Melting inside, she realized his tenderness was the catalyst her dreams had been missing her whole life. Only when she was with him did she feel the peace she needed to rest and recharge.

She imagined away her clothes, leaving behind a chocolate-colored lace bra and thong set. In her waking life, she would never wear such an impractical bit of nothing, but this wasn't her waking life. Aidan was the man of her dreams, in every possible sense.

Wiggling her hips, she let him feel her suddenly bare skin against his rock-hard cock. "How about this?"

When his thick lashes lifted, she found herself staring into fathomless blue of such stark intensity, her heart skipped a beat.

"I'm not leaving this time." His tone was a warning.

"You better not," she retorted. Reaching up, Lyssa cupped her breasts through her bra, kneading them, her thumbs and forefingers pinching her erect nipples.

"Tease," he growled, his eyes half lidded with lust.

"Look who's talking, Mr. Get-Her-Hot^and-Leave."

A smile tugged at the corner of his beautifully sculpted lips. She traced their shape with a fingertip, admiring their perfection. As her mind filled with images of what she wanted him to do with that mouth, a sharp flare of awareness spread across her skin, making her sweat.

"I'll do all of that," he murmured, cupping her bare buttocks in his hands and squeezing. "And so much more."

"Not fair that you can read my mind, but I can't read yours."

"lfou'll enjoy it better if I show you what I'm thinking." His voice was pure sin and sex.

Restless and achy, she wiggled deeper into his touch. "How much time do we have?"

"Not enough." Aidan rolled and lay beside her, one hand supporting his head, the other running along her side.

She laughed and pushed his hands away.

"You're ticklish." This time his smile broke free and transformed his features.

Amazed, she touched his face because she couldn't bear not to. "Christ, you're gorgeous."

The smile faded, and she remembered—what she saw was not who he was. He was an alien.

A sudden chill moved through her, making her shiver. Noting her discomfort, Aidan pulled her closer, sharing his warmth, and then she didn't care about the fact that they came from different dimensions.

"It doesn't matter, Aidan." Lyssa parted her lips in blatant invitation for a kiss, which he obliged with a tempered hunger that made her whimper and grow damp between her thighs.

""You could look like a troll and have antennae," she gasped when he allowed her to breathe, "and I'd still want you."

"Why?" His arched brow refuted her claim.

"Because of the way you hold me, and the way you make me feel." Tossing her leg over his hip, Lyssa pushed him to his back and came over him again. "You really don't have antennae, right?"

He grinned, and her heart stopped. "Right. Guardians are very similar to humans."

She licked the tip of his nose, then his lips, then his nipple, which hardened beneath her tongue. "I wanted you when it was dark in here," she whispered. "Just as much as I want you now."

Sliding lower, she followed the happy trail of silky hair down the rippling muscles of his abdomen. He tensed and arched into her mouth, his hips thrusting in demand, making her feel every silken inch of hard cock between her breasts.

"Want me to go lower?" she asked, knowing damn well he did.

"I want you to make love to me. In whatever way you want."

Make love to me.

Startled at his choice of words, she looked up the length of his torso to meet his gaze. Seeing the austere vulnerability in his handsome features, Lyssa's eyes burned with tears, making his visage blurry. Suddenly their intimacy felt intensely, hauntingly personal.

It would kill her when he left. She didn't know how she would bear it.

But he was worth it. Where he was concerned, she'd take what she could get and be glad of it.

"I've come to realize that I feel the same," he murmured in that deep rumble she loved.

Aidan looked up at the blond beauty who lay atop him and was content for the first time in centuries. He felt the depth of Lyssa's affection in every glance, every touch, every word she spoke, and he hungered for it. Needed it.

"Hurry," she said urgently, as impatient as he was to be connected in every way possible.

He reversed their positions and ripped away the tiny scrap of lace that held her thong to her hip. Taking her mouth with fervent intensity, he reached between her legs and found her slick and hot. His cock jerked in eagerness to be inside her, to be one with her so that nothing could keep them apart.

With reverent fingers he parted her, finding her clit and stroking it with cream-coated fingers, coaxing it from its hood. She moaned into his kiss, her legs falling open, her body undulating in rhythm with his touch.

Leaning his weight on one arm, Aidan settled his hips between hers, his fingers leaving her swollen sex to take his cock in hand. He used the head of his dick to tease her, to arouse her, rubbing it through the liquid evidence of her desire. All the while his tongue fucked her mouth in a deliberate imitation of what was to come. What he longed for more than his next breath.

