He reached over and caressed her arm. Ticklish pinpricks of sensation lit up beneath his touch.
“Taking you to bed.” His eyes grew darker. “That’s the marriage ritual, Selena. Simply that.”
She took a deep breath in and out. No white dress? No flowers? No celebration? She realized how childish she was being.
“We haven’t even kissed yet,” she said to Hern.
A ravenous sparkle lit up in his eyes. “You kiss? I thought that was our tradition alone.”
He stood, causing her a start. Both his strong arms were suddenly around her, plucking her up from her seat. She was crushed against the warmth of his body. He lowered his head toward hers, allowing her to feel his breath on her lips.
“Selena…you’ve no idea how much you enchant me.”
Her eyes were wide. She felt a quickening to her heartbeat, but wasn’t afraid. Part of her yearned for this sort of thing—the melty, helpless feelings. She stayed slack in his arms, fixed on his eyes with her lips gently parted. He artfully sealed his mouth over hers while pulling her against him.
Selena felt the last of her strength seep away. His lips were firm, searching, and turned her middle into jelly. The arms around her were so powerful compared to the weakness she felt. She closed her eyes and savored the heat, the flutters of warmth that fanned drowsy euphoric feelings.
Then his tongue touched hers. Selena clutched him with both weakened arms. The Dak-Hiliah didn’t just kiss—they made out. She had an electric thrill as their hot tongues slid together. His body warmed her bosom and tender abdomen. His scent was alluring—faint, but musky.
He groped her back while his mouth searched even deeper. Selena knew she would have stumbled if he hadn’t been holding her up. She was focused on uniting their heated mouths, but his touch still lit up her flesh. The intoxicating initiation assured her that the spark of sexual chemistry she sensed was true. He had her so weak she could have been carted off right then.
Then his hand smoothed downward to palm her buttock.
Selena jerked free of the kiss. She had a shock of erotic sensation that made her womanly parts clench. Hern’s errant hand was still clutching the tingly tender place. She looked at him in distress.
“Please let me take you to bed now.” It was a husky whisper. She saw the need in his eyes and in his reddened mouth.
Selena’s heart now raced with trepidation. It was a shock, but it shouldn’t have been. She should have realized.
“I can’t stop you,” she said through a burgeoning lump in her throat. “But I wish you would wait.”
He looked crestfallen. “I won’t hurt you, Selena.”
She closed her eyes to avoid being implored by his expression. “I wasn’t expecting this tonight. I need more time.”
He swept a lock of hair off her forehead. She looked at him.
“My dearest, I must have you before Xaroth does. It’s…it’s not only because of my selfish desires. He won’t give you any time to adjust to him. I want for you to be accustomed to lovemaking with a Dak-Hiliah before I have to turn you over to him.”
She wet her lips. “I want you to be my first, too.”
His brow rose. She spoke fast so that the admission of her virginity wouldn’t take on undue drama. (She would have gladly lost it prior to this if there’d been one single man in the colony worth her consideration.)
“We have more time, don’t we? Before we reach the front lines?”
He bowed his head to indicate yes. “There’s time—and I should give you that consideration. I’ve just never wanted someone so badly as I do you—right at this moment.”
Selena squirmed free from his arms. The places her body that had come against his still tingled with traces of heat.
“Then I’ll go. I’m not going to keep teasing you.” She dashed for the door.
Hern reached for her. “Selena…”
She turned back to see the ache in his eyes.
“Be patient with me.” She continued her wobbly escape out the door.
Hern haunted her dreams that night. She saw the sensual euphoria he caused her as ripples on black water. Then it was the lake at the colony, but he wasn’t on the ridge—he was naked in the water with her. He kissed her breasts while she clung to him. Then his hand plunged between slippery thighs.
Selena woke with her heart still racing. She remembered the dinner with a pang of regret. Why hadn’t she just given in? Playing hard to get was a game she considered beneath her. They were going to be married soon. It wasn’t a maybe, but a fact. She knew what she had signed up for right from the beginning.
