by Anna Carven
The overall effect was… not displeasing. How strange that he, who had never cared for beauty or aesthetics, was finally able to appreciate such things on a distant, backwards planet called Earth.
Kail slowed as they reached the other side of the roof, waiting for Riana to catch up. “Here.” As he waited for her reaction, a strange, unfamiliar feeling welled up inside him.
Kaiin’s Hells; he actually cared about what she thought. He wanted her to find the scene as pleasing as he had.
He wanted to please her.
Her soft gasp of surprise was enough to make him fiercely satisfied. “What is this place?”
A small courtyard lay before them. What it lacked in size, it made up for in vegetation. Plants and small trees of all kinds lined a square paved with intricately patterned tiles. Some of the trees bore round orange fruits, which exuded a refreshing bitter-sour-sweet smell. In the center of the square was a small, trickling fountain.
Fragrant blooms cast their tantalizing scent into the air, and a chain of softly glowing lights had been strung overhead.
The real treat, however, was the town below. In the daylight, it appeared unimpressive; a haphazard collection of ancient crumbling structures. At night it was transformed into a glowing swathe of light. Thousands, perhaps millions of small lights coalesced to form a rich, glittering tapestry. Darkness was kind to the city, hiding the imperfections usually revealed by daylight.
“It’s beautiful,” Riana said quietly, her thick, curly hair buffeted by the cool breeze. “How did you know about this place?”
“Came across it while doing surveillance. Earth is… a place of surprises.” He stood behind her, inhaling her scent, looking down at the elegant curve of her spine. Her ass was tempting, rounded perfection. She’d swapped the billowy blue garment he’d gifted her for drab, functional black pants and a loose black blouse.
A colorful fabric headband held down her hair at the front. It billowed out at the back, wild and untamed and glorious.
Kail closed his eyes and took in her her essence as it flowed around him. A wave of intense arousal spread through him, and he followed it to its inevitable destination.
Desire. Want. Need.
His fangs broke through the soft skin of his lower lip, momentarily drawing blood before his nanites did their thing and sealed the cut. His temples throbbed and pounded as the blood rushed to his head and down into his cock.
He was standing silently behind her, and she had no idea that he was harboring such lustful thoughts.
Kail reached out and gently placed his hands on her shoulders, guiding her down a stone path that wound its way through verdant potted shrubs.
“Does this place appeal to you?”
“Very much.” Her voice was slightly hoarse. “It’s like a scene out of an ancient painting. We don’t have many places like this on Earth anymore. I feel like we’ve stepped back in time a few hundred years.” She stopped in front of a plant with thorns and large fragrant white blooms. She brushed her fingers over one of the blooms, inhaling deeply. A stray petal detached and drifted to the ground. “What made you even think of bringing me here?”
“I don’t know.”
She yielded to his touch as he brought her to the edge of the roof. The view stretched out before them, brilliant and surreal.
Perhaps I just wanted to see you in a place befitting of your beauty.
Madness. Kail wasn’t the impulsive sort. He never did things just for the sake. He never put his own innate urges above the demands of a mission.
Until now.
He’d never had an innate urge quite like this.
Riana turned to face him, and the warm light from below lit up her face, transforming her magnificent curls into a golden crown. With her high, noble forehead, elegant nose, and full, moist lips, she looked wonderfully regal.
“Kail…” Her lips parted. The wind tugged at her hair and clothes, pulling her scent into the fragrant concoction of greenery and blooms and fruit.
The resulting perfume was the scent of the Goddess herself.
It was enough to tip Kail over the edge. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, not wanting her to see the extent of his desire.
“Why are you trembling?”
For the first time in his life, he didn’t know what to do. There was no plan, no mission, no enemy to defeat.
There was just a Human female called Riana who threw his senses into overdrive.
And this place, this fucking planet called Earth, did strange things to him, bringing his cold, unfeeling soul to life.
“Huh.” Realization dawned across her features. “This is crazy.”
“Is it?”
“Yo-you’re a…”
“Kordolian.”
“And I’m a…”
“Human.”
“We’re not supposed to…”
“We are. You feel it too, don’t you? You can’t hide from me, Human.”
The frantic rhythm of her heart gave her away. The slight widening of her pupils, the flush of color in her brown cheeks, the delicate, musky scent drifting from her body to his finely attenuated nose; all of these things betrayed her.
Kail was a Hunter; he was trained to detect such things.
“Can’t hide much from you at all, can I? You’re like a goddamn walking Truth Monitor.” She reached out and brushed her fingers over his cheek, tracing his scars. Her arousal was tempered by a look of intense curiosity. “What are these?”
“Mark of the temanjin,” he said gruffly, feeling absurdly self-conscious.
“Temanjin?”
“A mythical beast from Aikun lore. A giant airborne creature with scaled wings. Truth seeker. Justice bringer. It swoops from the sky to punish those who have sinned.”
“And you bear its mark.”
“I do.”
“Why is this temanjin woven into your skin, Kail?”
He hesitated. It was a good question, and one he couldn’t fully answer. “The tribe I was born into selects a new temanjin once every generation. The markings are bestowed on the cusp of adulthood, and the temanjin is then cast out from the tribe.”
