Maddison, Karly - Time Slip [The Xephon Alliance 1] (Siren Publishing Classic) by Karly Maddison Read Free Book Online

where it hurt. Xephons didn’t have kissing in their culture, but since the Earth women had introduced them to it, they had become quite enthusiastic for the habit. It wasn’t hard to pass a couple somewhere on the ship getting in some kissing practice. But Tinny hadn’t touched an Earth woman yet. Was he curious?
    “You just mate with them instead?” she responded to his statement then watched his eyes narrow slightly. He was much more cautious than Lunox or Tipha, who had both jumped right into her little traps. If she couldn’t find some leverage with this male, then she really was in way over her head. She licked her lips and parted them slightly, dropping her gaze to his mouth suggestively.
    “Oh, you will like me by the time we get to that stage,” he replied with a small, calculating smile. It was almost enough to warn her off.
    “Shall we test that with a kiss?” she whispered seductively. He didn’t look too romantically swayed by her suggestion, but he did look curious to find out what her hidden agenda might be. He leaned forward with that lightning speed the Xephons had. It always caught her off guard. His mouth covered hers before she could prepare her senses for the assault. Not that his incredible, warm lips covering hers reminded her of an assault. More like falling onto a radiator and starting to melt a few moments before one caught the full heat and went up in flames, she decided. And it seemed like the elephant had lifted off her lap.
    So, this was enough to distract him from his psychic hold on her? She leaped toward him and threw him backward onto the floor, crashing the couch in the process. He was damned strong, but she was fast and skilled. In three seconds she had him spread on the floor with his back to the carpet.

    * * * *

    He had to give it to her for being so fast. Now that the amazing kiss was over, he could have used a tap on her, but she wasn’t nearly as strong as she thought she was, so he just used his own superior strength to flip her off him and pin her to the crashed couch. Now he could see why Lunox and Tipha had given up. To their credit, they’d hung in for several days. He’d been with the she-devil for only a few minutes, and already she was more trouble than she was worth.
    Xephons had little experience with such aggressive females. In his world most women were acquiescent and mannered.
    He looked down into her amazing eyes. They were like the stained glass in the cathedral windows he’d seen on Earth once. She had to be the most beautiful woman on the ship, maybe in the universe, but she was also about the crankiest female he’d ever met. He rubbed his bandage as he contemplated her.
    “Now that you’ve found out that kissing me disarms my taps, I’ll be sure not to let you get too close again for a while.” He rose to his feet gracefully, dragging her up by the scruff of her neck. He kicked the couch back up the right way as if it were a pillow. “Next time, you’ll want me to kiss you so bad, you’ll ask without tricks against me in your head.”
    “Me? Ask for a kiss?” She snorted. “When hell freezes over.”
    “Xephons do not believe in hell,” he pointed out smugly. “You seem to think you are too good for anyone. You have been quite malicious to Lunox and Tipha, and now you have been dumped on me.”
    He dropped his hold on her neck and towered over her as if regarding a crack in the pavement. She looked ready to crack, too, maybe even scream. She tried a useless and ineffectual push on his chest. He totally ignored it.
    “I’m not sure why Captain wants to punish me so dearly, but I do need to remind you, we are a finite population here on this vessel, in an unknown part of the universe, so it will make life pleasant if as many of us as possible can actually get along. Some of the pairs are doing precisely that, you know. Getting along .”
    Well, that was a bit of a lie, telling her that Captain had assigned him to her in a new partnership.