“What do you want, old man?”
Merkin raised an eyebrow. “Why are you leaving that girl back there on the dance floor?”
“The dance is over.”
“Is it? Looked to me like it was just beginning.”
Daxar sighed. “She’s a human. You know that means I can’t have anything to do with her.”
Merkin shook his head. “She’s something special, Daxar.”
Daxar only glared. For a moment, he thought about telling Merkin off. But he still couldn’t bring himself to be disrespectful to what felt like the last vestige he had of his father. So he only shook his head at him, and pushed past him to the door. “I have to go.”
The night air felt good on Daxar’s sweaty skin. The city dome was climate controlled, so in reality the Zocronians could have kept it at the same temperature constantly. But in the interest of giving the plants and animals normal cycles of sleep and rest, the Zocronians let the temperatures cool at night.
Daxar had intended to go home, but he found himself wandering through the streets of Zocrone. His open shirt still flapped around his bare chest in the night breeze that Zocrone’s climate controllers created, and Daxar eventually just took the shirt off completely. He looked up at the stars, which were only visible in certain spots where the trees’ thick cover was broken. He loved this city. He loved these people. He had done his best to do right by them, and he wouldn’t trade his job as Chief for anything. But tonight, his heart felt like it was breaking.
It was an unusual sensation. Usually, the wall around Daxar’s heart kept out any pain. He’d had to build that wall after he’d nearly killed off all of Zocrone by accident. He couldn’t bear to think about how much less of a Chief he was than his father, or of how most of the Zocronians surely thought he was a hack at this Chief job. He hoped that little by little over the years, he was winning everyone’s trust. He might never be as great as his father, but no one could argue that he didn’t love Zocrone more than anyone else currently alive.
And that love for Zocrone was the reason he could never love Nova. She was not Zocronian, and he had no business letting a non-Zocronian into the city, let alone loving her. He knew that in his head. He just wished his heart would get the memo. It had been beating like crazy ever since he saw her walk into Black Hole Brews. No matter how angry she made him sometimes, the strongest emotion he felt when he saw her was desire. Love, even. As he strode through the dark nighttime streets of Zocrone, he vowed to himself that he would not go home tonight until he had forced the feelings of lust for Nova from his mind.
He was going to be out walking for a while.
Chapter Nine
Nova carefully hung the bright neon-colored dress in the small closet of the small apartment, then slipped on an oversized t-shirt. The t-shirt was one of the few comfort items she had brought with her from Earth. It was a kitschy shirt from the Space Rock Café, a popular destination among both aliens and humans alike in big tourist towns. The place had apparently been called the Hard Rock Café back in the day, before space travel had become a thing. A few centuries ago, its owners had decided to give it a bit of an update to fit in with their clientele’s intergalactic diversity. Nova had gone to several Space Rock Cafes with her family over the years, but the only time she’d ever purchased a t-shirt was when she visited the New Los Angeles Café. Now, her family was gone, and she wasn’t sure she’d ever make it back to Earth again. She wasn’t sure she wanted to. Earth no longer held the same appeal, with all of her close family deceased.
And smuggling no longer held the same appeal now that a certain Zocronian had stolen her heart. Not that it mattered. Daxar would never feel the same way for her as she suddenly felt for him. Oh sure, she had seen the desire in his eyes when they finished their dance. But he had pushed that desire away quickly. If he did want her, it was only for her body, not for her heart. He had made it pretty clear that he hated her, and that he hated outsiders. One spin around a dance floor wasn’t going to change that, no matter how much chemistry their dancing had.
And could she blame him? Sure, he could stand to lose the asshole “I’m better than everyone” attitude. But the truth was that he was better than Nova. He served as Chief for an entire planet. A small planet, true. But a planet nonetheless. What did Nova do that could come even close to comparing? She was smart, but all she had used her smarts for was to run around the Galaxies, trying to make ends meet. She was a lowlife smuggler, nothing more. And she wasn’t even sure that she was that anymore. The e-memos from her basestos clients had been horribly threatening. They wanted delivery in the next two days, or they were going to call off the whole deal. If Nova left right this minute, she would have to ride her spaceship hard to manage to make delivery in two days. And Maisie was estimating that fully repairing the ship was going to take at least another week.
