Addictions and obsessions in love
“His reason for working, for
making his millions, had suddenly changed course after that night in Zone 11.
His reason for living. If he hated himself for the degraded human being he had
become, he hated her more for making him so. Yet, he stood there and stared at
her, at her beautiful features, her perfect nature, her strength, and felt
every molecule in his body react, come to life. Around her he was a building
volcano. When she was gone, he was nothing but cold ashes. He grimaced. His
life had become one, big black hole. And there was nothing he could do about
it.”
Loving
someone madly, obsessively, to the point of addiction can be heaven … or hell.
Emilio
Larraín knows what it is to be in hell. He is obsessed. He is addicted. And the
woman he desires with an all-consuming passion belongs to another. To his best
friend.
The
woman of his dreams is Dr. Fraya Riber, genius astronomer. The year is 2165.
After a chemical genocide a new blood type has evolved, and with it, a
biological paring phenomenon, called mating. Females and males can only mate if
the cocktail of hormones are physically compatible. Unknown to them both,
Emilio infected Fraya with a hormone through his saliva when he saved her from
drowning and administered mouth-to-mouth. Now, the new hormone in Fraya’s body
is creating a physical addiction to ensure breeding. Only by falling pregnant
will the addiction be healed. And only Emilio’s sperm can ease the painful
arousal tormenting her body.
The
spanner in the wheel is that Fraya is engaged to be mated to Gene Anderson, Emilio’s
childhood friend. Fraya owes Gene her life. She is caught between loyalty and
passion. Being O+, one of the last to survive, Fraya is compatible with all
males and can mate any man she wishes. She is free to choose. But having a
choice is not always that easy.
Can she
turn her back on the man who pulled her from a burning car wreck and who
carries the scars to remind her, for a desire so hot it is eating her alive?
And if
she repays Gene’s love and kindness with breaking her promise to him, can she
choose between her dream job, the one thing she has worked for all her life,
and a man who needs her for sex?
When
choices have to be made, Emilio places his friendship with Gene above his own,
selfish needs. But when Gene gets cold feet on their mating day, Emilio is
willing to do anything to get what he wants. Fraya’s body belongs to him. They
are bound by their addiction. Now, he wants her soul. He is willing to put everything
into the fight. Even if he has to use sex as a weapon.
Only one
question remains. Can a physical addiction grow into love?
The
Astronomer is a futuristic erotic romance that is due for release in November
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An
excerpt from The Astronomer:
He
moved until he stood almost against her, their bodies a hair width apart. He
was much taller, so that her eyes locked onto his powerful torso, and she could
see his chest move with the fast intake of his breath. Fraya’s heart started
pumping furiously, the beat echoed in her aching skull. She felt herself
heating from the inside out, her cold forgotten, her trembling now not related
to the weather at all. She held her breath in a futile effort to stop the
erratic little gulps that had replaced her normal respiration.
What the hell was wrong with her? This
has never happened before. She had a long friendship with Gene before they got
engaged. Falling head over heels in love was not her thing. Neither was getting
weak-kneed for a man she didn’t know from Adam.
He brushed her long hair away from her
face and grabbed it in a ponytail at the base of her neck. “I need to check
this cut, but I’ll have to clean you up first. Can’t see anything through the
mud and twigs.”
Only then did she look at the mirror on
the wall. She flinched. What a lovely mess she was. Her hair was tangled, brown
with soil and full of sticks and shafts of grass from the reeds. There was a
little bit of blood on the side of her face. As for the rest of it, she
couldn’t be sure what lay under the dirty streaks covering her cheeks and chin.
“Come.” His voice was gentle. “I’ll clean
you up in the shower.”
She gaped at him. “You’ll what?” she
finally managed through dry lips.
Instead of answering, he
scooped her up and carried her to the bathroom. He left her at a loss for words
on the toilet seat while he turned the tap in the shower on.
“Drink that.” He pointed at a glass of
water and two painkillers on the side of the basin. “It will help.”
