by Laney Kaye
Tattooed-fade shuffled his feet and rubbed at his chin, and I got the distinct impression the navigation error was probably his fault. “In any case, we’re not bad aliens,” he muttered, as though that was a defense.
“You’re not aliens at all,” I snorted through my laughter. Though, truth to tell, I was kind of disappointed. I’d never been into role play, but I’d spent more time talking to these three real-live males than I’d had interaction in months. I could almost get into their fantasy. But then, that would make me as weird as them. “You’re totally human.”
“Why do you say that?” Tennn seemed offended. I guess these guys were heavily invested in their roles.
I swept my gaze up and down his cloaked form. “It’s kind of obvious, isn’t it? Humans look…human.” Other than the fancy designs tattooed beneath the other guy’s fade, they were no more alien than me.
“And just how should we look?” His jaw jutted aggressively. The longer-haired guy who had his toy gun pointed at Ol’ Gray — as though the cat would do anything but yawn — shot a grin at Tennn.
Who rose several feet into the air. Vertically. Without jumping.
I snapped my mouth closed. Okay, so I was sure personal hovercraft were a thing. Somewhere in the world. Just not big in Australia. But still, pretty cool.
However, I didn’t like the cocky look Tennn threw me, his arms folded across his chest, an eyebrow raised above the rim of his dark sunglasses. Like a B-grade theme-park stunt would be enough to make me believe their Comicon spiel.
“Take your glasses off,” I challenged. I wasn’t an idiot. I’d watched the movies, read the books. I knew my aliens: if he was telling the truth, he’d either have slitted, reptilian eyes or, at the very least, his iris would cover his entire eye, there would be no white.
Tennn shrugged and, still hovering in the air, slid the dark shades up to nestle in the close crop of his hair.
“Ha! Busted…” My sneer trailed off as he blinked. Well, half-blinked. An almost-transparent eyelid closed from the outside corner of his eye, where fine lines creased the vampire-pale skin, across to the inside corner, against his impossibly straight nose. Horizontally. And, in case I missed that, he then lowered a second eyelid on the same eye in a slow wink.
A normal wink.
A human wink.
Over his alien eye.
Oh. My. Giddy. Aunt. Fanny.
My mouth flapped wordlessly for a moment and then a horrible thought chilled through me. “Wait. You really are picking someone up?”
Tennn nodded.
“But it’s not me?” Wow. Way to sound pathetic.
Another nod. “You aren’t on our manifest.”
Oh, crap. No, no, no! In a split-second I’d gone from — okay, I admit it, a hot-guy-and-hormones-driven — acceptance of the whole alien abduction scenario, to rejection? Surely a girl had to catch a break somewhere. “How do I get on this manifest?” I blurted.
Because, if these guys were aliens — well, they’d just proved that at least one of them was — and the indisputable fact was that they seemed to be male. Very male. And far superior to anything I’d ever even fantasized over on Earth. Anyway, no way was I spreading my fingers into a V and waving them goodbye. Not when there was the slightest chance I could be spreading something else.
Tennn lifted one huge shoulder, looking confused at my sudden eagerness. “As I told you, we get the data from Central Galaxial Command.”
“And ASS has to register you as interested in relocating,” the one with the tattooed fade interjected. He appeared a little older than the other two, the sides of his hair peppered with silver, and craggy lines ran from the corners of his mouth to beneath his dark glasses. I shivered as I wondered whether his eyes also had the alien double-lid thing happening. He was kind of dictatorial and retentive — which, to be honest, gave him a whole other level of hotness, a stern disciplinarian vibe that had my mind going places I was pretty sure were illegal.
I blew out a tremulous breath. Honestly, I’d never wished so hard for anything as hard as I wished for this. How was it fair I’d never been ASS tagged? “So, you’re saying that all I need to do is click my shiny red heels and say ‘Take me to the stars’, and I’ll be on that register?”
“You are not wearing shiny heels.” Tennn’s confusion of a moment ago had changed to discomfort as he stared down at my naked — and slightly grubby — feet; evidently, he thought I was some nut job inter-galaxial hitchhiker.
Well, I’d wear the title proudly if I could thumb this lift.
“Figure of speech,” I waved a dismissive hand. “I mean, is there a way I can get on this list? Like, right now?”
