by Zara Zenia
“Catherine O’Shea. Do not believe this. You are an honorable warrior, and for the service you do for the Trilyn Royal house, they will reward you. I suggest we move. Now.”
Cat sighed and then ran, and I followed. And should I live to the full lifespan, I would never forget this night when I ran under the stars through the streets of a wasteland with my beautiful Cat. My heart was full, and though my circumstances were difficult, I couldn’t imagine that I wouldn’t overcome them with this gorgeous, fierce woman by my side. My blood ran hot as I watched her muscles propel her body over the fence at the end of the park and then break into a full run east. I followed, and we didn’t run but two blocks when she took a northern direction paralleling the highway, and I lost count of the streets we passed. The area got a little better and the roads not as wrecked, but we may have understated the amount of damage to this city. The tang of salt hit the air, so I knew we were growing close to what was the Fisherman Wharf area.
She took a right and after one more block, ran up to a doorway and spoke into the key lock and the door swung open.
“This is it.”
“What it?”
“My grandmother’s house. She left to me. I didn’t have the heart to sell it.”
“Won’t they find us here?”
“No one knows about it. I have a different last name than my grandmother.”
I hoped she was right, though I believed anyone could find any piece of information they wanted on the net.
She led me up to a well-kept carpeted stair, and what I saw astounded me. We walked into an atrium where intricate designs in light and dark wood inlay the floor, and wood panels in a rich brown ran halfway up the wall. Shaped moldings edged the doorways and windows. The pane in the window to the right was a diamond design of cut glass pieces held together by silver metal.
“Oh, Cat. I had no idea,” I said in wonder.
“It is a house from a different age. My grandmother kept it up.”
“I can see. Cat, this is exceedingly grand.”
She leaned against the wall and smiled ruefully.
“Before the Badlands overtook this area, I could have sold it for around four million dollars, now it’s only worth a million. I don’t know. I don’t want to let it go, though it gets harder as the years go on. It is expensive to maintain, and the taxes eat my paycheck.”
“Oh, but you mustn’t,” I said. “This house astounds me. I did not know humans made their dwellings so beautiful. It is a home fit for a princess.”
She chuckled. “It’s making me a pauper. Besides, if you are in the market, there are more modern homes with better conveniences.”
“But what could be better than a home filled with the memories of your ancestors? To feel their very breath upon the panes of the windows. What is better than to sit by the same fireplace and hear the stories of your family passed from one generation to the next? On my planet, we hold such places in high esteem.”
Her face turned sad, and she looked away. “You’ll go home one day, won’t you?”
Will I? How could I rip my dearest from the place of her ancestors? The thought gave me physical pain in my heart.
“I thought so at one time. But now, I think like Gardax.”
“Your eldest brother?”
“Yes. His Amy does not want to leave Earth, and I thought it was an indulgence, but he and she will remain here.”
“Then who will rule on Trilyn when, forgive me, your father can no longer rule.”
I turned my head away because I couldn’t answer that question. It was a secret my father, brothers and I kept from the Earth people.
“Akrawn?” she said.
“That’s on a need to know basis. And now, there is only one thing you need to know.”
“What is that, Akrawn?”
“How much I want you.”
I reached for her and gathered my Cat into my arms and bent my head over hers.
“I will kiss you now,” I said. And I did.
Chapter 10
Cat
Akrawn’s strong arms held me tight, and my first instinct was to knee him in the groin. But his scent surrounded me, and as his lips pressed against me, first gently and then more demanding, I became putty in his arms. The damn prince was using some funky alien pheromone magic on me. He must be because no way would I allow a prisoner or a suspect to touch me in such an intimate manner.
A low rumble came from his throat, almost like a cat purring. I remembered that cats used purring to calm their prey as they killed them, and yes, Akrawn had captured me. I could no more run than a prey animal caught in the claws of a cat. But I didn’t struggle as prey might because Akrawn’s kiss was scrumptious.
He cupped my chin with both hands as he drove the kiss deeper. Tingly sensations rushed from my lips and down my neck and spine, the small of my back and then between my legs. I was lit like a Christmas tree but twice as sparkly. The prince murmured words in my ear in his language. I didn’t know what he was saying, but how he was saying it told me he wanted to worship my body. His kiss gathered more intent and fire, and his hand went to my breast and squeezed it, sending more bubbles of pleasure through me.
His tongue swept against my lips, and I parted them, not entirely conscious that I did because all my brain kept saying was, more, more, more.
“What?” he said, genuinely surprised.
I opened my eyes to find his half-hooded ones gazing at me with lusty intent, but with some confusion.
“Kiss me,” I said.
“I was.”
“No, kiss me.” I stood on my tiptoes and pulled his head to mine and our lips mashed against each other, and I offered my tongue.
He froze, and I pulled back.
“Did I do something wrong?” I swallowed hard because the look of shock on his face threw me into a panic.
But then he smiled. “This is called French kissing?”
“Yes.”
He nodded. “Rawklix told me of this. He said it was delightful, and I agree.”
“Wait, you’ve never French kissed?”
He shook his head. “Trilyn women find the exchange of mouth fluids distasteful.”
