Swept Off Her Feet Page 4

  Her guards! How could she have forgotten her guards? Where were they and how had this man gotten past them?

  God, don’t let them be lying dead somewhere!

  She slowly, deliberately took a step back from the man, meeting his eyes with a fearful, yet head-on gaze. “If you are not one of my father’s subjects, then you are truly a stranger. Who are you, and what do you want with me?”

  One confident stride narrowed the distance between them, bringing the intruder into her personal space. His air of unconscious command managed to set her teeth on edge even while it prodded the drowsing beast of her sexual need.

  “Again, I must apologize, Princess. Your beauty froze my words, else I would have made known myself, right away.”

  “Fine. Who the heck are you and how did you get past my guards?”

  The man executed a bow that was elegant and practiced. “I am Prince Glendevtorvas abri’ Chyya Quasharel, ruler of both Rb’qarm and—since the ending of a two hundred years’ war—also the planet Rb’nTraq. Your Chyya gave me a writ of passage. Your guards have been ordered home.”

  The elevated position of her visitor startled her. His name bore the Glen-syllable proclaiming his first-born status as heir like her own. This man ruled the home planet! The planet her father still spoke of with reverence mixed with greed. She had never heard of that second planet.

  At least that answered one of her questions. She had nothing this man didn’t already possess. Her status might equal his but she could never outrank him.

  She struggled to keep her eyes on the intruder’s face, resisting the urge to sneak another peek at the impressive bulge stretching the taut fabric of the man’s jeans. A good long look tempted her more than gathering information, but, hell. Duty called.

  “Welcome to Earth, Prince Glendevtorvas. I am sure my father is pleased you made this journey, but what are you doing here…in my bedroom?”

  The prince spoke a rapid sentence in Rb’qarmshi before he caught himself and switched to English. “I have come for you, Nnora.”

  His stark words hit her like a speeding train. She was no superwoman to sustain such a blow. Her heart tripped, threatening to pound its way out of her chest.

  “Ex—excuse me. What did you say?”

  Glendevtorvas chuckled, the sensuous rumble sounding downright dangerous to an already frazzled Nnora.

  “I have placed my claim upon you. Already have your father-Chyya and mine written our mating contracts—”

  “What mating contracts?” The fine hairs on her shoulders rose up, the question growled between her grinding teeth.

  The prince ignored her less than flattering reaction and continued. “I can allow but a few minutes for you to choose things to bring. Or not.” He shrugged. “As my queen, have you the choice from the bounty of ten worlds—”

  The prince’s words sank in. She was shocked. She didn’t know whether to scream or laugh. Surely this was a monumental joke. She refused to believe her father had meant to use her as marriage bait. Please, God, she silently begged, don’t let this trip I have looked forward to so much be just a political ploy on my father’s part.

  “Prince Glendevtorvas, you are out of your egotistical mind if you believe I will just pack up and go anywhere with you. I don’t know you from… I don’t know you at all.

  “I don’t know how the females on Rb’qarm or Rb’nTraq are treated, and I’m not really sure about the status of those on Mars, but I do know one thing—I make my own decisions. I won’t allow any man, and that includes my father, that kind of power over my life. I—”

  “You should do as you are told!” Glendevtorvas frowned down at her, crossing his arms, an emotion that looked a lot like exasperation deepening the striking orange of his eyes.

  She mocked him, frowning back, barely resisting the urge to stick her tongue out at him. Shockingly, he gave her an approving smile when she did not back down from his intimidating glare.

  “Your spirit pleases me. While your surliness does not, I overlook this time. No doubt, your being in second pava—and unmated—has unsettled you.”

  “Oh, so now this is about me? I have PMS so you will humor me? Please.” She mumbled under her breath, insulted. Why was it all the good-lookers ended up being jerks? She let her growing anger spill over into her tones. “Do me a favor, Prince—don’t do me any favors.”

  “Yes, favor! Great favor have I done you. I am ruling Prince,” he began, his words laced with growing agitation. “Total power and authority have I on two worlds. Women of ten worlds would fight and swoon with pride as my chosen Cherzda’va.”

