by Layla Nash
He pondered the near future of their group as he made his way to the small gym on the ship and started throwing weights around. At least the Xerxh believed in physical exertion and kept the place well-stocked with heavy bags, sparring gear, and other things he could use. Trazzak set about punishing himself for the lack of discipline the last few days, particularly when it came to Jessalyn.
He wanted her with a deep focus that he’d never felt before. Every time her tough exterior cracked a little and let some of the real Jessalyn through, he only grew more enchanted. She had her sharp edges, but he didn’t mind if she dulled them on him. Trazzak didn’t know if she could keep herself alive over the next few weeks without some serious help. He’d take charge and get them through this mission, but part of him wondered if she wanted to return to the Alliance and her old life. In many ways, it looked easier than continuing to fight.
Trazzak growled and set about beating the stuffing out of a massive sparring dummy. She might not have enough time to get back to the Ministry, with the way her arm looked. If they couldn’t figure out what kind of poison had been used, Jessalyn’s choices disappeared pretty quickly. He had to find a way to save her.
His scales rustled and settled as he worked himself toward exhaustion. Once his brain and libido settled down and no more images of a half-naked Jessalyn distracted him, Trazzak could review the additional information they’d gotten from Nathan. Just the thought of the smarmy Earther made his lips curl back from his teeth in a threat and destroyed whatever equilibrium he’d found.
Trazzak started over and cleared his mind. No use wasting any energy on the asshole. He had to focus on how to get that weapons system from the Dablonians and away fast enough for the bounty hunters to be called off before they did any more damage to Jessalyn and her friends.
He worked another few hours, knowing there wouldn’t be much time in the coming days, and finally called it quits after he’d destroyed most of the equipment and his muscles ached from exertion. Trazzak grumbled and made his way back to his quarters, which were near the bridge but still refreshingly private. He hesitated before going in. Maybe he should have checked on Jessalyn again. Maisy was more than capable of keeping the information officer in line, but he didn’t like the idea of Jessalyn in the sick bay all by herself.
Trazzak growled at himself and walked into his quarters. The Earther was messing with his head. He captained his own ship and he couldn’t afford to be so distracted, even if she tasted more delicious than all the fermented cabbage on Xarav.
He wasn’t sure she would appreciate the compliment.
Trazzak inhaled a meal as he paced and reviewed the files provided by the irritating Nathan, trying to come up with a more sophisticated plan than he and Jessalyn showing up dressed as Xaravian pirates seeking to buy the technology. He tossed the tablet across the room, onto the small couch, and reached for the liquor he’d brought with him. A little liquid inspiration never hurt.
He’d gotten through two drinks when someone tapped on the panel outside his door. He couldn’t see who it was through the blurry image next to the door, but assumed it was Maisy giving him an update on Jessalyn’s condition. Or maybe Frrar, who’d steered them into a dangerous orbit or debris field. Trazzak braced himself for bad news and opened the door.
He stopped dead in his tracks, frozen in surprise and lust – and a bit of confusion.
Jessalyn, dressed in the soft blue Xarav robes, stood outside his door. She looked remarkably healthy, though the traditional hood hid some of her expression from him. Trazzak couldn’t formulate a response or any thought more complicated than want. The barbarian side of him roared to life. He wanted her. Immediately. Naked and willing in his bed, or on the floor, or on that tiny couch. He couldn’t wait another second.
Jess
Jess recovered pretty quickly once Maisy got all of her gadgets working. The doctor mumbled as she studied the readouts from the various machines and flicked through a tablet full of medical information, and periodically Maisy shook her head. Jess didn’t take that as a good sign.
The panic attack faded, but the memory of it weighed heavily on her mind. What if that happened in the middle of a mission, or when she was needed to help operate the ship? She’d be a danger to the rest of the crew, and certainly to herself. Maybe exile was the better option after all, so at least she could panic on her own and not get anyone else killed.
It felt like forever before Maisy removed the devices from Jess’s arm. “So here’s the thing. Somehow this agent is persistent, despite everything I’ve done and everything the literature said to do. The bounty hunter had to have modified it, or a more sophisticated organization developed this to keep running you down faster than normal. It looks like you were running at full capacity for several days without rest, even in the few hours you were out walking around with Trazzak. I’ve sent a request for testing back to the rebel hospital and research labs, but there’s no telling how long it will take them to isolate the compound from our tests.”
“Great,” Jess said weakly. “So in the meantime I’m overclocked and burning out? Am I… does this mean I’m living faster than everyone else, or what?”
“I don’t know, babe.” Maisy sighed as she flopped into a nearby chair. “They didn’t exactly cover this in medical school.”
Maisy went to an Alliance medical school. If they knew this capability existed with the rebels, the Alliance would have created a cure and advertised it to the doctors sent out on Fleet missions. But if the strange toxin was actually an Alliance creation to be used against the rebels and pirates, they’d have no reason to make the antidote public.
Jess’s heart sank. Maybe Nathan sent the bounty hunters to kill her after all.
Maisy faked a stern expression. “Don’t get all mopey. We’re going to figure this out, you stubborn cow. I’ll get you dinner, then we’re going to come up with a plan, and then you’re going to sleep.”
