She didn’t return to take our orders. In fact there weren't even any menus. On the table were the ubiquitous screens. We placed our ID cards on a small panel which, I was assured, let the controlling ibic present us with the correct choices. It didn’t do me much good as I couldn’t read the squiggles anyway.
“It should display in your native language,” Flerrionna assured me, “but we so rarely get Earth people here,”
I laughed. “For rarely, read never. It’s a bit of a bind having to depend on someone else to read for you.”
“I can guess. Here, may I?”
She leaned across to read the screen and I was rewarded by the pressure of a large, firm breast against my arm. She made no move to remove it and read off the selection in a rather breathless voice. It appeared she was as much affected by the contact as I.
It was quite an impressive selection and I eventually chose lamb in honey sauce with courgettes and baby carrots. I knew fine well the ‘lamb’ would never have seen a blade of grass nor the ‘honey’ a bee, but as long as it tasted like the real thing, that was fine by me. It was hardly different from a restaurant at home. You ordered something called lamb and sort of assumed it had once frolicked and bleated on a hillside. You didn’t actually have any proof.
“Don’t you find interspecies dining a bit risky?” Hermes remarked.
“It can be,” Flerrionna replied. “I tend to choose my dinner companions rather carefully.”
“Same here. Not so easy on a spaceship, mind?”
“What’s it like, traveling in space?” He looked surprised and she laughed. “I was born and raised in Bartimarm. I’ve never been off Geretimal.”
“It’s difficult to describe. Mostly you just see the inside of the ship and, even when your maneuvering inside a system, there’s little to see unless you’re near a planet. Normally you avoid these. Being close to a planet is generally a bad sign. Landing and taking off can be interesting, though. Each planet has a different feel about it. Even if the sun is of the same type, no two planets are exactly alike. Of course, once you land, you’re dealing with beings.” He gave a sardonic laugh. “And beings are beings, as you know.”
“It just seems so… romantic, somehow.”
“That’s the last word I’d use to describe it. Try dull or tedious or boring.”
“You’re spoiling all my illusions, you know?”
“Sorry, but you did ask.”
Our waitress appeared with our food. She knew who had ordered what without asking and served efficiently and gracefully.
“I think I’ve made a good choice of dinner companions,” Flerrionna said brightly. “Both your meals smell delicious.”
“I agree but I wouldn’t recommend you try mine,” Hermes said. “Our metabolisms are too diverse.”
I was quite interested in this idea of compatible and incompatible metabolisms, but couldn’t summon up enough energy to ask. Besides, the food smelled good and I was hungry. It tasted good, too. If I closed my eyes, I could be eating real lamb in a real restaurant back home. I suddenly felt very homesick.
“You’re very quiet,” Flerrionna said.
“I’m sorry. I’m not being the best dining companion. I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all right now, and more than a little nervous.”
She patted my arm. “I understand.”
“I have to say that Crawford has my admiration,” Hermes said. “There are many beings who would have crumbled given what he’s been through yet, here he is, apologizing for not being the life and soul of the party. Don’t apologise, Crawford. You are doing fine. Just remember you are not alone. We’re here for you.”
“Thanks. I really appreciate it.”
He turned to Flerrionna, “Although he was exaggerating a bit about being dragged out of bed in the middle of the night, he wasn't exaggerating too much.”
He proceeded to give her a blow-by-blow account of our first meeting. He exaggerated, of course, but I had to admit he was an accomplished story-teller. Even I couldn’t help smiling at his description. Flerrionna appeared to be enthralled. From there he moved on to amusing anecdotes about the other Lottery Winners he’d escorted. Some of them might actually have been true. Whatever, he kept us well amused as we ate. After dinner, he discreetly begged off our invitation to stay for a drink saying he needed to be up and about early next morning.
“Give me a call,” he said. “Flerrionna’s got my code.”
