There was nothing for it.
He broke the kiss and lifted away from her to study the problem.
He was still fully dressed. That was the fucking problem!
Grinding his teeth, he rolled his hips and grasped the opening on his trousers, tearing it open and digging his painful erection out.
He thought he might blackout for a moment when it thudded against her thigh.
Fighting it, he caught hold of the middle of it and used the head to search for the hole. It was not as hard to find as he had expected, but it felt a lot smaller than he had expected it to be.
Small enough doubt shook him and he got on his knees, grabbed her legs and lifted her for a better look.
It gaped at him, a ruby sliver of an opening he thought he might get his pinky in.
His throat closed. Doubt warred with need. Need won.
She was so wet, he lost his mind, dropped her onto the mattress, and dove at her again.
He expended valuable time trying to coax her to her peak with a thorough kiss before he tried to enter her again—valuable because his grip was tentative at best from the beginning and he was no longer at all certain that he could deposit his seed at her womb. He thought he might explode at any moment.
In desperation, he caught his cock in one hand and struggled to at least engage his flesh with hers. Breaking the kiss when he managed that much, he caught her waist and tried to pry her down over it. He succeeded in delving a little deeper before her body clamped down and began shoving him out.
He lost it then. He gritted his teeth. He tried to think of battle and anything else that might divert him, but it was no use. The hot moisture of her channel had undone him and the grasping muscles ripped the last shred of control from him. He almost felt like the eruption had turned him inside out, emptied him to the point of collapse.
Barely conscious in the aftermath, it took him a few moments to realize the little noises he was hearing was Niki.
And it was still a struggle to shove himself up far enough to allow her to breathe.
He bent his neck and nuzzled his face against hers. “Hush, my love. I have not forsaken you. I will make it right for you. I swear.”
Discovering without a great deal of surprise that he was still semi-erect, he took the opportunity to claim the territory that he had not been able to before the explosive release.
The devil of it was, he found then that he could not reach her breasts without pulling out completely and there was no way in hell he was going to do that. Not when he had left her wanting and taken his own pleasure. After a moment’s thought, he rolled onto his back and carried her up until she was sitting astride his hips. It was still a feat of grim determination to reach her breasts and suckle them, but he stroked her with his hands and kissed her and guided her hips until she suddenly went stiff and then began to convulse in rapture. It took him over the edge a second time and almost into complete oblivion. Fortunately, she wilted onto his chest where she was safe from his weight.
It occurred to him, forcefully, while he lay with his head swimming, fighting the urge to sleep, that his cock had not acquitted himself in the tradition of the finest madrone warriors. But he thought, wryly, that he might have damaged his little princess if he had been fully inside when it blew. Mayhap he would get the chance to explain his poor performance away with that excuse?
Or Kagan would perform worse?
He considered it and decided that it was not beyond the realm of possibility.
He could not recall when last he had been with a woman, but his body had certainly made his desperate need known. He liked to think he had as much control as the next man—or more—and thought it likely there would be a lot disappointed females on the morrow if their warriors refused to get back up and meet the challenge.
Just to be on the safe side, though, he decided to pleasure his woman again—as soon as he could muster the energy.
* * * *
Niki groaned when Taurin reached for her again and began to nuzzle his face against her throat and neck.
As delightful as everything he’d done to her had been, she was ready to go to sleep.
Her cup runneth over—literally. She could feel the cum oozing out the minute she moved. “How could you produce that much semen and not be a desiccated husk of a man?” she murmured with amusement. “Were you saving all that for little old me?”
Apparently so, and he wanted to give her more.
Despite the fact that he’d given her two of the biggest climaxes she’d ever had in her life—because it was the only two she’d ever had—no more than the thought of another round was enough to raise the phoenix from the ashes.
What really convinced her, though, was the realization that she was actually in possession of enough of her wits to explore him. Catching his wrists, she pulled his hands away and then pressed them to the bunk. He arched one dark brow at her, smiling faintly, but he allowed it.
By the time she’d explored his chest and throat and belly with nibbling bites, he wasn’t smiling anymore. His eyes were glazed with heat.
She hesitated, wondering if she should explore further.
He took the decision out of her hands. Eluding her hold, he grasped her and carried her down to the mattress, gnawing on her until she was a writhing mass of electrified nerve endings and trying to mount him. He gave in to her demand, aligning his body with hers and claiming her channel by tortuous millimeters. She was almost ready to cum when he had fully sheathed himself, so close that he had barely set a rhythm of thrusts when she reached the zenith and leapt into eternity.
He caught her on her downward flight and lifted her again. That time she hit a distant horizon that carried her to sunset. Darkness engulfed her as the last flickers of light faded away.
The next time he reached for her, she popped him.
He chuckled and curled around her, tucking her against his length.
She didn’t believe for a moment that he’d only meant to cuddle, but she was too near dead to feel like fighting. She drifted away again.
