Mutual Trust

by Lea Linnett

  “I am sorry. I left the touch sensors on.”

  “That’s fine,” she said absently, absorbed not only by the levekk technology in her hands but the human history held within it. The book appeared to describe how to put together a kind of vehicle. Or, that’s what she gleaned from the pictures dotted amongst the text, at least. Ancient English always took a lot of effort for her to read. “What do you do with it all when you’ve read it?”

  “That depends,” Marek said. “Before you arrived, I had little time here. It was my reward when Urek brought me upstairs to help the scientists. I had time only for reading and collating, sorting the information as best I could. But at the university, my seshaan—my supervisor—allowed me to use this data in my other projects.”

  “Other projects?”

  He pursed his lips, hesitating, and then opened a drawer by his foot. Rummaging around for a moment, he eventually surfaced with something clenched in his fist, which he held out to her.

  The small device was cold when it landed in her palm, but it quickly warmed. It was black and shiny, barely larger than a button and about the same shape, except for three prongs that stuck out at an angle from one side. “What is it?”

  “It is a translation device,” Marek said. “You know how many languages once existed on this planet?”

  Bree shook her head. “A hundred?”

  “Thousands. All of them now dead or changed and rarely spoken. I wished to preserve them, and by luck, my seshaan’s research at the university made that possible.” He glanced at her. “You remember I spoke of a material that can combine technology with the brain?”

  “Yeah,” she said slowly, thinking back to their tour of the cargo bay far below them, which felt like weeks ago, now. “It had a funny name.”

  “Mesilisi,” he supplied, a smile pulling at his lips. “Studying humans was always a personal interest. My role at the university was to study mesilisi. Much of this was academic—mesilisi is rare and not often available for tests—but I knew it could link a translator with the brain. So, I made great glossaries of human languages, and I put them in this.”

  Bree looked down at the tiny device that Marek now pointed at, her brow furrowing. “B-but it’s so small…”

  Another laugh, and Marek’s smile was coy when he said, “The size matters little. But you are correct. It could fit only one language pair, in the end. And it is all theory. I was not allowed to test it.”

  “Why?”

  “My superiors, my seshaan, they all called it a waste of resources. Their interest was in creating weapons. You see,” he said, his face falling, “everything is a weapon for my people, even language. You have noticed that our sub-species speak Levekk Trade? They are forced to. It breaks their connection to the past. It makes them less cicarian or pindar or human, and more sub-species.”

  Bree looked down at the device, which winked in the light as she turned it. “That’s awful.”

  “But not unique. Even humans once did this to other humans they conquered.”

  “I know. My elders made sure to preserve those stories as well, I think so we’d be reminded not to repeat our ancestors’ mistakes. Better to fight the levekk than ourselves.” The words were an echo of something Luis would say whenever the cadets had disagreements, and Bree felt a little pang. She shook it off. “So all that work was just wasted?”

  “The translator? Yes,” Marek admitted, but then his eyes, which looked more violet than ever in the orange light, roved over her. “The learning is no waste, though. Without it, I would never have talked with you.”

  Bree’s cheeks reddened. He said it like it was an honor, but she didn’t think she was all that good at talking. She’d spent years avoiding it, finding the relative silence of the forest easier to bear. But now…

  She placed the datapad and the translation device on the desk, her gaze lowering, but then something tucked beneath the desk caught her eye. “Is that…?”

  Marek followed her gaze, and pulled the long, black box into the light. She took it, flicking open the catches to reveal the ebony bow that he had gifted her, over a week ago now.

  “Our bow,” she said, a small smile curving her mouth as she looked at it. Even with its parts disassembled it was a beautiful piece, and when she ran her fingers over it, she felt a shadow of the peace her old bow had given her.

  Her old bow. Her mother’s bow… Bree’s chest ached at the thought of it.

  “What is wrong?” A large hand took her gently by the chin, forcing her to look up at Marek as he searched her face.

