Noah: Scifi Alien Invasion Romance (Hell Squad Book 6) Read online

  They circled each other and she jumped in close, getting in a punch to his shoulder. She’d dropped her guard, though, and he drove his glove into her side.

  This time, she gave him a small smile. And when she launched at him, she had no mercy.

  Damn, she was good. If he wasn’t starting to ache—both his body and his pride—he would have taken more time to admire her. She wasn’t graceful, she had too much no-nonsense power behind her fighting to be pretty. But she was good and damned effective.

  Noah took a step back, and realized he was off the mat. A second later, his back slapped against the wall.

  He held up his gloves, his chest heaving. “I guess you win.”

  Laura was breathing heavily, too. “I like winning.”

  Yeah, he could see that. She liked everything perfect, the way she wanted it. He’d seen the precision with which she ran the prison area. He could see that if she set her mind to something, she liked to win it.

  She started pulling off her gloves. “I wouldn’t have got in so many hits, if you weren’t afraid of fighting a girl.”

  Noah yanked on the fastenings around his wrists and worked his gloves off. “I wasn’t afraid. But I didn’t want to hurt you, and my mother would be pissed. She’d probably come back to haunt me or something.”

  Laura’s face softened for a second, then she turned away.

  Noah tossed his gloves. “And you didn’t fight badly…for a girl.”

  Laura froze, then turned slowly. “You did not just say that.”

  He shrugged. The devil in him urged him to taunt her. It was just so easy. “You guys are the weaker sex, right?”

  She made an enraged sound and closed the distance between them. She shoved him against the wall. Hard. “You are just trying to piss me off.”

  He just wanted to see the color come back to her face, see her green eyes shimmer with life. Not that empty, heartbreaking look she’d had on her face a minute ago. “Is it working?”

  “Yes. Damn you.” She shoved him again, her face an inch from his. “Why do you get under my skin so easily?”

  In that second, everything shifted. Noah felt it, almost as though the ground had moved. The air between them felt charged with electricity. Up close, he could see she had a smattering of the cutest freckles across her nose, and her lashes were so damn long. Funny that such a tough woman had such delicate touches.

  “Same goes, honey. I just have to see a message from you bossing me around and my blood boils.”

  She opened her mouth and he saw her throat working. Her body was pressed close to his, all those compact curves encased in stretchy, form-fitting fabric. His hand itched to touch, to trace down her body and explore.

  She made a small inarticulate noise, then she went up on her toes and slammed her mouth to his.

  Shock. Instant fire. Desire Noah hadn’t even realized he’d been carrying around went up like a match to gasoline.

  He wrapped his arms around her, yanked her closer and thrust his tongue into her mouth. Her hands tangled in his hair, and she made a hungry little sound. Noah couldn’t believe how good she tasted.

  He wasn’t sure how it happened, but in the next moment, he had his hands on her, sliding down, cupping the delicious curves of her ass. She jumped up and wrapped her legs around his waist. Noah spun, pinning her between the wall and his body. When his hard cock ground between her legs, she moaned into his mouth.

  “Damn, you taste good,” he murmured against her lips.

  She yanked on his hair, her teeth sinking into his bottom lip. He jerked against her, his cock turning even harder.

  “Touch me,” she said, her tone urgent.

  “I am, honey. I am.” Keeping her pinned, his pressed his mouth back to hers and slid one hand down her side. Strength covered by softness. She was one hell of a package. He’d always known she was attractive, but their feud had kept him from realizing just how much.

  And how he wanted her.

  He reached the waistband of her leggings.

  Her hips surged against him. “Yes.”

  God, she was hot. And hungry. So hungry. He slid his hand inside the front of her leggings, sliding right under the thin silk of her panties. He felt her curls, wondered if they were as red as the hair on her head, then he touched the warm, damp center of her.

  “Shit, honey, you’re so wet for me.” She was soaked through. In the tight confines, he ran his fingers through her plump lips, then moved to find the tiny little nub.

