by Marie Dry
Rose made sure to lose a few of the test games and to act out a little. Bluffing was half the fun. She won the first game and he won the next two. She was getting ready to suggest a bet when he said, “Do humans bet credits?”
“Yes, and sometimes they bet other things, as well. Like in kiss poker and strip poker.” Now why did she mention that?
He leaned forward, his eyes flashing red. “Kiss poker?”
She wanted to bite off her own tongue the moment the words left her mouth. “That’s mostly for youngsters. I prefer to play for credits,” she said hastily. She held her breath, but he nodded.
Rose relaxed and made sure to lose the first round they played for credits. She set him up nicely, and in the last game she cleaned him out. He sat back and stared at her, and she braced herself. Men rarely took it well when a woman beat them at games like this.
He threw back his head, and an unearthly sound came out of his mouth. Rose flinched, bracing for a blow. The sound went on and on. Slowly it dawned on her that he was laughing. She relaxed and waited until his laughter subsided. At last he stopped; that awful sound didn’t go quiet and peter out, it just stopped suddenly. So creepy. She shivered. Alien, how had she forgotten that he was an alien?
“We will play for kiss poker now,” he said.
Rose stared at him. “I don’t want to kiss you.” Except she did. She’d been wanting to kiss him for a while now. But she’d been determined to resist him. Now that she had nanites swimming in her blood, it seemed foolish to deny herself. Why should she die wondering what it would’ve been like to kiss an alien?
He puckered his lips. “I’m a superior kisser.”
Rose wanted to laugh—the urge was almost hysterical. “Have you kissed many women?” The urge to laugh left her. She didn’t like that idea; she didn’t like it at all.
“No, I memorized all the educational files Zurian shared. And I watched the human movies about male and females. You will lift your face and make your lips like so.” He puckered his lips again and she shivered and it was not with fear.
Rose struggled to keep a straight face. “And then?”
“We touch lips and move them from side to side four times.” He moved his head from side to side.
“Four times?” Why did his silly antics arouse her?
“That is the average I found through my research.”
“I see. Then what?” Don’t laugh, Rose, just don’t laugh, she chanted silently. She ruthlessly bit the inside of her cheek.
“I use my lips to open yours and then put my tongue in your mouth and move it against the inside of your cheek six times.”
“Six times exactly?” she asked faintly. She resisted the urge to fan herself. There was something very sexy in the way he’d done his researched—all of it meant for when he could make love with her.
“Then we separate and take deep breaths, and then do it all again.”
Rose frantically swallowed hysterical laughter that bubbled up her throat, but at the same time the thought of doing all that with him made her want to fan herself. “If I lose, we kiss, if you lose, you teach me how to fly the shuttle.” She’d beat him and make sure whenever they played again, it was only for credits.
He cocked his head in that reptilian manner that suddenly didn’t look as off-putting as before. “I will deal the cards now.”
She handed over the pack and watched as he expertly shuffled the cards. Unease stirred. He shuffled the cards as if he’d been born with a pack of cards in his hands. She bit her lip and then relaxed. No one except her dad had ever beaten her at cards. But she’d been a child then. She’d had a hard time getting anyone in her old team to play with her. On top of that, Zanr was new at the game.
The damn alien won the game.
Chapter Fifteen
Rose stared at Zanr. She’d wanted to kiss him for a long time. Would his lips be as seductive as she remembered when he’d kissed her knuckles before? Would it be different when their lips touched? Did it even matter when he’d tried to find help for her the moment they found out about the nanites? It was ironic that the people she’d seen as a kind of surrogate family, in the end valued her just as little as her own family did.
This alien, Zanr, had stepped between her and any possible danger. He’d enquired if she needed food almost hourly. Did she dare believe that he wouldn’t turn on her? Wouldn’t reject her eventually like everyone else in her life has done? She shrugged off the doubts that would drive her crazy if she let them. No matter what happened in the future, tonight she wanted to know what it was like to kiss an alien.
He pushed her back, held her at a distance with his hands on her shoulders, and her heart broke a little bit. “I have to tell you about my tongue.”
Rose blinked. That was the last thing she’d expected. “What?”
“I have an enzyme in my tongue. Similar to what human males have, but much stronger. It does not take your mind or steal your decisions, but it increases your pleasure.”
“I see.” She thought about it, while he waited patiently. “You’re sure it’s not like some date-rape drug?”
He pulled his lips back from his teeth, looked like a snarling dog. His hands on her shoulders tightened just enough to make her aware of how fragile her bones were compared to his. “No. I am a Zyrgin warrior with omgraz-ra.”
“Why does your tongue have that enzyme? Is it so that you can force women to be your breeders?” she asked. It would be a long time before she forgot the threat of those fifty babies.
“No, it is to give our women pleasure. We do not have any females anymore.”
Rose frowned at him. “Do you mean females born like you?”
“Yes.”
“Wait, you said anymore—why not anymore?”
“A long time ago our people did genetic experiments. It caused only male children to be born. We have taken breeders from our conquered for many generations now.”
