Chapter 17 Holly
HOLLY
“Call Me Maybe” played on a loop in my head.
Crazy. That I could feel so much for someone I’d only just met, especially an overwhelming sense of pure lust. I barely knew anything about him. But it took all my self-control to keep from wrapping my arms around him and pressing my body tightly to his.
Everything inside me insisted I needed him. Now. Connection. Warmth. Touch. Safety.
Unless he couldn’t break Snyder’s hold on him.
Rekt carried one of my mrions. Hopefully it was snooping around inside him, trying to help us find a way to escape. But there was something else I could do to test his trustworthiness. If I dared.
If you share fluids with him, you will begin the bonding through combined nucleic acid structure.
I wasn’t ready to risk full on sex—especially with Snyder hanging on our every word—but I might be able to pull off a kiss without taking things too far on camera. That would share fluids, right?
I pulled back slightly, and Rekt immediately lifted his head, focused on me.
His inky eyes glistened in the darkness beneath the tree.
Black diamond starbursts flared in the centers.
His nose was broader than mine but not as strange as Rizan’s beak.
His mouth looked very much like mine, just bigger with soft, full lips.
Though I couldn’t forget they hid viciously sharp teeth.
Might make French kissing a challenge.
Which made my lips twitch in a smile. Natalie must have figured out how to kiss without losing her tongue. Surely I could too.
It might be risky to do anything so intimate.
I couldn’t miss the giant hard-on the poor guy had, and all we’d done was talk and hold hands.
Okay, I had been touching him for several minutes now, and he’d scanned me.
He was a medic, but maybe that had turned him on even more.
It’d be a good test of his control. Would he shift?
Would he force himself on me? Would I regret tying myself to another dynos before I really knew what the fuck I was doing?
“I’m changing because of Syko,” I whispered as softly as possible, though I had to assume Snyder could still hear. “Because we’re mated. Right?”
Rekt’s eyes tightened ever so slightly, his jaws working as if he was fighting back words that might get us both killed. “Yes.”
Before I lost my courage, I stretched up to press my mouth to his. He quivered beneath my hands, his muscles bunching. Braced. Fighting. To hold himself back? Or his monster? I couldn’t be sure.
I opened my mouth against his, and a guttural sound rolled from his chest. His tongue swept over my lips and then dipped inside, licking over the roof of my mouth.
My teeth. Pushing deeply enough I almost gagged, though he quickly adjusted.
His tongue was surprisingly long and agile for being so broad.
It made me think of him between my thighs.
Licking like Syko had done before he shifted.
Hunger burned in Rekt. I could feel it in the hungry way he twined my tongue with his. As if he could taste me—like a piece of chocolate cake—and wanted to eat me whole.
Which was a very real possibility. Dyni did eat humans.
The threat of danger skittered over my nerves, mixing with the heat rising in my body, as if my body wanted to match his natural temperature.
His scent flooded my senses. Musky and wild like Syko but not as terrifying.
A hint of salt, like a fresh breeze blowing in off the ocean. Musky, almost snake-like. Reptilian.
I clutched Rekt harder, wrapping my arm around his neck. Pressing closer, my body suddenly trembling, starved for his touch. For more.
We still held hands, his fingers squeezing firmly but not so hard it hurt.
He didn’t put his other hand on me. Just his mouth.
His tongue. Flicking across my jawline. His breath hot on my neck.
He pressed his face against my throat, working his nose up into my hair behind my ear.
Then he shuddered, his entire body jerking.
Climax. The smell of salty seas intensified, mixing with the musk of a predator. I felt the hot splatter of cum on my thighs. My torso. It should have disgusted me. Embarrassed me. To have a stranger come all over me like this.
But how could I be mad, when climax pulsed through me too?
Shaking, I couldn’t catch my breath. My breasts ached, my nipples raw against the soft tunic. The clenching muscles in my pussy only ached for more. Too empty. I fought the urge to drag his hand over to my stomach. Beneath the waistband of my pants. Oh fuck, I could just take them off and let him—
Too soon, I told myself. Conversation only. First date. You don’t want another incident like what happened with Syko. Right? Right.
“Forgive me, Holly.” Rekt panted in my ear, his tongue stroking and teasing. “Syko will surely kill me now.”
But a husky, deep sound rumbled from his chest, strumming through me.
Delighting me enough I laughed too, even though mine was tinged with desperation.
I buried my face against his skin, burrowing deeper into his embrace.
Aching. Holding back tears. I wanted to talk to him.
Ask him if we were mated now, even though he hadn’t come inside me.
I wasn’t sure what that would mean with Syko. Uncertainty and fear strangled me.
I didn’t want Syko to hurt him, just because he’d touched me. But we had to get him out of that cell. Somehow. I need help.
Rekt’s large palm cradled the back of my head. His fingers trembled as he gently stroked through my hair. He traced lightly over my spine.
“I never dreamed it would be like this,” I whispered against his chest.
“I never dreamed at all. But I will now, Holly. If they put me back on ice, I will always remember this.”
Terror clawed through me, jerking my head up to search his gaze. “Back on ice? No! I need you here. Awake. With me.”
We have so much to figure out. Before it’s too late.
“I’ll help any way I can.” His fingers dug into my back, emphasizing his words. His eyes carried deeper meaning, silently trying to convey the same urgency I felt. “If you—”
The emptiness of space enveloped me. Black and devoid of sensation.
Then I was in my sparse room again. Alone.
I whirled around to demand Snyder put me back into the training room, but no one was there.
The wall to the laboratory was opaque. I could call out to the computer voice, but that would put me in a position of weakness.
I didn’t want to cry and beg and plead. If they knew how much I ached inside, they’d have even more leverage over me.
And Rekt.
He’d basically promised to defy any orders Snyder gave him. Which put him in danger as well.
The more we cared for each other—the more Snyder would use that emotion to force us into compromise.
Fresh clothes lay on the narrow bed, but I ignored them.
I could smell Rekt on me. Some of his cum soaked through the material into my skin.
The longer I wore it, the more I might be able to absorb.
Gross, but the more of his fluids I gained, the tighter our bond would be.
The quicker I’d change. I needed every new skill or power I could gain to escape this shit show before I ovulated.
Which might be in days. I really had no idea how quickly my body might be ready. It’d happened scarily fast for Natalie.
In a matter of weeks, she’d gotten pregnant and delivered Akylla.
I couldn’t afford to waste a single hour.
Curling on my side facing the wall, I hugged myself, pulling my shirt up enough I could smell Rekt’s scent. I cried silently until I managed to drift into sleep.