  “God, Noah, yes.” Her head fell back against the wall. “Yes.”

  He worked her clit in circles, testing until he found the right pressure. Damn, his cock was rock hard against his boxers. And he was tantalized by the feel of her, the sounds she made, the smell of her arousal. He wanted her spread out naked, so he could part those thighs and lick her, suck her. Damn.

  “I…I…” she made a choked cry and her eyes locked with his.

  “That’s it, honey. Just let it come.”

  Her orgasm hit her hard. He kept working her and she leaned forward, her face slamming into his shoulder. He felt her teeth as she bit him to muffle her scream.

  Holy hell. As they stayed there, his hand trapped between her sleek thighs, her juices on his fingers, and her warm body plastered to his, all Noah could think about was sinking his aching cock inside her. “Laura—”

  She pulled back like he’d electrocuted her. She blinked, her eyes looking a little wild. Then she pushed against his chest. “Let me down.”

  His jaw tensed, but then he pulled his hand out of her pants and stepped back.

  She looked so damn beautiful. Some strands of vibrant red hair had escaped her tie and curled around her face. She had a light sheen of perspiration on her skin, and her cheeks were flushed.

  “Laura, come back to my quarters.” Noah couldn’t remember wanting a woman quite as much as he did right now.

  She swallowed, her gaze dropped, lingered a second on where his erection was tenting his workout shorts, then jerked up. The color leached from her face. “Oh, God.”

  “Laura—”

  She pushed past him, and ran out of the empty gym.

  Noah put his hands on his hips and lifted his gaze to the smooth concrete ceiling. Damn. That had not gone well. The sexy part where she’d come on his hand, that had been perfect…but that haunted look on her face as she’d fled…not so much.

  Now what the hell was he going to do?

  Chapter Four

  Laura marched down the tunnel the next morning and kept her head high. She nodded at a few people and said hello. Normal. Everything was normal. She was wearing her uniform, her unruly hair was braided. She, head of the interrogation team, was going to have a quick word with the head of the tech team.

  A man who’d had his hand down her pants and given her a soul-shattering orgasm against a wall in a public place.

  Her steps faltered and her gut churned. How had everything gotten so out of hand so quickly? She drew in a long breath. She was an adult. She was going to talk with Noah, clear the air, and that would be it. Everything would go right back to normal.

  The fact that she’d dreamed of him—him touching her, kissing her, fucking her—was not normal. But she was sure it would pass. The fact that she could still taste him, feel the hard press of his body against hers…well, that would pass, too. Wouldn’t it?

  She strode onward and reached the comp lab. A sign on the door said “Shh…genius at work.” It steadied her, that arrogant declaration. She even smiled. As he’d said, he was just being honest, so she guessed she couldn’t complain about it.

  She fought back the awkward feeling taking up residence in her chest and knocked once before opening the door.

  The place was packed with desks topped with comps and benches loaded with bits and pieces of unidentified electronic…things.

  And just her luck, the man she’d come to see was in there alone, sitting behind his desk. He was wearing those sexy glasses and his gaze travel
ed over her. “Good morning, Captain Bladon.”

  “Hi.” God, now that she was here, she wasn’t sure what to say. Her practiced speech had fled her mind. She resisted the urge to fidget. “Look, I just wanted to talk about what happened yesterday…you know, to clear the air.”

  Noah leaned back in his chair. He’d left his black hair loose today. It really suited him. She’d never thought she’d like long hair on a man.

  “And just what happened yesterday?” he asked.

  Heat filled her cheeks. Great. He wasn’t going to make this easy. “You know what happened. I just wanted to apologize. It was a lapse in judgment and it won’t happen again.”

  He didn’t say anything, that black gaze boring into her.

  Now Laura fidgeted. “So, that’s it, I—”

  “Laura, what happened in the gym is going to happen again.”

  She felt a flush run over her skin, warmth settling in her chest. “No.” This man might ignite things in her, make her feel gloriously alive…but she didn’t want to feel that. Not again.

