by Amanda Milo
8
ANGIE
At least his lap was more comfortable for my ass.
Another night, another frigid cold night, stuck on this alien planet, with aliens all around me, aliens looking at me every day like I was the thing that escaped from a zoo. Which was extra ironic since most of them looked like escapees from a circus freak sideshow.
Arokh used his big thumbs to brush away my tears. This poor guy. He had no idea why I was having a mental breakdown.
“I’m never going to get home. I’m going to die here, aren’t I?”
His lips nuzzled at my temple. His warm body was a comfort in this cold, shitty place. And I was so glad to have it - to have him.
“And if you don’t leave me somewhere, you’re going to die too, you know that, right?” I looked at him imploringly. “You’re in danger because of me. You should have gotten away when you had the chance.”
Arokh wasn’t breaking eye contact, and with my every word, he was becoming more and more anxious. It was obvious that despite not speaking english, he could read that I was hitting the end of my rope just fine.
“Now you’re stuck here too. We’ll never see our families again - not that mine was much good - my cousin Chris still owes me a thousand bucks, that rat bastard - but yours seemed nice.” Then I threw up my hands. “What about our friends? I had great friends! You probably did too, you’re so nice to be around.”
Arokh caught one of my hands and started to kiss my fingers. To be soothing, I think. I tried to ignore the part where punctuated each kiss with a lick. Aliens. So fucking weird.
“How many movie nights have I missed? Oh, movies. I miss television. I miss electricity! I miss food - real food! You know, good food! And music. I would shiv a bitch for my phone right now, I have these playlists...”
Arokh’s ears flicked as I talked - and he let me - he let me talk and talk and it didn’t matter that he obviously had to pretend to be absolutely engrossed in my every word since he couldn’t understand a thing - he just kept petting my back and my hair the entire length of my tirade.
And a tirade it was.
Because his life, my life-
All of it.
Everything.
Gone.
And I could die tomorrow.
Then the most terrifying thought sunk in.
Arokh could die tomorrow. What if he died?
Odds were, he’d get killed trying to save me - and if he died, it’d be because some really bad alien was trying to get me.
I’d already had the preview of the alien-life-that-was-not-Arokh episode.
A gang of scary awful nightmarish aliens was what I could look forward to without Arokh in my life.
I cried even harder.
Arokh made a low noise that rumbled not just in his chest or throat - but his nose. I politely tried to ignore how much it sounded like a velociraptor.
I patted his shoulder. “You’re being awesome. I’m sorry I’m such a mess.”
Crazy, crazy stuff had happened since I’d woken up in that auction pen. And my situation didn’t exactly look like it was going to magically improve any time soon.
I tried to inhale slowly and with my mouth open enough that I wouldn’t make the stupid sniffling noise that came along with crying.
It didn’t work.
I looked up and met Arokh’s compassion filled eyes.
When I let myself crumble forward he caught me. His big arms came around me fully, his head came down level with mine, and, like almost every time I was in them, he made me feel safe. In the only way he was able, he was letting me know he cared. It meant everything to me. Especially right here, right now.
I needed serious comforting right now.
So I hugged my alien tightly. Then I turned and tapped my lips to his cheek.
He jerked back, clearly shocked.
I bit my lip and tried to smile. “Guess that’s not a thing here?”
I pecked him again. “See? It’s nice, right?” I reached up and playfully flicked one of his horns.
That made his whole body twitch. He never took his eyes off me. It looked like he was struggling over something.
I shrugged. “Sorry.” I dropped my head back down on his chest. Oof. This guy was built like he was carved from rock. I watched my fingers as I ran them over the massive muscles in his arms. Traced the veins. Watched the colors change. I didn’t know if it corresponded with his moods, or the temperature, maybe? But lately a lot of fiery colors. The more often I poked them, or the longer I held my fingers over them, the darker they would get; white to yellow to orange to blazing red even.
When I felt his nose nuzzling at my hair, more forcefully than he usually did, it was my turn to pull back – but I did it slow, and questioning.
“What is it, big guy?”
Arokh leaned forward. And carefully planted his lips over mine.
9
AROKH
Shock coursed through my system as all the blood in my brain took leave and headed to the area that snugly cupped her round rear end.
My lap.
I eased my head away, only to blink my eyes back into focus to see that I’d stunned her into silence.
She wasn’t crying anymore though.
If I’d known all it took was a kiss…
I smiled ruefully at her.
That’s when she moved her face further into my space, and cautiously pushed her lips to mine.
Then she flicked out her tongue.
I groaned.
She didn’t let the opportunity by; she licked inside of my mouth and my mind ...stopped functioning.
She took advantage by touching her tongue to mine, and scooting forward in my lap to squeeze my ribs with her knees. With effort, I peeled my hand off of her shoulder and released her hair from the grip of my other hand, because in that moment, I didn’t trust myself.
Her touch started off hesitant, but grew bolder much quicker than I would have ever anticipated. I intended to stop her by using a restraint hold I’d heard of.
I must have been informed wrong.
