by C. V. Walter
Bet none of them expected to have a ship hit the space station, she thought.
Going through various files and diagnostics, she found that all the data stored in the helmet was intact. She left the menu set to the diagnostics and got out of bed to show Mintonar how to work the controls. She made a quick stop in the bathroom before wandering out into the rest of the suite and found Mintonar sitting at the table, a screen floating above it while he entered data.
He was shirtless, the muscles in his back flexing as he moved his hands around the desk. She noticed long stretches of bare leg, as well, and realized he was only wearing his species version of underwear at the table. It probably wouldn't bother him that she was naked while he worked.
It was fascinating to watch him work. His mouth barely moved and he flicked graphs and reports into it as he dictated. He was naked in the chair and she enjoyed watching him while he worked. There were two bowls of food off to the side, sitting well away from the glowing part of the table that she assumed were the controls.
Tempted as she was to break his concentration by kissing or licking the back of his neck, she went to the other chair and pulled the breakfast towards her. It didn't look like more field rations. Rather, it looked like some of the food left over from the night before mixed with some kind of grain. There were spoons next to the bowls so she assumed this wasn't intended to be used as seduction.
She put one of the bowls closer to him, still away from the glowing part of the table, and started eating the other one. Yep, flavors from last night ran across her tongue and she was reminded viscerally of just how the evening had ended. Shifting on the chair, she squeezed her legs together to relieve some of the ache between her thighs.
Taking another bite, she found Mintonar staring at her, the hungry look in his eyes from the night before back and pushing her heart rate up. She licked her lips and his gaze followed her tongue. She bit her lip and he surged out of his chair.
Molly managed to put the bowl down before he pulled her into his arms and kissed her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he lifted her. When he turned to take them into the bedroom, she wrapped her legs around him and pulled back from the kiss long enough to tell him "no."
"No? Maw-lee-"
"Sit," she told him, biting gently on his lip. "On your chair."
He sat carefully, towards the edge so he wouldn't crush her feet against the chair, and she felt him rub hard against her clit. Her eyes nearly rolled back in her head at the sensation. She kissed him again and lifted herself up until she could feel him at her entrance.
She could feel the moment he understood what she was doing. His hands held her ass firmly, lifting her up while he adjusted himself underneath her, then lowering her slowly onto him. By the time she was done sliding down him, they were both breathing heavily.
"You're so deep," she groaned. "I swear, I can taste you."
He gripped her ass and lifted her just slightly and brought her down again. She squeezed hard around him and he cursed.
"I cannot make this gentle, Maw-lee," he told her, his tone apologetic.
"Then don't," she told him. "I don't want gentle. But let me help."
She dropped her legs from around him until her toes touched the floor. Rather than move up and down at first, she ground against him, flexing her stomach muscles to move on his lap while he was still deep inside her.
His hands flexed on her ass and he started to help her move.
Molly's fingers dug into his shoulders as she rode him, determined to wring every inch of satisfaction out of him that she could. When her first orgasm crashed over her, he took up the rhythm, thrusting up into her while her thighs shook and she gripped him hard.
He pounded into her hard while she writhed against him and it threw her into another screaming orgasm, her finger nails digging hard into his flesh. With a pained grunt, he lifted her and laid her back across the table, pulling her legs around his hip until he could piston in and out harder, faster. They were both panting when he pushed her over again, this time following her into bliss.
Chapter 22
Mintonar held himself still inside her, his breath coming in short, sharp gasps. Unwilling to let her go just yet, he slipped his hands beneath her and helped her sit up until he could hold her against him. Her legs wrapped around him and held him tight inside her.
With both hands on her backside, he lifted her and moved back to sit on his chair. The act pushed him hard inside her and they both moaned.
"I did not intend to interrupt your breakfast, Maw-lee," he said.
"It was a welcome interruption," she said, squeezing him again.
He moaned and she chuckled. "You do not play fair," he protested.
"Of course not," she told him. "Why would I? I have plans for your body that I think we'll both find very enjoyable."
"Do they include allowing me to go to work?"
"Well, you are the one holding me on your cock. I'd let you up if you wanted me to."
He squeezed her ass and lifted her just enough to let her slide back down him again. She took a deep breath and dropped her head to his shoulder. "You seem to like being here," he said.
"I really do," she groaned. "Why is it like this? I've had good sex before, granted not quite this good, but why do I want to stay connected to you so intimately all the time?"
He shifted and grinned when she moaned. "From what I understand about recognition, it triggers the chemicals in our brains that allow us to feel not only pleasure but connection. There are substances that can replicate that, some of them very harmful, and they can be addicting."
"So, sex with you is addicting?" she asked. "I can believe that."
"Sex with someone who you share a recognition with can be, yes. It creates and enforces a bond unlike anything else. And the more often you indulge, the stronger the bond gets. It's why long-term couples with a strong bond are unlikely to outlive each other for very long."
"Oh," Maw-lee said quietly. "So, the marathon sex we've been having might be dangerous if we keep going."
