“It’s… it’s incredible! How can this be?”
“We think there’s a substance in the underground river flowing over our heads that leached down into the walls of this grotto. Some mineral, chemical—something that makes these flowers grow here and only here. We’ve tried to reproduce the conditions in the mines. We’re able to grow some flowers there. But nothing like this.”
She bent and plucked a flower that looked like pictures she’d seen of orchids that once thrived in the rain forests on Earth. Dark amber-orange in the center, the color gradually blended to a soft apricot at the outer edges. She ran a fingertip over the petals. Inhaled the scent. Sweet, with a hint of something familiar. Vanilla?
“This goes against everything I know about botany. Plants growing and flowering without photosynthesis. It must be another mutation that’s occurred.” She dropped to her knees, examining the base of the plant. Half a dozen thick, bulbous tendrils grew from where the leaves began. Twining down into crevices in the rock floor, they kept the plant upright. Anchored in place.
Lexi spent hours in the grotto, going from one plant to the next. “Looks like a pansy,” she’d mutter. “But this one—I’ve never seen anything like it, not even in medieval botanical drawings.” Ayron had to threaten her with another spanking to get her to take a break for food.
* * *
That night, when he put out the torch, Lexi turned to him. Her eagerness for lovemaking was as compelling as her enthusiasm in the flower grotto. “May I touch you?” she asked. When he said yes, her fingertips grazed his chest, stopping to rub one thumb around a nipple.
“Does it feel as good to you when I do this as it does when you do it to me?” She stopped and laughed, a warm sound that echoed off the walls of the grotto in the darkness. “Sorry. What a dumb question,” she went on. “You’d have to know how it feels to me to answer it.”
He took her hand in his and brought it to his lips, nibbling at the pad of her thumb with his teeth and then running his tongue down to the palm of her hand. “It feels as good as that,” he replied.
Her hand ventured further, tracing the narrow line of hair down his chest. She ran her palm over his stomach, then lower, stopping again when she reached the base of his cock. She’d touched it before but only when he was asleep. Now she ran her fingers up the length of it, watching his face the whole time. He didn’t move but his cock swelled.
She traced a bulging vein with one finger, then ran it lightly over the rounded tip. He made a rough sound and clenched his fist in her hair. Guiding her head down, he brought it to his manhood. She looked up at him through the wavy strands falling over her face, uncertain what he wanted of her.
“Will you teach me what to do?”
“Kiss it. The way I kiss you down there.”
She put her lips on the rounded tip.
“Yes.” His voice was hoarse. “Now open your mouth and run your tongue over the head.”
“Like this?”
His hand tightened in her hair. “Yes. Like that.”
She had her hand wrapped around him and she began moving it up and down the shaft, the way he’d guided her to do in his half-conscious state earlier. “Does this please you?”
He groaned in reply and pumped his hips, driving his cock further into her mouth. Emboldened, she swirled her tongue around it.
He grabbed her head with both hands. “Suck it,” he commanded.
His cock was so thick she had to open her mouth wide. He moved her head up and down, sliding in and out of her mouth, deep and slow, following the motion of her hand. His body began to tremble, the way hers did when he brought her close to gratification. She moved her hand faster. Took him in deeper. Reveling in her feminine power.
He gave a harsh cry and his cock started pulsing. She tasted his fluid, musky and salty at the back of her throat, and she struggled to take it all in.
Only when his grip on her hair loosened did she pull away. Her eyes danced with mischief. “Did you like it?” she asked, parroting the question he’d posed to her after her first time.
“No.”
Her face fell.
“I loved it.” He rolled over, pulling her beneath him. “Let me show you how much.”
He started kissing his way down her body. Taking his time, making every inch of her tingle. When he came to her breast, she moaned and arched her back, offering her nipple. He took it. Licking, nibbling, sucking gently. Then not so gently. She tried to hold his head as he’d held hers, but he growled and grabbed both her wrists, trapping them in one hand.
