Ellora's Cavemen: Jewels of the Nile III Read online

  Longing surged through her. She kissed him back in equal measure, savoring the taste of lemon-ice, a remnant of the freezing solution, in his hot mouth.

  A rumble of approval vibrated in his throat. He let go of her other wrist, swept his hand between their bodies and caressed her breast through her flightsuit.

  A gasp rushed up her throat, but she didn’t stop him.

  Dodd’s lips glided over to her earlobe where he licked and nipped on the tender flesh. His warm breath drifted into her ear, clouding her scattered thoughts.

  “I want you,” he whispered softly.

  Was she ready for this? Now wasn’t the right time. They were floundering in space, and if they didn’t get back on track, they’d perish out here. In spite of that, she didn’t want to let him go. Not yet.

  He seemed able to read the acceptance in her eyes.

  She flinched when he tugged open the side closure on her flightsuit, slipped his cool hand over her ribs and cupped the underside of her bare breast.

  Oh, stars.

  “I’ve thought about this moment so many times,” he said, nibbling his way down her neck to her collarbone.

  Have you? Really?

  “All those times we’d run into each other on the space station and you never gave me a second glance.” His tongue slid across her heated skin to the dip in her throat where he deposited feathery kisses that gave her chills. His hand gently caressed the swell of her breast. “I tested my charm on lots of women, and it seemed to be in working order, but when I aimed it at you, it seemed to fluster you. Turn you off, actually.”

  Dang if he didn’t sound a little insecure.

  “For a while, I thought you might be a lesbian,” he said with a nervous chuckle. He kissed the underside of her jaw and then drew back until his whole face came into view. “You’re not, are you?”

  She caressed his rough jaw with her palm. “I’ve never tried it.”

  “Don’t,” he said adamantly.

  She gasped as his fingers rolled her nipple into a hard bud.

  “I want you all to myself.”

  His possessiveness made her a little nervous, and yet she liked masterful men.

  Why did uncertainty haunt her? Deep down, she knew he wasn’t anything like her brutal ex-lover. No woman had ever complained Dodd had been too rough, or too insensitive. Just noncommittal.

  Of all the males she’d ever known, Dodd ranked first on the list of People to Be Stranded in Space With. She’d been attracted to Dodd from the first moment her friend pointed him out as the new member of the communications group. Looking at his handsome face made her sigh, inspecting his tight, hard body made her drool. Those intense blue eyes made her heart pound. But could he give her what she wanted? Would he be shocked by her desires?

  “It’s fate that the two of us are stuck in this black hole together, Lorie.” He massaged her breast, at first gentle, then squeezing the plump globe, and then another gentle caress until she arched her back, silently begging for more.

  Was it fate? Who knew? “Fate or not, I have no complaints about the company.”

  “So glad to hear it.” He pushed her open flightsuit off her shoulders, trapping her upper arms close to her body and exposing her mounded breasts. When he looked down at her, longing and satisfaction clearly shone in his eyes, the gaze so gentle, it made her heart ache. He lowered his head toward one peaked nipple.

  Oh God! Yes.

  No.

  No! What were they doing? One touch and she’d be lost. She’d want more and more until… Until they ran out of time.

  “Stop.” She grabbed his stubbled cheeks. “Are we crazy? We can’t do this now.” Her eyes pleaded with him. “Not now, Dodd. We have to find a way out of this mess.”

  With a dramatic groan, Dodd hung his head. Slowly, he lifted his chin, cocking his head to the side. “Be warned,” he said quietly but firmly, “I won’t be put off for long.” His lips compressed into a straight line as he rolled off her and helped her to her feet. “Not this time.”

  Chapter Two

  Lorie yanked her flightsuit closed over her chest, and the fragile material shredded in her hands. “Oh, damn.” Her taut nipples peeked through two of the vertical tears streaking down the front as if the top had been designed to showcase them that way.

  Opposite her, Dodd’s eyebrows rose. Raw interest gleamed in his eyes.

