She startled. “What? Shit, don’t drop me.”
That worry caught my attention. “Never. I will allow nothing to harm you.” I didn’t wish for her to panic. My intention was the opposite, to relieve her of any and all worries and make her come. On my tongue so I could have her taste as we went to the beach.
Her eyes went soft, and she lifted her hands to bury them in my hair. “You’re crazy!” She laughed. “What are you doing?”
“Tasting you.” As if that hadn’t been my obvious plan.
“But we just—”
I cut her off with my tongue pressing into her wet heat. Her hands dug into my hair, twisting and pulling to draw me closer, and my beast howled with delight, fighting to break free.
I held her in place and feasted, giving her no time to recover. No mercy. So much for letting her rest. I needed to touch and feel her, to satisfy her. She needed to be pleasured, to be taken care of.
She tasted so sweet, musky and feminine, but I tasted myself as well. I’d filled her with enough of my cum. It didn’t bother me. Instead it made my balls ache to empty into her again. My beast was satisfied knowing she was marked as ours. Not yet claimed, but it was a close second.
When she shuddered, her pussy going into a flurry of spasms around my tongue, I lowered her body so our mouths met for a kiss. One soul-searing kiss, then lower until her pussy melted onto the top of my cock.
“Braun.” She said my name—mine—and the beast demanded we fuck her. Hard. Up against the wall. Standing strong to protect our mate. Fuck, did I wish I had my cuffs. I could put them about her wrists now and make her mine.
But no, I’d have to get them later. I would not leave her now. Not needy and wet and eager. That didn’t help me settle. In fact, it made my beast push to take her hard. Fast.
Because of this, there was no gentleness left in me, but Angela didn’t seem to need gentle, not right now.
Her fingers clenched at my shoulders, the nails digging into my skin. “Hurry. I need you inside me.”
Not one to argue, I thrust my cock up and into her hot pussy, shuddered at the pleasure that nearly brought me to my knees. I would never get enough of her. My cock would always be hard. I might be several feet taller and carry double her weight, but she held all the power. She had no idea the control she had over me. Her pussy might be impaled by my cock, but my life was in her hands.
“So good.” My mate’s hands were roaming, touching me everywhere she could reach, encouraging me to fuck her, fill her, claim her. “Braun!”
I would deny her nothing. Not today. Not ever.
I fucked her until she screamed again, until I could hold nothing back, then filled her with my seed. When it was over, I held her gently and washed every inch of her, more as an excuse to explore her curves than because either one of us was dirty.
When she was limp and drained and smiling, I turned off the water and wrapped her in the softest towel I could find. Then I kissed her. Again. Because I had to. Because I could. Because she was mine.
“Now, mate, the beach. My only request is that we have ice cream.”
“Ice cream?” she asked.
“Yes. Besides that, you may take me anywhere you wish to go.”
7
Angela
It was hard not to laugh at Braun as he was folded into my car. Even with the passenger seat back as far as it could go, he had to scrunch down so his head wouldn’t hit, but then his knees were practically in his nose.
“We’re almost there,” I told him, driving down the main drag toward the nearest beach.
He only gave a grunt of reply.
It wasn’t the weekend, so it wasn’t too busy. While I usually drove with the music blasting, I turned it down so it wasn’t too distracting. By the look on Braun’s face when he’d first gotten into my car the other day, he wasn’t really into Earth tunes.
My cell chimed, indicating a text.
“Will you get that?” I pointed to the center console where I’d set my phone. He’d said Earth was primitive in comparison to space, so I took a guess he could figure out my simple cell phone.
He picked it up, fumbled with it for a second. I put on my blinker and moved into the left turn lane and stopped, waiting for the light to change.
Angling the screen toward me, he said, “I do not know this animal.”
“Shit,” I muttered, looking at the picture. “That’s Howard.”
“That is the kind of animal? A Howard?”
