Her Cold-Blooded Master

by Lea Linnett

  “Except humans?”

  “Except humans.”

  “Is it all humans? Any human?” She was staring at him with wide eyes again, and he could see the apprehension swimming in their depths.

  “No. Not even most,” he answered truthfully. “It’s been years since I last felt anything strongly enough to have to worry about it. Until…”

  “Until the program,” Ellie supplied.

  Helik shook his head. “Until you.”

  Her fingers tensed in his.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, dropping his gaze and starting to unthread their fingers. “It’s disgusting. I understand if you—”

  “No, I—” She hesitated, as if trying to find the right words. “I only ever looked at humans. I wasn’t interested in other sub-species. But then I saw you and I…”

  She caught his eye, her cheeks turning a rosy pink.

  “I couldn’t take my eyes off you. If you’re disgusting, then I am too.”

  “It’s not the same.”

  “It is the same. Or it’s same enough.” Her other palm flattened against the back of their clenched hands, as if daring him to pull away. “We like what we like. I’ve known humans who hate meat—so they just don’t eat it. Simple as that. It’s not…” She sighed, squeezing his fingers again. “There’s nothing wrong with you.”

  Something seemed to occur to her then, and she looked up at him questioningly.

  “So you just never did anything? Don’t people find that strange?”

  “No,” he said dazedly, not quite believing that she hadn’t thrown his hand from her grasp and stormed out. “It’s like your humans and meat. Sex is just another activity to like or dislike for levekk. Some spend all their spare time looking for it, and for some it never crosses their minds.”

  “But it crosses yours.”

  He looked down at the bed. “It does.”

  “You were never tempted to scratch the itch? Go down to one of the pleasure quarters and buy someone?”

  The question surprised him, and he gave her a searching look. “I couldn’t, I…” He gulped. “I promised I’d never put a human through that,” he confessed.

  Again, said a voice in the back of his mind, and he pushed it away.

  “Life is bad enough for humans,” he said. “I didn’t want to add to the misery.”

  But there was another reason. He’d known, as sure as anything, that if he’d given in, he never would have been able to stop.

  Shame hit him like a freighter, making him drop Ellie’s hand. He had given in, after all of that. And who had he decided to put in danger?

  “Maybe we shouldn’t—”

  “No.”

  Helik felt soft fingers at his jaw, making him freeze in place. Ellie was watching him with a determined look in her eye, her pink lips set in a line.

  “I know what you’re doing,” she said in a low voice, but then her gaze softened. “I want to be here. You haven’t tricked me or forced me or whatever. You were so careful not to push too hard—honestly, it was starting to get frustrating,” she added with a grin. “And I came to you anyway.”

  “I’m your boss,” he said, trying to impart to her what that meant, but she shook her head.

  She reached between them with her free hand, running her fingertip over one of the glass vials, still bound in the case. “I don’t regret it. And I still want to go further, if you want to.” She paused, watching him intently. “But if we’re spilling secrets, then I have something I should tell you as well.”

  Helik frowned, blood rushing in his ears as she caressed his jaw. This was all backwards; he was meant to be the one holding her, opening doors for her and the other humans that they couldn’t break down themselves. But here Ellie was, smashing through everything he’d told himself for the past two decades as if it were made of nothing but smoke.

  “What is it?” he asked, needing to return the favor.

  She pressed her lips together, a determined look on her face. “I… haven’t done this in a while, either. Or at all, really. I’ve been with other humans, but it usually stopped at mouths and hands.”

  Helik waited, sensing that there was more.

  “I only tried… this once. And it wasn’t much of anything, really. He finished before it could do much for me.” She chuckled at the memory, but her gaze was sincere when it returned to him. “I thought you should know before…”

  He moved without thinking, cupping her hip with one hand and the back of her neck with the other. “Thank you,” he whispered.

  “I guess it’s why I’ve been so excited,” Ellie admitted in a rush. She looked up at him through her lashes. “I want my first time—my first real time—to be with you.”

  “Ellie…” Objections threatened to spill over his tongue, already convinced that he wasn’t worthy of her, but he held them back. To refuse her now would be to throw her kindness back in her face.

  Her expression turned uncertain at his silence, and he gripped her tighter, for once unable to muster any words that could explain what he was feeling.

  Instead, he took her by the arm, pulling her in for a crushing kiss. To his relief, she returned it with equal enthusiasm, shuffling forward until their bodies were flush, the case abandoned at their side. He couldn’t clutch her close enough as he tried to communicate everything he’d struggled to say through the meld of their lips and teeth.

  They pulled up short when a soft moan escaped the human, and she sat back, her cheeks reddening. They both looked to the case, which lay closed on the bed beside them. Helik reached for it with shaking fingers, opening it to reveal the components inside.

  “I’ll go first,” he said, somewhat breathlessly, and was glad when she didn’t argue.

  Breathing deeply to still his hands, he reached for the largest component: a metallic cylinder. There was a hollowed-out section, and he tucked the vial inside, following the directions that were printed on the side. It was almost too easy to fit the three-pronged needle into the end, and it settled into place with a click. This was a standard auto-injector, almost identical to the military-issued instruments that were shipped to every prison and military unit throughout the Constellation.

