Duric: A Science Fiction Romance (Trident Alliance Mail Order Brides Book 2)

by Athena Storm

  “Yes. So I’m afraid it was just a one time affair. I hope that we can put it behind us and remain civil in our discourse until we make it off this forsaken moon.”

  “Of course.” She smiles at me. “I would like to say, I appreciate your candor in this regard.”

  “Excellent.” I sigh heavily. “I feel relieved.”

  “As do I. After all, our situation is dire, desperate. The last thing we need on our minds is some tawdry affair.”

  “Right—tawdry?”

  “Yes, the only thing we should be concerned with is escaping the Odex patrols and somehow getting a signal to the IHC or the Trident Alliance. So it’s a good thing that it was only the one time.”

  “Ah, yes, absolutely.” Why do I feel as if I’ve lost control of this situation somehow?

  She grins and pokes at the ashes in the cold firepit, not looking me in the eye when she speaks.

  “Of course, if it was just the one time, at least it was really, really good.”

  My heart skips a beat. What is she saying?

  “Yes, it was most pleasurable. It is a memory that I will always treasure until the end of my days.”

  She perks up a bit, and looks at me askance.

  “You’ll treasure it?”

  “Indeed.”

  “Well, I suppose I may look back upon with some fondness from time to time. It’s a good thing we won’t be having a repeat performance, though.”

  “It is? I mean, it is.”

  “Yes, there’s no way that it could possibly be as good a second time.”

  “No possible way. You’re absolutely correct.”

  Suddenly, we’re very close to each other. Did I pull her in toward me, or did she come of her own accord? I’m not sure how it happened. We stare at each other for a long moment, and then tilt our faces in unison and mash our lips together. It begins as a tender kiss, and I tell myself it’s meant as a farewell for our skin to skin copulating.

  But then we melt into each other, tongues lashing and lips smacking, and suddenly there’s less clothing between us. Before I know it, we’re laying naked on the blankets before the cold fire pit, heating things up aplenty.

  Fifteen

  Daphne

  Duric is irresistible. His eyes are hungry in a way I’ve never experienced before. I don’t know if he’s ever seen another human woman naked before, but it’s as though he’s intent on learning every dimple and crease of my body. I’m overwhelmed by the attention.

  His massive hands are startlingly gentle as they trace every line and plane of my skin. Like keen hunters, they graze over my hills and valleys, intuiting the places where I desire more pressure or less. My own hands on his skin can feel him trembling with restraint, dying to consume me in a tempest of furious passion.

  I’ve felt that storm, and know it will come again, but the sublime anticipation his exploration generates is deliriously satisfying. Knowing how fiercely he wants me, and relishing the barely leashed intensity of his control. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever known.

  In nearly every case, I’ve found myself in the company of lovers I can control. Their strength or vigor may have been rapacious, but ultimately, I rose dominant over them and demanded pleasure from their bodies. This is something else entirely. Duric’s sheer strength and size forces pleasure out of me, mercilessly. The same dynamic strategy and acumen of his combat pours over me in his desire for victory.

  I’m used to being desired and feared. It takes courage to court me, and many lost souls have been dashed on the rocks of my strength and pride. But this Vakutan? He renders me powerless to resist his want.

  His hand glides up along the inside of my leg, stroking down and up in long, teasing circles. My thighs spread in invitation, but I let him make his own course. The move betrays my desire, and he drifts away – a feint that only inflames the animal want boiling under my skin.

  To counter his taunting of my body, I grip the base of his cock gently, running my palm along the whole length of his shaft. He shudders as I reach the head, wringing my fingers lightly and stroking him to full arousal.

  His hand rakes up my leg and his fingers find me at last. Probing gingerly into my softness, he wets his forefinger before pressing his palm against me and sliding a long deliberate trail up to my clit.

  Air hisses in past my teeth and my hands forget his member, leaping to the ground in search of something to hold onto. He flicks against me with light, decisive quivers, drawing my hips up and sending ripples of insane bliss shimmering up my body.