We were oddly silent as we made our way to my suite. I think both of us were aware of what was going to happen but didn’t quite know how to broach the subject. It all proved academic, however, for, as I pushed the door shut, Flerrionna stumbled. I caught her and, the next moment, we were in each other’s arms, our bodies pressed tightly together, our mouths squashed together in a passionate kiss.
When the kiss ended we stared into each other’s eyes for a timeless moment. She was a woman and she was beautiful but, as I gazed into her golden eyes, I was very aware of her alienness. I felt suddenly awkward, like a teenager on his first real date.
“You know, this is very silly,” I said. I’m sure I was blushing. “But I don’t know what to do next. I mean, I’m from Earth and you’re…”
She stopped me with a light kiss.
“I am female, you are male.” She ground her belly against my erection. “I know you want me.” She pressed her breasts against my chest. The nipples were rock hard. “And I think you can tell I want you. That’s all that’s important. So relax and let’s have fun exploring each other’s bodies.”
I smiled gratefully then, on a whim, kissed behind her jaw just below her ear. She shivered and drew a hissing breath.
“How did you know?” I gave her an enquiring look. “That I was sensitive there.”
“What, here?” I said, doing it again.
“You’re a tease,” she said and pulled me into a deep kiss that was full of tongue.
I ran my hands up and down her back, revelling in the play of firm muscles over her bones. I cupped her bottom and pulled her tight against my rock-hard erection. She moaned under the kiss and pressed herself more tightly against me. A wave of uncontrollable lust swept over me. I needed her. I pulled away, took her hand and drew her towards the bedroom though, in truth, it would be difficult to say who was leading whom. We watched each other with hungry eyes as we struggled out of our clothes. At least, I struggled. She seemed to undulate a bit and the dress slithered to her feet. She wore no bra. Her breasts stood naturally high and proud and firm. I dropped my gaze. For panties she wore a garment that resembled cycling shorts except that they were cream coloured and gossamer-thin. Somehow they seemed sexier than bikini pants for they molded themselves to every contour. I watched, mesmerized as she slowly wriggled them over her hips and let them fall at her feet. She stepped out of them delicately and looked at me with an arch smile. I discovered I wasn't breathing.
“Oh, God,” I groaned. “You’re beautiful.”
She was. She was long and lithe and sleek, her milky tea skin completely hairless. She reminded me of a cat, a large one not a domesticated pussy, and I wondered, briefly, about the origins of her species. My eyes sought the junction between her thighs. She was certainly female. She noticed the direction of my gaze and her smile became predatory and tainted with lust. She nodded at me and I suddenly realised I was still wearing my underpants and shirt. I pulled the shirt over my head and, watching her reaction, pushed down my boxers. Her nostrils flared as my manhood came into view and she licked her lips.
We fell onto the bed in a tangle of arms and legs. Poor Stardust, who had been sleeping peacefully, screeched in fright, shot up and leapt off the bed. We squirmed around until I was between her spread thighs. Her hand came down and pulled me into her with an urgency as great as mine. We paused and gazed into each other’s eyes for a moment.
“You have beautiful eyes,” she said. “Now take me hard.”
I did. We rolled and thrust and panted and heaved and writhed in m
indless, compulsive lust. It was fortunate it was a large bed though, in all probability, we wouldn’t have noticed if we had fallen off. We rutted until each of us was more than sated and continued to hold each other tightly long after we’d stopped moving.
Eventually her grip relaxed and I levered myself up on my elbows. She glowed, her golden eyes luminescent. I pushed a strand of limp, russet hair away from her face and kissed her softly on the lips.
“I think I could fall in love with you, Flerrionna Pressicallita,” I murmured.
She stroked a finger down my cheek.
“You mustn't do that.”
“Why not.”
“Because you’re the Lottery Winner and I’m just a hotel manager. Tomorrow you’ll be the Winner officially and I won’t see you again. You belong to them. You’ll have all sorts of demands on your time and attention and you won’t have time for me. Besides, you’ve got twenty three of the galaxy’s most desirable females to impregnate. They’ll all be young and beautiful. You won’t want an old woman like me after that.”