And yet, still, she wanted to be in love with the man she gave herself to.
Selena sighed. Clinging to her romantic ideals was probably idiotic. She certainly wouldn’t have that kind of luxury with Xaroth.
But with Hern…couldn’t they take the time to get things right?
It felt like only a few hours had passed since she first lay down. Selena tried to lull herself back to sleep. Her body still echoed heat from her dream. She decided not to touch herself. She’s save up all her desires for when she gave herself to Hern.
Then she wondered how he handled desire. How did any of the Dak-Hiliah men take care of their needs? Surely masturbation was universal, but men tended not to be satisfied with self-pleasure alone. Curiosity sent her mind wandering to devious places.
She must have dozed off because when she next woke a robot was entering her chamber to deliver breakfast.
“Hey, robot.”
The boxy metal thing paused with its cylinder head focused on her. “I am a Domestic, mistress.”
“Okay, Domestic.” She crawled to the edge of her bed. “Can I ask you a very inappropriate question?”
“Mistress, if you discuss plans to rebel or escape with me it is my duty to report you.”
She fumed. “Not that kind of inappropriate. I want to know what Dak-Hiliah men do to take care of their needs without any women around.”
“What needs are you referring to, mistress?”
She screwed her lips to one side. “I mean, these manservants they have—are they having sex with them?”
“That practice is called Ryezeit, mistress. It is considered a heinous, shameful, and taboo act. No honorable master would do such a thing to his manservant.”
“Really?” She was pleasantly surprised. At least now she didn’t have to entertain thoughts of Hern and Shol-Ignar being intimate.
“Yes, mistress. The manservant position is traditionally serviced by members of the Etiken caste. Up until very recently all Etikens who wished to vie for such positions had to consent to castration.”
Her eyes bulged. “What!”
“This practice was outlawed less than one month ago. It is fair to presume that nearly all manservants you encounter are eunuchs, mistress. This greatly impairs their ability to enjoy sexual congress. That is why it is considered despicable for a master to use their manservant in such a fashion.”
So Shol-Ignar was a eunuch? Selena saw him in a staggeringly different light. He wasn’t a brute. He’d become something more vulnerable to her.
“Do you have any other inquiries, mistress?”
“Yes.” She refocused. “Who are Dak-Hiliah men having sex with now that their women are almost extinct?”
“This depends on the individual in question, mistress, and tends to be a very private matter. There are no rules against self pleasure, utilizing robots for sex, or seeking the companionship of other men.”
“That last one—how common is that?”
“There are a great many registered male couples, mistress, particularly amongst elders in the aristocrat caste. There are many more instances of male coupling where no formal bond is formed.”
Selena gave a groan of frustration. “Look, what I’m trying to find out is if Hern ever had a boyfriend, and does he have one now?”
“Mistress, please refer to him as—“
“General Hern, yes. Sorr
y.”
“General Hern has not registered a coupling or announced a courtship with any other Dak-Hiliah man. However, General Xaroth made public a message he sent to General Hern suggesting they become coupled—“
Selena balked.
“—so they could be united as one in their command of the soldiers.”
“What happened?”
“I’m sorry, mistress, I do not know the resolution of that matter, as it is most recent. This was just after the successful assault against the Instajants, when General Hern requested a human bride to share with General Xaroth as his reward.”
Selena scrubbed her face with one hand. “I don’t believe this…”
“Do you have any other inquiries, mistress?”
She shook her head. “No. I think I’ve dug too deep already.”
“Very well, mistress. I have a message to relay to you from Shol-Ignar.”
Selena looked at its glowing cylinder head.
“When your time permits it, he would like to meet with you in his chamber.”
She blinked a few times. “He…wants to see me?”
“Yes, mistress. You must go to him for the meeting as he is unable to leave his bed at this time.”
Selena closed her eyes. “Oh my God…the punishment.”
The robot went to a keypad beside her door. “You can summon a robot at any time by pressing this button. One will take you to his quarters at your leisure.”
