Winter in Paradise Read Free Page B

crack.
    “Grayson,” she murmured into his chest.
    “Kelly.” His powerful body strained with effort.
    Her pussy clenched, making her heart race, but she broke free and propelled him toward the bed. “Get in. Shields on,” she said to the comm-def center.
    The light dimmed, then brightened. A ripple radiated out of the defense module like a heat wave passing through her and the rest of the cave, stopping, she knew, at the entrance. The distant sound of wind cut out as if a door had slammed shut. The shield produced a bubble of invisibility to all but the most powerful sensors. How long before the Kirsovals penetrated their shields and pinpointed their equipment’s signal? Minutes, an hour? She would take it as long as she was with this man.
    Grayson had slipped under the bed’s thermal blankets. Kelly could almost see the glow of the covers work to raise his core temperature. She shrugged out of her furs and slipped in beside him, nestling skin-to-skin, breast-to-chest, and settled against the familiar hard lines of his chest.
    His arms banded around her. “You shouldn’t have come.” He no longer shivered, but his flesh still felt like ice.
    “What was I supposed to do? Leave you out there?”
    “That’s exactly what you were supposed to do. You compromised the mission.”
    She snuggled closer.
    “You could have gone on,” he said, “had a life.”
    The hard note in his voice comforted—and brought a lump to her throat. She would give a king’s ransom for even one more day with him trying to take charge .
    She nuzzled the crook of his still-cool neck. “Life without you is no life.”
    A far away explosion rattled the cave.
    Her heart jumped. How close were the Kirsovals? Did only minutes remain? Panic rushed to the surface. Five months weren’t enough. She needed more time. Needed to tell him she loved him. She had purposely withheld the words, as if she had all the time in the world to show him how she felt. That fantasy had been the one thing that kept the panic at bay— until now .
    Silent tears spilled down her cheeks.
    “Kelly,” Grayson rasped.
    His breath in her hair was still ragged. She shook her head in a stubborn attempt to pretend she wasn’t falling apart. Think of all the people who will live, she told herself. She forced a picture of her mother tending the tiny flower garden on the roof of her sky-rise. Her father, a simple phys-ed teacher, and the younger brother who had been forced to leave the academy two years too early to aid in the fight for their people’s preservation.
    Grayson pressed a kiss into her hair. Kelly choked back a sob and through salty tears kissed his shoulder. He shuddered. She became aware of the lengthening of his cock. She pressed closer, breasts flat against his muscle.
    “We disabled that one ship,” he said.
    A strong explosion shook the cave. Two or three pebbles dropped to the floor and clattered. Their military had destroyed the ship that had nearly caught them in the crossfire. But it hadn’t been enough.
    Kelly tilted her face upward and met his gaze. “Yes. We got them.”
    Crystal blue eyes stared back. “I’m sorry.”
    Her heart broke. She should have known he would read her mind. They had gotten the Kirsoval ship. But that wouldn’t save their lives.

Chapter Four
     

    Kelly slid a hand around his neck. “I’m not.”
    His lips covered hers. She opened for him, and his tongue dove into the warmth of her mouth, tasting, exploring…memorizing. His shaft hardened, lengthening between their bodies like a hungry beast. Her nipples hardened and the familiar flutter she always felt when near him brushed the insides of her stomach. He flattened a palm on her abdomen and slid his hand downward. A quiver raced along the flesh of her stomach. His fingers slid into the dark curls and she spread her legs in anticipation of his long finger slipping between her wet folds.
    The microwave-type heat of the blanket co-mingled with body warmth ratcheted