Alien Mercenary's Desire

by Elin Wyn

  She shivered, wrapping her arms around herself.

  He wrapped his arms around her, encasing her in his strength. “I won’t let them take you, promise.”

  They continued to the bridge, her thoughts flying.

  “How are you going to hide me?”

  Kordiss paused before answering. “There’s a couple of options. We can keep heading back to Earth, and hope they lose you there.” He brushed the edge of her ear. “But first, we should take out the translation patch – if they’re smart, they may be tracking you with it.”

  She shook her head. “But then how will I talk with you?”

  “I’ll still understand you. And,” his jaw tightened. “You’ll have to trust me.”

  Trust him. The fear, the terror of her time in that cell, the Nargest, had faded away with his touch.

  She nodded. “I can do that.”

  He grabbed a black case like the one he’d used when she burned herself.

  She raised her eyebrow. “Are you clumsy, or were you planning for me?”

  “Even alone on a ship, it would be stupid not to have a medical kit in all rooms.”

  He found what he needed inside, then pulled her into his lap. “Before we start…” He pulled her tight against him. “I think we have a better chance if we change course.”

  Her eyes widened. “But to where?”

  “There’s a trading station not far from here. Lots of different species use it, and there’s plenty of traffic in and out. If they are tracking you by the implant, they’ll lose the signal when we jettison it from the ship. But they might guess we’re still taking you home. We have a better chance if we change course.”

  Tears threatened to overwhelm her, and she sagged against his chest. “I trust you. Just don’t let them have me.”

  He forced the wave of fury down before he answered her. “Never.”

  6

  A day later, Kordiss’ words mocked him as he stabbed the buttons of the control panel. Never, he’d promised her. The red rage pushed against him, threatening his control, but he pushed it aside with practiced ease.

  Not until he found her again. His Sharla. Not until she was safe in his arms. Then he’d release his fury on them, and leave a pile of corpses as a memorial to the insult. And if she were harmed, there would be no end to his vengeance.

  The trip to the station had started so well. A gentle bump had announced their docking. Sharla looked up at him with wide eyes. “Are we there?”

  He nodded. Since his removal of her language implant, they’d kept communications to yes and no questions. So far, so good.

  After a brief stop at station security, they’d been swept away in the crowd. Even better than he’d hoped, it seemed the station inhabitant were celebrating the Thriusian holiday of Divarii. He didn’t know the details of the festival, but everyone was in a good mood, laughing behind their masks.

  A brief stop at the first infoscreen gave him the address of the nearest medic. They both wanted a new implant, as soon as possible.

  Sharla stayed pressed to his side, eyes open in wonder. Despite the danger, he smiled. She was irrepressibly curious about this new world, and as soon as her new implant was in, he planned to show everything to her. She grinned up at him.

  “Did you find the doctor?”

  He nodded, and wrapped his arm around her shoulders to guide her through the throng.

  It was at the medic bay that things had started to go wrong.

  “I’m sorry, no one is on duty at this station until 2800 hours,” the greeting drone repeated. Kordiss grit his teeth. This was not part of the plan.

  “What’s wrong?” Sharla asked, then shook her head. “And, you can’t tell me, can you?”

  Kordiss looked down at her, his frustration at the situation rising.

  “Is the doctor there?”

  He shook his head.

  “Is he coming back?”

  He nodded.

  “Can we wait?”

  He nodded, slowly, looking around. The neighborhood wasn’t bad, but he still felt exposed, vulnerable off the ship.

  “Should we go back to the ship to wait?”

  He shook his head. No telling how long it would take to fight through the holiday crowd back to the dock, and then back here.

  Her shoulders slumped. “I’m a little tired. Is there anywhere else we can go?”

  He nodded. There had been a small hotel catering to spacers needing downtime between trips, just a few streets down. Once she was safely inside, he could relax, and wait for the medic to reopen.

  As the door slid shut behind them, she stared around at the capsule room. A bed took up most of the space, and an opening in the wall revealed a tiny wash room. Everything needed for a few hours downtime.

  She grinned up at him. “Not what I had in mind, but an excellent way to kill time.” She fell back on the bed, tugging his hand so that he followed her.

  “No, this is just to get us out of the open,” he said, but this time she shook her head in response.

  “Can’t understand a word you’re saying,” she said, with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. “I suppose that means I can just do whatever I want, right?”

  She rolled on top of him, holding his wrists down with her hands. Kordiss fought down a laugh at the idea of her restraining him, then shuddered. She’d slid her body over his own, so that he could feel the heat of the core of her, through the fabric of her skirt, through his trousers.

  This wasn’t what he had in mind, either, but darkness take it, she felt good.

  He took in a sharp breath as she wiggled against him.

  “You enjoyed pleasuring me before, by the lake,” she murmured. “I think I’m beginning to understand how that works.”

  She swung around so that she perched across his chest, her back to him, freeing her hands. He could have easily lifted her away, but a gentle stroke across his quickly tenting pants drove every thought from him.

  And that had been the final mistake.

