by Marie Dry
No doubt, she’d want to be present for his punishment. She would enjoy the thought of Zacar stripping his warrior status from him.
“Come with me.”
She snapped her fingers. “Let me guess. To the bedroom that’s done in sterile silver.” She gave the living room, with its single silver couch, a scornful look. “The bedroom does have a bed? Can’t say I’m fond of giving up my comfort for pity sex.”
He had no doubt who she thought was to be pitied in this scenario. If he let her, she’d flay his skin off his bones with more success than a whip. He picked her up and carried her down the corridor to his bedroom. The only explanation for his need to keep her was that he was defective because of his human mother.
She scowled at the walls. “And why the hell doesn’t this place have windows?”
He kissed her. A savage hungry voracious kiss, pushing his tongue into her mouth, not asking permission to enter, conquering her mouth with the same ruthless precision Zyrgins took over new worlds. He straightened and she stared up at him, her lips moist and parted, tempting him. He’d found a way to shut her up at last.
He pushed off her coat and caressed her back, moved down to cup her buttocks, clenching his hand around the plump flesh, holding her still while he ground his hips against her, his instincts taking over, mimicking the motions of sex.
She moaned and ground against him in return, and he saw her smile in satisfaction when he could do nothing but respond.
Her smell reminded him of earth flowers and Solarian spices, her body soft and seductive against him.
“You like that,” she taunted in a voice that could make a warrior lose the urge.
He fisted his hand in her hair and held her still. He wanted to bite her, brand her as his own. “Do not talk, human.”
She did not deserve the bite of a Zyrgin warrior. When it became necessary, he would do it, but he would not honor her with it now.
He’d heard Natalie tell Julia once that a Zyrgin’s smile scared her more than anything on this Earth could. Deliberately, he smiled, allowing his incisors to lengthen. If that didn’t frighten her, he was in trouble.
She pushed against his chest but he didn’t allow her to put any distance between them. “What the hell is that?”
“I will not give you the first knowing.” He spoke right next to her ear, made sure she could feel his teeth and tongue as he licked the lobe, and then moved down to her neck to bite her, very careful not to break through her delicate human skin, ensuring he didn’t inject her with the serum in his incisors. “Never will I call you breeder.” She tasted better than the tenderest Eduki meat.
“Teeth? Why do I feel ugly long teeth?” Her body trembled against his. “You’ve been dying to have sex with me.” She pointedly bumped against his erection in a bold move not fitting for a breeder. “You’re gasping to do this first knowing with me.”
“You are an overly bold woman without honor. Never will I take such as you as a breeder.”
She shrugged and writhed against him, her hands all over him. “Who’d want to be? I can’t believe those two insipid bitches put up with being called that.”
He tightened his grip in her hair and she smiled up at him, moved into his hold. Dared him to tighten his grip even more.
“You will show respect to the leader’s breeder.”
“Yeah? Who’s going to make me?”
“I will not give you the first knowing,” he told her again.
She might not know what that meant now, but she would.
She smiled her most seductive smile, fluttered her eyelashes with exaggerated flirtatious movements. “Why not? Is little ole me too wicked to get a first knowing?”
Why did he want such a woman? “If you were a woman with honor, I would never touch you before I presented you to Zacar. I would honor you by guarding you when you sleep. Feed you by my hand and give you much pleasure with the first knowing.” He opened his hand, letting her ugly hair go and stepped back from her. “But as you’re not a woman with honor, I will do with you what I want.”
She lifted her chin, smiled her false seductive smile. “And what do you want? Does the big bad warrior want to take me to his bed? Or maybe you want me up against the wall?” She leaned against the wall, her arms splayed wide.
“I want to fuck you and, afterward, I may or may not prevent your execution for trying to harm a Zyrgin warrior.”
Her eyes widened.
CHAPTER 3
Marcie stared at the warrior who’d first called her his six months ago. He’d grown humongous. And that kiss had surprised her. She’d expected his mouth to be hard, lizard like, and slimy. Instead, it had been pure seduction that left her wanting more. No, it left her craving more.
“You’d let them execute me?” Affecting a scared look wasn’t difficult. These green freaks didn’t have a lot of mercy in them. She’d seen them fight in the camps and, despite her big talk, she’d rather not be on the receiving end of any of that.
“You understand that I save you by having sex with you.”
“Save away.” She undulated against the wall. “Shall we do it here or use that lonely looking bed.” Those creepy red eyes that seemed less creepy every time she looked at him flickered over her body. Settled on her breasts. Oh, yes, he wanted her. She didn’t care either way. If it would save her life, she’d sleep with him in a heartbeat.
The only furniture was a bed with a blanket that looked like it was made from the same silver material as the walls. The same material they’d used inside the cave. If she could get her hands on some of it, that asshole Abel, their analyst, could take a look at it. She blinked. For a moment there she’d felt pure hatred for Abel, who was a good friend. Being imprisoned these last six months messed with her mind.
“Take off your clothes.” Barely glancing at her, he stepped out of his boots without unzipping or untying them. Merely stepped forward and left the boots behind. The kind of technology that produced that and some of their other gadgets seriously scared her. She’d only ever seen about six of them. If there were more, the human race faced it’s darkest moments.