  “Stop staring at my breasts. We have work to do.” Their transport rumbled as if to emphasize her point. She turned her back on him and glanced over the multitude of flashing lights on the control panel. As much as her body hummed for his touch, their bleak situation demanded her attention.

  Big, warm hands slid around her hips, making her pulse leap.

  “What can I help you with?” he asked, snuggling up to her back. Heat seeped into her spine. His hands skimmed up her ribs, his fingers wiggling into the open slits and tickling her skin.

  Aching desire burned low in her belly. Ohgodohgod. She slapped at his arms. “Dodd—” As she spun away, he yanked his hands back. The rips lengthened, leaving open gaps all the way to her hips.

  She looked down at her ruined flightsuit, and almost smiled at the way her skin peeked through the ragged tears. It reminded her of an outfit she’d seen another woman wearing at the Sub Level, except hers had been crotchless. And the woman had been bound spread-eagle to a wall. What would Dodd think if she told him things like that turned her on? Laugh, probably. No one expected the quiet, serious engineer to have a naughty streak.

  “You’re so pretty when you blush,” he said with a smile in his voice. “Not that you’re not pretty anyway.”

  The heat in her face spread to her ears. “How many times have you used that line, Dodd?”

  “Hmm. Well, in your case, it’s true. I’m partial to redheads.”

  “I never noticed,” she lied.

  “None of them excited me like you do.” He brushed the back of his fingers over her cheek. “Freckle Face.”

  “Oh? And why is that?”

  A dark blond brow arched high. “Maybe because they were too easy to conquer.” He swept his palm over the curve of her breast, pausing slightly at the nipple before she stepped back and he dropped his hand away. “Maybe because I couldn’t find a smart, sensible female like you among them.”

  She looked away, feeling like a fraud. He didn’t see the real Lorie Walker at all. No one did. In the early years, working undercover for the IDC had introduced her to dark desires she relished and hid from the world, for fear of being labeled or ostracized. Despite some encounters that made her question her choices, she couldn’t stop yearning for passion’s sharp edge. She couldn’t stop hiding either.

  Out of habit, she wrapped her cloak of respectability around her like a shield. “Yeah, I’m sure a smart, sensible girl was exactly what you were looking for in a bedmate.”

  His smile broadened. “Oh, did I forget to mention your body makes my cock rock-hard every time I look at you?”

  “This body?” she asked, fanning her hands down her sides. “Covered in freckles? These wide hips and big thighs?”

  In one quick step, he moved forward, grabbed her butt cheeks and pulled her against his firm, sexually lethal body. “Yes.” He swept his head down and plundered her mouth.

  Drowning in his sensual kiss, she gripped his flightsuit at the shoulders, unintentionally tearing the material from the hard muscles beneath. She fought the urge to rip open the rest of his flightsuit, run her hands over his chest, rub his nipples until they pebbled beneath her fingertips and caress his flat belly. She wanted to stroke his cock, guide him inside her, wrap her legs around his hips and ride him hard.

  God, she was so weak!

  She wanted him. This instant. While white-hot heat consumed her body and searing desire flooded her mind. The mind-boggling black hole could wait.

  But the darkness surrounding their ship pressed in on her mind. The inexplicable situation distracted her. She wanted him, but on her timetable.


  “Dodd,” she muttered into his mouth as she pushed at his shoulders. She twisted her head to the side. “We won’t have time to enjoy this if we’re dead!”

  His body stiffened.

  She leaned back and searched his unreadable expression. He stared past her into the endless black sky. The color in his face drained to a pasty white. Finally! She’d gotten past his hormones to his common sense.

  He glanced over at the cryotubes and back at her. “Maybe we should—”

  “I’m not going back into stasis,” she said, breaking body contact. “Not until we’ve tried everything we can to get out of here.”

  “What if it’s impossible?”

  “It’s not,” she said, tamping down the last burning embers of lust. Unable to stop herself, she skimmed her palm over his chest, careful not to tear his flightsuit any more. “Have some faith.”

  An odd look crossed his face. “You sound so positive.”

  She shrugged, not feeling confident at all. “Come on,” she said, backing away. “Lend me a hand with the propulsion system.”

