Parallel Attraction Read online

  "In what universe am I the stranger?" she shot back at him, then hit her forehead with the heel of her hand. "Oh, that's right! That would be your universe. On this planet, last time I checked, you're the alien."

  Kelsey Wells had spirit—true backbone—and it instantly penetrated all his old fears about love and abandonment. "I stand corrected." He gave a grudging smile. "Smarter minds obviously prevail in this relationship." To punctuate the apology, he bowed slightly in respect.

  "So you're admitting it's a relationship now?" she said. "One minute, I'm just a stranger, but now we're a happy couple?"

  "You confound me, female."

  She set her jaw, blue eyes flashing with fire. "Hey, maybe it's time someone did."

  "These emotions, this connection... I find it most confusing," he admitted seriously, adjusting his jeans so that his erection didn't hurt so damned much. Bad strategy, falling into a disagreement with the human at such a prize moment as this one.

  She knelt before him, leaning in close until her steady gaze locked with his own. "Tell me what this is between us," she insisted, her voice growing softer again. "I think you know what's really happening here. I think you can explain it to me. And I don't think it has anything to do with data you put inside of me or even our past together. This is about right here, right now."

  Such trust—both in her statement, and shimmering in her fire-lit eyes—and something about seeing that complete trust there unraveled him. It caused all his poise and self-possession—his attempts to gain control over his skittering emotions—to crash down around him like shattered ice.

  Leaping to his feet, he cried, "I have bound you to me! That is what I have done!" He began pacing before the fire, the agitation in his heart swelling. "I have taken you and mated your soul to my very own. And for one purpose, Kelsey Wells. To preserve information that might save my people. And yours." She remained in the kneeling position, there on the pillows, like a captive offering herself to him. "That is the sort of man I am—that is the sort of man you are dealing with here. I've taken you against your will, by the gods. And not only that, but I allowed you to give yourself to me in return. That is not the behavior of an ally, but of an enemy. And yet—we are mated. We are fully bound to one another, human. Mystical, pure … and yet utterly, utterly wrong."

  Her features hardened. "When?" she demanded. "When did we... mate?"

  "The night of my crash. That is what happened there, Kelsey," he said, punctuating each word with his finger in the air as he paced before the fire. "That is why we can't stop hungering this way—not because of love or tenderness or attraction. Not even youthful memory or a stolen kiss when we were caught up in a childish dream! No, we are bound together for one reason: because I forced my will upon you."

  "Forced?" she whispered, and he crouched down in front of her, meeting her gaze firmly.

  "And yet you think you care for me," he continued, schooling his features into a cold, fearsome expression. "You think me beautiful? A man you might love?" He couldn't seem to halt the fury, the deep pain so long etched into his heart, and now that she'd uncorked it, it poured like acid, overflowing onto the gentle, strong human before him. "You think me a man who might not harm you, given the chance? If so, you think wrongly! Perhaps now you understand."

  Tears pooling in her eyes, she studied his face and whispered the one thing he least expected: "I don't think that I could love you." She shook her head resolutely. "I know that I could. Maybe I always have."

  With a guttural, agonized sound, he strode from the room like a firestorm, all quake and thunder and fury. Sprawling on the pillows, she watched his retreat, shocked. Her mouth still felt swollen from his kisses, her body still ravaged by his fever. But even as she blinked back tears—tears caused by his horrible admission of how he'd taken her against her will—the quietest of voices argued that Jared had not told her the full truth. There is more to this situation, the scientist within her resolved. There is much more to this man you've already come to care for—and who has obviously come to care for you.

  In her heart, she heard his words from last night in the car: no other human. She was the first and only one on her planet whom he'd ever allowed to glimpse him. And what was all this about their souls being mated? She had to know more, had to understand what he had revealed.

  Rising to her feet, she walked past the sitting area and into what appeared to be his dressing room. There, bent over the sink, the alien warrior stood shirtless, splashing water on his face—a face that could only be described as ashen. Without looking up at her or even meeting her gaze in the mirror, he demanded, "Why do you follow?"

