by Selena Kitt
He squeezed a breast, trying to rid himself of unwanted memories. The girl beneath him didn’t react. She remained quiet. Not even little noises of pleasure came from her. Her silence eventually got to him and when she touched his beard, he opened his eyes looked down at her. This wasn’t a girl from the brothel in Harris Town. This was. . .
“Crut,” he breathed.
Hope looked up at Cord. His large body covered hers, trapping her beneath him. But she hadn’t panicked. Instead she had tentatively reached up and touched the hair on his face. They had never been this close before and she found she couldn’t help herself. His hair intrigued her.
Cord shoved himself away and rolled to his feet. He buckled his belt and stormed through the trees. He hadn’t entered her, but he’d been damn near close. No wonder the dream had felt so real. Questions he didn’t want answered flashed through his mind. Would he have fucked her in his sleep? Would she have let him? And worse, would he have enjoyed it?
He ran his hands through his hair and walked off his erection. This wasn’t right. She was a Camo, he was human. It was unnatural. By the time he returned to their makeshift camp he had calmed down and convinced himself it happened because it had been too long since he’d been with a woman. A human woman. That he could remedy in Harris Town.
“We’re going,” he said without looking at her.
Hope had righted her dress and packed up the camp while he was gone. She had guessed he would want to move on. Keela, who was oblivious to the tension between Camo and human, stood ready and raring to go.
Cord helped Hope onto his mount and instead of joining her, decided to walk ahead, leading the animal by its reins. Traveling this way would add hours to their journey, but the last place he wanted to be was seated behind her. He didn’t think either of them wanted to feel his erection again.
The forest fell away, to be replaced with tussock and grasses. Even the road changed the closer they got to Harris Town. It went from a dirt track to an actual road of metal. Near the outskirts of town, Cord stopped them. He couldn’t go in with a Camo and she’d left her stupid hat back at his cabin. She touched her bald head as if reading his thoughts.
Their people were similar in many ways, but the most obvious differences was the hair, or rather, the lack of. The other difference was how they got their name. Camo, short for camouflage, were a chameleon-like species. Given enough time, their skin pigmentation altered to match that of their environment. During the winter they were so pale they blended in with the snow that covered the land. In summer, they would be almost indistinguishable from trees and plants.
Cord reached into the travel bag around Keela’s neck and pulled out a scarf. He gave it to Hope and watched her wrap it around her head and neck. It wasn’t perfect, but it would have to do. Provided no one got too close, she could pass for human. She certainly felt like one.
They ventured warily into the town. Cord’s senses were on alert for any threat. The only one on the street was a kid who Cord dissuaded from coming any closer. At this time of day most would be headed home for dinner. For Cord and Hope, their destination was the bar at the other end of town. There Cord hoped to find all the supplies he needed, get a meal, see to his needs, and catch up with a couple of friends.
When they arrived, Hope made to jump from Keela’s back and join him.
“Stay,” Cord ordered.
Of course she ignored him, giving him no choice but to let her accompany him inside. Fortunately for him, the place wasn’t crowded. Half a dozen tables were occupied by various locals and travelers alike. Cord spotted the man he was here to see and steered Hope toward the far end of the bar.
“Colonel,” Cord muttered as he took a seat next to an older man.
A smile tugged at the corner of the man’s mouth and he inclined his scarred head to Cord and said, “Haven’t seen you in a while.”
“Been busy,” Cord told him and caught the bartender’s attention.
“That busy have something to do with the woman you’ve brought to show me?” the colonel asked.
Cord stiffened. Although his friend had been blinded during a Camo attack not long after the colonists had settled the planet, he was still mighty perceptive.
“She’s a client,” he said.
The colonel reached out his hand to Hope, who let him take hers. “Daniel Sanders,” he said by way of introduction. “I’m this jerk’s father-in-law.”
“She’s mute,” Cord added.
“Must be God having a laugh at our expense. I’m blinder than a bat and she can’t talk. How’d you ever find each other?” Daniel asked.
“Her. . . brother hired me to take her to the mountains,” Cord said and accepted the drink the barman gave him. “Drink up.”
Daniel lifted his glass and waited for Cord to clink them together before they threw back the contents. “What’re you doing here then?” he asked.
“Long story,” Cord said, already requesting a refill. “Needs to be told in private. After I’ve eaten a large steak.”
“You not taking care of yourself?” Daniel asked with a worried frown. “All I’ve heard of you since my daughter and grandson died is rumors. And none of them good.”
Cord eyed the man who used to be his commanding officer in the Corps. “I’m surviving. She’s a vegetarian. Buried my dinner last night.”
Daniel laughed. “Then I won’t keep you from your steak, boy. We’ll talk after that. And Cass will wanna see you.”
