Distant Desires: Part 3 Read online

  His heart was beating rapidly, almost like he should be running and not standing still before me. I wondered how he could appear so calm when his thoughts seemed to be moving so fast. It caused my heart to speed up; it caused a fine tremor beneath my skin. My desire for Tarek went beyond the physical.

  Yes, I wanted him and, yes, my body literally craved him.

  But my heart, my heart was equally as affected.

  How could it not be when he said the most beautiful things to me. And what made them even more beautiful was that he had no idea just how incredible his words were. He didn’t say these things because he thought it might endear him to me. He didn’t try to spout pretty words so I would fall under his spell.

  Tarek spoke with an honesty that he didn’t realize. He said exactly what he was thinking without realizing yet that it was words that caused so much feeling.

  Words were far, far more powerful than his touch would ever be.

  And it was his words that were going to cause me to totally fall for him.

  “Sophie?” Tarek questioned, giving my hand a squeeze.

  “I feel the same way when you’re not here too,” I whispered.

  “So it’s normal, then?”

  I shook my head. “No. This isn’t normal,” I said. “But it’s what everybody here on Earth searches for.”

  He kissed me. Completely captured my mouth and made it his own. For someone who admittedly did little (if no) kissing up until this point, he was a very fast learner. He drank me in like he was starved, like there just wasn’t enough of me. His lips devoured mine. The heat of his skin seeped into me, making me melt.

  Tarek’s tongue glided over my lips, teasing them open and then gently delving into the depths of my mouth, sweeping past my tongue and brushing over the roof of my mouth. My hands slid up the back of his neck and threaded through the silky, thick strands of his hair, trying to pull him even closer.

  Tarek lifted me as if I weighed nothing at all, and my legs fastened around his lean waist like Velcro. He made a sound in the back of his throat, and I greedily snatched it from him, sucking it into my throat.

  Energy coursed through my body like I’d had way too much coffee, leaving me feeling jittery and out of sorts, but I didn’t care.

  He was so unbelievably everything.

  He was oxygen to my lungs, blood to my veins, and the sun to my sky.

  As the kiss stretched into minutes and my body melded even farther against him, I wondered how the hell I had ever lived without him.

  “Take me to bed.” I gasped, then instantly sealed our lips back together.

  Without hesitation, Tarek carried me into the bedroom and laid me in the center of my queen-sized bed. His body came down over mine, and I clutched at the T-shirt he wore, desperately wanting it to be gone.

  In one fluid movement, he pulled it up over his head and tossed it aside, covering me with his hard, smooth chest.

  I purred, little sounds of satisfaction filling the dark bedroom as he rubbed against me like a cat, pressing lingering kisses across my jawbone and down my neck.

  My hands roamed all over him, delving into the waistband of his jeans and kneading the muscles of his butt. He pulled back abruptly, and my hands fell onto the mattress on either side of me.

  His eyes, even in the dark, glittered down at me. I was lost when I looked into them, like I was being sucked into a world that didn’t scare me at all. I couldn’t be scared when he was this close—the way he touched me, the way he looked at me. Tarek wasn’t going to hurt me. I didn’t think he was capable.

  With careful ease, he removed my clothes until I was totally naked and laid out before him. I could see the length of him, contained and pressing against his jeans. He ignored it, like the insistent need of his body would wait until he was done pleasuring me.

  On his knees between my legs, Tarek smoothed his palms over my rounded belly. “I don’t understand,” he said, caressing me with long, gentle strokes.

  “Understand what?” I murmured, my eyes half closed from the gratification of his hands.

  “How the men on my planet could not have been affected seeing their child inside a woman’s womb.”

  His eyes lifted from my middle and settled on my face. “How anyone could be so utterly unaffected, so emotionless, about a woman nourishing a seed they planted, literally giving them another piece of themselves.”

  “You’re not unaffected?” I asked.

