Barbarian Lover (Ice Planet Barbarians #3)

“I’m the luckiest,” I tell him softly, and brush my fingers over the line of his jaw. He’s so very handsome, my mate. I’m getting even more aroused just looking up at his big, broad face and his glowing eyes, and the smile that curves his mouth. I lean up and kiss him, and his hands immediately tighten around my waist, holding me against him.

“Kira,” he says, and he sounds as breathless as I feel. His nose nudges mine before he takes my lower lip in his mouth and sucks on it. Oh god, he is way too good at kissing now. “When I take you this time, I will not be able to control myself. We will have long, tender nights of mating in our future. But I think now…if I do not sink inside you, I will lose my mind.” He presses his ridged forehead to my flat one and closes his eyes. A tremor rushes through him and I realize just how close he is to losing his control. Oh wow.

My response to that? I slide my hand down to the front of his breeches so I can trace the outline of his cock. His breath hisses from his lungs, and I’m practically flung off his lap in the next moment.

Giddy with need, I expect to have him tackle me. Instead, I watch as he savagely rips the cords of the blankets with his bare hands, snapping the sturdy leather like it’s nothing. He flings the blankets down onto the cave floor with unimaginable speed, and then turns to look at me, eyes blazing.

A shiver moves through me. He’s so…brutal with his need. That is so damn sexy.

Then, he reaches over to me and grabs the front of my dress, then pulls me forward for a savage kiss. Hot prickles of need skitter through me and I moan against his mouth, my hands going to his neck.

“My Kira,” he says roughly, and then pushes me onto my back, onto the furs. He jerks my skirts up around my thighs and the next thing I know, he’s face-down between my legs, his tongue seeking my clit.

A loud gasp of surprise escapes me.

He groans between my thighs, and I feel his tongue move over my sensitive flesh again. “You’re so wet.” He lifts his head and I see a feral gleam in his eyes as he licks his lips, shining with my juices.

Aehako rears back and rips at his loincloth. His cock emerges, a darker blue than the rest of him, the crown gleaming with pre-cum. I could stare at it for hours, but all I get is the briefest glimpse before he’s on top of me, and his hand moves to my hair. His mouth captures mine—

And then he sinks in completely, thrusting into me in one hard movement.

My cry is swallowed by his lips and his seeking tongue. I cling to him, because, oh God, the sensation of him inside me is making my khui go into overdrive. It feels as if everything inside me is vibrating, and that only makes Aehako’s cock feel that much better. I feel his spur rubbing against my clit, and my legs jerk, because I already feel like I’m about to come.

“Am I hurting you?” His voice is a gruff whisper against my jaw as he nips at my chin.

I manage a breathless shake of my head. “Feels good,” I tell him. ‘Good’ is perhaps an understatement, but I’m not sure that my lips will form around the words ‘earth shattering’.

His hips move and he pushes deep into me again. A moan escapes me, and my legs quake again. I’m going to come with just two thrusts, I know it. I raise my legs and lock them around his hips, just under his tail. Aehako growls again and thrusts once more, and I feel my khui hit a fever pitch with its humming. All I can hear is the song between us, and then as he sinks deep into me again, stars explode behind my eyes. I come, and come, and come…and I don’t stop. It feels as if I come forever when he thrusts into me with powerful, needy strokes. Then he groans my name and his body stiffens on top of me, and he comes inside me as my body clenches and quivers around him.

Aehako drops on top of me, panting. He puts his weight on his elbows so he doesn’t crush me, and nuzzles me with kisses on my neck and jaw as we try to catch our breath.

When my entire body no longer feels like it’s about to splinter with sheer pleasure, I sigh heavily. “Wow.” I’m pretty sure the furs are shoved up under my butt. I’m also pretty sure that was probably only three minutes or so of sex. I can’t even be sorry about that, because I’m pretty sure I came harder than I ever have before.

He leans on his side and presses a hand between my breasts. “Your khui is pleased.”

“Is it?” I place my hand next to his. The humming has gone down a bit, but it’s still going strong. Even at those small touches, my nipples harden and my legs jerk, making me acutely aware that he’s still inside me…and still hard.

And I’m still aroused.

“Um,” I say, and stroke a hand down his arm. “How long does resonance last?”

“Until I plant a kit inside you.” He kisses my jaw. “It might take many, many days.”

Dear God. I will die of pleasure overdose. What a way to go. “But I’m ovulating right now, right? That’s why I resonated?”

“What is ovu-lay-“

“Never mind,” I say. That must be it. He wouldn’t be able to make me pregnant otherwise, and all the others seemed to make it through their resonance all right. Wrecked, happy, but still whole.

His hips move, and I feel his cock drag in and out of me again, the movement slow. I moan, arching up. “Oh God, are we going again?”

“We will go again many, many times,” he tells me with a nipping kiss. “And then you will carry my kit.” His hand goes to my belly. “This is mine,” he murmurs. His hand slides lower. “And this is mine,” he says, brushing a hand over where his spur grazes my clit. “Your cunt is mine and mine alone, sweet Kira.”

I moan, because it feels like I’m about to start coming again. “All yours, Aehako.”

“And then we will move back to the main cave so you can be near the healer—“

I shake my head even as he presses his thumb on the other side of my clit, sending ripples of pleasure through me. “I don’t want to.”

“No?” He sounds surprised.

“No,” I say, and I’m confident. For some reason, I trust my khui. “I won’t need the healer. Things will be fine. And this is where we’re meant to be.” I gaze up at the painted walls of my cave and feel a surge of joy. “We’re home.”

“My home is wherever you are,” Aehako tells me.

I touch his face gently. “I feel the same way.”





Note to Readers


Dear Readers,

Thank goodness for self-publishing!

I have wanted to write science fiction romance for the longest time. It’s a genre I adore, but I write for New York under another name, and contracts tend to keep me busy. Still, back in 2010 or so, I started a manuscript called ‘The Symbiont’ about a race of people that had crash-landed on a planet and had to have a native parasite to live. It sounds terribly romantic, right? Nothing says sexy quite like a parasite. The book never really got off the ground, because I had to keep putting it aside. In between contracts, however, I kept returning to the story and poking at it, hoping for a miracle.

Then, earlier this year, I felt burned out by writing. It was a job, and one that I love, but my creative fuel gauge was on ‘empty’. A friend dared me to write something new and exciting just for myself. All right, then. I immediately picked up my symbiont story. I’d left off with my heroine Georgie deciding to stage a break-out from the alien ship. I made it crash, I introduced Vektal, and I fell in love with the story – and writing – all over again.

And I discovered that I love my big blue aliens.

Ice Planet Barbarians was an utter labor of love from start to finish. I was sure that it was weird and out of the box, but it was the kind of story I’d been wanting to read – and write – for so long that I loved every moment of it. I’d also wanted to try a serial, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. It was a creative stretching of the mind, and I was shocked (and pleased!) when it took off. I didn’t expect to write a sequel.