Penny nodded, understanding.
"I don't know if it means much," Penny said, "I don't know how humans look to you. But by my standards, you're far from disgusting. You're quite attractive actually. Not like those waifish, bug eyed creeps in the cathedral."
Tau laughed, and she saw he was still embarrassed.
"Their eyes are the same as mine, you know," he said, "The larger lenses are a kind of jewelry. Larger eyes that look like the Queen's are in fashion right now."
"I still prefer you," Penny smiled, amused by his avoidance, "I think a lot of humans would."
He was still holding her hand, and he ran his thumb over the back of her fingers gently.
"To answer your question," he said, "I think humans are quite beautiful. You especially."
Penny felt her heart skip a beat and she looked away, blushing, wondering why it affected her so much to hear him say that. She opened her mouth, not sure what she was about to ask, when the chime sounded and the lights dimmed. Tau's hand slipped from hers.
"Good night, Penny Allyn," he said as he moved to his bed.
"Good night, Aiten Tau," she replied, and saw him smile before he put out the light entirely.
Penny laid in the pillows of her cage for a long while, thoughts a jumble. There were only four more of this planet's days before she would be executed. So why was her heart racing for an entirely different reason?
Chapter Ten
Life in the cage was surreal in a way. She saw everything. She watched Tau wake and dress and eat in the morning and everything he did at night as well, from cleaning his armor to playing with one of the strange, colorful sliding puzzles that seemed to be a primary form of entertainment here.
He gave her one along with the books he retrieved from her team to keep her occupied while he was gone, but she couldn't figure it to save her life. She just didn't think the same way he did.
She sat in her cage at the center of his life and watched him living, unable to touch it or take part except in the most limited of ways. They talked always, and she could hold his hand through the bars, but she couldn't really affect his life. She was at the center of almost everything he did now, and removed from him at the same time.
There was a disorienting sense of dehumanization to it sometimes. She felt like a weird art piece. An object or a pet. A dog in a kennel. She wondered somewhat anxiously if that was how he saw her.
When he'd said she was beautiful, did he only mean it in the way she might say the same thing of a cocker spaniel? The thought hurt her more than she expected it to, but she didn't dare ask.
Time was whittled away a little more every day, and every day she felt both closer to him and more distant, the bars of her cage a gulf between them, and she wondered why she couldn't focus on her swiftly approaching death instead. It still seemed so unreal and impossible. Maybe she was just certain that he would keep his promise to her and find a way for them to survive this. She only seemed to think about how little time she had left when she lay down to sleep.
Only three days left, only two...
Tau returned late the night before the trial. He'd been gone the entire 48 hour day, having left before the morning chime.
"Any luck?" Penny asked, gripping the bars of her cage as he removed his helmet. He looked tired and strained.
"I believe so," he said, sinking down next to her cage without even taking off his armor, "It was very difficult. I consulted with your hive-I apologize, your team, on how to interface with your technology. Once I had access to the data, translating it into a form our computers could work with was... Difficult is putting it lightly. I am lucky to have connections who understand that sort of thing better than I. But I should have what I need to present to the regency tomorrow. It will be enough, I hope."
"I believe in you," Penny said, though her smile was worried, "We'll figure something out."
She reached through the bars to touch him, the chitin of his armor a strange texture that wasn't quite metal or bone. He took her hand, still wearing his clawed gauntlets.
"After the trial," he asked, looking down at her hand in his, "If they release you. What will you do?"
Penny hadn't thought about it yet, and she considered it now, leaning against the bars.
"I guess we'd go home," she said, "Back to Earth. To tell everyone about what we learned here. We might stay here a little longer to see more and collect more data. But I'm sure after what we've been through everyone is eager to go home."
She frowned at the thought and Tau noticed, releasing her hand to touch her cheek.
"You don't seem happy about that."
She bit the inside of her cheek, wondering if she should tell him how little she wanted to go back to Earth. She wondered if he could even begin to understand.
"There isn't a lot waiting for me back there," her voice was halting, unsure, "I didn't really have any friends outside of the team. No other hobbies or involvements. I've poured pretty much my entire life into this. Never really had time for anything else. There's just my parents, and they..."
She trailed off, taking a deep breath through her nose as she thought about her parents.
"You have to understand," she tried to explain, "They weren't cruel. I mean, they could have been a lot worse. I never went hungry or neglected. They never physically hurt me. Sometimes, I wish they had. It would be easier to explain to people than what they did do. Things like locking me in a closet when my test scores weren't high enough sounds dramatic and makes people sympathetic, but that only happened a handful of times. That's not what living with it was like.
The constant, impossible expectations. Thinking you've finally done it only to have them move the goal posts. Never feeling good enough or like you've accomplished anything. The constant tension under every conversation, every moment I was in that house. Like the moment in a movie when the camera focuses on a closed door and the music thins out, only it just goes on forever... Sorry, this probably doesn't make any sense to you."
Tau shook his head, but the concerned frown on his face told her he understood she was in pain, even if he couldn't hope to comprehend why.