Glancing at the pharmaceutical name on
the white tablets, ensuring she recognized the brand, she did as she was told
before sneaking a look at his broad back. Another flash erupted through her
body with a burning sensation that lingered in her spine. Holy crap. Only when
steam filtered into the cubicle, did he turn and kneel in front of her.
“I’ll have to help you, unless you want
me to dump you on the shower floor.”
Help her? A mental picture of them in the
shower invaded her mind and caused a fist of lust to punch her in the gut.
“Yes, just dump me on the floor.”
“Not a good idea. We’ll shower in our
underwear. Alright?”
He seemed to be very good at giving
reassuring smiles as he gently lifted her arms and pulled her wet shirt over
her head. Her skin burned under his fingertips.
This was so not happening. Her arms went
around her breasts. She watched as he dropped her dirty shirt on the floor
before bending over her, his hands going to the waistband of her shorts.
She wanted to protest, to pull away, to
insult him even, but instead she found her body arching forward, obeying the
silent command of his hands when he tugged on the clip button and pulled
down the zip.
“Lift your ass,” he said.
Like a hypnotized snake dancing to the
flute player’s tune, she lifted herself on her arms just enough for him to slip
the pants over her hips, down her legs, and over her ankles. Thank goodness she
was wearing her new push-up bra and matching French panties. NO. What on earth
was she thinking? He picked up her injured foot to study it and, when he had felt
his way around her ankle, his hand smoothed up her calf.
“Such a pity to blotch such a perfect
skin,” he mused. “You’re already turning blue.”
He straightened abruptly and stripped the
black cycling shorts from his narrow hips, pushing it over his muscular thighs,
until it ended up on the same heap as her soiled garments.
She was almost too terrified of her
reaction to glance at his black briefs, but she couldn’t help the magnetic
force that pulled her eyes in that direction.
Fraya thought she saw his lips twitch,
ever so fleetingly. Without another word he picked her up and carried her into
the shower. He positioned her body against the wall and adjusted the spray of
the water to fall over her shoulders. She watched with mesmerized fascination
as he took a sponge and soaped her body. She flinched as his fingers moved over
her ribs.
He turned her sideways. “You’re blue
everywhere,” he said, almost sounding angry.
She gasped as his fingers trailed a path
to the lower curve of her breast. The heat diffused in her body was now near
painful. Watching her with guarded eyes, he moved the sponge over the sensitive
mounds, teasing her through the fabric of her bra, and she couldn’t help but
close her eyes. She had to make it stop. It took all her willpower to grab his
arm and move it away.
“I’m not injured there,” she snapped.
He didn’t apologize for his wandering
fingers. Instead he clasped her chin in his hand and tilted her head. “I’m
going to wash around the wound. This may sting.” He took the shower nozzle from
its hook and moved it to her head, smoothing back her hair.
She uttered a cry as the water burned the
cut where her head had taken a knock.
“Sorry,” he said, smiling apologetically,
his hand moving down and flattening over her tummy, as if he could sense her
discomfort and spasms. The warmth of his palm sent shockwaves over her skin.
They exploded and rippled to a part of her body that begged for release. She
needed to get out of here. Her body shook, her knees battling to carry her
weight. Even as she braced her back against the wall, moving away from him, her
hips tilted forward. Her mind was going to dissolve. She could feel reason
slipping away. She gazed up at him in awed shock, biting her lip so hard she
tasted blood. What was going on? That knock had crippled her brain.
“Oh, baby,” he said, groaning and resting
his forehead on hers, “if you tease me by pushing your thighs against me like
this,” he looked down, “I can’t promise that I’ll keep my hands to myself.”
She followed his gaze and sucked in her
breath. “Oh. Sorry. I… You’re hard… I mean…”
He laughed softly, but his voice was
strained. “I’m turned on. And so are you.”
He studied her, his eyes sharp and
clever. Of course she was. It was a bit hard to deny when you had your pelvis pressed
into a man’s private parts and your thigh draped around his ass. She tried to
flatten herself further against the wall and turned her head away.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over
me. Must be the bump I took to my head.” She looked back at him and whimpered.
“Oh God, what’s wrong with me? What did you do to me?”
