A Kiss For a Cure Read online

  “Do we need anything else?”

  He tilted his head back and blinked at her. His eyes were almost completely black, the brown engulfed by the iris. Her heart stuttered to a stop and her vision hazed. She pushed back the fear.

  “Cai?” She circled the table and put her hand to his forehead. “Are you feeling okay?” His skin felt cool and clammy. A lump rose in her throat, making it hard to breathe. This wasn’t right. He should be laughing at her, telling her to eat something. Instead, his eyes fluttered close and the color leeched from his face.

  “Yeah.” He leaned into her touch, his eyes half closed. His breath came out in short pants. “Just tired.”

  “Listen to me.” He didn’t react to her fear. Cai always responded to even the slightest change in her emotions, and now he didn’t even bat an eyelash. She knelt by his side and guided his chin to face her. “I want you to follow my fingers with your eyes, okay?”

  “I’m fine.” He slowly tracked the back and forth motion of her fingers.

  She jumped up and retrieved the scanner. “No, you’re not okay. When did you start feeling different? Think about it.” She hated how long it took the scanner to read him when she finally got it running. Was her foolishness going to kill him? She’d wanted to help him, give him everything she never would have.

  Why did she push Cai to try something experimental, when she didn’t know enough about him? A few hours spent examining his DNA didn’t mean she understood the inner workings of his body. He’d put his life in her hands, twice, and she was gambling with it.

  “My fingers feel numb,” he mumbled.

  The scanner beeped at her. The numbers were all wrong. Before they’d begun, she’d rigged the scanner to rate the activity of his pur. The initial scan read at least sixty percent of the system was actively involved. Now the number was down to a measly fifteen percent. Sweat broke out along her hairline and down her spine.

  “Cai. Cai. Listen to me.” She patted his face. “I need you to tell me how to jumpstart your systems.”

  “Jor, something’s wrong.” His hand rose slowly and grasped her arm; his voice was a pained wheeze.

  “I know,” she said as calmly as she could, and still her voice sounded strained. “Your heart rate is low, but your pur numbers are what I’m worried about.”

  “Kiss me.”

  She would do anything to keep him alive.

  Jordan dug her fingers into his hair and kissed him. His mouth was lax against hers–no teasing lick of his tongue or press of his lips. She willed it to work, pressing their faces harder together than was necessary. Cai didn’t hold her; his hands didn’t even touch her.

  Breaking the kiss, she shoved him back from the table. She straddled his lap, grabbed the hem of his shirt and yanked it off. She removed her own shirt and wrapped her arms around his shoulders so their skin touched.

  She kissed him again.

  His arms rested lightly against her back. He didn’t kiss her in return, but his mouth tilted toward her. She imitated his touch, the way he thrust his tongue into her mouth and held her face exactly where he wanted it. She willed him to take control, to live, to anything.

  His palms pressed against her ribs and lower back. His tongue flicked the underside of hers. A small sign of life. A little bit of hope.

  “Cai, stay with me,” she pleaded against his mouth.

  He brushed a kiss across her lips and she clenched him closer. Each touch sent miniature bolts of lightning ricocheting from her lips to her toes. She’d never kissed someone who made her feel anything but distracted or mildly aroused. Cai involved her entire body in kisses.

  “Yes,” he whispered.

  Jordan shuddered.

  “I need you to keep kissing me.” Cai’s soft skin brushed hers as he spoke, his breath fanning her face. One of his hands burrowed into her hair and tugged her face to his.

  She needed to take readings, to see if his levels were rising. But after one more kiss. She wanted to be closer to him. He made her feel, when she hadn’t felt in a long time. The desire to crawl into his body, to be with him was taking over her mind.

  Jordan made do with swiping her tongue against his lips. Cai opened, allowing her to deepen the kiss. His tongue rubbed against the underside of hers and sucked. She moaned into his mouth, painfully aware she wanted him to touch her in other places where their bodies were notched together. Was it wrong to want to have sex with him under these circumstances? This was about his life, not pleasure, a fact that was hard to focus on when his hands kneaded her flesh.

