Elite Starfighter: Starfighter Training Academy - Game 3 Read online

  Nothing existed but us. Time stopped. We drifted toward one another.

  Contact.

  His lips were firm. Hot. Demanding.

  That was the end of me. I lost my bloody mind.

  “Off. Off. Off.” I tugged at his clothing, the soft black clothing he’d changed into when we’d been shown to our new quarters. “Take them off. Now.”

  Darius didn’t answer, but his hands went to the hem of his shirt and tugged it off over his head, breaking our kiss just long enough to pull the fabric from between us before devouring me again.

  It wasn’t enough.

  Reaching down, I pulled my hoodie off over my head, revealing the black spaghetti-strap tank top I wore underneath. Peeking at him from my shoulders were the straps of my hot pink bra, the only sexy bra and knickers set I owned. There was nothing extraordinary about me. I was average in every way—height, bra size, hair color. I was no runway model or stunning beauty. I was just me.

  Darius reached for me, his hands settling at my waist as he inspected the close-fitting tank top and flirty pink bra. I stopped breathing as the silence stretched. Tried to pull away.

  He stopped me, kissed me again, then pulled me close. Darius lowered his hands to my hips and pulled my lower body into intimate contact with his hard—rock-hard—length, leaving me no doubt that he very much liked what he had seen.

  Darius

  * * *

  I kissed her, and she pulled away.

  I asked her questions. She refused to answer.

  What the fuck was I missing here?

  “Lily? Talk to me. Tell me what you want.”

  Silence. A blush to her cheeks. I could barely think straight staring at her lips, feeling the softness of her pressed against me. The taste of her on my tongue. I was the one who was supposed to be leading the way between us. This was my planet, my people, my war. Not hers. Just as I was not yet hers, and I fucking wanted to be. Needed to be.

  My broken pieces were in the palm of her hand, and she was supposed to glue me back together. I’d found my pair-bonded mate at last. A true pairing. Like minds. Complementary skills. We would forever be better together than apart. I’d spent hundreds of hours fighting next to her in our simulation training, learning her moods and the sound of her voice through the recordings she’d made for her avatar. She knew me, yet acted as if we were strangers. As if I did not know her.

  Damn her. Maybe I didn’t know her at all. Perhaps I was the fool here.

  Her pulse raced at the base of her throat, and she licked her lips. A groan slipped from mine. “Are you ignoring me, or trying to seduce me?” I asked, my tone deliberately neutral.

  “I don’t know,” she countered. “I don’t know what I want.”

  “That is a lie, Lily.”

  Her gaze shot to mine as she gasped. “What?”

  “You heard me. You know what you want. What I don’t know is why you won’t be honest with me. I am your pair bond. I am yours, Lily. I’m yours until the day I die. Do you understand?”

  Her smile was a bit sad. She lifted her hand and pointed to her temple. “Do I understand here?” She lowered her hand to cover her heart. “Or here? They are two very different questions.”

  “I only have one answer to give you. You’re mine.”

  I’d never taken the jeans off a human female before, but they were easy to strip away. I grunted when I tugged off her panties as well until she was bare from the waist down. She wiggled her hips to help me undress her and actually kicked the jeans away as if they were an annoyance once they were pooled at her feet.

  “You are mine, Lily. Your orgasms? They’re mine.”

  I circled her entrance with the lightest touch, teasing her as I stared down into her eyes. I kept my touch brief but deliberate, explored around and around her core so she was squirming, eager to take more.

  “Do you want me to shove your back against the wall and take you like a beast would?” I asked, brushing my thumb over her clit, careful to only make her more desperate. She wouldn’t be allowed to come. Not yet, not until she understood how things would be between us from this moment on.

  “Yes.”

  At last. An admission. Desire. The truth.

  Perhaps she wanted my touch as badly as I needed to touch her.

  I claimed her mouth once more, guiding her until her back hit the wall of our bedchamber, and she whimpered in response, her lips molten and wild, her hands frantic, tugging at my clothing.

