by Mel Teshco
She gasped as his tongue swirled on the sensitive skin at the base of her throat. “It sounds like something we should seriously consider…soon.”
“I agree,” he said hoarsely. He paused again for just a moment. “But when we’re back on earth, alone. I want to perform a bonding ceremony without the men of my planet as witness.”
She wanted to ask more questions, but then he was continuing downward, along the curve of her throat, then the hardening peak of one of her breasts beneath its alien fabric.
She arched upward. Damn. His mouth, his tongue and teeth, sucked and nipped at the sensitized flesh as though the alien fabric of her dress was an invisible barrier—or no barrier at all.
Then he was moving lower still. Her pulse fluttered, both with anxiety and carnal need as he pushed her dress up and peeled her labia apart. He looked up, his eyes burning with desire. “I want to taste you, kitten.”
She jerked when he opened her wider still, his eyes drinking her in as though she was manna from heaven. She swallowed. Hard. “Please do.”
His smile almost predatory, he bent and licked her stiffening clit with one long stroke that caused her breath to shudder from her lungs. She mewled like a cat in heat when his whole mouth covered the pink flesh of her clitoris and he gently sucked, setting every nerve ending alight. She was all but catapulted toward the edge of release, when he drew on her flesh harder, she shattered around his mouth with a strangled gasp, flying high then gently drifting back to earth.
But then his tongue delved deep into her channel, tasting her release. When he growled low in his throat, she felt the vibration shudder through her cunt and she cried out, unable to hold back, to resist vocalizing further pleasure.
Renate shifted forward, his body full length along hers, the head of his hard cock pressing between her thighs. His mouth when it covered hers tasted of pussy and turned her on in ways she couldn’t define, his fierce kiss one she couldn’t resist. She kissed him back with an urgency that matched his own, need barreling through her body at the unquenchable fire he’d sparked into raging life.
She spread her thighs apart and clasped the base of this cock with one hand, guiding him to her wet cunt.
“Are you ready for me?”
“Hell. Yes.”
His smile was all carnal need, matching the possessive glint in his eyes. He thrust forward, filling her, sinking all the way to his balls.
“Fuck,” she moaned.
His hoarse breathing fanned her ear. Then he withdrew his cock fully from her wet heat. Poised for a nanosecond, he plunged back in, forcing the oxygen out of her lungs, her heart rate up another few beats. And when he set up a motion that increased in speed and intensity, she knew she wasn’t going to last much longer.
“Renate, I’m going to come—”
And then she did, shattering around his cock even before he jolted her with his charge and caused another orgasm to spin her higher, her breath rasping. He stroked deep inside her once, twice. He roared loud and long, his seed exploding, his eyes rolling back in his head.
He all but collapsed on top of her and she welcomed his weight, pulling him close and breathing in his sweat-moistened, salty skin as his heartbeat raced and his chest heaved.
She traced over the slight notches along his spine, the corded muscles. She let out a dreamy sigh. “That’s one way to wake up a person in a hurry.”
His chest rumbled with deep, masculine laughter that left her giggling in turn. He clasped her face, his amusement fading and his expression becoming all too serious. “I love you.”
Her chest hurt with the profound ache she felt for him. Her vision blurred a little. “I love you too,” she whispered.
“Thank you, kitten,” he murmured huskily, sealing the deal with his lips covering hers, a soft, lingering kiss that expressed his adoration one step further.
She whimpered displeasure when he finally drew back and moved off her, kneeling between her thighs as though he was a gladiator in repose.
He smiled, eyes alight with satisfaction. “You’re not hungry for food, then?
She crooked her neck to the side, seeing the two bowls within arm’s reach. Tantalizing aromas infiltrated her nostrils, causing her stomach to rumble. “I guess I am.” She sat, tucking her legs from around him and modestly tugging the hem of her dress down. She sniffed appreciatively. “But weren’t you going to send someone up with the food?”
