Now Chloe wondered what that was about, too.
She strongly suspected she already knew, though.
Still, she hoped she might be able to ask Trazen that question himself. She waited by the pool until it got dark, hoping he might come to speak with her if she placed herself somewhere in plain sight. A few servants offered her dinner… then a bath… then simply their company… before leaving her alone after she refused all three.
Trazen never reappeared.
In the end, she’d returned to Trazen’s room.
He was there, which almost struck her as funny when she saw that he was also completely passed out. He lay on his stomach on the raised bed in the dimly-lit room, sprawled out and fast asleep on the bedspread cover, still wearing all of his clothes.
It looked as if he’d crashed not long after they returned.
Now she lay there, listening to him breathe.
She was trying to decide if she should just get up.
She could go for a walk around his grounds or even for a swim in the pool. She could see if anyone else was awake. She was still considering it, contemplating options,when she heard Trazen move, and glanced up at the bed.
She watched as he rolled to his back, raising a hand to rub some part of his face or head. She couldn’t see all of that, of course, not from her angle, but she saw his elbow and part of his arm, and heard him sigh. Her eyes had adjusted to the dark well enough, she could see his tail glide back and forth from where it stuck out from under him.
He was definitely awake.
Realizing that, she pressed her lips together.
The resolve she’d felt earlier that day returned, and before she could second-guess herself, she sat up, swinging her legs over to the side of the bed.
Feeling that resolve grow into a denser feeling in her chest, she rose and walked to the bed, sitting down next to him. She simply sat there, looking him in the face when he flinched a little then stared at her.
He lowered his hand from where it rested on his forehead a second later.
“Hello,” he said, surprise tingeing his voice. “You are awake?”
“Yes,” she said.
He blinked at her, as if trying to think, or maybe deciding what to say.
Before he could speak, she slid further up on the bed, climbing up over him and sitting astride his waist. She rested her weight there and waited.
He tensed but didn’t move apart from a flick from his tail.
After a few seconds more of watching his face, she slid her hands up over his chest, massaging the muscles there deliberately.
“Chloe… no…”
“You don’t want to?”
He hesitated, unmoving as she continued to massage him through the embroidered fabric.
When he didn’t say anything for a few seconds more, she shifted her weight down his body, balancing on his muscular thighs. Once she’d repositioned herself, she began pushing the heavy cloth shirt up his body.
His muscles clenched under the bare skin of her hands and fingers, but he didn’t resist, and even moved his back and lower body to accommodate her as she pushed his shirt up his chest, yanking it high enough to get it over his head.
He arched his back when she tugged harder, raising his arms so that she could pull it the rest of the way off his shoulders.
Then he was lying under her, bare chested, breathing harder as she went back to exploring his body with her hands. She ran her fingers over the watery silk of his skin, tracing out muscles and hard flesh. The longer she touched him the more that longing returned to her belly, pulling at her, bringing a heat that began to spread over her skin.
“Sting me,” she told him softly.
She felt him react to her words, in more ways than one.
He let out a low growl when she began unfastening the top of his pants.
“Gods above. You’re… persistent.” His voice reflected a strained humor. “Why, Chloe? You don’t have to do this. I promise you, you don’t. I didn’t kill him for that––”
“I know that,” she said, cutting him off.
She leaned down, kissing him lingeringly on the neck. He let out a clenched breath when she ran her tongue in a light circle over his throat.
“And I know it’s not really me you’re interested in,” she said, softer still. She slid a hand further down his body, massaging the erection now straining his pants. “I know all of that, Ringmaster. And it’s okay. It really is. I want this. And I’m pretty sure you do, too.”
He let out a low sound when she didn’t stop exploring him with her hands.
It turned into a groan half-mixed with a gasp, right before he arched his body up to her fingers. When she started to let go of him, to sit up so she could finish taking off his clothes, he caught hold of her wrist, pressing her palm against his erection.
He let out another gasping sound when she massaged him harder.
“Sting me,” she said, softer.
“Chloe.” He let out another pained groan. “You’re not wrong. About her. It would be a lie. I would be using this––”
“Sting me.”
“It’s been a while,” he confessed, his voice gruff. “It’s been a long while. Are you sure you want to start this? I can’t promise I’ll be––”
“I want you,” she said, her voice firm. “Make up your mind, Ringmaster. I’ve been utterly clear about mine.”
He fell silent at that, unmoving as she continued to stroke his skin.
Nirreth had the softest skin.
She marveled at that softness now, stroking his muscular tail where it coiled lightly around her waist. The contrast struck her even more when she remembered what he’d done that afternoon with his hands and body.
Despite her words, she let him think, sitting up on his waist while he stared at the ceiling.
After a few seconds more, he looked at her.
“You’re right,” he said, gruff. “I like her. The fighter.”
Chloe smiled, rolling her eyes. “I know.”