  “Oh, I… was just thinking about my old bow. Peris took it yesterday.”

  “I should have stopped her. I am sorry.”

  “No, you…” She breathed in a deep sigh, clasping his hand in both her own. The scaled backs of his hands were pleasantly smooth, and she ran her fingertips over them, much as she had the bow moments earlier. “You’ve done a lot for me—the bow, the chemical-shower, letting me outside—and I don’t know that I properly thanked you for any of it.”

  “Do not thank me for these things,” Marek murmured.

  “But I want to.”

  Her heart beating faster now, she brought his hand to her lips, pressing a kiss to his knuckles. His eyes flashed with desire, but his brow furrowed. “Bree, I will not take this as a payment. You owe me nothing, and I—”

  “No! That’s not what I meant.” Bree’s face flamed, but she forced herself to move, taking the time to close the lid of the box and place it at the foot of the bed. She got to her feet, standing before Marek and biting her lip. “I… haven’t been able to stop thinking about yesterday.”

  The hybrid’s eyes darkened as he stared up at her. “Yesterday?”

  “You don’t know it? It means the day before today,” she said flatly, and Marek chuckled.

  “Even now, you teach me new things,” he teased, and a wave of relief washed through her at the words. It had been so long since she was with anyone like this. There was no need for seduction out in the wilderness, and she’d never been the type to flirt, anyway.

  But Marek made everything easier with that familiar way of his, especially as he slid his hands up over her hips, following the curve of her tight, alien bodysuit. She leaned into him, gripping his shoulders for balance. The thick muscle coiled under her touch, as breathtaking as she’d expected from his long hours spent down in the mine.

  “I think I’m already running out of things to teach you,” she said absently.

  Her breath hitched as his hands strayed to her breasts, and Marek’s gaze sharpened.

  “No, mi’ik toshaan. There is still so much to learn from you.”

  She wanted to ask what the words said in his language meant, but then Marek rose to his feet and stole her breath with a kiss, and she stopped caring. This time when their lips met, there was no gentle exploration like the day before. Marek groaned into her mouth as their tongues danced, and Bree wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing back just as fiercely.

  It was even better than the day before in the snow, because now Bree could feel everything through the thin material of her bodysuit. She felt every whisper of his fingertips as they roved down her back and over her ass, every ripple of muscle as their bodies pressed flush, as well as the hard outline of his cock between them, a searing heat compared to the rest of his marble-hard body.

  He grunted when she moved one hand down to run her fingertips along his length, and then strong hands turned her so her ass met the desk, the metal hot from the glowing heat lamp. They broke the kiss, both breathing heavily, but Marek didn’t give her long to recuperate.

  His lips found her pulse, then her collarbone, then the exposed skin of her sternum as he slowly drew down the catch on her suit. Bree’s breath stuttered, her hands gripping the desk to stay upright.

  “So much to learn,” he said again, the words gusting over her heated skin.

  Bree grinned. “Are you studying me?”

  “I always study.”r />
  “Even during our snowball fight?”

  “Of course. You called it fun, but it is always important to test such assertions,” he said as he drew the catch down to her waist.

  She wet her lips. “And was it? Fun, I mean.”

  “I preferred what came after,” he said slyly, and Bree’s breath hitched.

  Marek continued his exploration, running his hands across her body. His touch was confident, his scales warmed by the lamp, but it made Bree shiver as he pushed her suit aside, exposing one of her pebbled, dusky nipples to the air. “So, what are you testing now?” she asked.

  The smile that pulled at his lips was nothing short of devious. “There is much data on your human stamina,” he said, his voice low and silky. He leaned over her, his tongue darting out to taste her nipple, and she gasped. “Especially for females.”

  “You’re gonna make me beg?” Bree’s laugh was short and sharp, her lungs not cooperating. “Because I’ll beg you to do that again.”