  Cai dropped a hand to her bottom and pulled her closer. The pressure against her core had her gasping. He used the moment to turn the tables, plunging his tongue into her mouth and taking control of not just the kiss, but her body. Though she clung to his shoulders, he moved her hips, grinding them together.

  She gripped his shoulders harder as he began kissing her jaw, down her neck and along her collarbone.

  “I need to check your readings,” she managed between pants.

  The scanner was next to Cai’s hip. He stared at her, his gaze dark, and his breathing heavy.

  He grabbed the scanner and offered it and his arm to her. The numbers on the screen rose, but only by a measly ten percent.

  “Everything’s muted.” Cai’s voice rasped against her ear.

  Sex. That would go a long way in fixing this. Shame gripped her by the throat. She wanted to have sex with Cai, but not because she had to.

  “Jor?”

  Cupping his cheek to keep him from seeing the scanner, she cleared the display. “Think you can stand? I want to get you into bed.” Rising, she shoved the scanner into her back pocket and offered her hands.

  “That’s something I’ve been waiting to hear,” he wheezed out.

  “If you stay here maybe I’ll say it again,” she said, forcing a strained smile onto her face. She’d promise him whatever he wanted, so long as he didn’t die. Not like this.

  The dazed expression on Cai’s face was a kick to her gut. With some effort on both their parts, they managed to get him to his feet. Slinging his arm around her shoulders, she guided him across the floor to the bedroom. He staggered into the door, and stumbled over his own feet, but she got him there.

  “Is this how you see things?” he asked as they stumbled through the doorway into the bedroom. His head swung from side to side, gazing at the room as if he hadn’t been sleeping next to her, driving her insane.

  “What do you mean?” Jordan got him next to the bed and stopped.

  He stared down at her, his eyes still dilated but harder to see in the dim light. She should turn on a lamp, but she couldn’t bring herself to tear down all of the barriers between them.

  “Everything feels, or has emotional resonance.” His hands rested on her shoulders. “Without that, it’s such a mystery.”

  “What’s a mystery?” she asked, even though she knew she should be speeding things along.

  Cai wavered on his feet a moment and his grasp tightened on her shoulders. She steadied him as best she could, waiting for his answer. He bent his head, his hair hanging around his face and casting it into deeper shadow. “What you’re going to do next,” he whispered, one side of his mouth kicked up a little. “Don’t tell me. I want to see things how you see them.”

  They stood there for a moment, staring at one another.

  Sliding her hands down his waist to his hips, she pushed his pants down as she went. She’d seen almost all of him, could guess as what he looked like naked, but her nerves still created a ball of writhing uncertainty in her chest. Cai’s gaze narrowed on her hands as inch by inch she revealed all of him.

  Anatomically, there was nothing different from a human male, which she was grateful for. Proportionally though, his cock bobbing toward her was bigger. The scientific part of her brain accepted that the greater surface area provided the most contact for maximum feedback. Thinking of sex in clinical terms calmed her performance anxiety to a small degree.
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br />   “How do you stand this?” Cai’s fingers fumbled with the bottom of her sports bra, peeling it up.

  Her arms squeezed to her sides, preventing the material’s upward travel. “What do you mean?”

  He flattened his hands on her back and brought their bodies flush together. His skin chilled hers everywhere they touched. “Not knowing what the other wants? Needs? How do you connect?”

  Jordan allowed her hands to coast over his back, stroking his skin. “You still have your voice.” Hers squeaked as she spoke. “You can tell me what you want.”

  “Am I dreaming?”

  “No, I gave you the serum and it didn’t work.”

  He roughly stroked her back, pinching skin between his thumb and finger. “I remember now.” He kissed her hairline.

  She licked her lips and stared past his shoulder. She’d never been vocal about sex. Could she for him? “Take off my bra?”