“Cast out?”
“According to the lore of the Lost Tribes, the temanjin’s role is to dispense lethal justice, and as such, he must remain pure and unbiased. He cannot live in normal society. He is doomed to be an outcast, a pariah. He is called upon only when the need arises.”
“So the temanjin is like a judge, jury, and executioner, all rolled into one?”
“I do not know what the first two things are, but the last one is accurate.”
“Oh.” Her fingers traced every curve, every line, and every swirl on his scarred face. “That makes so much sense. No wonder they sent you after them.”
“My skill-set is unique, just like yours.”
“We’re a strange pair of specialists, aren’t we?”
Kail couldn’t bear it any longer. Her touch was doing all kinds of strange things to him, and his erection felt as if it were about to crack through his fucking armor-plate.
He grabbed her wrist, pulling her hand away from his face. He retracted his nano-armor, allowing his bare skin to touch hers. With nothing to hold them in place, his weapons dropped to the ground. He pulled Riana towards him.
She didn’t offer any resistance. She knew exactly what was happening, and she didn’t fight it. She knew exactly what she was doing.
His Riana was far from stupid, even though she tried to hide it sometimes.
“I desire you,” he said thickly, curving his arm around her waist. He pulled her into him, and although the nano-stuff still covered his torso, it quivered and flexed as her body pressed against his.
After all, the nanites were an extension of his body, responsive to his mental commands. Sometimes, they responded to his subconscious will, too.
He placed his other hand at the back of her neck, running his fingers up into her soft, lustrous hair. She was pliant underneath his touch,
her body sinfully lush and warm.
She responded by running her long, graceful hands down the hard planes of his chest, studying him, discovering him. Kail growled softly and brought his hand to the hollow of her neck, where he could see her pulse. Her blouse was held together at the front by small metal fasteners. He slid his bare fingers down into the valley between her sumptuous breasts, undoing one of the fasteners.
The front of her blouse opened to reveal her taut, perfect breasts. Much to his irritation, they were covered by a delicate black undergarment. His solution was simple. He hooked one of his claws under the strip of fabric joining the garment together and tore it in half.
Riana gasped in surprise as the offending garment fell away. “You usually undo it from the back, but I guess that works, too.”
Kail didn’t respond. Instead, he dipped his head and buried his face between her breasts, inhaling her sweet, musky scent. He pressed his lips against her warm skin. “Shh. Don’t talk.”
He wanted to hear the steady thud of her heart and her rhythmic, even breathing. He liked the way these things sounded against the exotic noises of the city, threading through the distant bustle of people and the hum of vehicles and the perpetual wash of the blue ocean.
Kail kissed the hollow between her breasts, tasting her skin. She was a mixture of spice and sweat and sweetness. The combination drove him mad.
Her fingers ran over his scalp, threading through his short hair. A soft, throaty moan escaped her lips. It was the flame to his kindling, an incendiary sound that set his nerve endings on fire.
Kail held back, savoring the exquisite tension that had accumulated in every fiber of his being. This was a moment to be savored, because he’d never felt anything like it in his short miserable life, and he wasn’t sure he’d get to experience it ever again, although he knew then and there the he would do everything in his power to keep her.
He cupped one of her breasts and brought his lips to her dark nipple. It was hard, betraying her body’s response to him. She wanted him, and that pleased him greatly, because he’d never imagined that a creature as alluring and soft and pure as her could possibly want a battle-hardened wretch like him.
Kail had never been the sort to give in to his base desires. He hadn’t seen the point in it, because on Kythia females were rare beings, and a scarred, tainted killer like him would never be granted Imperial permission to vie for a Kordolian woman’s favor.
Not that he had ever suffered any kind of attraction to any other female—especially not like this—but sometimes a man had urges, and underneath his cold, hard exterior, Kail was merely a living beast of flesh-and-blood. He had his weaknesses, too.
“Kail,” Riana protested weakly, making a half-hearted attempt to push him away. “Not here. Someone might see us.”
“So what if they do?”
She had no answer for him, because he was circling her nipple with his tongue, caressing her warm flesh in a way that made her pant. Her body grew warmer and her hands moved down to his neck. She was pushing him away and drawing him closer at the same time.
Kail didn’t know the intricacies of Human anatomy, but if her body was similar to a Kordolian’s, especially down there, then all he needed to do was…
Strip her.
Reveal her.
Explore the hidden places on her body; the secret zones where pleasure could be granted with an artful stroke of tongue or finger.
He knew all about that, in theory.
Now he was about to discover her for himself. He followed his instincts, slipping his hand beneath the flexible waistband of her trousers. Her skin was warm and slightly moist.
“Kail…” This time, his name wasn’t spoken in protest.
He’d never known that the Human voice could convey such a complex swirl of emotions. Lust. Astonishment. Anticipation.
And surprisingly, a certain kind of savage glee permeated her voice. Her hands were curious and eager, caressing the broad planes of his back.