  “Yes.” He stood and circled his desk.

  Laura made sure her feet stayed planted. She’d never run from anything in her life, and she hated that she’d run out of the gym last night like a coward. It wasn’t going to happen again.

  He moved right in front of her, and leaned back, perched on the edge of his battered desk.

  He was too close. She felt her breathing hitch. He was wearing cologne, something fresh that made her think of rainstorms and the sea. Desperately, she searched for something to break this crazy conversation. Her gaze fell on the small group of strange cubes on his desk.

  “Are those alien energy cubes?” she asked. Okay, her words might have been the tiniest bit rushed, but to everyone else she was sure she sounded normal, in control.

  He studied her a bit more before he reached for a cube. “Yeah.”

  “You’re studying them?”

  “We’ve been studying them for weeks. I can’t get them to do what I want them to do.” He held the cube out to her.

  She took it, studying the grooves etched in the side, the deep red glow inside of it. She was curious now. “What do you need it to do?”

  “You know about Operation Swift Wind?”

  She nodded. General Holmes was working hard to get it all operational.

  “Well, I need power, a lot of power, for an illusion system to hide the entire convoy.”

  She raised a brow. She’d never heard of an illusion system so big. “And these cubes don’t give enough power?”

  He shook his head, the dark strands of his hair brushing his cheeks. “Oh, they have plenty of power, I just can’t interface it with our systems. Natalya’s been trying…but nothing.” He released a frustrated breath. “We need a solution yesterday, because we all know the damn raptors are coming for us sooner, rather than later.”

  She looked at the cube again, amazed he could do anything with it. “I’m sure you’ll get there.”

  He nodded, but she saw a flash of strain in his face. The urgency and the enormity of his task, they were weighing on him…and she didn’t like to see that. She’d been so wrapped up in his arrogant, seemingly insensitive attitude, she hadn’t given much thought to the pressure he was under. She looked around the lab, noting a whiteboard at the back with a whole bunch of repair jobs listed on it. She knew he had a team, but she spotted his name scrawled in a bold, masculine script beside the majority of the jobs.

  Laura held the cube out to him. “I should let you get back to your work.”

  He uncrossed his legs and pressed his palms to the edge of his desk. “You figure the air’s clear enough now.”

  “Yes.”

  He reached out and jerked her between his legs. Her heart thumped against her chest, her pulse rate spiking through the roof. A voice in her head yelled at her to step back, to escape. But she stayed where she was, close to him, absorbing his heat.

  “Air’s not clear, Laura.” He reached behind her, and gripped the end of her long braid. He tugged out the tie and with careful fingers, started unraveling the strands.

  “Noah—”

  “God, I love hearing my name on your lips.” He finished with her hair, spreading it over her shoulders. “And this…this is just beautiful.” His gaze hit hers, locked there. “Last night, all I could think about as I lay in bed was what this would feel like moving over my bare skin.”

  Her breath hitched. “We can’t do this.”

  “Why not? Two single, consenting adults. Nothing wrong with that.”

  That wasn’t it. She just knew he was a danger to her—not physically, but to something deep within her. Something that was encased in thick ice she was too afraid to break through. “I can’t.”

  He pulled her closer, his hand coming up to fiddle with the buttons on her shirt. “So neat and tidy, it makes me want to mess you up. See the perfect Captain Bladon go a little wild.”

  “I am not wild.” She’d never been wild.

  “Why did you come down here, Laura?”

  “To clear the air—”

  He pulled her closer, their noses brushing. “Tell me the truth.”

  “That is the truth!”

  “Bullshit. You deal with uncovering the truth for a living. You expect me to believe you don’t know you’re lying?”

  She swallowed. Oh, God. “More.” The word escaped, unbidden, on a broken whisper.

  The hard lines of his face softened. “More of what, honey?”

  “More of you. I want more.”

  His mouth captured hers and she grabbed him, kissing him back. She moaned into his mouth.