Jess didn’t quite have enough energy to fight off Maisy’s mothering, so she went along with it until it came time to go to bed. The malaise following the panic attack faded until Jess felt restless and uneasy, needing to move to work off the nervous energy. She managed to stay in the bed until Maisy departed for the night, with one last dire warning about Jess taking it easy, then Jess hopped to her feet and paced through the room.
She nearly tripped over the bags of robes that Trazzak left behind after he carried her in from the market. Jess frowned and dug through the bags, laying out the gray and blue robes so she could figure out how to wear them. She’d never had Xarav clothes before, so it was a trick getting them on and properly arranged. Tying the belt in the complicated knots she’d seen on Isla’s and Griggs’s robes was well past Jess’s dexterity, so she knotted it in a basic twist and checked herself out in the mirror.
Not bad. The masses of fabric were more flattering than she would have imagined on her body, and the hood gave her a mysterious air that made her feel safer. Hidden. That appealed to her — most of the time she wanted to hide from everyone, not just when she was on a mission.
The robes distracted her for a little while as she tried the gray ones on next and then went back to the blue, experimenting with different knots and ways to arrange the hood, but still the tension in her chest grew until she thought her ribs would shatter to let her heart fly. She needed to move or calm the hell down, and so far the only person who’d been able to help with either was Trazzak.
Her hands shook at the thought. He’d pulled her out of the panic attack; surely he could help with whatever hyperactivity held her captive instead. Or maybe she could take him to bed, wear herself out, and finally get him out of her system. A one-time thing to celebrate life, then they could both concentrate more on the mission. Jess wasn’t stupid — she knew she distracted the Xaravian. It was hard to miss, with his scales starting to show green and blue. No matter how much he grumbled and grunted, she could tell from his body language that there was something between them.
<
br /> It just couldn’t be a long-term something.
Jess paced more as she tried to make herself leave sick bay. He’d said it himself, after all — the life of an information officer wasn’t conducive to a personal life or good time with family. That was the honest truth. She couldn’t expect him to put up with someone like her, and to entertain the possibility... Well. That way lay heartbreak. For her, at least, and Jess wasn’t about to risk another failed relationship because she got dazzled by pretty eyes and a hell of a body. Trazzak would be good stress relief, nothing more.
She whispered it just to convince herself, then slid through the sick bay doors. With only four of them on the ship, and Trazzak in his quarters already, she was able to sneak through the corridors without anyone spotting her.
Then it just took the courage to tap on the panel next to his door, alerting him that someone waited outside, but she stood away from the viewer so he wouldn’t be able to see it was her. She wanted to surprise him, to see the look on his face when he saw her with the Xaravian robes on. Jess didn’t want to admit — to herself or anyone else — that she wanted Trazzak to fall over in disbelief at how gorgeous she was in the strange robes. She didn’t normally want to be noticed by anyone, even when on a ship and going about her daily life. She didn’t like scrutiny.
But something about the way Trazzak watched her, about the way his gaze found her even through a crowd, made Jess feel like she’d finally been seen. That she wasn’t being leered at or stalked or hunted, but that someone finally recognized her.
Her vision blurred at the thought, that she might someday be a whole person and live a normal life, so she didn’t see as the door opened. But everything cleared when Trazzak stood there, an odd grunt escaping from him, and excitement thrilled through her. She still felt like her heart would explode, but everything else calmed.
His scales lost all their color as he stared at her, gripping the doorframe until it creaked and the metal bent, then blue and purple flooded every inch of him. He cleared his throat and his eyes blazed mercury as he waited, unmoving.
Jess toyed with the end of her belt, drawing his gaze lower. “I didn’t know how to tie this.”
Trazzak growled, deep in his chest, but he managed to force a few recognizable words out through his clenched jaw. “Looks fine.”
A hint of uncertainty took root in her chest. Maybe he didn’t want her, despite the lusty colors of his scales. But she couldn’t walk away. “There’s something wrong — my chest feels tight and my heart is racing and I can’t focus.”
His eyebrows rose and he looked just a touch relieved, like he finally knew what to do, and started forward a step. “Sick bay should —”
“I thought you could check me over,” Jess said, heart in her throat. Newton’s laws, she hoped she could stay in motion long enough to convince the stubborn alien to figure out what she wanted. “Here.”
That stopped him short, and the scales turned entirely purple — brilliant lavender and swirls of blue-purple love. The spikes stood up on his shoulders, rattling the bones in his hair, and Trazzak finally stepped aside so she could come in.
Jess hid her smile with the hood as the door closed and she felt Trazzak’s heat and bulk close behind her. She turned, starting to ease the hood back, but he caught her wrist. “Leave it.”
The fear of rejection fled, but a new kind of tension filled her. The look on his face had changed from a male holding onto control with every fiber of his being to a male who’d surrendered the hope of remaining aloof. His hands clenched and he loomed larger, more dominant, as his muscles flexed and the scales stood out.