He pulled her arms up over her head and moved to her other breast. Lexi tossed her head from side to side. A hot rush shot through her, from her engorged nipple straight to the bud of her clitoris, awakening a wild hunger. She thrashed around, aching to have him move his mouth down to lick and suck her there again.
But he wouldn’t be urged, wouldn’t be rushed. “Lie still or I’ll spank you.”
His stern tone sent shivers through her. She forced herself to lie unmoving, as he teased and tormented her, setting every erotic nerve ending on fire. Submitting to the will of a powerful male brought out primitive, savage desires she’d never known before. Ravenous, unable to be still a moment longer, she writhed around, digging her heels into the ground, pumping her hips up.
He moved like lightning. Flipping her over, delivering half a dozen sharp swats to her naked bottom. She cried out, though she felt no pain. Only the searing fire. Heat flowed from her ass to her pussy, flooded with moisture, aching to be filled.
She buried her face in the cloak, uttering tiny mewing sounds of need. His hand moved, stroking her stinging ass, delving between her legs, urging them apart.
“Get up on your knees.”
His voice barely penetrated. Her mind no longer functioned. Her body had taken over, screaming wordless cravings to her brain. He smacked her again, harder. “On your knees.”
The sharp sting broke through the fog in her mind. She scooted her knees forward, lifting her body. But when she tried to get up on all fours, he pushed her head back down. “No. I want your pussy and your ass up in the air for me. Now spread your legs.”
When his tongue ran down the crack of her ass, she thought she’d die of embarrassment. She felt humiliated by the lewd position. But at the same time it was wickedly exciting to know he could see and touch and taste her everywhere. And she was powerless to resist.
He licked all around her tight rear opening, then grabbed her hips, angling them upward to ram his tongue into her pussy. Lexi closed her eyes and gave way to the sensations pouring through her body. He stopped suddenly and she moaned. Only to have the moan become a strangled cry when he replaced his tongue with his cock, hot and hard again.
He dug his fingers into her hips, holding her in place as he pumped in and out. Every time his body ground up against her ass, the sting his palm had ignited sent a wave of heat straight to her pussy. Lexi started pumping back to meet his thrusts, taking him deeper with each stroke. He took one hand off her hip and slid it underneath to rub her clit.
Lexi exploded. Her screams echoed off the walls of the grotto. Ayron gave one final lunge, then held her impaled on his cock until her pussy quit spasming around him. She could feel that he was still hard as he withdrew.
Later, lying in his arms, she got up on one elbow and looked down at him.
“What is it, my little Earther?”
“A little while ago, when you…” Her voice died off.
He smiled. “When I fucked you?”
“Yes. You didn’t achieve gratification. Yet you seemed to enjoy the act.”
He cupped her face in his hand. “I did enjoy it. Knowing that I brought you so much pleasure, hearing your cries, feeling your pussy clenching around my cock when you came… I achieved a different kind of ‘gratification.’ One equally satisfying. When I was a young man, I’d have climaxed too. But now that I’ve grown older, I don’t need to come every time to enjoy having sex.”
“Your imaginary lover with his ‘probe’—he didn’t make you come multiple times, screaming louder with each one?”
She ducked her head, as if ashamed. “I was taught that the quest for multiple orgasms was an unnecessary, old-fashioned concept. Nothing more than a time-consuming distraction from our duties. In the past, a single climax met my physical needs for approximately three weeks.”
“And your emotional needs?” He tilted her face up to meet his eyes. “Did you never ache to be held, to be caressed? To be tasted?” His voice lowered. “I enjoyed being tasted earlier. And you seemed to enjoy being tasted too.”
“I did. And I… I enjoyed the taste of you.” She was uncomfortable saying the words. But at the same time, she felt a freedom. Here on Iridia, bodies were meant for giving and receiving pleasure. Luxuriating in warm herbal baths, twirling before a flickering fire to the savage pounding of drums.
