“Do you regret using that scent on me?” he asked, lips curling into a smile.
Tabitha took in a deep breath and let it out in a contented sigh. “Hmm…no. I’m a very happy participant, and now I can brag about having a freaky sex marathon. But I didn’t realize just how badly it would affect you. Can I be sorry about that but not sorry?”
Zevris laughed and shook his head. “You can be whatever you like, Nykasha. It was much more pleasant this time around than the first.”
She chuckled, smoothed her hand up his chest, and cupped his jaw, brushing her thumb along it. “Well then, I guess you won’t mind if we do that again sometime. Maybe I’ll even give you some forewarning.”
He turned his face toward hers and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Isn’t the surprise part of the fun?”
She smiled up at him, and those blue streaks in her eyes lit up briefly. He couldn’t be sure whether it reflected light, or if her eyes produced their own faint shine, but they’d seemed particularly bright while he’d mated with her—not just the blue, but the green, too.
Zevris lifted his hand from her thigh, brushing some of her golden hair out of her face. “How were you not claimed before I met you?”
Her smile faltered before disappearing completely. “A lot of guys just don’t like girls like me.”
He stroked the small cleft in her chin. “Human males do not like intelligent, resilient, humorous, beautiful females?”
She smiled again, and he saw the way her eyes softened at his words. “They don’t like fat girls.”
Zevris growled, flashing his fangs. “They are fools.” He moved his hand back to her thigh and clutched it. “Your size is perfect, and it is only one of a great many traits that encompass you. I do not need lily of the valley to look at you and be consumed by desire. From the moment I first saw you, I knew you were the other half of my heart, that you were what I needed to finally be content, to be complete. There is no one on this planet or any other who is like you.”
“I see it when you look at me. I feel it.” She quickly tilted her head down, but not before he glimpsed the tears glistening in her eyes. She pressed a kiss to his shoulder. “Thank you, Zevris.”
“Ah, Nykasha,” he said, smoothing his hand along her back. “I am sorry you haven’t been treated as you deserve. But that time is behind you now. You have me. And if you ask it, I will find every person who ever mistreated you and ensure they become at least as apologetic as Cody Everton.”
Tabitha laughed. “No. He doesn’t matter. None of them do. And I…I’m glad for everything that’s happened. If any one thing had been different, who knows if we would have ever met?”
Even trying to consider the myriad of decisions and occurrences that had eventually brought him to Earth, to Oregon, to this town, this street, and this house just before she’d moved in next door, was enough to drive Zevris insane. She was right—even the tiniest difference in anything in either of their lives could’ve been enough to ensure they never met. But at the same time…
“Perhaps it is illogical, but I know I would have found you eventually,” he said, flattening his hand on her lower back and spreading his fingers. “It would have taken longer, perhaps, but I would have found you. Because everything in me says you were always meant to be mine.”
She lifted her head and looked down at him, her long hair falling to one side. Her glittering eyes roved over his face. There was a seriousness in her gaze now. She reached up and brushed her thumb over his bottom lip, running it back and forth. “I love you, Zevris.”
Heat blossomed in his chest and spread outward, and suddenly his every nerve was alight, hypersensitive to every spot his skin was touching hers. The weight and feeling behind those simple words were immense.
He knew humans tended to throw that word, love, around freely—often enough in some cases to dilute its meaning. But he knew that wasn’t what Tabitha was doing. She’d never said those words to him before now, and though she’d given him countless meaningful looks, though she’d spoken to him so often with honesty and conviction, he’d never seen so much emotion and solemnity in her eyes.
Love was not a concept unique to humans; falorans had a term that represented the same thing, that carried the same weight. He didn’t need the translations loaded into his neural transceiver to decipher the meaning of this. He didn’t need to watch human entertainment to puzzle it out. Love was exactly what he felt for Tabitha.
It was…everything.
