“Ugh! Beets. It just had to be beets!” She would have jumped at the chance to eat almost anything else if she’d had to chew through the damned can!
Fortunately, it almost immediately popped into her head that there was only one logical explanation for the presence of the can.
The alien ship had come down right in the middle of a grocery store!
The thrill that went through her at that thought was indescribable. Food! She was sooo hungry!
Dropping to a squat, Anya began sifting through the debris a little frantically. The can of beets had been virtually intact—a little banged up, but still whole and with a recognizable label. There had to be others—not beets—a lot of other cans if she was right!
Either she was wrong, though, or there was just too much debris from the building itself to make finding the contents of the building possible. The light was failing fast and even without a roof it was getting harder and harder to see. Hopeful excitement had dimmed to frustration and the beginnings of anger when she finally shoved a chunk of twisted metal aside and found three dented, slightly mangled cans beneath it. She let out a whoop of triumph and grabbed them up, examining what was left of the labels with frowning intensity. Pleasurable anticipation wafted through her when she discovered that one of the cans seemed to be peaches.
Someone—or something—huffed a breath at her that almost seemed a derisive comment on her thoughts. Anya was too focused on her food-finding expedition to register the proximity as she should have. Her fight or flight instincts should have exploded and shot her into action. Instead, anger poured through her in the wake of the blast of hot, to her, critical, breath.
For a split second after she lifted her head, or maybe a handful of seconds, she merely stared at the huge, shadowy figure looming over her. Then, very belatedly, her fight or flight instincts kicked in and she screamed ear-splittingly.
Either the sound startled the monstrous beast and he jumped back or she leapt back flat footed—maybe both. All Anya knew was that one second she was practically nose to nose with the beast and the next she’d gained almost enough distance for flight.
Not quite and she didn’t turn fast enough. The beast roared at her abruptly. When it did, Anya pitched the cans she was holding at it. One hit its snout. One can pinged off of a two foot long tooth and the other hit the back of the beast’s tongue and lodged in its throat. Anya didn’t register that miracle shot and the beast’s immediate reaction—choking convulsions—until much later, however. The moment she’d unloaded her ammo, she screamed again, whirled, and took off, bounding over the debris that littered the ground like a startled deer.
Aidan raced from behind a mound of debris. Anya altered course and headed straight for him. At least, she thought she did, which made it difficult, later, to decide whether he was rushing to her rescue or if he merely defended both of them because she led the beast right to him.
Regardless, he caught her protectively with one arm and lifted the other, temporarily suspending her flight as he fired … something … in the direction of the beast. Anya registered a flash of light and a thunderous clap of sound and caught a glimpse of the beast writhing on the ground as Aidan shifted his grip on her and began to run, dragging her with him.
There wouldn’t have been a drag if she’d had a clue of where he was going. She would have led the way. The drag came from Aidan’s determination to hold on to her and her determination to run in a different direction than he was running.
Finally, he snatched her off her feet. She had the brief impression that he was running directly toward a huge mound of debris and then a mouth yawned open and Aidan dashed inside of it. A faint bluish light engulfed them.
Impressions of all sorts of things pelted Anya but until she’d assured herself that the beast wasn’t right behind them she didn’t really have any interest in anything else. Aidan set her on her feet and examined her with shaking hands.
“Ah-na hurt?”
Anya promptly burst into noisy sobs. “I was so-o-o scared! And the bastard got my peaches!” She shuddered, remembering the thing had been right on top of her when she’d discovered it. He could have chomped her whole and she wouldn’t even have known what was happening until …!
Aidan’s hands tightened on her. When she felt them slacken, she gripped him frantically, unable to think beyond staying as close to him for protection as she could get. They wrestled, briefly, with their conflicting goals and then Aidan scooped her up.
Anya clung to him desperately, crying and shaking as she struggled with the horrifying images flashing through her mind. She was aware of Aidan moving with her along a corridor, though. The sound of his boots on a hard surface echoed back too quickly for them to be moving through a room. And then she heard a shish of sound and registered darkness then flickering bluish lights. A few moments later she felt Aidan settle her on a surface that yielded to her weight. She tightened her grip on him when she thought he would let go. He seemed to debate briefly and then he settled with her, molding her against his length.
Relieved, comforted by his nearness and his warmth, Anya felt the fear and tension slowly flow away and calmness and gratitude take its place.
It felt completely right when his large hand settled on her back and slowly stroked downward to her buttocks and then up again beneath the jacket.
Well, not completely.
She instantly recognized the prelude to sex and there was no internal debate of whether she should or shouldn’t, wanted to or didn’t want to. The warmth of his body and his scent already enveloped her and both of those had produced a sense of safety and comfort and pleasure. Her body instantly responded to his touch in a very positive way, her senses leaping to high alert and almost crackling with the tension as it waited for the expected input. Warmth flowed over and through her, her heart rate picking up just enough to flush her skin with blood and heighten her receptors.
Her mind wasn’t totally in sync.
