He’d had to retreat to his ready room to protect his crew from himself. Hiding his musk was the other reason. No matter how much of the inhibitor he sprayed on himself, his musk kept seeping through. At first, paranoia made him think he was scenting something that wasn’t there, but then he’d noticed others scenting it as well.
Either he’d used an inhibitor that was ineffective or his musk had gotten stronger, which made no sense. He’d heard those who mated exhibited stronger musk, but he and Semeera weren’t mating. Only copulating. That was a clear distinction his body wasn’t making, which was worrisome.
The last thing he wanted to do was visit the infirmary for an oral inhibitor. That would block the gland from producing the musk completely for a day, instead of neutralizing it the way the spray and soap were supposed to. But such action would alert Doctor Gyan of Kader’s intent. Kader wouldn’t subject himself or Semeera to the doctor’s scrutiny, which meant battling his erratic thoughts and impulses to finish his duty day on his own.
That he had to hide annoyed him. Khartarns had copulated with alien races before. There were four separate races within the Domain alone. And then there were those races who came to trade with the Domain. He’d heard plenty of tales of those encounters as fellow captains had encouraged him to try it out, to add some variety to his sex life. Kader had passed since he’d still been in the grips of self-pity over his promotion.
And then Semeera happened. Beautiful, soft Semeera. So soft. The memory of sliding his knuckles over her brown skin haunted and taunted him. The heat she gave off had soothed all his tension. The previous night was the best he’d slept in years, and his Semeera was the cause.
His Semeera.
There was that possessive streak again. Something that shouldn’t exist with casual copulation. But denying he felt it wouldn’t make it go away. Maybe her being human and so fragile had triggered a protective instinct in Kader that now mingled with his lust.
That made sense. His reaction only mimicked mating. It wouldn’t happen. He couldn’t mate with Semeera. They weren’t even physiologically compatible. The mating instinct brought together those who would create strong offspring. It shouldn’t even exist between two species who couldn’t have children with each other.
But if he could… How would a child created from the mingling of their genetics appear? More like him? Tall, strong, and a warrior. Or more like her? Small, soft, and cute.
Kader hissed at himself. Now he was imagining children! He’d avoided the topic of bringing a mate home to add eggs to the family clutch—not that he thought his family wanted him adding eggs to the clutch after his promotion—and now entertained the idea of creating offspring with Semeera.
What had she done to him?
Perhaps he should visit the infirmary to ensure prolonged exposure to one particularly distracting human female hadn’t addled his brain in some way. But then, he didn’t need a test to know that she had. Why else would he be checking the time every few seconds?
Two hours, but he could leave early. Kader forced himself to stay in his seat.
He wasn’t working anyway. Leaving early wouldn’t affect anything.
It would set a bad example for his subordinates who would see the shirking of his duties as disgraceful.
What the hell did he care what they thought? He never had before.
Dereliction of duty could lead to being stripped of his command, which could lose him Semeera.
Kader dropped his head to his desk with an annoyed groan. He should have had her earlier and just shown up late. That wouldn’t have been so amiss as leaving early, and he wouldn’t be agonizing over the way time had slowed down.
Rounds!
He could do rounds. That was within the realm of his duties and would get him out of this damn office. If he happened to finish his rounds early, he could return to his suite and Semeera.
Kader was out of his chair and leaving his office the second he had the thought. He forced calm stoicism as he headed to the elevator. He would start at the top of the ship and visit every sector before returning to his room.
No running!
He almost laughed that he had to scold himself into walking. When was the last time he’d felt so eager? And happy?
Nothing on his rounds annoyed him as it sometimes did. He didn’t snap at reports of malfunctions and wasn’t short with anyone, unlike his usual custom. If anyone noticed his change in attitude, they didn’t mention it.
His mood only soured when he reached the infirmary. Semeera should already have returned to the suite. She didn’t stay in the infirmary past lunch. But it was on his rounds and he needed to hear their report.
Doctor Gyan glared at Kader when he entered. “Captain,” the male said in a voice so cool it leached the heat out of the air.
“Doctor.”
“Why are you here?”
“I am making rounds of the ship. What have you to report?” Not that he cared about anything Gyan had to say about Semeera. Anything Kader cared to know, he would simply ask her and she would tell him, unlike Gyan, who had to beg for the few tidbits Semeera allowed him.
Kader enjoyed the feeling of superiority over the doctor and let the emotion show in his puffed-chest stance and raised chin, looking down his nose at the doctor to show just how beneath him the male was.
Gyan said, “There is nothing to report because, for the third day in a row, Artist Sssemeera has refused to come to the infirmary.”
“That is her right.”
“It is,” Gyan said in a grudging tone. “But I think she teases us with the possibility by showing up only to tell us she won’t stay. Yesterday it was to retrieve the concoction I had commissioned for her hair care, which she executed without allowing us to observe.” He delivered that last line while glaring at Kader.
“There’s not much to see.” Kader couldn’t help rubbing in that he had seen her performing the task. He only regretted not staying to watch her finish, to observe her flashing her long neck in a manner that spoke of submission to his will, firing his desire to nibble her soft brown flesh as he claimed her as his own.
