“Couldn’t I wear fake glasses?”
“No. We strive for authenticity in our merchandise. Cheating customers hurts our bottom line.”
“Merchandise? You better not be planning on selling me.”
“Semeera Boswell of Earth, you do not listen. You are of Earth. Earth and all on it is ours. We don’t sell what is ours, not physical items. Media can be copied infinitely. We give up nothing and make much from the copies.”
“Except for whatever is on that black market database Kader used to communicate with you.”
“That as well brings profit. The database he tapped belongs to and is maintained by us. We load older merchandise under the guise of theft to entice new clientele. Those brave enough to contact us spend much.” Not-Imoor gave her a bright smile with their large eyes sparkling, literally sparkling, like there were stars twinkling in their eyes. “Once they meet you, they will spend more. They will want you but we will never sell. To stay with us is to be with us forever.”
“So I could never go home?”
“This will be your home. You wouldn’t have to go anywhere because you would already be here.”
Everything Not-Imoor said sounded good. Too good. Semeera didn’t want to make a mistake she would regret. But if this was real, if she could stay here with Kader…
“Let me speak to Kader. I’ll tell you my answer after.”
Not-Imoor’s eyes dulled to their normal black, and they made an annoyed sound. “Speaking wastes time. Just fuck already. Everything will be clearer after.”
Semeera laughed. Her first real laugh in a long time. “Talk to you later.”
She headed for Kader’s room, which was next to hers. Her steps started out slow, gaining speed until she was running. She shoved open Kader’s door, banging it against the wall and startling him so badly he tossed the tablet he’d been holding over his shoulder to smash to pieces against the wall.
“Sssemeera?”
Not-Imoor had been right. The last thing Semeera wanted to do in that moment was talk. She slammed the door behind her and then launched herself at Kader, who caught her and hugged her tight.
“Why are you—”
She covered his mouth and leaned back so she could look into his eyes. Voice breathy from running and rising lust, she said, “You have two choices. Option one is talking. Lots of talking but no touching. None. We lay out everything and only speak the truth, no matter how painful, until there’s nothing left between us to say.” She tightened her thighs around his chest, smiling when he gripped her ass. “Option two is fucking. Lots and lots and lots of fucking. Absolutely no talking. Nod if you understand.”
Kader nodded, his tail thrashing side to side, and his breathing rapid.
“One or two. That’s it.” She released his mouth. “Choose.”
Her beautiful lizardman growled long and low, making her gasp in delight as the sound rumbled through her and made her clit throb.
Giggling, she kissed him while tugging at his shirt.
Kader carried her to his bedroom, dumped her on the bed, and then tore her out of her clothes. He treated his in like manner before flipping her over and yanking her to him as he thrust his hips forward, entering her in one swift stroke that buried him to his base.
Both of them cried out their mutual pleasure at the renewal of such a primal connection.
Semeera couldn’t figure out how she’d stayed away from him as long as she had. He completed her, made her feel whole, wanted, part of something amazing. She’d been empty and aching without him. Her body quaked with orgasm after orgasm, making up for lost time at the expense of her ability to breathe. Gasping and panting caused crackling white noise to enter her vision, but she refused to pass out and miss even a second of this bliss.
Kader growled continuously as he slammed into her. He rubbed his head over her back and then tilted her head back to kiss her lips. “Forgiveness.”
She was about to remind him about the no-speaking rule when his musk filled her nose. A single breath made the world drop away and Semeera wasn’t sad to see it go.
Semeera stared at Earth from the circle of Kader’s arms, leaning into his solid strength because she wasn’t sure she could stand on her own. She was surprised she was awake at all. They’d had sex almost non-stop from the moment she entered his room until the Watchers announced they’d arrived at Earth.
Three weeks of spine-tingling, bone-melting, stars-exploding-all-at-once-while-angels-sang-in-chorus sex. She didn’t remember most of it after Kader used his musk on her. And she wasn’t even mad at him for doing it… the first time. After recovering from the fourth time, she’d threatened to cut him off if he did it again. A threat he’d taken seriously since she’d had his dagger pressed to his erection at the time.
She wouldn’t have really, but she got her point across. She didn’t want to be with her lover in a drunken, frenzied haze that forced them both past the point of exhaustion. Besides, Kader himself and that growl of his were drug enough.
He tightened his hold on her. “Your planet is very blue.”
“It is, isn’t it?” She let out a contented sigh.
When the Watchers had announced their arrival, she’d dreaded looking out into space and seeing Earth because she’d feared homesickness or some other desperate emotion would make her rethink her decision to stay with Kader on the Watchers’ ship. But it didn’t happen.
Earth just sat there—peaceful and spinning, blissfully unaware of the alien ship hovering on the other side of the moon. Semeera was happy just to see it. She didn’t want to go there. Why? What was there for her besides her family?
She would miss them, but the Watchers said she could keep in touch, and that pull wasn’t enough to make her give up the male holding her. Nothing was.
“It is time,” said a feminine-voiced Watcher, who walked into view. “As explained before, we will transport you to the location where you disappeared.”