The tiny doubt that flickered along her nerve endings and then along the pathways of her mind wasn’t much more significant than the annoyance of a gnat and yet it couldn’t be completely ignored. Her determination to ignore it kept it at stalemate, however, still teasing but not growing any more pronounced—and that was the way she wanted it.
Responding to the stroke of his hand, she lifted her head and nuzzled a path to his throat.
His response was charmingly swift. His cock leapt to attention and stiffened so hard it bruised her hip when he surged against her.
She remedied that situation by shifting so that the next time he hunched her the bruising log was against her pubic bone and that felt just lovely.
The annoying gnat wouldn’t go away completely, though, and it unfurled in her mind just as Aidan shifted to cover her mouth with his why the damned thing was so determined to blow her bliss.
It wasn’t right—nothing was, no matter how right it felt. He might feel as wonderfully human as any other man that had ever touched her—better than any that had ever touched her before. He might be making all the right moves and reacting and behaving just as she was used to.
But he wasn’t human.
She managed to sort through that much before Aidan settled his mouth on hers. The first sweep of his tongue along her lips and then her tongue completely blew her mind, though, knocked the last thought right out of her head. She caught fire, went up in a conflagration. It was like downing a shot of 180 proof alcohol—straight up.
From there she sank deeper and deeper under his spell, beguiled by the promise of more and more pleasure with a final, explosive kick at the end to boost her heavenward.
She didn’t doubt that would happen. His touch was like magic—electric, creating sizzling trails along her nerve endings. And all roads led to the love canal. That area heated up so fast she was ready to cum long before he decided she was ready to be penetrated. He continued to explore her with his hands and lips until she was tugging at him in silent demand.
Fi
nally, he seemed to get the message. She heard the tearing sound of the closure of his suit as he parted it. He pulled away slightly and she felt his movements as he shucked the trousers and boots. He separated the sides of the jacket she’d been wearing and dove for her breasts while she was still trying to struggle out of it. She discarded the idea of undressing and curled her arms around his head and shoulders as he finessed first one breast and then the other.
Shockwaves of pleasure rolled through her as he plucked and suckled at her nipples. She’d gasped and panted until her mouth and throat felt like cotton.
Enough foreplay! I’m dying here, she thought! Do it, damn it!
Almost as if he’d read her mind, he moved into position. Anya lifted her legs and curled them around him, trying to tighten them and bring him down to her.
He resisted the pull, cupping her face in one hand. “Ah-na.”
“Mmm?” she responded, pulling at him.
“Open your eyes, Ah-na,” he said harshly. “I’m not going to let you pretend I’m someone … or something else.”
Naturally enough since he was speaking in his own language, she didn’t understand anything but her name, but there was something about the tone that penetrated her determination to stay sealed in the cocoon of pleasure he’d created. She slitted her eyes and looked at him a little resentfully. He released his grip on her jaw. Meeting her gaze, he slowly moved closer until his lips were hovering just above hers.
It wasn’t until he touched his lips to hers and then sank deeply, carrying her away on a fresh, hot tide of desire, that she realized what he’d been about.
He wasn’t leaving her any room to pretend she was too swept up in the moment to realize she was fucking an alien!
It didn’t matter … at the moment!!
She was too far gone.
She was so close to the edge that she began to quake with imminent release almost as soon as he began attempting penetration. Attempting because she hadn’t imagined the size of that ‘club’ he was swinging! He’d barely managed a handful of strokes when she went off like a rocket. Fortunately, he seemed to know she needed fast and hard to get the full effect. He pounded in to her until she’d screamed herself hoarse and went limp and then paused briefly and started over, sawing slowly.
Anya groaned and not from pleasure. She was done, damn it! He might have had the consideration to finish with her!
Despite that uncharitable thought, however, she discovered his search for his own culmination was having a very desirable effect on her. The tension began to build inside of her again and it kept pace with his rising desire.
She rode the second wave with him and discovered that it was even more mind-blowing to cum with him than it had been the first time.
Or maybe it was just that it was the second climax and so close to the first, she wondered dimly?
She had to admit, though, that it was the best man-made climax, hands down, that she’d ever had!
Actually, it made her wonder-wand climaxes pale by comparison!
Which was seriously disturbing, particularly since it dawned on her that it wasn’t a ‘man-made’ climax at all.
She didn’t have a lot of time to dwell on the disturbing aspects of the situation. Her mind was just so much mush directly after explosion number two. Her brain reassembled and functioned logically for a handful of seconds and then descended into the abject darkness of total peace. She’d spent too many days in terror, exhausted herself from far more activity than she ever had in her life and had virtually no sleep, food, or water.
She hit orbit, burned out like a shooting star as she dropped toward earth again, and sank toward oblivion.
Obviously Aidan joined her in Neverland because they both jumped high enough and hard enough at the squawking intrusion a little later to fall off the bunk in a drunken tangle on the floor.
Chapter Seven
“Message from Central Command in two parts: In regards to the report filed by IA unit 6194 residing aboard stolen starship cruiser …. The Terra-formers have been disabled. Repeat: The Terra-formers have been disabled.