He wrapped his arms around her and held her hard against his chest. "It could never be dangerous," he told her. "We're both young and in good shape, as far as I can tell for your species, so we would likely survive a separation. It might be painful but it wouldn't kill us."
She wiggled against him and leaned up to kiss his neck. He might have to reassess his thought that it might not kill him. Certainly, he could stay here with her like this all day and have no regrets.
"I don't like pain," she said quietly.
"I don't like it when you're in pain," he told her. "We will endeavor to minimize the pain, yes?"
"I should probably get dressed," she said, licking gently at his neck. "And so should you, if you're going to work today."
"Probably," he agreed. "As loathe as I am to dislodge you, I don't think I can do more than half my work from this table and I would be too tempted to take frequent breaks to pleasure you until you scream my name."
She squeezed around him and he knew she liked the idea.
She stood up slowly and it was all he could do to keep from pulling her down on him again and burying himself as deep as he could go. When he slipped free of her hold, his seed dripped down his member and mixed with evidence of her pleasure.
"I'm going to clean up a bit and put some clothes on. You should, uh, probably do the same. We made a bit of a mess." She walked to the cleaning facilities, evidence of their combined pleasure sliding down her inner thigh as she left.
He looked down at himself and realized she was right. It wasn't something that had occurred to him, as focused as he was on being with her, being inside her. The regen table in the medical bay was designed to absorb, reuse and destroy excess organic matter so there hadn't been much of a mess by the time they were aware enough to notice. The bed cover probably needed to be cleaned, as well, and he didn't think she would know how to do that.
With a sigh, he went to strip the cover off the be
d and used it to wipe himself down. A clean one went on quickly and he pulled out more of his pajamas for her to wear when she was done. He'd noticed the helmet sitting on top of the blankets and put it back on the bed. Pulling out his own clothes, he waited to hear her finish in the facilities so he could take his turn. While he was certain she wouldn't deny him if he joined her, he knew the temptation of being so close to her naked body would be too much.
She stepped out and it was all he could do to keep from pulling her close to his body so he could run his hands over her soft skin. "I left you some clothes," he said, gripping his own to stop himself for reaching for her.
Her smile was beautiful and he could stare at it for hours if she'd let him. "Thank you," she said, running her fingers through her long, thick hair. His own fingers itched to do the same and he fled into the facilities before he could follow up on that desire.
His shower was quick and thorough, denying himself the time to focus on thinking about her. Everything he'd told her about recognition was true, it was a triggering of chemicals in the brain to encourage attachment between those were would create genetically strong offspring, he knew that from his studies. What he hadn't been prepared for was how much of his thoughts she would take up. He needed to run through reports from his own nanos to make sure it was all working the way it was supposed to.
The concern that her alien nature had somehow tricked his own biology was something that had been running through the back of his mind for a while. He was protected, or as protected as he could be, from alien viruses and bacteria. But what if there was something about her that his body and his nanos didn't read as dangerous but could be enough to force his own body to overdo his desires.
He'd have to pull the reports between patients today, he decided. And he had a full list of those who wanted to update their nano's so they could interact with the aliens. Now that they'd discovered some, everybody wanted to see what they were like. Word of his recognition seemed to be spreading quickly, as well, and among a crew that had mostly given up on finding any kind of ideal match, that kind of thing was just as big of an incentive as anything else.
He was still thinking about all the reports he'd have to pull and how exactly to evaluate what was going on when he stepped out of the bathroom to see Maw-lee sitting on the bed with the helmet in her hands. It was projecting blocks of text on the wall and he could see tears slipping down her cheeks.
"Maw-lee? Are you well?" he asked, sitting next to her.
"I'm fine," she sniffed and wiped at her cheeks. "Does the translation software work on text, as well? Or is it audio only?"
"Audio only, for the moment. I can feed something through the computer and it will give me rough translations but I can't read something and understand it."
"Oh," she said. "How are you able to talk to me, then?"
"Ah, that's a neat bit of learning software I've been working on. As a language is translated, I get vocabulary, syntax, and other things delivered to my translation implant that then starts delivering it via sub-vocal frequencies to my brain while I do other things."
"I, that, I didn't think it was possible," she told him. "I thought maybe you had a chip in your brain or something that learned for you."
"No," he said with a smile. "I still have to do the learning on my own and the frequencies this works on are very illegal to use on other people on my home world, particularly because they make giving people orders they can't help but follow much easier."
"Yeah, I would be very uncomfortable with that," she said. "You're not going to do that to me, right? If I ever get the translator implanted, you'll just make sure it has the languages, not suggestions to kill somebody or something?"
"Just languages," he agreed. "And we should be able to get you a translator in a couple of days. I just want to make sure your body is healed enough to accept it without causing you problems."
"Alright," she said. "You're leaving for work?"
"To make it safe for you to wander the ship, yes."
She perked up. "Really?"