Gavin asked, “And then what? You’re just going to leave us there? What do we tell people about where we’ve been or why we’ve suddenly reappeared?”
“You won’t be able. You will have complete amnesia, retaining only basic knowledge but no memory of yourself. Memories of your life prior to being transported to the khartarns’ ship will return in six to nine months. Everything after will be a complete blank.” They smiled with a small shrug. “Not that telling you this matters since you won’t remember.”
Sometimes the Watchers acted like dicks. Semeera had thought that more than once. Maybe it was because they were so blunt. Or maybe it was the smugness. Either way—dicks.
One by one, her friends disappeared. Each time one of them blinked away, Kader squeezed her and let out a soft whimper. Soon it was just her, Kader, and Shanti standing before the view screen.
Shanti yawned with her arms stretched over her head. “Well, that was fun. Night.” She walked away from the view screen.
Semeera frowned after her. “You’re staying too?”
“Yup. The only thing waiting for me down there is a shitty job with an asshole boss, a shittier marriage, and crippling debt. Pass.” She waved over her shoulder. “See you on tour.”
Semeera let her mouth fall open as she watched her friend walk away. She hadn’t known the Watchers made their pitch to anyone else. True, she hadn’t interacted with her friends since the Watchers rescued them, beyond checking to see if Mason had recovered from his catatonic state.
The Watchers had put him in a healing stasis field for the duration of the trip and assured her he would be mentally whole upon his return to Earth. Though he may suffer from nightmares from time to time. And possibly his herpetophobia would worsen. Semeera prayed he recovered enough to live a peaceful life.
“Staying?” Kader asked in a quiet tone.
The Watcher who had overseen the transfer of her friends to Earth said, “I have things to do.” And then they were gone.
Kader put his hands on her shoulders and turned Semeera to s
tare into her face. “You asked if she was staying as well.”
She nodded.
“That implies you are staying. Here? Not returning to Earth?”
“Nope. The Watchers said I could stay on their ship instead of going home.”
“When? You didn’t…” He hissed and slammed his tail hard enough to dent the metal floor. “How long have you known you would stay?”
“Since the day I gave you your options.”
His eyes widened, and he sucked in a breath. Releasing her slowly, he stepped back. “Why didn’t you tell me, Sssemeera? Why? You knew what I thought. You knew I dreaded the day we would part. If I had known—”
“It hurts when someone you love keeps something important from you,” she whispered, “doesn’t it?”
Kader stiffened as though she’d slapped him and had the strength to make it hurt. And from the pained expression on his face, she’d hurt him to the core.
She didn’t regret it. She had a point to make, a lesson to teach. “I gave you options, Kader. If you had chosen to talk, I would have told you then. But you didn’t want to talk.” She gave him a rueful smile. “And really I stacked the deck against you by giving you those options while wrapped around you because I really didn’t want to talk then either.”
He reached out one hand but stopped just shy of touching her cheek. “You… Will you…” He took a shuddering breath. “May I stay with you?”
“That was the plan, yes. Neither of us can go home. Or we could, but we wouldn’t be happy. Staying here means we can be together.” She stepped forward and laid her cheek against his hand. “I love you, Kader. Even when I thought you were a lying asshole who’d used me to betray my people, I still loved you. Even though this place creeps me the hell out and I’m still not sure we won’t end up in some weird science experiment with all our parts in lots of little jars on a shelf somewhere, I’m willing to take that chance to be with you.”
A tortured sob left Kader’s lips before he pulled her against his chest with his tail wrapped tight around them both. “Forgiveness, Sssemeera, my mate. Forgiveness. Please. Forgiveness.”
She smiled through the tears streaming down her cheeks. “Forgiven. For all of it. Do you forgive me for not telling you?”
“Yes. There is nothing to forgive. Thank you, my love. Thank you.”
Cheers and clapping sounded around them.
Semeera laughed and shook her head as she hugged Kader tighter. “So creepy.”
“Very. But this creepiness is now our home. Together.” He pulled back enough to look into her eyes. “I love you, Sssemeera, my soft one.”
“I love you, Kader, my lizardman from space.”
Epilogue
Semeera dropped face first onto her bed with a groan. “Being famous sucks,” she grumbled.
Kader removed her shoes, lifted her into his arms, and then settled against the headboard of the bed with her on his lap. “You love being famous.”
“I don’t. It’s a pain in the ass.”
“You say this because you’re tired from the tour. As soon as you are rested, you will hunger to go out again. Like a warrior thirsting for battle.”
She harrumphed into his chest, lacking a proper comeback because he was right. She loved going on tour… at first. Somewhere between the fifth and seventh stops on a ten-stop tour she flagged and all the inane questions and gawking got annoying.
It was psychological. At first, the Watchers had her on a twenty-stop tour, but cut her back to ten when they noticed her irritability around that point. But then she’d gotten irritable after seven stops and they’d cut her back to five only to have her get irritable after three. They’d bumped her back up to ten and told her to get over it.
She should be used to this after three years. This was bratty behavior on her part. Being pampered and spoiled had done nothing good for her personality. But the Watchers remained indulgent—to a point—and Kader didn’t seem to mind putting up with her.