* * *
Days passed, one flowing into another. They swam in the pool, explored the flower grotto again. Ayron taught her to make a simple stew from the dried narliphant meat and some colorful fungi they found, simmering them together over a fire they built using dried branches lying on the floor of the cave.
Lexi had never seen dead branches before. On Earth, all plants and trees were genetically engineered to grow to a certain height, maintaining their foliage. They were replaced long before their life cycle ran out with new specimens raised in one of the greenhouses. People were never exposed to the upsetting concept of death, not even the death of a growing plant.
They explored each other as well. Lexi discovered that Ayron could turn any place on her body into an erogenous zone using his hands and his lips and his tongue. She began shamelessly exhibiting her body, reveling in the way his eyes darkened with lust when she ran her own hands over her breasts or down between her legs as they splashed in the pool. Ayron introduced her to her nearly endless capacity for achieving gratification.
For the first time in her life, she discovered the joy of being intimate with another human being. Not just sexual intimacy. At night, lying in his arms looking up at the glowing stones in the ceiling overhead, she talked about her hopes and dreams and fears. Ayron listened. And he in turn shared secrets from his soul.
She discovered that making him laugh could be just as satisfying as making him groan with passion. She loved those moments when his eyes were bright and she knew all thoughts of his lost mate and their child had disappeared, leaving him free to enjoy life again.
He left her alone on the fifth day, saying he needed to go back to the entrance of the cave and check on the weather. Lexi waited anxiously for him to return, hoping he’d say conditions were still too dangerous to risk traveling.
But when he came back, he didn’t need to say a word. It was as though the glimpse of the outside world had torn him away from her. He spoke very little, busying himself with preparing their meal and packing what little remained of their meager belongings.
He told Lexi to rest, saying they’d be traveling through the night, leaving as soon as the rays of the suns faded on the wall of the cave. He seemed so distant, it was as though he’d already left her in spirit and only the empty shell of his body remained.
Lexi laid down on the cloak that they’d used as a bed, turning her back on him and doing her best to stifle her tears. When she opened her eyes, it was to find Ayron kneeling beside her.
“It’s time to get up. I’ve made us something to eat and then we need to go.”
She sat up, rubbing her eyes furiously to wipe away any sign of her tears. If he could be matter-of-fact about their interlude together coming to an end, so could she.
He looked at her for a moment, his eyes filled with sadness. Then he brought a hand out from behind his back.
“I brought you something.”
He held it out. Lexi’s eyes brimmed with tears again. The lump in her throat made it hard to speak. “Thank you,” she managed to whisper as she took it.
He’d brought her a flower. One of the exquisite apricot-colored orchids she’d exclaimed over in the secret grotto. So fragile, so delicate. In all her life, no one had ever given her a more precious gift.
She threw her arms around his neck. “I love you!”
She hadn’t meant to say it. Had never said it to anyone before. She wasn’t even sure exactly what it meant—only that it seemed to sum up all the confusing, exciting, overwhelming feelings she had about him.
He reached up and gently removed her hands. Then, without saying a word, he bent and began gathering up their belongings.
Chapter Ten
They left immediately. Ayron first, toting what was left of the supplies, with Lexi following in his footsteps. She’d become accustomed to the stronger pull of gravity and this journey wasn’t as taxing as the others she’d made through the outlands.
He never addressed her outburst, once again acting as if nothing had happened between them in the cave. With her heart feeling as if it had been torn in two, Lexi forced herself to pretend she’d never spoken those words. She stuffed away the torrent of emotions, and tried to empty her mind of all thoughts of their time together.
Desperate for something else to occupy her mind, she examined the scenery. Lexi never imagined she’d find beauty in stark contrasts, subtle variations of color and texture. Iridia’s moon gave off an amber light tonight, shining through the fine particles of dust from the sandstorm still remaining in the air. Under its soft glow, the landscape bore a fierce dignity. She had time to appreciate the weathered peaks of ancient mountains, still enduring despite the ravages of time. The days-long storm had scoured the land, exposing skeletons of the trees that once grew in vast forests on the planet.
