Daxx wanted to slip his hand between her legs, climb down and taste her sweetness again. He wanted that badly. But he held his desires in check.
Fuck, he missed her taste.
But the next time he touched her that way, it would be because she made the first move. As long as she didn’t take too long to do it.
-16-
JETTA
When I woke up, I looked at him for a long time. He was sound asleep, one arm thrown over his head, his other arm holding me.
He was getting a bit stubbled again and it looked damn good on him.
I stared thinking about him telling me that he was falling in love with me and my lungs burned. Before my eyes could start leaking again, I got out of his space.
I went to the bathroom and requested a hair tie and then decided to go downstairs to have coffee so I wouldn’t wake him. I padded out and down the stairs still wearing my short spaghetti strap chemise, feet bare. Banshee followed me, a spring in his step.
I got a coffee and ordered some food and a fresh dish of water for Banshee as the machine now had a little icon with his adorable face on it.
I put the doggie dishes on the floor by the doorway to the large office/lounge room and then Banshee made a little low ah-roof sound and led me to the front door and was doing a little bit of the pee-pee dance, I figured, so I lifted the golden bar and let him outside. I grabbed my coffee and went out with him, standing in the little alcove by the outer doorway while he sniffed around the grassy area.
It was a little bit nippy in the air so I shivered a little bit but used my coffee to keep my hands warm and watching Banshee taking his time sniffing everything before going behind a tree, as if he was embarrassed, and finally squatting.
Suddenly, the door was thrown open and I heard noise behind me. I looked over my shoulder and Daxx was there, at the inside entrance, a murderous expression on his face.
He looked at me with relief but that underlying angry expression took a bit to clear.
“Good morning,” I said softly.
“Uh, yeah.” He thrust his hand through his hair.
“Banshee is having a pee.”
He smirked, “A pee.” He shook his head and then put his arms around me, one around my waist, the other around my shoulders. He kissed the top of my head.
“You’re freezing. You should have clothes on.”
“I didn’t know it’d be so cold today. It was beautiful last night.” I resisted the urge to lean into him, to hold onto his arms that were around me. I kind of wanted to but something was stopping me.
“Season’s changing here. It doesn’t get much cooler than this but it won’t be cold at home. It’s hot and sunny all year round, other than the occasional storm, which usually happens at night and is typically a very harsh downpour for five minutes when everyone needs to take shelter but then it’s clear skies again.”
That was something to look forward to.
“We go in about two hours so, breakfast?”
I nodded. “You thought I ran off again?”
“I didn’t like waking alone,” I felt him shrug behind me. He was still holding me close.
He was full of shit. He totally thought I’d run away. As if I’d be dumb enough to run on a gated property. Where would I go? Sneak out into the wild, knowing that there were men out there that would steal me?
Banshee bounded up to us excitedly and we stepped aside so he could go back in and then we followed him.
An hour and a half later, I was showered, wearing some make-up for the first time in days, and dressed in my red power pantsuit with heels. It had been my ‘presentation’ outfit for the 7-day workshop and now it’d be my traveling outfit. I was packed and ready to go.
Daxx was ready, too, wearing a pair of grey suede pants, cowboy boots (sort of), and a dark leather-looking jacket with a white button-down shirt underneath. Just looking at him made my mouth water. As I came down the stairs fully dressed, he looked at me like I was making his mouth water.
Banshee was on a leash and looking excited. We stepped out and got into a small go-cart like vehicle that was now by the door. It was self-driving after Daxx hit a few buttons. It took us to the front gate where Daxx’s father was waiting to say goodbye. He gave Daxx a hug and Daxx reacted strangely to it and then Spar hugged me and kissed the top of my head. I gave him a hesitant hug and blushed.
“Thank you for letting me take Banshee,” I said softly.
He gave me a beaming smile, “It’s good that he’s happy. I hope he brings you joy. You’ve obviously brought it to him.”
I smiled shyly.
“And Daxx,” he whispered in my ear, “You’ve given him an enormous gift. I hope you’ll allow him to unwrap and enjoy it.” He leaned back and winked. Daxx chuckled, obviously hearing his father.
Spar clapped Daxx on the shoulder, “We’ll be seeing you soon. Treya sends her best wishes for your journey. She didn’t sleep well last night so I didn’t wake her this morning.”
“I hope she feels better,” I said, “How far is the airport?” I asked Daxx.
He looked strangely at me. It was then that I noticed something coming down from the sky. It looked like a helicopter but without the blade. And it was bigger. And dark blue. Tardis blue. How odd.
“Oh. No airport required?”
Daxx chuckled and was looking at his phone, “We don’t have the need for that.” I saw that he was looking up airport on some sort of space Wikipedia. There were images from home but those hieroglyphics.
I guess we were getting door-to-door service. We boarded. It was just us. No pilot.
Bizarre.
It was set up in the interior, like a bus, sparse but comfortable with comfortable bucket seats, a small bathroom that Daxx pointed out, and a nourishment station.
“Limited options but there’s coffee or juice and a few breakfast options I arranged in advance.”
“There’s no pilot.” I was feeling nervous.
