Just a Kiss Page 3

  “I see,” he said, but his face remained blank, clueless.

  “Do you know what has happened?” she asked.

  “I remember something quite remarkable before I passed out, but I must have been dreaming.” He smiled again. There was a sexy gleam in his eyes as he looked up and down her body before resting on her face.

  “I doubt it.” She smiled in return, wishing they were kissing instead of getting married.

  “Why are you chained?” His perfect eyebrows furrowed in puzzlement.

  “Your friends think we’re getting married. The chains are supposed to convince me of the inevitability.”

  “Married?” He looked quizzical.

  “Don’t tell me you don’t know what getting married is?”

  “I know the definition.” He shrugged.

  She had a feeling they weren’t speaking the same language.

  He continued, “I don’t see why—”

  “Did you ask me to kiss you, you know, before you fainted the last time?”

  “I may have.”

  “Why would you do that knowing the headache it was going to cause?”

  “I was ill from the death of my wife while we were on your planet. The healing powers of hands are renowned where I come from, especially if one massages the hands of another. It has very beneficial powers day to day. It can be life-saving when we lose a husband or a wife. Why do you ask?”

  “Kissing on your planet means touching hands together?” At his nod, she continued, “Well, kissing on my planet means touching mouths together.”

  The giant warrior before her actually blushed.

  “You touched your mouth to mine?” he asked in a horrified tone and put his fingers to his lips as if he could feel her hated kiss still lingering.

  “Listen, buster, you weren’t complaining at the time, and you didn’t stop me, either. You fully participated in the mouth touching…kissing. It’s called kissing!” She was furious that the most delicious and wonderful aspect of her dream was turning against her, too.

  “I was incapacitated,” he shouted back, then quickly calmed when he obviously thought about. “Hmm, no wonder I feel so good right now.”

  “You’re welcome.” Gabrielle tried to cross her arms. The chains made it impossible, so she turned her back on him in a huff. He put a big hand on her shoulder and turned her around to face him. His legs had slipped over the side of the slab he sat on, and she ended up nestled between his thighs. Again.

  “Listen to me. This is serious. On my planet, the touching of mouths is…well, it means we will have to become vita parcere—life partners.” He studied her face as if searching out the meaning behind her despicable act on his person.

  “I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t know. You asked me to kiss you, and I did. I didn’t know you meant to put my hands on yours.” Gabrielle sincerely wished he’d quit looking at her like she had defiled him.

  “I wish I could remember it more clearly. I thought I was dreaming.” He wiped a hand down his face and inhaled deeply. He continued to look at her, and to her surprise, he gave her a positively lustful smile and said, “It was very good.”

  “You want to kiss me again?” she asked and smiled coyly.

  “Yes, give me your hands.”

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  “I know.” He slid off the slab, steadied himself, and leaned against it with his hips. Maybe he felt weak in the knees, too, she thought with amusement, thinking of her own shaky limbs.

  God, he was gorgeous, she thought for the umpteenth time. Those silver eyes were simply mesmerizing and still watching her closely as she warred with her emotions. She’d accosted him, and yet he hadn’t whipped out a weapon to threaten her with or anything. He smiled at her as though everything would be okay. He should be furious, but he looked at her as if she enticed him.

  Heavy-lidded, lust-filled silver eyes searched her face as if to commit it to memory. Gabrielle looked into his heartfelt expression and couldn’t help herself. She threw her arms, chains and all, around his neck and pulled his mouth down to hers. She wanted him again. He shuddered and moaned when their mouths collided. He tasted so incredibly good. Her warrior. She was going to have to ask him his name one of these times.

  Gabrielle felt his hands on the move. He slid one around her neck and tangled it in her hair. The other went to the center of her back, pressing her close. She straddled one of his thighs. He remained leaning against the marble bed. She lifted her leg around his calf. His warm, wonderful tongue wrapped around hers with deliberate languor as if their mouths were dancing.