“Flerrionna,” I said seriously. “There are 57 septillion sentient beings in the galaxy and I trust precisely two of them. One of the two is you. It’s possible that I might fall in love with one of these galactic beauties but I doubt it. Think about it. They’re here because they want to breed with the Lottery Winner. The Lottery Winner, not Crawford MacAdam. You’re here because you want to be with me, not the Lottery Winner, and I’m here because I want to be with you, not a victor’s spoils.”
She flushed, looked away and chewed her lower lip.
“I have a confession to make. What you said isn’t entirely true. I’m here partly because you’re the Lottery Winner.” She must have seen my expression because her eyes misted over. “Please. Hear me out. Normally I have little to do with guests and nothing to do with a Lottery Winner. The hotel is a base but all dealings are with the Commission. I was a bit put out when you involved me at first but, when I understood the position, I was sympathetic. To my surprise I found I liked you and I liked Hermes… as beings. I saw the way you handled yourself and how you reacted and I changed from being passively supportive to being actively supportive. In you I saw a noble person. You come from a culture that has no knowledge of galactic civilisation and, here you were, being forced to cope with the worst of it. My heart went out to you and I found, to my surprise, I was attracted to you. Then…” she looked away again, “…I’m afraid I was bad. I knew we were metabolically compatible so I checked and found we were genetically compatible, too. So I thought… what would it be like to bear the offspring of the Lottery Winner? I suppose I was turned on partly by the idea that there were twenty three of the galaxy’s most beautiful females waiting impatiently to bed you and you were here, in my hotel. I could get the edge on them and be the first.”
I was stunned and heart-broken. “Is that all I am to you… a breeding stud.”
I attempted to roll off but she clutched me tightly. Her expression was fierce and tears trickled from her eyes.
“No. No. No,” she said. “That’s how it was meant to be and, if you hadn’t spoilt it by saying you could love me, that’s how it would have been… a night of mutual fun and you’d never have known the result. But…” she was openly weeping. “But the truth is… I could love you, too. And now I’ve ruined everything.”
She let me go. I rolled off and she curled up sobbing loudly. I gathered her in my arms and stroked her hair. I didn’t know what to think. Too many emotional shocks on top of the day I’d had had made me numb. Her sobbing subsided and she rolled over and buried her head in my chest.
“When you announced that Hermes was going to be your pilot,” she said, her voice muffled by my chest. “Do you know what I felt? Jealous. Jealous that he was going to be with you in space and share your adventures and I wouldn’t be. Isn’t that silly? I’m a successful businesswoman; the manager of the oldest and best known hotel on Geretimal. Why would I want to chuck it all away and go gallivanting around the universe with a man from a backwoods planet? Yet I do.”
I let my breath out in a long sigh. “That’s a very good question. Why do you?”
“I don’t know. Because I want to be with you.”
“You’d give up your life, your career, your future for me?”
“Yes.”
The weight of that responsibility came crashing down on me. “I don’t know if I can accept that responsibility.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, if you give up everything for me and it doesn’t work out, then I’m going to feel responsible. I don’t think I’m ready for that.”
“Are you turning me down?”
“No. Yes. No. I don’t know. I don’t know what to think. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know even how I feel. It’s all too much. I was content with my life. I had a good job and friends and the cats. Now it seems I’m at the centre of a maelstrom. I have no control over my life. Everywhere I turn people seem to keep throwing more things at me. Things I’m not prepared to deal with.”
She wriggled up and held my head against her bosom.
“You poor dear. I’m sorry. You seem to cope with it all so calmly.” She giggled. “I could say it was all your own fault. You started it. At least I can clear one thing up. It’s my choice, my responsibility. I think things will work out fine but, if they don’t, then it’s going to be my fault as much as yours. If we end up hating each other all I ask is that you drop me off on some reasonably civilised planet. I’m a tough girl. I’ll survive. I’ll probably even prosper. The one thing you mustn’t feel guilty about is that you made me come with you. You didn’t. You aren’t. I want to be with you because I want it.”