  She stepped closer, her eyes fixed on his reflection. "I know you care about me, too. It's alive in this room, electric."

  He made a slight groaning sound, as plaintive and despairing as it was angry. "I have told you what exists between us now. How I've violated you…that I've forged our two souls together without your knowledge, without your willingness." He groaned. "Without your understanding of what I wanted or created between us."

  Kelsey kept her voice very quiet and steady. "Once, a long time ago," she reminded him, "I begged you to kiss me. I opened myself to you even then—that much I do remember."

  He gaped at her. "That was only a kiss. Nothing more, not a husband's rights… not the right to bind your soul to mine. Just a kiss, Kelsey."

  She shook her head. "It was much more, even then. And now we're adults. Everything is different…. We're both mature and I want you to have all of me. I want your love."

  "You can't afford the danger of what those words mean. I didn't bond with you by the lake because I cared for you. I was being pragmatic; it was a wartime calculation."

  "But that isn't all the truth." She reached a hand to touch his bare shoulder, where a long mark began and ran all the way to the small of his back—a jagged, angry scar. For some reason, she felt the need to caress it. Lifting delicate fingers, she traced the outline, and he visibly flinched, jerking upright. His blazing eyes locked with hers in the mirror.

  "Kelsey, it has to be the truth," he said in a low, pained voice, much like the sound of a wounded timber wolf baying at the moon. "I must lead this revolution," he continued. His voice assumed an even, placating sound. "I must be focused. Not distracted by someone as . . . perplexing as you."

  "Are you not allowed to love?" she asked, cocking her head and studying him in the mirror. "Is that the real reason why they stole our memories of each other years ago?"

  This comment seemed to garner a strong reaction, his black eyes flaring with harnessed energy. Alien eyes masquerading as human.

  "I am allowed whatever I choose to seek."

  "Oh, I see," she said, withdrawing her hand protectively. "Then you must not want to love me."

  A terrible broken sound erupted from his chest—something foreign and decidedly un-human—and he swept her into his arms with unbridled force. Feeling his strong ribs pressed hard against her, and with them the untamed rhythm of his heart, she could barely breathe. With every moment that unfurled between them, he seemed to become more alien, and the change aroused something primal within her.

  Murmuring words she did not recognize, he ran his strong hands all over her body, almost as if he needed to feel her shape. Her substance. He made another cry, a harsh, angry sound. "If I am not careful, Kelsey Wells," he confessed, pressing his lips against the top of her head, "I will love you. It is what I fear most right now."

  "Why is that something to fear?"

  "Because no man has ever slain me."

  Suddenly she understood. "But a woman has."

  He turned, pulling free from her arms, again putting his back to her. Kelsey followed. "Was she... bound to you?"

  "Never," he said, their eyes locking in the mirror. "Never before have I taken a bondmate."

  She reached to touch his lower back again, feeling the thick scar beneath her fingertips. "I can't imagine anyone refusing you."

  With the unexpec
tedness of a snow squall, he whirled upon her, shape-shifting in an instant to the fiery, blazing ball of energy she had first seen on the lakeshore a week earlier. He shot past her, back to the bedroom, hovering over the pillows where they'd lain together only moments earlier. Swallowing hard, she followed him, taking cautious steps toward the place where his radiant form blazed as though in competition with the flames in the fireplace—not touching the floor or the ceiling, but occupying nearly the entire space between both.

  "Jared." She kept her voice calm as she measured out her steps. He wanted her to be terrified, wanted to demonstrate that anyone in her right mind would be afraid; in fact he seemed eager to prove that point.

  The blaze burning in the hearth behind him was little more than a dim candle compared to his wild brightness, towering high over her—much higher than he had that night at Mirror Lake.

  "Jareshk, did this frighten the woman you loved? The one you wanted to bond with?" She craned her neck to take in the full height of him, fury and all. But the brightness proved too much, forcing her eyes shut.

  Would you mate with this? he shouted inside of her mind, the words searing her heart. Willingly?

