Dhakhar

by Annabelle Rex

  I guess this is some sort of Human gesture of protest, but all it makes me think is about what she said before. Licking tongues together. Desire roars through me, my Dravosic side clawing to touch her, to pin her to me and insist she give me a proper demonstration.

  “So,” she says, that demanding tone creeping in to her voice. “Do you want me to show you how to kiss or not?”

  I shouldn’t give in. I shouldn’t. It’s not just inappropriate, it’s self destructive. Illegal. Nothing good can come of it. Nothing.

  Except, my Dravosic side argues, she’ll touch you. She’ll touch you without reservation. With her hands. With her mouth. And you know it will feel more than just good. It would be perfect. Beautiful.

  Perhaps it’s because of her flattering words. Perhaps it’s because it’s been far too long since I scratched this particular itch. Or perhaps it’s because I’m so tired of the ugliness I face every day on Xentra, and the allure of having something beautiful proves too strong.

  “Yes,” I say.

  She shuffles closer, leaning in to me, brushing her lips over mine. I try not to freeze up, try not to be stiff and wooden as she coaxes me through the movements. I don’t know when the tongue is supposed to come in to this. Don’t want to get it wrong and make her change her mind. I try to mimic what she does, but I’m thinking too hard about it to enjoy it, and it must show.

  She bites her lip as she draws back. “If you’re not in to it, we don’t have to…”

  “One more try,” I say, leaning in to her this time.

  Her hand goes to my face, thumb grazing over my jaw. I relax into the kiss, and like something shifts, suddenly our mouths are moving together, lips dancing with lips. It’s still strange and unfamiliar, but also incredible. I kiss her harder, my Dravosic instincts demanding I take more. I’m afraid the moment I do it that it’s too much, too rough, but Charlie lets out a low moan, pressing herself closer to me. That sound is enough to drive me wild, and I grip her body tight, my cock tenting my gym shorts as it grows harder by the second. Then her lips part, her tongue brushing against mine.

  Veck me.

  I plunder her mouth, tangling my tongue with hers. I can’t believe I ever thought this would be disgusting. It’s incredible. She’s incredible. I never want to stop kissing her.

  But I realise as soon as I think it that I’m going to have to.

  I draw back from her, putting some distance between us, even as my Dravosic side screams at me to stop being stupid.

  “Charlie.” My voice comes out a hoarse rasp. “We can’t do this.”

  She makes a whimpering sound, trying to edge closer to me.

  “Why not?”

  “You have a partner,” I say, even though it’s physically painful to get the words out.

  “Not any more,” she says. “Not because of you, because he’s an asshole and no good for me.”

  Damn right, he isn’t, I think. But it’s beside the point.

  “Charlie, you don’t understand. I’m duty and honour bound to protect you. This is an abuse of my power and position.”

  She rises to her feet, blue eyes bright and fierce as she glares down at me. “No.”

  “No?”

  “No. I know what it feels like when someone abuses their power over me and that’s not what you’re doing.”

  “Charlie…”

  “If I told you to stop, would you?” she cuts me off.

  “Of course,” I say, disgusted at the very thought of doing otherwise.

  “If I said something made me feel uncomfortable or unhappy, would you keep doing it?”

  “No.”

  “Would you try to manipulate me to get what you wanted?”

  “No, Charlie, I…”

  “Would you threaten to abandon me in space somewhere if I don’t do what you want? Would you fail to protect me if I needed it? Because that’s your responsibility to me, right? You’re responsible for taking me home and taking care of me. Would you not do either of those things if I said no.”

  “Never,” I say.

  “Exactly,” she says. “I want this, Dhak. I’ve wanted it for days. These sessions have been driving me insane, having your hands on me, but never in the right way.”

  Veck. The thought of her wanting me as much as I’ve wanted her is almost too much.

  “I’ll lose my job,” I say. “If anyone finds out about the kissing, I’ll lose my job.”

  Worse, I could go to prison. But I can’t bring myself to say it.

  A part of me doesn’t want to talk her out of this.