  My neck strains back and a moan breaks from my lips. Any shame from earlier evaporates and I push myself down against his hand, riding his fingers as he rubs me to pieces.

  Just when I think I won’t be able to stand any more, his warm tongue slicks across my nipple. I jerk under the shock of pleasure, and he takes it into his mouth, grazing lightly with his teeth and driving me wild.

  With a will of their own, my hands fly to the back of his head and pull him into me, willing my breast deeper into his mouth. The working of his fingers intensifies and I feel as though I could shatter under his attention.

  Then it stops. His tongue and fingers desert me and I’m lost in a moment of incomprehensible need.

  In a swift movement, he dives down and nuzzles his face between my thighs. My head pitches back as I feel his warm breath radiating into me.

  “Please. Please,” I hear myself begging. I would be ashamed if shame were an emotion left within me. But lust has burned everything else out and replaced it with ravenous need.

  “Please.

  His tongue answers me, tracing the line of my folds before kissing me apart and delving into me. All my joints go stiff as I feel him wriggling inside me, exploring my taste. I grip him, and his tongue becomes more rigid, darting in and out of me with writhing strokes.

  Screams pour out of my chest and I force his head deeper into me, locking my legs around his shoulders and feeling the ridges of his hide scraping against me.

  In answer, his tongue leaves its exploration and focuses on my clit with laser precision. At once gentle and shockingly intense, he works at me until I’m about to break over into abandon.

  “Duric. I’m… I’m…”

  He’s inflamed and deepens his attack, forcing his mouth against me and scouring my clit with feverish strokes.

  A blinding spasm wracks my body and an animal cry fills the cavern as I struggle against him.

  I can’t breathe.

  I can’t see.

  My ears are ringing and my feet are tingling and numb.

  Intermittent shudders course over me and I go limp beneath him, cooing out any number of satisfied groans.

  How could I ever give this up? I’m incapable of more pleasure.

  At least that’s what I think. Just as my senses are returning, one of his arms lands beside my head. I can just focus on his chest before my eyes, wondering what’s happening – and then the burning head of his cock slides into me.

  My spine arches in reflex, pressing my rips and my breasts against his chest. In a long, tortuously slow move, he glides into me. Inch by inch until I think there’s no room for more of him – until more comes.

  My body is so full, I feel as though I might split in two. It’s the most perfect kind of sensation, nowhere near pain, but flirting with more than I can handle.

  He’s testing my limits, but profoundly gentle about it, taking long slow strokes. Riding all the way out to the edge of me, then easing back in. It’s a rich, challenging sensation. Druic lets out a grunt of his own and I long to make him feel the kind of madness he just flung me into.

  “Roll onto your back,” I whisper up to him.

  Clinging to each other, we turn over while maintaining our connection. A handful of human men couldn’t manage it, but the anchor Duric has buried in me offers no doubt. It would take far more than a move like this to draw the entirety of him out of my body.

  Well astride him, I sit back and press him even
further into me. Into regions of my body I could never have imagined. It’s sublime. Dangerous.

  Pressing my hands against his massive chest, I start to ride him. Slowly at first, but as my body adjusts to his size, my adventurous side takes over. The long, loose strokes along his entire shaft feel incredible, but when I take him fully into me and rock against him, both our bodies catch on fire.

  He tips his head back and cries out under me, pressing his hips up in his desire. Feeling him wrench and sway inside me as I grind my clit against his abdomen fires up my craving. I rock faster. Desperation rising inside me with each circle. His hands capture my hips, steadying my rhythm and teaching me how best to ride him.

  We sync up and my body responds immediately, sending warm waves of ecstasy searing from my loins up to my throat. God. Too much more of this and I’ll explode again.

  Duric’s eyes are fixed on my breasts, and I roll forward to press one to his lips. He’s so much taller he has to stoop to meet me, but the resulting clutch is incredible.