Kail shuddered and withdrew his exo-suit, allowing the sub-microscopic nanites to penetrate his skin as they withdrew. Intense pain engulfed his body as the symbiotic particles burrowed through skin and muscle and connective tissue, finally entering his bloodstream.
Rendered naked, his erection strained against her lower belly.
“Ohh, lord.” Riana’s hands searched the muscular planes of his back, tracing the intricate scars that curved over his shoulder blades, extending to his lower back, where they became rounded, like scales. Her hands were gentle, reverent, and at the same time, frantic. She wouldn’t be able to discern it just by touch, but the marks on his back depicted a giant pair of folded wings.
Ancient Aikun lore had been brought to life on his body. He was a living relic, a throwback to times gone past, when the Empire was in its infancy and strange beasts roamed Kythia’s icy plains. He’d lost all memories of his past, but the scars remained, along with the chilling fragments of his true nature that shone through from time to time.
Kail bent a little and rocked her back against one arm, taking her weight. Her head tipped back, revealing her long, slender neck. Her eyes were closed, and the pale moonlight washed over her features, paying gentle homage to her beauty.
For although she was unmistakably a child of the sun, the night suited her just as well.
He tasted her skin again and again, trailing slow kisses up her neck, along her jaw, over her perfectly formed earlobe. He took the delicate appendage into his mouth, sucking softly. He balanced her carefully, running his free hand down the curve of her lower belly, threading his fingers through the soft nest of curls framing her sex.
He didn’t need to look to know what was hidden there. His fingers didn’t lie, and her reaction was truth. Kail discovered the tender lips of her pussy.
We are not the same.
He stroked the outer folds of her sex, watching her face with intense scrutiny.
Sunshine and moonlight. That was her.
And he was the thawing ice.
But we fit together.
Her features twisted into a sublime expression of pent-up tension. Her lips parted, her nose scrunched up, her eyes closed tightly and her brows drew together.
He’d never seen anything more beautiful in his life.
She wanted it, badly. She wanted him.
“Please,” she whispered, completely at his mercy.
He grazed her moist inner folds, each gentle stroke a small revelation.
“Fuck me, Kail,” she whispered, throwing tender hooks into his soul. Only she could make a desperate plea like that sound so earnest.
Oh, how he wanted to take her quickly, fucking her hard, thrusting himself inside her like a savage beast, taking his pleasure like a wanton conqueror.
But this was the first time, and he wanted to savor the moment. Besides, he was still discovering her.
If his hunch was correct, there would be a tender point at the entrance to her pussy, just…
There.
She gasped.
Ah. There it was, a tiny, sensitive nub of flesh. Humans weren’t so different, after all. He stroked it again, the pad of his thumb gliding over its moist surface.
She cried out this time, her voice cracking. She quivered in his arms. He watched as the tension on her face grew, taking on a desperate edge.
She ground her hips, pressing herself into him. They were separated by the thin fabric of her blouse, but Kail could feel her heat of her body through the flimsy material.
She was burning up, and her fire had spread to him a long time ago.
“Come on,” she pleaded, a little louder this time, and he basked in her need.
“Shh.” He silenced her by pressing his lips against hers. She responded boldly, hungrily, her tongue meeting his. Kail tasted her spice and growled in anticipation.
She kissed him with fierce intensity. She pushed back, moving her hips back and forth, grinding down on his outstretched thumb. Her hands found his cock, and sh
e ran her fingers up and down his hard length, moaning in appreciation.
Gone was the skittish, slightly awkward Human he’d first encountered on the doomed freighter the Humans had called the Hendrix II.
This incarnation of Riana knew exactly what she wanted.
Him.
Unbelievable.
Of course, Kail also knew exactly what he wanted. He pulled his lips away from hers. She tried to bring him back, kissing him again and again. Kail dropped his mouth to the hollow of her neck where he breathed in her intoxicating aroma. He rested his lips against the frantic pulse in her neck. This was the earthy rhythm he’d secretly become obsessed with. On several occasions, it had almost stopped.
But now she was back, stronger and more alive than ever.
Kail rested his thumb against her clit and applied a little pressure. She writhed in his arms.
Good.
He did it again, harder this time, rubbing back and forth.
She whimpered.
Even better.
He made a little circular motion with his thumb and she howled. The sound was raw and primal, and it appealed to the primitive side of him.
It was most satisfying.
Her fingers tightened around his cock, giving him a jolt of pleasure. He returned the favor by rolling the tender nub of her clit between his thumb and forefinger.
“A-ah!”
She was putty in his hands, and he was a merciful tyrant, giving her exactly what she desired. He loved that he held such power over her, but at the same time he was her servant, existing to please her, putting her needs before his own.
Something was building inside her. Pressure. Tension. It needed to be released. Her body was wound tight like a spring, and her voice rose in pitch with every stroke of his fingers.
Just a little longer…
Kail inhaled the sweet musk of her arousal. He held her tight, bringing her to the brink of climax. She was about to go.
Just a little more…
Her hands had shifted, and now her nails dug into the scarred, leathery skin of his back, drawing bitter blood. Under the surface of his skin, the black nanites seethed and writhed. It was almost as if the temanjin were coming to life, about to unfurl its wings.