He crooked a dark brow. “I did, but you were sound asleep and I gave specific orders not to wake you.”
He stood and, retrieving the nearest bowl, he offered it to her. It was the meat and vegetable dish she’d chosen earlier and she took it gladly. Stuffing a couple of pieces of lukewarm meat and a pink, leafy vegetable into her mouth, she took her fill of his nakedness as he dragged on his pants.
God, she’d never get enough of his tight abs, his broad shoulders and long, muscular thighs that were the perfect backdrop to his heavy balls and a cock that was built for pleasure.
She took another mouthful, barely tasting the flavorsome vegetables and herbs that were entirely not of this world. Renate dropped into a crouch and selected a wedge of fluorescent green fruit from the other bowl before he popped it into his mouth.
“You’re not going to navigate?” she asked.
He smiled. “No need. The mother ship is on course now. We’ll be at our destination in an hour, two at most.”
She stopped chewing, her eyes widening. Swallowing, she asked, “Just how long was I asleep?”
He shrugged. “I’d guess maybe five earth hours.”
“So we’re close to finding Bonnie?” she breathed.
“That is my hope.”
“Bonnie—”
Her bowl crashed to the floor as she clasped her head. A memory hit her front and center.
* * * * *
She burst into the townhouse. “Katie, Sam!”
Lifting first one foot and then the other, she tugged off her high heels and threw them aside. The damn things had near killed her feet and ankles after the twelve-block hike to get to her ex-husband’s house.
I think about my feet after seeing three bodies on the way over, huddled together in the back seat of their sedan?
She shivered. Somehow she’d conditioned herself against the hard facts of the virus. She was more than aware she’d be seeing worse than bodies in a car if she was one of the survivors.
“Hello!” she called.
She just made out Luke’s voice. “Ally, we’re down in the cellar.”
“Nice,” she muttered. Luke stayed underground as far from the airborne virus as he could get, while she all but waded through it.
She pushed open the cellar door.
“Shut it quick,” Luke ordered tersely.
She sidled through and slapped the door closed behind her, making her way down the half dozen steps to the musty, unaired scent of the large cellar, that was once used for storing expensive wines and unwanted bric-a-brac.
Katie was a blur as she raced toward her and wrapped her arms around her. “Don’t leave, Owly,” the little girl pleaded. “Don’t leave us again.”
She bent and lifted the dark-haired angel high, holding her close. “I missed you too,” she whispered, knowing she couldn’t promise what Katie asked. Not without hurting her more.
Luke stepped forward, rumpled and bleary-eyed. “If we survive this, Ally, I really do hope you’ll consider staying, too.”
She turned away, wondering what the hell she’d ever seen in him. A dog barked once, capturing her attention and she glanced over at the shaggy black and white animal, which Sam was holding on to as though he wasn’t ever going to let go. “Hey, how’s Bonnie doing?” she asked him gently, taking in Sam’s tear-stained eyes, his haggard little face.
When she’d left Luke, she’d bought his children the dog, hoping Bonnie would help ease their pain and keep them company.
“She’s doing good so far,” Sam croaked.
“Then why so
sad? Your doggy is beautiful and happy.”
“I’m scared,” he burst out. “I mean, who is going to feed her, give her water and make sure she’s okay when we’re dead?”
* * * * *
“Kitten, are you okay?”
She came back to the present with a rush. She swallowed. The bowl was tipped on its side with meat and vegetables thrown every which way across the floor. “What a mess,” she said absently.
“Don’t worry about it; I’m more concerned about you right now.” He stepped toward her and brushed a thumb across her trembling bottom lip. “Did you have another memory?” he asked huskily.
She nodded. “Yes.” She looked up, feeling as though all her color had leached right out of her face. “I bought Bonnie for Sam and Katie—my stepchildren.”
I chose Bonnie. Loved her even before she became mine.
The mother ship slowed and Renate searched her face before murmuring, “Then let’s go find her.”