  I’m bucking furiously against him now, heedless of his rhythm – chasing the seismic inevitable winding up inside me. Tremors begin to rattle through me, presaging a tumult I’m completely unprepared to master. Pressing up again, yanking my nipple from his mouth, I don’t even have a chance to warn him.

  My body explodes, dissolves and melts all at once. My throat goes raw from screaming.

  Duric joins me. In the instant that I tip over into chaos, he bucks up into me hard, crying out and I can feel him pulsing inside me. Warm, hard bursts fill me and drive me harder into my climax. Staggering under his own, his hands fumble from my hips up to my breasts and he grips them hard, pulling me down to him and firing his tongue into my mouth.

  Our bodies jerk against each other as the aftershocks heave through us, until I collapse onto him. His heaving chest lifts and settles me, and the racing thud of his heart echoes in my ribs.

  This is unlike everything I’ve ever known. It’s like being a lover for the first time. Everything is new, and each discovery unlocks new possibilities. There seem to be boundless ways to give and receive pleasure.

  How could I ever have imagined that sex with him could be a one-time event? Something to be ashamed of. This man, this Vakutan man has proven himself to be worthy of more than a fleeting encounter.

  Rough around the edges? Yes. Hell, rough around more than just the edges – his pugnacious nature seems to run all the way to his heart. It’s part of what makes him the fearless and loyal ally I’m discovering him to be.

  But he’s proven to be willing to adapt. He’s learning.

  To be honest, we both are.

  Sixteen

  Duric

  “This human concept—you called it ‘snuggling?’”

  Daphne chuckles and shifts about on the blanket, nestling deeper into my embrace.

  “That’s correct, yes.”

  “And we are to just lay here and do nothing?”

  “We’re not doing nothing, exactly. We’re enjoying the feel of another warm body. Skin to skin contact has proven therapeutic effects, with years of scientific research to back up those conclusions.”

  “The feel of another warm body. So laying with a recently deceased corpse would produce the same effect?’

  “Of course not, how could you say such a…hold on for a moment.” She twists about and lifts her upper torso on one elbow. Daphne’s eyes narrow with suspicion. “Are you fucking with me?”

  I ponder this for a moment theatrically, then shrug.

  “Not yet, but if we keep up this ‘cuddling’ for much longer…”

  “You are fucking with me.” She smacks the palm of her hand on my pectoral. “You big jerk.”

  “Your insults have become less creative. Is that an aftereffect of copulation?”

  “Copulation. You sound so, so alien when you say it that way.”

  “To your perspective, I am alien.”

  “Yes, but there’s different kinds of alien.”

  I sit up on my side and cock an eye at her.

  “Different kinds of alien? Explain.”

  Daphne’s umber eyes roll up toward the ceiling and she gets a half smile on her soft lips. She places an index finger on her mouth, as if in serious thought.

  “Well, there’s scary alien, like the Odex.”

  “I would say they aren’t terribly frightening, other than their smell.”

  She laughs obligingly.

  “They do possess an unholy level of stench. Then there’s ‘strange’ alien, like the Shorcu with their three eyes and profoundly specialized devices.”

  “Strange, yes, but also utterly without morality or decency.”

  “I’m not trying to start a fight. The other day when you were all spread out asleep on the cave floor in your birthday suit, you were sexy alien.”

  “Sexy alien?” I grin, but then I have trouble deciphering her other speech. “Birthday suit? What bad human comedy is this?”

  “Well, when we’re born we don’t have any clothing on, so being naked is referred to as being in your birthday suit. Come on, this is barely a significant cultural aspect of humanity. You wouldn’t last through your first anthropology lecture.”

  “Anthropology. Only you humans would think your kind was deserving of exclusive study.”

  “Vakutan don’t study their own kind? I mean, what about your different cultures?”

  My lips grow thin and tight.

  “We spent so much time as slaves, and have only recently, from a galactic civilization standpoint, gained our autonomy from the Coalition. I’m afraid we haven’t had time to develop the myriad different cultures than humanity has. By and large what culture we have depends upon the—I believe your word for it is caste—that we were born into.”