She nodded while the robot made his exit. Then she sat at her table and shifted her breakfast around the plate. The meeting with Shol-Ignar was one she was glad she could postpone. She needed to be alone to think over the morning’s revelations.
A robot fetched her after lunch and brought her to a moving sidewalk. Selena stepped onto it carefully, but still lurched enough to have to be caught in the robot’s metal tube arms.
“Geez…this is a dangerous way to get around.” She braced herself on it while noting the lack of guardrails. The floor whizzed them along at a speed Selena could only match at a sprint.
“The massive size of this vessel requires such modes of transport, mistress.”
She noticed they were unable to pass robots rolling on their casters. None of the robots used the walkway, but in the distance before her she could see an alien walking rapidly on the path. He dismounted it without slowing his stride, and they passed him as he entered a side corridor. He wasn’t the same alien she saw before, since this one had hair.
“How many Dak-Hiliah are on this ship?”
“There are currently 36 individuals, including yourself and General Hern.”
That made sense, she supposed. The ship appeared to be the size of a city, but it was now more like a ghost town.
“How many Dak-Hiliah were there before they had the gender war?”
“Mistress, I do not know what gender war you speak of.”
She eyed him. “The one that killed off all the Dak-Hiliah women.”
“The number of Dak-Hiliah women declined at the beginning of High Druid Shindray’s era when women refused to reproduce or only chose to produce male off-spring.”
“What…what did they do to the baby girls?”
“Mistress, the Dak-Hiliah women did not conceive female offspring. They only allowed conception of male offspring in their wombs.”
She blinked a few times. “How is it that the Dak-Hiliah can breed with Earth females when our reproductive systems are so different? I sure can’t decide what the sex of my baby will be.”
The robot scooped her up and rolled off the sidewalk. He placed her on the immobile floor.
“Your reproductive organs were altered to allow you to breed with a Dak-Hiliah male, mistress.” It nudged her with one of its pinchers. Selena was slow to move. She crossed her arms.
“This was during that surgery, wasn’t it? When I was implanted with the languages?”
“I would presume so, mistress.”
She hadn’t even been told about that part. What had been done to her exactly? And how had they accessed her ‘reproductive organs’? Was she even still a virgin? A cold chill swept through her.
“This way, mistress.” The robot prodded her toward an area where the walls narrowed. She found herself walking at an incline.
“Where am I going, exactly?”
“To the flight deck, mistress.”
They went through a domed sliding door that was thrice the width she normally encountered. Inside was a massive area that had to be in the nose of the vessel. It was u-shaped with terminals facing large windows. Three Dak-Hiliah men sat spread out at consoles facing the windows. Half a dozen sophisticated robots sat at the rest. The windows showed the blackness of outer space streaked with stars that had their light stretched into lines as the ship flew past them. There was the low rumble of an engine, and Selena felt vibrations through the metal tiles in the floor.
The robot rolled on his casters to the side. At the back of the u-shape was a clear-walled elevator. The robot tapped the button to call it. Then it gestured for Selena to enter. She ascended in the small elevator alone to a control room overlooking the flight deck.
Hern stood before the elevator with a broad smile. He reached for her as she stepped out. When she accepted his hand he pulled her to him gently, brought an arm around her waist, and lowered to place a warm kiss on her neck.
Selena got a bodily shudder of arousal. It almost shocked her enough to make her stumble. Hern pulled away, leaving a hot tingling place on her neck. He smiled her with a gaze of adoration. His arm still cradled her, holding her close to his body and the sultry heat he emitted.
“I had to see you.”
Selena swallowed. He’d turned her back into a wobbly mess in the blink of an eye. She tried to steady herself.
Hern walked her to a master terminal in the center of the small room. Only a few consoles were manned behind this, all by Dak-Hiliah men.
“Forgive me for dragging you out here, especially when I have so little time to give you.”
He sat behind the terminal which took up most of the floor space in the room. Selena stood close beside him.
