by V. K. Ludwig
I buck against him.
So close, but I need more.
Another thrust of my hips.
Air. Just air.
And a chuckle in place of friction. “Not yet.”
“What the fuck!” I snarl, and I can’t draw in enough air for my heaving chest. “Why are you stopping?”
Jax pushes himself up, rock-hard shaft lining up with my labia, his eyes pinning me down. “Look at me!”
They narrow for long seconds as he cups my chin, holding me in place, and dips down. Soft lips brush over mine, sharing the taste of my arousal. He drags his tongue over my mouth, asking me to part for him, and I do.
I writhe underneath him, grinding myself on his shaft while he kisses me like starved. His hand digs into my hair, and he groans each time he braces against my thrusts.
And yet he doesn’t move.
He keeps me pinned with locked hips, killing me with long moments where he just stares at me, his breathing hard and labored.
“You feel so veking perfect underneath me,” he says, voice dark and consumed with the same lust burning through me. “Stop moving, Lilly.”
I don’t.
I wiggle like a woman possessed, whimpering, needing that friction, that release. “Please make me come.”
“Shh…”
The nerve of this guy…
But he is insistent, not moving an inch until at least half a minute passes. Thirty seconds of pure agony while that throb in my clit calms.
“I will make you come,” he croons softly, stroking a hand over the side of my face. “You enjoy broad pressure, and my shaft will give you plenty of that.”
He rocks his hips, short, slow thrusts grinding through my lower lips so sodden they smack. That Vandalar cock does have ridges, and each one rubs over my clit until my knees tremble.
I buck against him, meeting him beat for beat, and he rolls his hips perfectly synchronized to mine. My body tightens seconds later, that new wave of pleasure building so unexpected, so fast, so fucking forceful there’s no escape.
A tingle starts around my pussy and ripples deep into my core, crackling through my bones with such violence I suck in a sharp breath. My entire body convulses, feet flexed and back arched, a whole-body shiver making my hairs stand on end. That orgasm tears through me like a lightning strike and keeps on sizzling for long seconds while I scream and claw on Jax’s shoulders.
“Beautiful,” he almost purrs, and still the guy keeps his movements rhythmic, the pressure consistent. “Sometimes, it pays off to let it all ebb away, just to drown you in the end. We call that eshtum.”
All life force sucks out of me, and I can’t feel my limbs anymore. Am I dead? Oh my god. So tired.
His movements slow, and he rubs his forehead against mine. “Let me carry you to bed so you can rest.”
He climbs off me, jutting cock on full display, the dips between his ridged shaft slathered with white cream. Strong arms pick me up and carry me to my bed, the linen cold and calming against my heated skin. My body is limp, entirely listless, and my breathing turns heavy.
“You haven’t been pleased in a while, I think.” Something strokes my hair back. “We will remedy that.”
Heaviness settles onto my body.
Then, everything turns blissfully quiet.
Five
Jax
I lean against the doorframe to Lilly’s bedroom, eyes burning, but I’ll be damned if I blink. That female is all soft skin and vulnerability, her tousled hair itching my fingers to rake through it, and I can’t look my fill.
It’s a rare sight for sure.
Back home, she would have a bunch of males around her, already hissing and snapping behind her back, fighting each other for dominance. But her bed is empty aside from her shapely body. I might not be in there with her since it seemed too intrusive for the first night — but no one else is there either.
You’re the only one.
I can’t get those words out of my head.
Only the rich and powerful Vandalar males score their very own female. I’m not that kind of male, yet here I stand, the only one, feeling like the luckiest fool.
She nuzzles her pillow, still passed out, though her pulse is fine. I checked. Twice. Can’t be too careful since I know nothing about her species. Do all human females fall asleep after release?
So much to learn…
She hissed at me when I stopped at the cusp of release, twice, going so far as cursing me out and digging her nails into my skin. That was cute. But all was forgiven when she came so veking hard I sensed her cunt convulse against my shaft even without being inside.