Cupping the back of her head, Zevris lifted his own and captured Tabitha’s lips with his. He poured everything he felt for her into that kiss, charged it with all those powerful, complex emotions, with all the longings, desires, hopes, and fears that he harbored inside himself but could not fully voice. His heart thundered and his pulse pounded. Unbidden, his cock twitched, but he ignored it.
When he finally broke the kiss, his lips were tingling, and his breath was ragged. He met her gaze and held it. “I love you too, Tabitha.”
The smile that lit on her face outshone every star. It was more beautiful than any smile from anywhere across the entirety of time and space.
He dragged her back down to lay beside him, tucking her against his side with her head resting on his shoulder.
She rubbed her cheek against his shoulder and was quiet for a time before asking, “What now? It’s been four weeks. What happens from here?”
Zevris frowned. His mind had turned to that question repeatedly over the last month, but he’d not allowed himself to dwell upon it for long. “Honestly, Tabitha…I don’t know. I was assigned a specific mission. In theory, my involvement would end once my objectives are complete.”
She tensed against him. “So, what? Either I have a baby and you leave…or I don’t, and you leave?”
“No,” he growled, clutching her tighter against him. “No. I will remain on Earth regardless, Nykasha. No matter my orders, whether we have a child together or not, my place is here. With you. That is never going to change, Tabitha. You have my vow on that.”
“What about your people, your mission? The…the military? Won’t they come?”
“If it comes down to my having to defy orders, yes. They will. But I have spent half my life eluding detection by a great many military forces, and I know all the methods my people would employ. They would never find us. I don’t believe it will come to that, though, Tabitha. The mating bond is a sacred thing to my people.”
Tabitha’s body relaxed. “And we are bound. So they won’t take you from me. Does our bond…guarantee that we’re compatible to…have a baby?”
Zevris slid his hand to her belly. Even now, his seed could be taking root inside her, growing something precious and rare—a child. Their child. Just the thought of her carrying his baby had his cock throbbing anew with the need to be inside her, to ensure that she was filled with his seed again and again, that she had every possible chance to conceive.
“No. But our people cannot reproduce without a mating bond in place, and we have been able to make that bond with no other species before. And our scientists have said your kind and mine are genetically compatible. There is no guarantee, and I do not wish to give you false hope…but I think the chances are strong.”
She settled her hand over his, squeezing it gently. “Good. I’ve kinda…well, I’ve really grown attached to the idea.”
Zevris’s tongue slipped out and ran across his lips as her words pooled molten desire in his loins.
Tabitha sighed and slid her leg down his body. Freed from her thigh, his cock sprang up immediately. He hissed through his teeth.
“Do…you want me to help with that?” she asked, gesturing toward it.
“No,” he said with a chuckle. “I’ll survive this time, and you need rest. I’ve broken your slumber too many times already tonight.”
She was silent, and he could feel her eyes on his shaft, could feel her debating with herself, and just the thought of her closing her mouth over his cock or taking it in
to the inferno that was her body had seed oozing from its tip.
“Tabitha…” he warned in a low voice.
“I’ve got the energy if you do,” she said, and he could hear the grin in her voice. “Besides…we have a baby to make.”
Zevris growled and rolled himself onto her. He positioned his body between her legs, bracing one hand next to her head to hold himself up. Sure enough, she was grinning up at him.
“Nykasha, you will be my undoing.” He grasped his cock, lined it up with her pussy, and thrust his hips hard.
Tabitha’s lips parted with a gasp. Her head tilted back, and her lashes fluttered, but she did not close her eyes or look away from him. Her sex gripped him; agonizingly exquisite, blisteringly hot, and tantalizingly wet. She fit him so fucking perfectly.
He groaned and circled his hand around her neck like a collar, using his thumb to keep her face tilted up toward him as he slowly pumped in and out of her, angling himself so the nubs on his cock dragged along her clit.