  He pulled his shirt off, baring his scaled skin to the warm air of the apartment, and tried to relax as he picked up the auto-injector and pressed it to his upper arm. The instrument would inject the correct dosage automatically, and once it entered his bloodstream, it would work fast. His reproductive system would be suppressed within a few hours, and it would last for the next three-to-five of CL-32’s orbits around the sun.

  There would be no going back after taking this. Five years was a long time. What if he wanted children before then? But he could never, not on CL-32. What if someone found out? What if they questioned why he would need a contraceptive? They weren’t necessary in regular levekk couplings, where females were fertile for short periods and infertile for many months in-between.

  A small hand covered his, warm and reassuring, and he glanced up at Ellie. He hadn’t realized he’d frozen for so long.

  “Are you scared?” she whispered.

  His lips parted soundlessly, his eyes widening.

  She smiled. “There’s this thing I tell myself whenever I’m frightened of something. The scarier it is, the more I need to push myself to go through with it. ’Cause what’s the point in life if you give in to the fear and lock yourself away where it’s safe?”

  Helik stared at her, thinking he’d never met a human so fearless before in his life.

  “We’ll do it together,” she said, and her voice was soft, but firm, steeling his wayward nerves and calming his racing heartbeat. He almost wanted to laugh. Some levekk he was, taking strength from the presence of a human. But he found he didn’t care. Ellie was stronger than he’d ever been, and he was honored to borrow some of her confidence for a while.

  Her thumb caressed his knuckle as it hovered over the auto-injector’s button, but added no pressure. She was there,
but it was his decision alone. He locked eyes with her, whittling down the space between them until she was all he could see, even though he hadn’t moved an inch.

  And he pressed it.

  There was a soft hiss and a pricking feeling, but his grip on the auto-injector remained firm as he pressed it to his skin. The pain quickly faded, and after a couple of seconds, the instrument beeped, indicating it was done. Pulling it away, he could see the holes the needles left behind, and one of his scales that had been punctured twice was lifting at the corner, but from a distance, it was as if nothing had happened. He pressed his fingers to it nonetheless, just in case anything seeped back out.

  Ellie was watching the injection site with interest, and turned a sunny smile on him. “It didn’t hurt?”

  “Just a small sting.”

  “All right,” she said, her fingers flying down the clasps on her shirt and pulling it over her shoulders, revealing a cloth bra that was almost the same color as her skin. “Do me.”

  Helik chuckled, a lightness taking over his chest as he turned the cylinder over in his fingers. “You know, you really don’t need to take it as well,” he said, disengaging the needles and taking a fresh set from the case.

  But Ellie just rolled her eyes. “Don’t make me say it again. I’m doing this with you.”

  He nodded, clicking the needles into place. He held the points against her shoulder, glancing up at her. Her lips were pursed, revealing her nerves, but her eyes didn’t waver from his, and she nodded.

  To her credit, Ellie didn’t jump as the needles broke her skin. Helik waited until the instrument was done and pulled away.

  “Press down on it for a little while,” he ordered, dismantling the cylinder and placing it back in its case.

  He briefly left the bed, hiding the instrument up the back of his closet, and rushed back, pulling the human into a hug. She was quiet as she rubbed the tiny wounds, letting him cradle her against his chest as she inspected them. Then he felt her shake almost imperceptibly, and he tensed.

  “You okay?” he asked, placing a bone-covered knuckle beneath her chin. But when she tilted her face to look up at him, she was smiling again.

  “I’m fine. I’m kind of… excited?” She licked her lips, her gaze dropping fleetingly to his mouth and back again. “How long does it take to work?”

  Helik’s own heart quickened again as he thought back to the instructions. “Four hours minimum. Six if you want to be safe.”

  She nodded, her mouth downturned. “I can’t decide if that’s super fast or horrifically slow,” she admitted.

  He chuckled, moving in to press a tender kiss to her lips. It was lazier than the others, but Ellie still broke it with a gasp, her breasts heaving. She brought her hands up, raking her strange, flat fingernails down his chest as she said, “I know we have to wait, but…” She bit her lip. “I really don’t want to.” One of her hands trailed downward then, smoothing over his muscled stomach and palming his half-hard cock through his trousers.

  The action sent a shiver through him, and he groaned into her hair. “Please don’t tease. I’ve been waiting so long I don’t trust myself.”

  She made a frustrated noise, giving voice to the restless hum that Helik felt throughout his entire body. She leaned in, pressing her lips to his collarbone, her hands brushing his hard stomach. Unable to reach for what they wanted, her fingers slipped just beneath his waistband, tracing the fabric and making him groan.

  They needed a distraction, and Helik was happy to oblige.

  He kissed her quickly, not daring to stay there too long, and then drifted down. Running his claws over everything he could touch—her hips, her stomach, the backs of her knees—he made quick work of her skirt and undergarments. And when he hovered between her legs, he could feel the heat of her arousal against his lips, the quivering of her thighs as she wrapped them around him. He met her gaze when she pushed herself up onto her elbows, her bright blue eyes dark with desire.