“Well, that’s creepy,” she said, trying to hide her plans to take his boots with her when she escaped. And as many of their gadgets as she could get her hands on.
His clothes came away from his body in the same eerie way. “Aren’t you afraid your clothes will come off during battle? One moment you’re battling and the next poof--” She snapped her fingers. and his eyes narrowed on them, giving the impression that he’d like to bite them off. “--you’re buck naked.” If she could bring some of that technology to Parnell, it would propel her up in the ranks.
Larz towered over her, naked, his green and copper skin gleaming in the artificial light of the bedroom, beautiful, all muscles and sinew that flowed together. Even with his skin sometimes reminding her of a snake, and his creepy eyes, he was a beautiful male specimen.
“Our clothes are made with superior Zyrgin technology. It does not fall off.”
“Yeah, care to be more specific?”
“Strip.”
She glanced at his impressive erection straining against his stomach. “You’re built like a human where it counts. And here I thought I would get to experience exotic sex.” Except his body had no hair. That had always been a huge plus for her. She liked men who groomed.
“Strip.”
“You green freaks could do with a sense of humor.”
He straightened and pride shone out of each naked inch of his body. “I am not human in any way. I do not need human emotions.”
“Your mother is human.” She still couldn’t fathom why a human woman would shack up with an alien and give birth to their babies. Natalie had a bad case of Stockholm Syndrome. And Marcie would slit the woman’s throat for betraying humans one of these days. These freaks couldn’t guard her all the time. Sometime their vigilance would slip and Marcie would grab the chance.
“I am Zyrgin.”
“Half Zyrgin
,” she insisted.
The human half of him had to be susceptible to being turned. If she could acquire him, they could weed out this nest of aliens before they bred too many more.
“I am all Zyrgin.”
She threw a long strand of hair over her shoulder and smiled her most seductive smile while she played with the top button of her shirt. She didn’t allow her frustration at his lack of response to show. His arousal told her all she needed to know, but she needed his emotions to be involved if she was to use him.
“Why don’t you undress me?”
He unbuttoned her shirt with slow measured movements, his large hand steady. He didn’t fumble with the delicate buttons. He pushed open her shirt and followed the outline of her bra with his claw, his touch gentle.
“You have lost weight. These have become smaller.”
“Been paying attention, have you?”
His erection poked against her stomach.
He left her shirt hanging open and clasped her neck. Chills went down her spine. It had taken all her courage earlier, when he’d held her head in that big paw, not to flinch. For a moment, she’d seen death in his eyes. His hand covered her neck and the base of her head, his skin rough against hers. She stood absolutely still. It was the one touch she hated. Being that vulnerable was difficult for someone who trusted as little as she did.
“You will behave with dignity. You will make my sacrifice worth it.”
“I doubt you see sex with me to save me from Zacar as a sacrifice. I always knew he just waited for a chance to off me.”
She almost sighed in relief when his hand moved away from her head to cup her shoulder. He lingered for a moment and then closed his warm hand around her breast.
His thumb discovered her nipple. “I will not give you the first knowing.”
She didn’t try to hide her reaction, shivering with pleasure. “Not that again. What the hell is this first knowing, anyway?” Her breath shortened and spirals of pleasure flashed from her nipple outward.
His eyes flashed nuclear hot. “A warrior pleases his breeder for the first time to prove to her that he will always place her needs above his own.” He pushed down her jeans and she stepped out of them. Unexpectedly a small part of her, a part she didn’t know existed, longed for more. Wanted it to involve feelings when she slept with him, romance. She pushed those dangerous thoughts deep into her mind. This was a job. For now, she needed to stay alive.
Ever since she applied for the program when she finished college, she’d been an expendable asset. She’d never been protected and cosseted like dear Natalie. Nobody rushed to save her like they did for that pathetic whino, Sarah. If Marcie didn’t look after number one, no one would. She suppressed a stab of longing. She had a job to do. Ever since Parnell recruited her, she’d been determined to become his top agent. After this assignment, she’d make it.
Pushing away the strange thoughts and feelings, she stepped forward and pressed her naked body against his, followed the raised vein running down his neck with a curious finger. How tough could those veins be? “So how does a warrior prove all this to his, uh breeder.”
She kept going, riding the vein with her finger all the way to his groin. She hated these green fuckers and their plans to use human women as breeding machines. If she cut this vein, would he bleed to death? Her whole being rejected the thought of this beautiful male dying. She was going soft. That was the only explanation for her unwillingness to hurt him. When the time came, she’d cut these veins while he slept. She pinched the vein, a vicious twist that should’ve hurt him. Instead, it turned him on. He crowded closer, his erection straining against her.
He took her hand in his and wrapped her hand around his straining penis and she swallowed. “A breeder is not allowed to touch her warrior during the first knowing, in case she drives him over the edge with pleasure.” He closed his big claw around her small hand, moved hers up and down on him. He pulsed hot and heavy in her hands, his hips jerking with barely perceptible movements.