I guess I would too if someone put it to me like that.
“So Trilyn don’t kiss?”
“No. It is something we learned when we arrived.”
“Then how, I mean, women like to, oh hell, Akrawn. What do you do to get women warmed up?”
“We sing.”
I raised my eyebrows. “What do you mean?”
“Let me show you,” he said.
His eyes lit with mischief like a kid with a new toy. He bent to put his lips behind my ear and hummed. Only it wasn’t the hum you might do when you want to sing along. It was a deep reverberating hum that tickled me deep to my toes as a wave after wave of sparkly pleasure rose through me. My heart raced, and my breath ran to catch up, and I’d do anything for those sensuous waves to keep rolling through my body.
“Oh, my God,” I gasped.
He pulled away. “I am merely a prince.”
“We’ll debate your godhood later,” I said. “More.”
“Bedroom,” he said.
I pointed to the hallway behind me, and he swept me in his arms and strode down it with a purpose. “The door at the end,” I said.
He laid me down gently as he worked his clothes off his body. I gasped because he was more magnificent than I’d imagined. He left on his underwear, though his tent was obvious.
“Take those off,” I demanded.
“You are very impatient,” he said, “which I like, but give me a chance to adjust to your—”
“I don’t understand.”
“Our women didn’t have the enthusiasm for mating that human women do. It’s been a change for us.”
I was about to open my big mouth when I caught the past tense applied to the Trilyn women.
“Oh, Akrawn. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—”
Akrawn sank on the bed, which dipped beca
use of his weight, and he stroked my face tenderly.
“No worries, my Cat. I, like all my Trilyn brothers, found it a great sadness. We lost much. But I now see hope for my people when I look at you. I think now we were extremely fortunate to have found Earth and the beautiful women here.”
His words touched me, and his eyes softened as he gazed at me. I threw my arms around him and kissed him again, and this time our tongues tangled in a frenzied dance as if we’d been doing this all our lives. He rumbled again in my mouth, and it was the sexiest thing I’d ever felt. He kept up his rumble as he trailed his mouth down my neck and on my breast bone and then to breasts and I squirmed under him. This alien was driving me fricking insane, and he’d barely touched me.
As his mouth traveled down my torso, I moaned, please, please, please.
“I will please you, my Cat.”
And then his mouth was between my legs, and he hummed and ravaged me with his tongue like a starving man. For a man who didn’t know what French kissing was, he knew how to use that tongue. I gripped the sheets with my hands, tossing my head and muttering nonsense as I climbed higher in my desire. My breath came in rapid pants and moans, and I broke apart as his tongue and voice worked my intimate flesh into a frenzy of need.
“Akrawn, please,” I pled, though I didn’t know what I begged for. Then he thrust his tongue inside me, reaching deep, and it was game over.
“Akrawn!” I screamed as white heat consumed me, and I was propelled into ecstasy. Akrawn held my hips tight and his tongue in my entrance as I thrashed in an orgasm that didn’t seem to end.
The sensation fizzled into a warm glow through my body, and Akrawn smiled at me with his lips glistening with my juices.
“You are delicious, my Cat. We will have to do that many times.”
“Won’t get any argument from me. But what about you?”
“Do you not need to rest?”
The orgasm barely ebbed when a post orgasmic shudder racked me. I wasn’t done yet, not by a long shot.
“See that’s the thing about Earth women,” I said. “We’ve even done scientific studies on it.” I reached for his underwear and tugged on the band. “We can go all night long if we want.”
“You can? Do you want too?”
“Oh, yes, my prince,” I said as I worked his boxers down his thighs to allow his cock to spring out. Good lord, the man was massive. “I want very much.”
I looked at that delicious naked figure on the bed. My fingers unbuttoned the buttons on my shirt, which I had just done up. But my stomach rumbled, and so I turned away and made myself pull on my jeans. A small trip to the local shop was unlikely to flag the ILE’s attention given the lack of camera surveillance here in the mission district. Besides, the police should assume I was acting on their directions and allowing Akrawn to seduce me with my end-game being his capture. At least they should assume that for the next day.
Steeling myself, I turned back to my alien lover, whose gorgeous golden eyes were now open and tracking my every move. “I’m heading to the local store for fresh food. Shouldn’t be more than fifteen minutes.”
“Kiss me first.”
“I won’t make it out the door.”
“That’s the idea. I prefer you beside me.”
As I shook my head, in one feral move, Akrawn was off the bed and had pinned me to the wall. He undid my blouse buttons a second time in less than a minute. His spare hand tilted my head so our lips met. My body melted into him, breasts tingling. Our mouths devoured each other, and his orange cinnamon immersed me. I quivered and whimpered with want.
Then my stomach grumbled. My cheeks flushed hot, which Akrawn could see as he had stopped our intimate tongue dance to stare into my eyes.
“Aah, my little Cat requires more than me to sustain her. Go, but if you are not back soon, I will come hunting you. And I always get my prey.”
However, his naked body pressed me firmly to the wall, and his gaze probed deep into my soul. I knew what he was asking without words. Would I use our separation to rat to the police of his whereabouts?