Which meant she was screwed, and her clients were going to hate her. They wanted to make Nova return all the basestos and pay them damages. That would ruin her financially. But worse than that, her reputation as a smuggler would be ruined. Once word got around the smuggling world that she had botched the basestos deal, her days as a smuggler were over. At this point, there didn’t seem to be any way around this catastrophe. She was just trying to figure out how to break the news to her crew.
She curled up on her bed, wearing just the t-shirt and her underwear. It had been fun to dress up for the night at the bar, but at the end of the day this was who she was. Just a girl in a t-shirt trying to survive in a Galaxy where no one seemed to notice when your luck turned against you and you were chewed up and spit out by the system.
Nova sighed and closed her eyes. One night at a time, she told herself. At least for tonight she had a bed to sleep in. One that was remarkably comfortable. She’d never seen beds quite like the ones the Zocronians used. The beds were made of huge glass rectangles, which were filled with a gel-like blue substance. A soft pallet that looked similar to an Earth mattress in appearance was placed over the gel substance, locking perfectly into place. The effect was somewhat like the waterbeds Nova had seen back on Earth, only much more comfortable. The gel gave the impossibly soft mattress just the right amount of support, and every time Nova moved, she felt herself swaying ever so gently, almost as though she were sleeping while suspended on a cloud. She knew that it was technically impossible to be suspended in a cloud, but she imagined that if it was possible, then this is what it would feel like.
Despite the comfort of the mattress, though, Nova found sleep to be an impossible feat at the moment. She tossed and turned, and tried to push mental images of Daxar out of her head. But, every time she closed her eyes, she saw his muscular blue form dominating the dance floor. When his shirt had ripped open, she had gawked at how amazing he looked. She wanted to see more than just what his torn shirt had revealed. She wanted to know what he looked like with his pants off. He was much taller and more muscular than a human. Was his dick proportionally bigger as well?
Nova blushed at the thought. She was thinking things that were way out of line. But what did it matter? Daxar couldn’t read minds, as far as she knew. And she was never going to repeat any of these thoughts out loud. Not even to her crew. Especially not to her crew. She’d seen them at the dance-off tonight, and she knew they weren’t blind. They must have seen the way Daxar looked at her after the dance, and the way she looked at him. But it had only been for a moment, and then he had left, disappearing through the crowd and vanishing into the night. Nova had left the bar soon after. She still wasn’t sure who had technically won the dance-off, but it didn’t matter. All she had known in that moment was that there was no way she could sit there and talk like nothing was wrong when both her heart and the space between her legs was still throbbing from the memory of Daxar’s touch. She’d run home, evading her crew members and all of the Zocronians who wanted to talk to her. The Zocronians all acted interested in learning more about humans, which still surprised Nova. Evidently they didn’t all sh
are their Chief’s hatred for outsiders.
Chief Daxar. There he was in her mind’s eye again. Handsome, strong, and off limits. Nova couldn’t stand him and his arrogance, and yet she couldn’t stand being apart from him. She really needed to get off this planet before she went completely crazy. With an annoyed grunt, she closed her eyes and started trying to count to one hundred. Anything to distract herself from her thoughts of Daxar.
She had just made it to seventy-seven, when a loud knock sounded at the door. Startled, she sat straight up. Was it one of her crew members? Why would they be coming here at this hour unless they were in trouble? But who else would it be? She didn’t know anyone on this planet well enough for a middle of the night visit.
Her worries about someone sabotaging her e-assistant and her ship came rushing back. Was someone out to get her? How safe was she, really, on Zocrone? Come to think of it, why was the person at the door knocking? This apartment was equipped with a state of the art intercom system. It would make more sense to sound the buzzer and announce yourself via the security camera.