“Then why do I have my hand wrapped around this?” She squeezed for emphasis, hard enough a human man would’ve screamed in pain. He grunted and she knew from the way his hips jerked that it was with pleasure.
“You are not my breeder.’
“Bastard.” Didn’t he just love to rub it in? And why did those words wound her? This was a job like all others. She’d kill Sarah, steal their technology, and get out. She almost moaned with despair. In six months, she hadn’t managed any of those goals.
“You asked.”
“Here’s another question, did you shave or are all Zyrgins hairless?” She traced his smooth skin at the base of his stomach with the hand not holding him.
He continued, as if driven to tell her what she would never have with him. “He gets to know her whole body. Find out what pleases her, where she likes to be touched. If he does it wrong, he has to start all over again.”
What would it feel like? Not to have to seduce and pretend. To have a man that focused on her pleasure. She’d seen how they could focus on one task, to the exclusion of everything else. What would it feel like to be the recipient of that focus? No, she reminded herself. Not a man, but the enemy. “How does he know he’s doing it wrong?”
“He will know.”
She leaned up and kissed his chest, and it was a bittersweet moment. He’d allowed her to touch him, only because he didn’t want to show her the same care he would’ve shown a breeder. She shook off these strange thoughts and opened her mouth, tasting his skin.
“If she moves, he will start over,” he continued with the litany of everything he planned to deny her.
She was a sucker for punishment. “What else will he do?”
“He will ask her to say she is satisfied with only him, arrange her on her back with her arms lifted over her head, her palms up and open and her legs spread.”
Marcie had seduced many men. His words shouldn’t shorten her breath or spark her imagination. If only she wasn’t a jaded product of Parnell’s training, if all this was new to her. Angry at her pathetic thoughts, she bit his chest. Or tried to. “Bloody hell, what’s your skin made of?”
“Superior Zyrgin DNA,” he said in all seriousness.
“Well, your superior Zyrgin DNA almost broke my teeth.”
“No biting.”
Parnell couldn’t give her a big enough raise to ever bite a Zyrgin again. “So what does a Zyrgin do during this first knowing?”
He touched her forehead, a careless perfunctory caress. “He’d caress her cheeks, trying to coax an expression from her.”
He followed the bridge of her nose, a fast, barely there touch. “He’d spend many minutes looking at her nose and inspecting the shape of her brow.”
“Why the interest in the brow?” For a bunch of technologically advanced barbarians, they had convoluted mating rituals. She trembled when he traced a claw over her forehead. Strangely compelling rituals.
“Zyrgin women used to have different shaped brows, donating their caste. Spending time touching her there would show a warrior’s approval of her blood line.”
“Used to have.”
“A manner of speaking. A warrior would spend many minutes on the brows.”
“Wow, he’d do all that?” she mocked, to hide how much she wanted to be treated with such reverence.
“Yes,” he said.
“So why don’t you do all this to some worthy Zyrgin female?” She couldn’t keep the sneer out of her voice. The thought of him with another woman made her long for her knife. She rubbed her forehead. Where did these strange thoughts come from? She used guns not knives. And she never ever became jealous on a job.
He ignored her question. “She is not allowed to touch him. He will arrange her hair. He will caress her with just his thumbs. He will entwine their hands, he will then kiss and lick her whole body.”
“What a treat.”
He continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “If she screams or moves, he will start
over. He will bring her to highest pleasure with his tongue. With his hands and then with his penis.”
He said this all in a monotone voice as if reciting a lesson, and he had her panting. What would it be like if he did all that to her--if he thought her worthy of having a first knowing?
“Lie down and open your legs,” he said.
Marcie recoiled, after the seduction of his beautiful words, his harsh instruction grated. A part of her wanted to beg him to give her such beauty. If she could have that, she could keep it in her memories and maybe the next time Parnell sent her into the field, when she had to live with ugliness, she could take it out and look at it and maybe not feel so used and unwanted.
She lifted her chin. “I don’t know how I can manage to ignore such a charming request.”
He drew her to him, kissed her, but she’d already been seduced by his words. It was easy to respond to his kiss. If she wanted to complete her mission, she had to use sex to turn him to her cause. For the first time in a long while, she didn’t have to pretend that she wanted the person she was sent to seduce.
Honey potting, that’s what they called it in their dirty business.
She reached up and clasped his neck, opened her mouth wider for his kiss, and showed him what a kiss could be. His lips were harder than a human’s but softer than she’d thought they would be. And she couldn’t get enough of him. She wanted to bite and lick his lips. Taste his mouth and absorb him into her very being.
She didn’t know who seduced who, used who. She lost herself in the kiss, in his caress. She forgot about her practiced routine that left men at her mercy, begging for more. For a short time, she wanted to pretend she was a normal woman and not Parnell’s thing.
“Do not play with me, woman.”
She smiled because he was hoarse, his words ragged. She caressed his bald head, noted the way he shivered when she touched the ridge bisecting it. “I’m not playing with you. I’m making love to you.”
Calling it making love was part of a successful routine. Men were such suckers for the thought that women felt love when they thought of it as sex.