Ar'Tok: Book Ten in the Galaxy Gladiators Alien Abduction Romance Series

by Alana Khan

  She slides the bite of food down my tongue from the center to the tip, dragging it slowly, so I taste it fully. Then she leaves it in my mouth for me to chew.

  “Three words,” she says. “Describe it in three words.”

  “Sweet. Tart. Fresh. What were yours?”

  “Delicious, complex, firm. If you had to guess, what color is this food?”

  “Pink,” I say without thinking.

  “Right on. Here.” She slides my blindfold to my brow and hands me a deep pink fruit that has tiny seeds on the outside of its round flesh.

  “Like my game?”

  I nod, then add, “No nasty surprises?” Drack, why did I allow that to slip out? It implies I don’t trust her, and really, how could I trust someone I’ve known for such a short time? But I want to. I want to trust her.

  “I have a day filled with wonderful surprises for you Ar’Tok. For us both. Not a nasty one on the agenda. Try this,” she says before I can apologize.

  After pulling my blindfold to cover my eyes, she pops the next piece of unidentified food into my mouth. The game goes on for a while with no order as to whether the next bite will be sweet or savory. There were no nasty surprises, although we both agreed two of the foods were awful.

  Her description of the first terrible tasting one was, “Nasty, disgusting, terrible.” Mine was, “Drack, bitter, never again.”

  “That was four words,” she scolds, then makes up for it by kissing me.

  “My turn,” I announce.

  “But I know what’s under all the domes, you won’t be able to surprise me.”

  “There are other ways to surprise you,” I say as my mind throws me a dozen pictures of things I can do to surprise Star in bed.

  A moment later, she’s sitting against the headboard, a folded pillowcase acting as her blindfold. The tips of her breasts point at me through the shirt fabric. I’m not hungry anymore, I’d rather taste other, more intimate things.

  Moving her legs as if she were a doll, I split her wide, the soles of her feet on the mattress. Then I slide my pelvis so close to her my cock rides her slit, my knees at her hips. If we weren’t clothed, I’d lift her hips and slip inside her in this position.

  She gasps, her mouth open in surprise—and arousal. I hadn’t realized how quickly my actions would take us from having fun to erotic bed-play.

  “Ar’Tok?” she asks, breathless.

  I was right. I had other ways to surprise her.

  There’s a little bowl of a frothy, white confection. I dip my finger in and taste it to make certain I don’t put something in her mouth she wouldn't like. It’s sweet and airy.

  A dirty thought darts into my head. I could dip my cock into this and have her lick it off. My cock loves this idea and kicks in anticipation. Instead, I swipe my finger into it, order, “Tongue,” and wait for her to comply.

  Look at that little pink tongue. I can’t help but imagine it lapping at me, dancing on the head of my cock, tasting what I have to give her. I can’t stifle the groan that escapes me as I picture her head bobbing on me.

  “Arousing?” she asks.

  I guess it’s obvious.

  “It is for me, too. There are so many things I want to share with you Ar’Tok.”

  I press my cream-laden finger past her lips and into her warm mouth. My lips at her ear I urge, “Lick me, Star.” She needs no more encouragement as she swirls and sucks and then, just as I’d envisioned, she bobs that pretty head, her long black hair shimmering in the sunlight spilling between the drapes.

  A knock interrupts. It’s so jarring I startle.

  “Madam? You requested these clothes be delivered for your excursion?” a soft female voice announces through the door.

  “Can you get that?” Star asks, her voice a cross between a moan and a complaint.

  After the female at the door gives me a thin pile of clothes, I turn to see Star pull off her blindfold and climb out of bed.

  “Sorry.” She shrugs. “My mom always told me not to start something I couldn’t finish—she was right. We have no more time for bedroom games. We have,” she glances at her wrist-comm, “thirty minutes to be at the front entrance to catch our hover. Do you want the shower first, or should I?”

  I shrug. Is there a written protocol somewhere for morning shower arrangements?

  “Eat some real food while I shower. We’re going to be gone a while.”

  She’s almost to the bathroom when she turns on her heel, pads over to me, and grabs something from the pile in my hands.

  “Wear this under your pants.”

  This is a scrap of black fabric. It’s clearly meant to cover my cock and ass and very little more. I lift my eyebrow in question, but she simply grabs what’s left of the pile and returns to the bathroom. Fifteen minimas later she emerges, fully dressed.

  “Famished,” she explains as she scrapes oozing yellow liquid from a fowl egg onto a piece of toast and shovels it into her mouth while she stands. “We need to be out the door in ten minutes.”

  Ten minimas later I’ve pulled what the females call ‘cargo pants’ over the little stretchy underwear, along with a soft shirt Zar loaned me.

  “How am I going to keep my hands off you all day?” Star jokes as we sweep down the hall toward the lift. “Holy shit!” She stops walking so abruptly I almost yank her arm off.