Nova took a deep breath as the pounding knock came again. This was strange, yes. But the apartment did have a security alarm and security lock. She wasn’t completely defenseless. Then again, if whoever was knocking was the person who had sabotaged her ship, they probably weren’t Zocronian, which meant they had snuck into the city dome. Nova hadn’t thought that was possible, but if it was, well…she was screwed. Someone who could sneak into a city dome as secure as Zocrone’s could no doubt break through a measly apartment security system.
The knocking came again, and Nova forced herself to get her terrified ass out of the bed. She walked to the front door and started swiping through the security video feeds on the wall console. It only took her a couple swipes to get to the one that showed her a view of the outside of her apartment’s front door, and she gasped and clapped her hand over her mouth when she saw who it was.
“Daxar?” she whispered. She had never expected to see him here. Why the hell was he here? He was still wearing the same pants he’d worn at the bar, although his shirt was completely off now. He looked agitated, and Nova suddenly realized that there must be something wrong with one of her crew members. Why else would he come here in the dead of night? This certainly wasn’t a social call. He’d made it clear he wasn’t going to be her friend or her lover, and even if he had miraculously changed his mind, he would have waited until a more decent hour to inform her of that.
Nova whipped the door open. “Daxar? What’s wrong? What’s happened to my crew?”
He didn’t answer her. Instead he pushed his way all the way into the apartment, pushing her up against the wall and covering her lips with his. His thick tail reached over and slammed the apartment’s front door shut, but he never broke the kiss.
His lips were a firestorm—the heat and strength of them sent instant shockwaves of desire over Nova’s entire body. She resisted him only for one surprised second, and then she gave in. She reached up to wrap her arms around his muscular neck, and she jumped up so that her legs were wrapped around his waist. She lost all sense of reason and logic, and slipped her tongue past his lips and into his mouth. He let out a low growl in response.
His tongue was rough and ridged, and every time it passed over Nova’s tongue it sent shivers up and down her spine. His chest felt so strong as it pressed against her chest, and she felt her nipples hardening as they rubbed against his muscles. In her worry over her crew and her haste to answer the door, she had forgotten how she was dressed. Now, she felt suddenly self conscious. She had no bra on, and all that separated her hard nipples from his sexy blue skin was the fabric of an old worn t-shirt. And her lack of pants was soon going to make it painfully obvious that she was growing wetter and wetter between her legs. Desire for him was consuming her, and her underwear was soaking through.
Then again, she had no reason to feel self-conscious. He was the one who had come to her at an indecent hour with no warning. He must be struggling with the same sorts of intense feelings that she was. And he could not hide his growing erection. Damn, this man was huge. Nova didn’t even have to take off his pants to know that he was definitely the largest man she had seen in her life. She melted into his kiss, already anticipating what it would feel like to have him inside of her. Not that she had any right to think like that. This was just a kiss, and she didn’t want to get ahead of herself here. He had been so reluctant to kiss her back on the dance floor that it was almost impossible to now believe that he was going to make love to her.
But that erection made it pretty hard to doubt his intentions. And as the moments passed, he only kissed her deeper. When he finally pulled back to catch his breath, his face was so close to Nova’s that their noses were almost touching. She held on tightly to his neck, and he held her firmly beneath her ass. She looked with wonder into his fog gray eyes, which seemed to be literally swirling right now. She had never seen anyone more handsome. She loved the way his deep blue skin offset those gray eyes. She loved the ridge on his forehead. She loved how impossibly strong he was. Her big blue alien.
No, no, no. I can’t think of him as mine.
But she couldn’t help it. Whatever the challenges and differences between them, she knew that she had never wanted something more in her life than for Daxar to be hers, and for her to be his.
“I shouldn’t be here,” he said, his voice low and husky.