“I don’t mind.” She wet her lips. “I want to spend time with you.”
There was no other seat for her. Hern rolled his chair outward and then steered her onto his lap. Selena had to brace herself on broad shoulders that felt like stone through the thin fabric of his costume. Their faces became close. He smiled at her again. Selena had to look away. His hand cradled her around the ribs, and his fingers caressed her gently. It didn’t quite tickle, but did cause tremors of stimulation to course through her middle. His other hand rested on her thigh, close to her buttocks. Selena careened toward melty bliss. She wanted to bring her lips to his, but worried about the other men in the room.
“I’ve had to deal with several matters. It’s annoying chaos right now. I just want to…” His eyes moved to her lips. “…court you.”
She brought her fingers through his hair, feeling the base of a horn then soothing her way through. Hern’s eyes rolled back in an ecstatic shudder.
“Tell me about it,” she said.
“No.” His voice had turned throaty. “Tell me about you. The story of Selena. That’s what I want to spend this spare free moment listening to.”
She fought to restrain a pout. They could be making out, not talking. There was no danger of a bed in that room. Perhaps the men at the terminals inhibited him also?
“Once upon a time there was a girl named Selena. She was born in a military base with her mom and sister and lived there until her dad died in the war and they kicked her out. Her mom was very bitter over losing her husband so she became an organizer for a protest movement against the war. Selena moved into a vintage bus that was made into a home on wheels. She traveled all over her continent with her mom and sister spreading the message that we should surrender. Selena didn’t understand much of it until she got older, but even as a little girl she loved the adventure she was on. She never w
ent to school, but learned everything through a home schooling computer program. She went to the rallies with a peace sign painted on her face and a big sign that said: ‘Nothing Can Be Worse Than Now.’ The sign meant that our lives were terrible due to the war, and even if we were enslaved it would be better than this. Nothing could be worse than what they were going through.
“But Selena was wrong, because the aliens all retreated, and just when her government told them they’d won the war and everyone was celebrating the Instajants rained down on them from the skies. Selena’s mom got one stuck to her head and became one of their host bodies like billions of other humans. Those people marched to their ships to go back to the Instajant home world. Selena and her sister escaped into the sewers and lived a horrible life of terror and misery for 18 months until robots came and vaccinated them against Instajant infection. Then Selena and her sister were brought to a slave colony and lived there for five years. After that, Selena was chosen by a handsome alien to become his wife. The end.”
Hern stroked her hair. His sparkling gaze was locked to her. “You had a happy life until the Instajant invasion.”
Selena nodded. His fingers were lighting up endorphins on the flesh of her scalp.
“Your mother gave you a foundation that allowed you and your sister to recover from the horrors you suffered.”
She nodded again.
“If I were to judge you merely on your value as a breeding partner, I’d say you’re the finest stock one could wish for. Beautiful. Healthy. Young. Emotive and affectionate. Of an amiable disposition and with a sound and reasonable mind.”
The edges of her mouth tipped up with a grin. “If I were judging you on your value as a potential father of my babies…”
His smile grew broad.
“I’d say you’re a good catch. A high-ranking General. Strong. Young. Healthy. Kind and doting, though a little inexperienced when it comes to women…”
He laughed.
“But very handsome.” She traced one finger down the bridge of his nose. “Even sexy.”
He closed his eyes like a contented cat at her touch. Then his glistening eyes fixed on her mouth again. His arms brought her tight against him and his lips crushed over hers. Selena clung to him around the shoulders, letting her bosom press against his chest. His heated mouth worked over hers as expertly as before. She felt hot air from his nostrils tickling her face. Then their tongues met to slide sensuously together. Selena tilted her head so their mouths occupied the same space. She moved gracefully with him to absorb every sultry note. Her middle felt as if it were composed of warm air. Her limbs suffered a hazy loss of strength. She let herself be taken as much as she could have been in the public setting. Had they been alone his hand could have gone between her thighs. Just like in her dream he would have found wetness.
The Complete Alien's Bride Page 42