Melody Embraced

by Serena Simpson

  “Have you ever had to run flat out wearing flip flops?”

  *~*~*~*~*

  “They said they were attacked by some prehistoric animal.” General Murray crossed his legs before reaching for the glass of vodka in front of him. “Naturally we dismissed it as the ravings of a lunatic.”

  In other words, they are investigating without tipping their hand.

  “The problem is the death of one Jonathon Ellwood. That’s the man that was killed.”

  Good old Jonathon shot the wrong person. Jade bit her tongue and pressed her lips together.

  “We were sorry to stumble over his remains. Of course, we have been searching for the animal that took him down. There has been no sight of the monsters the men with him described. Is it possible they had too much to drink? That would also make the fact that they crossed over into clearly marked private territory partly understandable, but not forgivable.”

  “It makes it harder to believe their story when you add the fact that they were someplace they knew they weren’t supposed to be. It makes one wonder what they thought they would find there.”

  “It makes the city girl in me wonder if they weren’t in the mood to give the bird to the man, then they got caught. Now they need to play nice.”

  “It wouldn’t be the first time. It goes without saying the American government would not look kindly on their citizens turning up unexpectedly deceased.”

  “You might not want to turn on CNN,” she muttered. “It would bother me if people turned up randomly dead on our property. I am sure we can see eye to eye on that.”

  Jade watched as General Murray took a deliberate slow sip of his drink as he reevaluated her. She saw the moment she went from pretty playmate to a worthy adversary. That was going to make her job easier and harder. Most men forgot to undervalue when they saw your real potential. Still, a pretty smile at the right moment had made more than one man forget the keen mind behind plump lips.

  “I am looking forward to your coronation. Needlessly to say our government is excited about the relationship we are entering into.” General Murray flashed a smile at Jade before turning his attention back to Lyrek. “That you have decided to do this on your ship will make it the coronation of the century.”

  “The Porcoyan’s are honored to host the humans at the joint coronation of both the king and the queen. I am sure you understand since we are opening our ship, we will have to monitor who is aboard.”

  “Nothing we wouldn’t do. As far as the problem that brought me here. We’ve decided to patrol the area outside of your land looking for any who think they can trespass. Our people will keep to our side of the border.”

  “You understand we cannot guarantee what might happen if they cross the border?”

  “I’m sure they can handle themselves against any animal.”

  “Then I won’t worry about them?” She sent him a don’t fuck with me smile.

  Chapter Twenty

  “What smells so good?” Jade wandered out of their bedroom with her robe wrapped securely around her. You would think that now that she had a sabretooth snuggled deep inside of her that her temperature would be through the roof. It wasn’t, she was still cold. There were times when she was sure mother nature and God had it out for her.

  “Have a seat love.”

  Hearing Lyrek’s voice made her heart beat faster. The last couple of weeks had been them rushing from problem to problem. There were times she got glimpses of him as he went left and she went right not to meet until sometime deep in the night. Seeing him in their suite was a treat she hadn’t been expecting.

  “You’re here.” A smile crawled over her face.

  “Alive and well, all except for the fact that I’ve missed you.”

  “Same here. Did you know that there are so many shades of blue and all of them are just a half shade lighter or darker than the shade before?” Jade shivered.

  “No, but I knew you’d be a match for any shade they threw at you.” His voice was ripe with laughter.

  She rolled her eyes at him. “I don’t even want to talk about silver. Laugh all you want. You know what they say about payback.”

  “It’s fun?”

  “For me.”

  “I made some of your favorite dishes.”

  Now it was her turn to laugh. “I’m hungry. What do you have?”

  He placed hash browns, french toast, and sausage in front of her. It was hard to pretend to be upset with him when breakfast looked this good.

  “Maybe I’ll give you another chance,” she grumbled before attacking her food.

  “I love second chances.” He leaned over and kissed her on her cheek.

  “Anything I should know?”

  She stopped to chew before answering. “Other than I was planning to throw several of my guards and your crew out the port? Nope, that’s it.”

  “Port?” He frowned looking at her.

  “The window, it’s a small round thing on a ship. Well, now that I think about it, I’ve never really been on a ship like a cruise liner. I figured ship at sea or ship in space, the terminology is interchangeable.”

  He was shaking his head while his lips seemed to be trembling. They were probably fighting off a laugh. She shrugged because breakfast.

  “They are not interchangeable and the windows on my spaceships are view screens. They do not open.”

  “No real windows?”

  “The observation deck. It has a retractable cover. When it is up, you can look out at space, you can almost feel the coldness of it.”

  “I want to see that.”

  “You will, we will be on the ship soon.”

  She ate the rest of her food in silence wondering if what she had to ask would upset him.

  “Thanks, that was wonderful.”

  He gave her a quick kiss before gathering the dishes. “I wanted to do something for you. It feels like we’ve been apart more than together over the last week or two. We’ve had four attempts to breach the border. All of them were working for a foreign government.”