Life is an unstoppable force. Life finds a way, she told herself when they finally made it to the entrance of the city. Ayron’s ancestors had taken all of Iridia’s color and vitality and beauty underground with them, creating a new world beneath their broken one.
They went unnoticed at first. Lexi saw what she hadn’t seen before. It was as though her sexual awakening had opened her to every type of sensory experience. The richness of life in the Tryb unfolded before her eyes. Children ran through the city center, shrieking with laughter as they chased a ball in some game where the rules seemed to change by the second. A couple walked hand in hand in the market, stopping before a cluster of bright yellow fruit. With a sideways glance to make sure her partner saw it, the woman popped one of the round orbs into her mouth. He caught her, as she knew he would, and gave her a sharp swat on the rear. She giggled and popped another into his mouth.
“So you want a spanking, do you? We’d better get on home then.” He tossed the stall’s owner a glowing stone as payment, picked up the remaining cluster of fruit and urged her on, one hand sliding up her skirt in back to pinch her bottom. She squealed and the shopkeeper chuckled as he watched them walk away.
In the past, she’d have been appalled at such behavior. Violating personal boundaries. Inviting, even encouraging physical contact of a highly intimate nature. But now, after her days in the grotto, she understood what drove the couple. Especially the woman. She’d been on the receiving end of half a dozen or more spankings over the last few days. The first few harsh. But there’d been others. She smiled, reliving the memory of the others. Ayron pulling her over his lap. His hand caressing her bottom, delivering slow whacks carrying a spicy sting. Then he’d taken that hand and run it up between her legs…
A shout drew her back to the present. Someone had spied them. Before long, a whole crowd gathered around. Exclaiming, chattering, all talking at once. They spoke so fast she could barely understand them.
One of the women grabbed Ayron’s cloak. “We’ve all been so worried! Nazery and Khan and Balek returned days ago. Khan said he tracked the female to the
grotto cave but you left your mark at the entrance, so he knew you’d gotten there to claim her first. But there’s been no sign of Eli. And then the storm broke out. We feared you’d all been caught in it. Thank the gods you are safe. But where is Eli?” The woman looked around, as if he’d suddenly materialize behind Ayron.
“Eli is dead,” Ayron replied, his voice expressionless.
“Dead? How? What happened?”
“I must speak to Mother Eva first. It would not be right for her to hear the story from the lips of another.”
“Of course.” The woman stepped back, urging the others to let them make their way to Eva. The crowd parted, allowing them to pass. But Lexi heard the whispers and felt their eyes following her.
Mara and Nadina rushed up to them as they were heading down the long passageway to Eva’s quarters.
“Are you all right? Everyone’s been so worried,” Mara embraced Ayron, then Lexi. “Mother said she was sure you were fine, that you’d ride out the storm in the grotto. I agreed with her but Nadina was all for sending out a search party if you didn’t come back by tomorrow. You know what a worrier she is. I told her ‘Ayron is the mightiest of our hunters, favored by the gods. He’ll come home with the female in tow when he’s ready and not a moment before.’ Didn’t I, Nadina?” She turned to her companion.
“Hush, Mara. They’re tired enough from the journey without being worn down by your incessant chattering.” She turned to Ayron and lowered her voice. “You know I have confidence in you. Mara always has to be the star of her stories.”
Lexi stifled a laugh. Nadina gave her a sharp look. She wanted to say something just to see the look on Nadina’s face, but Ayron was right. Eva deserved to know the truth first, including the fact that she was fluent in their language.
Eva had heard the commotion in the passage and she stood in the doorway to her quarters. “My child,” she said, stretching out her arms.
Ayron went to her for a hug, then dropped to one knee. “Mother Eva, may I present Alexis Sims,” he said formally, waving a hand at Lexi. “She has traveled to Iridia from the planet Earth.”
His to Claim (Alien Masters Book 2) Page 12