I glanced at the stoplight and sighed with relief when it changed to green. Instead of turning onto the side street that went toward the beach, I did a U-turn to go back the direction we came. “That’s an alligator that likes to wander around in my grandfather’s backyard. Gramps named it Howard.”
I pulled into a strip mall parking lot and put the car in park. I never used my cell and drove, and this was going to take a little work.
“This is not the beach.” Braun swiveled his head left and right, trying to find the water.
“Yeah, sorry. I’ve got to make a call.” I swiped a few times, then pressed my grandfather’s name.
“Hello.”
“Gramps, you need to go inside.” Based on the photo he’d sent, it was obvious that he was in the backyard with Howard. I had no idea if Howard was a girl or boy alligator, but he’d come from the swamp up onto Gramps’s backyard for a few years now.
“He’s harmless.”
“He’s a wild animal.”
Braun watched me as I spoke.
“He likes beef jerky.”
“I bet he does,” I muttered. What carnivore didn’t like dried meat sticks?
My cell chimed, and I pulled it from my ear and slid my finger across the screen to read the text. My mother. I’d set up a group text between me, Gramps, and my parents so we could communicate easily. Gramps had no issue with texting or taking pictures and sharing them through his phone with the three of us. I hadn’t seen a picture of Howard in a while. Usually Gramps would send an image of his dinner or a pretty sunrise or even a junk mail letter stating he’d won ten million dollars.
Gramps had sent his favorite alligator shot to the group chat, so I wasn’t the only one who’d seen it.
Mom: At the hardware store waiting for paint to be mixed. Get over there. Get your grandfather and that beef jerky away from Howard!
I sighed, realizing that Mom had also dealt with this exact issue in the past and even knew about the snacks. I put the phone back to my ear. “Gramps, please go inside until he’s gone.”
“We’re keeping each other company,” he replied. “He missed me while I was gone.”
My grandfather had been in the hospital for a few days, the chemo messing with him, but he’d been home a week now. I ran a hand over my face, flicked my gaze to Braun. “Want to see an alligator?”
His eyebrows went up.
“Are you with someone?” Gramps asked.
“Yes.”
“I wish to see an alligator named Howard,” Braun commented.
“Is that a man?” Gramps might have health problems, but hearing wasn’t one of them.
I looked Braun over. Was he a man? He was male, that was for certain. I’d thoroughly confirmed that.
“Yes,” I said, not getting into the ins and outs of Atlans over the phone.
“Will I get to meet him?”
I looked to Braun again. It was one thing to have a fling with a guy, alien. Man. Another entirely to take him to meet your family after knowing each other for two days. I didn’t have much choice. Gramps had survived a war and was putting up a good fight against cancer. I didn’t want him to go out being eaten by an alligator.
“In about fifteen minutes,” I said.
“Great, pick up some more beef jerky on the way.” Gramps ended the call, so I set my cell back in the console, but it chimed and I grabbed it back up to find another text.
Mom: Please say you’re on your way to deal with the alligator.
I sighed
and answered that I was going to take care of it.
“What bothers you?” Braun wondered as I typed the reply.
“Nothing,” I said, not looking up. “It’s my mother, and she saw the picture and is worried.”
“You have a caring family.”
My thumbs paused on my screen, and I glanced to Braun. Did he have family? I had no idea. He lived on The Colony though, and from what I’d heard, it was for fighters alone, not their families. Heck, I’d even heard it was because the guys who lived there were shunned by their own people. That just wasn’t right.
“I do,” I replied, hitting send. “I’ve reassured my mother we will take care of Howard and stop Gramps from feeding him any more beef jerky.”
Braun nodded. “Excellent. I wish to see this creature and to meet your grandfather. And if this beef jerky is good, to try some.”
Even with the windows down, it was hot in the car since we weren’t moving. If I was overheated, then Braun had to be melting, although there wasn’t even a drop of sweat on his brow.