  "Yes," she said aloud.

  Then you are insane!

  Forcing her eyes open, she gazed upon him, refusing to flinch—refusing to back down or away. "I have never seen anyone more beautiful in all my life."

  The roaring storm grew hushed, still. Like Christmas Eve on Main Street back in her hometown, all expectant and magical. Beautiful, he repeated, and she shivered, feeling his deep, shocked pleasure.

  "Oh, yes, Jared," she said, smiling. "Amazingly beautiful. Just as I told you before."

  The golden fire of him suddenly burned a deep russet, almost the color of her hair. In some elemental way, she recognized that he was blushing. Feeling her words of admiration to his very core.

  Kelsey. He sighed, but said nothing more. Lovely, lovely. Human beautiful. Strange.

  As with the first night, she realized that to keep his true form, he had to sacrifice his facility with human language. So she chose to stand before him, as quiet as she felt him to be, watching the reddish hue morph back to the recognizable blaze of fire. Reaching out one hand, she wanted to touch him, but again like the first night, he admonished her, No touch!

  Why was he always so adamant that she not touch him? Maybe he was, in some way, like that stone that he wore, capable of blistering her on contact.

  She held her palms out, opening them. "Then touch me, Jared. You touch me. . . like that other time. When we made the bond, like you said. I want to feel that bonding again. Please."

  Her eyes were closed against his wildness, but she sensed him whispering within her soul at that moment. Some sort of promise, or assurance, or pledge. She didn't think to question it because at that precise moment the low burn began, just as it had that night a week ago, winding its way up her legs, parting her thighs, searing her until her lips opened with a quiet Ohhhhh sound of pleasure. The closer he pressed within her, the more she could feel his memories. She saw unearthly sunsets and flashes of faces from his life: dark-haired men and women and his beautiful cousin. Then she saw, oddly enough, an image of herself.

  Now he's in my heart, she realized, feeling him burrow in, his soul pushing upon hers. Her nipples grew erect within her bra, pressing against the thin silk. Then he eased apart from her, careening toward the far side of the room, but she understood somehow that he wished her to lie down on the large throw pillows. She complied, and in answer a single alien word whispered through her consciousness. Instinctively she knew its meaning: Open.

  "Open?" she repeated. "Open what?

  Then she felt him tease her, coaxing her open. Her soul, her body. She arched beneath the seduction, lifting her hips, her eyes drifting closed again. One by one, she unsnapped the buttons of her sweater until it revealed her human body to him. She stripped out of her bra, and he sighed across her skin—all the while keeping his distance on the other side of the room.

  Sitting up, she managed to open her eyes and stare at him, and without ever allowing her gaze to waver, she slipped out of her jeans until she stood before her lover in nothing more than her panties.

  He whispered a few words within her spirit, then her name, which sounded a bit like "Kelsha."

  Lower! he urged. Pillows.

  So she obeyed, spreading across the silken throw pillows, flat on her back. At that precise moment he moved, now hovering directly over her against the ceiling. His fire overtook her in the space of a single heartbeat, snaking across her abdomen, coiling about her loins and tightening. She bucked her hips upward, crying out loudly. His fiery fingers reached between her legs, inside, touching, caressing, working their way to the very center of her being.

  She couldn't breathe, couldn't think. There was just so much of him, all inside of her, and she couldn't stop shaking, her entire body shuddering. "More!" she cried, bunching silk within her hands, her back arching. "Jared, more!"

  And he obviously sensed her longing, moving quickly apart from her—no longer hovering over her body. From across the room, even with her eyes closed, she knew he was shifting again, closing the distance that separated them with one quick stride. "Kelsey," he moaned, falling upon her. "Kelsey, Kelsey."

  His body was hot to the touch, burning her fingertips as she ran them over his strong, muscled shoulders, his dark forearms.

  For a moment he tugged at her underwear, scowling in deep and obvious consternation. A low growl rumbled from his chest, something primitive that she welcomed from him. Taking one fingertip, he used his power to separate her from the silken material.