  She tasted him again and sighed in delicious wonder. The sweet, citrus flavor was back as he swirled and nibbled and stroked and made love to her mouth. He was more aggressive this time, probably because he was wide awake. Time stood still. She wanted to kiss this man forever. Maybe being his life partner wouldn’t be so bad.

  She didn’t know how long this kiss lasted, but it seemed like a very long, satisfying while as she became wet with desire. He seemed as urgent and as desperate as she was. She clung to him, rubbing her hyper-sensitive crotch against his steel-hard thigh in a desperate effort to scratch another voracious itch. Surely she wouldn’t climax another time.

  Not again so soon!

  A warm liquid rushed between her legs just then, negating her last thought about her imminent orgasm. She was going to climax again. It was coming. She could feel it.

  Every stroke of his tongue and suck of his mouth sent an electric pulse of pure, raw sexual zing directly to her anxious clit. She was on the brink. Her body was on fire as it neared fulfillment. He shuddered against her once more, and she tasted the rich decadent flavor of chocolate as before.

  Oh! Yes! Oh! Yes!

  She dove over a precipice she hadn’t expected to find again so soon. Gabrielle screamed into his mouth as she came and clamped her legs around his thigh in reflex. Her kissing lover groaned into her mouth soon after. It was amazing that he didn’t even have an erection, but he seemed very satisfied, all the same. Perhaps his body armor hid it. He stilled his movement as if he’d climaxed, too.

  Gabrielle wrapped her tongue around his suddenly less active one as if to lap up every drop of that sumptuous essence now swirling around between their lips. She felt a tremble ripple through him. She understood how he felt and licked and sucked on his mouth some more to taste every bit of the delicious flavor. She could swear he was smiling, but he didn’t break their delicious kiss.

  * * * *

  Keller held her loosely in his arms, this wonderful creature who’d given herself to him. He couldn’t believe he slept through this amazing experience the first time. He had thought he was dreaming. He remembered asking a beautiful waif with sun-colored hair to kiss him in the dream. She placed her luscious lips on his and sent him to a place he’d never been before. Paradise was the word they used on Earth, he believed. The way they kissed now had an obvious rhythm that could have only come from a previous experience.

  His lips remembered hers even if his broken mind hadn’t.

  Keller was currently in negotiations to life partner with Lena, his wife Maura’s sister. It was not because he was passionate about her but because he was overdue to choose a vita-parcere.

  The Earth woman clinging to him sighed and snuggled closer. Keller held in his arms his new destiny, now inevitable with their actions. He wanted only this enchanting woman for his life partner and no other. He would simply explain the circumstances to Maura. He clasped the Earth woman to his chest even tighter, wondering what her name was. A beautiful stranger was now his future life partner. Unlike in the past, the thought didn’t even scare him. Actually, he was beyond excited at the prospect.

  Keller had always craved excitement and adventure. He fulfilled this rampant yearning when he traveled to distant planets. This was his first and also final expedition to Earth before settling down to produce the required heir for his line. Now, he’d have to inquire as to what the laws on his plane
t held about partnering with indigenous members from an alien world.

  The very idea delighted him beyond measure—excitement and adventure, and most importantly, paradise forever.

  Chapter 4

  “What is your name anyway?” Gabrielle asked as she became more fully aware of her surroundings.

  “Keller, and yours?” He stroked her back.

  “I’m Gabrielle.”

  “Sounds—poetic.”

  “What just happened between us…again?”

  “We touched our mouths together. This time I was paying attention. I was right. It was remarkable.” He pulled her closer for a hug.

  “We only kissed, but apparently, you’re so good at it, I’m moved when you do it. It’s a mystery.”

  “You experienced a release?” he asked, an eyebrow quirking up.

  “Yeah, a big one. How did you do that?” It went right to my cl—. Well, she wasn’t going to tell him that.

