Lion Man's Captive

by Kaitlyn O’Connor

  Anya smiled a little tremulously. “I really liked him.” She frowned thoughtfully. “I’ve been trying to convince myself that I just got dependent because I needed rescuing and he was kind enough to keep me alive ….”

  “Not having much luck with that, though, huh?”

  Anya sighed. “Not much. He was ….” She broke off and started laughing. “Not like anybody else I know.”

  Myra laughed, too. “I can see that. I can totally see that.”

  “But … Well, he is different and he comes from a completely different culture and, when you get down to it, he’s not even the same species that we are. And yet ….”

  When she didn’t say anything else, just stared at the floor, Myra prompted her. “And yet?”

  “I don’t think they’re that different from us in a lot of ways either. I mean, I suppose culturally it’s sort of like being with any foreigner from this planet—when you don’t really know their customs or the way they look at things.”

  “He’s definitely a foreigner,” Myra responded wryly.

  Anya sent her an irritated look. “I mean he … seemed to have a sense of humor I could completely relate to and ….” She released a deep sigh. “It was like fireworks! OMG!”

  “Oooh!” Myra gasped excitedly. “Now, this is more like it! I want details!”

  Anya felt her face redden. “Well, you aren’t getting them! Just saying he totally rocked my world.”

  “In several ways, I imagine,” Myra said dryly.

  Anya gave her a look. “Yeah. But I really like him and none of this was his doing. He’s the only one, apparently, who thought there was a good chance they were going to run across a planet inhabited by higher life forms, possibly intelligent, but he couldn’t get anybody to listen so he came for proof.”

  Myra frowned. “Yeah, I read that in one of the interviews. You believe him?”

  “I do.”

  Myra set her glass down and moved to settle on the couch next to her sister, cuddling her sympathetically. “But it didn’t work out?”

  Anya shrugged. “I don’t guess it really could.”

  “But you wish it would?”

  Anya considered it. “I’d love to have the chance to find out if it could work out. You know it’s hard to make a relationship work—even a typical one. It probably wouldn’t. But I really, really like him and I’d like to try it.”

  “Then you need to tell him the next time you get a chance,” Myra said decisively. “I want you to be happy. I think you’re taking on a huge burden here and this would be the absolute ultimate no-no as far as a mixed relationship and the approval/disapproval of your peers, but you’re a free woman and you should get to make your own mistakes like everybody else.”

  Anya felt a huge weight fall off her shoulders. She hadn’t realized that so much of her anxiety had to do with a fear that seeking a relationship with Aidan could mean destroying her relationship with the other people she loved.

  That thought brought her to a mental halt.

  Loved?

  Did she love him?

  Or was it just … like that captive syndrome thingy?

  And, saying it wasn’t anything mental like that but she really did care for him, was she going to actually get the chance to discover if Aidan wanted to try to have a relationship with an Earth woman?

  * * * *

  Anya was tempted to simply ignore the tap on her bedroom window. The feeding frenzy of the media had died down considerably in the past couple of weeks, though, and curiosity got the best of her. She peered through the curtains warily to see if she should start screaming her head off or not.

  Her heart jerked painfully when she saw who was standing outside her bedroom window.

  She broke two nails unlocking the window and shoving it open. “Aidan!” she gasped in a thrilled whisper. “What are you doing here?”

  He glanced around the darkened back yard. “Can I come in before your neighbors call the cops?”

  Anya glanced around at that. “I’ll meet you at the back door,” she said, pointing. Rushing to the back door, she snatched it open, and flung herself into Aidan’s arms without waiting to see if she was welcome or not, hugging him tightly. He hugged her back with gratifying force, nearly squeezing the breath out of her and finally pulled away just enough to seek her mouth.

  She met his quest eagerly, already warm, willing, excited from his presence, from the warmth and strength of the hard, unyielding form he’d held her against. He was just unfamiliar enough to her to add an edge of nerves to her excitement and just familiar enough to make the blood pump faster from memory alone. The scent of his skin—so alien, so uniquely his own—was an intoxicant. The taste of his mouth as he covered hers and breached the barrier of her lips was heavenly. She felt as if she was melting, felt warm and wet and pliant … and oh so ready!

  Objections were the last thing that crossed her mind as he swept her up into his arms and began a search for a nest to mate in—beyond objecting that he broke the kiss to look around. “That way,” she murmured, nuzzling her face against his throat as soon as she’d pointed him in the right direction.