  “They say anything interesting?”

  “No. One told me that if I came to their side, I could have anything I wanted cash, ass, up to and including virgins.”

  She had to laugh. “How hard was it to resist the virgins?”

  “It was painful until I realized the virgins were most likely children.” He gave a grin to hide the anger that was flashing behind his eyes. “I was able to get their location, and they were released but how many more camps does he have of them?”

  She didn’t have to be there to see the scene playing out in front of her. The smile that said everything is okay because the man in question didn’t know how to look beyond the surface.

  “Love, did you kill him?”

  “What? Of course not. I had him kidnapped and tortured.”

  She thought about yelling at him, telling him that humans didn’t work that way. Several months ago, that’s exactly what she would have done. Her education had been broadened and enlightened in those months. She learned if she was going to take the throne that she either play with the big boys or pick up her toys and go home.

  “You get any more information?”

  “Several more camps that we are helping to liberate, your people are taking lead, we don’t need or want the credit.”

  The government would pay them back in other means. The first is to keep them off the newsfeed.

  “As long as the children are free.”

  “They are.” He reached out stroking his hand down her arm. “Come with me.”

  Together they walked into the living room. The fireplace was going making the room feel warm. There were pillows and cozy blankets on the floor waiting for them.

  “Someone must have really missed me.” She snuggled deep into the arm he wrapped around her raising her mouth for a kiss.

  He met her kiss licking at her lips asking for entrance. She opened with a gasp wanting to get closer to him.

  She loved the
feel of his tongue moving against hers making her feel like she might ignite and burn any minute. When he moved to her neck, her mouth opened on a sigh from the feel of his lips sucking her skin. It always seemed to be directly connected with her nipples and then her clit. She rubbed herself against him making mewling sounds that demanded more.

  “I love the way you sound. I’ve missed this, falling into bed in the middle of the night to do nothing but hold you close is nice, but I need you,” his voice was thick, guttural, making her pussy gush with need.

  She stepped back, her hands going to the tie of her robe. There was no way to tell what today would bring but hope springs eternal. She dressed for hope. The tie was undone she shrugged the robe off to stand before him in all her naked glory.

  “You’re as beautiful as the gods some of your people speak of and sexier than the queens of old, that they go crazy over.”

  “You are one smooth talker who is guaranteed to get lucky whenever I am around.”

  She reached for him but he was already pulling his tee over his head before he pulled the waistband of his joggers down. He stood before her glorious in his nakedness as his cock rose to the occasion.

  Control yourself, she told herself several times before she dropped to her knees. The nicely padded floor was a thing of beauty as she took his thick cock in her hands. Her tongue came out to moisten her lips before she stroked him with her hand.

  She looked up to find the black of his pupils taking over the gold of his eyes as they expanded. With slow movements meant to make him crazy, she lowered her head until she was a breath away from the tip of his cock. She blew allowing her warm breath to slither over the head.

  The deep growl from Lyrek told her she had him in the palm of her hands. Her tongue flicked out licking just enough to get his taste in her mouth. A moan of appreciation came from her. The man was salty like he was human but he carried this after taste of sweetness that drove her crazy. She licked again needing another taste of him.

  “Damn you taste so good.” She took a few inches into her mouth sucking hard as she worked her hand up and down the rest. Slowly she devoured him taking in more until her mouth was too full to do anything but enjoy what she was sucking on.

  His hands went to her short hair tightening up. She loved the feel as he pulled enough to make her sensitive to remind her that he was there, but not enough to hurt. She could imagine the muscles in his arms getting tightening as he controlled himself. She bobbed her head faster wishing she could play with her clit at the same time. She needed and wanted his come deep inside her sliding down her throat.

  “If you don’t stop…” it was a cry for help, one she was ignoring.

  Silly man why would she stop when what she wanted was so close. She tried to relax her throat the way they tell you in magazines to get him just a little deeper, then she sucked. His body stiffened before he was crying out. She tried to swallow every bit of his seed as he came.

  Her man, her seed, her forever. Finally, she let go of his cock with a little pop as she looked up at him. The look of love on his face said everything she was dying to hear with her ears.

  He went down to his knees smoothly before catching her in a blazing kiss. Tongues and teeth hitting and caressing voices moaning as they came together like the hottest stars drawn through a time warp.

  Lyrek laid down and pulled her on top of him. “They say when you reach your zenith that if you have not found the one your life is over. They call you an unstable being unable at that point to be trusted. That is why I had to give up my ship, my crew, my life’s work. A single male in his zenith is the stuff they spin nightmares from.

  “Our everything depended on me. No one expected me to make it. I didn’t expect me to make it. I looked for others who may have the gene needed to ascend the throne. There was no one. The only thing I brought to the table was sheer determination. Then there was you. The you I didn’t want to hurt the more I got to know you. The brave, sassy, incredible human beauty that was willing to be my queen. Your sacrifice as I saw it humbled me. Somewhere along the line, something changed within me. I no longer saw you as giving up your humanity on a whim. I couldn’t wait to be around you to just talk to you. You calmed me down, helped me to focus. One day I woke up, and I knew that the impossible was true.”