  Keller shrugged, and then he smiled and gave her one of those looks—like a man who is an excellent lover and knows it. “It was my first time. I’m certain I don’t know what you mean.”

  “I think you do. By the way, it was at least your second time. You’re pretending to be modest, which is fine. It still doesn’t matter. On my planet, people do not get married because of a kiss regardless of whether they experience the heights of pleasure or not.”

  Actually, she was quite in awe of the fact that she was traveling to another planet. It was better to believe that than to acknowledge what could really be happening—that she was instead dying a slow, dream-filled death in some dirty, abandoned alley on Earth after hitting a wall running at full throttle.

  “We do life partner on my planet when we touch mouths. By the way, we will arrive on Tiburon very soon. I’m of royal lineage and am held to a strict standard. I can’t touch my mouth to someone and then walk away.”

  “Why not?” It’s a regular custom on Earth, she thought bitterly. Sometimes more than lips touched, and people—no, men—easily walked away. Gabrielle thought of her ex-boyfriend who’d dumped her over a year ago, very soon after she touched much more than lips with him.

  “I learned a phrase on your planet during my study of it. I believe it is called a shot-gun wedding.”

  “I’m not pregnant. Shot-gun weddings are for girls in the family way,” Gabrielle responded indignantly.

  “Preg-nant?” He sounded the word. “It has something to do with reproduction?”

  “Right…and I’m not reproducing…so, no shotgun wedding required.”

  “Not yet anyway.” He actually smirked.

  “Don’t tell me your reproductive organs are in your mouth. I will run screaming from this room right now.” As every alien horror movie she ever remembered watching cycled simultaneously through her mind, Gabrielle lifted her still-chained wrists from around his neck and took a step back.

  “Of course not. My reproductive organs are in the same place yours are. I learned that on day one.”

  “Well, what if someone forces another to participate?” It occurred to her, ironically enough, that it was exactly what had happened between them.

  She should thank her lucky stars Streak hadn’t simply executed her right then and there over Keller’s unconscious body during their infamous first kiss. A dramatic vision of her head being lopped off with Streak’s wicked sword danced in her brain.

  Keller shrugged. “Force is a rare occurrence. Usually, we have a protective barrier around us at all times to shield us from unwanted advances.”

  “I wish I had a barrier of protection, then I wouldn’t be in this mess.” Gabrielle had a sudden vision of herself dressed like Wonder Woman, standing tall against any and all bad guys intending her harm. In her vivid daydream, she laughed and watched as perverts and madmen bounced off her invisible force field to their much-deserved deaths.

  Keller cocked his head to one side. “I don’t understand your meaning.”

  “I was running for my life from a seriously deranged lunatic when I happened to stumble into your blue light.”

  “The barrier wouldn’t have protected you from our departure platform.” He scrunched his brows in puzzlement.

  “Well, I wouldn’t have been running for my life if I could repel unwanted advances with a barrier of protection.”

  “True, but the barrier isn’t infallible, as in our case. Besides, how could we have met if fate hadn’t stepped in?” Keller smiled in a predatory way and gave her a sultry, I-want-to-eat-you-up-right-now stare.

  “Fate certainly had a hand, but I still say a barrier would have been handy. So, why was your barrier broken again?” Gabrielle changed the subject to distract him. He looked so irresistible, she wanted to jump into his arms again.

  “My wife died. The loss of someone close precipitates the Tiburon barrier to disable.”

  “Right. Your wife died.” Gabrielle sobered up from her lust. The thought of Keller pressing his lips to all those wives upset her more than getting dumped by her idiot ex-boyfriend last year.

  “Yes.” A look of sadness stole over his handsome features. This made Gabrielle jealous, and she had absolutely no right to be.

  “You were so overcome with grief, your barrier was broken when I accosted you, kissing you like you asked me to.”

  “I only wanted to kiss…your hand.”

  “What will happen now? If it turns out I’m not dead, that is.”

  “Dead?”