  She’d figured out the fastening and eased his length free. Her soft hands against him, tentatively bringing him to her lips, his hands locking around her waist, heedless of anything but her touch.

  Even the memory made him stiffen.

  And when the door had burst open, when the masked and robed Nargest had pulled her from him, screaming, he’d been a fraction too slow.

  The one in the lead had dropped down, and his follower shot Kordiss full in the chest.

  He rubbed the healing wound, grateful for the pain, for the reminder of his failure.

  Not lethal of course, just enough to stun him for an hour, maybe two. Kidnap and enslavement of a person from non-treaty planet was risky enough. Murder of a full citizen would bring the full weight of the law against them.

  His eyes narrowed as he traced the faint signal and laid in his flight plan.

  They should have chosen the law’s wrath, and killed him.

  Now they faced his.

  7

  Sharla had stopped crying not long after she woke up.

  She found herself in a translucent purple dress, sleeveless, and ending so far above her knees it was more likely to be a shirt. Except there wasn’t any other part to the outfit, so dress it was.

  Unlike the cell on the Nargest ship, this room was decorated in shades of white and cream. Low, plush furniture scattered about, soft lights from a source she couldn’t determine.

  It looked like an upscale resort, if you ignored the lack of windows, and that she was here against her will.

  Kordiss. The time with him had been like a dream, an escape from this, the new reality. And because of her, because he’d tried to protect her, he was gone. Not gone, dead, a tiny voice in her head whispered.

  She wrapped her arms around herself, willed herself to figure it out. What to do, how to survive in a universe that suddenly seemed very empty and cold, even with all the unexpected life forms.
<
br />   I’m not going to cry.

  And that was all the time she had to think about it, because a door she hadn’t noticed in the far wall slid open, and a… thing…lumbered through.

  A dark green lump waddled towards her. His head was just a suggestion, a low dome above sloped shoulders, and, oh god, were those tentacles?

  How is this even going to work? Without the translator I’m not even going to be able to understand him.

  “Um, hello?” The blob waved a tentacle, then another one, looking for all the world like a squat version of those wind dancer things at used car lots.

  She sat in shock, then understood. When she’d been unconscious, when they’d redressed her in this frilly nightie, they must have re-inserted a translator.

  She scooted back from it, but it just stood there, waving aimlessly.

  “My spawn parent said you were new, and different, and I should enjoy training you, but, he shuddered, no offense, but you’re pink, and weird, and I don’t even know what those lumps on your chest are.” Slimy tracks oozed from its eyes. “Can I hide here, and then later we’ll tell them we did the things?” The dark green color rose higher on the blob’s top lump. “Will you tell me what the things we’re supposed to do are?”

  Sharla blinked. This… wasn’t what she expected. At all.

  “Are you just visiting?”

  He sounded like a teenaged boy, pushed into something he didn’t want to do by an overeager parent. Helicopter parenting in the stars. Maybe some things never changed.

  “The dealer said you were new. My spawn parent thought it would be a good challenge for me.” If possible, the blob slumped further towards the floor.

  Look, why don’t you just come over and tell me about yourself?

  He narrowed a bulging eye at her. “Really?”

  She pointed to a chair facing the bed she’d crouched on. “You can sit over there. You don’t have to touch me, or anything.”

  He moved reluctantly to the proffered surface.

  “What’s your name?” she asked, wondering how this day could get any weirder.

  “Zorf,” he mumbled.

  “And if you weren’t here, what would you rather be doing? What would your perfect day be?”

  His spongy face showed animation for the first time. “I’d be finishing up my model of the Zarian Fury! It’s a class three warship. I have almost the entire rest of the fleet done. Two more, and I’ll be able to do a full scale reenactment of the colonization of the Beta 9 Sector!”

  Glad he gets excited about something, Sharla thought wryly.

  She’d almost relaxed, listening to Zorf ramble on about his models, when the room shook.

  The door Zorf had come through blew open, and in the smoke filling the wrecked hallway beyond Sharla saw a familiar shape. She rose to her feet, unable to believe her eyes when Kordiss entered the room.

  “Kordiss!” she shouted, knees weak with relief and shock. She started to run to him, but then stopped. This wasn’t her Kordiss. He’d redressed in the gray armored suit he’d worn when he attacked the Nargest ship, all but the helmet.

  And she could see the rage in his eyes. All traces of the gentle man she’d known had been burned away in that white hot fire.

  “Sharla, come over here,” he ordered, his voice flat.

  He trained the long weapon in his hand on Zorf. “One more quick task and we’re out of here. I’m taking you home.”

  “But, he didn’t do anything,” Sharla exclaimed. “Nothing happened!”

  Kordiss didn’t blink, didn’t flinch, and Sharla didn’t think he even heard her words. She had no idea how the weapon in his hand worked but she could hear it start to make a high-pitched noise as if beginning a power up cycle.

  “No!” she shouted. Sharla ran in front of the chair where the quivering Zorf still crouched, tentacles curled protectively about himself.

  With a start Kordiss registered her presence. “Sharla, what are you doing?”