  “Like this?” I lowered my hand to her hip, her ass. Caressed the soft skin there. Lifted her so that her wet heat was where I needed it so I could fill her, take her, make her mine.

  Her fingers tangled in my hair, and I moved to kiss the curve of her jaw, her neck. The soft arch of her shoulder. I tugged the tight, black top she wore over her head until her breasts were displayed in a pink contraption that matched the tiny underthings I’d removed with her jeans.

  Perhaps I should have left those on.

  I pulled the fabric down with my teeth until her lush nipple was on display, and then quickly sucked the taut peak into my mouth.

  I moaned as an orgasm drew tight in my balls, threatening to spill from me when she moaned and tugged my hair, and I knew the taste of her skin was already an addiction.

  There was no doubt she felt my cock, hot and throbbing against her hip. There was no hiding her effect on me, my desperation. How badly I needed her. I was a Velerion warrior, and yet, she had no idea exactly how much power she would have over me.

  “Oh God, Darius,” she groaned.

  Her deep breathing, her cries of obvious pleasure filled the small room, went straight to my cock.

  Holding her up with my left arm, I slipped my right low, to her center and slid two fingers deep. The wet heat of her pulsed and clamped down on the invasion, and she thrust her hips toward me with a sudden jolt. “I want you.”

  “Not yet. Come for me. Give yourself to me.”

  “No.”

  She gasped when I withdrew my touch, then pushed deep. “Yes.”

  “No. Not like this. I want you inside me.”

  Fuck.

  Was she a weapon sent to destroy me?

  Face pressed to her neck, I breathed in the scent of her skin, her arousal, her hair. I listened to her breathing, her heart racing. Every whimper sent lightning down my spine. She didn’t remain still. No, she shifted her hips in time with the movement of my fingers, taking them deeper. Her skin bloomed with sweat; her head thrashed, her hair a wild tangle against the wall.

  Her eyes were closed, her mouth pressed to my ear. “Fuck me, Darius. Fuck me now.”

  I lost control. That reserved voice and clipped tone. Begging. For me. To do exactly what I wanted more than I had ever wanted anything.

  My wet fingers fumbled with the opening of my pants as I pulled my cock free and positioned myself. “Lily?”

  “Yes,” she breathed.

  “I won’t be able to control myself. I can’t be gentle.”

  “I don’t care.”

  The sound that came from my throat as I pressed into her, filled her, fucked her, made her mine was a mixture of pleasure and pain. I used both hands to hold her by her thighs, open and exposed and mine to take, just as the beast had done in her story.

  Buried balls-deep, I pulled out slowly, then slammed deep.

  Her panting turned into a keening wail as her core pulsed and spasmed around me, as she gave me the orgasm I’d demanded.

  “Yes, yes! Yes!”

  “That’s it. Give yourself to me. Your control. Come, mate. Again. Fucking come again.”

  I moved hard and fast, fucking her until the only sound in the room was the slapping of skin on skin, until she surrendered to me. Again. And again. One orgasm rolled into another. Her entire body tightened like a bow, a scream erupting from her throat as she clenched and gripped my cock.

  Seeing her pleasure was my undoing. My body shuddered, arched, the orgasm like a painful fist twisting my balls int
o a release that stole my breath and my sanity. I would never be the same. I knew and accepted the truth with an ease that would have shocked me mere hours ago.

  I belonged to this woman. She was mine, and I would do anything—anything—to protect her.

  Long minutes later my body cooled, and I tried to catch my breath, to be able to fucking see clearly. I still held her pressed to the wall, but she was soft and submissive in my hold, her hands stroking my hair now, no longer pulling.

  This new, peaceful side of Lily filled me with contentment like I’d never known. I never wanted to move, wanted to remain buried inside her soft body for the rest of my life.

  “Wow.”

  The word broke me from my trance, and I chuckled, male pride making me smile. “Did I do your beast justice?”

