Joshua wanted the security of someone who would enable him to sit on his ass playing video games all day without getting mad when he brought other women over.
Her disgust was strong enough to make her nauseous. What made it worse was that she knew he cared, in his own, immature way. He’d never been cruel to her in their time together — well, apart from going behind her back with other women — but he’d never been attracted to her either, not in any way meaningful enough to count.
zo where r u? u at a friends? i know ur mad but b careful.
zo where r ur things? plz answer me!
The last message he’d sent had been two hours ago. He was likely sleeping by now.
If he’s not banging some other chick.
Zoey switched back to Melissa’s message and sent a reply.
Made it to Vegas. Call me in the morning. XOXO
Unmuting her phone, she dropped it back into her purse and took out her wallet.
She returned to the room a few minutes later with an armful of bottled water, slipping in and closing the door quietly behind her. The shower was running, which meant Rendash was still in there. Zoey tried not to imagine water streaming over his scales and between the ridges of his muscles.
She failed.
“Something is seriously wrong with me,” she muttered. She dropped her purse on the table near the door, placed the bottles on the nightstand, and sat on the edge of the bed.
Grabbing the fast food bag, she laid the value-menu hamburgers — ten in total — atop the blanket. After a moment’s consideration, she dug the candy bars out of her purse and added them to the food pile. She picked up a burger, unwrapped it, and ate, sipping water. When she’d finished, she reached for another one.
Her hand froze before she touched the wrapper as Josh’s words echoed in her head.
I’m just…not attracted to you.
Maybe if you’d have put in some effort to lose a little weight.
She withdrew her extended hand, dropping it onto her lap. Her chest felt tight. It wasn’t fair that he could just brush this all off like it was no big deal. It wasn’t fair that he was the one who’d done wrong, but she was the one who got to feel shitty over it.
The shower turned off. Shortly after, the bathroom door opened, and Rendash stepped out amidst a cloud of steam.
She opened her mouth to tell him to cover up again, but she was distracted by the glistening droplets on his scales, which created little reflections as they rolled down his body. It was a welcome distraction, considering the place her mind had gone a few moments before.
“You have returned,” he said. He stretched a towel between his lower hands and wrapped it around his waist as he walked toward her in long, slow strides. His muscles rippled with his movements, and once again, Zoey imagined running her tongue over them, catching each and every drop of water.
She cleared her throat — which was suddenly very dry— and forced her eyes away, pushing the food toward him. “Not the best food in the world, but it’s food.”
Stopping to lean over the bed, he plucked up a burger. He peeled back the wrapper and sniffed at the food within. Tentatively, he took the burger between two of his long fingers, brought it to his lips, and bit off a small piece.
Rendash chewed thoughtfully, took another nibble, and chewed more. Then he devoured the rest of the burger in two large bites.
“There’s plenty more,” Zoey said, grabbing one of the water bottles from the nightstand and handing it to him. “And water.”
He accepted the bottle in his upper right hand and picked up another burger in his upper left. In an impressive show of dexterity, he unwrapped the burger and opened the bottle simultaneously with his lower hands. He gestured at her vaguely as he sat on the bed. It dipped wildly under his weight.
“You must eat also, human.”
“I ate already.” Zoey pushed herself to her feet, walked to her suitcase, and kneeled to open it.
“Did you eat enough?” he asked around a mouthful that must’ve consisted of nearly an entire burger.
She glanced down at her body. “Yeah. Plenty.” Frowning, she dug through her clothes and pulled out her pajamas and a pair of panties, folding the former over the latter. She closed the suitcase.
“I’m going to take a shower now.” Zoey stepped past Rendash, careful not to touch him, and felt his eyes on her as she crossed the room.
Rendash watched Zoey, admiring the sensual swaying of her hips and backside as she walked until she slipped into the bathroom and closed the door behind her.
He’d encountered plenty of humans in his time on this planet — even if they were often in black uniforms and the lighting was usually poor — but Zoey was unlike anyone, human or aligarii, he’d ever seen. Aligarii females were built much like the males; lean, tough, and strong. There was nothing soft about them.
Everything about Zoey — at least outwardly — was soft and smooth. Where aligarii had angles and planes, she was all curves. There was something refreshing about that. Something appealing, something alluring. His brief contact with her before she’d left for the water had been a taste that only strengthened his curiosity. He wanted to touch her more, to hold her, to feel her softness against him.
He ate the rest of the burgers, unable to ignore his own ravenousness. They’d kept him underfed and weakened in the facility. He needed nourishment to recover his strength, to keep himself moving. The food was at once disgusting — dripping with grease and encased in what the humans called bread, an unappetizing creation to say the least — and ambrosial. The best he’d ever tasted, after surviving for so long on bland, unidentifiable food.
The shower turned on in the bathroom. He twisted to look at the door. Had she removed her garments before entering the water? It would make sense if she had, though he wasn’t aware of the washing customs practiced by these strange beings. Thoughts of her bare body were too intriguing to entertain for long; human anatomy was unfamiliar to him, and his imagination would never conjure the correct images.