I pulled back into traffic and tried to figure out the guy beside me. He liked cats. He wasn’t afraid of family. He didn’t complain about being wedged into my car. He wanted to eat something that was fed to an alligator. What was wrong with him? I spent the drive wondering, but by the time we pulled up in front of Gramps’s house, I hadn’t come up with anything.
Braun stood and stretched as I came around the car to join him. “What do I need to know?” he asked.
“Big teeth. Short legs. Runs fast.”
His eyes widened in shock. “Your grandfather?”
I blinked, confused, then laughed. “No, the alligator. They’re prehistoric. They have jaws of steel and clamp down on their prey and do this death spiral thing. You don’t want to get near them. You don’t want to get near the edge of the swamp because you don’t know they’re there and then… chomp.” I clapped in a big alligator-mouth gesture.
He took my hand and tugged me up the walk to the front door. “We must hurry then, or your grandfather will be hurt.”
I’d rushed over for just such a reason, but I’d met Howard before. Gramps had a healthy respect for the animal, but he was too kindhearted and kept feeding him snacks, which meant the alligator returned. Like a pet.
Alligators were not pets.
I was all for Gramps getting himself out there and socializing, but not with Howard. I was sure there had to be a nice widow around who might like to take a different kind of bite out of my grandfather.
“Hello? We’re here!” I called, but I knew Gramps was out back. I cut down the central hallway—taking a few seconds to appreciate the air-conditioning—and to the back door off the kitchen.
“Hi, Gramps,” I called. “It’s me.”
Gramps turned in his lawn chair, then pushed to standing. Howard was at the back edge of the lawn, maybe fifteen steps from the porch, sunning himself. I guessed Howard was about six feet long. Not huge, but no baby either.
The property was in an older neighborhood where each home backed up to a greenway with a walking path. Beyond that and down a small hill was the edge of the swamp. There was a reasonably deep channel for small boats to cut through. There were manatees on rare occasions. Birds. It would be like backing up to a thick forest in the rest of the country. It was peaceful, except for an occasional visit by Howard.
“There’s my girl,” Gramps said, coming our way across the concrete patio that surrounded his small pool. The water itself was beneath a screened-in dome, but he was outside it now since he couldn’t toss beef jerky otherwise. I ran forward and hugged him—gently, as I knew the cancer treatments made his bones ache. He was too thin, his dark eyes sunken in his face. His normally caramel-brown skin was not able to completely hide the sickly yellow tinge just underneath.
When he released me, he wasn’t looking at me but over my shoulder at Braun. I was looking at Howard, making sure he stayed far, far away.
“When you said you had someone with you, I didn’t expect an alien.” His voice was stern, but I knew he was poking fun. While Braun didn’t look all that different from humans, he was just so much larger than almost any human. It was pretty obvious he wasn’t from Earth by that alone. “He’ll be better company than Howard.”
And safer.
I kissed Gramps on the cheek, took his hand, and walked slowly forward to present Braun.
“Braun, this is my grandfather, Jassa Singh Kaur. Gramps, this is Braun, an Atlan warlord.”
“It is an honor, sir.” Braun bowed.
“Oh, I’m not formal around here. Stand up, boy,” Gramps ordered.
Braun stood to his full height, and Gramps and I craned our necks back in what had to seem like a comedy from Braun’s perspective.
“You look like one of those basketball players.”
Braun grinned. “So Angela tells me.”
“You play then?”
“No, sir. It is not something we have on Atlan. I do not know what basketball is.”
“Have you seen an alligator before?” Thankfully Gramps wasn’t going to explain the sport and easily switched topics.
“No, sir.”
“Well, I don’t know much about basketball, but that”—he pointed to Howard—“is an alligator. Did you bring the beef jerky?” He asked the last of me.
I laughed. “No. Mom will kill me if I enable you.”
He humphed, then went and picked up the small packet he’d been using.
“Here.” He held it out to Braun.
Braun eyed it, then stared at Gramps.
“Take a piece and feed Howard.”
