Page 64 of Smuggler's Beauty

And Amplifying did tire her out. When her family did their rounds, they were always accompanied by a physician and a nutritionist who monitored them closely so that they didn’t go overboard. The amount of energy her body expended being a conduit of Universal potential was tremendous — Emil had had to completely reengineer the stasis pods to support the additional life support she needed for maintenance.

It was actually sort of a genius idea.

And she was very, very glad in this moment that she had never let it slip to Emil that she could siphon. The implications of what he could do with the amount of energy she suspected she could pull from the universe with even this much siphoned power was best left unconsidered.

“So you want me to Amplify you while you, what, put me on a treadmill?”

His eyes took on a feral glint that made her stomach clench.

“Dollface, I can think of far better ways to exhaust you.”

Evelyn’s mouth felt suddenly dry. She licked her lips.Fucking finally.

“Green.”

CHAPTER THIRTY

The momentthe word passed her lips, Evelyn realized just how much restraint Aiden had been employing. He surged out of his chair and was kneeling in front of her in the blink of an eye. He took the pillow from her unsteady hands and flung it behind his head, where it ricocheted off the view screen and fell to the floor.

“Just put that anywhere,” Evelyn said. She was transfixed by the gleam in his eyes. He looked like a hungry tiger she’d seen in a zoo once.Ready to pounce.She felt warm all over, like the heat in the room had suddenly been cranked to the max. The trembling sensation that had abated after her shower was returning, but she could no longer blame the energy she’d consumed for the unsteadiness she was feeling.

Aiden slowly stroked his finger down her cheek. The zing she always felt when he touched her surged through her body. When he reached her chin, he tilted her head slightly. Their eyes met, his blazing emerald irises darkening. She felt the flush rising in her cheeks and fought to keep her eyes on his. She was unaccustomed to being the center of a lover’s attention. Darkrooms and muffled moans were the hallmarks of most of her sexual experiences.

I could drown in that look.

Lowering his lips to hers, he kissed her gently. Unclenching fists —that she hadn’t even realized she’d clenched — she reached up and cupped his jaw, the wiry strands of his beard tickling her palms. Needing more, she opened her mouth in invitation and was rewarded with his tongue dancing against her own. His other hand found the back of her head and tangled in her hair, making her gasp against his mouth. She felt the smile on his lips before he tore himself away.

She was about to protest, but then his mouth was on her again, kissing along her jaw, down her neck, and ending with a firm bite in the crook of her shoulder that threatened to turn her bones to liquid. Evelyn felt herself go limp against him as heat pulsed between her legs.

“Do I have plans for you, dollface,” he whispered against her ear. “I’d ask you to crank me up, but you already have.”

A choked laugh escaped her mouth. Evelyn licked her lips and flicked her eyes down Aiden’s body. His cock strained against the fabric of his sweatpants. She returned her gaze to his face and shifted forward in the chair, swinging her legs to cage in him in against her. She recaptured his jaw in her right hand and bit her bottom lip. The heat in his eyes flared again.

“You’ll tell me if it’s too much?” The last thing Evelyn wanted to do the first time she got to sleep with Aiden was fry his psychic senses with her Amplification. She wasn’t even sure she could do that, but the unexpended energy thrumming around in her system was a factor she’d never had to account for before.

He nodded. “Safety first.”

Evelyn closed her eyes as she focused on Amplifying Aiden. If the goal of their romp was to expend as much psychic energy as possible, she would need to pull hard and leave the connectionopen for as long as she could. The moment the energy of the universe began to flow through her, she felt the little hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. The shudder that went through Aiden’s body reverberated in hers, and she knew he’d felt it, too.

She opened her eyes and was greeted with a feral grin.

“I’ve been thinking about this for weeks,” he said.

Leaning back on his heels, his eyes went to the buttons of her cardigan. Soft black wool gently worked itself around the mother-of-pearl disks, unfastening one at a time, until the sides of the cardigan hung limply. His hands palmed her knees and slid up her thighs as his mind guided the left side of her sweater off her shoulder, and then the other side.

Evelyn leaned forward. At first she thought it was an instinctual need to be closer to Aiden, but then she realized she was bowing to the pressure of the sweater at her back. He had turned her cardigan into a soft wooly sling, gently nudging her to the edge of the chair while continuing to caress her thighs with his hands.

Aiden rose up on his knees again to nip her ear.

“Do you know how crazy this stupid sweater makes me? You all buttoned up like a demure librarian, and all I can think about is unwrapping your prim and proper costume and wrecking you.”

Anticipation surged in Evelyn’s body, and power surged across the connection she’d forged with Aiden as her control lapsed. His fingers flexed against her knees, and he gave a satisfied chuckle. She steadied her breath and bit her bottom lip again. If he was determined to slowly drive her over the edge, she was going to make sure he was drowning in desire right along side her.

She met his eyes. “Get on with it, then.”

His hands moved up to grasp her hips, and in one fluid movement, he rose from the ground and scooped her up offthe chair. She wrapped her legs around his waist as his mouth captured hers. Kissing him with a desperation she hadn’t known she possessed, she tried to wrap her arms around his neck, but they were still tangled in the cardigan. Within moments, the fabric slid down her arms to the ground, freeing her, and she instantly buried her hands in Aiden’s hair, giving a firm tug. He groaned against her mouth, and his hands gripped her more firmly as his hips thrust up, grinding his cock against her center. She gasped into his mouth at the delicious friction of his body against her throbbing core. She felt the fabric of her tank top sliding up her stomach, bunching up under her breasts, but she was pressed so firmly to Aiden’s chest that the fabric had nowhere to go.

Aiden nipped her bottom lip and broke the kiss.