Invaded (Alienated, #2)(75)
“I also told the medic to administer a sleep aid,” Jaxen confessed as he carried her toward her room. “Clearly, you need rest.”
Oh, God. He had slipped her a roofie!
After all the years she’d waited for the right time to play her v-card, she was going to lose it to a creeper like Jaxen? Hell, no. She tried to scream for help, but all she could manage was a garbled slur.
Think, Cara. Don’t panic!
She closed her eyes for a moment to focus, and when she opened them again, she was lying on her cot with Jaxen kneeling by her side. Panic flashed through her, but a quick inventory revealed her uniform was still intact, all the way down to her boots. She released a sigh of relief. Maybe she’d overreacted.
Jaxen covered her with a blanket and sat on the edge of her mattress. “Sleep well,” he whispered. She felt a pinch at her wrist and glanced down to find a flash of silver and blood. Then Jaxen swiped at the wound with something resembling a fountain pen before tucking it inside his tunic pocket.
What just happened? Had he given her another shot?
Cara didn’t ponder the question much longer. Her twenty-pound eyelids slid shut, and she drifted into a dark, dreamless sleep.
Aelyx used a sweater sleeve to dry his dewy forehead. He hadn’t felt this nervous since his Sh’ovah hearing at age fifteen, when the Aegis panel had debated for an hour before finally deeming him worthy of the sacred rite of passage. Tonight, the cool spring breeze did nothing to halt beads of sweat from forming along his upper lip. Aelyx scrubbed away the moisture while staring at the shuttle’s hangar door, cast in shadows from the setting sun.
Any minute now…
David stood back ten paces, leaning against the armored car to give Aelyx some room when he greeted Cara. But he shook his head in sympathy and shouted, “Dude, chill. You look like your heart’s about to explode.”
That’s precisely how Aelyx felt.
The week had practically gone in reverse waiting for Cara to arrive. Now she was here—finally—a mere twenty yards away with nothing separating them but the thin metal walls of the hangar. But he didn’t know what to do when she stepped outside. Should he run to meet her and sweep her into his arms? Hold back and give her some space? These past few months, they’d spent more time apart than they’d ever spent together. Cara might need a period of readjustment. But he only had one night with her before the military whisked her away to Midtown, where she’d stay until the alliance ceremony.
And Aelyx had high hopes for tonight.
He brushed back his hair, not yet long enough for a ponytail, and smoothed the wrinkles from his sweater. He’d worn the cream-colored pullover Cara had always liked, paired with the jeans she’d once said made his posterior look “crazy hot.” Ironically, she would be wearing the L’eihr uniform, their roles reversed. He didn’t care if she was dressed in a hemp sack; he simply wanted her near.
The hangar door swung open and a group of passengers filed outside, mostly uniformed soldiers and the shuttle crew. Aelyx’s eyes moved over them until they settled on a cap of braided red hair. He locked on to Cara’s blue gaze, and his heart gave a painful leap. It took all his strength to stand in place and not bolt across the tarmac, knocking down the soldiers in his path like bowling pins.
Cara’s smile was timid, her gaze unsteady as she strode toward him and fidgeted with the strap of her shoulder bag. When she reached him, she stopped just outside his personal space, blushing and clearing her throat.
Aelyx extended his hand and recited the same words he’d used during their introduction last fall. “Cah-ra, your name is the Irish word for friend. I hope you and I will be great friends.” Funny how last year he hadn’t meant it. Now Cara was his whole world.
Her lips curved into a warm smile. She placed her tiny palm inside his and gave it a hearty shake. “Your name means ‘son of Elyx,’ which doesn’t give me much to work with, but it’s nice to meet you, too.”
“Get over here.”
With a rough tug, he sent her colliding into his chest, then wrapped both arms around her waist to crush their bodies together. She relaxed into him and rested her cheek near his shoulder, then made a sound of contentment that was satin to his ears. Sacred Mother, she felt so good, all soft curves and heat, the sweet scent of her hair filling his space with oranges and cloves.
When she tipped her ivory face toward his, he brushed her mouth in a gentle kiss. He took her lips tentatively at first, just a light, inviting sweep that let her set the pace. She rose onto her toes and hooked her arms around his neck, then tilted her head and ratcheted up the passion by a thousand blistering degrees. She kissed him like he was a soldier heading to war, never to return. It went on for several heart-pounding minutes until their breathing turned choppy and they broke for air.
“Gods,” he said with a groan. “I missed you.”
Clutching his sweater, Cara panted and licked her swollen lips. “Me, too.”
“Show me.” Aelyx took her face in his hands, relaxing his focus to experience her rush of sentiment for him. He had to feel it; he craved it more than he could stand.
Cara shook her head, glancing around them in an unspoken message that there were too many witnesses to risk Silent Speech. Then a mischievous twinkle gleamed in her eyes. “Take me to the penthouse, and I’ll show you a lot more than that.”