“Tennn, if we were to implant her with the missing code, we could fulfill our quota,” the longer-haired um, alien who’d been concerned about Ol’ Gray said slowly, squinting at me. “We could get off-Earth immediately and catch the star currents as far as Farisank. That’ll save a bucket load of xasa in fuel. And you’re right; if she’s willing, what does it matter which alien we take?”
Yes! I didn’t in the least mind that my inclusion was for purely administrative and financial reasons. Or that the cheeky bugger referred to me as the alien. I was getting the heck out of here. Not just out of the desert, but out of the world.
I straightened my shoulders and flicked my hair back. Tried to flick it back, anyway, but my fingers tangled in the knotted strands, reminding me I had been curled up fast asleep, likely drooling, and my eyes were crusted with sleep-snot and sand. Way to sell myself. I raked my fingers through my hair, swiped the back of my hand across my mouth, and gouged my thumbs into the corners of my eyes. There. Surely I looked alien abduction-delish material now?
Tennn — even if that wasn’t his name, but an alien growl or his title, I was going with it — pinched at the bridge of his nose for a moment, never taking his eyes from me. Or blinking in anything approaching a human manner. And I’m not gonna lie and say that wasn’t totally hot. I mean, aliens…and they didn’t look like reptiles!
“What do you think, Stella?” he rumbled, drawing my name out like a caress. “Are you willing to be my sixty-nine?”
“Oh, hell, yes!” Even if he didn’t understand quite what he’d suggested, he had no cause to complain about my lack of enthusiasm. Not that any guy in my limited experience had. I threw myself toward Tennn, clutching my arms around his middle. His all-hard, all-abs middle, despite the heavy leather coat.
He wavered for a moment, balancing in the air current.
“Incoming. Now!” bellowed Long-Hair.
Tennn wrapped his arms around me and I was about to close my eyes in bliss when I caught Ol’ Gray staring balefully up at me.
Killjoy.
“Wait! Not without my cat,” I squealed, trying to wriggle from Tennn’s hold.
“You have another creature here?” He scowled at his men. “Why didn’t our receptors pick up another form?”
“My cat. Donkey.” With the rest of me trapped in Tennn’s hard embrace, I repeatedly jerked my chin toward the pile of grotty orange fur.
“Get the donkey-cat shifter,” Tennn snarled. “Cloaking — now!”
An odd sensation buzzed through me, and my vision went blurry, though I could see Long-Hair scoop up Ol’ Gray.
Then we were spiraling into the air with such speed that my breath disappeared. The huge rock I’d camped against became tiny beneath our feet and I squeezed my eyes shut.
Fairground rides had never been my thing.
“Open your eyes, Stella of the Stars,” Tennn murmured in my ear.
His voice was seductive and, as I complied, I glared at the other two men. If they weren’t around, I was sure Tennn and I would be getting it on; unless he carried a python in those tight pants, his abs weren’t the only hard thing pressed against me.
Except, as I opened my eyes, he dumped me unceremoniously to the floor. My wobbly legs plumped me down on my ass. And even my padding failed to disguise the fact that it was a
hard, cold, and not-altogether-clean floor.
Still, I gazed around curiously. Because, hellooo — alien abduction.
As the other alien dropped Ol’ Gray Donkey, the cat dashed over to me, crawling into my lap in an unusual display of affection.
Or abject fear.
Because, other than the dirt, nothing about this space was familiar.
Though the floor was covered with grit, a fair percentage of which probably belonged to the Australian desert, the other surfaces gleamed with an intensity that made my eyes sting.
The four of us — five, including Ol’ Gray — were screened by a clear shield that seemed to be made of either glass or Perspex. Beyond that, to my left, a floor-to-ceiling bank of lights and monitors flashed. For some reason, the fact that the lights were deep purple and bright pink, instead of red and green, made the whole thing seem more alien.
Yeah, like being zapped into a spacecraft wasn’t alien enough.
Two of the other walls appeared bare but had shadows that made hinted at panels, dark grooves dividing the shining metal surface in different sized rectangles, triangles, and squares. One of the geometric shapes had a long, very sterile-looking bench in front of it. A delicious shiver rippled from my toes to my scalp as I recalled everything I’d ever heard about alien probes.
