by Stone, Layla
The smell was the first thing to hit her, and she closed her eyes and mentally demanded that she move past it. Her stomach gurgled. “No. No. Not now.”
“You find him?” Denny asked as he walked up. He peered in and rushed inside, then bent down and put two fingers against Shine’s neck. “No pulse...but he’s warm.”
Moving forward, her stomach wriggled, but she had to get to Shine. Denny held up his hands, seeing her face. “Step back. You are not throwing up on me.”
She didn’t stop moving forward, and Denny jumped back, kicking glass pieces as he did. Holding her stomach with her right hand, she got on her knees, feeling the moisture against her skin. She started to dry heave. As she bent over the body, she tucked her left hand under her pants and pulled out the stolen medscope from her sock. Waiting for another heave, she pushed the medscope behind Shine’s neck. Then she felt for a pulse and waited.
It bumped once, but it was very soft.
“His pulse is weak. He’s dying,” Nara said.
“I need to call Karr.” Denny pulled out his Minky and walked out.
Nara almost heaved again, but she forced herself to stand up. Between bouts, she said, “No, you corbi. He’s alive, and he will live, but I need to help him. He needs…” She dry-heaved again. “I need more tummy-temper pills.”
Denny held up his hands. “Look, if you want to stay here nursing a dying male, be my guest.” He pulled out the black fob, hopped to the other side of the metal table, and said, “Reach your hand over the table, and I’ll activate your cuff. I’ll meet you back here tomorrow. You’ve got until ninety degrees. That’s all the time I can give you.”
Nara accepted the time constraint.
She turned to see the Red Demon go and noticed the large Minky screen with all the blood on the table under it. “You called for help,” she assumed. But more to the point, she could get her pills and supplies.
The smell was noxious, and she quickly moved to the screen, avoiding touching the wet blood. She punched in her needs.
She went back to the lab and scanned the room. Everything was kept behind a hard plastic sliding door, locked on the side. She moved to the sink first and washed her hands twice. She didn’t see any rags in the drawers or in the cabinets above the sink.
“Asinine organization, Shine. You really need to think about this.”
Moving back to his body, she saw the shards stuck in his jacket. His coat was almost all blood except for a bit of the collar.
With her fingers, she pulled out all the ones she could see and then unbuttoned his jacket to open it wide. His shirt underneath was just as saturated with blood. She grabbed the collar and ripped it down the front, then got back up because she couldn’t tell where the wounds were. Taking a cracked beaker, she filled it with water, re-washed her hands, and returned to his side.
Pouring the water, she saw the angry purple lines. Some were still bleeding, but it wasn’t sputtering, so that was good. Grabbing Shine behind the neck, she pulled him and the medscope up at the same time until he was in a seated position.
He almost fell forward, but she used her body to stop him. Then she let his head rest against her shoulder. Chest to chest, she kept him steady. Picking up the medscope from his neck, she pulled it between them and used her fingers to stuff it between his skin and the top of his pants. His temperature was cooler, and she worried about how much blood he had lost.
When both of her hands were free, and the medscope was in place, she pulled one of his arms free of the jacket and then the other. The shards that were in his skin were deeper.
One was lodged in his upper shoulder. It cut her as she pulled it out. She hissed and cursed because she couldn’t contaminate him with her blood. Not that she had a virus, but it was poor medical practice.
Nara applied pressure to her injured finger and pulled out the medscope to heal herself. It took fifteen seconds, and then it was back on Shine. She put her arms under his and crouched, half-pushing him to the wall so she could rest him there while she washed her hands again.
Once she was back, she sat back in his lap, leaned him forward, and continued taking out the remaining shards.
For no reason, she spoke to the unconscious male. “I should have visited your lab when you invited me. I would have realized that you didn’t have a proper safety coat.”
Once the glass was out, she poured more water on the wounds and checked to see which ones were still open. None. All had healed from the time she’d removed the shards.
Shine’s arms had several slivers, but they were easy to take out. Next part to check was his lower body. Shine was not Veeda’s experiment. She couldn’t look at him like he was an object. Removing his shoes, socks, pants, and underwear was an experience.
When she was done, she took a long breath. “Well, I guess I was wrong about your horns representing the size of your sex.”
In between his legs, she removed the rest of the shards. Two large ones in his right thigh and several smaller ones from his knee and shin.
She rinsed each section of skin and checked to see if the wounds were healing. They were, but Shine had not woken up yet. “I know we aren’t in a good place right now with you being a Demon jerk, but I’m not going to let you die.”
Rinsing off another section, she went back to work. “If you’re still holding a grudge about me drugging you, just know that I got my punishment when Karr took a blowtorch to my arm because I wasn’t working fast enough.”
Nara peered at Shine’s face and didn’t see a change, but when she touched a vein, his pulse was stronger. He was getting better, and she probably only had a few seconds to be brutally honest with his unconscious body. “And while you’re unconscious, I just want to say that I’m sorry for drilling you about your mother. I have never been in the kind of situation where I was forced to be around someone for any length of time. I don’t usually care to learn about anyone, but with you, you…interest me. Not that it means anything now since, according to Denny, you’re doing some stupid Demon thing where you try to get me addicted to you just so you can disregard me.”
