Scheming, she showered then toweled herself dry. It was then she noticed her clothes weren’t where she’d left them.
“Sneaky bastard,” she snarled as she wrapped the towel around herself. Not much coverage but it’d have to do. She spotted her clothes on the floor, folded in a nice square. She froze in the doorway, watching the Yithian as he lay on the bunk, his eyes closed. She’d have to go around him to reach the locker and get the stunner.
He must have thought she was dumb, faking sleep. “Like I’m going to fall for that.”
Giving the slightest start, he opened his eyes. He’d actually been asleep. Alex could have kicked herself.
“You smell much better.”
Leaning against the bulkhead, Alex crossed her arms over her chest. Goose bumps rippled along her arms. “I want clothes.”
“Then get clothes.” He indicated the locker then sat up.
The towel rested against his lean thighs and created a triangle of darkness she wouldn’t have minded exploring any other time. Too bad she wanted to kill the guy with her bare hands and use his hide as clothing. A nice blue purse would be cute, with silver fur boots to match! She tore her gaze from the towel and stared at him as she went around the cot. She padded by tentatively.
As fast as a striking snake he caught her wrist. “Did I startle you?”
Biting back the yelp of shock, she shook her head.
He grinned then let her hand go. “Good. I was afraid you were losing your edge because of this,” he said, pointing to the inhibitor. As if seeing her for the first time, he studied her from head to toe then back again. He sighed.
Alex tightly gripped the towel. “What?”
“You will be very popular where I am taking you. Especially with those.” He pointed to her legs.
She looked at herself and shrugged. All she could see was a pair of legs that needed shaving and a map of scars. Her knees took the prize with long pink lines on either side where steel plates held the joints together. “Yeah, well, they’ll have to fight just to see them.”
“They will.”
Now why did it bother her, the way he said that? “What do you mean?”
“Yithians have differing…expectations of females. We are not humans. We do not lie back and take pleasure in passivity.”
“You mean you like it rough, like to knock your females around. If that’s what you mean, say it.” She clutched the towel tighter.
He shook his head and stood. “My English is imprecise, my apologies. I mean Yithian males enjoy females who have physical signs of experience. Lines, scars. To us, a body without any mark is uninteresting. Like a patch of sky without stars. These—” he went on, running a finger over his tattoos “—may be mere paintings to you. But they represent my life, my hunts. You will be part of it soon.”
“I’m no goddamn trophy, Yithian,” Alex snapped, taking a step back.
His face tightened. He took a step toward her and grinned another of his ominous grins. “Sekmeth. To me, you are not a trophy, but to them, you will be.”
“Like hell I will. This thing around my neck will kill me before I set foot on that brothel-ship, you got that? I’m going to fight you every step of the way until I have nothing left.” She flicked the metal band with her thumb.
He reached out and grabbed her by the fist holding her towel. From up close, the ring looked more blue than black. Had it just glimmered or was it her eyes? She tiptoed forward so he wouldn’t tear the towel off her. Before she could do anything else, he pinched the inhibitor and it clicked off. The silvery band fell in his hand. “You wanted to fight me ‘every step of the way’, as you put it? Now you can.”
Alex opened her mouth to say something but snapped it shut again. She threw a quick peek at her towel then glowered at the Yithian. “You think that’s going to stop me?”
“I hope not,” he replied with a wolfish grin before he tugged his own towel off. “There. Fair?”
His narrow waist came down to lean hips, which spread out in the nicest pair of thighs she’d seen on a man. But what kept her gaze riveted to him was his manhood. Alienhood. Whatever. Blue and hairless—like the rest of him—with not a single mark or indentation except for a tiny slit at the very end. One smooth, pale blue rod tapered to an enticing point. Alex looked up into his eyes, which narrowed to slate gray slits, and gritted her teeth. She’d get only one chance, may as well make it a good one.