And I was not shivering from fear.
Tattooed-fade pressed something on his wrist and the transparent shield around us disappeared. Then he strode toward the fourth wall, which was bare except for a small panel at thigh level. Well, thigh-level for these guys, anyway. More like nipple-level for me, allowing for the fact the girls weren’t as pert as they’d been a decade earlier.
It was hard to see past his broad back, but I suspected he was keying something into the pad. “Okay,” I breathed.
Hey, wait; I breathed? Panic constricted my throat and I clutched at it, fanning my face. “Is there oxygen in here? I mean, I’m human, I need oxygen.”
Tennn considered me for a long moment, a slight smile quirking one side of his mouth. Or perhaps a grimace of annoyance. “So do we. But you’re human? I thought you claimed to be a shifter?”
I screwed up my face. Seriously, what was this guy on? I sighed exaggeratedly and shook my head. “Stella Carragher, one-hundred-percent human female. And Ol’ Gray Donkey, one-hundred-percent feline.”
Tennn looked bemused, placing a hand on the unit on his wrist and squinting at the panel of flashing lights, as though it could solve his confusion. “Clarify. Donkey or feline? If it is more than one, it is a shifter.”
“Cat. Ol’ Gray Donkey is a cat.” Okay, so even I could see how that could be potentially confusing. But weren’t alien life forms supposed to be a superior intellect?
Not that Long-hair looked superior right now; he was down on his hands and knees, patting the cat in my lap with clumsy movements, like he was a dog. “I think I have read of these creatures.” His hand dropped heavily with each word.
An odd grumbling sound erupted from Ol’ Gray, and I started to scramble to my feet, shaking him. “He’s choking — oh, wait.” The darn cat was purring, though the unfamiliar noise was so rusty with lack of use, it grated in his throat. But I couldn’t overlook the fact that the traitor was actually purring.
Of course, if one of the not-at-all-hard-on-the-eyes aliens chose to stroke me, I’d purr, too. In fact, just the vibration through my legs from the alien’s firm caress felt…not unpleasant.
“Xander,” Tennn said.
“Huh? Who? What?” I babbled in my usual articulate fashion.
“Xander,” he said again, but this time nudged his chin at the long-haired man who knelt alongside, caressing me. Oh, okay, caressing the damn cat, but still, vibrations!
“And Yanno.” This nod went toward the guy with the tattooed fade, who’d succeeded in silently opening a huge panel in the wall of the ship. Fortunately, it seemed to give onto a hall, not out to the airless vacuum of space. “Meet Stella Carragher, who would be Stella of the Stars. And I am Tennn.”
Oh hell, yes; he was indeed.
Yanno had stuck his head out into the corridor, glanced around, and then shut the door again. He moved over to the paneled wall that was scribed with lines and pressed his palm against it. A tray slid out like a morgue drawer. A short morgue drawer, but still.
He withdrew something, opened another panel, took something else out. Hands full, he stalked toward us.
Tennn grunted. “Good thinking,” he nodded at something clutched in Yanno’s hand that looked silver, dangerous, and overwhelmingly unpleasant. “We’ll have to do her tattoo to match the implant.”
“Ah, hold up a hard minute, there.” Dislodging Ol’ Gray, I struggled to my feet. “I don’t remember any discussion about a tattoo. I’m not a fan. Like, nothing personal; if you have them, great, more power to you. And some of them are definitely hot.” That was for Yanno. I’d better be nice to him, or I might end up…disciplined. “But they’re not for me.” It wasn’t that I disliked the artwork, but the pain I imagined was involved in the creation.
“All ASS candidates have the tattoo. It’s only tiny.” Tennn sounded like he was trying to soothe me. “It shows your number, sixty-nine.”
The memory of his murmured words Are you willing to be my sixty-nine would go a long way to taking the sting out of any needle. “Will you hold my hand?” I fluttered my eyelashes at him. Because heck, why not? Nothing about this situation was normal, and this alien was hotter than the desert. I knew that for a fact because just looking at him made me sweat. Well, made me moist, at least. In areas I generally wouldn’t be too happy to find sweat pooling in.