With a sigh, I return to the kitchen. The air hangs heavy with the fragrances of herbs and fried meat.
I take the spoon and scatter the meat in the frying pan so it can brown evenly, sprinkling more salt for good measure. Cooking is one of my specialties, hopefully making up for what I lack during penetration.
But if I continue to study her?
Take my time in exploring—
Click.
I freeze, blood stalling in my veins.
When I slowly turn around, finding Lilly with a gun butted against her shoulder and the barrel pointing straight at my chest, I know I somehow veked up.
“What did you do to me last night?” she asks through gritted teeth, hair a wild mess around her head, pillow imprint streaked across her cheek.
Is this a rhetorical question?
My stomach turns rock hard, nausea breaking against the back of my throat. What I did to her? Mouthfucked her until her legs turned so wobbly I had to carry her to bed. Should I remind her? Yes? No?
I slowly raise my hands instead and say, “Calm down.”
“Don’t you dare say that.” The ka-tshuh of her weapon sends me a step back, calves tensing underneath me. She’s serious. “What the fuck was that growl you made?” When I open my mouth, the cold metal of the barrel clinks against the underside of my collar. “I swear the moment you make a sound that isn’t a consonant, I’ll sprinkle brain matter across the kitchen.”
The scent of herbs turns bitter behind me, and the sizzle of meat dies into silence. My thighs tense, and I shift my balance back onto my heels, blood rushing through my ears. I don’t get it. I’ve disappointed many females, but none to the extent they’ve held me at gunpoint.
“Mating growl,” I say, but she only puts her finger on the trigger, so I quickly add, “Vandalar males use it to arouse their female and entice her for mating.”
She gives a barbed laugh. “Entice? Your growl made me act like a street hooker high on meth. And you took advantage of me.”
“Took advantage of you?” As if last night brought me any satisfaction. “You rubbed yourself on my leg and begged me to make you come.”
Her eyes snap shut, wrinkles forming at the corners, head shaking violently. “That’s the fucking point. I didn’t mean to say that, and I sure as hell didn’t want to… to… rub…” Now she’s the one growling, finger caressing that trigger again. “I want you out of my house right now!”
Her words hit me like a punch to the face. With a brick. Getting disposed of less than a sun later? That’s a new record, even for me.
The first plumes of smoke creep into my nostrils, and I jut my chin toward the cooktop. “The food is burning. Let me just turn around and shut the heat off. Okay?”
Lilly shifts her weight onto one leg, eyeing the stovetop warily. “What food?”
I only slightly turn, keeping my hands up while I tap the holographic control panel with my tail claw. “I made you breakfast.”
Lips I kissed only a few hours ago press into a thin line. Maybe delaying her orgasm wasn’t such a good idea?
“I’ll put my shoes on, and then I’ll return you to the slave trader,” she says, her posture still as tense as when she first walked in. “He told me satisfaction is guaran—”
A knock on the door, followed by a nose pressing flat against the glass. “What the fuck is going on
in there?”
“Shit.” Lilly snarls and backs toward the door, but her eyes are as fixed on me as the barrel of her gun. She deactivates the security system and turns the knob. “What are you doing here?”
Her friend, the female who introduced herself as Steph yesterday, holds a red tub clasped between her fingers. “What am I doing here? What the hell are you doing pointing at Jax with a damn shotgun?”
Lilly flashes teeth. “He growled at me.”
A moment of considering silence and Steph furrows her brows. “Uh-huh.”
Lilly finally lowers the shotgun, but my relief is short-lived. She tames wild strands by raking a hand through her hair, glistening eyes darting across the room as if chasing for an explanation to all this. She’s sincerely rattled, and that sucks the blood from my veins.
I slowly lower my hands, rounding my spine to make myself look smaller. “Are you upset because I edged you to release instead of letting you come right away?”
“Oh boy…” Steph breathes.
The shotgun comes up again. “I’m pissed because I didn’t want to come at all!”