She kicked him in the shins then bolted. Despite the grip he had on her fist, the suddenness of her attack must have taken him by surprise for he winced and bent at the waist. Alex leaped over the low table and went for the locker. The stunner. Always charged. Always ready.
She slammed the metal door open and tugged her other jacket off the hook. It came with a ripping sound. As she turned around to aim, the Yithian slammed into her and both went tumbling down in a tangle of limbs and hair. She rolled away just as he was reaching to grab her. The towel slipped off. Blocking that fact out of her mind, Alex climbed to her knees with her stunner in front but didn’t have time to fire as the alien wrapped his hand over hers and pulled it down. She yelped when he put his knee on her knuckles.
“No weapon.”
She cursed as she pulled her hand free. Unfortunately, the stunner slipped out of her grip and he slapped it across the cabin. Curling her fist as tight as she could make it, she swung for his face and caught him on the chin. Good god, that hurt! She swung again, this time for his temple.
He avoided the nasty hit and replied by seizing her hand and pulling her to him. Both arms around her, he leaned back on his knees until she practically straddled him. His member felt hard and hot against her thigh while her breasts pressed against his sinewy chest. For a few seconds, they held still, Alex’s heart thudding a mad cadence, both panting through disheveled hair. As with the night she’d seen him in the club, a prickly sensation stiffened the nape of her neck.
An image flashed across her mind. Her heart skipped a couple of beats. Him under her. Sweat slicking both. Heat radiating up her belly. Alex struggled for breath. The vision had felt real. Too goddamn real.
Hunger for him blazed inside. Before checking it over with her brain, she leaned forward and planted a kiss on his thin, dark blue lips. Rumbling deep in his chest triggered some kind of animal reaction in Alex. She stopped struggling to arch back and free her hands. Instead, she let herself rest squarely on him. Perfect fit.
“Kashaak nisk loy,” he growled in her ear. The force of his breath stirred strands of hair around her face.
What little Yithian she’d learned comprised mostly of insults so she didn’t get what he said. But she could get the gist of it. Especially since he wrapped his hands around her face and pressed it against his while he kissed her in a feverish way that stole her breath. Her scar tingled when he ran his lips over the length of it, as if the thin, pink ribbon tasted of the most succulent fruit in the world. Alex sucked in air through her teeth when he dug his fingers in her hair and tilted her head back. Teeth almost too sharp for comfort dragged against her throat, her shoulders. He bit her, hard enough to hurt but not hard enough to scare. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him close. Jesus on a cross! A cry escaped her.
Her actions seemed to spur him on for he renewed his intense caress. Alex let go of his neck to grab him on the lower back and rake her fingernails all the way up. A great tremor shook the Yithian.
“Careful, Alexandra Novona, I am not a human male.” His voice sounded deeper, rougher.
“Like I care.” She did it again, enjoying the look of absolute bliss tightening his features, as though he fought a losing battle for self-control.
Pleasure beyond measure swelled Alex’s chest. To have such devastating impact on this seven-foot feral male intoxicated her. She’d never had sex with a Yithian before, and she prayed to god it wouldn’t be the last. Her implant would last for another few months, so no worries about babies. With avidity, she dug her nails in his skin. His reaction was i
mmediate.
Alex wasn’t too sure how he did it. One moment she knelt, pressed firmly against him, the next she lay on her back with him between her legs. Air left her lungs in a great “humph” when he lay on top of her and seized one of her nipples between his lips.
She arched. “Holy—”
The rest couldn’t choke past her throat. He lodged his member into her. The sheer heat of him drowned what inarticulate sound struggled to be heard. Alex threw her head back. If his size first intimidated her, it no longer did, not with the skill he handled it. Gradually, he sank into her like a stunner in its holder. Heat radiated through her thighs and stomach. As Kim would say, “like, whoa”.
Muscles twitched on his lean pectorals as he lifted his weight off her and rested on his elbows. His eyes, usually gray pearls, looked more like black incisions as he stared at her through disheveled hair.