  "This. . . patch," he observed, stroking the silken red hair that graced the area between her legs. "It is red. But blond some, too."

  "You've never been with a redhead, I take it." She gasped. His eyes lifted to hers, mischievous with desire, and he teased his fingers through the thatch of auburn curls that had caught his fancy, dipping his fingers into her wet warmth.

  With a satisfied, slow smile, he told her, "I like red. Everyone knows this." In response, she shimmied back against the pillows. "Yes," he said, pressing a burning kiss against her abdomen. "I definitely like red."

  "And I like you out of those jeans," she shot back.

  Glancing down, he seemed almost surprised to discover himself still dressed. With a flick of his wrist, he unsnapped the Levi's and snaked right out of them until he stood before her in all of his glorious naked form. Wow, so the alien warrior goes commando? Good to know.

  "You are quite naughty, human."

  "How could you hear that?"

  Pressing his long, sinewy body on top of her smaller one, he nuzzled her, slipping right between her legs. Because I could, he answered with a heady little sound inside her soul.

  "Is this because we are bound?" she managed to pant into his ear. "Because we're tied together, like you said?"

  "No, Kelsey," he whispered, pulling her back into the pillows. "It is not because we are bound," he managed to groan, desire and heat reaching a mad crescendo inside his body. He would do anything to take this human, anything to mate with her, anything to satisfy this pulsing intensity that the bond had created in his Refarian bloodstream.

  But it is far more than the bond, he told himself. It is Kelsey herself—you have fallen for the human. You feel love.

  With that inner admission came another. He could no longer hold back: He would bed her tonight, no matter the cost. Even if such a joining meant they could not go back, could not reverse the bond that had been formed.

  "Then why, Jared?" she gasped as he pushed between her legs. "Why can we not stop these feelings? This fire?"

  "Because, sweet Kelsey." He sighed, knowing that his next words would be true once they had completed what they'd already begun a week ago. "We are more than bond-mates," he said. "A bond is beautiful, powerful. Special. Sacred. But this is more."

  "What more is it?" she asked, breathless.

&
nbsp; "I believe we are destined," he whispered in her ear. "I wish you for my lifemate."

  Oh my goodness. Kelsey drew in a breath as he pushed against her opening, like sculpted stone sheathed in silk.

  For long seconds he hesitated, hovered there… pushed a bit, pulled back. "Jared!" She clutched at his broad shoulders, dragging him down on her again.

  He stared into her eyes. "We'll never have this moment again," he told her huskily. "Never can we go back."

  "I don't think I want to," she said, stroking his hair, his shoulders, needing all of him.

  He worked to steady himself and then, cupping her face, he whispered, "Until we seal our bond, it can be broken, sweet Kelsey. Do you understand? After, we are bound forever. If we cross this boundary, if we take this step—"

  She pressed her fingertips against his lips, silencing him. "Then we become lifemates. Don't we?"

  He nodded, closing his eyes. "You speak truth," he whispered, swallowing. "And perhaps we should wait. Too fast, too soon."

  "I won't wait," she insisted, clasping his hips and urging him onward, feeling something strange boil in her blood. Something that she understood was the very alien compulsion to mate.

  "Yes, love." He sighed, and then did something unexpected. He whispered a line of poetry into her ear, something about changing states with kings. Shakespeare! she realized with a giddy laugh. "Yes again, my love," he purred, and then, without another word, plunged deep inside of her.

  At first they rocked quietly together; then they intensified their motions, crying out, pushing, and chasing each other's need to the very brink of ecstasy. Later, as they neared the end, they couldn't stop cradling each other's faces, showering each other with sweet kisses. But neither spoke a word; neither wanted to communicate that way. Jared began to feel Kelsey's soul: imperceptible at first, the softest brushing of hers against his—but then the sensations intensified until he lost himself in it, seeing the beautiful purples and crimsons of her energy. Drinking in her scent, drawing it deep into his lungs with every thrust he made into her human body.