  Marek’s eyes flared appreciatively. “Maybe. But that is not the test.” He rose back to his full height, cradling her face in his hands. “I wish to make you come again and again. Until you can no longer.”

  A quiver of desire shot through Bree at the words, her legs parting unconsciously. “Please,” she whispered. Marek’s pupils pulsed, and he captured her lips with his own.

  17

  They never even made it to the bed.

  Bree shuddered into the kiss, her fingers gripping Marek’s suit as he devoured her once again. For the first time since entering this alien world, her mind was blissfully blank, her body running on instinct as it did only during a hunt.

  Her back arched as he bent her over the desk, his lips following that blazing trail back down her neck and along her collarbone, pausing only to suck at her pulse in a way that made her gasp. His hands kept her hips anchored against his, her quivering core pressed against his iron-hard cock, and she moved her hips in small circles, chasing the friction.

  Then, he sucked her exposed nipple back into his mouth, and Bree cried out. The wet heat encompassed her sensitive skin, the faintest brush of teeth sending sparks of electricity straight to her clit. She clutched him closer, her legs wrapping around his waist for balance as he swept the other half of her suit aside to give her other breast attention.

  But it wasn’t enough. She pushed Marek back, her hands flying to the catch on his suit, only for him to snatch up her hands and pin them to the desk on either side of them.

  “What?” she asked sharply, her chest heaving and her nipples glistening in the orange light.

  Marek smiled, his small, uniform teeth flashing. “You are impatient, toshaan.”

  Her cheeks reddened. “Well, who wouldn’t be? I haven’t had sex in… in too long, and you just offered me multiple orgasms.”

  “And you wish to rush through them?”

  “I wish to have you inside me,” she breathed against his lips, and there was the reaction she wanted. Marek’s irises were almost eclipsed by his fattened pupils as he drank her in, his cock jumping against her core.

  “You grow bold,” he said, his voice huskier than she’d ever heard it.

  “You make me bold. You have ever since I came here.”

  “No.” He released one of her hands to run his own through her hair. “You were bold the first time I saw you, when you asked an enemy alien for help.”

  The next kiss scorched as he slipped his hands beneath her suit and slid it over her shoulders. The fabric pooled at her waist, and the glow of the lamp was hot against her skin, but Marek’s mouth was hotter.

  “Oh, hell,” she hissed, her back arching. He kissed along her body as if it were something to be worshiped, her skin burning and feverish.

  Then, Marek dropped to his knees, his head now level with her…

  Oh.

  She helped him pull the rest of her suit down her legs eagerly, her breath hitching as he spread her legs and settled between them. He kissed her inner thighs, the caress of his lips almost sweet after everything else, but his violet eyes were on fire when they met hers.

  A broken moan escaped her when he thumbed her clit, his touch like lightning. There was no inexpert fumbling, no hesitance like she’d experienced with men in the Barracks when she was younger. Marek knew exactly where to touch her, had probably pored over ‘data’ detailing how to please her, knowing him, and when he swirled his thumb around the tight nub, Bree snapped her hips forward for more, gripping his scaled head between her palms.

  But to her surprise, Marek stilled, and she realized she had never really seen him from this angle before. His scalp was textured, smooth scales giving way to rough, hardened ridges that ran back from his forehead to the nape of his neck. The ridges were bone-colored in places, similar to the plates she’d seen adorning Urek’s head, but the spacing was uneven.

  “I am sorry,” he started to say. “It is not attractive to look at.”

  “It doesn’t bother me,” she said, trailing her fingers down to the skin behind his ear. She remembered his advice on how to win a fight against his kind and wondered if the soft scales were sensitive to more than just pain. Her answer came in the form of a soft groan as Marek shuddered. “What does bother me is that you stopped.”

  The fire in his gaze relit at her words, and he hooked his hands behind her knees, jerking her closer. He dipped between her legs without hesitation, licking a line from her core to her clit, and then his lips encircled her.