“I promise to return soon, alone. Then we can make plans as we eat.”
I dashed down the corridor, then the stairs and out into the street. From there I was more circumspect and sauntered to the shop dodging litter, dumped furniture, and the kids playing ball. The once bright, multi-colored, mural-covered walls of the houses had seen better days, and the low cloud cover added to my unease. This was my home with my Granny. But since Granny had died, and I’d become a cop, the danger that lurked in this gang-run area dampened my enthusiasm for returning here after work. Though, fingers crossed, the gang still had me marked as belonging here.
Although maybe not, because after leaving the shop I became an item of interest for a young tough, with one side of his face swollen and a limp. When I crossed the street, he was too interested in my change of direction. I stopped to put down my shopping and shook the tension out of my hands. When I found the bag too heavy, my shadow needed to re-tie his shoelace. He was abysmal at this. When I reached Granny’s house, I continued around the street corner. Then I ducked through a back way along one side of the terraced houses that was once a communal garden with lawns. I swung up into a tree and hid as best I could. The guy's footsteps dragged through the dirt, stopping now and then as he, doubtless, looked into and around the garbage. Once he was far enough away, I snuck down my tree and crept back to the street. I hoped he had no friends close-by.
I let myself in through the door, and a velvet voice wearing my bathrobe greeted me with, “I was just about to go hunting.”
“What, in that delightful outfit?”
The blue terry-cloth robe looked ridiculous on Akrawn as it barely covered his broad chest. But at least I could keep my focus as his luscious muscles were not on full display. I ducked around his arms and slid to the side of the curtains to peek outside.
“Akrawn, I picked up a tail and had to lose him before entering via the main door. Damn, he’s still lurking.”
Akrawn peeked over my shoulder. “Is that him in the gray hoodie?”
“Yep. The one who looks as if someone ran over him.”
We twitched the curtain back in place, and I followed him up the stairs to the bedroom as he said, “Hmm. He is familiar. Remember when you rescued me from those thugs after our dance in the Vortex? Well, I may have met them before. Things did not go well for them.”
“Now we have to avoid the Lobos de Sangre, as well as the SFPD and the ILE? Crap, Akrawn. How are we going to do that?”
Akrawn sat on the edge of the bed and pulled on his clothes while I peeked out of the third-floor curtains.
“He’s talking to one of my neighbors. We’d best hope he doesn’t call for reinforcements—too late, he’s got his phone out.”
“Phone,” said Akrawn cocking his head. “Not AI?”
“AI’s are too expensive for most people, Akrawn.”
He shook his head. “I do not understand your economic system. On Trilyn, we share our resources. If one has a thing, all do.”
I replaced the curtains.
“That sounds like Socialism.”
“No, my Cat. Socialism in your system is where a minority holds power and the rest work at their direction.”
I stared at him.
“What do you know of it?”
Akrawn bent his head to tie his shoelaces. He seemed to have trouble with them.
“I would hardly be a fit ambassador to your planet if I did not study your economic systems. It amazes me the different ways you distribute the bounty of your planet, but there are stranger things in the universe.”
“Yeah, like what?”
“There is one planet where the sentient species is what you would term a jellyfish. They sing marvelous songs, and it’s their currency. If you want something from their planet, then you need to give them a better song than what they can make themselves. Pah! How does one tie these things?” He threw up his hands in disgust.<
br />
I got on my knees and tied his shoes and then looked up to see him smiling.
“I rather like you kneeling at my feet,” he said with a smirk.
I snorted. “I’d rather like it if you didn’t keep making everything about sex.”
“How did I say anything about sex? Servants often kneel at my feet.”
My eyes widened with indignation.
“I am not your servant,” I snapped.
“Apologies, my Cat. I did not mean to imply you are my servant.”
I stood and glared at him.
“You could have fooled me.”
“English is a difficult language. I’ve learned it is the most difficult language to master.” He gave me a sad puppy dog expression worthy of any first-class lothario. Damn him for playing on my emotions.
“Yes,” I said. “English is difficult and so is a certain Trilyn prince. You are purposefully distracting me from my game plan.”
Akrawn gave me a wry smile.
“Forgive my deception, my Cat. I would do anything to keep you from harm.”
“Well, I’m an SFPD inspector. I’m trained to deal with danger, Akrawn. I don’t need some testosterone driven alien protecting me.”
Akrawn looked down chastened.
“Duly noted, my Cat.”
“And I am not your Cat.”
He sighed. “Also noted.” Then he looked up. “But I will not let it stand that way.”
Akrawn stood and swept me in into his arms and it felt good to have him hold me. But we didn’t have time for this. So I pushed with both hands into his solid chest. There was no way I could dislodge him, but he got the concept, released me, and sighed out his frustration.
“We cannot stay here. Even if that gang member weren’t part of the Sangre de Lobos, he'd spread the word for a bounty.”
“I want you, my Cat. I agree, find safety first. We need to get to the Trilyn ship at the San Francisco spaceport.”
“Airport,” I said.
“With an interstellar ship parked on one of its tarmacs, it is not now a spaceport?”
I shook my head. “Airport.”
“English is a strange language,” he said, shaking his head.