The next time she woke it was because she felt the bed shift as Taurin got up. Prying one bleary eyelid up, she stared through a burning eyeball at Taurin.
He was naked, but gathering clothing.
Jurik was nowhere to be seen.
Taking that to mean it was time to get up, she struggled upright and looked around in confusion for her clothing—the panties and t-shirt that was all she had to her name in the world.
Thankfully, Taurin hadn’t destroyed them when he’d stripped her.
She was also grateful to discover when she got up that cum didn’t gush out of her.
Instead, it had dried.
Feeling distinctly yuck, she was reluctant to put anything on before bathing, but the bath was a good mile away and she would have to traipse through a room full of warriors to get to it.
She put the panties and t-shirt on and was grateful, for once, that Taurin supported her down the corridor even though she’d been a little resentful of being hauled around by one arm when she’d finally gotten past being terrified of Taurin.
They could hear the noise from the common room when they turned onto the final corridor and it only got louder as they progressed.
They discovered once they got there that the room was filled with rowdy, boisterous males and half dead females.
It seemed pretty evident everybody had had a wild night.
Bracing herself, Niki headed for the bath. She didn’t feel a lot better when she emerged and looked around for Taurin.
She discovered he had followed her and waited outside for her.
She wasn’t sure why because he never had before, but then Kagan blocked his path before they made it back to the table Jurik had claimed.
Taurin tensed.
“I am second,” Kagan said pointedly.
“You are. But I will not yield her until I am certain I have sown my seed in her,” Taurin growled. “You know the way.”
&nb
sp; “This is not the way of the people,” Kagan argued.
“No. There would be no second place. You would have won or you would have gone home without a mate. But while I am willing to bend the mating rules so that all may mate, I am not willing to allow you to impregnate my woman. She will carry my son in her belly.”
For several moments more, Kagan stood tensely, as if he would launch himself into battle. Then, he relaxed with obvious effort and saluted Taurin.
Taurin watched him until he was certain that Kagan would not try a surprise attack and then he crossed the room with Niki.
For her part, Niki was wide awake. She didn’t know what had just happened, but she’d found it damned unnerving.
Discovering that Amy was at the table next to them, she turned to her as soon as they’d settled. “What’s going on?”
Amy stared at her blankly and then looked around. “You mean the fact that all of the guys decided at one fucking time to try to fuck us all to death?”
“She’s talking about the battle yesterday for first dibs, I think,” Jenna offered.
“First dibs?” Niki echoed, feeling her belly tighten.
Jenna nodded. “Notice all those guys over there that aren’t with anybody? Notice how they’re staring holes in us? I think they’re the next in the queue.”
Niki felt the blood leave her face when she’d looked.
She would’ve liked to dispute Jenna’s assessment. Unfortunately, it actually didn’t take a lot of brain power to figure it out. The guys looked like they were just waiting to pounce.
And Kagan had challenged Taurin.
That was why Taurin was waiting for her.
Did that fit, though?
“But … Taurin was waiting for me to get out of the bathroom and he refused Kagan—if that was what he was demanding.”
Jenna shrugged. “I can’t speak their language any more than anybody else around here so I can’t say I’m one hundred percent certain of the conversations, but that’s my guess—just from the way they’re all acting. Just thought I’d give you a heads up that we’re probably looking at making the rest of the trip on our backs. While they line up and take turns. Because they’re just that fair minded,” she said dryly.
Chapter Nine
Niki didn’t want to believe her. If anybody in the group was more cynical than Jenna, it would be hard to find them.
Until Niki had met Jenna and begun working with her she’d thought she was the most cynical of all from her own experiences.
But Jenna had her beat, hands down.
She couldn’t make herself dismiss what Jenna had said, though, as ‘just’ paranoia because of her bad experiences.
Because she wasn’t an idiot even though she acted like one on occasion—mostly occasions when she met up with some damn man and believed his fucking lies.
She swallowed with an effort against the knot in her throat.
Taurin hadn’t lied to her.
Because the bastard couldn’t, damn his hide! He couldn’t speak her language or vice versa.
She’d be willing to bet he’d been saying them in his language, though—all the time she’d thought he was saying sweet things to her because … well, his expression made her think so.
The way he fucked her made her think so.
That was a lie, by damn! She’d felt like he was making love to her and that wasn’t by accident! He’d … deliberately not made it feel like rape so she could hate his guts.
Not that she hadn’t hated her boyfriends’ guts after the breakup. And they hadn’t even pretended they were in love with her.
She supposed she had no room to complain.
He’d at least given her time to come to terms with her situation and he had gone out of his way to make it good for her, to make her feel like she was a person and not just a … thing.
She wasn’t hurt, she told herself—half believing it. She was scared and angry.
Because she couldn’t be safe if he didn’t care anything about her and she’d convinced her stupid self that he must.