“There is no need for one. I put in the coordinates and we go. I’ve been doing some reading on the infrastructure on Earth and can see why much of this feels so strange to you. We’re quite advanced versus Earth in travel.”
“But…” I looked around us with apprehension.
“It’s perfectly safe, baby. I would never ever put you in danger.”
“Oh.” I didn’t meet his heated gaze at that comment but it made my heart flutter. I tried to make myself comfortable.
Daxx put our bags into a closet and took Banshee’s leash off and Banshee immediately hopped up on the seat beside me. Daxx sat on the other side of me, hit a button on the ceiling and said, “Confirm destination?”
A screen ahead scrolled with several characters.
“Ready. Go,” Daxx said. And didn’t even touch anything. We sailed straight upwards. I squealed in surprise.
“I can’t believe no one’s driving this,” I breathed, my hands holding on to the edge of my seat for dear life.
There were no driving controls even, from what I could see, in case of emergency.
“You’re pale. Are you frightened?”
“Yeah. This thing just shot straight up into the sky and no one’s driving it. We don’t even have seatbelts, you know safety belts, on?”
He chuckled and put his arm around me, “I told you, it’s perfectly safe.”
Without thinking much about it, I sank into him. I dared to glance out the window and saw below the most colorful sight I’d ever seen. I forgot my fear and gawked below.
Spar’s property was gorgeous and huge to look down on. The castle-like building and smaller other buildings, the forest, the mini castle we’d stayed in. Trees and grass and hills. And colors. Pinks and purples and vibrant yellows, crimsons and cyan blue. It was as if there were dozens of melted boxes of 64 crayons below us. Outside his property were roads leading in multiple directions. Homes dotted the landscape, and then I saw a city that had skyscrapers as if we were on Earth, and it looked big, busy, modern
, bustling from the sky, and then were too high for me to make out any other detail other than color.
Daxx was watching me. He was smiling.
I smiled back at him and felt my stomach flip flop at the notion of what might be ahead. Daxx’s home by the sea. The place he loved. A place he wanted to build a life with me. With me.
Where the space ship must have landed on Phallyx was now not even in view and I had to think about what was ahead. Was I ready to embrace a relationship with him? Looking at those smiling eyes, I was thinking that I might be.
“So,” I started.
He smiled. There was loaded silence for a moment. He was undressing me with his eyes.
“How long is the flight?” I asked, finally.
“A few hours. And then we drive the rest of the way.”
“Oh. We can’t fly all the way?”
He nodded, “We could but my car is in the town nearest to it. The house is remote. The way I like it. We try to keep the area aircraft free unless it’s an emergency. I usually leave from the town. It makes things simple and then I can pick up supplies for travel, etcetera.”
“Oh.”
“I’d suggest we stop and do shopping but perhaps it’s best to get right home. We can go back in a few days if you like. I want to assess safety first. And I did order some provisions that have already been delivered.”
“Okay.”
“There are neighbors, there are some shops and so forth, but it’s fairly remote where the house is.”
“I see.”
“Would you like to watch one of your movies?”
“Sure.”
“It should take about the duration of the flight.” He went to the food machine and hit a few buttons and then sat beside me and hit some buttons on his phone and then a screen descended from the ceiling of the aircraft.
And then we watched Forrest Gump while eating pastries and drinking coffee. The pastries were fancy. And delicious. Better than anything I’d ever had in the sweets department. The chocolate, cream, the fruit flavours inside some sort of little pastries that were like a croissant crossed with a strudel but that also had a meringue layer were incredible. As we watched the movie, I explained the pop-culture references to him as best as I could without disrupting the flow of the movie. He was avidly watching and listening to me.
“I liked it,” he said afterwards.
And then he glanced at a navigation screen at the front of the plane or whatever you’d call this thing we were on, and said, “Ten minutes we’ll land.”
Banshee was sleeping with all fours pointed up in the air on the seat beside me. I rubbed his belly and he smiled in his sleep and then began purring, shifted over, and then his head was on my lap.
“Oh, Banshee-bear. You’re so cute.”
Daxx was smiling at me, shaking his head at Banshee.
I was full of questions, as usual, but kept them to myself. I was treading carefully with Daxx, hesitant.
The aircraft started to descend and it felt like we were in an elevator. A super-duper fast elevator that was plummeting toward the ground.
I gasped in surprise when it started dropping and grabbed his thigh out of reflex. The ride had been very smooth up until that point. I looked out the window and expected to see more of what I’d seen before, but I was wrong.
It was like looking at a tropical paradise getting closer and closer to me. I saw green and blue gemstone colors. The water was so neon blue it was almost blinding. The green bordering it was lush-looking. Buildings were colorful. Some were built into cliffs and others were built on the water, some on stilts, some on rocks. It felt like I was in a painting with the pink sky, the blue water, and the lush greenery with buildings in pastel and primary colors along with gemstone-colored trees.
“Your planet is truly beautiful to look at,” I said and then felt his hand land on mine on top of his thigh. When he didn’t answer, I turned to look at him and he wasn’t looking out the window at the beauty before us. He was looking at me. And the way he looked at me made me feel like he was pretty smitten with me. I felt color stain my cheeks. I bit into my lower lip and smiled shyly.
