The faint crunching of footsteps in the snow called her attention to the right. A large, shadowy figure came into view, cast in a soft-but-menacing glow at the farthest edge of the light. Zoey took a step backward.
The figure raised two hands — both on the right side of its body. “It’s me.”
“Rendash!” Relief washed through Zoey. Her legs wobbled, threatening to give out, but she remained upright. “Is he…?”
“I left his remains farther out in the wasteland, hidden in the vegetation. It should be some time before he is discovered.”
Remains. She knew the word was basically interchangeable with body or corpse, but it made it sound like there were only pieces left of the man. Zoey’s gut churned. The bastard had deserved it, but that didn’t mean she wanted to imagine what Ren had done to him.
Rendash moved closer, entering the light fully. All four of his gleaming eyes focused on her as he angled his head down. “Are you all right, Zoey?”
“Yeah. No. I…” She shuddered. “I’ll be fine.”
Frowning, Ren placed a hand on her shoulder. “He cannot harm you now.”
Zoey raised a hand and curled her fingers around his forearm. “Thank you.”
A faint trembling ran through his arm, and she heard it echoed in his exhalations. She was more inclined to think of it as fury rather than nerves.
“We have a vehicle, now,” he said after a while, voice strained. “We should make use of it before it gets much later.”
She nodded and glanced toward the truck. It’d be best if she didn’t reflect upon the circumstances that had brought it into their possession. God, she’d been stupid for so long. And tonight…
Zoey had been well aware of the dangers of hitchhiking, the dangers of being a woman alone after dark, and of course those dangers would coalesce into reality the one damned time she was in such a situation.
You keep swinging, life, and you’re banging me up pretty good. But you know what? I’m still on my damn feet.
“Let’s go,” she said.
Ren’s hand didn’t fall away when she moved to walk around the truck. She glanced at him, and he guided her to turn toward him again. Taking gentle hold of her wrists, he spread her arms to either side. His eyes — and his lower hands — ran over her carefully. His touch sent a thrill along her limbs that shot straight to her core. It was the most inappropriate time to feel aroused — she’d been assaulted, and a man had been killed! — but she had no control of her body’s reaction. She was aware of every point of contact between them.
“What are you doing?” she asked breathlessly.
“Making sure you are unharmed.” That tremor remained in his voice, faint but audible.
He frowned as one of his fingers brushed over the spot on her cheek where she’d been struck.
“I’m fine. Really. I hit him more than he hit me.”
His hands didn’t still as he turned her around to continue his examination from behind. He moved close to her, so close that she felt the warmth of his breath on her hair as he slid his palms down to her hips.
Her breath quickened. “Ren?”
His only acknowledgement that she’d spoken was a soft, questioning grunt. His upper hands slid to her ribs, fingers curled just beneath her breasts, while his lower hands dipped to her outer thighs.
Zoey had a powerful urge to press herself against his hard body. Her sex clenched, and heat pooled between her thighs. “Ren…we…we should get going.”
Finally, his hands stilled, though they lingered on her. “Yes. We should. It…is cold out here.” His arms fell away, and he stepped back. Zoey shivered with the loss of his warmth.
The passenger door opened without issue from the outside, and the truck dipped to one side as Ren entered. Zoey walked around to the driver’s seat and climbed in; it was a small wonder she was able to, considering her limbs felt like jelly.
Helping Ren force the window panels back into place to block the cold offered her a few minutes of distraction, but reality soon reasserted itself.
Dean Martin had given way to Buddy Holly. Zoey turned off the radio; her appetite for music had fled.
Her appetite for Ren, however, still raged through her blood.
Chapter Nine
Zoey stepped into the motel room, leaving the door open for Rendash, who was still cloaked, to enter behind her. He brushed a finger over her arm as he passed to signal that he’d come in. Her lips parted with a soft inhalation before she shut the door, locked it, and drew the curtains closed to block the window that looked out over the vehicle storage lot.
Rendash released his cloaking field gratefully. Despite his recent experiences, he hadn’t realized how difficult the field would be to maintain. His nyros were behaving like a muscle that had atrophied after a long period of disuse. It seemed to be improving with time, but at much too slow a rate. Without desperation to fuel him, his nyros was unreliable at best.
He lifted Zoey’s suitcase onto the bed and turned to face her.
“Thank you,” she murmured, stepping close and resting her hand atop it.
Rendash frowned; her behavior was strange, but his experience with humans was too narrow to tell whether this was normal or not. “I’m going to clean up, Zoey. I will be out shortly.”
She nodded without looking at him.
After lingering near her briefly, Rendash walked into the bathroom, closed the door, and leaned over the sink to scrub the makeup off his scales with one of the folded cloths hanging nearby. The substance hadn’t been comfortable from the beginning, but it had grown increasingly itchy and dry as the day wore on. He understood the necessity and would do his best to avoid complaint when she inevitably wanted to apply more makeup on him the next day, but he couldn’t get it off quickly enough now.
Once his face was clean, he divested himself of his human garb and entered the shower, making the water as hot as it would go. After washing, drying, and relieving himself, he wrapped a large cloth — a towel, as Zoey had called it — around his waist and exited the bathroom.
