Free Armored Hearts by Angela Knight

embodiment of every vampire fantasy she’d ever had.
    She could just relax and enjoy whatever pleasure he decided to give her. This time there’d be nobody to overhear her screams of ecstasy. Or think she deserved to be punished for the desire they believed women had no business feeling.
    Rand was nothing like that kind of narrow minded bastard. He valued her passion as much as his own. In fact, he went to considerable lengths to intensify her enjoyment in every way he possibly could.
    She could relax while he took control. She was free. Whatever happened afterward, she’d worry about later.
    So Zara relaxed, enjoying the sweep of big hands along her thighs and calves, stroking up to the curve of her ass. Distinctly possessive.
    Rand turned into another tunnel. The opening they’d just walked through vanished behind them, assuming the appearance of smooth stone. Another camouflage field.
    “How many field generators did you plant, anyway?”
    “As many as I need.” He turned right, walked through the cavern beyond and ducked into another tunnel opening, which also disappeared behind a camouflage field.
    “Why did you put all this in place?” She’d love to think it was because of her, but he hadn’t even known she existed until last night.
    “Contingency plans. In war, you have to have plans, and then plans for what you’ll do when the first plan fails. And then a third plan in case the second plan goes out the airlock too. Otherwise you have a tendency to get dead.”
    “So the Godssonists won’t find us until you’re good and damned ready to be found.”
    He nodded his helmeted head. “Exactly. Which means you can relax and concentrate on all the kinky sex I’ve got planned.”
    “Do you have contingencies for that too?”
    “Actually, I’m playing that by dick.” He laughed, the sound wicked. “Luckily I’m a very creative guy.”
    “I noticed.” Arousal rolled through her like heated syrup. What was he going to do with her? What were these kinky plans of his?
    He turned again, and put her down on a soft, yielding surface. A mattress, she realized, placed directly on the floor. Glancing around cautiously in the spill of light from his helmet, she found they were in a stone chamber only a little bigger than his tent. Stacks of boxes stood around them, but she couldn’t read their labels in the dim lighting. “You really are serious about those contingency plans, aren’t you?”
    “You have to be when you work with psychotic assholes.” Noticing that she was tensing, preparing to roll off the mattress, he dropped his voice to a dominant’s growl. “Don’t you move.”
    She froze, staring up at him as he towered over her. The light on his helmet blinded her so she saw him only as a tall silhouette with powerful armored shoulders.
    Rand turned, sliding the strap of his rifle off his shoulder and putting the weapon down. He took the pack off and fished around inside it as he knelt beside the mattress. A moment later he reached for her again, taking her cuffed wrists and spreading her arms wide.
    Sitting back on his heels, he studied her, the light on his helmet sweeping the length of her body. “Mmmm, you do look tasty,” he said in a deep, low voice. “And you’re completely at my mercy. I can do anything I want to you. You can yowl and scream and moan all you want and no one will hear you. My own delicious little picnic.”
    Her nipples tightened against the fabric of her uni as she stared up at him, hypnotized.
    “The problem is, my dinner is overdressed.” Bending, he ran a finger down the seal of her uni from its high collar, over the rise of her ribcage and down to the dip of her navel, then lower still, between her legs. The uni parted, the light on his helmet following his fingers, making her intensely aware of his gaze.
    His hand slid between her thighs, cool on the vulnerable flesh of her labia. He spread the fabric further apart so he could stroke between her lips. “You’re