  God. It was just like in the gym, but better. She gripped his shoulders, her fingers digging into his soft T-shirt and hard muscles. The kiss was a battle, like they were both trying to devour the other.

  His mouth slid to her neck, his teeth scraping over her skin, making her shiver against him.

  “Honey, you taste good, feel good. I want to see that red hair on my bed as I fuck you. Hell, I want to hold it while you suck my cock.”

  His raw words should have repelled her. No one had ever talked to her like that. Instead, her panties were drenched.

  He sucked on her neck, biting down on the sensitive spot where her neck met her shoulder. She moaned.

  “Come back to my quarters, Laura. We can have some fun and fuck each other until this craziness burns out.”

  His words made her desire stutter. Was that what she wanted? A quick fuck here and there, until they got sick of each other? There was nothing wrong with that, she knew plenty of single people in the base coped with the stress of what had happened by sharing each other’s bunks.

  But she’d had more once.

  And Noah’s words made something inside her crack a little, and it hurt.

  No, she wasn’t going back there. To the pain and heartache.

  She swallowed and pulled out of his arms. “Sorry. I…that’s not what I want.”

  His gaze narrowed. Desire made his face look sharper, harder. “What do you mean? You want hearts and rainbows?”

  “No. God, no.” She didn’t want anything. She didn’t.

  “Good, because I fuck, I don’t do that bogus relationship crap.”

  Her gut tightened. “Oh? But you were married once.”

  He gave a harsh laugh. “Yeah, that’s what taught me that love is just one big cosmic lie. It’s something companies used to use to sell cards and flowers and chocolates.”

  Laura shook her head. She’d had love, and while she’d had it, it had been amazing, comforting, passionate, supportive. When she’d lost it, it had been the most horrible day of her life. Noah had clearly been hurt, just as she had, but in a different way. She gave a little, hollow laugh. “I don’t want anything, okay? Let’s just pretend this—” she waved a hand between them “—never happened.”

  As she stepped back again, he gripped her arm. “Hell, no. You think this fire between us is just going to snuff
itself out?”

  “It’ll have to.”

  “It’s too strong for that, Laura. It’s already singeing us. The fire’s going to grow.”

  She felt that crack inside her widen. A part of her, the hungry part, was reaching out, wanting to touch him.

  “No.” She kept her voice firm. “Have a good day, Noah.”

  She turned and walked to the door. She wasn’t running this time. This time it was her choice to walk away and she was in control.

  “Laura?”

  She hesitated. She really, really wanted to look back. Hell, she wanted to run back to him and take what he was offering.

  But she made herself walk out the door and not look back.

  ***

  “Noah, what the hell is wrong with you today?” Elle Milton slammed her comp keyboard down on her desk and turned to scowl at him.

  Noah just scowled back. So he was in a bad mood. That wasn’t exactly news. “You should be used to dealing with me by now.”

  “I thought I was, but this is a new level of bad.” She came closer, her scowl morphing to concern. “It’s the worry about getting the convoy illusion system working, isn’t it?”

  He barely resisted rolling his eyes. Elle couldn’t hold her anger or a grudge for longer than thirty seconds. She was the same with Marcus, stomping her foot about the risks the man took. Marcus defused her by tossing her over his shoulder and heading to their quarters. And what they did there, Noah did not want to think about.

  Thinking about sex just made him think of Laura.

  Fuck. He picked up one of the alien energy cubes he’d dismantled. “I’m fine, Elle. Don’t sweat it.”

  He went back to studying the alien parts for the hundredth time. Yeah, he was stressed about the illusion system, but the current reason for his foul mood was about five-foot-eight, with deep-red hair and green eyes.

  He kept replaying that moment right here at his desk. Thinking about where he’d gone wrong. He pressed a closed fist to his forehead. He’d always had a better affinity with machines and comp systems than people. As a child, he’d been far ahead of his classmates and usually in advanced classes with kids much older than him. He’d never been completely socially inept, but he wasn’t always great at reading emotions in others. He wasn’t particularly good with subtleties, either.