She shivered in anticipation and desire, and caught his hand. She felt small and even delicate as she slid his hand inside her robes to rest against where her heart beat — and half on her breast, so he could feel the soft flesh. “Can you feel my heart racing?”
There was something so wildly bestial about the man – something in his strength that made even such a delicate, sweet gesture a powerful statement.
Trazzak nodded as his eyes drifted to where his hand had been placed. “Yes. Like a singular drum. You Earthers have such strange physiology.” He brought a hand up to her cheek slowly, his rough palm setting her cheek tingling and buzzing.
Jess leaned her head into his touch, a smile tugging at her lips. All this tenderness was a prelude to something far, far more intense. Something she knew that neither of them would truly be able to control, if the twitching and flexing of his muscles were any indication. His stormy silver eyes met hers, a royal blue swirling near his brow and cheeks — a sign that couldn’t have been more clear.
As far as she was concerned until she stood outside that doorway, she was going to come in, get laid, get gone. He was going to be incredible, and soothe something deep inside her that could only be put to rest by a rough tumble in the sheets. Looking up at him, however, she began to have doubts.
She found herself fighting off intruding thoughts about whether or not she really wanted him “out of her system” at all. Even before things had truly begun, she found herself growing more and more drawn to him from somewhere deep inside, a thread that tied her heart to his — or, more accurately, both of his.
They had so much — maybe too much — in common. That thought sent a strange wave of both panic and elation through her, but as soon as it had begun, it was calmed by the sudden descent of his hand. She gasped and pressed forward against the feeling of his fingertips sliding over her nipple. His touch was absolutely electric, and she was sure she could feel the shifting colors against her breast coming in slow waves.
When he leaned down to kiss her, she felt utterly possessed by him. The moment became something shockingly new, unexpected. The sensation and warmth of their hungry kissing felt like a root growing deep into the ground, anchoring her to a world she’d always felt alienated from by both her nature and her chosen work.
At the feeling of his hand in her hair beneath the hood, her body shuddered from head to toe, his grip tightening in response to incline her head further. A barely-restrained growl rattled in his chest as he leaned down to her neck. His breath burned hot on her skin, but before long the vacuum of cold replaced it as he inhaled her scent deeply.
Trazzak
Being so close was intoxicating. Maybe even dangerous.
Trazzak leaned in further, his nose resting against Jess’s burning hot skin as he drew another deep breath. There was no way he could be close to her without being utterly wrapped up in her. Everything about the woman was at once endearing and maddening, but he only loved her all the more for it. The realization had his scales rattling again, and he opened his mouth to take her yielding flesh between his lips.
Jess wrapped her arms loosely around him, though once he began licking and suckling in earnest, her grip tightened. She wanted him just as badly as he wanted her — that much was obvious by the slow rocking of her hips before they’d even truly begun.
More than anything, Trazzak found himself utterly enraptured by her skin. It was soft and supple like some manner of warm silk, but altogether different from the cloth she wore. She seemed so incredibly delicate, and her softness made him all too eager to ravish her like prey beneath him. He could feel the deep purples flushing through him, see them along the arm that had slipped into the fold of her robe, imagine them painted over the paleness of her breast.
He couldn’t shake the thought of the triple suns of Xarav. The warmth over her breast was incredible, but it didn’t compare to the building heat he felt between her legs as she pressed herself to him.
The image urged him on, and soon he was unable to contain himself. She would be marked. She would be his, utterly and completely.
Before he could begin to consider how he’d like to go about it, he’d pinned her to the bed, and was in the process of pulling the layered cloth from her body. The moment the blue cloth slipped away from her chest, he found his eyes completely transfixed by the sight of her breasts. The ample cur
ves, the blush of her soft peach nipples, and the way they moved as she struggled beneath him were almost too beautiful to comprehend.
He leaned down to take one prominent nipple into his mouth, finding it already hardened in excitement. The moment her hands came to the back of his head, he pinned them above hers, both wrists gathered in his palm. His free hand was immediately dedicated to the other breast, squeezing and appreciating its warm softness as he suckled and lavished the other.
Jessalyn’s breath quickened, and Trazzak knew in that moment that there was nothing he could do to stop her legs from wrapping around his waist as she wiggled around to find some kind of control — not that he particularly wanted to. He would show her who was in control, and eventually she would be more than eager to surrender to him. The warmth between her legs grew as he pinned her and nipped at her breast, and his rapidly hardening length slid over the nexus of it. She cried out and tried to tighten her grip on him, moving to pleasure herself against him.
“Mmmm.” Trazzak pulled back and shook his head, a cocky grin pulling at his lips. “Trying to keep me in one place… no good, Earther. Open your legs.”
He laced the words with authority, and she obeyed — albeit a bit reluctantly. Her legs went slack around him before sliding off entirely. With her heels situated at the side of the bed, she opened her legs just enough for him to slip back and away from her.
The growl returned in his chest as he gripped the fabric once more, drawing it down her body in one quick motion. The simple knot was untied with dexterous ease, not slowing him in the slightest as he bared her entire form before him. He let his gaze drift over her, trying hard not to rush the appreciation of the wonderful woman who’d surrendered herself so eagerly to him.