“Don’t stop,” she growled through her teeth.
A feral grin peeled up his lip. Still, he made no move, only stared down at her.
When she turned her head to bite his arm, she spotted the ring. Now it definitely was doing something. Not glowing, but sputtering, as a flame caught in a draft.
Fearing the heat in her belly would subside, Alex heeled the floor and tilted her hips so he would slip deeper into her. Happy juices rendered the move unbearably pleasing. Alex groaned. But he wouldn’t meet her halfway. She’d lose it if he didn’t move soon. Already her belly relaxed, as did her thighs. What was he playing at? Tease.
His teeth gleamed in the poor light of the cabin as the Yithian angled his head so he could brush his mouth against her ear. “Is that all a human female can do?”
Alex felt as though someone had dumped a bucket of cold water over her head. Before she could respond, the Yithian reached over her and slipped something around her neck. Too late, she struck at his hand. The inhibitor clicked over her throat. She froze.
He pulled out of her and stood. “I should have left it on. It made no difference.”
Not many times in her life had she been speechless. Emptiness wrung through her body as if he’d pulled her guts out along with his penis. Some clean clothes landed a few inches from her elbow. She put them on in silence, slipped the boots on and buckled them with numb fingers. A painful stitch cramped her side, right under her left shoulder. Shame and bitterness forced her to stare at anything but his face. She feared what she’d do if she looked at him too long. The thing around her neck might kill her. She wasn’t sure she cared.
On second thought, she did care—if only to make him pay later.
When he drew near, she stood and faced him. With as much ice as she could put in her words, she said, “This isn’t over.”
His eyes had returned to a more familiar opalescent gray. “You already showed me what you could do, Alexandra Novona.”
Naked, he escorted her back to the brig, where he closed and locked the hatch behind her. He didn’t even bother with the vent, nor did he seem overly worried she’d try to escape again. Perhaps he knew she wouldn’t. She hated him for it.
Alex didn’t watch him leave through the porthole, instead she sank onto the narrow cot. As she leaned back against the bulkhead, tears of rage threatened to spill over. She fought, forced her eyes to remain fixedly open, not yielding to the pain, the humiliation he’d just put her through. He’d used her, manipulated her to serve some morbid need.
She’d get him back. Yithians had no gods—he’d need one if she ever had her way.
Chapter Eight
Sekmeth returned to the cabin and pulled his clothes on. Heat from the pipes radiated pleasantly from the fabric to his skin. He shivered. Rubbing his hands through his hair, he noticed with some surprise they shook. Shock tightened his mouth when he noticed his ring glowed faintly, as if struggling valiantly against him. He’d almost lost control, let the ring show too much. Perhaps he should remove it when he was around her. But doing so would mean failure, a loss of self-control over his emotions. Hunters always controlled their emotions. Well, most of the time.
His stomach felt tight, his lungs too small. Merely hunger and thirst, he thought. He would have to rummage through the tiny kitchen to find something to eat. A pleasant scent floated to his nostrils. He sniffed his arms and hands. He smelled of the human female. Sekmeth gritted his teeth and stormed out of the cabin. There had to be something to eat on this crude little ship. His stomach tightened even more. Irritation settled in as well. The quicker he disposed of this cargo, the better.
He’d never had to resort to using his extrasensory skills to get a prey before. Sekmeth loathed using it. It spoiled the whole spirit of the hunt, blighted what victory might be achieved. Alexandra Novona was a special kind of prey—he’d sensed it right away. Using his mind to influence her felt wrong and dishonorable. The tattoo representing her would have to be exceptional to absolve the means he used to get her. Sekmeth angrily pulled a hasty meal together and ate in morose silence.
On his way back from the pitiful place they called kitchen, he came across the passageway leading to the bridge. He’d completely forgotten about the woman-child. She was slumped in her seat, her wrist resting over the edge where he’d secured it to a piece of metal tubing. She looked fast asleep.
