He closed the last few feet between them before she could blink. Instinctively, she put her hands on his chest, intending to push him away.
Luka laid his palms on top of her hands and gripped her wrists, guiding them up to rest on his shoulders. A loud purr rumbled through him, and she found herself frozen in place.
Slowly, he traced his hands down her arms, seeming to savor every inch of her skin.
Her breaths came in short pants. She wanted to pull away, knew she should, but just couldn’t bring herself to do it.
When his hands continued roaming down over her waist, he leaned in and began softly kissing her neck.
Goosebumps broke out over her skin when she felt his tongue glide over her collar bone. “Luka, we…we really… You shouldn’t…” Alice found she had trouble holding on to her thoughts as his hands traveled further down her body.
He grazed her hips, then slid his hands behind her to rest on her ass.
This was going too far. Alice needed to put a stop to it.
Just as she was beginning to pull back, Luka firmly kneaded her ass, shoving her lower body tightly against his. He nipped at her neck with his vibrating mouth, and Alice’s eyes slid shut. She let out a wanton moan, feeling heat pool between her thighs.
Luka gripped her ass, lifting her until she wrapped her legs around his waist. She leaned forward for a kiss, but he jerked away.
Raising a hand to her chin, he moved her face until she was looking directly into his eyes. He groaned and rocked his hips against her core, tearing a moan from her throat.
His wrist caught her eye before he lowered his hand. Angry red burns and charred skin circled the flesh where his shackles had been. His light, shining marks had turned black near his wrist and faded to gray then back to white as they traveled up his muscular forearm. Seeing his injuries reminded her of what they’d just escaped and stirred her from the aroused fog she was in.
“Luka, I don’t want it to be like this.” She pushed away from him again, squirming to be let down.
At first, he made no move to drop her, but then his whole body stiffened, and he set her on her feet. Turning away, he snarled viciously.
Alice craned her neck to see what had upset him and shrieked to find a large man pointing what looked like a gun at Luka.
Luka advanced, running toward the man at full speed. The click of a trigger was followed by the faint sound of a whizzing object.
Alice looked on in horror as Luka slumped to the ground, mere feet from his attacker.
When he was sure Luka was no longer moving, the man straightened, lowering his weapon. “Sorry about that. Didn’t mean to scare you,” he said with a lopsided grin. “The females down the hill told me Luka had been drugged, and he carried you off, so I thought he may need to be sedated.”
Alice couldn’t seem to find her words. Why was this man here? Was he going to drag her back to the underground facility?
“I can see you’re starting to panic,” he said, holding up his hands. “But I’m part of the rescue team. I’m Izzo.” He gave a small kick to Luka’s shin. “And this idiot is my brother.”
Chapter 7
“Brother?” Alice glanced between the two men, not sure whether to scream or relax. He was large like Luka, and some of their features were similar. The man standing before her could be related to Luka, but that didn’t mean she should trust him.
Izzo began hefting his brother’s limp body onto his shoulders with impressive ease.
“Wait!” she yelled, not knowing what to do but not sure she should be allowing this stranger to take Luka away.
Izzo froze, brows raised in question.
She took a few involuntary steps forward. The sight of Luka lying there motionless made her thoughts tangle together and her heart pound furiously. “How did you find us?” If this was his brother, why hadn’t he come to rescue him earlier?
“He implanted a tracker on himself somewhere, but I guess it didn’t work underground. When you guys escaped, it lit up, so we came to find him.”
It was a reasonable explanation, but she still couldn’t decide whether to believe him. Her gut told her he was telling the truth, but she’d learned the hard way that her gut was a lying bitch who couldn’t be believed. “How did you get here so fast?”
“They must have had some kind of scrambler or jammer set up in the cruiser when they brought him here because his signal cut out about 20 miles away. We’ve been searching around that area in shifts for weeks. When the tracker started pinging again, we were already close.”
Alice narrowed her eyes. “How do I know I can trust you?”
Izzo shifted the dead weight on his shoulders and scrunched his face in thought.
His eyes lit up. “Pizz-za!”
“Pizz-za? You mean pizza?” Alice repeated dumbly, trying to understand how this alien knew what pizza was and why the mention of it would make him trustworthy.
Izzo nodded happily, displaying perfect white teeth. “I know another Earth female, and she told me one of the things she misses the most from Earth is pizza. She also said pickles and ice cream, and…most of the things she’s mentioned are food, come to think of it.”
Alice focused her gaze on Luka and nibbled on her thumbnail. His back rose and fell with his breathing.
He looks fine, and no bad guy would stand around waiting for me to give the all-clear, right?
It was very unlikely that any woman being held against their will would’ve mentioned