"I've never had those experiences," he said, "I can't know what it was like. But I understand not belonging. Wanting to leave a place so much you'll do anything to leave it behind."
"Like join the space program and dedicate your life to getting off planet so you don't even have to be in the same solar system anymore?" Penny asked with a small, bitter laugh. Tau's hand was still on her cheek, his thumb grazing her cheekbone.
"You succeeded," he said, "You crossed the universe to leave them behind. I can't imagine many other humans, many other beings at all, have accomplished that. Whatever else, that is an incredible victory."
Penny felt a warm glow in her chest and tears at her eyes. She'd never believed those words before, coming from reporters or boyfriends or her team mates. Why did they mean so much coming from him?
"Are you hurt?" Tau asked, wiping at the tears that gathered under her eyes, "Why are you upset?"
"I'm not," Penny said, her voice breaking as she pressed into his hand, "This happens sometimes when humans are feeling a lot of any emotion. And right now, I'm just really happy."
He smiled, and Penny felt the fiercest need to be closer to him.
"Tau?" she asked quietly, "Can you lean closer to the bars? I want to try something."
He shifted closer as she'd asked, and she reached through the bars to catch the back of his head, the texture of his hair strange and fibrous under her hand. She pulled him in closer still, until she was staring into those iridescent eyes, their faces a bare inch apart, separated by the bars of the cage. But the spaces between the bars were wide enough for this.
Penny closed her eyes and pressed her lips to Tau's. She felt him stiffen in surprise, unsure what to do. His mouth was warm, not at all unlike a human man's, but left her lips tingling like the touch of menthol, with a taste that reminded her of anise. She pulled away and he s
tared back at her, wide eyed.
"What was that?" he asked.
"A human thing," Penny explained, blushing, "It's a way of saying... You said the winged males have romances together. It's a way of expressing a feeling like that."
Tau blinked, looking taken aback.
"You would share that with me?" he asked, voice soft with disbelief.
"If you want it," she withdrew her hand, a little unsure, "If you could see me that way. In spite of everything, I'm so glad I met you."
He caught her hand as she pulled it back towards the bars of her cage and leaned in to kiss her again, imitating how she'd kissed him. Pressing against the bars as closely as she could, Penny deepened the kiss, showing him how with careful patience.
He caught on quickly, sliding his arms through the bars to hold her closer, until she winced at the stab of his armor and he withdrew to shed it with quick, deft touches.
He couldn't leave her kiss for long, returning to even as he was still shedding the jointed panels of his carapace. Penny helped him with shaking hands, wanting to feel his skin, to know every inch of him.
He was wearing the same light clothes under his armor as always, and Penny slid her hands beneath his tunic to caress the sculpted muscles of his stomach, feeling them tremble under her touch.
His mouth never leaving hers, his hands began to explore as well, moving under the loose white garment she'd been given in place of her flight suit to trace her ribs through her skin and cup her breasts curiously. When he felt her rise into his hand as he kneaded them and plucked at her nipples, he seemed to realize he'd found something she enjoyed and redoubled his efforts, leaving her breathless and squirming.
"This touch," he asked, his own breath shallow with excitement, "My mouth against yours. What is it called?"
"A kiss," Penny told him, pressing another to the corner of his mouth and gasping as he flicked at the rosy bud of her breast experimentally.
"And kisses," he asked, "Are they only for lips?"
"No," Penny felt a thrill of excitement run through her, "You can kiss anywhere."
"I would like to kiss you everywhere," Tau looked into her eyes with an intense iridescent gaze and Penny's heart raced. She nodded in eager agreement.
He kissed every inch of her he could through the bars, pulling her close and dragging cloth out of the way to shower kisses over her breasts, her stomach, her thighs. The bars dug into her skin, but it was a sweet pain to be able to feel his lips against her. She'd been watching him all these days, telling him everything, everything except how much she wanted this.
Her hands drifted lower, towards his hips, and she felt a flutter of nerves, wondering if she dared discover this part of him, wondering what she might find if she did.
On the one hand, what an incredible moment for the field of xenobiology. Cho would be wild with jealousy. But on the other hand, what if she found they were incompatible, or worse too repellent to each other to even consider attempting it? If they were stopped now by simple biology, Penny's heart would break. But she had to try.
She ran a hand down his thigh, giving him time to stop her before her palm ghosted over his lap, feeling the not unfamiliar bulge there. He caught her wrist with a gasp, breaking the kiss to look into her eyes.
"If you do that," he warned her, "I won't be able to hold back. Are you sure you want this? With someone like me?"
"I don't want it with anyone but you, Tau," she answered, pushing her hand into his pants to grasp him, relieved to recognize the shape of the shaft in her hand. He dragged her closer at once, taking control as he kissed her ferociously and pushed the thin white robe up her thighs to reach her heat.
He pulled her hips closer to the bars and she fell back onto her hands as he leaned back to examine her. He pressed his fingers between the lips of her sex, sliding against the wet heat there, making her shudder and buck as he rubbed against her clit experimentally. He spread her open wide to look at her more closely and Penny blushed at his frank, shameless curiosity.