  “Hi, Willa,” I say as I stop my forward motion and back up to stand next to Star.

  “What. Is. That?” Star asks, pointing at WarDog who is positioned protectively next to Willa. The canine is poised at her hip with a fierce ruff of mane around his face.

  “That’s WarDog,” Willa says. “You must be Star. I thought we might meet last night, but you never came down for dinner. Thanks, by the way. I hear you’re responsible for getting us this all-expense-paid vacation.”

  Star’s mumbled, “Hi,” is all but lost in her quest to hurry to the other end of the hallway.

  “WarDog, sit,” Willa orders. The canine complies, his head is now above her waist.

  Willa and this beast were on the slave ship that was carrying me to auction. We shared a cell for a few days. I’d just been released from prison the day before we met and had never seen a pet. His teeth are long and sharp and look like they could separate a male’s head from his neck with one bite.

  “He scared me when I first met him. I thought he would kill me,” I admit to Star as I succeed in stopping our backward motion. “He’s Willa’s pet.”

  “He’s just a big teddy bear,” Willa announces as she lovingly scratches the crown of his head.

  “Okaay,” Star says, not stepping one fierto closer.

  “Want to pet him?”

  “NO.”

  WarDog crawls on his belly toward us, then rolls on his back.

  “That’s how dogs tell you they have no desire to hurt you. He’s friendly, honey,” Willa explains.

  “We’ve got a hover-limo to catch,” Star says as she hugs the wall, avoiding the canine on her way to the lift. “Maybe another day.”

  Once we’re alone on our way to the lobby, Star says, “Another day? How about never? That creature scared the living shit out of me.”

  “Was that slang?” I ask, craning my head to see her ass, “or did you mean it?”

  She playfully slaps my shoulder. “I love it when you tease, Ar’Tok. You look even more handsome when you smile.”

  When it’s just us and the driver inside the hover-limo, I ask, “Are you going to tell me where we’re going?”

  “Yesterday I promised, no, as I recall I vowed to do whatever I could to help you believe you deserve happiness and a good life. One of the reasons I want good things for you is that you helped me live through the scariest night of my life.

  “I thought I was dying. Actually, I knew I was dying, but I held onto your words. All night long you enticed me to live by reminding me of all the things there were to live for. Do you remember some of them? I do. Your calm, deep voice is etched in my brain. Y
ou told me about the fresh smell of rain, and the salt of the ocean, and the wind in my hair. Remember?”

  “Of course.”

  “And now that I know you better, your secret’s out. You imagined most of that. You’ve never tasted the ocean either, have you? We’re going to experience it for the first time. Together.”

  Gods, her happy face is the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen. If we weren’t harnessed to the seat, I’d pull her onto my lap and kiss her until we were breathless. I’ll just have to settle for holding her hand.

  “Count me in,” I tell her.

  Less than two hoaras later, a reptilian who looks to be in his teens is instructing us on how to wear nothing more than a harness attached to a wire while flying down a mountainside. A steep mountainside at that.

  “Remind me what, exactly, I said to give you the impression I wanted to die like this?” I ask.

  “We’re not going to die,” Star scoffs while adjusting her harness. “You said, and I quote, ‘someday you’ll know what it’s like to feel the wind blowing through your hair’. Well, bro, today’s the day.”

  “Bro? I didn’t know we were related.”

  “Slang. Don’t change the subject. Ready?”

  “What was the expression you used earlier? It scared the shit out of you? The idea of zipping down the mountain on this slim wire is doing that to me. Perhaps you should go first.”

  “No problem.”

  We’re on a decidedly unstable platform in what Star informed me is one of five rainforests on the planet. I watch as the young staffer checks Star’s rigging one more time, then lets her go. Her scream echoes back to me, but I don’t worry about her. She’s obviously having the time of her life.

  “Ar’Tooookkk,” she whoops. “This is funnn!”

  She curves out of sight, so I can’t see if she landed properly on the next platform, but the guide checks his wrist-comm and smiles at me. “She’s good. You ready?”

  I gaze out at the canopy of green and blue leaves dotted with red flowers lofting above me, and peer over the platform’s edge to look down five or ten stories to the ground below. My heart thumps so hard and fast I can feel it thrumming through my chest.

  I’m not ready. I turn to stone, my muscles refusing to follow my direction. It doesn’t help that the guide sees my panic and mutters under his breath, “The little female had no fear.”

  Why is that, I wonder. Both Star and I were raised in small spaces and never left the building we were born in. Why is it that little Star, who’s two heads shorter and a hundred dextans lighter than me embraced this challenge while I’m standing here like a frightened child?

  It strikes me like a lightning bolt that she had one thing I didn’t. She had family cheering her on, telling her she could do anything and could succeed at anything she put her mind to. I had no support. I had to muddle through life after my mother died knowing there was no one in the galaxy who cared if I lived or died. Maybe my aunt, but she visited for half an hoara once a lunar. And I don’t know if it was out of concern or obligation.