How simple would it be to slip into the bathroom and obtain a glimpse? The noise of the water was enough to mask the opening door, and she wouldn’t be able to see through his cloaking field…
Honor.
Rendash didn’t understand her preoccupation with covering herself and keeping him covered, but it wasn’t a large leap in logic to guess she wouldn’t appreciate him stealing a peek at her naked form. Even if she weren’t helping him, he possessed more honor than that.
He finished the first bottle of water and picked up another, draining half of it in a single draught. Why was the air on this world so dry? His attention fell to food again; only the small items in smooth, glossy wrappers remained. The items she’d obtained while he snuck into her car.
He lifted one of the packages, gold with red human lettering. A pair of long, thin objects were inside. Curious, he tore the wrapper open, revealing a pair of narrow brown sticks. Though the food looked unappetizing, its smell was intriguing.
Pushing the end of one of the sticks past the wrapper, he lifted it to his mouth and took a bite. To his surprise, it was layered — the soft brown exterior hid some sort of chewy, gooey substance, which rested atop a crunchy center. Each layer combined with the others to create a taste like he’d never experienced. Sweetness burst across his tongue, overwhelming enough that his vision blurred for a fraction of an instant.
Before he was conscious of it, he’d devoured both sticks and had one of the other wrapped items in his hand. He stopped himself from opening it; she’d obtained them for herself, and even though she’d told him to eat, it was not right to finish everything. He returned the food to the bed as he ran his tongue over his teeth, sweeping away any lingering traces of sweetness.
Rendash realized only then that the water had been shut off in the bathroom. He gathered the discarded food wrappers and stuffed them into the empty bag for lack of anywhere else to put them before turning toward the bathroom, eagerly awaiting Zo
ey’s emergence.
Why was he so attached to her already? It was a dangerous sort of bond to form, especially given his circumstances. She was helpful for now, but eventually he’d be on his own again, the only aligarii on a hostile planet.
Without an Umen’rak.
The reminder of their deaths stung. He’d carried the weight of their loss throughout his time on Earth, but that loss only became truly painful when he looked toward the future. When he thought about returning home, to Algar, where he would have no companions to share in the joy of his homecoming. Where the peace he’d earned would be diminished by the knowledge that all the rest had died. Rendash hadn’t been better or more deserving than any of them, only luckier — though whether the nature of that luck was good or ill could be argued in either direction.
A strange sound came from the bathroom — a loud, high whine, like the blaring of some alien engine.
Rendash’s senses shifted into high alert. Suddenly unaware of his aches, pains, and exhaustion, he leapt off the bed and skidded to a halt in front of the bathroom. He nearly tore the door off its hinges as he pulled it open.
Zoey screamed, stumbling back from the doorway to hit the wall behind her. Her eyes met his.
“What the hell, Ren?” she demanded over the loud whining sound.
His eyes darted to the object in her right hand. It looked like some sort of large-barreled blaster; an energy weapon being charged, perhaps?
He slowly extended a hand. “Give me the weapon, Zoey. It will only draw attention to us if you utilize it.”
Her delicate brows lowered. “Give you the—” She looked from him to the gun in her hand. “You can’t be serious. You think this is a weapon?” She directed it toward her head.
Rendash lunged forward to stop her, catching her arm before she pointed the barrel at her face and harmed herself.
In response — with her expression startlingly flat — she twisted her wrist and aimed the blaster at him. He tensed for impact; he wouldn’t be able to form a shield in time.
He was struck by a blast of…warm air? His tension faded, free arms sagging in his ensuing confusion. “I…don’t understand.”
“It’s a hairdryer.” Zoey lifted a clump of her long, dark, wet hair — another oddity for him, as female aligarii did not grow crests like males. “I was drying my hair.”
“I see.” He released her wrist and straightened. “I’ll leave you to continue, then.”
As he was retreating through the doorway, his eyes flicked over her, and he paused.
Zoey was wearing only one of the cloths that had been hanging in the bathroom. She had it wrapped around her torso, and it revealed much of the pale flesh of her shapely thighs and calves. He followed her legs down to her dainty feet; she had five toes on each foot, and the nails at their ends were colored bright green.
She cleared her throat.
Rendash’s gaze slowly trekked along her body as he looked up. She had set down the hairdryer and clamped one hand on the cloth over her chest, pinning it in place, while her other hand tugged down on the bottom as though to cover more of her legs.
“Is something wrong?” he asked.
“Oh, for the love of— Get out!”
Still confused — which was slightly better than acknowledging his embarrassment — Rendash backed out of the bathroom. Zoey slammed the door shut the instant he was clear of it. The noise of the hairdryer resumed immediately.
Lowering his hands to his sides, he walked back toward the bed. He was unused to these feelings — confusion, indecision, helplessness. And foolishness; how could he not feel foolish? He’d walked on so many alien worlds, but he’d never felt so out of place as he did now.
Rendash had no Nes’rak here, no objectives to accomplish save to make his escape. And he had to accomplish that with no Umen’rak, no weapons but those provided by his unreliable nyros, and no understanding of where he was or where he needed to go. To further complicate the situation, everything on this planet — especially the humans — was so strange and contradictory.