  “Holy shit,” Bree gasped. The tight suction of his lips was like nothing she’d felt before, sending arrows of heat straight to her clit as she clutched him closer. She’d tried this before, but teenage groping was nothing compared to the pinpointed, wet, intense heat of Marek’s mouth as he pleasured her.

  Her fingers gripped his scalp, her hips jerking against his hold on them in uneven thrusts as her release began to build already, like a bowstring threatening to snap.

  A cry left her lips as she let go, and she thrust against Marek’s seeking mouth. She curled around him, holding him tight against her as stars exploded behind her tightly shut eyelids.

  When she opened them, it was to find Marek’s mouth pressed to her hip, his eyes hungry. The look sparked a fresh wave of arousal in her, and she asked breathlessly, “How’s that test going?”

  “Very well,” Marek growled, his accent growing thicker and his voice rough. “I learn much from you, always.”

  “Oh yeah? Like what?”

  He nuzzled her thigh. “I learn that you turn slick when aroused. I learn that it tastes…” He trailed off, pressing his lips to her fluttering core and collecting her slick on his tongue. “…sweeter than Pindarro honey. And I learn that your walls clutch when you come, begging to be filled.”

  A soft noise left Bree’s lips as he teased her entrance with a finger, her body tightening greedily around the digit.

  “Relax, mi’ik toshaan,” Marek murmured, and then swirled his textured tongue around her clit as he stroked inside her.

  He worked her open, building her up again with slow, lazy thrusts of his thick fingers. His hands were rough in all the right places from his work, grazing her over-sensitive walls, and he seemed determined to drive her crazy with his soft, languorous tongue. She was at his mercy, her body boneless, until he began to suck.

  “There! There, there, fuck, there,” she repeated like a mantra, her legs opening wider to accommodate him as their bodies surged together. Then a second finger entered her, slipping easily inside, and Bree moaned at the feeling of fullness that she hadn’t even realized she’d been missing all these years.

  Her back found the wall, knocking something flying, and she looped her legs around his wide shoulders, her hips undulating. She whispered his name, and when he met her gaze, his blue-violet eyes were dangerous, alien.

  No matter how much of her people’s blood coursed through his veins, Marek was far from human, and she was more aware of it now than ever as he brought her to
the edge.

  And she wouldn’t change anything about him. Not his hairless brow, not his scaled skin. The heat lamp was so close it threatened to burn her, but in the orange glow, his scales looked like thousands of tiny gemstones next to her tan skin. He could have sharp fangs hiding behind those plush lips of his and she’d bare herself to him anyway, because she knew he would never hurt her. Of all the aliens in this mine, he was the one she trusted the most.

  She drew him closer, a soft moan escaping her as the pressure built, and she clenched his head between her thighs. Then, his fingers found that spot inside her that made her hips jerk, and her eyes widened. How would his cock feel, the wide girth of it sliding against her walls?

  “Oh, fuck!” She crested, her orgasm rocking throughout her whole body as she cried out, and Marek held on like a solid cliff-face weathering a storm. He pleasured her to the point of oversensitivity, pulling away only to gently kiss her shaking thighs.

  “Get the fuck up here,” she blurted, pulling on his shoulders until their bodies were flush again. When she kissed him, she tasted herself on his tongue.

  “I learn that your mouth turns filthy when you are given what you want, as well,” Marek said between their furious kisses.

  “And I’ve learned that you talk way too fucking much.” Waves of pleasure still rolled through her, but Marek’s stiff cock pressed insistently against her hip, and she wanted to give it exactly what it wanted. She tugged him closer and said, “It’s your turn now.”

  “You have reached your limit already?”

  “No. But maybe I want to push yours, too,” she whispered.

  Marek’s breath caught, desire plain on his face, but when she reached for the catch on his suit, he stilled her fingers once again.

  “What’s wrong?”

  He gulped. “I cannot.”

  “Why not?”