It chilled her, the casual way he talked about genetic experiments. Before the Golden Age, there’d been attempts to lengthen people’s life spans. Those hadn’t gone well for humans. And the easy way he answered her questions bothered her even more. Didn’t he worry at all that she’d escape him and tell the authorities what she knew? If there were any human authorities left. If the few TC casts were any indication, the president had been noticeably absent through all the alien activity. She couldn’t understand why he wasn’t leading a rebellion at the very least.
“Is the gland in your tongue originally for your females?”
“Yes, during the first knowing, we would use it to increase our female’s pleasure by licking her whole body.”
Rose almost panted at the thought of Zanr licking her all over. Flames licked at all her nerve endings and she pressed her thighs together.
Zanr continued, “It also aided them to do the many hours our males are capable of doing sex.”
“Many hours,” she said faintly. The flames of pleasure licking her skin became an inferno.
He fixed her with what she suspected was supposed to be a stern look. “Yes, many hours and we will not negotiate.”
Obviously he had no idea how seductive the thought of many hours of pleasure was to a woman on the brink of death. “Fine. So why are you telling me about the enzyme in your tongue? You could’ve just kept quiet and done it.”
“Zacar said not to use it until our human breeders agree to many hours in the sleeping place.” He narrowed his eyes at her and it was a truly scary look with those black eyes swirling with black-and-red tendrils. He could’ve made a good living in the golden era playing a creature in a horror movie. And yet, he was not repulsive. Rose immediately pushed that thought away. One kiss to pay her debt. That was it.
“All right, I appreciate you telling me about the problem with your tongue. I will kiss you anyway.”
“There is no problem with my tongue, only pleasure,” he said with typical arrogance.
“You say you use the enzyme to give your wom
en pleasure, but I can’t help but wonder if it’s not to persuade them to become breeders. Horrible word, you’d think you’d be clever enough to change that. You’d get more women willing to kiss you.”
“Zyrgins do not kiss on the mouth,” he said.
Rose lifted her hand to push through her hair and encountered the braid. She frowned at him and started to loosen the braid. “What, then why did you bet on a kiss?” she asked while she continued to unravel the braid. His eyes followed her every move. Whenever he looked at her hair, red flares exploded in his irises.
“It is not a habit we practice, but our leader, Zacar, told us how enjoyable kissing the human way is, and we are all superior at it now.” He added, “But we only kiss with tongue after our breeders have agreed for time in the sleeping place.”
“Okay.” She scooted closer to him. “I’m ready. A bet is a bet,” she said. She didn’t want to talk anymore. She needed his kiss, needed that enzyme of his to give her pleasure.
He did that weird pouty thing again and she had trouble keeping her face straight. But she forgot all about laughing the moment his lips touched hers. He curved his hand over her shoulder and held her still for his kiss. His lips were not as hard as she thought. The texture was different, firmer than a human’s, but it wasn’t cold and slimy. Instead they were warm and glided over hers softly. He nipped her bottom lip with his and she’d never have thought that could feel so good. Her emotions were all over the place. She was kissing an alien. More than that, she was kissing the enemy. And she felt pleasure. A pleasure she desperately needed to drive out the fear of death. If Zanr could give her a long life, maybe having fifty little aliens wouldn’t be so bad.
He moved his lips, his tongue seeking hers. This was Zanr, the warrior who’d given her those horrible dresses to wear with such pride, she didn’t have the heart to refuse to wear them. Zanr who always made sure she ate. Zanr who wanted to find her kidnappers.
When at last he lifted his head, she crawled backward until her back touched the wall. “You’ve got glands in your lips, too,” she accused.
He threw back his head and made that unearthly noise she suspected was their version of laughing. She didn’t know what was scarier, that laughter or the way he just stopped. “I am pleased at your compliment. We will sleep now.”
Rose sighed. She didn’t think he was talking about anything more than sleeping. “I don’t think I can sleep.” Morgan’s words kept spinning through her mind and her skin itched, because she kept thinking she could feel the nanites in her body. Doing their evil.
He picked up the cards and played them through his fingers. “Do you wish to play another round for the first knowing?”
“The first knowing?” She’d do just about anything to get out of her own head.
“The first time we do time in the sleeping place with our breeders. What you call fucking.”
Rose bit her lip. “I see.” Suddenly reckless, she nodded her head. She’d much rather have pleasure than being buried in a hole. Or lie thinking about the nanites in her blood the whole night. “My turn to deal.”
He handed her the pack of cards with a blinding flash of sharp, white teeth.
She lost again.
Zanr turned to her and held out a hand. “Will you do me the honor of doing the first knowing with me?”
Rose stared at the alien kneeling in front of her. He was so big, she felt tiny and vulnerable. But also, feminine and desired. Wanted. Like her family didn’t want her. Like Parnell didn’t want her for anything but to torture and experiment on. She didn’t quite believe Zanr would still want her in a few years. Apart from the fact that she might not have years to live, right now, he wanted her, and she needed that to fill the big, empty hole in her heart.
“What does this first knowing entail?”
He took her hands in his. “I place your hands above your head, and you keep them there while I learn your pleasure places.”
Goose bumps broke out on her skin at the words ‘pleasure places’. “Why must I keep my hands above my head?”