  “Ar’Tok!” Star’s voice carries through the humid air. “It was wonderful. I can’t wait to see your handsome face.”

  Well, I have support now. I’m going to do this. And by the Gods, I’m going to accept any challenge thrown my way today.

  “Let’s go,” I tell the young male, “I have someone waiting for me on the next platform.”

  He shoves me off and I could swear my heart quits beating for half the ride. Then I pay attention to the warm air on my face and sifting through my cirr. I notice the rapid, shifting patterns of the sunlight on my face as it beams in through the thick canopy above me. And the feeling of freedom, as if I’m a bird flying on currents of air, transports me above any feeling I’ve ever experienced.

  As I near the platform, I see Star’s happy, shining face, waiting for me. She’s clapping when I come to rest.

  “High five,” she says as she raises a hand, obviously waiting for me to slap it. My questioning glance results in her response, “It means congratulations, you did it.”

  “I don’t know what you were so scared of,” I tease.

  “I know, right?” She plays along. “Sometimes I make mountains out of molehills.”

  We descend three more platforms, taking turns as to who goes first. It fills my heart with joy when I’m on the second platform, waiting for her to touch down. What a thrill to see her ecstatic face as she zooms in to join me.

  On our last jump, we’re allowed to go side-by-side. It’s a longer distance than the others, with fewer degrees of descent, so it’s slower. We hold hands and point out the little frestas jumping from branch to branch. I hear birds cawing over the pounding of my heart.

  When we’re almost down the mountain, I glance over at Star and find her gazing at me, a wide close-lipped smile painting her face with happiness.

  “Having fun?” she asks.

  “Yes,” I say as my feet touch the ground. More fun than I can express.

  Star

  My plan today was to have fun, experience many things for the first time, and to help Ar’Tok have a great day—maybe the first great day of his life.

  I had no idea that I’d have the honor of watching him grow over the span of such a few short hours. We’re on a one-hour hover-ride to the ocean, our shoulders touching every time the driver banks too hard. When I bump against him, his muscles seem softer, as if he’s letting down his guard inch by inch.

  The smile on his face is calmer, more genuine. It’s not like he’s straining anymore; it’s coming naturally.

  “You’re not going to tell me where we’re going? I read that keeping secrets isn’t good for a relationship,” he chides.

  “Well, I read that secrets are bad, surprises are good. I’m keeping a surprise, and you’re going to love it.”

  I can’t withhold the surprise for too much longer, the vast ocean is now visible through the wide front window.

  “I can’t believe how enormous it is,” he breathes. “Limitless. I can’t see the other side.”

  Nor can I. Growing up on the satellite I knew only two things in relation to space: the size of our dwelling, and the infinity of space. Now that I’m on a planet, I can experience other spatial relationships, but this boggles the mind.

  Even though the hover is enclosed, I think I smell the ocean.

  “Here you are,” our driver says when we land. “I’ll wait for you by the bar. Over there,” he points, “is food and drink.”

  I have my credits card in the slim pocket of my suit. “This is the bomb!” I say as I grab Ar’Tok’s hand and pull him toward the water.

  “Madam and Mister!” our driver shouts. The tall, thin insectoid male scurries toward us. “Forgive my boldness, but I’d suggest you pay the ten credits each for those chairs with umbrellas. The attendant will make sure no one steals your things. See that station?” He points. “For one credit it will spray you with a mist that will keep your skin from burning in the sun. You,” he points his chin at Ar’Tok, “will be in pain in minimas if you don’t protect your pale skin. Have fun at Paragon’s finest beach.” He gives us a wide toothless smile and shambles back to the shack that serves alcohol.

  “Thanks,” I call after him. “Let’s remember to tip the male,” I tell Ar’Tok.

  As much as I want to run straight into the water, we follow all the recommended steps.

  After the preliminaries, we’re standing about a foot from the water, holding hands, just taking it in.

  “You’ve never been to the ocean, right?” I ask as I feel the breeze ruffle my hair.

  “No.”

  “As I remember, though, that night when I was on the Misfit you described this perfectly, down to the smell. How’d you do that?”

  “I spent my life in a ten-by-ten cell. When I finally got access to books, I learned how to picture other worlds. In my mind, it’s like I’ve visited the ocean hundreds of times in the past.”

  “Well, le
t’s see if you imagined the feel and taste correctly,” I say as I drop his hand and step into the water. It’s cool, far cooler than I’d thought it would be considering the ambient temperature is perfect. It’s not too chilly to swim, though.

  I forge ahead until the water’s up to my waist, then gasp a shocked breath at how cold it is. My toes squelch into the sand under my feet. Closing my eyes, I enjoy the full-body experience of cold water and salt air and squishy toes and lapping waves. I’ve read my share of books, too, but I never could have envisioned it with this level of detail.