“Second part: Directive to Linguistic Anthropologist Aidan Montiero from the Emergency Session called in High Council on nineteen Keper in the year thirty thirty zero nine: A full and unconditional pardon is offered on the charges of grand theft by taking, initiating unauthorized flight plans, and fraud arising from unauthorized usage of government project funding if you are willing to act as ambassador for our people and negotiate a peace treaty with the people of G-1493, which was inadvertently targeted for colonization due to faulty intelligence that suggested the system was NOT inhabited by an intelligent species.
“It is felt that your training and experiences, and the happy circumstance of your current location, make you uniquely qualified to handle this delicate situation—which you must assure the people of G-1493 was purely a misunderstanding. The Terra-formers have been disabled and we have our people working feverishly at a solution to reprogramming the genesis nanites. Further assure the people that we are not relying entirely on that possibility to bring relief to the citizens of G-1493. Even now, we are preparing to send a mother ship fully stocked with supplies to aid the residents of G-1493 made homeless—purely by accident—and construction bots to repair or replace property damaged by the genesis nanites.”
Leaping at the sudden, loud interruption of his sleep was an instinct. Unfortunately, Anya’s reaction was much the same and the end result was that they both ended up losing their balance and crashing onto the floor. Beyond that instinctive and almost instantly disastrous reaction, however, Aidan wasn’t even completely certain of what had happened at first. Brought so abruptly from deep sleep after a very long period of deprivation, he was too exhausted even to feel a great deal of shock about discovering the long range communicator hovering over his bunk and the message it delivered barely sank in—at first. Dimly, he registered the charges the government was prepared to throw at him but relief was uppermost—next to discomfort that he’d been caught in a private moment he damned well didn’t want public—as he stared at the eye of the deep space communicator and listened to the terms the High Council had lain out.
They knew about the disaster they’d created—thank the gods! That was why the nanites had ceased to break down everything in sight!
Well! They’d made a hell of a stinking mess and now they expected him to clean up behind them when he’d warned them this could happen and they’d treated him as if he was a moron—when they listened at all?
Not that he had a lot of choices that he could see if he wanted to see his home world again as a free man! Because he could see he was going to take the fall if he didn’t manage to clean things up.
On the other hand, he had already pretty much taken on that job, hadn’t he?
“What is that thing?” Anya demanded. “Is it … like a floating camera? Because that’s what it looks like!” She turned to glare at Aidan. “If you made a sex tape of us ….”
Aidan studied his wrist computer with frowning intensity. He felt his face heat with discomfort at the accusation, but he felt a touch of amusement, as well. “I no did dis ting. Shee—ip is cop setup. I no know dat, though. Follow an’ report. Good ting! Dey shit down nanos. No more destroy tings.”
Anya gaped at him with burning eyes, her sluggish brain struggling to ‘interpret’ when she would’ve had a hard time figuring out what he was trying to say if she’d been completely alert. The cop setup thing actually registered fairly quickly, though. “You’re saying you stole this ship?” she demanded, aghast.
Aidan’s discomfort increased. “Friend stole. I borrow. Need she--ep come here prove intelligent life on G-1493. Good ting. Dey report fuck up.”
Anya digested that a while, trying to decide if she actually had understood him and had enough pieces to fit the puzzle together or if she was allowing him to dupe her because she really hated the idea of having had mind-blowing sex—of coming to trust and depend upon—an
enemy of her own species.
Because it sounded to her like he was saying his people had targeted the planet without realizing it was already taken and he’d come to try to prove it was already taken—which in effect was saying that he’d come to save them.
Or at least, he’d come to prove a point.
And apparently at great risk to himself.
She had a headache coming on in nothing flat and decided she had to have something to eat and drink---and hopefully some clothes or something to hide her nakedness. “Is that thing still on?”
Aidan wrestled with the impulse to be completely honest and the certainty that the truth would not make her happy or particularly cooperative. “Still on. Property of cops … or High Council. Uncertain. But no mine. I no can turn off.”
Anya studied his earnest expression for several moments, charmed in spite of every effort to disregard any appreciation. The plain fact was, though, that she couldn’t help but think his efforts to speak English were ‘cute’.
Because he was cute and she thought he was sexy as hell.
She needed her head examined.
It was just plain wrong, on so many levels, to find him so attractive on so many levels!
She was sure it was.
Dismissing those thoughts with an effort, she turned to glare at the hovering camera/robot thingy, holding the coverlet a little closer. “If you don’t fucking mind I’d like a little damned privacy,” she growled. “I haven’t done anything even if he has!”
Aidan sent her an indignant look—which she ignored. Getting to her feet with an effort, she jerked the coverlet off of Aidan, wrapped it around herself, and looked around. “I need a bathroom.”
“Ship facilities are through the cabin door, down the corridor two meters, and then through the door at the right hand side of the corridor.”
The voice came out of nowhere and spoke English way better than poor Aidan—English minus the heavy, awkward accent. It wasn’t exactly a pleasant surprise to discover yet another ‘intruder’ although Anya had decided even before she got a response that it must have been an onboard computer that had answered her question. “Who are you?”
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