Because as soon as I captured her wrists and gently pressed a bitehold on her neck (keeping my fangs retracted) she became inflamed.
Not the literal flame, of course. But lustfully, hotly, seductively she gasped and began to pant (possibly because her sinuses were clogged after expelling a great number of tears, but I hoped it was from passion) and whether it was intentional, or instinctive, she began to move on top of me.
Perhaps she was simply readjusting her position. But her mating place was directly over my groin, and the slight rubbing was divine…
And too brief. I tried to keep in mind that a mere click ago she’d been crying - but that’s when I smelled it.
I’d never, ever been close enough to a Gryfala to have previous first hand knowledge, but I had heard about their pheromones being strong enough to send hobs into a frenzy.
Angie’s scent made me nearly lose all my sense.
I calculated a rapid internal check, that - I hoped - was not unduly influenced by the flood of arousal hitting my system. What I knew: Angie physically had all the outward markers of… maturity. Save for size. Hmm. There was that-
Another brush over my lap had me inhaling sharply and forgetting my point. What point? That scent!
My instinct urged me to flip her, and mount her. It was raging at me to pin her, bite her, enter her.
She feathered a touch at my jaw. It was a gentle, innocent touch and I reined myself in. Breath coming hard, I tried to really look at her.
Indecision played out on her face. Tevek!
Groaning, I fell back, lying submissively beneath her. I wondered how hobs managed. There was risk involved in bedding a Gryfala early in her life. It was said that older Gryfala had the experience to have grown more discerning; only bedding males they intended to keep. Younger princesses tended to experiment and cast aside hobs - not always callously, not intentionally. All the same, it was devastating to th
e hob abandoned after she got all she wanted from him. Devastating to Rakhii too.
To have a young Gryfala using them as a tool to learn the joy of seduction, testing out her prowess - letting her engage them, letting her set the pace, let her make the advances; all without letting her take advantage.
Those males deserved more credit.
Despite the possibility for abandonment afterward, I had every intention of staying still and letting her learn on me as much as she wished - whatever replaced the sadness in her eyes from clicks ago was welcome - and the endeavor in which she chose to replace her feelings of sadness was beyond favorable.
But then she attempted to encircle her hands around my wrists – and then-
Then she bit me.
Well, no, actually, not quite; she placed her teeth on me. She didn’t bite down. Unfortunate, but so much more than I expected.
So close to what I craved from her. I hadn’t even realized how much until she scraped her teeth along my skin, testing, stoking a fire of yearning in me.
I felt the rumble building in the crest of my nasal cavity. I was going to trumpet call if she didn’t stop and we really couldn’t afford to attract attention. But she wasn’t stopping. I didn’t even want her to – not really. Yes, yes - I could see now why this hadn’t been effective in cooling her ardor. Instead of helping to restrain my craving for her, it made me crazed with want. But did she really mean–
Her hips twitched over mine and I punctured the insides of my lip with my own fangs. I hadn’t nipped myself since I was a youngling.
She did it again and I bucked my hips, almost unseating her, forcing her to quickly throw her hands down on me to brace herself. I froze.
But she was thrilled. “Wow!” She began to snicker as she whispered, “Jusst leht uht heppin bayybee…” and she bent to kiss me again.
I reared upward, and valiantly resisted the urge to shove her over to her back and cover her body with mine. Just the thought of doing that – I gripped her hips and shut my eyes, struggling to restrain this urge. Unlike her kind, males of my species were the ones to initiate a mating. Males tended to be very dominating; but I could control my base urges. I could do this.
She ground herself over my cock.
My horns speared into the stall wall when I threw my head back. She gasped, before covering her mouth with her hand to stifle a happy, trilling expulsion of sound.
My stomach soured a little. Wasn’t that the sound that fledglings made? I was fairly sure that adult Gryfalas couldn’t laugh.
How old was she?
10
ANGIE
Well this was an interesting development.
What was I even doing?
Besides giggling.
Like a damn twelve year old.
I was going to cut myself some slack though. Honestly, I wasn’t sure how far I even wanted to take this, exactly; I just knew this felt good.
Arokh felt good.
Arokh made me feel good.
I wasn’t feeling (as) sorry for myself now.
And I wanted more of feeling good.
Arokh was attractive, his being so attentive of me was actually turning me on and if he were a guy this wouldn’t even be a question. A human guy, that is. Arokh was definitely – I wiggled my behind over his considerable bulge – definitely guy. All guy. There’d been a moment where his body had gone all tense, and he just looked… let’s say I’d had a temporary moment of panic thinking that he’d go crazy and I wouldn’t be able to stop him. But, as always, he was nothing but gentle with me. So, so careful.
Careful? Caring.
In fact, Arokh kind of even seemed a little hesitant, and subversively, this drove my curiosity and sense of attraction higher. I decided to be bold; I traced my lips down the line of his throat - and I nearly purred at the sight of his shivers as I did it.
I leaned back and waited. He was panting now too, staring at me hard - and unconsciously maybe, his hands were gripping - then, massaging - my thighs. My ass.
Yet then he squeezed his eyes shut, and went completely still.