  “Get over yourself.” She snorted with laughter at his arrogant statements. “You are too conceited for words.”

  “And you are… I know not the Earth words,” the prince shook his clenched fists at the ceiling, an impatient growl rumbling in his throat.

  She wondered if the growl signaled impatience at his own less-than-proficient use of her language or his disapproval of her refusal to be instantly impressed. Whatever the reason, anger looked good on him. Despite her irritation at his highhandedness, she savored the thrill of watching his impressive chest expand with his deep, agitated breaths.

  Speaking slowly, Glendevtorvas began again. “I know you were lost as infant. Took years, your father did…to find you. Now is he eager to fulfill his responsibility. To establish you in proper mating—good mating! Think you, that you are the only one…” He paused, clearly searching for a word more to his meaning. “…softly forced?”

  “Compelled? Coerced…nudged in a direction you don’t wish to go?” she offered, her years of teaching making her insertion and amplification automatic.

  “Yes, that is the word. Coerced to duty. I, too, am under a father’s rule. This duty, it pleases me…now. You are very beautiful—though very tiny and fragile. Yet was I prepared to accept you at my father’s command, whatever your look. But, you! You give no thanks, show no joy! You are not…proper, are not—Rojas!”

  She snickered when he cut his sentence short with what sounded like a curse and turned his back. She found it hard to hide her smile. As a ruling prince, he probably didn’t have very many people opposing his will.

  “Am I ugly in your sight?” The prince turned back to ask.

  His face betrayed his agitation and she somehow knew he would be more upset if he knew she was reading him so easily. All at once, she was not so happy to cause him such discomfort. “Oh, you definitely are not ugly in my sight. I am sure you know just how attractive you are,” she hastened to respond, her own embarrassment spiking when she noticed the direction of the prince’s wandering gaze.

  Although she lived alone in her one-room apartment, Lori, who still lived at home, was a frequent visitor. Out of respect for their parents’ old-fashioned beliefs, Lori—though older than Nnora and sexually active for years now—kept her affairs from her parent’s notice. Nnora’s apartment happened to be a convenient trysting place and an even more convenient cover to use when she was elsewhere. All Lori’s sexual toys and supplies sprawled across her side of the dresser. Sitting prominently at the fore was the emergency box of extra-large “horse” condoms.

  Cheeks growing hot, she watched as the prince—whose muscular build, sweetly taut buttocks and firm thighs had her wayward pussy creaming in tortured anticipation—idly toyed with the items littering the dresser. She prayed he wouldn’t notice or at least wouldn’t comment on Lori’s emergency stash. Of course, because she wished the opposite so desperately, the box was the next item he picked up.

  Even with his back still to her, she could almost feel his eyebrows rising as he studied the suggestive pictures printed on the compact box. She huffed and expelled an exasperated sigh when he opened the box and pulled out one of the foil-wrapped packets. He turned to face her, the condom held on his outstretched palm, one raised eyebrow asking a question.

  She refused to be embarrassed. This was her bedroom and he was the uninvited intruder here.

 
; “They’re called condoms. Human males use them to prevent pregnancies.”

  “Not yours, then.” He chuckled, dropping the thing back onto the dresser.

  She bristled, peeved by his statement. “What does that mean? I am so unattractive no man would want—” She broke off, appalled to hear herself blurting out her insecurities. Now it was her turn to swing about, hiding her mortification from his interested gaze. She gasped, forcing back a sob, feeling stripped bare and naked, vulnerable.

  The sound of his laughter cut her fragile self-esteem to shreds. Nnora’s fists clenched and a hot wash of shame heated her cheeks. She fought agitated affront, injured pride and the beginning of tears. “Get the hell out of my bedroom! I don’t give a flying…damn what you think, anyway. For your information—”

  “Fem, why are you angry?” Glendevtorvas’ brows drew together. “Surely, your anger cannot be over my laughter? How could you not expect me to be amused by such a joke?”

  He moved close behind her, using the bulk of his body to cradle her without actually touching her with his hands.

  “You are beyond attractive, as you well know,” he told her softly, as if he meant to soothe her irritated nerves, which she did not believe for one second.