  She turned her face away, her cheeks pink. Gently I kissed her jaw, her cheek, her face until she gave me her lips. When I had tasted her again and made my cock hard, I held her gaze and willed her to give me more truth.

  “I want you again, Lily.”

  “You’re still inside me.”

  I shifted my hips and she gasped. “Wall or bed?”

  “I think I want to try the bed this time.”

  “Excellent choice.” I carried her to the bed and settled her down so I could strip out of my clothing. Skin on skin. I needed to feel every inch of her, mark her, explore, touch, learn. Make her mine.

  Tomorrow we would go on our first mission. Tomorrow we would be thrust back into the war.

  Tonight she was mine.

  3

  Lily, Moon Base Arturri, Mission Briefing Room

  * * *

  Exhausted was the right word for my state of being.

  Sated.

  Sore.

  Happy.

  Those were all brilliant words. As was nervous.

  Nervous. There was a word. I was walking into a roomful of alien warriors from another planet who expected me to be one of them.

  I was a librarian. A brilliant librarian, but still, I’d spent more time with books than with people. Any more than two or three people in a room was a rock concert as far as I was concerned.

  So, of course there was standing room only in the briefing room, except for the two conspicuously empty seats in the front row. Which was just bloody brilliant if I wanted to be stared at, inspected and watched by every single person in the room.

  Cue the drumroll please. Here is the freak from Earth. Oh, and if her hair is a mess, she’s wearing no makeup, and she looks like she had no sleep because her new pair bond spent the entire night literally fucking every single functional brain cell out of her body? Please do the polite thing and pretend not to notice.

  Meanwhile I would try like hell to pretend that did not accurately sum up my life for the last twenty-four hours.

  “Welcome back, Darius.” A tall, stunning redheaded female placed her hand on Darius’s shoulder as he led the way around the front of the room so we could wind our way to our chairs.

  “Thanks, Bantia. Ulixes.” Darius inclined his chin to a tall, gorgeously dark male who stood next to her. They both wore Elite Starfighter uniforms exactly like the ones Darius and I were now wearing.

  I heard Darius’s name more than a dozen times as those gathered quietly welcomed him back into the fold.

  But welcome back? As in, Darius was here before? Had he been a Titan?

  Who was his partner? His pair-bonded mate? And where was she now?

  Had he gotten tired of her and dumped her for me? Was that a possible outcome for us as well? Sorry, Lily, you don’t meet my expectations. Moving on…

  The thought made me shudder, not with fear but with dread. Failing to meet expectations was one of my specialties. Just ask my mother.

  Maybe his last pair bond was dead. Not saying that was a better outcome, but there was a small part of me that would rather just cease to exist than go through the humiliation of failing at being a Starfighter in real life. Failing Darius. Not being good enough. I’d had enough of that in my life, thank you very much.

  Swallowing my nerves, I tried to focus on the here and now. This was an important meeting. All the Starfighter Titans were here. Two generals were here. I was an important person now. I had a job to do. A job that mattered.

  Just like in the game, this was just my next mission with Darius. But this was even better. Real Darius. With real hands and real lips and those dark bedroom eyes making me feel like he was going to pounce and devour me.

  I wanted more of that. And if I had to climb into a machine and go kick some ass to get more, that’s what I would do. I had squeezed myself into the surprisingly flattering Elite Starfighter uniform with the silver swirl insignia on the chest. That design matched the dark swirl of the cipher implant site on my neck. And that matched Darius’s mark, the Elite Starfighter mark everyone in the room seemed to carry.

  According to what Darius had told me on the short walk to the meeting, there were Titan teams stationed on the Arturri moon base as well as General Jennix, commander of the Elite Starfighter mission control specialists. General Aryk and the Elite Starfighter pilots were reportedly running IPBM—Interplanetary Ballistic Missile—patrols as well as helping root out pockets of Dark Fleet resistance on the colony planet of Xenon.

  Darius held out my seat and then settled beside me, glaring at anyone who looked like they were even thinking about talking to either one of us.