  Cai’s hands stilled on her shoulders for a moment before following her spine down to the bottom of her bra. He peeled it up, freeing her breasts to the cool air and forcing her arms above her head. He caught both her wrists above her head and held her here, with her breasts thrust out.

  She might not be the same as Cai, but she could feel his eyes on her, eating her up. Squeezing her thighs together did nothing to ease the throbbing between her legs.

  One hand coasted down her arm and caressed her face. “What do you want now? I can’t tell.”

  “I want to have sex. With you,” she blurted out.

  Cai guided her arms over his shoulders while his other hand dropped to the fastening on her pants. “I want you naked, so we’re on the same page.” He sat on the edge of the bed, his lips screwed up on one side.

  “Are you okay?” The point was to provide him feedback, and as of yet they’d only touched.

  He hooked his thumbs into the waistband of her pants, catching her panties as well, and pulled them both down. Jordan steadied herself with a hand on his shoulder, and gasped when his mouth closed around one breast, sucking her nipple and teasing it with his teeth.

  “Never better,” he said between breasts.

  Digging her hands into his hair, she told her brain to shut up. What Cai was doing fired off sensation in parts of her body that had rarely been stimulated. Her breasts felt heavy, which was impossible but her body defied natural laws. Her toes curled into the carpet and she squeezed her thighs together. He needed sex. She wanted it.

  “Bed,” he growled out and unceremoniously pushed her on the mattress.

  Startled, she laughed and rolled until he caught her and brought her back to his chest. They’d slept this way night after night, and she’d touched him and wanted him like this.

  Turning her head, she ignored the heat rising in her cheeks. “Kiss me?”

  He grinned. “Gladly.”

  Palms cupped her breasts, fitting her more closely against him as his lips slid over hers in brief kisses. Tugging his hair, she tried to get him to kiss her deeper, but he refused.

  The arms around her went lax, and Cai rolled to his back.

  “Cai?” She rolled over and put her hand against his chest.

  “Sorry. Not you.” His chest rose with labored breath. “Out of it still. You’re like speed.”

  She pressed against his side, worry tearing at her. “What should I do, Cai? I’m sorry.”

  Reaching across him, she grabbed the scanner and took another reading. The numbers were a little higher than before.

  Pulling herself over his body, she straddled his hips. His cock was stiff against her bottom. Enough light filtered through the windows that she could make out his face, his mouth slightly parted and his gaze on her breasts. They tightened under his inspection, remembering the way he’d teased her there.

  “Cai?”

  His hands smoothed up her thighs and his gaze dropped lower.

  “Can I touch you here?” he asked.

  Her pulse jumped. “Yes.”

  Bracing her hands against his chest, she gasped as his fingers stroked her folds and dipped into her. Her body clenched at the invasion, hugging him.

  “You’re so soft,” he muttered as he flicked the bundle of nerves.

  “Cai,” she moaned. “Sex first.”

  He chuckled as he pushed another finger inside of her. “I can get behind that. Does this feel good? Am I hurting you?”

  She moved her hips against the little thrusting movements of his hand. “No.” Her eyes closed as he hit a bundle of nerves. “Feels great.”

  “I’ll make it better next time.”

  Leaning forward, she kissed him how she wanted to be kissed, while his fingers continued ramping up her forgotten libido. His skin warmed under her touch, and his movements became more controlled.

  Cai shifted under her, bringing his knees up and spreading her thighs wider. Her hips still moved against his hand, urging him deeper.

  “Ready?” he asked between kisses.

  “Huh?”

  The blunt head of his cock probed her slick flesh.

  She struggled up to her knees, her head spinning with suppressed lust. Leaning back against his thighs, she covered his hand holding his cock with her own. She’d seen a porn hol once by accident where the woman was on top, but it wasn’t a position she was accustomed to.

  “Like this?” she managed to get out.

  “Reshaun, yes.” His hips thrust up off the bed, and the head of his penis slid inside of her.