Chapter Nine
Following Renate back through the maze of corridors and stepping on then off a number of shields that took them to different levels, her step faltered a little as they moved onto a half level where a U-shaped control panel glowed faintly beneath blue-tinged down lights.
Lillian waited with her royal husbands, Dar, Ezra and Maddox. She held out her slender hands to Ally. “I’m sorry to see you go so soon.”
Ally inclined her head, resisting the urge to stoop lower into a formal bow. “Earth is still my home, no matter its terrible state.”
Sadness touched Lillian’s face. “I understand.”
Dar spoke to her from beside the queen. “Take care of Renate, he’s a good, honorable man.”
Ally smiled up at the powerful king with his beautiful, long black hair. Up close he was much taller than she’d realized and a whole lot more intimidating.
“Thank you, I will.”
She met Ezra’s narrowed, green stare next. But then his aloof face relaxed into something close to a semblance of approval. With a nod he murmured, “May you both be blessed with many children.”
She dropped her stare, unable to hold his eyes and shield the truth. Unable to conceal the gnawing ache that was the void inside her that would never be filled.
Before she could find something to say in return, Maddox moved closer and said, “Be well. Our future may one day depend on you.” He pressed a bag into her hand and added, “Seeds from our home planet. Look after them, Renate will know what to do with them.”
She glanced up and Maddox and smiled. His gift was priceless. She held in her hands future plants for healing, for longer living and god only knew what else. “Thank you, Maddox, that’s very generous.”
He nodded, his blue eyes gleaming. “My generosity isn’t without motive.”
“Oh?” Her throat dried, her belly twisting in forewarning.
Maddox turned to Renate. “I’m trusting Renate will fill you in…?”
Renate stiffened beside her. “We have yet to have our talk, but yes. That is my intention.”
Talk? Was it worse than she’d even imagined?
Lillian stepped forward then, breaking the tension as her arms wrapped around Renate’s shoulders in a brief hug. “You take care of my earth sister, okay?”
As Lillian stepped back, Renate said, “You have my word.”
Dar and Maddox said their goodbyes, each calling Renate their brother, each clearly not wanting him to leave. But it was Ezra who surprised Ally the most as he stepped forward and clasped Renate on the shoulders.
“My true brother. Perhaps your earth woman is right? I’ve brought our parents’ fight between us and made it our own. Perhaps our time apart will heal at least some of the pain I’ve caused?”
Renate nodded and clasped Ezra on the shoulders in turn. “I can leave now in peace with that hope.”
Then Renate stepped back, one hand clasping hers before he turned and led her to a mat-like shield on the floor behind them. Ally didn’t look at the aliens or the human woman—queen—behind them. Somehow she couldn’t. Tears were threatening even as she looked upward, focusing on the blurring, big white balls of light floating high above them, creating an ambient light.
Strange how close she felt to the very people she’d once feared.
As the shield lowered them quickly out of sight she leaned into Renate and murmured, “I’m really going to miss them.”
Renate propped his chin on her head. “Me too.” She looked up and he smiled. “But we’re going to make a new, exciting life for ourselves.”
“We are,” she said, breathless and more than a little excited. But as she stepped off the shield and into the bowels of the ship, her breath tightened. She gripped the bag Maddox had given her. “I feel…odd.”
Renate slid an arm around her shoulders and guided her along. “It’s only natural in this part of the ship. It’s a different atmosphere down here, a different pressure. You get used to it.”
It was the strangest sensation, as if she were floating on air while the oxygen burned down her throat and into her lungs. She was only too relieved when she followed him onto another, large shield, as big as a platform.
Bracing his legs apart, Renate instructed, “Hang on to me.”
Wrapping her arms around his taut waist, the shield beneath them abruptly dropped, freefall, the ground far below rushing up to meet them. Then the motion slowed and they drifted the last few yards on to the ground.
As the shield pulled into itself beneath them and they stepped onto the earth, Ally stumbled. Renate helped to right her as she gasped, “I think I’ve still got my sea legs.”