Leaving him one more time to get some All-Away cleaner, she heard a raspy, “Nara.”
She rushed back and crouched down near his face. It looked like he was still sleeping. “Shine?” Touching a light hand to his chest, she called his name again. “Shine.”
“The other day…” he said, blinking slowly. “I’m sorry…Karr made me…ignore you.”
Oh, did he? Nara didn’t think she could hate a person more, but she kept finding the strength to do so. Karr was worse than all the soulless Numans she knew.
Shine tried to sit up with a groan.
“Hey, move slow, you were dead when I found you.”
His light eyes fluttered open, and he looked at her, but then they faded out. “Second time I cheated death.”
“Second? What happened last time?”
He opened his mouth to answer, but then his eyes scanned himself. “I’m naked.”
She leaned over his body, giving his sex an appreciative glance. “Yes, you are, and you’re welcome.” Pushing herself up, she walked over to the sink, washed her hands, and then started removing her own clothes because it had been bothering her from the moment she’d had to get down in the blood to help him.
“What are you doing?”
“Taking off my dirty clothes before I lose my mind. I want to vomit from all the blood, but I dry-heaved and forced myself to take care of you.” She didn’t stop, but she did give him her back as she finished pushing down her pants.
“Two people cannot be naked in my lab.”
She laughed. “You need better lab rules.”
“Thank you for what you did, but...”
She cut in with, “We need to take a shower, so there’s no point in getting dressed just to get undressed. You have a shower, right?”
He pointed to the hall. “Other side of the warehouse.”
“Then let’s go,” she said, moving
to the door first and hoping that he followed. She took the hall back to the wide space with all the conveyor tables.
Seconds later, Shine said, “Turn left.” He was behind her.
She smiled, knowing he was trailing her.
When they passed the fabricator, Shine told her, “Turn left down the hall. It’s the second door on the right.”
Nara pushed open the second door and saw the large shower with multiple sprayers. “Someone went all out for their private time.”
“Z recommended it. It’s pretty good.”
She knew it was, knew the brand on sight. One side was open, the other was glass. It would be pointless to make one of them watch while the other showered.
Turning back to Shine, she saw his staunch expression. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
It wasn’t nothing. She noticed that he was holding his hands over his sex, and if she were reading him correctly, he was pleased about something. She smiled. “Ready to take a shower with me?”
His voice broke as he said, “What?”
“You and me, Shine.”
He didn’t move.
Nara wasn’t offended because it was clear that he liked what he saw, he was probably just embarrassed because she had saved his life. Instead, she walked into the open-door shower and let it activate with the motion control.
A second later, she looked him in the eyes and said, “Come here.”
“First, we should talk about what happened.”
“Later. Shower first.”
Shine watched her with heavy lids. “You’re playing with me. I don’t want to blitz with you.”
She kept her eyes on him as she washed her arms and fingers, not letting his words sink in. He wanted to have sex, but he was holding back for some dumb reason.
She watched him as she rubbed soap all over her chest and pinched her nipples. Then she lowered her hands and rubbed her stomach and reached between her lower lips.
That’s when he dropped his head. “If I go in there, you won’t like the aftermath.”
The aftermath? She had no idea what that meant, but she knew what she was feeling, and she wanted him next to her. She wanted to feel his skin, his heat, and his passion. “I’m not afraid of you.”
His expression was leery. “If I go in there…”
“We’re going to do more than shower?” she asked hopefully.
“Yes,” he rumbled.
“I’ve already invited you in. I’m just waiting for you to accept.”
All of a sudden, the air in the room hummed as if the molecules themselves were aware of him. As he moved forward, each step resolved and not rushed, the steam in the air parted. Her skin hummed as if it were silently calling out for his. Her feet shifted as he stepped on the slip-resistant tile.
Some of the water bounced off his skin, other rivulets rode him all the way from his neck to the floor. She was instantly jealous. She didn’t move as he stepped into her space. Wrapping a hand around his neck, she pulled herself in, wrapping her other hand around him, needing to feel him.
Her wet skin slipped, so she pulled him tighter. Shine hugged her back. Digging her face into his neck, she finally started to feel all the tension, fear, and sickness slowly drain from her body.
Good Seth, she needed this.
No words, no movement, just him. The longer she held him, the better she felt. So much so, her knees weakened, and she imagined that if he let go of her, she would curl up in a ball and escape into her mind.
“You’re shaking.”
“I’m cold,” she lied.
He leaned back and rubbed a thumb against her lips. “I’m going to kiss you.”
She opened her mouth, inviting his thumb. As she sucked it in, Shine leaned down to her ear and kissed behind it. “No deals. You say yes to this, you are saying yes to me, to being mine, to deciding that you and I are forever.” Then his mouth moved down her neck. The connection between them made her insides tingle. Pulling him closer, she could feel his hard and swollen sex against her stomach.
“Demons don’t mate, and neither do Numans,” she reminded him. There wasn’t going to be a forever.