Gyan’s tail snapped from side to side, showing his anger. “And today, she came only to repair a wound on her arm.”
“A wound? Did she say how she hurt herself? When?” Kader would have Semeera’s guard flogged for allowing any harm to come to her.
“She didn’t say.” He drew a single claw over his upper arm. “It was here. Long. Thin. Like a claw mark. She denied that suggestion but said it in a way that makes me feel it was. Maybe she’s protecting someone.”
Kader locked down his expression and gave a curt nod. “Thank you for your report. I will pass on your disappointment to Artist Sssemeera when I see her.”
“You do that, Captain.”
Kader left the room as calmly as he could.
A claw mark. Semeera had suffered a wound from a claw mark.
There was only one person’s claws that had been anywhere near her arms that could have caused that harm. His. And she’d hidden that fact from him, seeking medical attention to repair the wound before he’d taken notice.
He hadn’t even realized he had hurt her. When had he hurt her? While they slept? Had he held her too tight?
The thought that he could have hurt her worse while they slept horrified him. Semeera was so fragile and delicate, not like a khartarn female at all. If he’d squeezed her too hard or grabbed her the wrong way, he could have broken her or caused her soft skin serious damage.
How were they supposed to copulate? How would he hold her? Touch her? If he let loose even a fraction of the lust beast within himself that had been clawing for freedom the whole day, he could hurt her. Badly.
He’d been so preoccupied with the promise of release that the act itself had escaped him. The very traits that endeared her to him were a hindrance as well. She was too soft, too fragile.
It didn’t matter what his body wanted. Hers couldn’t handle it.
K
ader stalked toward his suite, forgetting the rest of his rounds in favor of settling this matter before he could talk himself out of it. He would have Semeera moved to a different room. Remove temptation. End this before it led some place he would regret and hate himself for.
He didn’t want to hurt her. And he wouldn’t.
Semeera studied the image of cliff jewels she’d pulled up on the tablet supplied for her to study khartarn society. They were gorgeous. Like chocolate diamonds. More like dark chocolate diamonds since they were darker than the jewels she’d seen in the stores back home. And Kader was right, they matched her skin tone almost perfectly.
So she resembled a rare jewel. She could live with that. Maybe if other khartarns saw her that way, they would be extra nice to her. The prospect of living among them continued to worry her.
Doctor Gyan had said she would be welcome with the artisans, which would mean acquiring a patron who would supply everything she needed to survive in exchange for art. Not a bad deal. Actually, it was a great deal reminiscent of the Renaissance era. No need to worry about bills or working a day job to make ends meet. The patron handled all that.
And patrons tended to be nobility, so she could potentially be really spoiled. That kind of life appealed to her a lot. No more stress. Just immerse herself in her art. Heaven.
“What else had he said? The desert sea at midday?” She spoke the phrase to the tablet and several pictures popped up. She tapped one and stared at it. “Wow. Pretty.”
According to the tablet, the desert sea was an ocean with a thick layer of sand floating on top of it, giving the illusion of solid land. The ocean had no shore, just a sheer drop-off into miles-deep depths with vicious undercurrents that killed thousands of people before the khartarns had figured out the ocean’s boundaries. But that had been long ago. Now they knew better, and the sea was plainly marked for people to avoid. That didn’t stop them from taking pictures.
And the desert sea at midday was a popular subject. There were thousands of pictures. The sun reflecting off the sand made it appear similar to her eyes—hazel with flecks of green. Just wow. Kader really was very poetic and a flatterer. How could she not fall for a male who gave her such amazing compliments?
She planned to show him just how much she appreciated his compliments as soon as he got home. That time couldn’t come soon enough for her. She’d been antsy most of the day, just thinking of the evening to come.
If not for her need to get rid of the nick on her arm, she never would have left the suite. But she hadn’t wanted Kader to notice it since he hadn’t seemed to that morning. Knowing her protective lizardman, he would get all bent out of shape over hurting her when she’d done worse to herself shaving. She wouldn’t have noticed it except it stung when the soap in her shower hit it.
The barely noticeable wound was gone now, and she’d dodged Doctor Gyan’s questions about it—probably not successfully. The male was a doctor, after all, and had probably recognized the cause of her wound without her confirmation. But he hadn’t barged into the suite with his team and cameras, ready to take notes while she and Kader went at it, so maybe he believed her lie about bumping into something after all.
So long as she had any say, Doctor Gyan would never ever find out she and Kader were getting it on. Not ever. Well… not unless she suddenly laid an egg. They would find out then. Not that she could, but if it happened…
She giggled to herself over how freaked-out everyone would be, herself included. Her laying an egg. She wondered if it would hurt less than a live birth since eggs were smooth. It probably would. Khartarn females were lucky. Pop out an egg in the family clutch and go on with their lives. A year and some change later—Home World time, since she wasn’t sure of the Earth conversion—the eggs hatched. No carrying the kid around, getting kicked, and having their insides squished and displaced.
That almost made her want to do it. To be the first human to ever lay an egg.
Semeera dissolved into a fit of giggles, which only made her laugh harder because she was being silly, and she hadn’t been allowed to be silly in a really, really long time. It felt good.