“Why not? It’s obvious we both want this.”
“But you’re human. And I’m Chief of the Zocronians.”
“And the heart wants what it wants.”
He rolled his eyes heavenward like some sort of prayer, and then closed his eyelids briefly. “But my people. I’ve spent my life protecting them from outsiders. How could I fall in love with one?”
“Not all outsiders need to stay on the outside, Daxar. I’m not a Praznian. I’m not going to wipe out your entire city dome.”
He let her slide down to the ground, his tail swishing behind him as he put a hand on his forehead. For one heart-wrenching moment, she thought that was it. She thought he was going to walk out her apartment’s front door, leaving her nothing but the memory of a kiss.
“Daxar,” she said, her voice a choked whisper. “There is something between us. You can’t deny that. We come from two different races, yes. But I get the feeling that we both just want to leave the mistakes of our past behind us. We both want a future filled with love and happiness. What’s so wrong about that?”
“But my people…”
“Your people are ready for change. They want to open up to the outside world more. They respect you, and they appreciate the fact that you’ve spent your entire time as Chief so fiercely dedicated to their safety and well-being. But they know that not every outsider is bad. I think, deep down, you know it, too.”
Daxar ran his strong blue fingers through his hair, still uncertain. “And what about when your ship is fixed? You’re going to leave Zocrone. We’ll have this one night, and I’ll have compromised my strict no outsiders stance. For what? A night or two of pleasure?”
“No,” Nova said, her voice fervent. “For the chance to feel alive.”
For several long moments, Daxar looked at her with those intense eyes of his, obviously fighting a war within himself. Then, finally, he let out a low growl.
“Oh, sludge it. Am I Chief, or am I Chief? I’m going to take what I want, for once.”
And with that, he stepped forward and picked Nova up in his strong blue arms, and carried her to the bed. Nova felt like she was in heaven. In the back of her mind, some logical part of her brain tried to tell her that this was a bad idea. He was right: she would be leaving Zocrone soon, and she had a feeling that if she slept with Daxar now, she was going to be leaving a part of her heart behind with him when she did leave. His place was here, as Chief. And hers, well, she wasn’t quite sure where her place in the Galaxies was anymore. But it surely wasn’t here. She’d been a smuggler too long
to fit in well with a real society, especially one as tightly knit as Zocrone.
But still, she didn’t try to stop Daxar as he laid her down on the bed and started tearing off his pants. Maybe he was a bit of a prejudiced, pompous asshole, and maybe she was a screwed up smuggler. But tonight, none of their shortcomings mattered. Tonight, as Nova had already told Daxar, they both had the chance to feel alive. Truly alive. And it had been so long since Nova felt that way. She would take the pleasure despite the pain that would follow it, however bad that pain might be. After all, what pain could possibly be worse than the pain of complete, consuming loneliness? And Nova was so tired of being alone. Even if it was only for one night, she wanted to belong to someone. And right now, as Daxar reached to pull off her underwear and her old Space Rock Café t-shirt, Nova belonged.
And she belonged to the most incredible man she’d ever seen. As she focused on his now naked body, she could not help but gasp. How was it possible for anyone to be this glorious? His exotic blue skin seemed to take on an even deeper shade than normal, and the color in his fog gray eyes was definitely swirling. Every muscle in his body was sculpted to perfection, and every muscle was huge. He put the muscles of every human man Nova had ever known to shame. Every part of him seemed oversized, but no part more than the huge erection between his legs.
Nova could not help but gawk as she looked at it. He stood beside the bed, that erection pointing proudly at her as if to say, “Here I am, and you are mine.” The shaft was thick, and appeared to be ridged in a way similar to his forehead. Nova closed her eyes for a moment. It was all too much to take in. Would he even fit inside of her? She honestly wasn’t sure, but she was about to find out. There was no way she was passing up an opportunity to make love with this incredible, gorgeous being.
The Alphas of the Seven Galaxies Page 9