He took her face between his hands. “I
don’t know, but you did the same thing to me.”
“I should go. This frightens me.”
He kissed her forehead. A wave of
intolerable want crashed over her.
“I know, baby. Stay. Let me make it
better.”
“There’s something wrong with me. The
fall, the knock, did something.”
“Don’t lie about what you feel. You know
we both want it. We’ve wanted it since I’ve laid my hands on you in that
forest. I can see it in your eyes.” His hand stroked up her thigh, cupping her
hip, sending a delicious shiver through her. “I can feel it under my palms.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know what’s
wrong with me.” She paused as another attack weakened her knees. “I can’t,” she
whispered.
His stare was imploring. Suddenly a dark,
predatory look came over him. He took her left wrist and turned it up. He
closed his eyes fleetingly and breathed in. His thumb brushed over the
untainted skin.
“You don’t have a mark. You’re not mated.
Then why won’t you accept me?”
She grasped for the final shred of reason
that remained in her dazed mind. “This isn’t right. I don’t do things like
this. I don’t pick up men and have … do stuff…”
“But you want to. If the physical signs I
read in your body are anything to go by, you’re suffering as much as I am.”
“Just let me get out of here. Please.”
He watched her for another moment before
his look shifted. “Warmer?”
She nodded, not trusting her voice to
speak.
He turned off the water. “Stay there.” He
reached for a towel and draped it around her, before he tied another one around
his waist.
She couldn’t object as he lifted her from
the shower onto the bath rug. She could only watch as he toweled her dry,
carefully inspecting the marks the accident had left on her body.
Finally, gently wringing the water from
her hair, he bent down, and when she least expected it, brushed his lips over
her jaw. It was almost her unmaking. Her hands found his shoulders, her nails
digging into his skin as he scraped his teeth down her neck.
She gasped, trying to push him away, the
need and pain now unbearable. “You’re torturing me.”
He immediately let go. “Look at me.”
She almost cried out, torn between guilt
and need as she fought for control, her eyes pinched shut, her only awareness
the craving of her flesh.
His voice drifted back to her. “Baby,
look at me.”
She opened her eyes reluctantly.
“Does it feel like a thousand nails are
shooting into your gut?” he said softly. “Like your skin is on fire and your
insides are being ripped apart?”
She blinked. “How do you know?”
“Because that’s what you do to me. Your
touch on my skin, it burns me alive. And it’s getting worse. Since we’ve left
that damn forest it’s gone from a spark to a fucking intolerable fire. Just let
me make it better.”
“How?” she asked uncertainly. “How can
you know what to do if we don’t even know what’s wrong with us?”
He smiled wryly, his grin now almost a
grimace. “Maybe it’s not that there’s something wrong with us. Maybe it’s just
perfectly right.”
“You’re not talking any sense.”
“It’s not talking we want to do, and you
know it.”
She was close to tears now, biting back
the pain as it hit her between her knees. “I can’t.”
“I’m at the end of my control, seeing you
suffer like this.” His voice held a warning. “Why won’t you? Tell me your
reasons. Just let me assure you.”
Oh, she had reasons, alright. She
belonged to another. “The guilt...”
His fingers enclosed on her wrist, the
left arm, and brought it slowly to his mouth. When his lips touched the flesh
meant for the mating mark, her eyes fluttered close. His wicked tongue licked
over the spot, sending a shiver down her spine that had her arching her back.
Her control unraveled when he nipped at her skin with his teeth. A cry escaped
her lips.
His other hand went to her hair, pulling
back her head, exposing her ear for his lips. His words breathed over her, soft
brushes of air. “What if you don’t have a choice? Would that take away the
guilt?”
“I don’t understand.”
“If I tie you up, you won’t have a
choice.”
“What?” Her eyes widened but the fire had
already pooled out to every crevice and peak of her body. Alarmed and surprised
that his words had such an effect on her, she took a step back and flinched
when she put her weight on her swollen ankle.
His grip tightened in her hair. “You’re
frightened. Of your feelings. We’ll play a game. I’ll tie you to my bed so that
I can take you, do with you as I please. You won’t have control. And you
needn’t feel guilty.”