“I need to see her, too.”
The steak was delicious. He’d also ordered vegetables for Hope, who looked to be just as ravenous as he was. Seemed the soup hadn’t been enough for her either. When they finished, Cord led them to a private corner of the establishment. Here they wouldn’t be disturbed and Cord set about telling Daniel everything. Everything except last night’s incident.
“That son of a bastard,” Daniel swore. He swiped at unshed tears and stared unseeingly at the table between them. “I wish I could see, Cord, just so I can see his face when you end his sorry life. To think he might have been. . .”
“Family?” Cord finished when Daniel couldn’t.
“Aye.”
“I’ll make him pay, Colonel,” Cord vowed.
“I know, son. I know.”
The table descended into silence. Hope had read the emotions that flowed between the two aliens and knew they shared a familial bond. While she felt for them, she was also interested in the rest of the room. The only time she had been among so many aliens was when she had been held at the keep. She had been abducted and taken there at the beginning of the long winter. This place felt more inviting than the keep. There had always been a pall of death and debauchery. Here was life, and while there was debauchery it was of a different kind. Males and females approached each other openly and had the decency to take their interactions elsewhere. Hope had never understood why the aliens of the keep had performed violence and fornication together in the same room.
A female swept through a doorway and all eyes turned to her. She was well known here, greeted by many as she passed. Smiles and sounds were exchanged and hands were grasped. Hope turned to Cord to see what his reaction was. Her alien had also been drawn to the female. He intently watched her progress until it was clear she was headed toward them.
“Well, well, well,” said the woman. “If it isn’t a former captain I used to know. What dragged you in, Cord?”
“Business,” Cord told her. “It’s been a while, Cass.”
“Yes,” she said. “Too long. Now, what do you want?”
Daniel chuckled. “Straight to the point is our Cass,” he said.
Cass raised an eyebrow and waited. She could be just as stubborn as Cord, something he’d found out the hard way when they’d served with Gerrit.
“I need supplies,” Cord told her.
“Bullets, food, liquor, or women?” she asked.
“All the above,” he said.
Cass smiled. “I’ll see to it all p
ersonally. Provided you can pay.”
“I can. I’ll need a room for the night.”
“That’s what I want to hear. I’m short of rooms but I can put you and your girlfriend up—”
“She’s not my girlfriend,” he corrected her.
“The lady can take my bed,” Daniel offered.
Cass looked between Cord and Hope but didn’t pry. Instead she pulled a key on a chain from around her neck and dropped it on the table in front of him. “It’s the room next to the old man’s. Clean up and I’ll meet you when I’ve organized your supplies,” she said, and walked away with an added sway to her hips.
Daniel cleared his throat and turned to Hope. “Don’t worry little lady, you can keep me company while he’s busy. I have photos I can show you of this jerk, if you want.”
Hope looked to Cord who nodded, so she let the older alien take her by the hand and lead her to the stairs. Every one took care to move aside as they passed, allowing the blind alien to make his way by memory to his room.
His room was the same size as the one she had spent her nights in while at the keep. Small. The one difference was that his walls were covered with frozen images. Hope studied each carefully. She recognized the female from downstairs, dressed in garments similar to what her alien wore. Others were with her, including the one who had attacked them. She hissed at his image and moved on to the next.
Daniel talked happily about each picture, unaware that she couldn’t understand him. The photos had been taken before their arrival. The colonists had known cameras would not work on this backward planet, so he had made sure to preserve his memories, even after he could no longer see them.
He plucked the double frame from his bedside table and waited for his new friend to approach. “This is Cord,” he said, stabbing his finger at the lone figure in the left frame. His touch was gentle as he fingered the glass of the other picture. “My daughter, Cord’s wife. I still can’t believe that bastard killed her and my grandson. They named him after me—little Danny. I never got to see him though, only held him. The accident. . .”
Hope placed a calming hand over the top of his and took the frame from him to study the images, and recognized her alien. The frozen image showed him with a lot less hair. He stood proud and tall, not with the stoop of hopelessness and grief that she saw in him now. Hope did not know what the aliens considered desirable traits in their partners. At the keep she had found no rhyme or reason for the partners they chose. However, the radiant smile of the unmoving female in the image she held warmed her. Her alien’s life was a sadder place for having lost her, she realized.
The older alien had eased himself into the lone chair in the room and was now making sleeping noises common to his kind. Hope returned the frame to the table and draped a blanket over him.
She was contemplating his scarred face when there was a knock behind her. Hope hesitantly opened the door and found the female she had met downstairs outside. She smirked and made quiet sounds before beckoning for her to follow. They stopped at the door to the next room. She gestured for Hope to stay, she then opened the door and disappeared inside. Curious about what the female wanted her to see, Hope moved closer to the door and peered through the gap.