  He inhaled deeply and nodded. “Tell me what to do.”

  “Pull the crystal canister from the energy core while I take a look at the electronics.”

  Hours later, the hazard lights still flashed on the control panel.

  “Damn it!” No matter what she did, it made no difference. “The only good news is we’ve managed to activate cruising power. The navigation history says we’ve been going in a circle since we entered the black hole. By switching the controls to manual mode, we can steer the craft.”

  Now which way should they go? No sense in wasting precious fuel on the wrong trajectory.

  After hunching over in cramped spaces for so long, Dodd clasped his hands on top of his head and stretched, thrusting out his chest and flexing his biceps. Lorie tried not to stare at the masculine display. Still, heat flushed through her body at the sight.

  With a grunt of relieved stiffness, he dropped his arms. “You’d think the massive gravitational pull of the black hole would’ve pulled us directly toward the middle.”

  She frowned. “Maybe we’re spiraling toward the center?” Everything she’d ever read about black holes was pure scientific conjecture. Who knew how they really functioned? If the mass was so great, why wasn’t their little space exploration capsule crushed? Was it possible they simply orbited the outer edges?

  Little about the journey made sense. Logically, after fifteen years, they shouldn’t have power to light the emergency lights in the floor let alone the flashing control panel. The liquid nitrogen feeding the cryotubes would’ve evaporated by now. They’d had enough for a ten-year round trip, that’s all. She glanced at the two solid chambers that had kept them alive. Had the cryotubes opened due to a lack of nitrogen coolant? The level marker indicated they still had about five years’ worth left, but then all the gauges were screwed up.

  “Maybe we haven’t been in cryostasis as long as you figured,” she said hopefully. “Maybe the cryotubes opened on time, and we’re closer to Pluto IV than we think.”

  “Look around you,” he said quietly. “Does this look like everything is going according to plan?”

  “Could it be we’re on the dark side of the planet?”

  “With no stars in our view? I doubt it.” The sadness softening his gaze shot straight through her soul.

  “Stop looking at me like that.” She set her hands on her hips. “We will get out of here. You’ve beaten the odds before. I’ve heard a million stories about your early years in the tactical division.”

  His lips twitched with wry amusement. “A million?”

  “Well…lots.” More than he could imagine. No point in letting him know how many people she’d asked about him over the years. “I never pegged you for having a fatalistic viewpoint.”

  “I’m a realist. We’re in a black hole with no apparent exit portal. We have limited life support, no communications and minimal guidance systems. Our chances of survival are slim to none.”

  Already aware of the dismal facts, she glared at him. “We have brains, and each other.”

  “Ah, yes. Each other.” She watched in amazement as he chased the anxiety from his face and a lusty gleam lit his eyes. “Let’s make the most of the time we have left,” he said, waving her closer. “Come here.”

  A crooked smile pulled at her lips while she shook her head at him. “You have a one-track mind, Dodd Henderson.”

  He reached out, grabbed her arm and pulled her against his chest. “I can think better when my cock isn’t aching for you. Put me out of my misery and I swear I’ll give you a hundred and ten percent when we’re through.”

  “Is this how you seduce all your women? ‘Cause it lacks something for me.”

  His lips twitched at her mockery. “If you have your way,” he said, sliding his hand between the slashed fabric at her hip and thrusting low, “we’ll be too busy to explore anything but the stars.” He cupped her damp panties, and slid his middle finger along the center crease. “Let’s take a little time for ourselves and explore each other.” He nipped her earlobe and then soothed the sting with a warm, sensual lick. “Who knows when—or if—we’ll get another chance.”

  Her knees nearly buckled. Wow, that worked much better.

  Although the lure of sex with Dodd tempted her beyond measure, staying here any longer than necessary made her nervous. Two weeks of oxygen was not a long time.

  She looked forward to her new home. Unbeknown to the IDC, as soon as she’d received her transfer papers, she’d looked into a civilian position at the engineering school on Pluto IV. If all went well, she’d have an offer soon after she arrived. For the first time in a long time, she’d be in charge of her own life. No more impromptu undercover role-playing, at least not a role she hadn’t selected herself, she thought with an inward smile.