“It is tradition—in the old days we used to chain our breeders for the first knowing.”
She leaned back. “So you don’t do that anymore?” If they did, she was out of here.
“Zyrgin women were good fighters and a warrior had to tie her to do the first knowing.”
“But you don’t force your women anymore, right,” she repeated.
“We stopped after the last Zyrgin breeder died. Females from other races are fragile. They die if you force or hurt them.”
“So, you won’t hurt me. Right?”
He leaned over her, stared her right in the eyes. “I may be without blood, but I have omgraz-ra.”
“In that case, I will be a good loser and do the first knowing with you.” Before the horrible little machines in her blood killed her, she wanted to know him in the most intimate way a woman can know a man.
He stood with her in his arms and the sheer strength it took for him to do that thrilled her. She looped her arms around his thick neck. He walked over to the bed and laid her down gently. This was much better than the floor of the shuttle. It might turn soft when she slept on it, but she always felt trapped.
“I still can’t believe you have a tent like a hotel room. That we are on top of the building where the winds are strong enough to sweep you over the edge, and we don’t feel the wind.” From inside she couldn’t even hear it. The walls remained strong and steady, without feeling as if they moved in on her.
“You are not to speak, my breeder.”
Excitement coursed through her. She could feel her body readying itself for what was to come, felt a hollow pleasure low in her pelvis, and her breasts rose and fell with her excited breathing, her nipples peaking. “All right, my Komodo.”
He took her hands and placed them above her head. Rose pressed her thighs together. Excitement simmered inside her. Even her hair felt electrified.
Zanr let go of her hands and lightly glided his fingers down her wrist, her lower arm, and upper arm, leaving pleasure and heat on her skin. His fingertips were leathery, with calluses that scraped pure pleasure over her skin. She giggled when he lightly brushed her underarms.
“Still, my breeder.”
He took her hands in his and held them gently, and rubbed his thumbs over her palms, as if curious about the softer texture of her skin.
He retraced his path over the insides of her wrists, up the skin of her upper arms, and when he brushed under her arms with the pads of his claws, she giggled again. She’d always been ticklish. And who knew such simple caresses could be this arousing?
His eyes blazed pure red. She knew by now that his red eyes were his emotion eyes. Not necessarily his most dangerous eyes, because when they turned pitch black, he had absolute control over himself. “Still, my breeder. We will start over.”
“What? I can’t help that I’m ticklish.” If he didn’t move on, let her climax soon, she was going to expire from pleasure that needed to culminate in something.
“You have to remain still and quiet, my breeder.”
“Wait a min―”
He placed a gentle palm over her mouth. “Every time you move or speak, I will start over.”
He suited action to words and this time when he skimmed her underarms, she bit the inside of her cheek to stop the giggles.
He brushed the sides of her breasts, feathered over her ribs, and she burst out in loud giggles. “Please d…d…don’t start over,” she begged between giggles. She’d have to be Superwoman not to react to those light touches on her ribs.
“I will not dishonor you like that. We will do a proper first knowing.”
She swallowed back a moan of protest; he’d only touched her arms and the sides of her breasts, and she was so hot and aroused, she was half convinced she was going to spontaneously combust. End up as tiny particles of pleasure floating in the air. This time she lasted until he got interested in her nipples. He plucked and stroked and t
weaked until she was literally out of her mind with arousal.
She moaned and her hips shifted, searching.
He stilled.
She felt crazed with lust and need. “Nooo! Don’t start again. Whose stupid idea was this whole first knowing thing anyways?”
Zanr leaned over her. “Do not insult our sacred custom.”
“Just asking a question,” she mumbled, her hips twisting, seeking—a motion she couldn’t stop.
He stared at her with narrowed eyes for a long time, then said, “Our fourth Parenadorz started the custom to ease the fears of breeders from conquered planets.”
“I see.”
“I will start again and you―”
“I know, I know, I’m not allowed to speak or move or breathe too much.”
“You may breathe.”
This first knowing might just get her long before the nanites could do any damage. “Thank you, that’s sooo generous of you.”
“You are welcome, my breeder.”
Rose rolled her eyes, but lay still when he arranged her hands above her head.
This time he started by arranging her hair. Rose relaxed. He was going to be busy with it for a long time. No way would he be able to resist the temptation of playing with her hair, and maybe while he was occupied with doing elaborate hairstyles for her, she could prepare herself for a few more rounds of “you are not allowed to move.”
She was right. He arranged and rearranged her hair for what felt like hours. Who knew it could be so arousing? This time it was a soft arousal; she could enjoy him playing with her hair, tugging on her scalp without that mindless need.
She was relaxed and sleepy and gently aroused when he traced her forehead with a curious finger. He circled her eyes, traced the bridge of her nose, rubbed her cheeks with his thumbs. Wherever he touched, her skin tingled and warmed.
He very gently scraped a claw over her lips. “I approve of your mouth. It is pleasantly plump.”
She almost thanked him for the compliment, but remembered just in time to keep quiet. The way he started over, his fascination with every inch of her was incredibly arousing. But if he started over one more time, she’d cry like a baby and then she’d attack him and have her way with him.