Tilting her head to the side, she gave him all-access. He sucked and moved and kissed and pelted her with sensations she had never felt with another lover. Her skin hummed. She wanted his touched all over her.
Shined moved down her chest between her breasts. She hadn’t realized how sensitive that spot was. Inhaling, she felt him smile and say, “Demons with bahity do. And I looked up Numan sensitive spots. I want to try them out.”
“Excellent choice of research,” she whispered back as he nipped the spot again. She felt it zing all the way down to her sex. Shine moved down more but stopped over her hip, applying pressure as he rounded his thumb and breathed over it.
The sudden and overwhelming pleasure made Nara take a step back against the glass walls. “Holy hell.”
This time, Shine didn’t stop until she’d almost peaked. She was not happy when he moved to his knees, placed a thigh over his shoulder, and kissed the seam of her groin.
It felt good, but not as good as the hip massage. “Shine.” She said his name, but what she really meant was please. She wanted him to touch her in that spot again. Needed him to make her come. She didn’t want to beg.
His head moved, and she felt his mouth between her lower lips. She was so wound up that she came quickly after just one hard suck. Grabbing his head to steady herself, the climax constricted and broke inside her, expelling thousands of tremors that made her feel light as air.
Shine didn’t stop, and the overstimulated area felt almost raw. She tried to move back, but the glass wall didn’t give. Pushing at Shine’s head didn’t abate his assault on her sex. Ten seconds later, it got better. Shine moved his head and opened her thigh wider, and she felt something warm and wet at her entrance, circling and breaching the rim but only a little. Amazing. The coil inside her started to wind back up.
Shine stopped again. Looking down, she watched as he kissed her lips, her mound, and then moved back up. His firm hands held her steady. When he was standing tall, she pulled him into a kiss.
A mouth-to-mouth kiss where she could taste herself.
“We need to get to my office.”
“What’s wrong with here?” she asked.
“Standing does not give me the leverage I want.”
Leaning back, she nodded, and she took the soap to finish washing her hair. While she did that, he moved his hands over her skin, touching her in ways that kept her needy and wanting, just at the crest of another orgasm.
When she finished with her hair, she watched him wash his body and then turn off the water. Taking her hand, he led her out of the shower. As she walked behind him, she looked to see if any shards were still there, but she didn’t see any.
Naked and dripping wet, they walked to the side of the bathroom where he stopped and pulled out two towels. He dried her body and hair and then wiped himself. Shine’s engorged cock looked darker than last time, and a lot bigger.
Shine retook her wrist and pulled her out of the room, leaving his towel on the floor. Upstairs, in the back, he entered a dark glass office with a big bed, a Minky screen, and a single couch that looked as if it matched the one in his apartment.
Pulling her onto the bed, he leaned over and kissed her again. Nara moved to make sure she cradled him between her thighs and rubbed shamelessly, hoping to finish herself off. Shine moved up, looked down at her, and said, “I don’t care what they say about our race, this is permanent. You. Us. This.”
She felt his rounded cock at her entrance. “Yes. Now. Talk about this later.”
Shine widened her entrance. She had been inactive for years, and his size was stretching her, making her enjoy every inch of him. He pulled out and then pushed back in. He did it again and again until he was all the way in. He exhaled.
Lowering his head into the crook of her neck, he thrust in a simple one-two rhythm. Th
en she felt his mouth on her pulse point, adding to the feelings already surging inside of her. She started to moan his name.
His pace increased. His body was heavy on hers, and she liked it. Adjusting her hips to invite him in farther, he started to hit the back of her womb. Mouth open, she mewled, giving in to the feelings. Her arms wrapped around his neck and then his shoulders.
Turning her head, she took his mouth and sucked on his tongue in rhythm with each thrust.
This time, Shine groaned and increased his speed as he slipped his hand behind her neck, holding her firmly so she couldn’t break the kiss. His fingers dug into her skin, and he jacked into her channel harder than before. This time, she could feel it. Hell, she could almost taste him.
His kiss became demanding, but she held together by anchoring herself to the pressure around her neck. The coils inside her had pulled tight, and Shine rubbed relentlessly. She was almost there. She reached for it… and he slammed inside one more time. The coils broke, bursting like an explosion.
Shine’s grip on her didn’t loosen, and he took her screams into his mouth. His rigid steel slammed inside her again, the rhythm stunted to short bursts. As her climax drew itself out, she could feel her channel clenching.
Shine thrust in two more times and then curled to a stop. Holding his forehead against hers, she watched Shine as he closed his eyes and looked almost in pain. But when he opened his eyes again, there was something in them.
Something soft and reassuring. A connection.
Nara nipped his lower lip, and he moved into another kiss, this one slower and softer. He pulled back. It looked as if he wanted to say something, but he didn’t.
So, she did. “Terrans divorce, too.”
His dark eyebrows came together. “What?” He moved back, withdrawing from her.
Focusing on apologizing, she said, “I believe you want this, but what if it’s just a Demon thing?”
“And yet you still invited me into the shower. I told you, you weren’t going to like the aftermath, and I meant it. I am not like other Demons. I don’t let go of what’s mine, and I don’t claim anything lightly.” His tone sounded unamused.