  “Oh no,” he said, slipping his hands lower than my belly, delving them between my thighs, and dipping into my silky heat. “I think you’re absolutely amazing.”

  I moaned softly as his fingers slid inside me, working me gently. It took a moment for me to reply, but the thought wouldn’t disappear. “What about when your baby isn’t inside me anymore?” I asked as a sliver of fear worked its way up my spine.

  What if what was between us slipped away when I was no longer pregnant? What if the thing that tethered us together was this baby?

  His fingers stopped moving within me. Carefully, he pulled out in one long stroke.

  “You will always be beautiful to me.”

  Being beautiful was one thing. Being someone he needed was something else entirely. I wanted Tarek to need me. I wanted him to want me the same way I wanted him.

  He stood beside the bed, staring intently as he unfastened the top button on his jeans. All thought left me. Every worry, every fear evaporated. I sat up, reaching to help free his strong, hard cock.

  Just the sight of it made excitement tingle in my lower half. My inner muscles flexed and readied for his entrance. As he pushed the jeans down, I stroked him, sliding just a little bit closer to him.

  When he straightened, his cock was at the level of my lips. On impulse, I let my tongue loose and licked the tip, enjoying the way his body shuddered.

  “Again,” he growled.

  I licked him again and then sucked him into my mouth, drawing him as deep as my throat would allow.

  The way his hips pumped, thrusting into me, was so satisfying because I knew he liked the way I made him feel. I curled my lips around him, holding tight to his dick as he slid it in and out of my mouth.

  Abruptly, he pulled out, leaving me to grasp at him for more, but he shook his head and grabbed behind my knees. I fell backward on the mattress as he dragged me closer to him until my legs were off the bed and my hips were at the very edge.

  He positioned himself at my entrance, and I whimpered. Just the hint of his round, hard head getting ready to push inside me was enough to make me beg.

  Long fingers slid over the front of my legs and inside my thighs, and I linked my ankles behind his back.

  He delved into me with one long, hard stroke.

  I cried out as he stretched me and complete bliss coursed through my limbs.

  Tarek bent, bringing his body over mine, covering me as our naked chests came together. Usually, any sexual encounter with him was all about pleasure. It was all about what kind of reaction he could illicit from me. Or, more recently, it was about what kind of feelings I could withdraw from him.

  This time was different.

  I was expecting hard and fast.

  I was expecting fierce and carnal.

  It wasn’t any of those things.

  His lips found mine in a gentle, almost lazy kiss as he braced his forearms on each side of my shoulders and used his hands to cradle my head.

  He moved within me as he rocked over me, connecting with me from the inside out. His thrusts were slow and deep. He pushed inside me and buried himself there, rocking easily with his hips with a smooth and easy motion. His chest stayed in contact with mine and his hands stayed in my hair, cupping me as he kissed me dizzy.

  I was in danger of imploding. Emotion built up within me, so intense I was almost frightened. I felt like there was a wire inside me and it was stretched absolutely thin, ready to snap at any moment. The butterfly sensation in my stomach didn’t stay there; it spread throughout my limbs unti
l I was shaking noticeably. So much so that it made Tarek pull his lips away and tilt his head as he looked at me through heavy, amethyst eyes.

  “Are you all right, Sophie?” His voice was incredibly rich and husky. “Are you not enjoying this?”

  He started to pull away, as if the idea of me not enjoying this was unacceptable. I snatched him back, wrapping my arms around his neck and tugging him back down. “Don’t stop.”

  “But you’re shaking.” He frowned.

  “You’re not the only one who’s new to this emotion stuff,” I whispered, running a hand through his tousled hair. “I’ve been feeling all my life,” I said, “but I’ve never felt like this before.”

  His hips, which had been still for long moments, moved gently. The hard length inside me moved and caused me to moan.

  “So you like this,” he whispered, rotating his hips and causing sparks of heat to burn me from within.