He frowned. Zoey was sitting on the inside edge of the farthest bed, staring blankly at the floor.
Rendash crossed the distance between them and sat across from her on the other bed. “You’ve barely said a word since we entered the truck, Zoey. Speak to me now.”
She looked up at him and attempted a smile. Her blue-gray eyes shimmered, standing out in sharp contrast to her dark brown hair. “Guess my mind has been preoccupied.”
“With what?”
Her jaw muscles ticked. “I’ve made a lot of stupid choices in life, but tonight… I think that was the dumbest yet. I should have just listened to you. We could have walked.”
“No one could have guessed what he was going to attempt.”
“I should have known. I did know!” Zoey hung her head, closed her eyes, and pressed the heels of her hands to her eyelids. “I just keep thinking about what would have happened if you hadn’t been there.”
Detachment.
But that wouldn’t work now, would it? He’d been unable to detach himself from the details of the situation, had been unable to focus on the simple task at hand: protect Zoey. All that should have entailed was the assessment and elimination of threats.
Killing the male human should’ve been quick and efficient, should’ve been clean.
The truck’s unexpected stop had confused Rendash. He’d guessed by the roughness of the ride that they’d left the main road, but there was so much unknown to him about humans and their planet that he couldn’t risk alerting the driver by moving. The human voices had been muffled by the enclosed cab of the vehicle, and the music had been just loud enough to distort their words.
Even now, Rendash cursed himself for taking so long to respond.
By the time he’d dragged the struggling male into the brush, rage had overpowered all the tenets of his training but one — instinct. Rendash’s instinct had been to tear the human apart for daring to lay hands on his Zoey. His nyros had respon
ded to that rage by pouring excess strength into his limbs. Even after the kill had been made, Rendash had continued his assault with two thrumming vrahsks.
Though it had been far from painless, the human’s death had been too swift for Rendash’s liking. Zoey’s fearful scream had repeated in Rendash’s head over and over — it continued even now, when he stilled his mind and pushed aside his other thoughts.
He leaned forward and clasped her wrists in his lower hands, guiding her arms down before cupping her cheeks with his free hands.
“All that we have is what did happen, Zoey. Difficult as it may be, we must detach ourselves from what might have been and accept what is. Whatever dark thoughts you might have are a product only of your imaginings and not reality. You are safe.”
When she raised her arms, he released his hold. She covered his upper hands with her own, pressing them against her warm cheeks. Then she slid her palms slowly along his arms, over his shoulders, and up his neck to cradle his face. She locked her eyes with his. “Thank you, Ren.”
Rendash explored the depths of her alluring, alien eyes. He longed to feel her soft hands elsewhere on his body. Longed to touch her elsewhere, without the barrier of her clothing to separate them.
She lowered her hands and stood, stepping out of his reach. “I’m going to take a shower.”
After gathering clothes from the open suitcase on her bed, she walked to the TV, grabbed the remote, and tossed it to him. “I’ll order us some food when I get out. The lady at the front desk said there are a few pizza places nearby that deliver.”
“I do not know what that is, but I trust it will be adequate.”
Zoey shook her head, offering a fleeting glimpse of her smile in profile as she stepped into the bathroom. The door closed, and soon after, the shower came on.
Rendash picked up the remote. He pressed the red button at the top — the only one he knew, after his experience at the last place they’d slept — to turn the TV on, but that exhausted the full extent of his knowledge. All the symbols on the remote were alien to him. Stantz’s scientists had taught Rendash to speak their language, not to read it.
He was greeted by a blank blue screen. Where were the moving images? The TV at their prior shelter had operated like a primitive holographic projector, displaying moving images of humans, strange animals, and clusters of symbols.
He pressed a finger down on one of the buttons at random. A line divided up into little bars appeared at the bottom of the screen. When he pressed the button down again, several of the bars disappeared. He pushed another button, and the screen displayed four human symbols accompanied by a triangle pointing to the right.
Two humans appeared on the TV, a male and a female. The female was seated on a chair covered in a pale brown fabric. The male was standing nearby, facing away from her, dressed in some sort of uniform vaguely reminiscent of Stantz’s soldiers. Perhaps he was merely a differently specialized warrior?
“I am trying to investigate these crimes, Misses Haversnatch,” the male said with an oddly stilted cadence. “If you don’t cooperate, I’ll have to book you for obstruction.”
The female stood and approached the man with an exaggerated sway in her hips, grasping her shirt. “Does this look like obstruction to you, Officer Cumswell?”
Just as Rendash was looking for another button to press, the woman ripped open her shirt, and her large breasts sprang free. Rendash perked, back straightening and eyes widening. He’d never seen anything like them before. Was that what Zoey looked like beneath her shirt?
The male, Officer Cumswell, seemed to debate with himself. “I can’t have intimate relations with a person of interest in my investigation.”
The woman dropped to her knees in front of the male. “Maybe I can change your mind.” She tore open the male’s pants as easily as she had her shirt. His erection jutted toward her. “Looks like your interest is more than professional.”
Officer Cumswell moaned as the woman gripped his cock and took it into her mouth.