  “He’s just a child, Kordiss. He didn’t do anything, never touched me. This was his father or parent or something’s idea.” She took a step towards him, still carefully in the line of fire. “Come on, let’s get back to the ship, okay?” She kept her voice calm and gentle as she walked towards him, his eyes fixated on her, the tension in his body palpable.

  She reached his side and slowly pushed the arm holding the weapon down. “Come on honey,” she whispered while wrapping her arm around his waist. “I want to leave this place. Please?”

  He looked down at her pressed against his side and she felt a shuddering breath rack through him.

  “All right,” he whispered.

  As they turned to leave she called back over her shoulder, “Goodbye Zorf, good luck with the rest of your models!”

  8

  Back on the ship, Sharla stayed close to Kordiss’ side. He remained silent as they pushed away from wherever they’d docked, a large spinning donut of a station, she noticed absently.

  Maybe she was in shock, maybe she was getting annoyingly used to being kidnapped, but she didn’t seem to be nearly as affected as Kordiss was. And she was worried.

  As soon as they’d left the spinning torus behind, he got out the medical box and turned to her. Your translator. We need to get it out, now.

  She bit her lip. But, then we’ll be back to where we were…

  He shook his head brusquely. No. The medic who patched me up sold me an unregistered translator.

  She nodded. Then do it fast. We need to talk, and I don’t want these bastards having any way to find me again.

  The switch of the translator took less time than the full scan he insisted on following it up with.

  “They tracked you once.” His eyes narrowed, and his voice crackled with anger. I won’t allow you to be in danger again.

  Sharla reached for his hand as he waved the scanner over her, again and again. “Stop. Please, stop.”

  He froze, motionless above her.

  She slid her hand up his chest and lowered her forehead to rest on his shoulder.

  “When they shot you, I thought you’d been killed.” She swallowed, forced her throat to stay open. “That you’d died because of me.”

  “If I died, it was because I failed you.” The cold flatness of his voice threatened to break her heart.

  “But you didn’t fail me. And you didn’t die. We’re here, now.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and stretched up to kiss him. “Together.”

  Pressed against him, she could feel his breathing begin to catch, watched a different kind of heat replace the fury in his eyes.

  “And we were interrupted earlier.” She flicked her lips over his own, daring him to open for her.

  He groaned against her lips. “Sharla, honey, don’t start…”

  As his hands fell to her side, a soft beep sounded from the scanner. Sharla jumped. “Another tracker?”

  Jaw set, Kordiss looked at the read out, then his lips curled up into a half-smile.

  “Are you laughing?” Sharla poked him, and was pleasantly surprised when he twisted away.

  “Not another one. It’s picking up the one I put in when I took out the first translation chip. How do you think I found you?”

  Sharla poked him again, watched him turn away from her prodding fingers. “You had a tracking device in me?”

  Kordiss tossed the scanner onto the chair and grabbed her hands. “I was worried about us getting separated on the station.” His voice lowered. “About losing you.”

  She leaned forward, wiggled against him. “Then keep that one in. I think you’re stuck with me.”

  He put his hands on her shoulders. “It’s dangerous out here. Dangerous with me.”

  Sharla rolled her eyes. “You think I don’t know that? But out here, with you, I feel alive.” She grinned. “And now that I know you’re ticklish, maybe I’m the dangerous one.”

  She reached for him again, and he tw
isted away, back into the captain’s chair, her hands clasped between his own.

  “Sharla, we have to stop,” he growled through gritted teeth.

  The seriousness of his tone stopped her where his words alone didn’t. “Why?”

  “I could hurt you.”

  “You’d never hurt me. I know that.”

  He didn’t move, so she moved towards him. Hands still trapped, she delicately licked the outermost edge of his ear. “I need you. I need you in me.”

  He burst from the chair, arms wrapped around her body, face buried in her hair. “I’m so close to losing control.”

  She gathered him to her. “Then lose it in me, always with me.”

  The raw heat of his kiss robbed her of breath as he pulled her into his arms. He carried her to his quarters, his kisses raining upon her face and neck while she clung to him.

  When he placed her on the bed, panting with desire, she tugged him down to lay next to her, unwilling to release him.

  He kissed her nose. “Not quite the lakeside, I know.”

  She shook her head and scooted closer into the curve of his arms. “I want this time to be real.”

  His hands caressed the silken skin of her thighs, then higher on her body, stroking until she arced under his touch. Her body had turned into nothing but sensation, the touch of his hands on her breasts, on her belly all kindling the blazing fire that consumed her, demanded more.

  Breathless, she only noticed the removal of their clothing by the absence of his hands on her. His caresses slowed as he knelt between her legs, and she grabbed his shoulders.

  "Now," she insisted, driven by the heat,

  "Sharla..." he traced the line of her cheek, concern clear on his face.

  Passion roughened her voice. “I know it might hurt, but honestly, it’s once, and over, and later we can spend all the time in the universe being gentle.”

  He slid his hard length against her slick folds, and all of his previous teasing had been nothing compared to this.