  “Oh yes,” I breathed. “Please don’t stop.”

  He lowered his lips again, this time his tongue tracing the outline of my lips before dipping into my welcoming mouth and dancing with mine. He started to move again, his movements achingly slow, and they built the kind of tension that only this pace could.

  I clutched at his shoulders, pulling him deeper, wanting him closer. Every single part of me was somehow touching him, yet I wanted closer. Tarek left my mouth and began trailing kisses across my collarbone and pressing his face between my neck and shoulder.

  My body was turning to Jell-O, and soon my legs were no longer able to stay clasped around his hips and they dropped, dangling over the side of the bed.

  Without a word, Tarek lifted me, the movement causing him to slip out of my body. I made a sound of despair, and his throaty chuckle had my insides burning again.

  “You are a needy little thing,” he said as he dragged my body farther onto the bed and climbed back between my legs.

  I grasped his biceps and urged him to hurry.

  His cock sank back into me one inch at a time, and I bit down on my lip to keep from crying out. This time he braced himself on his hands and rocked into me a little bit harder, and my back arched up off the bed.

  One of my erect nipples was tugged into his mouth and he lapped at it as he thrust deeply into my core.

  My body was hungry, hungry for release and to feel the pulsing release of his orgasm. But he wouldn’t let me go there yet.

  He kept the pace slow as he explored my body until I could no longer think or see. All I could do was ask him for more.

  When at last it seemed he couldn’t take any more, his arms slid around me, pulling me close, and with a soft grunt in my ear, he plunged right into my core.

  I splintered apart; my entire body shattered. Wave after wave of ecstasy washed over my body, making me weak. “That’s it, love,” he murmured, holding me close. “I want all of it. Give it to me.”

  I did. I gave him everything. By the time I started to come back from the high, a feeling of complete rawness crept over me. I literally did give him everything. I gave him so much of myself that it scared me. I’d never felt anything like this in my entire life.

  I might have started freaking out, but the sudden moan that ripped from his chest, the tightening of his arms around me, and the feeling of his hot cock pumping inside me obliterated everything else.

  I wrapped my legs around him, pulling him even closer as my body milked every single last drop from him, eating it hungrily. Some of the rawness left me as he filled me up inside. I hugged him close, reveling in each little aftershock that rippled through his body.

  Long, blissful minutes of us being connected drifted past, and then Tarek stirred, bracing himself over me on his elbows. He brushed the hair out of my face and stared down at me with emotion swimming in his eyes.

  “When emotion slips in,” he began, stroking the side of my head, “when a person starts to feel it…”

  I nodded as he searched for the words he wanted.

  “It all comes at once. It’s not something that happens gradually, you know?” It really wasn’t a question because he kept talking. “My entire being is bombarded with emotion after emotion. I don’t know how you humans walk around every day with so much going on inside you.”

  I smiled. “It gets easier. Once you know what it’s like to feel all the time, the intensity of every emotion will lessen.”

  “Perhaps,” he said, considering my words. “I hope what I feel for you never goes away.”

  Tears sprang to my eyes. He still had no idea how much his words affected me. The truth that lay between us was beautiful. He was so pure with what he felt.

  “I hope not either,” I said, my voice tearful.

  “Did I say something wrong?” he asked, wiping a rogue tear away from the corner of my eye.

  “You did everything exactly right.”

  “There is something I need to know,” he said, slipping off me and onto the bed. Before settling down, he pulled the covers up over us, then wrapped his arms around me.

  “Okay,” I said, laying a cheek against his chest.

  “Can I kiss you whenever I want?”

  I smiled. “Yes.”

  “Even if we are not here? Like out where there are others?”

  He wanted to know about PDA. I giggled. “Yes, Tarek, you can kiss me whenever you want.”

  “And you would like that?”

  “I would love that,” I replied softly.

  “And kissing you…” He began. “People would know you are mine?”