Cuddling into his chest, she hugged him tight. “I love you.”
“As you should.”
“Hey!” She poked his chest, hurting her finger and making him laugh. “That is not the proper response.”
“No, but this is.” He slid down the bed at the same time he positioned her so she straddled his hips, rocking so she rubbed against his erection.
She purred and leaned forward to rain kisses over his chest.
“Before you get started…” A masculine childlike voice said from the doorway.
Semeera collapsed forward with a groan Kader shared.
The Watcher laughed.
Knowing she couldn’t make the Watcher leave, she glanced over her shoulder at them. “What do you want, Ijmru?”
“We have a gift for you and Warrior Kader of Home World.”
“Can it wait?”
Ijmru cocked their head to the side while studying them. “No. It’s waited long enough. You two have plenty of time for fucking later. Come now.”
Blunt as always.
Semeera climbed off her male and fixed her clothes, grinning as Kader untucked his shirt to cover the bulge in his pants. She kissed the air between them and he hissed his annoyance. And though he was upset, he didn’t voice it.
Kader still feared the Watchers, which was smart as Semeera found out her first year living with them.
The Watchers’ technology made them almost godlike in their abilities. They had thousands of ships that blended with space so no one realized they were there unless and until the Watchers wanted the ship to be seen. The ship itself was vast, holding millions. And of those millions, Semeera couldn’t even say how many she’d met because they all looked exactly alike.
Hell, she wasn’t even sure she was on the same ship she’d started on three years ago, because those were all identical too. The Watchers had said they could move her and Kader’s entire room from one ship to another via transport and Semeera would never know. Whether they had or not had gone unanswered, so she couldn’t be sure if she and Kader had moved or Shanti had. Either way, her friend had stopped traveling with her after the first year.
They kept in touch and met up from time to time, bumping into each other in one of the Watchers’ restaurants, always a nice surprise. At those times, they chatted away about their different experiences. And when the night was over, Shanti would be gone and the Watchers weren’t forthcoming about where she was.
“How’s Shanti?”
Ijmru said, “Not as willful and petulant as you.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“You’re welcome,” they said in a bright, cheery voice.
She flicked them off behind their back only to have Kader pull her hand down with a shake of his head and a warning hiss. Her constant protector. Even protecting her from herself.
They walked in silence the rest of the way. Ijmru led them on a winding path through the ship, always staying to the left because she’d called them Ijmru. She’d learned that it wasn’t a name and didn’t belong to anyone in particular. The Watchers had names, but they didn’t share them with outsiders, which Semeera and Kader would always be no matter how long they lived on the ship.
Ijmru literally meant the individual standing on the port side. Imoor meant the individual standing on the starboard side. They were genderless titles assigned based on where the Watcher was standing when they struck up a conversation. In the beginning, the Watchers had changed positions based on how Semeera addressed them because she hadn’t known the significance.
And if there was a title for the individual standing on the bow or an individual standing on the aft, they hadn’t shared it. Not that it was important. Semeera was just curious. And for the Watchers, just curious didn’t warrant an answer.
“Here we are.” Ijmru paused in the doorway. The sound of scuffling feet and giggles came from the room before the group stepped inside.
A single grinning Watcher stood in the room.
Semeera would bet there had been many more
a moment ago. The Watchers only ever let them see two of them at a time. Their reasoning—Ijmru and Imoor were singular. More than two in a room would become confusing to determine to whom she spoke—never mind they could just give the third person a title for her use. She let that argument go because it wasn’t worth having.
She looked around a room that resembled an infirmary. “Where’s here? Have you decided to dissect us after all?”
Ijmru and Imoor tittered and shook their heads. “You should know by now, Semeera Boswell of Earth, that we will do no such thing,” they said in unison—a habit the Watchers had—speaking in unison whenever they were together. They hadn’t explained it, and Semeera had decided not to ask.
“Not until my ratings drop, at least.” She injected a bit of humor into her words, but it was something she believed and feared deep down. And it didn’t make her feel better when the Watchers didn’t deny it.
They spoke to each other in a language the ship didn’t translate and then said in unison, “Ta-da!” They swept their hands out as they turned to the side.
The lights in the back of the room rose bright enough to illuminate the entire infirmary and the thirteen pods embedded in the walls.
Semeera’s heart hammered in her chest and she inched closer to Kader, who wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
The Watchers said, “It’s not to fear. Come see. Our present to you because you fuck so much.”
She really needed them to stop saying fuck. It creeped her out and sounded wrong with their voices. Despite that, she inched forward to get a better look at what the pods held.
Each pod was the size of a small beach ball, filled with tan liquid and…
Semeera gasped with her eyes wide. “What?”
Babies.
The pods held babies.
Thirteen babies, floating in what she assumed was amniotic fluid. Each had an umbilical cord that connected to the wall of their pod. And then she noticed more details.
Each baby had skin as brown as hers but six of them had a long tail that curled around their little body. She glanced at Kader to see if he saw what she was seeing.
Alien Mate Experiment Page 22