  They crashed onto the top of her bed with a bounce, stroking one another, kissing any patch of skin uncovered as they wrestled with removing their clothing and caressing one another at the same time. They tangled—with each other, the binding clothes—fought their way free of sleeves and zippers and other closures and clutched at one another again.

  A heated steam of their combined scents enveloped them as they explored one another thoroughly, returned repeatedly to share mating lips in kisses that wound the tension tighter and tighter. Their breaths mingled, intoxicating both of them.

  Anya was in a rush to feel Aidan as a part of herself again and, at the same time, she wanted to explore him with her lips and hands and feel his touch on her. They seemed to reach a surfeit of what they could endure without becoming one with one another at the same time. Without words, almost as if their thoughts were guiding them and nothing else, they moved to complement one another, moved together, angling their bodies for a smooth joining.

  It was hardly that.

  They had the logistics right. It was the difference in their sizes that created a blip in their bliss.

  Anya had forgotten how very male Aidan was. Even as wet as she was, and slippery, his girth was enough to make penetration an ordeal—for both of them—to try their patience. Anya had gasped and groaned and pushed and shoved and clawed at him until she was about ready to pass out from dehydration and hyperventilation by the time he achieved the desired connection and surged inside of her.

  It was well worth the struggle, however, deeply satisfying for both of them.

  A tremor went through Anya as soon as he managed to delve her depths fully, filling her with a satisfying ache from the lovely friction as well as the strain his girth placed on the muscles along her channel. She clung to him tightly as he withdrew to plunge again. “Aidan! Oh god! Oh Aidan! Oh baby! It feels good! It feels so good. I’m going to come!”

  He shuddered and silenced her with his mouth.

  It was perfect—absolutely perfect and just what she needed! The kiss sent her rocketing over the edge. She moaned into his mouth as her body was wracked with the most excruciating pleasure she’d ever experienced and finally tore her mouth from his to suck in a sharp breath as she hit the zenith.

  Aidan uttered a harsh growl of satisfaction as he reached his own peak, shuddering with her. The sound as much as the shudders that told her he’d achieved climax, as well, made goose bumps rise all over her and sent a delicious shiver through her as she lay gasping for breath in the aftermath. She stroked his back lovingly as he collapsed weakly on top of her, still shuddering.

  “Mmm. I’ve missed this.”

  Aidan stiffened slightly and finally pushed himself up a little to look down at her. “You have?”

  Anya lifted her brows. “That didn’t seem like I was happy to see you?”

&nbs
p; His lips curled upward at one corner in a smile that seemed both shy and at the same time cocky. “It seemed that way, but I didn’t want to make assumptions ….”

  Anya chuckled. “Your English is way better.”

  He grimaced, but he made no attempt to move off of her. “I have had much practice … until I am nearly hoarse.”

  “That bad, huh?” Anya asked sympathetically.

  “Worse.”

  He hesitated and finally sighed deeply and rolled off of her and on to his back beside her. Lifting one arm, he draped it across his eyes.

  “Tired?” Anya asked hesitantly when he didn’t speak for several moments.

  His lips curled faintly and he moved his arm, shifting so that he could draw her against his length. “Yes. Very tired. I hate politicians.”

  “We have that much in common,” Anya responded with amusement.

  “Is that all, Ah-na?”

  She frowned. “We haven’t exactly had a lot of time to explore what we might or might not have in common.”

  “And yet …” He studied her for many moments and finally seemed almost to shrug. “I desire you. I want, very much, to get the chance to discover if we could make a life together. But I know I shouldn’t ask. There is a great deal of animosity toward my people in spite of the efforts to make amends.”

  Feeling her heart leap with gladness and excitement and relief, Anya shifted closer. “It would be hard to deal with, I know,” she murmured, tracing a circle on his chest with one fingertip. “But I’m old enough to know what I want. And besides that I’m old enough to have learned that it’s just plain stupid to throw away any chance for happiness. I’m willing to face the disapproval. I heard the treaty was signed allowing a Grinderian colony here. We could live in the colony if you aren’t comfortable with the idea of living here.”

  Aidan cupped her chin with one hand and tilted her face up to study her expression. “You want me?”

  Anya smiled. “I didn’t convince you?”

  He grinned. “Not completely. But I’m open-minded if you want to try again.”

  The End.