised herself up and moved
forwards. Nerves fluttered in her stomach when lowered herself and
the tip of his cock pressed against her slick arousal. She kept
going, driven by desire and a need to escape her old life
completely.

Their sighs combined when
she bore down on him, his cock sliding into her. It stung but she
didn’t let it show. She didn’t want him to know that this was her
first time. She’d been told everything, shown everything. She knew
what to do.