Despite the far more advanced technology of his people, he was clueless about the devices and machines these humans possessed, had no idea what their true capabilities were as a species.
Just to add another complication, he was now attracted to a soft little human female.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, he stared blankly at the closed bathroom door. Perhaps it was a subconscious reaction. The notion that this was his final Nes’rak had been subtly laced through all his thoughts. He’d expected to complete the mission, return home, and retire. To take a mate and live in peace for the remainder of his days. When he’d first become an aekhora, retirement had seemed a silly notion. Why would he abandon the rush of battle, why forsake the pride of endangering himself for the protection of his people? But the notion had grown more appealing as time passed and the horrors of war mounted in his memory.
Still, a large part of him had considered the possibility of remaining an aekhora, as was also his right, of renewing his pledge and battling on with honor and courage until he met his inevitable end.
But then he’d crashed on Earth, and even with his nyros disrupted, he’d felt his surviving Umen’rak. They had been bound by the same ritual, by the same nyros, and had thus shared a bond that few beings — including most aligarii — could ever understand. He’d felt as, one-by-one, their essences faded. As one-by-one they’d died, tearing his heart to pieces and leaving a growing void in its place.
He couldn’t fool himself now. Perhaps it was against the teachings of selflessness, but he could not endure being bound to another Umen’rak, could not again bear the pain of feeling those connections breaking. He just wanted to live quietly.
His thoughts were disrupted by the opening bathroom door. He sat up straighter.
Zoey turned the light off and stepped out. She wore a blue top with sleeves that covered her arms and baggy leggings that matched, except for the white dots splattered all over them. Her long, dark hair was loose, flowing down her back and over her shoulders, so different from the coarse, thick crests of male aligarii. Though bathing seemed to have revitalized her — her skin had a more pronounced, if still faint, pink undertone now — her eyes displayed her weariness.
Rendash clenched his teeth. The fingers of his lower hands, which rested upon his knees, flexed involuntarily. At that moment, he wanted nothing more than to touch her skin, her hair, her lips, to lose himself in her softness and warmth. To forget about the troubles weighing upon him, if only for a short while.
It didn’t matter that she was of another species; his body had gone so long without companionship, without release. He simply wanted.
A brighter flush spread across her cheeks as she met his gaze. She tucked loose strands of hair behind her little, rounded ear.
“Okay, so, um… I’m sorry, but there weren’t any rooms with two beds,” she said.
He tilted his head, focused more on the subtle change in her skin color than on her words; of what importance was the number of beds?
“Ren? Did you hear me?”
“Yes.”
Amongst his people, it would be considered disrespectful to shorten an individual’s name, but he took no insult in it. The familiarity with which she said Ren was a small comfort — and comfort had been a rare thing in his life.
“So…you’re okay with sleeping on the floor, then?” she asked.
“Why would I need to sleep on the floor? This bed seems large enough.”
“Okay then. If you want the bed, I’ll take the floor.” She moved past him and reached for the pillows.
Rendash placed a hand atop the pillows, preventing her from lifting them. “There is room enough on the bed, human. Causing yourself unnecessary discomfort will not benefit our journey.”
Zoey frowned and tugged on the pillow. “I’m not sleeping in bed with you!”
“What is your objection?” he asked calmly. “I will be close enough to protect you, should a
n emergency arise, and it will allow us both the comfort of a decent place to sleep.”
Not that the bed seemed particularly comfortable, but it was a massive improvement over the accommodations during his captivity.
She gave the pillow a final, fruitless tug and growled. Something about the sound sent it straight to his cock. He barely suppressed a groan. After seeing her reaction to his nudity, he had no doubt she would refuse to be anywhere near him if she knew how his body was responding to her.
“Fine.” She stormed toward the door and switched off the lights.
The room was plunged into complete darkness for a few moments before Rendash’s eyes adjusted to the faint light creeping through a tiny gap in the window coverings. He watched Zoey haltingly walk back toward the bed, arms extended in front of her. There was a thump, and she stumbled.
“Fuck!” Placing a hand on the end of the bed, she bent down and released a high-pitched whine.
Rendash pushed himself up and took a step toward her. “Are you all right, Zoey?”
“I’m fine,” she gritted. “My suitcase decided to jump out in front of me.”
“Is it a living organism, or some sort of artificial intelligence?”
“Of course not,” she snapped. Keeping a hand on the bed, she limped around to the open side and tugged back the coverings. When she slipped onto the bed, she lay on her side at the very edge, wrapping the bedding tightly around her body.
Frowning, Rendash peeled back the blankets on his side of the bed and climbed on. The bed creaked and groaned beneath his weight. He froze, worried it would collapse beneath him. Slowly, he eased into a more comfortable position — relatively more comfortable, anyway, as whatever supports were inside the bed poked at him regardless of how he lay.
Perhaps the accommodations in the cell had been superior to these.
He eased onto his side, facing her, and inhaled deeply. There was an odd, musty smell to the bedding. It was made bearable only by Zoey’s scent, which had strengthened after her shower. It lured him a little closer.
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