Was he reluctant because I was so different from him? I could understand that. I was struggling to ignore that myself. I guess I was surprised that he might have an issue with it; I’d never seen aliens before but he saw aliens-with-aliens-alien-to-them all the time. We’d been all over the place, and there were mis-matched alien pairs (and trios. And more.) everywhere we went.
So I didn’t think it was me being different. At least, not that he was holding it against me because he thought I was weird looking. Nope, it definitely – I wiggled again, which made him peel his lips back from his… fangs – it definitely didn’t seem to be a problem for him that I looked different than what he was used to.
To test this theory, I whipped my blouse off.
He exploded. “Angie!” He sounded appalled-mixed-with-hornified.
I grinned down at him. Yep. (Half) Naked-woman-against-guy-in-suit was just as hot here as it was back on earth. Except, you know, add an alien.
There’s a new category for porn.
I took one of his frozen hands, and brought it to my breast. And jumped only a little. Brrr.
“Angie!” This time he sounded like an old door hinge. It was so out of character for his deep, beautiful voice that I burst out laughing.
(Alright, alright - it may have been another freakin’ giggle.)
My laughter was like a bucket of icewater for him. He snatched his hand away, then tried to get up – but his horns were still stuck in the wood. He grunted – then he put a hand up protectively against my forehead before he threw his head forward– and yank - horns were free.
I sighed as I watched his muscles pull and flex with his actions.
That’s when Arokh grasped my hips and dropped me into the shavings…
…beside him?
“Awww,” I whined, and then tried to hide my elation when he gave me a sideways, harried, hot look.
His eyes narrowed.
He was still panting hard when he began talking. Although I didn’t understand a word he said, I could gather that he was telling me to cool off, and not to tempt him further. When I grinned, he chuffed and shook his head. His next words were more of a growl.
This did not have the intended effect, and he knew that by the way I was still giving him a goofy huh-you’re-kinda-sexy-when-you’re-ruffled smile.
So he turned his back to me, and I put my blouse back on because daaamn it was cold when I wasn’t on top of an alien – I hadn't made up my mind in so many words to have full-out sex with an alien, but I’d been in the moment and he had too so I did wonder what'd made him hit the brakes.
Maybe he didn’t actually like human like that. Maybe, unlike the other aliens we’d seen, his culture forbade getting busy with someone from another place. I hadn’t actually seen any other aliens like him since the last two said goodbye to us, so maybe his kind kept to themselves and stayed far, far away from other aliens. (I mean look what happened to the girl – aliens had clearly taken her away from her kind and crammed her in a cage. Aliens had taken me and crammed me in a cage. I’d say staying away from aliens was a damn fine rule. You know. Except for the very tiny handful of nice ones I’d come into contact with.)
Or maybe he had a family back where he was from.
That stopped me cold(er).
Oh, shit... What if all this time he was just being nice to me, helping me out, staying out on the run with me but he had a Missus Horned Alien at home?
I could be an alien homewrecker.
I drew my knees up as I sat up, and felt my stomach knot. Why hadn’t I thought of that?
And I’d been the jerk that pushed for more.
This did not make me feel good.
I dropped my forehead to my knees.
“Angie?”
I didn’t respond. Didn’t even move. I was mortified. Horrified. Disgusted with myself.
“Angie?” Now I was worrying him.
; I felt his hand ghost over my hair, like he was afraid to touch me. Probably afraid I’d maul him again. I cringed.
He said a word like he was cursing with it.
Ugh, why hadn’t I thought that he might already have someone else? He was fuck-hawt, even for – maybe especially – (Hey, I’d seen a whole lot of aliens in the last couple of days and this guy was definitely taking home the prize, definitely) an alien. Of course he'd be taken.
I groaned. In mortification. Apparently it sounded like pain to someone who wasn’t human.
“Angie!” He grabbed me then and tried to pry my face up. It wasn’t hard, he was about a thousand times stronger than I was and my neck muscles were no match for him. I blinked and tried to meet his eyes. Couldn’t. But I could still read his expression loud and clear. Great. Now I’d really freaked him out.
“I’m okay,” I said.
“Quii zeht lau kjanal? Jwrit.”
I shrugged. “Sure, probably, and since we have no idea what we’re saying to each other I’m just going to make my tone sound completely cool now, and I won’t bother asking you if you have two kids and an alien dog with an alien picket fence – you know, with your equally gorgeous, sweet, wonderful alien wife, who’s probably worried sick about you right now and she should know that you are faithful and turned me down even though I was practically mauling you a second ago. Kudos on being a better alien mate than half the human population who can't even commit to a spouse.”
His forehead wrinkled. Like really. Then he squished me to his front.
“Oof. Okay, big guy.” I patted his arm. Sorry I scared you. I’m just having a moment. No big deal.”
I was glad I didn’t have to meet his eyes anymore. I was so ashamed.
And, I think he could tell.
He tried to pry my chin up again. Nope. Not this time. I tucked it down hard and shook my head against his neck. It was his turn to laugh then – but it was a strained one. Man, I’d fucked this all up.