  She quirked an eyebrow at Dodd. Would he be interested in a game of master of the dungeon? She imagined him striding half-naked across a stone floor, a paddle in his hand, intent on driving her to orgasm. Her skin tingled thinking about it.

  “As soon as we’re on our way out of this black hole, I’ll take care of your itch, Henderson.” To back up her statement, she cupped his groin.

  He grunted in surprise and froze, letting her stroke him from the base of his cock to the tip.

  It was quite an inspiring little journey. He was long and thick, just as she imagined he’d be. She swore she could feel the blood pumping through the steely rod. Smiling into his eyes, she gave him a light squeeze for good measure. “I’ll start with a blowjob you’ll never forget.”

  Eyes narrowed, his quick fingers slid beneath her silky panties, easily tearing them away. Two fingers slid into her slick core, pressing deep, lifting her up onto her toes. “Let’s start now, Freckle Face.”

  Heart in her throat, she raised her chin and grabbed his balls, gently rolling the palm of her hand around the big bundle in his pants. “When we set a course.”

  He eased his fingers in and out of her pussy, sliding through the wet heat with slow and deep strokes. “You want me as much as I want you.”

  “I’m not denying that,” she said breathlessly, squeezing her thighs together and rocking against his hand. “But I’ve got priorities.”

  “So do I.” He wrapped his free arm around her back, locking her into a tight embrace, and drove his tongue into her mouth at the same time he plunged his fingers deep into her cunt. His throat absorbed her cry.

  Blazing pulsars.

  She slid one knee up the outside of his thigh, clinging to him like a drowning victim. While she held on to the outline of his big cock, she rode his fingers, too involved now to stop. It had been so long since she’d been more than a convenient sex partner, since she’d felt desired. Orgasm was going to hit her fast. She could feel it coming…tightening into a whirlwind of ache and pleasure.

  His breath hitched as she leaned into his heat, clamping down as he pushed inward. Lust, h
ot and greedy, slammed into her. The need to have him deep inside her flushed her skin with heat. She’d willingly take his fist inside her if he’d make her come. Right. Now.

  His fingers plunged through her creamy juices with a loud slurp, bringing her closer. Higher…

  She thrust back her head, breaking the incredible kiss, and gasped for air. “Dodd! Oh God!” Her hips shook.

  He drove his fingers in and out faster. Deeper. “Beg me, baby!”

  “Don’t stop,” she huffed. “Please. Oooh.”

  Fire licked at her core.

  The heel of his hand slapped her pussy with each thrust. He captured the back of her head with his free hand and sucked the stretched column of her neck.

  Goose bumps rose across her shoulders and down her thighs. Pussy muscles clamped down on the delicious agony licking at her clit. “Oh…oh…yeeesss!”

  The tight coil inside her snapped. It unfurled with lightning speed, shooting sparks all the way to her taut nipples. “Ooooooh!”

  As Dodd slowed his deep strokes inside her, she squeezed every last tremor from her body.

  Trembling thigh muscles forced her to lower the leg clasped to his hip. “Wow,” she said with shaky breath. She forced a deep breath through her nose to slow her speeding heart rate. Then another.

  The loss of his warm, thick fingers inside her slick pussy left her feeling bereft, and yet his closeness and his other hand absently gliding through her hair kept her warm and made her feel cosseted. She closed her eyes and squeezed her inner muscles one last time.

  A soft kiss on her temple loosened the tension in her shoulders.

  Belatedly, she realized she held his cock in a vise grip and he hadn’t complained at all. She eased her fingers loose. “Sorry,” she mumbled.

  “You didn’t hurt me,” he said with a crooked smile. “Much.”

  “I suppose you want me to kiss it better now.”

  His smile grew. “If you insist.”

  She pursed her lips at him, close to giving in. He deserved a good blowjob for the knee-weakening finger fuck he’d just given her, but she couldn’t. Primarily because she had to catch her breath. “As soon as we’re under way to…somewhere. I promise.”