"Really," he smiled. "As much as I would like to keep you here in my bed, and join you as often as possible, it would seem to be a better idea to let you get out occasionally."
Maw-lee blushed and ducked her head. She was the most fascinating mixture of shy and bold that he'd ever encountered.
"I'd like that," she said. "Well, I'd like the other, too, but I'm certain we'd get bored of fucking our brains out eventually. Or, you know, need to eat and find more lube to prevent the kind of chafing I've heard marathon love making sessions can cause."
Mintonar lifted his hand to her chin and turned her to face him. He could see the desire in her eyes, in the way her skin shifted subtly under his hand, and he couldn't help but kiss her. Try as he might to keep the kiss light and affectionate, the deepening of the kiss seemed only natural and right. When he pulled back, they were both panting, the color high on her cheeks telling him just how much she wanted him right then.
"I would hate to injure you, even on accident, with my affections. I will go to work and let you rest."
"That's probably a good idea," she said. "Though maybe we should finish breakfast first. And did you want me to show you how to use the controls on the helmet? I'm not sure how much good it's going to do you since the speaker is gone so you can't actually hear anything from it."
"Would you be willing to show Alvola yourself? I would only be passing on the information to him and I'm certain something would be lost in the translation." The minute he said it, his gut churned with rejection of the idea, his desire to keep Maw-lee from anybody else was a shock.
"I'd be happy to," she told him. "Meeting some of the other people on the ship would be nice. Might convince me it's not just you abducting humans to experiment on."
He laughed. "Again with the experiments. I might have to find out just what kind of experiments you think we're running on humans."
"Scary ones," she said, nodding seriously. "Nefarious, even. Actually, mostly butt stuff, if the popular accounts are any kind of indication."
"Butt stuff," he asked, his eyebrow raised.
"Yep," she nodded and giggled.
"What, exactly, does this consist of?"
"Well, there's lots of probing. I really have no idea what they think they're getting from the probing but that seems to be the majority."
Mintonar opened his mouth to ask another question then closed it and shook his head. "Your people have strange fantasies about what aliens are like," he told her.
"We have strange fantasies about what other humans are like much less aliens."
Chapter 23
Molly watched Mintonar leave, the helmet in his hand, and went back to her breakfast. It had cooled since she'd first sat down to eat it but not nearly as much as she'd thought it might and it was still delicious. She was sitting at the table, one knee pulled up under her chin while she ate, when the lights flashed on.
The floating screen flipped on and she watched in fascination as it hovered there and scrolled through information before a face appeared. It was an older member of Mintonar's species, with lines around his eyes and mouth and a generous amount of silver in his blue hair. His horns were also longer with a curve on the end she couldn't help but follow with her eyes.
He started talking before he saw her there and frowned.
"Um, I don't know if you can understand me yet but Mintonar isn't here. He just left for work," Molly said.
The man studied her through the screen and nodded. He asked her a question and she shook her head. "I don't have a translator yet," she told him. "Mintonar said he would get me one in a couple days? Something about not wanting my body to reject it. I don't really know the details but it makes sense to me."
He said something else and his face disappeared. The screen stayed up and Molly put a finger on the lighted part of the table to see if she could keep it there and maybe make it do something. It stayed on but she wasn't able to figure out any of the comm
ands after looking at it for a few minutes.
She should have kept the helmet, she thought to herself, but that might have seemed suspicious. Aidan had responded to her message almost immediately with Standing by. He was waiting for her to call him but without enough controls to hear him, she couldn't do that just yet. And she had no idea what to say to him. The fact that he knew she was alive was a load off her mind for the time being, at least.
With a sigh, she looked around. She was tired and knew she'd want a nap later but for now, she was going to poke around the suite and see what she could come up with. Maybe a way to do the dishes or wash the sheets she'd seen in a pile on the floor. The thoughts of why Mintonar had felt the need to put clean sheets on the bed made her flush.
There was something about the way the whole thing was working out that bothered her. It was too easy, too convenient, that he'd want anything to do with her. They were completely separate species! There's no way they should be physically compatible much less able to make strong offspring. Well, at least she didn't have to worry about it. When she'd decided to not have any more children, she'd gone and had a tubal ligation. The doctor had made her wait until she was in her thirties before he'd do it but getting pregnant was one thing she didn't have to worry about, at least.
And they weren't expecting a space station? They didn't have any way of hiding the space station, it should have shown up if they were studying the planet. It was huge and it sent broadcasts in every direction warning it was there. Of course, they also weren't expecting Earth to be populated. As though something had told them that it wouldn't be. If they weren't exploring an unpopulated planet just for fun, they must have had other plans.
Standing up, she went to look at the appliances in the kitchen. Surely, they couldn't be that difficult to figure out, especially if they did what some human companies did and put pictographic instructions on them. She wasn't an idiot; she could probably figure out how to work the different things. The first one she opened was the cabinet she knew was used to store the ship rations. The first few she took out had labels on them that made no sense to her.