My guts tie into a knot, and that brain jumpstarts into gear. What if, maybe, just… maybe, human females react to a Vandalar growl in a way I didn’t anticipate?
“Put the gun down, crazy.” Steph places the red tub onto the counter beside her and gives a tug on Lilly’s shoulder. “Shooting your slave will get you booked. Just shock him.”
“Please don’t shock me!” Those collars veking hurt, especially on my kuchi. “I only did what I thought you wanted me to do.”
Hesitantly, Lilly leans the shotgun in the corner. “I didn’t want you to do… that.”
Another knot to my guts.
She didn’t want me to please her?
Why the vek did she buy me?
“What exactly did you do, anyway?” Steph asks. “So… you growled at her, and then you…?”
I run my palms down my face, then shrug. “And then I pleased her with my mouth before I rubbed her to release with my shaft.”
Lilly takes an angry step forward. “Only because you made that growl!”
“This is like a soap opera gone wrong.” Steph frowns. “What growl?”
“My Vandalar mating growl,” I explain once more. “It is sexually arousing to females, but it doesn’t make them act against their will.” A deep sigh before I add, “At least not on Vandalar females.”
“Well, I’m not Vandalar,” Lilly snarls, stoking that doubt at my core.
“Okay, so… that growl,” Steph says. “I’m trying to make sense of this before my friend here digs a hole for you in the back pasture. Can you do that real quick?”
Lilly immediately covers her ears.
I stand rooted, heat spreading to my cheeks. “It’s considered uncivilized to growl unless the male is alone with his female.”
“So is feeding you bullets and tossing you into the terrorhog pen. But hey, your choice.”
Heat radiates into my horns, turning the base itchy. It’s indecent to growl at a female other than my own, but still better than being chewed up by beasts.
I give a tiny growl.
It’s more like a wheeze, really.
Steph sucks on her lower lip, eyes half-hooded, whimpering a breathy, “Oooh… oh boy…”
But my eyes immediately fall to Lilly, who stumbles back and crashes against the kitchen door. Hands still pressing to her ears, she licks her lips, pupils blown all over again. Should I tell her she’s circling her hips?
My eyes flick to the shotgun.
Better not.
Steph stutters in a breath and blinks a few times. “That explains a lot. So, um, what makes you think Lilly is yours? Because you said, you only growl at your female.”
“I’m his female,” Lilly moans mindlessly, hands slowly slipping off her ears. She squeezes her breast, lips parted, and it takes all that I am not to grow hard at the sight, because an erection might just seal my death.
Although… this female doesn’t even remember she has a shotgun. And precisely therein lays the problem. My growl turns her brain to mush. I made a fine mess of this…
“I figured that’s what she bought me for.” Which, by now, I assume, isn’t the case. “Vandalar males who end up in slavery are almost always trained saikhs. What else would a female purchase me for?”
“Saikh?” Steph straightens her spine, breathing the remains of my growl out of her system. “What’s that exactly?”
“My sole purpose is to please my female,” I explain. “I cook. I clean. I converse. But mostly, I…” Vek them. Lick them. Spank them. Choke them. No, too direct. “Mostly, I do whatever it takes to bring them sexual pleasure and gratification.”
That snaps Lilly right out of it, and she throws her hands to her mouth, mumbling, “I bought myself an alien whore.”
Six
Lilly
“He’s a male concubine,” I whimper and press my head against the steering wheel, ribcage clenching so hard that next inhale is a struggle. “If Keg’rik would have cared to mention it, I would never have bought him.”
Steph hands me my coffee mug and places hers into the cup holder of my truck. “Bet he did a lot of post-driving in his lifetime.”
“It’s not funny,” I grumble and back out of my drive, ignoring how Jax sits in the back, knees clasped against his chest as he stares at the floor. “That guy probably doesn’t even know how to hammer a nail into drywall.”
“He knows how to nail you, though,” she giggles. “Seriously, sugar bean, was he any good? Because I’m telling you, your slave got my panties wet with his growl.”