  “Stop making fun of me!” She snarled, pivoting on her heels to face him, her ire rising anew at his continued efforts to ridicule her.

  Raising both hands in surrender, the prince backed a step. “My laughter was with you, not at you!” he quickly said, obviously attempting to stave off another verbal attack. “All males must desire you. All my men and I would worship you. Any human male…how could they not lust for you? But, these things—” he indicated the discarded condom “—what use have you of them? No human male can impregnate you.”

  Her brow furrowed at the matter-of-fact way in which he spoke the last sentence. “How could you possibly know that, for sure? Our scientists are still debating the issue. It has never been conclusively decided that inter-mixing among our two species is impossible.”

  “When the answer is obvious, still scientists debate,” Glendevtorvas said, shaking his head. “It is matter of simple dimensions.

  “You are a tiny thing compared to Rb’qarmshi and Rb’nTraqshi fem.” His eyes burned a path down her torso, lingering on the delta of her towel-covered thighs.

  “Already you are in second pava, untouched, untaught!” He tsk’ed his tongue in seeming displeasure and continued, “I fear it difficult to mate you without much pain, yet I doubt you could even feel a human, no matter how well endowed they think themselves to be—”

  The prince lifted his molten gaze to hers, and her nipples sprang to attention under the heated, ravenous look. No one had ever wanted her like he seemed to, as if she were the banquet at the end of a forty day fast. As if he would starve without her essence to nourish him.

  She stifled a moan as the muscles of her pussy contracted, trying to milk a nonexistent cock. Well, she told herself drolly, eyeing the long thick ridge that seemed to be growing behind the tight jeans material, it does, in fact, exist. It simply isn’t where I need it to be. She shook herself and had to put forth a determined effort to understand the Prince’s continued conversation.

  “—no human male could fill you, and never could one expand the walls of your sweet pava. Yet will I fill your—”

  “Look,” she interrupted rudely. “If you are going to talk English, do it correctly. As far as I am concerned, a pava is what I am experiencing. What I have is a vagina. You can even use pussy or cunt. I won’t object.” Inwardly, she thrilled at the sound of the naughty words. “Choose one of those words, okay?”

  He nodded sharply. “Yet will I fill your pus-sy. Your va-gi-na. I will be steadfast in this duty.”

  She inwardly shook her head. What, did he think her moved by his reassurance of his competency as a lover? On the contrary, his expertise only highlighted her lack and escalated her fears of their future mating.

  And he saw making love to her as his duty? She cringed at this new blow to her budding self-esteem. She had no experience, no knowledge. Was it her fault that no mature, eligible males existed among the colonists to help her explore her sexuality?

  Her teeth absently worrying her bottom lip, she struggled to categorize the contradictory feelings assailing her. For him to call her a tiny thing and mean it made her feel dainty and feminine—something she had craved for a very long time. On the other hand, she floundered in uncertain waters. She had no idea how to handle this situation and so she rejected his allure, falling back on sarcasm to hide her insecurity.

  “Was there supposed to be a marriage proposal in there, somewhere?” she asked snidely. “I hope not, since I’m afraid I’ll have to refuse, Prince Glendevtorvas.

  “Thanks just the same, but no thanks. Unlike you, I do not consider it my duty to accept you.”

  “What say you?” The prince’s disbelieving words rang in her ears. “You dare dismiss me so?”

  “Let me see…” Nnora tapped a deliberately insolent finger to the tip of her chin, pretending to consider her behavior. “Yep, I do. See, I may be in my second pava and unmated, but I’ll never be so desperate that I have to be someone’s duty,” she said, her voice gone chill.

  “So, as the saying goes—don’t let the door hit you where the good Lord spit you.”

  With an imperious finger, she indicated the door to the hallway. “Bye-bye! What a pleasure it’s been meeting you…Not. And you needn’t worry your little—” she glanced disparagingly down at his crotch “—head about me, I’ll just wait for the next crop of maturing boys.”

  She watched, heart-sick as the insult fell on fertile ground.

  Growling, the Prince captured her gaze. His burnished gold eyes, grown hard, bored down into hers as he deliberately ripped off his black t-shirt. Another angry jerk loosened the fastening of his jeans. “I have offered you honorable marriage and plentiful fucking and you reject me out of hand—to wait on boys who may not even make it to manhood.”