Rendash moved to the front edge of the bed and leaned forward to watch the bizarre mating ritual, resting his hands on his knees. The image zoomed in on the woman’s mouth as she slid her lips back and forth along the male’s shaft.
Their mating progressed rapidly through various positions and phases until they were both naked, slamming their bodies together with flesh slapping. Though the sounds they made seemed pained at times, neither of them slowed. They appeared to be enjoying themselves. Rendash was particularly interested in the male using his mouth on the female’s genitals, which were so open and welcoming compared to those of female aligarii. The man’s attentions seemed to drive her mad; her face contorted with overwhelming pleasure.
Immediately, Zoey’s face came to mind. What did her body look like without coverings? What sounds would she make if it was Rendash’s mouth between her thighs? What expression would she wear if she were filled with such passion and lust?
His cock stiffened with want at the mere thought of her in such positions. He dropped a hand to grasp his erection through the towel, hoping to alleviate some of the desirous ache. His own touch only strengthened his need.
He closed his eyes and stroked his shaft. Pleasure coursed through him, forcing him to grit his teeth and tighten his hold.
Control.
His gaze drifted toward the bathroom. If he couldn’t detach himself from his rapidly growing feelings for Zoey, how could he expect to control his want for her?
He looked at the screen again. The couple had changed positions; the woman was on her hands and knees with the male thrusting into her from behind.
Human fornication was simultaneously confusing and fascinating. He was unfamiliar with their reproductive process, but surely it didn’t take this long for them to complete their coupling. This mating… This looked as though it were purely for enjoyment.
The concept was foreign to Rendash. He was unsure about greater aligarii society, but amongst the Khorzar, sex served only two purposes — a quick means of release for those in the field or a fulfillment of reproductive duty for those who had been cleared to mate. Female aligarii could not reach their peak until the male had blossomed, meaning it was best for those involved to reach the point of mutual fulfillment as fast as possible.
What pleasure was involved was brief and never served as the primary focus. For those who were not mated, it was only a release of built-up desires to allow a clearer path to control.
And they certainly didn’t use their mouths — at least not in his experience.
The bathroom door opened, and Zoey stepped out.
“I hope you like pepperoni be…cause…” Her wide eyes fell upon him, shifted to the hand grasping his cock, and then swung to the TV. “What the hell!”
“What is wrong?” Rendash stood and turned to face her. The towel around his hips fell to the floor.
Zoey stared at him — or, more specifically, his groin — with lips parted and cheeks reddening.
Rendash imagined his cock slipping past those lips and groaned.
“Oh, my God.” Zoey’s pupils dilated, and her breath quickened. “You…you’re sitting here, doing this, while I was…” She looked at the TV again, silently watching. Finally, she snatched up the remote and turned off the screen.
“I only turned it on. I did not know how to change the image,” he said, dipping into a crouch only long enough to snatch up his fallen towel and replace it. Though he felt no shame, he’d clearly made her uncomfortable. “I am sorry if I have violated your human customs again.”
She walked to the TV and pressed a button on the small device beneath it. A tray slid out of its front with a faint mechanical whine. Zoey plucked out a round, thin disc from within. “Guess someone forgot to take their porn with them,” she muttered, dropping the disc into a plastic bin on the floor nearby.
As she moved past him to sit on the other bed, he couldn’t help but look at her differently; he couldn’t ignore the curves he’d fel
t beneath his palms when he’d touched her earlier, couldn’t forget how it had felt to hold her the night before. The hunger that had already been growing in him was intensified now; he wanted her.
“Are you all right, Zoey?”
“I’m fine.” Leaning over the small table between the beds, she picked up a device attached to a spiral cord and held it to her ear.
“Remember, you are a poor liar,” he said.
“I just really don’t want to talk about catching you jerking off to porn, okay?”
He turned his head to glance at the plastic bin in which she’d deposited the disc. “I…don’t understand what you mean.”
Zoey looked at him with her eyebrows low. “Porn! The people having sex on the TV!” She pressed her lips together and turned her face away, glaring at the device in her hand. “A lot of men like to get off on it.”
The displeasure in her voice was underscored by traces of anger, but he got the sense that there was more she wasn’t saying. “I was not…getting off on it.”
“I’m sorry, okay?” she said quickly. “I shouldn’t have acted that way, much less make you feel…ashamed about it.”
“I do not feel shame over it. Only confusion.” He moved to sit on the bed opposite her. “You seem to have taken personal issue over the matter.”
Anger flashed in her eyes when she looked at him, but it quickly died. She sighed. “I used to catch Joshua watching it. A lot.”
Rendash leaned forward, resting his lower elbows on his thighs. “Help me understand why that is a problem. I have encountered nothing like this in my time.”
Zoey lowered the device to its cradle and ran a hand through her hair. The action sent a burst of fragrance toward him, which he greedily inhaled.
“Humans…really enjoy sex. The gratification of it. That’s what porn thrives on, giving people something to get excited about to help them to that point of climax. It’s meant to arouse. And human men are very visual. Let’s just say…I discovered just how important that was.”
He frowned. “You seem hesitant to continue, but you’ve left me only with more questions.”
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