  “So we don’t tell anyone,” she says. “I can keep a secret if you can.”

  And I’m weak. I’m so vecking weak. But I’m on my feet and kissing her again, hands buried in her hair. I kiss her, stumbling forwards with her until she’s pressed up against the wall, my body over hers. Just like I’ve been dreaming about since that night in the mines on Denestra. She screamed and fought me then, out of her mind with terror and hallucinating because of the Abbarax toxin. Now she looks at me with pupils blown wide with lust, her lips parted as she gasps for breath.

  “Take me to bed, Captain,” she says.

  “Is that an order, ma’am?” My voice is barely more than a growl.

  “Yes it bloody well is.”

  Chapter 22

  Charlie

  There’s barely a pause for breath as he manhandles me up to my room, not removing his lips from mine for more than a moment. There’s a slight rough edge to him, as if he can barely keep himself under control and holy shit I love it. I have never felt more desired and desirable in my life. The thought that I’m making him - this gorgeous, successful, brilliant man - come undone is the headiest feeling I’ve ever experienced.

  Then we’re in the bedroom and he lifts me up on to the bed, laying me down beneath him. We’re both still fully dressed, but I can feel every hard inch of him, including every hard inch of his erection, his hips locking against mine so he’s pressed up against my clit, sending delicious sparks of pleasure through me. I’m ready for him to passionately remove my clothing and thrust himself into me with abandon, when suddenly he stops kissing me, moving himself so he’s lying beside me. If it weren’t for the slightly too tight grip he has on my thigh, I’d wonder if we weren’t done.

  “What do you like?” he asks.

  I just about cut off the ridiculous giggle, but I can’t stop the blush that blooms across my cheeks.

  “What do you mean?” I say, squirming with embarrassment.

  “I mean what do you like? How do you want me to pleasure you?”

  There’s such heat in his voice and eyes when he says this, it burns away my embarrassment.

  “No one has ever asked me that before,” I say. “I don’t really know how to answer. Just… normal? I guess?”

  “Charlie,” Dhak says, patient humour in his grin. “We’re two completely different species - there is no normal involved here. You like to be touched, right? You don’t mind the feeling of my skin against yours?”

  ‘Don’t mind’ is an understatement.

  “Yes,” I say.

  “And you like it when my mouth is against yours?”

  “Yes?”

  “If I put my mouth against other places on your body, would you like that?”

  Just the sound of him talking about it makes me moan. “Yes.”

  “Can I take off your top? Kiss every inch of your soft, pretty skin?”

  “Yes.”

  He undoes the ties, lifting me with one hand so he can brush the fabric from my shoulders with the other. Lowering his head to my neck, he plants a trail of kisses against it, down the curve to my shoulder, then down again, lips brushing my collarbone. It’s slow and deliberate and intensely erotic, and I’m breathing hard even before his fingers work the fastenings of my bra. He pulls it off, tossing it to one side, then lowers me back on to the bed, feathering kisses ever downwards. My nipples bead in anticipation, tight and aching for him. He doesn’t d
isappoint, brushing the left bud with his lips, before taking it in to his mouth, tracing his tongue over it. My breathing grows ragged and he hasn’t even removed my trousers yet.

  “So vecking beautiful,” Dhak says, moving his hand so it hovers just above my skin. I press it down on to me with my own, sliding it over my skin until he cups my breast. His thumb brushes over the path his tongue just traced and I whimper.

  “May I remove the rest of your clothes?” he says.

  “Only if you get rid of a few of yours,” I say.

  He hesitates, just briefly, then tugs his vest off, tossing it to the side. I drink him in - those broad shoulders, his muscular chest, the strange blend of skin and soft scales - so pretty with the different patterns. If I run my hands across them, will I be able to feel the difference? Will they taste different under my tongue? I’m dying to find out.

  But then he’s undoing the cord holding my trousers in place, tugging them down and taking my panties with them. I’m exposed to him, bare, and this is the bit that makes me nervous. Worse than if he was just another Human. At least then he’d know roughly what to expect. What if I don’t have the same… arrangement that alien women have. What if he doesn’t like what he sees.