  Glendevtorvas moved toward her, male arrogance personified and rolled up in one irate package. She backed up, not willing to tangle with the warrior, whose swirling emotions were an almost visible cloud about him. Tripping over the fringed throw rug in her haste to distance herself from the determined male stalking toward her with lust twisting his implacably masculine face, she shivered with a mixture of desire and wariness.

  Strong hands snatched her into the air, preventing an ignominious fall, only to pin her against the bathroom door.

  “But why wait, my lady?” Glendevtorvas gritted from between clenched teeth, forcing a heavy thigh between her legs and grinding his hips into her pubic mound. “I am a mature male ready to service you, since servicing seems to be all you are concerned with.”

  Chapter Four

  That ripped shirt implied a sensual threat Nnora didn’t think she could handle. Even while she flinched away from the thought of her inadequacy, she couldn’t help staring hungrily at the taut expanse of his exposed chest, her eyes irresistibly drawn to his muscular physique. Something told her she was in deep trouble.

  Oh, Hell’s bells! This guy embodies the epitome of sheer masculine virility and I’ve just insulted his manhood.

  She gulped, pushing against his shoulders to create some space between them.

  Devtorvas yanked her against him, the steely fingers of one large hand sinking into the full curve of her ass. The jeans-covered solid bulge of his cock nudged the tender skin of her belly as he wrapped his arms about her, head lowering.

  She parted her lips to apologize…to breathe…and his tongue surged in, claiming her mouth in a heated carnal foray that wiped away her ability to speak and sent jagged shards of electrifying excitement careening through her bloodstream.

  “Ooooh, god…” she moaned, shuddering as his masterful tongue plunged into her mouth again and again, while one hand caressed her scalp, his fingers snagging in her tangled hair.

  Oh, stars above, the man cou
ld kiss!

  She melted into his embrace. Her breasts, flattened against the firm, warm flesh of his broad torso, tingled and burned. Beneath the terrycloth towel, her nipples jutted, lengthened into little diamond pikes that stabbed at his impervious flesh. Never had she felt such intense arousal from a simple kiss.

  Simple? Lord, but there was nothing simple about his kisses!

  His tongue forced its way into the moist space behind her teeth, filling her mouth with the hot and spicy taste of his essence and her pulse pounded. She moaned, all thought of resistance blasted from her mind.

  Caught in his sensual storm, almost swooning from the unfamiliar emotions his touch ignited within her, she turned to flame in his sexual heat, returning his kisses with a fervor she didn’t know she possessed. A river of need washed over her and flowed out of her. Her pussy throbbed, releasing a gush of liquid heat.

  With an inner thrill of power, smelling her own tangy scent rising from between her slick folds, she watched Devtorvas fling his head back, nostrils flaring as he sniffed the air like a stallion catching the scent of his mare in heat. She felt his chest expand and press against her swollen breasts as he inhaled deeply, filling his lungs with the fragrance of her lust. His arms tightened about her, anchoring her to his rampant body.

  “I smell the sweet bouquet of your pava flower! It tells me you want me, whatever words you might say. Do not fear this, fem. I want you as much as you want me. Maybe more.”

  Bold, he gripped the cheeks of her bottom and she squirmed as he wedged a knee between her legs. His thick thigh pushed the hem of her towel up as he dragged her body forward. His large palms kneaded her ass. He lifted her, rocking her on his steely thigh, rubbing her pussy and clit against the rough heat of his denim-clad cock.

  “Feel how hard I am for you.”

  His mouth swooped down again, tormenting her with another mind-tangling kiss. They were so close, his alluring fragrance—essence of rampant masculinity, hot and exciting—inundated her senses. Desire roared through her as his unique scent seared her lungs, burning a fiery path deep inside her body. Her spine went limp. Her knees went weak. She dug her nails into the firm flesh of his corded forearms, holding on for dear life. Her wits reeling under his expert tutelage, she realized she didn’t want to tear herself away. His cock, pressing into her belly, told her his arousal matched her own.