“I don’t know her well,” he added. “But… well…” He hesitated, and she swore she saw guilt in his eyes when they met hers next. “I do know her. In some respects. We get to know them. For the Rings. There are brain scans. We learn a lot. Emotions. Memories. Things they think about. What they fear. I ran her Demonstration, too. I knew her a little, even then. I think she knows that. I think she saw me watching her. She is…”
He hesitated again, unmoving as Chloe stroked his skin.
Chloe got the feeling he was embarrassed, even as he seemed determined to tell her the truth. She also strongly got the feeling he wanted to talk about this.
He wanted to tell someone about this.
He wanted to tell someone about her, the skag fighter.
He wanted someone to understand.
“…She is like me,” he confessed finally. “There are… similarities. I felt you thinking that today, and you are right. Perhaps it is delusional, perhaps I am wrong, but I relate to her. So much so at times, it hurts.”
His voice grew harder, more bitter.
“It hurts me more to see her with those bastards who are using her for the Rings, who only want her for what she can do for them. And now they have convinced her to sleep with one of them… probably telling her it is the only way she will be safe.”
Chloe nodded, keeping her expression still.
“Is she the reason you wanted Agnon’s death hidden from the media?”
He blinked up at her, surprised.
“Yes.” Exhaling at her silence, he added, “Yes. She would not know the context. It would look like pointless murder to her. I know you think I was terrible to her. I was terrible. But murder? Murder would be different to her. I know this about her, too. I don’t want her to fear me, not like that. I don’t want her to think of me that way…”
Trailing, he looked up, as if trying again to read her face.
“You still would want to do this?” he said warily. “Given what
I said?”
She grinned at him; she couldn’t help it.
“This isn’t a marriage proposal, Ringmaster,” she teased.
He smiled at that, then chuckled, as if unable to help himself, either.
“So what is it then?” he said, teasing her back. “You just want my body for a night? Is that it?”
She shrugged, but didn’t deny it.
“Comfort,” she said. “I want comfort… and your body. For a night,” she added with a smile, stroking his soft skin. “I suspect you want those things, too. Maybe for different reasons.”
She hesitated, caressing the flat planes of his stomach as she let her words grow more serious. “Like you said, she’s got a lover now. The Rings fighter. A Nirreth lover. Obviously you’re not happy about that. Whether they’re ‘using’ her or not.”
Feeling him tense, she glanced at his face, wondering if she’d overstepped.
When he met her gaze, a slight frown touched his sculpted lips, but he didn’t look angry.
“I’m not,” he admitted. “…Happy about it. Even apart from what I said.”
Still holding his gaze, she nodded. “And you’re not going to tell me why you were such a jerk to her?”
“No,” he said.
She nodded again, but smiled a little that time. “Okay.”
“Okay?” he said.
She nodded. “Okay. Can I have your body now?” she said, quirking an eyebrow at him. “Or do you want to talk some more?”
She sensed that indecision on him again, but not for long.
Abruptly, his fingers wrapped around her arms, tightening as he yanked her closer. Before she could catch her breath, she’d half-fallen onto his chest and he was stinging her, his tail pressed into her side as he let the venom go. He groaned when he stung her a second time, right before his hands were on the front of the soft blouse she wore, unfastening it roughly with his fingers. He stung her a third time before he finished getting it off, and then he was turning with her, rolling her to her back until he had her pinned to the top of his bed.
She was still reacting to the size of him, to his weight on her, his tail wrapped around her thigh as he began kissing the front of her body, when he stung her a fourth time.
She let out a longer-drawn cry as he began yanking down the soft pants she wore. After he finished, he was hanging over her again, kissing her shoulder, then her breasts as he reached for his own pants, working one-handed to finish what she’d started.
She tried to help him, but he wouldn’t wait for her now, his breath coming out in short groans as he fought with the catches, leaning most of his weight on her as he kissed and bit at her bare skin.
He got the pants undone and kicked them off as he clasped her wrist, right before he stung her again, letting out a heavier growl from a deeper part of his chest.
That time, she felt so much of him she was clasping his neck and back, her legs wrapped around his bare waist and coiling around his legs.
Inside me… she thought at him, throwing images at him, desire, pulling on him. I want you inside me… please. Fuck me, please… please…
He groaned again, then he was trying to do as she asked, raising his weight on his arms. He stopped kissing her long enough to position himself over her, then hesitated, as if changing his mind. She felt drunk on his venom by then, nearly out of control and cried out when his fingers slid inside her instead of his cock.
Then he was leaning on her for real, coiling his tail around her and sliding his hand into her deeply enough that she let out a cry.
He stung her again while she was still reacting.
He kissed her mouth, and she lost herself in that sensation for some time, biting his lips when he paused, caressing his tongue with hers when he started again, massaging his chest as his breath came shorter and harder.
By the end of the next sting she was kissing his chest, massaging his cock with her fingers, pulling on him, asking him with every part of her.
He groaned, but continued to hold her off.
He explored her with his fingers, growling heavier as she arched up against him.
He stung her again and seemed to lose control.
He removed his hand even as he raised himself over her.
For what felt like a long time, he only hung there, unmoving.