Her lips parted in both shock and
excitement as she stared at him.
His
finger traced her bottom lip. “You have a perfect mouth. And a perfect body.
You’re so small, so tiny.” He frowned. “How old are you?”
“Twenty-seven,” she said, her eyes fixed
on his hypnotic mouth.
“Ah. Good.”
She pulled her arm free. “I should go.”
“How unlikely is it for two people to be
out in a forest, in a foreign zone, in a rainstorm, on exactly the same day, at
exactly the same time? How unlikely to feel, to burn, like we do?”
She shook her head in a weak attempt at
denial. “I don’t get what you’re insinuating.”
“This was meant to be.”
She shook her head again and opened her
mouth, but he placed a finger over her lips. Convulsions of pleasure ripped
through her. “Feel that. Feel what my touch does to you. I never do this kind
of thing either.” His voice lowered. “I need you.”
“Oh God. I can’t do this.”
“You don’t have to do anything. Let me
seduce you. I’ll take care of everything.”
Her body was a trembling mass. “You don’t
understand. I’m–”
“I have to have you. I feel like I’ll die
if I don’t. I swear to God, this is the first time I’m saying this to someone,
the first time I’m feeling this … this … craziness. And it’s killing me. Give
me your control. That’s all I’m asking.” He closed the space she had put
between them. “I could take your control with one kiss. I know I can, because
that’s how close I am to losing mine. But I don’t want to steal it. I want you
to give it to me.”
His closeness was like a powerful drug.
She felt her strength falter as her need spiked. “I don’t like not to be in
control.”
“You only have to say the word, and I’ll
untie you. I won’t do anything you don’t want, or like.”
She was crazy, for sure, because for an
insane second she conjured an image of her tied to his bed, his muscular body
posed over her, and she felt her breath quicken painfully.
“Trust me,” he said gently.
“And why would I trust a complete
stranger?”
She looked at the door, but she already
knew she wasn’t going anywhere. The strange thing was that she did trust him.
There was no doubt in her mind he would let her hop through the door right now
if she wished. The problem was that she couldn’t turn away from her bizarre
craving. They both knew there was no way either one of them could walk away.
Fraya guessed he had sensed her
hesitation, because he took it as his cue to lift her and swiftly move into the
bedroom, depositing her in front of the bed.
His hands went to the clasp of her bra,
while his mouth went to her ear. “There’s one condition. If you don’t intend to
honor it, tell me now, and I’ll let you go.”
She was beside herself with need. She was
wild, panting. His hands smoothed down her back and she dug her nails into her
palms not to wrap her legs around him and beg him for release. Her bra dropped
to her feet. She craved him so badly she felt feverish. She wanted nothing more
than to feel his skin against hers, but he held her at arm’s length.
“Listen to me. This is important.”
She was going out of her mind and he was
still talking?
“Open your eyes, baby. Just for a second.
What did I say?”
“A condition?” she said in a haze,
forcing her eyes to focus on his face.
“I don’t do holiday romances. Neither
once-offs.” His hand slipped into her panties, forcing the elastic over her
hip. “If I have you, I’m going to have you again and again.”
She moaned under his hot hands.
Scorching, burning, hands.
“Please,” she begged. Nothing had ever
felt this good.
He nibbled at her ear. “Do you get it?”
She was going to faint. “Yes,” she
whispered. She couldn’t care one way or the other for his conditions now. She’d
say whatever he wanted to hear, as long as he didn’t stop.
“I’m going to tie you up now, baby, so
that I can make you come in ten different ways. Do you understand?”
She nodded.
“Tell me you want it.”
“Yes.” Oh, yes. She wanted it more than
she’d wanted anything in her life.
He paused. “Look at me.” He took her chin
to aid in his command. “If you want me to stop, or to untie you, just say the
word, and I will. Understand?”
“Mmm.” She pushed her body against his
and slipped her hands into his briefs, forcing it down his legs with hurried
passion. She heard him gasp, and then she felt herself being lifted quickly,
gently, and carried to his bed.
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