Page 54 of Star-Born Anomaly
His head tilted, then he sat on the edge of the bed, reaching down to pull them off.Thump. Thump.They settled on the floor.
She stood in front of him, gawking at this beautiful man while her heart raced. He returned her gaze, eyes glinting in the low light. Even those were alluring to her now, and she marveled that her perception of him could have changed in such a short time.
“Scoot back,” she murmured, her throat tight.
His hesitation made her trust him even more.
“So I have room to lie in front of you,” she qualified.
He did as she asked, keeping his eyes on her the entire time. She swallowed, then climbed onto the bed, tucking herself in front of him until her spine met his chest. He held himself stiffly, his body only touching hers in unavoidable places.
And she realized he didn’t know what to do, didn’t know how to cuddle.
“Like this.” She reached back and grabbed his wrist, wrapping his arm beneath her breasts.
He was tense for a moment, then his body relaxed into hers.
She sighed, loving how her cheek felt against his bulging biceps, and how his chest cradled her head. How the backs of her thighs aligned with his legs, their feet a tangle. With their size difference, he cocooned her.
Since she’d never really done this before, she expected to feel claustrophobic, but her heart raced with pleasure. One more deep breath, and tension eased from her body.
Despite her restless thoughts, she drifted off to sleep.
Chapter twenty
Iax could not stop staring. Not at the tousled hair on her head, or the gleaming softness of the skin of her shoulder and arm, or the way her chest rose and fell with each breath.
The longer he stared, the more a new emotion bloomed and solidified. It was such a curious feeling, one that was hot, but also hard and unyielding. He wanted to hold her tight, to squeeze, and to never let go. He did not understand it, but the longer they lay there together, the more it took over his mind.
His arm flexed around her, echoing his thoughts. She had given him permission to touch her, and he had not squandered the opportunity. For the forty-fifth time since assuming this position, he tucked his face into the back of her neck and inhaled deeply. The scent of her was doing things to his head, altering him. She smelled of tranquility, and he could not get enough.
He understood something was happening to him, but did not know what. His mission at the outset had been simple: travel to Earth, retrieve Dr. Wynn Lambdin, and bring her to Sector Ten by any means necessary. That last part had been the only uncertain portion, and why they had chosen him—for his unique way of adapting to any situation.
But this? The feelings Wynn evoked in him were not within his mission parameters. He felt her everywhere. Not just physically, but in other ways too. Her voice affected him. The way her eyes traveled over his body altered him. Her ever-changing emotions wrapped around him and would not let go.
His arm flexed around her again.Hewould not let her go. The stirring emotions were too addictive, too perfect, toorealfor him to do anything except hold her tight.
A slice of light pierced through the window above them, the angle cutting across Wynn’s face. She twitched, then opened her eyes. Her soft, relaxed body stiffened.
“The sun,” she murmured, the mellow emotions she had attained while sleeping, changing into something sharp. Then she was moving out of his arms, pushing out of the bed to face the window.
He mourned the lack of her warmth against him.
She swayed, and he was on his feet beside her in the next moment, waiting to see if she required assistance. Her eyelashes fluttered as she blinked up at the window.
“I need to see.” She spun around and dashed toward the door without bothering to change her clothes. It barely had time to open fully before she was out in the hallway and racing toward the lab. Iax quickly grabbed his shirt where he’d dropped it the day before, tugged it over his head, slid on his boots, and followed.
The lab’s door closed just as he stepped outside, then reopened again as he neared. Sunlight lit the entire space, making him squint against the brightness. He walked forward, his gaze fixed on the landscape. A sheenof water froze across the dirt, reflecting the sun like glass, and highlighted the melting mounds of snow that had collected overnight.
But beyond the patch of blue sky roiled more storm clouds. He considered them with a tilt of his head.
With a new device adhered to her left hand, Wynn’s fingers tapped against terminals. Weather updates streamed above its surface, then an environmental diagram rose in front of her. A storm cell spread across most of New Asia, a vortex of clouds, thick and gray, giving way to a wider ring around it, heavy with torrential rain. The sun broke through the center, almost a perfect circle of clear sky.
Right above the outpost.
“It’s not done,” she whispered, her jaw slack as she stared out the window. “It’s the eye of the storm.”
Then her fingers were flying again, the readout changing to something else. He tipped his head at it.