Best fucking orgasm of my life. “That’s beside the point. I need a slave to work the fields, not a concubine who works me so hard I oversleep the next day and don’t remember where the fuck I am.”
“That good, huh?” She grabs her mug and takes a sip, the cabin soon filling with the earthy scent of coffee and sugar. “Damn, I would totally buy him from you if his cock wouldn’t smell like your cooch. Nothing personal, sweets, I simply don’t share my men.”
“There was a second Vandalar in his cell. But feel free to wash mine off and take him home. Saves me the trip to return him for a refund.”
“Refund? And then what?”
I shrug and pull onto the fastest hover lane, letting the fusion panels roar underneath us. “At this point, I’m willing to buy the one with the peg leg.”
“Jax is built to work, though,” she says. “That guy’s tall and all muscle. Not to mention hot. When did he open up his braid?”
A shiver runs up my legs at the memory of how he stepped out of the bathroom, black hair draped over a body molded into male perfection. Guess that’s a requirement for Vandalar saikhs? Handsome. Muscular. Fat cock with ridges that—
Heat floods my veins.
Stop thinking about it!
“I want a refund.” I hit the gas as if to underline my point, but my clit is throbbing. “How am I supposed to live with a guy who…” Deep breather. “Had me hump his leg? It’s awkward.”
“Let him hump yours in return?”
I just roll my eyes.
Ten minutes later, I pull onto the parking lot of the local trade center. I climb out of my truck and tap the edge of the bed where Jax cowers. “Wait here until I come to get you.”
Or run away.
At this point, I’m almost hoping he’s gone by the time I return. Saves me finding an excuse to dump him somewhere if I don’t get my credits back.
My throat tightens.
I need that money.
“I’ll look at the other Vandalar male,” Steph says with a wink and skips down the corridor like a girl with a quarter on her way to a gumball machine.
I find Keg’rik in his office, hoofed legs crossed on his wide metal desk, arms folded behind his head. The air is even more stagnant in here, and stacked paperwork leaves no room to sit.
“I want a refund,” I say and fold my arms in fron
t of my chest. “That Vandalar you sold me isn’t a worker. Jax is a sex slave.”
He leans even deeper into his chair. “The Vandalar has the muscles to perform as you need him to.”
I grab the purchase agreement from my pocket and slam it onto the desk. “He might have the muscle, but he doesn’t have the mindset. You deceived both of us.”
“Deceived?” The Kokonian taps a scaled finger against green lips. “You asked for an able-bodied male, desperate enough he would not run and make you a willing slave.”
“Oh, he’s desperate, alright,” I say, the words bitter on my tongue. “The moment I brought him home, he growled at me, and let me tell you he was very eager to perform. Your sign at the entrance says satisfaction guaranteed. I want my credits back.”
“Eager to perform, huh?” The chair squeaks as he hoists himself out of it, leaning over as he taps against the contract. “Tell me, woman, did they teach him well at the saikhmenti?”
“The what?”
“The school all Vandalar saikhs attend,” he says. “Males study the female body for many years. Some say, a well-trained saikh will know at least one million ways to please you. Answer me, woman. Did they teach him well?”
Blood rushes up my neck with such force I want to drag my nails over it. What are the other 999,999 ways? The first one alone almost killed me.
Pull yourself together!
I do not want to find out.
Only the residue of the growl…
I narrow my eyes at him. “That’s none of your business.”
He holds up my contract, claw tapping at the fine print. “Keg’rik guarantees that the slave you purchase will satisfy to the best of his or her ability, skill, and physical as well as mental constitution. The way I see it, he did what he was made for.”
He lowers the paper onto the desk. “Given the blush on your cheeks, I think it’s safe to say he brought satisfaction.”
My fists crack knuckles by my side. “Then at least let me exchange him for another one.”
“You can’t afford another one,” he says with a grin. “No exchange. No refund.”