  What was his problem? Was this supposed to be his version of acting protective? Because as far as I was concerned, he was being disrespectful and rude to everyone in the room but me. Flattering, in a dysfunctional way, but he appeared to have the manners of a randy goat. I could just hear my mother’s scandalized gasp of disapproval all the way from Earth.

  “What is your problem?” I whispered. “Stop glaring at everyone.”

  “There is no problem.” Darius answered me, but his gaze continued to scan the room for something. Assassins? Someone he owed money? I had no idea what the hell was going on.

  “Take your seats and quiet down.” Bantia’s voice carried well, and there was no doubting the respect shown her by everyone in the room. “General Romulus is waiting to give us a mission briefing from his location onboard the Battleship Resolution.”

  They dimmed the lights, and I leaned in closer to Darius so I could whisper in his ear. “And welcome back? What did she mean, welcome back?”

  Darius stiffened next to me, and I caught the alert gaze of Ulixes watching us. “It’s not important.”

  I was not a fool, but I did not want to make a scene. I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned back in my chair as the face of the Velerion General Romulus filled the screen. His voice was deep, his gaze direct. There were lines of exhaustion around his dark eyes and full lips. It was impossible to determine his age. He could have been anywhere between thirty and fifty years old. His face filled the once-blank space on the wall, and he appeared to be staring straight at me.

  “Can he see us?” I asked Darius.

  “Yes.”

  Brilliant. I should have packed some waterproof mascara and blush. With my pale skin I looked like a vanilla muffin that needed a bit more browning time in the oven. Half-baked and soft in the middle. Hell, soft everywhere. I was no warrior. I only played one in my video game.

  “Welcome, Starfighters. I am pleased to introduce Titan Team Seven, Darius of Velerion, whom you should all remember, and his newly pair-bonded mate, Lily Wilson from Earth.”

  The room erupted into applause and shouts of excitement as we were formally introduced to the rest of the Starfighters. When the brief round of cheers quieted, General Romulus continued.

  “We welcome you both to the fight to defeat Queen Raya of Xandrax and her Dark Fleet allies.”

  With his next breath he launched into a fifteen-minute recap of their last mission where, apparently, Mia—my friend Mia—had saved the day like a real-life superhero. According to the general, bad guys had taken over a Velerion colony, ens
laved the people, and forced them to use their factories to make a bunch of planet-destroying missiles, which had then been fired at both Velerion and Earth.

  What the hell?

  Why were they attacking Earth? We weren’t part of this alien war.

  Were we?

  I breathed a sigh of relief when General Romulus shared that both missiles had been destroyed before reaching their destinations and that Elite Starfighter pilots continued to run around-the-clock patrols to intercept more.

  Hence the reason I had yet to see Jamie. Assuming she was really here as Mia had claimed when she texted me.

  The general displayed ship locations, planetary orbits that were identical to the fictional planets in the game. I had seen all of this before, in a headset back on Earth.

  However, if I’d had any doubt that this was a real war, they were gone when he finished speaking. Either this was real, or I was in a coma somewhere back on Earth drooling on my straitjacket.

  “Any questions?” Ulixes asked those assembled as he stepped forward. No one spoke.

  “Good. Now, your mission, Titan Teams, is to infiltrate and destroy one of the few remaining underground facilities controlled by Queen Raya’s forces on Xenon. We have cleared ninety percent of the planet’s surface; however, we continue to encounter resistance. The facility we will destroy was built after occupation. The structure is heavily armored and has extensive ground defense weapons. We have our Starfighter MCS teams working on a jamming system that may blind the targeting computers; however, that will not prevent manual operation.”

  “How many?” Darius asked.

  “Twenty aboveground turrets have been identified so far, but there may be more.”

  A few grunts were the only indication I had of whether twenty was an average number. During missions in the game—training simulation- I had to stop thinking of it as a game—during the training simulations, twenty would have been an above-average defense for one facility.