And he wasn't alone in his rampant hunger. Lyssa gave as good as she got.

His thoughts were filled with the lewd and lascivious dialogue she was having in her mind, cravings so raw they drenched his skin with sweat. He'd discovered that facet of her sexual desire the first time they made love. Lyssa thought of sex in language so carnal, his balls drew up, aching to be emptied inside her. Her hands clenched and unclenched convulsively at his sides. He snatched one of her wrists and made her grip his cock.

Tearing his mouth from hers, he bit her earlobe and growled, "Feel how hard you make me? I'd have to ride you for days to get my fill. Nonstop, deep, hard fucking."

Lyssa's chest heaved with labored breaths and her skin became as hot as his, then hotter, so that it burned him. She was his oasis, his angel, but when it came to sex with him, she liked it just the way he did—no holds barred. No barriers. Just pure, raw carnality binding them together.

"And you're so tiny," he taunted, feeling her desire swell as mental images acted out the words he spoke. "Your cunt so deliciously tight. I can't wait to feel that again… The way your pussy grips my cock as I work it into you…"

She turned her head and bit his neck with no gentleness, just before she lifted her hips and sucked the pulsing head of his dick just barely inside.

"Start working, then, tough guy," she challenged, breathless.

Aidan shuddered violently as her drenched, hungry pussy closed tight as a fist around him. The control he'd felt just a moment ago fled, replaced by unadulterated lust. He gritted his teeth and began to pump his hips slowly, feeling her soft-as-velvet walls struggle to expand and take his cock.

Her head fell back and she moaned. "Ah god… you feel amazing."

He wanted to reply, but couldn't speak. So many women, so many years… None of them had ever taken him. His duty was to fill in dreams about other men. He was never himself, only a phantasm of someone else. Even when he'd lain with other Guardians, it wasn't Aidan they wanted, but Captain Cross. The legend, not the man.

No one knew how he'd come to hate that disconnection, how empty his life seemed to him now, how satisfaction with a job well done eluded him. Because it was never done. It was endless.

I wanted you when it was dark in here, Lyssa had said.

He believed her.

She was the only one who knew him. She was the only lover who wanted him. The woman who used adoring fingertips to stroke his skin, who shifted her hips to make him more comfortable, who whispered her encouragement with no shame or insecurity

"Yes…" she breathed. "Give it to me."

He swiveled his hips and worked his cock deeper into her tight depths, his entire frame tensed against the pleasure that threatened to unman him.

All the agony of the last two weeks fell away, the hard knots in his shoulders and back loosening from the sensual heat. There was only this moment. The moment when he sank balls-deep into a juicy cunt that belonged to a woman he admired and longed for. A woman who made him smile, and touched him with such reverence.

Gratitude and affection closed his throat.

Feeling the shaking of Aidan's arms, Lyssa stared up into his flushed face and felt tears well. Deep inside her, he pulsed, every beat of his heart echoed in the throbbing of the hard flesh that filled her.

"I've missed you," she admitted, needing him to know that he was important to her.

His jaw tightened, and he nodded. She knew he had missed her, too. Not just because he was here again, but because she felt it radiating from him. His need and longing were tangible.

"Give me the top," she murmured, gripping his shoulders as he complied.

For a moment she stared, taking the time to absorb the feel of him beneath her and inside her. It was because of him that she couldn't move forward with Chad. Chad couldn't make her feel like this. Chad wasn't the voice that had found her in the darkness, or the strong arms that held her in sleep, or the quiet strength that made her feel safe. Aidan was her anchor.

"You were right," she said softly, lifting onto her knees, her eyelids growing heavy at the feel of his cock caressing her as it withdrew.

"About what?" His large body shuddered as she lowered again.

"About making love." Her hands stroked over the tops of his shoulders.

"Lyssa…" He laced his fingers with hers, supporting her as she began to ride him with greater urgency. She whimpered in pleasure.

"That's it," he crooned, watching her with intense blue eyes. "Take me any way you want."

Sweat beaded on his forehead as she began a steady rhythm of lifting and falling, stroking the thick length of his cock with the adoring clasp of her body. He was too big for her, his hips spreading her thighs wide enough that the lips of her cunt kissed the root of his erection with every deep lunge. A moan escaped, and then another, as she struggled to rub the spot inside that ached for him.