The Naked Truth by Lily Cain Read Free Book Online Page A

they curved down his back. They seemed to cover him, and she grinned as she wondered just how far they went. Hell. If I wanted someone before, I just took them, right? She pushed herself further. I’ll find out just how far they go, have a little fun, and all this shit will be over before I know it. She liked sex, enjoyed it as often as she could. So why stop now? My career is likely over anyway, and this isn’t even my real body, for fuck’s sake. I want him, want to imagine something more than a quick lay.
    I want more.
    Groaning, he pulled her down with him onto the fine black sand. For an instant she wondered if he had read her mind, knew her intention to take whatever pleasure she could and to hell with the consequences. Or worse, did he realize she wished for something she couldn’t hope for—emotional attachment? The red fog had nearly dissolved, and a yellow sun, so like her own, now bathed them in mild warmth. He laid her back, covering her with his hot skin. His lips raced across her earlobe, cheek and mouth to devour her. Her questions evaporated with the intensity of his touch.
    Hunger. That’s what she sensed from him, but not anger. She remembered that feeling all too well. Suddenly his weight seemed crushing, and she fought to breathe.
    It flashed back to her. The pain she’d endured in captivity. Her mind bucked.
    “No!” She gasped and pushed at the man covering her. Blackness crouched on the edges of her vision. She would not be sucked back into that memory, not now.
    “Susan, look at me. That is the past. I am here now. You are safe.” Kiis held her, soothed her.
    “He…hurt me.”
    “I know, but that is not now. That is the past. It’s gone, Susan. Trust me.”
    “I…I don’t even know your first name,” she stuttered. Somehow, the waves of panic the flashback had caused were fading. The weight of Kiis’s body no longer seemed constricting. Heat radiated from him. Even though she was desperate for his touch, to feel connected in a way only he could make her experience, maybe rushing into sex and intimacy wasn’t such a great idea. She looked into his eyes. “Don’t look at it. Don’t look at that memory.”
    “Shhh.” He touched her short cropped hair. The warmth in his eyes, the caring, nearly eclipsed the desire she saw in their depths. The combination shook her, made her swallow as she realized how intensely he was focused on her. “I am called Asler. Be here with me now, in the present. Just be with me.”

Chapter Four
     
    Asler slipped from her mind, pulled the two of them back to the reality of the ship. He led her psyche into a deep sleep before releasing her entirely. His senses still reeled drunkenly as he lay with her on the bench in his office. Who could have imagined that the cool-skinned humans held so much passion and heat? He’d nearly given in to his desires and taken her as he would have any Inarrii woman, case be damned.
    He drew a shaky breath and thanked the gods things hadn’t progressed further. Where was his Examiner control? What he needed to do with this woman was find the truth. To do that, he couldn’t treat her as he would an Inarrii, no matter what his instincts were telling him she needed—or even openly asked for.
    The contact between them, the m’ittar, had been inexorably strengthened. He would be able to take her through her past without her rejecting him, without her being able to stop the flow of images. He shut his eyes against the innocence on her face as she lay beneath him. She had shied violently away from the thought of her torture. She would feel betrayed if he forced her through it, forced her to remember it all only so he could decide if she had been party to the terrorist attack in any way, or if she were as guiltless as her sleeping face appeared. The urge to protect her from this pain pulsed within him. She was so different from other women and the way they made him feel.
    Perhaps he shouldn’t have taken things to such a