  His eyes go soft as he slides his gaze all over me. I keep my legs together, but he slides his hand from my calf up to my thigh, encouraging me to open for him with a gentle pressure.

  “In Vetruen culture, only the mating organs are allowed to touch each other,” he says, his hand moving higher and higher up the inside of my thigh, as if to see how far he can push it.

  “‘Mating organs’ is a very unsexy way of describing them,” I say, my back arching a little as he gets tantalisingly closer to my core.

  “May I touch you with my fingers?” he says, voice edged with growl. “May I slide them through your pretty folds?”

  “God, yes,” I say, and he captures my lips again, kissing me gently as he cups his hand against my core, slicking his fingers with my juices before he begins to explore.

  I’m wild with need already, so when his fingers brush my clit, my hips buck, my muscles spasming with the intense pleasure it induces. Dhak breaks our kiss, looking down at me as he very deliberately does it again. I cry out, desperate for more of the delicious sensations he’s giving me.

  “You like that,” he says, satisfaction in his eyes as he begins to massage my clit, applying just the right amount of pressure. I moan and writhe beneath him, so close to the edge of release.

  “What is this little bud?” he asks, easing off, prolonging the exquisite torture.

  “My clit,” I tell him, voice all breathy.

  “Curious that Human women have their pleasure centre on the outside, so easy to find.”

  I have a pithy comeback about Human men struggling, but he increases the pressure of his touch again, and my words are swallowed by my cries. Then he slips a finger inside me and it tips me over the edge. I come hard, gripping the sheets beneath me as my core convulses around his finger. He continues to massage me through it, extending the pleasure until I’m panting and boneless.

  “You are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” he says. “May I kiss you now?”

  I nod and he presses a kiss to my lips, but then swiftly moves southwards, kissing a line all the way down my body until he’s between my legs. I gasp as his breath tickles over my sensitive flesh.

  “So vecking beautiful,” he says again.

  And then he’s tasting me, swiping his tongue through my folds and oh, god, it feels good. So good. Soon I’m moaning and writhing and breathlessly close to the edge again, back arching with each brush of his tongue across my clit. His finger plunges in to me again, then he adds another and my mind is overcome with the sensations once again, my body coming apart as he works me with hands and tongue.

  It takes me a little while to recover from the intensity of it. Dhak moves to lie beside me, playing with my hand - linking his fingers through mine then removing them again, tracing a path round my palm, then pressing a kiss to the pulse point at my wrist.

  “That was incredible,” I say, when I find words.

  “It was my pleasure,” he says.

  And I believe him, I really do believe him. He’s asked for nothing, demanded nothing in return, just taken pleasure in giving pleasure to me.

  It makes me itch to reciprocate. I want to hear him moan my name, want to feel his body rigid as he comes.

  “My turn to play,” I say, pushing him on to his back and straddling him.

  His cock is rock hard and begging for my attention, but I start as he did with a kiss, pressing it to his lips, then tracing the line of his jaw. I sit back, lifting my hand to touch his chest.

  He stills. Just before I touch him he freezes in place and I wonder if he’s afraid he’s going to hurt me, concerned his scales will go hard.

  “Is this okay?” I say.

  I see a moment of indecision play out on his face.

  “I don’t know what ’normal’ is for you, either, remember?” I say. “Tell me if I do something wrong.”

  “Nothing you do could be wrong,” he says.

  I touch my hand to his chest, smoothing my fingers over him, learning the texture of him. It’s strange, but not unpleasant. Smooth, warm, slightly firmer than regular skin. I trace the contours of his muscles, first with fingers, then with lips, kissing him all over, just like he did me.

  “You’re going to have to help me out here,” I say when I get to his trousers, whatever mechanism it is that holds them up unfathomable to me.

  Dhak reaches for his waistband, undoing it. I help him work his trousers down over his hips, then pull them all the way off, revealing him fully to me.

  And… wow.