  “Yeah, dead. Maybe I need an alien-to-earthling dictionary. I can look up a word, and you can tell me the reinterpreted meaning in your language,” she said sarcastically.

  Keller smiled. “I have a scientific translator embedded in my head to sort through and interpret alien phrases. It does a pretty good job.”

  “But it didn’t tell you my definition of a kiss.”

  He shrugged again, and Gabrielle thought she saw him smile. A terrible thought occurred to her.

  “Wait a minute. You knew!”

  “Knew what?” His eyes showed sincere puzzlement, but she was onto him. He was no better than the lying bastards on Earth.

  “You knew what a kiss was to me, and you requested it anyway. You have been on Earth for a length of time. You must have seen all of us touching our mouths together. It must have been a real-live porno fest for you and your kind.”

  “I don’t know what you are talking about.” But his tone said he did.

  “Oh, yes, you do! You knew when you asked me to kiss you I would put my mouth on yours, didn’t you? Admit it.”

  “I was incapacitated. I don’t even remember asking you to kiss me.” He sounded convincing, but she knew a lot about men, most especially how they lied easily to suit themselves.

  “I don’t believe you.” Gabrielle heard sadness in her own voice. She hated to be fooled by men, but unfortunately, she was often gullible in matters of the heart.

  “I thought I dreamed you up. I didn’t think you were real. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to mislead you. I promise.” He sounded sincere.

  Gabrielle was so confused. She put her hands to her face and wiped the moisture from her eyes. She couldn’t decide whether she was angrier about his half-truths or about her own gullibility.

  “Doesn’t matter. I don’t want to be your wife. I won’t life partner with someone who is already married.”

  “Married means?”

  “Life partnering!” she said, exasperated. “How many wives do you have anyway?”

  “I have five wives…I mean, four. I have only four now because one died recently on your planet,” he said with obvious sorrow.

  Gabrielle hated the immediate empathy she felt for his loss. He obviously loved the wife who had died to the point that he’d been incapacitated in his grief, leaving him vulnerable to her violation of his mouth.

  “Right. Sorry. How did she die, anyway?” Gabrielle tried to change the subject at hand again.

  “It was…just her time. Thinking on it now, I believe she m
ust have known this was her final trip abroad. She lived a long and happy life, but she wasn’t expected to pass on during this trip. I was her husband for a long while, and she was a very dear soul. I’ll miss her.”

  “Uh-huh. She was older than you, I’m guessing?” Gabrielle hated this subject.

  “Yes.”

  “I don’t want to be your new fifth wife, Keller,” she stated clearly, trying to get him to understand. Lip touching expert or not, orgasms while kissing notwithstanding, bottom line, Gabrielle still didn’t want to life partner with someone and then share him with his other women.

  Not going to happen.

  “Okay,” he agreed, and his eyebrows scrunched again in confusion.

  They were talking, but she had a feeling they were not necessarily communicating. If kissing meant two different things, then perhaps other words were multi-meaning, too.

  Gabrielle gave herself a pop on the forehead, resisting the urge to say ‘Duh’ to herself.

  “What does life partner mean?” she asked.

  “It means we will be together for the remainder of our lives. One flesh. We will have children to proliferate my lineage. We will go to social gatherings together. Sleep together. Live our lives together.”

  “Then what does wife mean?”

  “Husbands and wives are—” he stopped to search the air for a word, “—in a trade together.”

  “Do you have any husbands?” she asked, smiling with sudden clarity.

  “Yes, of course. I have fifteen of them.”

  Gabrielle laughed out loud. He gave her a sour look in return. Clearly, he did not understand her amusement.

  “So wives and husband do not touch mouths together.”

  “Of course not. We merely conduct business for commerce, like a job in your world.”

  “Okay, then I’ll stop feeling jealous,” Gabrielle said quietly.

  “I know what jealous is,” he responded with an amused smile on his face. “Are you jealous of my wives? You have no reason to be. You are the only woman who has ever touched my lips.”