"It's so soft and pink," he observed, exploring every inch with thorough, questing fingers before he even found her entrance, "and so wet."
His fingers slipped inside her and she moaned, rocking her hips up into the touch, loving how carefully he was learning her body.
He let go in order to grab her hips, turning her roughly over on to her stomach and pulling her back against the cage. The cold metal of the bars pressed against the bare skin of her backside and the air brushed against her exposed moist folds, making her shiver with a thrill of embarrassment.
And then, she felt the warmth of lips pressing against her clit, a surprisingly gentle kiss for how possessively his hands were holding her hips. The strange, tingling menthol affect when he kissed her didn't seem to be reserved for her mouth.
He left icy tingles behind everywhere his lips touched. She gasped, then moaned encouragingly as she felt his tongue, imitating what she'd shown him earlier.
"Yes," she whimpered, hips squirming back harder against the bars as his tongue flicked against her clit, "There, please!"
Encouraged, he pressed closer, burying himself in her up to his nose as his tongue lapped at her heat and delved inside her, surprisingly long and agile as it curled against her walls.
"Almost there," she moaned, "Please, don't stop!"
If anything he went harder, fingers rubbing her clit as his tongue moved within her until she surprised him with a gush of fluids, cumming so hard she saw stars.
He pulled back, licking his lips as she squirmed in the after throes of pleasure, her skin tingling everywhere he'd touched her so that every breath of wind was an almost unbearable wave of sensation.
Caught up in her lingering orgasm, she didn't notice him moving behind her until she felt the heat of his tip pressing against her entrance, already leaking. She tensed as he squeezed her hips and reached back to catch his hands.
"Wait," she said, suddenly worried, "Is this safe? You won't... die, will you?"
He smiled and, playful, bent to press a kiss to the skin of her backside.
"You are not a queen," he said, "Though I would follow you like one. I will not die."
Then he surged forward, pulling her back hard against the bars as he filled her. He was bigger than she'd expected, driving the breath from her as he pushed in, driving in relentlessly until his hips met the bars of her cage and he was deeper within her than anyone had ever been.
She could only press her face to the floor of the cage and tremble with ecstasy as she adjusted to his size, spreading around him. She could feel him inside her, and not just him, but the fluid he was pouring into her as well, cool and tingling, and realized another difference between their species. His was one of those that, like many on earth, came continuously throughout the act.
Even as he was just beginning to move his hips, he was already spilling his alien seed within her, filling up every nook and cranny within her and making her feel even more full than before. And then he began to move in earnest, pulling her back hard against the bars, driving deep into her and grinding against all the places within her that made her moan the loudest, pushing back against him and crying his name.
The cage shook every time his hips connected and she shook with it, overwhelmed with the sensation of being claimed by him. He was pouring so much into her that it flooded out around him every time he drove in, dripping out onto the floor of the cage. Penny could only cling to the bars of the opposite side of the cage to keep her steady, orgasm building like a wave inside her as he rode her hard.
He released her hips with one hand to reach under her and rub her clit, driving her over the edge of pleasure once again. She cried his name tightening around him, and a few rough thrusts later, she felt him throb within her, driving in as deeply as he could before releasing a final thick burst of cum. She groaned with satisfaction as she felt him filling her up, before slowly pulling out of her, trailing his seed.
Penny, dazed, rolled over onto her back,
her arms still above her head, and lay there catching her breath. She heard Tau moving but, out of it as she was, didn't notice what he was doing until she felt something close around her wrists.
She looked up, blinking in confusion, and saw Tau securing a pair of wide, sleek black cuffs to her hands. Yellow lights blinked on the sides of either one, the cord between them looped around one of the bars of her cage.
"What?" Penny stared, confused, "Why are you?"
Tau was already moving around to the end of the cage.
"There are sensors in the cage," he explained, "I can't open it unless the restraints have been engaged."
As she watched, he touched the top of the cage and the door swung open at once, seamless and silent. He crawled inside towards her, the gleam of his eyes almost predatory. Her heart skipped a beat as she realized he was already hard again.
"During a nuptial flight," he said as he caught her by the knee and pressed a kiss to her thigh, "A male can mate as many as seven times."
Penny's eyes widened, a shiver of delighted anticipation running through her as he climbed over her. There were no bars between them now, no barrier to separate them. And with her hands cuffed above her head, she was helpless before him. She moaned as he pressed into her again, this time close enough that she could feel the full length of his body against her.
Close enough that she could kiss him as he buried himself within her and began to move again, slower this time, not fierce hard strokes but long, slow ones, taking his time to devour her, spreading kisses over her throat and breasts, keeping her on the edge of orgasm without but never quite letting her fall, not until he wanted her too.
He teased her mercilessly for hours, long past the chime and dimming lights that indicated it was time for rest. Only when she was completely exhausted did he finally relent. He lay beside her then, their limbs tangled, still pressing tired kisses to her throat every few moments.
"I'm so glad I met you," Penny said, her voice weak with happy exhaustion, her body warm with contentment, "I think... I think I love you, Aiten Tau."
The Warrior's Proposal (Celestial Mates Book 7) Page 15