He leaned forward and cupped my chin with his free hand and then his lips touched mine softly, sweetly, but just briefly.
“If you think this is beautiful, I can’t wait until you see our home.”
My heart twinged. I felt a little torn about being excited about seeing it but I couldn’t help it. I’d always wanted to travel. My parents never took me anywhere. As an adult, I’d done a few road trips but had never been outside the U.S. before. My roommate was such a label whore (but one who lived on credit and would be bankrupt before she was 30, for sure) and always talked about traveling in a bit of a condescending way. I’ll take Sienna’s French Riviera and raise her Phallyx. Ha!
Once were on the ground I looked around and it seemed we were at a place that was a bit like a bus terminal. We were surrounded by similar vehicles as well as smaller ones off to one side.
“This is a transportation hub,” Daxx explained, “Some own their own flight vehicles and others do a ride share from here.” He latched the leash onto Banshee’s collar as the polar dog got up sleepily and yawned. Daxx had a small bag of his own in his hand as well as my gym bag over his shoulder.
The door opened and we stepped out into the sunshine.
At once, I spotted two men who looked at me oddly. They were standing beside another aircraft like ours and they began muttering to one another, looking at me.
Daxx put his free arm protectively around me, “Stay close, little beauty. We’re arriving at a time of day that isn’t busy but you’ll still draw attention.”
I felt incredibly self-conscious. Both men were handsome and super-tall like Daxx. One looked at me kind of lustfully and the other looked at me with what might have been distaste.
I suddenly felt fear shoot like a bolt through my gut. My eyes cut to Daxx, “I feel sick.”
“Sick? What is it?” He looked concerned.
“Sick with fear. This feels weird. Knowing they’re looking at me probably thinking I’m a piece of human filth because of what happened to their loved ones.”
Daxx shook his head, “Not everyone feels that way. It’s only been recently disclosed that Earth was responsible for the virus but most believe it was an accident, rather than negligence. Keep any details I’ve shared with you to yourself. The women who come here won’t be given that information unless her husband chooses to tell her this. It was announced in conjunction with the announcement that your planet was going to help by sending females but it was presented in a way that softened the blow.”
“So, your government is just as secretive as ours,” I grumbled, thinking that this was more of the same. Power corrupts, regardless of who you are or what planet you’re on.
“No. Absolutely not. Government tends to be transparent on most matters here on Phallyx. Citizens wouldn’t tolerate anything less. This scenario involved a massive investigation. The women died so quickly that there wasn’t time to stop the infection and then it took time to investigate the cause. Because of the nature of the cause, certain government officials attempted to keep things quiet while exploring solutions. It was decided when our officials met with those responsible on Earth that it would not be advantageous to share that information before the solution was unveiled.”
“Why? They’d have time to build anger?”
“They might take matters into their own hands.”
“How?”
“We are a very free society with very little involvement by government in everyday lives. There are those with the technology to travel to Earth without government assistance. It might have gotten ugly. It might still get ugly.”
“Yikes.”
“Imagine Earth women simply being taken from their homes; Earth men being slaughtered. All of this happening in the open, frightening everyone who isn’t taken or killed. Government officials on your planet know this and are actively watchi
ng to see that it doesn’t happen. Rogue groups are under strict edicts by our government unlike any time in the past in order to manage this. It isn’t sitting well with some. Some, who are determined to enact vengeance. Some, who are ready to get to Earth and take women themselves, in order to get off a waiting list. It has been communicated far and wide that Phallyxians who attempt to plunder Earth will be subjected to the severest of punishments.”
“My Lord.”
“It’s a delicate situation. And it’s only because I live so remote that I’m even bringing you home. My father initially encouraged me to stay with Treya in the guest home, give up my house because of potential risk of her being taken. I’ve already had a crew at the house, increasing security features.”
I felt even woozier at this news.
“Eventually, it will become easier. There may be more tribal settlements that are fortified with families so that Earth women don’t become lonely but so that men can feel safe. In these early days, we are pioneers, so to speak, so we are treading carefully.”
“That’s wise.”
“Is that what you’d want?” He looked deeply into my eyes. We moved through rows of smaller vehicles that looked similar to the aircrafts.
“To live in a community with other women? I like my space. But that said, it would be nice to have girlfriends that I can see occasionally.”
“Well, that’s something we’ll talk about then. I love it here but I don’t want you lonely or sad. You are my priority,” he said and he said it with such firm resolve that I kind of believed him.
My emotions were kind of getting amplified. I didn’t know how to decipher what I was feeling at that moment but I felt like I needed time to process it, whatever it was.
“Jetta, the vast majority are waiting for their bride. It’s not as if there will be danger on every corner. We have to be cautious, but we believe that it’s only a very small portion of the population who would even consider going outside the law on this. My friend and neighbor will have a wife in a few months so you’ll have another female close. And there’s a surviving female Phallyxian not far from my home. A short walk, in fact.”
Hot Alpha Alien Husbands: Book One: Daxx and Jetta Page 19