Braun’s eyes widened as he stared at the beef jerky packet, then me, then Howard. He spoke to Gramps with his hands up in a stop gesture. “I fought the Hive with honor, but I am not feeding that thing.”
I bit my lip to keep from laughing.
“Hello!”
Gramps shoved the beef jerky packet at me when he heard my mother’s muffled voice coming from inside. “Hide that before she sees it.” He’d always been my partner in crime with my parents, and that was what made him so special. I had no siblings, so he’d helped me get into enough mischief over the years.
Braun swiveled around, confused.
I rolled my eyes, grabbed the jerky packet, and stuffed it into the large planter next to the patio table. The flowers were blooming, and it looked like Gramps hadn’t trimmed the thing in months. Lots of hiding space for the evidence.
“Good thinking.” Gramps winked at me as my parents came outside in a rush, catching their breath. I imagined them speeding across town from the hardware store to get here. Gramps lived alone and since he was sick, we all worried, but he refused to move. My mother was probably questioning this now because of his developing relationship with Howard.
Mom took in the scene, but her gaze landed on Braun and stayed. Dad followed her out and stopped dead in his tracks as well. I understood their surprise. An alligator was one thing, but an alien? The looks on their faces were comical.
I reached behind me and grabbed Braun’s hand, pulling him forward. My father was not a tall man, nothing near Braun’s size, and my mom was barely taller than me. Braun bent at the waist in another bow.
Now that I didn’t have to panic about Gramps being eaten, I took a second to appreciate Braun. Good God, he was gorgeous. And respectful to my parents. Something the asshole Kevin had never managed the two or three times I’d brought him home. In fact, my mother had pulled me aside and warned me I was making a mistake when I told her Kevin was living with me. I should have listened to her. No surprise there.
Having Braun beside me felt different. Introducing him felt… important. I wanted them to meet him, to know the man—ahem, alien—I found fascinating and then some. It was important Braun knew them as well. We were too close to keep something so big, literally and figuratively, from them.
“Mom, Dad, this is Braun. He is a warlord from the planet Atlan.” I looked at my parents and th
anked everything holy that I’d been born so lucky, remembering that not everyone had family. “Braun, this is my father, Hari Singh Kaur, and my mother, Michelle Marie Kaur.”
“It is an honor to meet you both.” Braun did not lift his gaze nor his head from the bow, and my parents looked at me with a question in their eyes. I shrugged. I had no idea what Atlan customs Braun followed, but I was enchanted. Besotted, even, by his effort. Even when there was an alligator not far away.
I didn’t want to embarrass Braun by commenting on his behavior when he was being respectful. Perhaps my mother thought the same thing, because she stepped up to him and set her hand on his arm. He rose and while he loomed over her, gave her a small smile.
“My father-in-law has you to thank for preventing a solid scolding.” She leaned around Braun to direct a pointed look at Gramps.
My father covered a cough with the back of his hand, but I suspected it wasn’t a cough at all.
“I am curious to know, Daughter, how you found an alien,” Dad said, then looked to Braun. “I want to know all about outer space.” He wiggled his black eyebrows. “Especially the gadgets and gizmos.”
Braun looked confused.
“The technology. My father is an engineer.”
“Enough of this. Let’s eat! I’m starving.” Gramps grumbled at all of us, taking advantage of his age to boss the young people around. To me, it was good to hear that he was hungry after his treatments.
“That’s because you probably fed all your snacks to Howard.” My mother was trying hard not to encourage him, but we could all see her eyes crinkling at the corners.
I glanced over my shoulder to look at the animal. He hadn’t moved at all, and his eyes were now closed as he took a nap. Clearly an alien was of no interest to him.
Gramps went ahead of us into the kitchen. The beach was out, and there was no way I could leave with Braun now. We were stuck, although I didn’t mind. I hoped Braun didn’t. He’d been interested in me. Only me. Only me for sex… and a little fun in Miami. But parents? A sick grandfather? A pseudo-pet alligator named Howard?
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