Cord lifted his head from the soft pillow on Cass’s bed. The woman herself had entered and sauntered toward him.
“Are you clean?” she demanded.
“Yes ma’am,” he replied while getting to his feet and meeting her. “Do you have my supplies?”
Cass reached for the top of his shirt and deftly unfastened each button. “They’ll be ready by the time you leave tomorrow,” she said.
He nodded and got to work on her clothing. “Been awhile,” he warned her, but she just smiled.
She yanked his shirt aside and drank in the sight of his hairy chest. “Who is that girl you’re with?” she asked before kissing his neck.
“No one,” he replied. A moment later he asked, “Why?”
“She was staring at you like you were the only man on the planet,” Cass told him.
He snorted but said nothing.
“She’s sweet on you, Cord.”
Cord grasped Cass by the shoulders and pushed her to arm’s length. “I ain’t interested in her,” he growled and turned away, looking out the lone window to the desolate expanse of frozen land he would soon have to navigate.
Cass snuggled up to his back, wrapping her arms around him. “Consider it a warning from one friend to another, Cord. Especially when one friend is oblivious. Be good to her, she’s still a virgin.”
“How do you—”
Cass laughed, cutting off his silly question. “Us whores can spot a virgin a mile away. Man or woman,” she reminded him. “Speaking of which, we should get to business.”
He let her have her way. It was why he was there. Supplies and a good fucking. Cass was more than adequate to fulfill both of his needs.
Hope watched wide-eyed as the two aliens engaged in their mating rituals. He mashed his mouth against the female’s, like he had with her last night. She wondered what would have happened if he had not stopped. She knew what was supposed to happen and had witnessed it many times at the keep. But seeing it happen to others and knowing it could have happened to herself, was different.
She pressed her fingers to the lips he had bruised and continued to watch. The female knelt before him. They knew each other’s bodies, Hope realized. They had done this before. Watching them was wrong. Something so private and intimate should not have been shared with her. She did not know why the female had wanted her to see this, but it didn’t feel right to stay.
Hope took a step back. The board behind her creaked. She shot a look back into the room. Her gaze locked with his through the crack in the door. His eyes fluttered closed when the female took him in her mouth and by the time he could look again, Hope was gone.
“Crut,” he bit out.
“What?” Cass asked as she wiped her mouth.
He nodded toward the door and said, “We’re being watched.”
“I know,” she said and led him back to her bed. Cass laughed at the murderous look he gave her and pulled him down.
Cord couldn’t resist her tempting invitation. He kicked off his pants and rolled her on top of him. “What are you playing at?” he demanded.
“I thought she might learn something,” Cass said with a shrug. “Is she still there?”
“No,” he said and lost himself in her breasts when she offered them up to him.
“Pity,” she muttered.
They didn’t get much further in their lovemaking when a wail of pain from the next room interrupted them. Cord jumped into his pants and grabbed Cass’s gun belt from the floor. He wrenched the weapon free and burst into Daniel’s room.
Hope stood hunched over Daniel, the cause of the frightened cries. He yanked Hope from him and she fell to the ground.
“Colonel,” he said and shook him. The man had at least stopped screaming. Cord was startled but not surprised to find the old man’s scars had disappeared.
“Cord?” he asked as he blinked up at him.
“It’s me,” Cord assured him. “I’m here.”
Cass had been on Cord’s heels and followed him into the room. She knelt before the girl and gasped. “Cord!” she yelled, attracting his attention.
He joined them, hauled Hope to her feet, and swore.
“Her face,” Cass whispered, “is covered in scars.”
Just like last time, Hope’s injuries quickly healed. The scars were no longer visible and her eyes, which had been clouded a moment before, had cleared. He half-carried her to the bed and after laying her down, turned back to his friends.
“Cass?” Daniel said and stared at her. “You’re naked.”
“I was in the middle of some—” Cass started but stopped. She closed the distance between them and gaped openly. “You can see me?”
Daniel nodded and with a grin added, “And what a sight you are.”
&nbs
p; “But how?” she asked. Both looked to Cord for an answer.
Before he replied, he strode to the door and assured himself there were no prying ears or eyes this time. When he returned he ran a hand through his shaggy hair and shook his head. “I don’t know how,” he said. “But she healed him.”
“But what about the scars on her face?” Cass asked.
He twitched the scarf back from Hope’s face. The scars were long gone. “There’s more,” he said and pulled the scarf free, revealing the alien beneath.
“Well that explains why you ain’t interested,” said Cass. “What are you doing riding with her anyway? Her kind killed your family.”