She explored him with her hands, really looking at him as she willed him to fuck her. She threw the wanting at him intensely enough that he let out another deep growl, lowering his head, but still, he didn’t move apart from his hands stroking her skin. Her eyes remained on his cock, her fingers caressing the silk-like skin covering him there, too.
Nirreth sex organs were shaped close to a human’s but thicker at the base, more tapered, often longer, but with a similar, mushroom like end. Agnon had used that length to hurt her a few times, favoring anal sex with her when he realized she liked it less.
With a few of his Nirreth friends however, sex had been, well… pleasant.
More than pleasant in a few cases, particularly with one of Agnon’s guards, a good-natured Nirreth named Jolan.
Chloe had heard that the shape of Nirreth physicality was an acquired taste for many human women, but really, it was all she had ever known. Whatever her issues with Agnon himself, she’d never had a problem with Nirreth anatomy.
For the same reason, when Trazen finally entered her, she felt nothing but relief.
He arched into her all at once… filling her all the way to the hilt.
The second time, he thrust into her harder, coiling his arms around her hips and pulling them into his. She let out a drawn-out groan, half out of her mind when he did it the third time.
He was longer than Agnon, thicker, too.
She groaned again when he slowed, pulling her further under him. He angled into her skillfully, changing position incrementally as he went so that he hit her in every conceivable way she wanted.
She felt his mind in hers too, gauging her every reaction.
When he arched into her deeper, going slower still, she let out a heavier sound, on the verge of coming already. She dug her fingers into his skin, wrapping her arms and legs even more tightly around him, pulling him further inside of her.
You feel so incredibly good… she thought at him. Gods… you feel so good, Ringmaster…
He groaned, grinding into her before he raised himself up.
“Chloe…” he began.
“No. Say her name,” she urged, her lips by his ear.
He let out a gasp, caught off guard.
She clenched her hands tighter on his skin, digging her fingers into muscle as he arched into her harder. Pulling him deeper, she wrapped him in her arms and legs.
“Say her name…” she murmured, arching up against him when he slammed into her again. “Say it, Trazen. Say her name… fuck her, not me…”
She felt him lose control, even as he stung her again, maybe to distract her, maybe to distract himself. She felt his mind tilt as much as hers… more, maybe… right before he arched into her again, violently that time.
“Say her name,” she murmured against his neck, stroking his hard jaw.
He stung her again. She felt the last of his control slip away.
Say her name. Say it, if only once. Just let it go… let it go, lover…
“Jet,” he groaned, arching into her. He started to come, and the sound building out of his chest deepened, turning into a panting growl. “Jet… fuck. Jet… Jet…”
Emotion filled him, briefly wiping out her mind.
She felt it intensify as he let go, heartbreakingly so.
As he did, she felt him, really felt him, behind the mask.
He hadn’t let himself feel anything in such a long time.
Not for anyone. Not since before the Rings.
Not since he’d come here, to an alien world, knowing he might not survive it.
Somehow, that crack in his veneer brought Chloe a softer feeling of peace.
Affection pulsed out
of her in a warm cloud.
Affection for him, gratitude, a heated satisfaction that he’d let that wall go, however briefly, that he’d let her be there to witness it. She found herself stroking his silky Nirreth skin as he leaned his weight into her, letting go, that pain in his heart growing hotter.
She was still caressing him as he lay there recovering, marveling at how the liquid-like covering moved over the Ringmaster’s rock-like muscle and bone.
He was beautiful.
He wasn’t hers. He never would be. But he was beautiful.
Somehow, that was enough.
That love that rose in him, that almost innocent crush of longing, managed to even fill the hole in her own chest, however briefly.
8
The New Day
Chloe stood on top of a grass-covered hill, shielding her eyes from the Green Zone sun.
It still hung only halfway in the sky.
They’d left Trazen’s compound before dawn.
She hadn’t been surprised when he woke her up.
They’d been talking about this for the last week. Talking and having sex and eating between his bouts of work as he prepared for the next Rings match and did the rounds he had to do in order to smooth over Agnon’s death.
The Queen pardoned him once she heard the details, but still cautioned him to lay low for a few weeks.
Other, more intense events had happened that night anyway, events which completely overshadowed the incident in the restaurant between Agnon and Trazen.
Chloe saw on the news the next morning that an attack had occurred against the Royal Palace that same night, that a new First Son had been named.
All of that pretty much overshadowed the death of a petty warlord over a disputed slave, even apart from the several dozen witnesses who backed Trazen’s story.
Such regime changes happened fairly frequently in Nirreth society, Chloe knew.
Even so, the swiftness of this one startled her.
She also wondered about the implications for the girl Rings fighter, Jet Tetsuo, given who owned her.
She hadn’t bothered to ask Trazen how he felt about any of that.
Not because she didn’t care… more because she could feel it on him.
The Complete Alien Apocalypse Series (Parts I-IV Plus Bonus Novella): An Apocalyptic, Romantic, Science Fiction, Alien Invasion Adventure Page 102