She panted, her breaths short and needy, and her inner walls pulsed, quivering around him. He knew she was sensitive, knew she was tender, and knew she was close to reaching her peak.
Tabitha slipped her arms around his neck and wrapped her legs around his hips. “I love you,” she rasped.
Those words again sent a thrill through Zevris that filled him with raw, volatile heat. His rhythm changed, becoming more urgent, and soon he was pounding into her with fierce snaps of his hips. He could not hold himself back.
“And I love you.” He slammed his mouth down over hers and kissed her deep, swallowing her cries, her moans, her whimpers.
All that pleasure created by the joining of their bodies, all that ecstasy created by friction and touch, was overwhelming on its own, but it was cocooned by something stronger now. Their admission of mutual love had wrapped everything in an extra layer that made it more potent, more powerful, more meaningful.
This was his home. This was where he belonged—with Tabitha, his mate, now and forever.
And he refused to let anyone take her from his side.
Though his eyelids were heavy, and the weight of weariness had settled over his body, Zevris had yet to fall asleep. A glance at the nearby clock told him it was thirty-seven minutes after three o’clock in the morning. This part of Earth was relatively quiet and still, and it would remain so for at least a couple more hours. The only sound in the bedroom was that of Tabitha’s slow, steady breathing.
Karak’duun, she felt so good tucked against him. His blood still ran hot, and the ache of desire still pulsed in his loins. It would have been so easy to take her again, to pull her atop him and tease her sex before pushing his cock into her slick heat.
But he refused to submit to those urges. He refused to rouse his mate again. He’d known she was exhausted, and it had been proven beyond a doubt after their last round of lovemaking. After he’d withdrawn from her and rolled onto his back, Tabitha had curled up against him, laid her head on his shoulder, and fallen asleep within seconds.
Zevris lifted his head to look down at Tabitha. Her face was angled up toward his, and her cheek was resting on his chest. Her warm breaths fanned delightfully across his skin. She looked so serene like this, so carefree. He wanted to ensure that she always looked so at peace; that was his new mission in life, the only one that mattered.
As slowly and gently as he could, he moved a hand to her face and traced her features with the pad of his finger. His whisper-soft touch followed her delicate brow, ran down along her adorable nose, glided over her cheekbone and down to her full, pink lips.
She didn’t stir.
He had no doubt that she would make use of that lily of the valley scent sometime in the future, and he would not try to stop her…but he would make every effort to spare her the full ferocity of his desire for so prolonged a period. Even he felt the exertion; he could only imagine how tired and sore she’d truly been.
“Ah, my sweet, sweet Nykasha,” he rasped, sweeping his finger down to her chin.
The last thing he wanted to do was leave the bed. Everything was perfect while he was here holding her. All the troubles of the universe were far away and out of mind, all the dangers had been chased away, and the darkness was warm and sheltering rather than mysterious and threatening.
But he knew it was time. He’d known it all day—well, all yesterday—and had done his best to put that knowledge aside for as long as possible. There’d been no need to delay this, no need to avoid it, but he’d done so regardless. Perhaps it had been out of some notion that it would maintain this amazing situation between himself and Tabitha—the longer command had to wait for the news, the longer Zevris had with her undisturbed.
With even greater care than he’d exercised with his touch, he extracted himself from their mutual embrace. Several times, he paused, breath caught in his throat, as she made a little sigh or shifted infinitesimally, but in the end she did not wake. She simply curled the blanket around herself tighter and slept.
Zevris didn’t allow himself to linger, knowing he could easily have spent hours just watching her sleep. He swung his legs off the bed, stood up, dragged on a pair of boxers, and walked to the wall-mounted television.
He eased the television aside and opened the secret storage compartment. Just as he’d expected, the comm disc had that blue light glowing. Command was ready for his report. In a few hours, it would have been exactly thirty days since Khelvar had informed Zevris of his looming extraction.