His breath fanned her scalp as he murmured, “I guess I’m used to the motion. You’ll feel right again in a few minutes.”
She looked around, seeing the alley behind them, the warehouse just yards away. She shook off any instability. “There’s no time. Bonnie might be here.”
She moved into a run, sudden panic assailing her as she pushed past the dog carcasses sprawled on the warehouse steps, their flesh buzzing with flies, past her backpack Renate had abandoned to save her. “Bonnie!” She scanned the area, but nothing moved, nothing made a sound.
She turned to Renate, who was even then shouldering her backpack. He held his hand out for the seed pouch, and as he carefully placed that into the backpack she said, “Bonnie will be back at the house we stayed in, she’s got to be. She’s waiting for me.”
He nodded. “Then we’ll go there.”
Ally was all too glad of the shared silence as they began the walk to the house she’d called home for so many weeks…months. A scavenging crow called out from high overhead and another one cawed in answer somewhere more distant. But it was times like these Ally really noticed the lack of human noise. No drone of planes in the sky, no buzz of mowers in yards, no excited chatter of children, no traffic whooshing past.
That sort of profound emptiness still sometimes caught her unawares. But with Renate by her side, somehow the eerie silence wasn’t unwelcome.
Besides which, she knew now there were other survivors. And now with Maddox gifting them with his seeds that could heal and prolong life, living happily on earth was possible once again.
Only when they passed the hardware store with its shattered window glinting on the pavement, did she break their unspoken code of silence and say breathlessly, “We’re almost there.”
She launched into a run and Renate easily kept pace beside her.
The looming jacaranda tree in the front yard seemed almost a tribute, welcoming them back. “Bonnie,” she shouted, sprinting through the ugly olive-green gate. She slowed to a walk and searched the yard. “Bonnie!”
Renate put a hand on her shoulder. “The front door is open, she might be inside.”
She sucked in an unsteady breath and turned to him, pressing her face into his chest and closing her eyes in reluctance. She didn’t want to find Bonnie dead in there—or almost worse, not in there at all.
“Come on,
” Renate said, taking charge.
She followed him and they proceeded to search every room, even the rooms where the doors were shut.
Ally was…numb as she retraced her footsteps back into the lounge room. She bit her lip and stared at the portraits on the feature wall. As she lifted an unsteady hand to trace one of the photos, she absently wondered why it felt as though she’d done this very same thing half a century before, not just days ago.
Renate’s hands curled over her shoulders from behind, a comforting touch. “Are you okay?”
She released an unsteady breath. “No. Not really.” She closed her eyes for a moment, feeling Bonnie’s loss as deeply as her inability to conceive. “Renate, I’m sorry I can’t give you a family like…like this.”
“Ally,” he said hoarsely. “You don’t understand. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
Please don’t tell me I’m not good enough for you now.
Her hand dropped. She opened her eyes and turned to him. But then other feelings overcame her, a duplicate to how she’d felt when Maddox had earlier insinuated…stuff. “You’re not wanting to break up with because I’m infertile, are you?” she breathed.
He frowned. “What? No!” His frown deepened as her words seemingly fully registered. “Children or not, you must know I’ll love you to my last dying breath.”
“Then what is this…talk you wanted to have?”
He cupped her face, his hands warm on her suddenly cold cheeks. “That medicine Maddox gave you to heal your body from the dog attack—”
She nodded, a cold wind barreling through her veins as he continued.
“—would have fixed any other problems you might have had as well.”
Her eyes went wide even as her pulse jerked like a fish on a hook. “So you’re saying I can have children now?”
His smile was mirrored in his beautiful eyes. “Yes.”
The shriek of joy she emitted sounded far away, as though it was someone else’s voice. She threw herself into his arms, holding tight. “I can’t believe it.” Her heart was warm in her chest, her love for Renate spilling over. She pulled back a little and looked up. “Are you sure? I mean, really sure?”