  There went his possessive side again. “I think if the kiss doesn’t prove that, then my growing belly will,” I said ruefully.

  “So here on your planet, the fathers, they are involved with the child and the mother?”

  “Not all the time, but usually, yes.”

  “You said it would be hard for you if I wasn’t here?”

  A sharp pain pierced my heart. I felt my limbs stiffen, no longer able to relax completely into him. I didn’t understand why he was asking me this.

  He felt the change come over me and whispered my name. Unable to lie there against him with utter joy any longer, I sat up, covering myself with the blanket, and looked down at him.

  “You’re leaving me, aren’t you?”

  the relationship

  I

  went from blissful to scared in about three seconds flat. The idea of losing him—of losing the way I felt with him—was so incredibly awful it made me feel physically ill. How had it gotten this way?

  I used to be independent. Living on my own, going to college, setting the pace for my life, and happily unattached.

  And now.

  Now it felt like Tarek was the oxygen I needed to live.

  I wanted him desperately. I couldn’t imagine not feeling his hands on me every single day. I couldn’t imagine a man without a galaxy in his stare. How in the hell did he insert himself beneath my skin so deep, so fast?

  True, I had known him for over four months, but most of that time had been spent apart. I wanted the chance to know him, to know everything about him, from what kind of food he liked most to the secret behind his perfect hair.

  I didn’t see him move, but suddenly, I felt his lips cover mine, his tongue part the entrance to my mouth, and then his oxygen once again filling my lungs.

  “You’re doing it again,” he said, pulling away.

  I dragged in a ragged breath. “You’re leaving,” I said, flat.

  “I’m not leaving,” he replied, reaching out to finger the ends of my dark, tangled hair.

  “You aren’t?” Damn the hope I felt rise within me.

  He settled back against the pillows and lifted me into his lap, tucking the sheets around me. One of his arms wrapped around my middle so his palm could splay over my belly while the other on rested over the blankets in my lap.

  “I was trying to ask you if I could stay.”

  “You want to stay,” I echoed. Yes. I realize I’d pretty much been echoing his wor
ds. Clearly, I was having a massive brain fart.

  “I wasn’t sure if you would have me.” He began, nerves creeping into his tone. “So I was going to point out that having the father of your baby around might alleviate some of the stress you spoke about, you know, from people talking.”

  “I want you to stay.” The words rushed out of me like a rocket.

  “You do?” he asked.

  It struck me then that we were sort of acting like teenagers. Unsure, kind of guarded, but underneath we were totally in lo—totally into each other. It was a large step back from the honesty we had going for us.

  I laid my head back against his chest. “I want you, Tarek. Not because I don’t want people to talk about me behind my back. Because you make me feel like no one else does. I like having you around. And frankly, you’re freaking hot and I like looking at you.”

  He laughed.

  I loved that sound.

  “I like looking at you too.”

  “Remember that when I’m fat,” I muttered.

  His arms tightened around me. “Good thing I have, as you say, a large wingspan.”

  I smiled and snuggled closer. “So you’re going to stay?” I asked. “Just like that?”

  “Just like that.”

  “Don’t you have, like, somewhere else to be?”

  “I told you. I belong to you now. The only place I need to be is with you.”

  “What about them?” I asked, a yawn distorting my words.

  “Them?” he asked. His accent didn’t help with my sleepiness. Neither did being wrapped up in his warm embrace. Both combined was like my own personal lullaby.

  “The other Sapiens. What did they want to talk to you about?” I asked, yawning again.

  “I told them I was staying here with you.”

  “And they were okay with it?” I asked, tipping my chin up to look at him. It didn’t seem like they would just say okay and be done with it.

  Tarek placed his hand on the back of my head and gently guided it back down against him. “I told them it was best for the child. They agreed.”

  “So it’s because of the baby,” I said.

  “No,” he said decisively. “But that’s what they understand. They don’t understand… my attachment toward you.”