When she finished her rendering, hawk-man stood, clapping fervently and approached her. His full, crimson lips moved without sound and a haze engulfed her mind as if she had taken too strong of an antihistamine. She swayed slightly. The book dropped from her hand. Hawk-man steadied her, his long, strong fingers gripping and burning into the naked flesh of her upper arms. Transfixed by the beady, dark eyes of the mask, she barely registered his alluring mouth descending toward hers. A small gasp escaped from between her captured lips into his mouth.

The small opening created by her expelled breath beckoned him, uninvited, to deepen the kiss. His tongue delved into her mouth, possessing her and her senses. He brought her closer to him, entwining one arm around her waist and grabbing the back of her head with the other. Her body trembled under his assault and a purely biological, unwanted response of wetness pooled in the juncture of her thighs. She shuddered again, realizing a subtle danger in the situation and that he took her bodily reactions to mean arousal.

The arm around her waist moved down, keeping close contact and his hand grasped her ass. At the same time, the hand behind her head shifted to her chest and groped her breast, his thumb bringing her nipple to a hard peak beneath the light material.

The kiss ended and her gaze trained on the lips, only a couple of inches away, which had just caressed hers. The hawk-man smirked, then smiled wickedly.

“You’re mine, my dear,” he drawled. “Mine here as you are on Terran. Remember this.”

She closed her eyes against the malice in his voice, against an unbelieving sight of golden yellow color wafting from her mouth into his.