She absolutely knew that was part of it, her chaotic emotions.
The other part …. Well, she didn’t want to think about that.
It took all she could do to choke down food—partly because of what she’d discovered and partly because she knew they were going to end up in the same cabin again and she was going to be expected to shell out the goods.
Could she do it, though, without getting all stupid and emotional?
She could, she told herself.
She could do it.
All she had to do was to empty her mind of all the turmoil and let him give her pleasure like he had the night before. All she had to do was to pretend she wanted it like she had before.
Because she did. He was just as handsome and desirable as he had been before. Nothing had really changed. She could act like she was just having a good time and enjoying it.
She could do that.
She’d told the other women that they had to if they wanted to live. And she still wanted to and she couldn’t complain because she was being treated well even if she was expected to have sex with a few hundred different warriors—probably—on a rotating schedule.
Prostitutes managed it. It was no big deal.
She’d never been able to figure out how they did, but she was about to find out.
Taurin hooked a finger under her chin when they finished eating and forced her to look at him, studying her face. “Tired, Ni-ki?”
She thought for a moment she was going to totally lose it and bawl. She managed a nod.
He studied her a moment more in frowning silence and finally released her. Getting up, he headed to the room where they changed into their armor and collected their weapons. Seeing it, the others, somewhat reluctantly, followed suit.
“Do you think they’re going to settle who gets to … uh … dance tonight?” Amy asked.
“Who knows?” Jenna muttered glumly. “I don’t suppose it matters.”
It mattered to her. Her belly cramped at the thought.
She was such an idiot!
How pathetic could a woman get! Give her a little bit of attention and be nice and she was a damned moron.
No, no, she told herself! Attitude! She had enough sense to know she’d be better off acting like it didn’t matter to her one way or the other. Because acting like you were pissed off about it just made guys furious.
And she did not want Taurin furious with her.
She’d seen the way he fought Kagan.
It wasn’t worth getting killed over and she knew damned well it wasn’t ‘real’. She’d just latched onto him because he made her feel safe and she needed someone to make her feel protected. Even if it wasn’t really true.
And he’d made … sex with her better than any man she’d ever been with.
She’d been absolutely convinced that she’d had climaxes … several times—right up until she had the real thing. With Taurin.
Maybe he was just that good because—well, he was an alien and they were different. Maybe he had a good teacher or something like that? Or maybe a lot of practice?
If that was the case, she’d be just as crazy about the next one, she told herself. “I really hate watching this. It ties me in knots. I keep thinking any minute somebody isn’t going to swing fast enough or move the shield just the right way and I’m going to see something that will give me nightmares. Forever.”
“Yeah. Me, too,” Amy agreed.
“Me three. I think we need to stay, though—find out if there’s somebody different on our dance card for the night. I sure as hell don’t want to piss off any of these guys.”
“I couldn’t find my way back to the cabin anyway,” Niki said.
Jenna uttered a sputtering laugh. “Me either. If they left me to find my way, they’d find my corpse in a week or two. Where do you suppose they’re going? Or do you think they just live in space all the time and raid ships? I mean, I suppose they must, but it d
oesn’t look like they’d run into that many ships considering how vast space is.”
Niki thought that over. “They must go to planets, too, and raid those. I’m pretty convinced the giants aren’t from the same world as the lizards.”
“Why do you suppose they would ally themselves with the lizards?” Amy asked pensively. “I mean … well, the giants are definitely warriors and I suppose they like fighting, but … I don’t know. Conquest?”
“Maybe. They were armed to fight when they got on our ship and they didn’t look especially happy when they discovered there wasn’t going to be a battle,” Niki said. “But … it’s still a really weird alliance. I mean, as far as I can see the giants hate the lizards and vice versa.”
Jenna shrugged. “The US and China hate each other, but they do stuff together.”
“Yeah, but that’s for mutual gain …,” Niki said pointedly. “What would the giants get, usually, besides a rousing good fight and the chance to kill or be killed?”
“Maybe they split the booty—like pirates?”
“Maybe they don’t have a home?”
It was curious, but she didn’t see that speculating would get them any closer to the answer and they wouldn’t know the answer if they fell over it.
The discussion did help her to regain her equilibrium, though, and she was able, she thought, to behave ‘normally’. At least, she hoped so. And she was tired enough by the time the men had stopped exercising and doing war games that that also helped.
She damned near fell asleep on her lunch plate, in point of fact.
Deciding she just had to nap, she left the table and searched until she found a place near the wall where she thought she wouldn’t get stepped on and lay down, curling into a tight ball to stay warm.
Taurin dragged her out just about the time she dozed off, scooped her up against his chest, and left the common room.
She really hoped he wasn’t going to expect sex when they got back to the cabin because if he did he was just going to have to play screw the dead thing.
Alien Warriors: Invasion Page 8