  I love the sight of the abdominal muscles on a man pointing downwards like a v, and Dhak has that going on in spades. Gorgeous, sculpted abs leading down, down, down to his magnificent cock.

  It doesn’t look like a Human one. At least, not any Human one I’ve ever seen, anyway. It’s the same basic shape, but instead of a smooth shaft, his is ridged in a way that sends a shiver of anticipation through me. I want to know what it feels like to have that moving inside me.

  But first…

  I lower my head to him, running my tongue along one of those ridges. I hear Dhak gasp, feel the muscles in his thighs tense. I take him in my mouth, lapping his head with my tongue. He groans and I take him deeper. He reaches for me, sinking his fingers into my hair.

  “Stars, Charlie,” he moans, and the sound of his pleasure is it’s own pleasure to me.

  I grip the base of his shaft with my hand, pumping him, feeling the tug of his hand in my hair as his muscles tense. His breath shudders and I want to bring him to climax, but just as he’s getting close, he lets go of my hair.

  “Charlie, stop,” he says, voice gruff.

  I stop. I have a moment to feel confused, then he’s hauling me up against him, kissing me hard as he positions me beneath him. I feel his cock probing at my entrance and press my finger to his lips.

  “Uh, hate to be a mood kill, but - contraception?”

  “Standard issue for soldiers during the war,” he says, kissing my neck. “I have another six months before mine runs out.”

  “Perfect,” I say.

  He presses himself inside me and I gasp as he fills me. His hands cup my face and he kisses me so softly, so tenderly. Then he’s thrusting in to me, his body moving inside of mine, a delicious pressure building deep inside me. I explore his back with my hands, pulling him closer to me.

  Then he’s kissing me hard, ravaging my mouth and I moan, arching my hips un to his, encouraging him deeper.

  “More,” I moan against his lips, and he obliges me, thrust his hips hard against mine until I cry out.

  “Charlie,” he breathes, and I can tell he’s close again. I’m close, too, and as he pumps his hips a final few times, I climax, my core convulsing round him tipping him over the edge right behind me.

/>   He rolls off of me, but pulls me with him, so I’m tucked agains his side, our legs tangled together, heated breath still mingling as we ride out the aftershocks together.

  “Why do you work for the Commander?’ I ask a while later, when the cool air has chilled us sufficiently that Dhak has tucked the blankets round us. It’s not even close to night time, but I don’t anticipate getting out of this bed again.

  Ever, if I can help it.

  “I was given the post after the war,” he says.

  “Yeah, but the Commander is awful - surely you could transfer or something?”

  “I could,” he says. “Not sure that I’d want to, though.”

  “Really?”

  He sighs. “H’Varak is an idiot and a nasty piece of work, but he’s predictable. As long as his pockets are getting lined, he’s happy. He’s one of those people who’s equally horrible to everyone he doesn’t consider ‘worthy’, so it’s easy to anticipate what he’s going to do most of the time. Makes him easier to manage. Easier to mitigate the bad things he does. Plus, he doesn’t give a damn about how I do my job, as long as it’s done and he thinks he’s profiting. So I have a lot of autonomy.”

  “Except when you’re forced to transport strange women across the Universe.”

  “Except for that,” he says, tapping my nose. He sighs, lying flat in the bed and staring up at the ceiling. “I do actually love the job. H’Varak aside, it’s really good work. I can make a difference to people. Xentra’s not just the upper Vetruen side that you saw. There’s a whole community in the other half of the station. We call it Xentra Low Town. The people who live there are mostly people displaced by the war, people just trying to get by.”

  He tells me about it, and it sounds magical. A ramshackle wonderland I wish I could have visited before we left.

  “The people of Low Town built everything they have from nothing,” Dhak says. “And someone else in my position might just ignore them, leave them to get on with it. Someone else might even make their lives a bit worse. But I can protect them from the worst H’Varak has to offer, work with them to make their lives better. It feels like such a valuable thing to do. A worthwhile use of my working life, you know? And then there’s my crew…”