“It’s my turn to be sorry. I was being a bit paranoid. First Hermes, now you… both of you willing to ditch your careers and hitch your wagons to mine.” I chuckled. “Not, I suppose that Hermes has much of a career. If he doesn’t resign he’s almost certain to get fired.”
She pulled me up and looked into my eyes. She was smiling.
“I don’t think he’s in any danger of being fired.”
“But… he works for the Commission, doesn’t he? And they’re not best pleased with him right now.”
She shook her head. “He works for the Commission but he isn’t an employee. I’ve known him for a long time… not well but I’ve found out a few things. He’s a strange old bird. I don’t know what his background is but he took to space centuries ago. How he hooked up with the Commission I also don’t know. What I do know is that he isn’t employed by the Commission. That spaceship is his. Every decade he approaches the Lottery Winners and ferries them to Geretimal. What he does in between times I have no idea.”
“Good Lord. So why…?”
“You’ll have to ask him. As I said I’ve known him for a long time but never really known him till now, if you see what I mean. There’s depth in him. I’m very pleased he’s going with you. He’ll keep you safe.”
“Wow. This just gets weirder and weirder.”
She giggled. “When I got my first hotel to manage I felt a bit like that. I rushed around like a busybob, trying to be everywhere at once. I felt completely out of my depth. One day my Head of Security, a being who’d been around for many years took me aside and said, ‘You’ll kill yourself if you go on like this. I’ve seen managers come and go and I think you could be a damn fine manager but you’ve got to relax… let go… go with the flow and trust your instincts and training to tell you what’s important and what’s not.’ I’ve never forgotten that advice.”
I gave a short laugh. “You know, both Hermes and his ibic gave me the same advice. And it seems to work. When I’ve just been reacting, things seem to go okay. It’s when I stop and think it all gets on top of me.” I paused. “Okay, you want to come with me… I want you to come, too. I’ve no idea what’s going to happen over the next while but, when all the furore’s died down, I’ll come back. If you still feel the same and I still feel the sam
e, you can join me. I’ve no idea what I’ll be doing but with you and Hermes by my side, I’m sure we’ll have fun.”
“You really mean that?”
“I do.”
“Oh, Crawford.”
She melted in my arms and kissed me passionately. We made love again, more gently this time, with her on top. We maintained eye contact throughout and I seemed to sink deeper and deeper into her glowing golden gaze. We came together and something seemed to pass between us… some deep and unspoken commitment. I fell asleep feeling that all was right with the galaxy.
Chapter 5
She woke me next morning with gentle kisses.
“Wake up, Crawford. Time to get up.”
I opened my eyes to see her golden ones close to mine.
“I love you, Flerrionna Pressicallita,” I said.
“I love you, Crawford MacAdam.”
I tried to pull her back into bed but she resisted.
“Behave. You’ve got a busy day ahead. I’ll get breakfast while you get up. Oh, and I’ve fed your animals. They were most persistent. I gave them that tuna stuff again. Very smelly.”
“Thanks. Okay, I’m getting up.”
My new outfit was laid out on the bed. In all the excitement last night I’d quite forgotten about it. It fitted perfectly and looked rather raffish in an Arabian sort of way. I dug out the suit cover and put everything I’d need for later in it. We were just finishing breakfast when the lawyer, Sir Honesty-in-Trust Beloved-of-God, arrived. I wondered if I’d ever get used to these biblical-sounding names but I supposed they were no worse that Jeremiah or Zachariah, or even Brittany or Brooklyn. He looked momentarily surprised to see Flerrionna there but covered quickly. The car duly arrived promptly at eight and the driver had no objection to carrying a passenger. On the way the lawyer’s communicator beeped. He answered it and, with a look of surprise, handed it to me.
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