  She’d expected some discomfort, but there wasn’t any. Just a tight fullness. Sinking down, she watched his face, noticing the color returning in bright splotches to his cheeks, the way his mouth gasped open and head tilted back. His hips thrust up hard, and it was her turn to gasp as sensation stole through her body, lighting up forgotten nerve endings.

  He clamped hold of her hips and urged her to rise. Her thighs shook with the effort, but the feel of him inside of her, the places he touched with his hands–all of it combined into an overwhelming tidal wave. She rose and fell, urged on by his hands and muttered words.

  “Over,” he growled out, and rolled with her until she was on her back.

  Cai’s hips undulated against hers, and she squealed from the friction, the hard force of him. Reaching down, he tilted her body to fit him and braced himself. Withdrawing from her body, he surged back in with enough force to move her body up the bed. Grasping the sheets, she held on as he repeated the motion, driving into her over and over again. She stopped thinking and focused on the feel of him, the rising sensation, the way her toes curled and stomach fluttered.

  At once her body seized up, clamping tight around him and pulled a scream from her lips. The world disappeared behind a lust-induced haze. She was vaguely aware of Cai’s body going taut above her before he covered her, pressing her down into the mattress.

  He was warm again, his heartbeat pounding a triple beat against her ear. She was connected to him. Emotions tangled inside of her, complicated and strangling.

  Flinging her arm out, she grabbed the scanner and pressed it to his shoulder. The numbers read almost normal. She breathed a sigh of relief and tossed it on the pillows, ignoring the swirl of feelings in her chest.

  Cai rolled to his side, gazing at her with a sleepy expression on his face, one side of his mouth kicked up. “Well?”

  “You’re good.”

  He massaged the back of her neck and chuckled. “Thank you.”

  Laughing even as the fiery blush gripped her cheeks she buried her face against his shoulder. “Not what I meant, but that too.”

  He tugged her closer, one hand drifting to cup her bottom. “It’ll be better next time.”

  Her heart stuttered in her chest. Would there be a next time?

  Chapter 8

  Cai rolled over and reached for Jordan, but found an empty bed instead. Cracking an eye open, he glanced across the room to the sealed bathroom door. He’d survived into the early morning hours at least.

  His limbs had the consistenc
y of rubber. He was weak and his head still swam. But, he was alive, and only a little worse for wear. Concentrating on his feedback, Cai wrinkled his nose at the slightly burned taste in his mouth. It was as if every emotion were soured.

  He needed to fix whatever Jordan did to him, and prevent her overactive brain from ruining what they’d begun. He wanted her again.

  Getting to his feet was difficult. His legs didn’t want to cooperate, and his toes were still numb. He swayed as he stood, but the room didn’t spin away from him. Grabbing his pants from the floor, he pulled them on with a little trouble, and shuffled into the living room. He grabbed the forgotten drinks, downing one glass and then the other. The taste was still there. Chances were it wouldn’t go away until the serum wore off.

  Cai cleared his throat. “Jordan?”

  The bathroom door slid open and she stepped through. There was a wild glint in her eyes, and her gaze skittered across the room, staring at anything that wasn’t him.

  “Yes? How you feeling?”

  He wasn’t going to apologize, damn it. He wasn’t human, and he wouldn’t allow her hang-ups to shame him.

  “Better.” He leaned against one of the stools and kept still.

  Edging closer to him, she pulled the scanner from her pocket and focused on the readings.

  “Do you know what happened?” he asked.

  She sighed. Her brow furrowed and her lips pinched with worry. “No, I don’t. I’m sorry, Cai. I’m so sorry.”

  She was close enough, grabbing her and pulling her to his chest was easy, and didn’t threaten to tip him over. That she curled against him without fighting and even seemed to do so willingly was new.

  “I’m okay now,” he said.

  Jordan lifted her head. “But what if it hurt you? I could have killed you.”

  “I’m not that easy to get rid of. Anyway you brought me back.” He smoothed her hair away from her face when she tried to duck away from him. “Don’t be embarrassed.”