  What could be impossible? From the day she met him, she knew he was the king. Sure, she was thinking the king of the jungle, but it didn’t stop her from making the leap to the king of his people. The only stumbling block she had was that his word was actual law.

  What could make her proud male humble himself before her?

  “Tell me, what did you think was impossible?”

  “I thought falling in love when I reached my zenith was impossible until I met you. I love you, Jade. Not as the possible queen that will help me open the third door and save our people. I love you as Jade Steele, the woman who was the president of a major earth company. The woman who lived in a modest apartment when she could have afforded so much more. The woman who loves her friends like family and was willing to run out of her flip-flops.”

  “I didn’t have a choice in that one.”

  “You had a choice whether to see me again. I love you Jade; will you be my wife and my queen?”

  “You just try to get rid of me. Yes, I’ll be your wife and queen.” She tried to kiss him while using her hand to wipe the tears away. It didn’t work, so she kissed him through her tears.

  “I love you Lyrek. I didn’t want to tell you, I was scared I would send you running for the hills, but I love you. When your twenty love is a given. How will I know if I fall in love? The response: You’ll know. When your thirty love is an ache that sits in the pit of your stomach. You start to wonder if you missed it. When you hit thirty-five, you know that it’s not coming. Then you came and proved me wrong. I just had to wait a little longer, but you came for me.”

  Lyrek turned her over kissing the tears away. When she finally gave him a shaking smile, he made love to her in front of the fireplace ignoring the pounding on the door. Today belonged to them.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  She needed a dress for her coronation. The kind you couldn’t buy at the mall. No, a prom dress wouldn’t do. Where did Ms. America get her dress? Sorry, not fancy enough according to the advisor and dresser the government supplied her with.

  Maybe she could have a wedding dress fitted that should work. Oh, her advisor Juliette almost fainted. That meant no wedding dress turned coronation dress. Juliette had gone out of her way to have several dresses made for her now they just needed the final touches and of course they needed to see Jade to make those touches. Then she would pick the dress she wanted to wear for what some may think was the most important day of her life. According to Juliette, she could wear more than one of the dresses that day.

  Did she look like a Barbie to Juliette?

  She knew she was being unfair but she couldn’t seem to help herself. Maybe it was because Em wasn’t with her. Together they could laugh at Juliette which wasn’t nice but… she shrugged her shoulders. In some ways, the woman asked for it.

  In the end, she got roped into a woman’s day with Juliette who was now hustling her out the car in front of a tall and rather spectacular building.

  “Danger.”

  She looked around not seeing anything.

  “Danger.”

  She’d like to argue with the alien beast residing within her but not when it told her that she was in danger. It was just a glint trained on the back of Juliette’s head. She tackled the woman taking her down to the ground hard.

  Juliette’s cry was cut off when bullets hit where her head should have been.

  Jade was up and pulling Juliette behind her. She touched the earpiece she was wearing tapping out a quick mayday as they skirted around a corner. This is why she didn’t want a woman’s day. They were still in danger as if her government or even a foreign government was going to be okay with the American’s making a peace treaty wit
h a civilization more advanced than ours.

  “Kick those damn heels off Juliette and stay with me.” She glanced back to see Juliette’s red bottom heels end up in the dirt. “Welcome to my world.”

  “Duck,” Juliette screamed throwing her body at Jade’s knocking her down as a round disc whizzed over her head. “What was that?”

  “I don’t know. How much you want to bet it was alien?” She was back up running when her earpiece went live.

  “Jade? Are you there? This is Raja.”

  “Raja good to hear from you. I’m here just getting a little cardio in.”

  “Good I know what will help. Rolun, Tayje, and Lowic are on the way there to meet you. Take a left at the corner ducking into the first open doorway.”

  “Stay on my heels, Juliette.” They ducked into an athletic shop with rows of running shoes. She needed to give Raja a raise. “You got five minutes, find a pair of shoes that fit and lace them up.”

  Juliette started pulling shoes off the shelves in her size. Jade had to stop and spend a minute looking. So that’s what it meant to power shop. Shaking herself she went to the girl behind the counter.

  “Call this number they will pay for whatever we take. Thank you.”

  “Wait, you can’t do that.”

  “Any other day I’d stop to debate it with you. Someone is trying to kill me and I don’t want you in the crossfire.”

  “Thanks! My mom appreciates that,” the saleswoman called as they ran out the side door.

  “If you can keep up this pace, they will meet you four blocks out,” Raja told her.

  “Are we being followed?”

  “Like you’re a cat in heat.”

  “You say the most interesting things Raja. How do we get rid of them?”

  “I have some ideas.”

  She grinned that’s why he was on her detail.

  “Slip into the apartment building coming up on your right. I know it’s hard but I need to get the two of you to the roof.”