  “Caste based systems? Those often lead to inequality and abusive practices.”

  “Perhaps among humanity, but Vakutan are allowed to freely move to another caste if they so wish. For example, women in our society are often of the Bureaucrat or Physician caste, but if they are more interested in being part of the warriors, then they are allowed to do so. Likewise, some male Vakutan, though not many, choose to pursue a different path such as medicine.”

  “If you say so. I admit that my data on your people is limited to what I can read on the IHC database. So, men tend to fight, and women take care of bureaucracy?”

  “As I said, it’s not a stricture that is enforced by law. It’s just a way of mirroring the general tendencies in our kind. Our females tend to have better leadership skills, and our males tend to be more aggressive and given to physical pursuits.”

  Daphne’s eyes go wide.

  “Wait, you mean you’re matriarchal?”

  “Matriarchal?” I puzzle out the strange human word. “You mean, are we led by our women? Not entirely, but most of what you would call our politicians are female, yes.”

  “Fascinating.”

  “It’s the best arrangement. Men like me don’t belong pushing papers or negotiating treaties or overseeing trade disputes. Do not women have equal status to men in Humanity?”

  “Legally, yes. But for most of our history, it was not so. I’m afraid some of the old attitudes and social mores continue to plague our kind. For example, a few centuries ago women represented only a fraction of those engaged in scientific pursuits. Now we enjoy more equal representation.”

  Daphne leans back and stretches, which makes the soft round lumps on her chest move in a most pleasing way. She catches me watching her intently, and the little tease languidly stretches even further, so much so that the blanket falls off of her waist and exposes her completely to my eyes.

  “I’m glad that you were able to pursue the sciences, that we might meet.”

  “Duric.” Daphne glares at me. “Do you really want to keep talking cultural anthropology, or do you want to make ‘copulate’ again?”

  In response, I show her a toothy smile and then pounce atop of her. Daphne squeals in delig
ht as I pin her down beneath my body. My lips seek out her neck, kissing softly amid bestial grunts escaping from my mouth.

  “Duric,” she gasps “bite my ear.”

  This must be a human fetish of some sort, but I am willing to oblige. I find human ears to be most aesthetically pleasing, with their curved design and numerous soft ridges. It’s like the curved shell of a sea creature, striking a primal chord somewhere deep inside of me.

  Delicately, I take her ear lobe between my teeth and apply modest pressure. I don’t want to draw blood, so perhaps I am a bit too gentle.

  “Oh god. Harder, please.”

  My teeth sink in just a bit further, and she gasps. Her body clasps itself to me as if in desperation. I can feel my member growing hard, preparing to penetrate her quivering mound of love jelly.

  I lift my haunches enough to reposition myself for copulation, not releasing her ear lobe during the process. Daphne spreads her thighs wide, and reaches down with eager hands to guide my member between her dripping wet pussy lips.

  My rod slides in deep, and Daphne cries out, her nails raking down my back. I release my toothy grip on her ear so I can smother her mouth with an intense kiss. Boldly, I explore her mouth, probing my tongue and taking command of every part of her body.

  Pulling my face away, I stop to gaze into her dark brown eyes. Something passes between us, an ancient form of communication older than spoken words. How many times have I copulated with Vakutan women, and never experienced a moment like this one? A moment of total connectivity in body, mind, and soul?

  “Fuck me, Duric,” she whispers. “Please please fuck me.”

  Growling, I rear up on my knees and grab her thigh with one hand. My other hand clasps around her throat, not tight enough to cause harm but enough to choke her just a little. Daphne’s eyes squeeze shut, and her body trembles beneath mine. My hips swivel forward with slow, deliberate and powerful thrusts. Each time I nearly draw my cock all the way out of her body, only to thrust it right back in.

  “Faster, Duric.” Her voice is strained, and not just because my palm is across her throat. My fingers detect the thud thud thud of her heartbeat through the artery in her neck. The amount of trust she is showing me is intoxicating in its own right.