I shifted uncomfortably, suddenly aware of my thin shorty-shorts. They’d looked super-cute in the online catalog, but of course, the model had been a size two. I had a digit up on her. Making me, like, double-digits. And, unlike my awesome Modibodi’s, these puny panties were doing little enough to cover my feminine mystique, and they sure as heck weren’t going to do anything to hold in any over-excited leaks.
“Your hand?” Tennn said. “If that’s what you want me to hold…”
Hang on, was he actually flirting? I was darn sure he’d missed every cue I sent his way but the smirk on his face now made me quickly rehash each exchange. Of course, I improved on some of my own verbal repartee in my mind, but still…were some of his throw-away lines laced with innuendo?
Yanno settled his armload of stuff on the steel bed.
Bench, I mean bench. It would make a hard bed. Though, if Tennn was under me…
“No tattoo yet,” Yanno said. “We have to see if she fits the criteria, first. We might be able to get her past the initial checkpoint by implanting her, but if she fails the medical tests once we reach Daorheris, you know there’ll be hell to pay. The Daorheris are neither the most pleasant nor the most understanding flesh-traders around.”
Uh, wait. One; I had to pass tests? And two; not all aliens were as…cultured…as these dudes? Suddenly, I wondered whether I’d jumped this ride too quickly. Hitchhiking had a well-deserved reputation for being dangerous, and I guess there was no reason for inter-galactic travel to be any different.
Tennn must have caught my look of concern because he took my hand, his touch zapping electric shocks from my fingertips to my...well, I was pretty sure it was my core. So, suck on that one, Australian government; this girl don’t need no contraband vibrator.
Tennn’s fingertip caressed my palm but, despite my flashing fantasy, even I had to admit it may have been inadvertent. “Don’t worry, Stella of the Stars. There are plenty of other purchasers at the flesh market who will want a human female. The Daorheris have somewhat fastidious requirements, despite their own countenance.”
“Hey, say what, now?” Seriously, did he just slap me down? I slammed my free hand on my hip, though I guess my outrage would have been more apparent if I retrieved the other from his loose grip.
“You misunderstand me.” His thumb pressed rhythmically into the hollow
of my palm. Press, release. Press, release.
My breath hitched in my throat and I spluttered in a very unsexy way. Because, seriously…was he…oh my God, was this how aliens had sex? I hoped not because, even though he was making me all kinds of jelly, I wanted more. Like, more of the traditional stuff. As traditional as it could be with a tall, dark, and handsome alien, anyway. Plus, though his thumb was largish, it wasn’t B.I.G, if you know what I mean.
Not to mention, were thumb-rubbers even a thing? Thumbdoms?
Seeming oblivious to the other men watching, Tennn bent closer, his breath surprisingly chill against my ear. “I only meant that gills are the type of…slit…the Daorheris prefer.” His inner lids skimmed briefly across his dark eyes, but did nothing to reduce the intensity of his burning gaze as he allowed it to slowly traverse my body. My nipples instantly peaked, punching at my ratty old tee, and I wished I’d grabbed my bra.
Tennn’s gaze stalled as he reached my thighs. A smile quirked his generous lips. “And, with their taste running more toward fish-like and aquatic-dwelling creatures, I suspect they fail to appreciate the finer nuances of erotic pleasure that a little natural forest can bring to an encounter. They don’t recognize the challenge of exploring the wilderness, of discovering what lies beyond by seeking what is not overtly displayed.”
Shit. I knew I should have trimmed the lady garden. And, though I had no problem with the idea of Tennn exploring my jungle, in these barely-there shorts, I was already overtly displaying rather too much.
I crossed my ankles and squeezed my thighs tighter together. Tennn rumbled, though I got the distinct impression the sound was of amusement…or maybe even pleasure.
Oh, yeah, and I hadn’t missed the fact that he slipped the word erotic in there, making it clear that his innuendo was as filthy as it sounded.
I sure hoped the word wasn’t the only thing he planned to slip in. I’d read plenty of alien abduction stories where the heroine proved her femininity by going all die-away and virginal at the sight of an alien male, but I was far too close to virginal in real-life to consider putting on that act. While others might like to pretend they needed to cling to their chastity and weren’t willing to surrender to their alien overlord, I was ready to throw up my hands and fall to my knees. And, okay, do whatever came naturally in that position.