Plucking up the disc, he closed the compartment and exited the bedroom, quietly closing the door behind him. Though the walk downstairs couldn’t have taken more than ten or fifteen seconds, the thoughts suddenly swirling through his mind made it feel like an eternity.
The uncertainty hanging over Zevris and Tabitha was more troubling than anything he’d ever faced. They both knew better than to bet everything on hopes and dreams, they both knew that life exceled at finding ways to be cruel and ruin plans. There were no guarantees.
Except that last sentiment no longer seemed correct. Even if nothing else in the universe was guaranteed, his love for Tabitha was. He knew that with a certainty he’d never believed possible. It was seared into is heart, his soul, his entire being.
But he could not be sure of his superiors’ plans. As far as he knew, he was the only faloran to have formed a mating bond with an alien female. This was historic, unprecedented. None of that had mattered to him, yet it was true all the same. Zevris and Tabitha were likely the first mixed-species couple in faloran history with a chance to produce offspring.
What did it mean for his people, for their society, their civilization? What did it mean for Zevris and Tabitha?
He walked into the living room and sat on the couch, placing the comm disc on the coffee table.
Dexter, who’d been lying in his dog bed near the back door, stood up and padded over to Zevris. The dog hopped onto the couch, curled up against Zevris’s legs, and rested his head on Zevris’s thighs.
Smiling, Zevris patted Dexter’s side and scratched between his ears. Dexter kept his head down, but his tail wagged happily. Zevris’s tail was in motion too, but its movements were erratic, jerky, and stiff, born of agitation rather than excitement.
This should have been an easy report to make, one in which he could pride himself. He’d made significant progress. Yet it was difficult to be anything but worried when he had no idea what Command’s next step would be.
Releasing a huff through his nostrils, Zevris combed his fingers through his hair, leaned forward, and activated the comm disc.
The ultricar’s holographic likeness appeared moments after the disc scanned Zevris’s identity.
“Zevris.” Khelvar’s eyes flicked up and down, and he said in Faloran, “You look exhausted.”
With a soft, amused snort, Zevris shook his head. “You look a bit worn out yourself, ultricar.”
“I’m older than you, althicar. That gives me an excuse to look like shi
t. What’s yours?”
This was almost too much like a pair of old friends catching up after a long time apart, and it didn’t make the situation any easier. Zevris considered Khelvar his closest friend—and in many ways, even a father figure—but that was not the relationship that mattered between them now. This was an althicar reporting to his superior regarding an extremely important mission. A mission that could affect the fate of their entire species.
“I’ve simply been performing my duties,” Zevris said. “I have information to pass on. There is a fragrance here that has had severe effects on me. Convallaria majalis, known in English as lily of the valley.”
“What effects?”
“Dramatically increased sexual drive and urges, to the point of being almost uncontrollable. I have never encountered so potent an aphrodisiac. After smelling it for no more than two or three minutes, I was forced to…deal with those urges for the better part of nearly two Earth days.”
Khelvar frowned. “I will pass the information on to our researchers. Is that why you look so weary?”
“In part. I have formed a mating bond with a human female,” Zevris said.
Khelvar’s eyes rounded, and the faintest smile touched his lips—more like the ghostly memory of a smile than a true change of expression. “And is there a child expected?”
“Not yet. We’ve been…working toward it.”
“This is excellent news, Zevris. You will need to keep me informed of the progress on that front.” The ultricar looked away, as though toward some other screen or source of information. “We’ll have to mobilize the extraction and medical teams that have been on standby. They’re going to want to monitor the vessel, and should she conceive, they’ll keep track of—”
“Khelvar, with all respect, she is not a vessel.”
The ultricar’s brows fell, and he swung his gaze back toward Zevris. “I understand you’ve bonded with this human, althicar, but as far as the Exthurizen is concerned, she is a vessel. The most important vessel in existence.”
“Have you formed a mating bond with a female, Khelvar?” Zevris demanded.
Taken By The Alien Next Door Page 29