  “Please,” she said around a gasp, and he shuddered, feeling the world outside of their room fall away. All he cared about was the human woman pinned beneath him, and the hot throb of her pleasure against his lips as he finally kissed her folds.

  Fucking her could wait. The outside world could wait. All that mattered was that she came undone against his tongue.

  Unable to wait any longer, he dipped into her, licking a long, slow line through her wetness as she cried out, and he didn’t stop until she was gripping his head in her hands, her legs squeezing his plated head like a vise as she came.

  20

  Six hours and two orgasms later, Ellie felt completely wrung out. She sat on Helik’s bed, watching the city lights twinkle through the one-way window and nibbling on a flatbread. Every so often, Helik’s plated head would swim into view as he took a bite from her food, making her giggle.

  Helik had taken it upon himself to keep the both of them very distracted while they waited for the shots to kick in, and Ellie had enjoyed every moment of it. But even with her limbs feeling heavy and a satiated warmth curling in her belly, she couldn’t shake the tendril of anticipation within her. It made her toes wriggle along to no music and made her nerves jolt every time Helik shifted on the bed. She was so ready to take the next step that she could barely contain herself.

  And despite the way Helik languidly flicked through broadcast channels on his wristlet, watching the images projected across the wall behind her as he leaned his head against her leg, she suspected he felt the same. When he wasn’t channel-hopping or stealing food, his claws were tickling her leg, his eyes raking along the line of her jaw. Even now, he was rolling his neck along her thigh, as if he wanted as much of his skin touching her as possible.

  She liked this new Helik. He was sometimes quiet, and sometimes his moods were hard to pin down, but more and more Ellie felt as if she were seeing the real him poking out from behind his facades. There were no suave, overly cheerful one liners, no choked and nervous apologies, and when his eyes darkened, it was with genuine desire for her rather than a strangled craving. Now, he could hold a conversation with her without sounding like he was buttering up a client. He could kiss her sweetly without shaking like a leaf. And when he held her close, she saw a bit less ‘hungry alien’ and a lot more Helik.

  Although, she had to admit, she kind of liked it when he was hungry.

  Mostly he just seemed relaxed, and as she thought this, he stretched his arms above his head, yawning so wide that she could see his short, flat teeth.

  He turned his icy blue eyes—which had both scared and enthralled her for so many weeks—toward her, and the pupils were soft, the jagged points tempered.

  “Not interested in what’s happening in the world?” he asked, gesturing to the way she had her back turned to the projection, her gaze on the window instead.

  Honestly, she just didn’t like watching the news. She was scared there’d be something about her sister, the fugitive human that had crossed half a continent with a levekk criminal to escape prison. She hadn’t heard from Lena since Augusta threw her out, and she didn’t want to hear about her from some news channel.

  But that wasn’t the only reason she faced the window.

  “I like watching the city,” she said, truthfully. “There’s not so many bright lights out in Manufacturing. Things quieten down at night.”

  Helik rolled over, resting his chin on her knee and snagging a piece of flatbread in his claws. She could feel his head bobbing as he chewed the morsel, and smiled to herself. They watched the outside world in silence for a few moments. Ellie loved the way the iridescent blue domes lit up the sky at night, casting the skyscrapers and roads in a cool glow. It couldn’t be more different from home, where the warm orange lights from people’s houses winked out one by one, revealing a swathe of stars too numerous to count.

  And still, she didn’t miss it, much to her surprise.

  “It’s kind of pretty, isn’t it?” Helik said through a mouthful of food, his
jaw working against her leg. His tone was peaceful, holding none of the tension that usually colored it.

  Ellie smiled. “I always wanted to see the city.” She reached out, smoothing her fingers over the barely visible cracks and fissures that adorned his skull. “My family was so worried I’d come to the city and have something horrible happen to me. That I’d get kidnapped, fall in with a bad influence.” She tapped him twice with the pad of her finger, grinning playfully.

  “I’m the bad influence?” Helik growled, pushing himself up out of her lap. “Which one of us was it that cornered the other and stripped down to nothing? I distinctly remember saying it was a terrible idea.”

  He rose up on his knees, and as always Ellie was taken slightly aback by the sheer power in his movements. He wasn’t a soldier, or an athlete, or anything like that, but still his muscles rippled as he moved, and his strong shoulders took up all of her vision. She felt a flutter of excitement, imagining how his soot would drape perfectly from those shoulders.

  Her gaze flicked down his naked torso, landing on his cock, which was already stirring again. He was preening a little, obviously enjoying the way she looked him over, and she felt a coy smile spread across her face unconsciously. She could get used to that kind of reaction.

  “Probably the best terrible idea I’ve ever had, then,” she sniffed, and before she knew it, his strong arms were pulling her off the bed to lean against him, his hands smoothing down the arched line of her back to cup her rump.

  “I couldn’t agree more,” he murmured, and captured her mouth with his. He wasted no time, his tongue pressing past her defenses like an invader, his soft lips massaging hers with surprising force.

  When he pulled away, his tongue lingered, still roughly teasing hers out from where it had been safely nestled, until their lips were barely touching, his kisses just skating out of her reach.