Sekmeth made no sound as he slid into the seat next to her. He ignored the garish control sticks gleaming bright pink on either side of his knees. Delicately, he lifted her hand and let it rest in her lap so circulation would return to her tiny fingers. She woke with a start.
“Hey, like, whoa! Don’t touch me.” Fear made her eyes larger than they already were. Yet anger hardened her jawline.
“Do you need to eliminate?”
She seemed shocked. She opened her mouth to say something then snapped it closed again. After a few of these entertaining motions, she shook her head. As if on second thought, she nodded. “Yeah. But you’re not coming with me.”
Sekmeth grinned. “I would not think of it.”
He unlocked the thin silver coil binding her wrist. “Once you are done, you will return to the bridge. I already had to punish your captain because of you. Do not make me do it again.” More like I punished myself. Sekmeth pushed the silly notion away.
The look of absolute loathing on her pointy face heightened the irritation twisting his insides. He shrugged. “I warned you to cooperate.”
Settling deeper into the seat afforded no measure of comfort whatsoever. Rubbing his chest, he crossed his legs at the ankles and closed his eyes. Soon, faint sounds from the woman-child triggered his keen senses. The loose, shapeless garment she wore allowed for very little stealth. Without turning back, he indicated the seat next to him. “Sit.”
She did, not before casting one venomous look his way.
“We need to jump to these coordinates,” he said, pointing to her display unit.
She took an instant to analyze his entry then nodded. “I’d say hold on tight, but you can go ahead and stand if you want.”
Sekmeth could have laughed. Spirited little thing. “Initiate whatever sequence you need to jump. I will watch and learn.”
After clicking furiously at her patchwork of computer parts, she sat back and indicated the control sticks. With a sigh, Sekmeth grabbed the plastic renditions of human male genitals and waited.
“Prepare for jump in five, four, three, two, one. Jump.”
Sekmeth had never felt such a sudden jump point before. This ship may be small, but mighty thrusters drove it. A rip opened in space, ribbons of blue and green fog shredded outward from a thin slit. He aimed the prow for it and let the ship do the rest. Following the zigzagging conduit of hyperspace in this ship proved harder than anticipated. After a few jerky compensations, he stabilized the ship and emerged sideways into a section of space he knew well.
The woman-child snorted. “You’re, like, the worst pilot.”
“How far are we to these coordinates?” he asked, gladly taking his hands off the pink plastic controls to show her his screen.
After punching a number of buttons harder than necessary, the woman-child crossed her arms. “ETA to Gorgosh is one standard hour and seven minutes.”
“This ship is too slow.”
“She’s not slow, you’re just totally too heavy for her.” As if her words caught up with her brain, she swallowed and stared with wide eyes.
“What do they call you, woman-child?”
“Kim.”
“Kim. Small name for a small person.”
He pulled the crew’s ID cards from his pocket and flicked through them. When he came across the captain’s, he stopped. Alexandra Novona’s square face and determined blue eyes stared up at him from the strip of plastic. Her hair was shorter then, barely touched her athletic shoulders. He liked it better now. Beside him, Kim watched it all with the vigilance of a nervous bird. Sekmeth gathered the cards and returned them to his sleeve pocket.
“Can this ship move faster?” he asked, more gruffly than he intended.
“Nope.” That seemed to please the little human very much.
He decided not to push it. “Wake me when we reach the Gorgosh.”
She looked as if she’d rather plant something sharp in his back. He grinned, deciding he liked the little human.
* * * * *
“Hey. Wake up.”
A tiny sound resembling a chirping bird accompanied the voice. Sekmeth straightened in the too-small seat and rolled his shoulders. Once they reached the Gorgosh, he’d have someone rub the kinks out of his body.
Something bleeped at him. An annoying light flickered green. On his right, the little human with the little name pointed to the view screen in front of him. The smallish, rectangular display unit barely gave him a sense of things, but enough to let him know where he was. Some hundreds of kilometers ahead loomed the Gorgosh.
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