A thump behind her made her jerk around on the bed to see Kader standing in her doorway. She hadn’t even heard him come in.
“Hi.”
His hard determined expression erased her humor.
She sat up, worry coursing through her. “Kader? What’s wrong? Bad day?” She gave him a wicked grin. “Want me to kiss it and make it better?”
He didn’t so much as twitch, killing the mood.
“What happened?”
“We shouldn’t copulate.”
“You changed your mind?” Well, shoot. She should have jumped him that morning after all. Now she’d missed her chance. She was seriously disappointed behind that.
“It is ill-advised.”
“Ill-advised? You asked someone’s advice?”
“Not my meaning. We are too different, Sssemeera. I could hurt you worse than I did this morning.”
“This morning?”
Shit!
He’d noticed after all. And she’d thought he hadn’t since he didn’t say anything.
“It was nothing,” she said in a soothing tone. “Barely a scratch, and I didn’t even feel it.”
“Yet you visited the infirmary to rid yourself of it so I wouldn’t notice.”
“That’s not—”
“Greater wounds can only be the result from us coming together. You’re too soft. And I…” He looked at his claw-tipped fingers.
Semeera bristled and came off the bed to confront him, with her head back so she could look up at him. She should have grabbed a chair so she was eye-to-eye with him. “Wait just a minute. That’s my risk to take. You don’t get a say in the matter.”
“I do and my say is that we not. I will not hurt you.”
“You’re right. You won’t.”
“Sssemeera—”
“No, you shut it.” She poked him in the chest, hurting her finger but ignoring it. “If you want to call it off, then do it. Don’t give me some bullshit excuse about hurting me.”
“It is not an excuse.”
“Yeah it is, Kader. You’ve had claws this entire time. You sure as hell weren’t thinking about them this morning. You were as hot for me as I was for you.” She paused when his tail flipped side to side quickly. She pointed at it. “Or are you going to say that’s because of something else?”
He glanced at his tail and hissed before fixing her with a determined expression. “We cannot. The difference between this morning and now is time to think. You don’t wish the doctors to know of our intimacy, but who do you think will patch you when my claws tear your flesh?”
“Oh, for the love of God. Stop being dramatic.” She pointed at the location of the now-healed scratch. “This was nothing.” She turned so he could see her other arm and the scratch near her shoulder. “I got this bumping into the table in the infirmary the other day. Are you suddenly going to say I’m not allowed to go there because I may get hurt?” She lifted her left leg and pointed at a gash that had long since stopped bleeding. “I did this shaving after I got back from the infirmary.”
“Sssemeera—”
“You didn’t hurt me this morning. I did. When I pulled away from you, I nicked myself on your claw. My fault. Not yours.”
“My point remains valid. You wouldn’t have been hurt at all if I didn’t have claws.”
She made a frustrated noise. “Kader—”
“No.”
Losing her temper would not win this argument. Not against a warrior who was probably trained to face down enemies bigger and scarier than she could ever hope to be. It was time to use logic.
She stepped back from him as she thought it through. His fear was valid. He was stronger than her by a lot, way the hell taller, and he had claws. Just grabbing her the wrong way could hurt her. She knew that, but she was willing to take the chance.
He wasn’t.
So, a compromise…
“How about this…” She held up her hand to stop whatever he would have said to interrupt. “Show and tell.”
His questioning expression urged her on.
“Both of us naked. No touching required. Just looking to see if we actually even fit.” She gave an offhand shrug. “Who knows? You may decide I’m not attractive after all.”
He said in a low tone, “And you the same.”
Okay, that hurt. But then saying it to him had probably hurt him as well, so touché. Mutual damage on both sides. She wouldn’t be lashing out if he wasn’t pushing her away. She wanted him, damn it. And he wanted her. Hopefully, being naked together would prove it to him.
Chapter 12
“Off with the clothes. All of them.” Semeera couldn’t help her grin.
She’d expected Kader to balk or make excuses. Instead, he stripped with the solemn stoicism of someone preparing for an execution. Was it really that bad? Maybe he really had changed his mind and now he was humoring her.
Then he pushed his boxers down his legs, revealing the erection that extended past his sheath—large, pink, and thick. Her breath caught as rippling ridges appeared along the underside. There was even a dot of clear precum on his tip.
“Wow.”
Kader grasped his arousal as though hiding it. “Forgiveness, Sssemeera.”
“Huh? What’s wrong?”
“That shouldn’t have happened.”
“Your erection?” Was he trying to piss her off?
“The ridges. They are for mating only. I don’t know why they have appeared now. Your scent…” He flicked out his tongue several times, and his pupils dilated while his tail flicked from right to left quickly.
“I’m missing something. I thought we were mating.”
“Copulating. Not mating.”
“Copulating is for fun. Mating is for…”
“Offspring.”
That’s what she’d thought. “Kader, we won’t have kids. I promise you that. Now move your hand.”
He opened and closed his mouth before releasing his shaft and allowing her to see every throbbing inch of him. Tight fit didn’t even begin to describe him. She needed to be well and truly drenched to fit that inside her. And she was well on her way.
Alien Mate Experiment Page 13
