“I’m feeling much better. Thank you.” She was suddenly embarrassed, hoping that her dreams were just dreams and that she hadn’t been throwing herself at her host. Azurites were very reserved, she wouldn’t be surprised if Raedyn had decided to pass her off to another member of the crew to burden.
“Dr. Phillips? Are you well?”
She hadn’t heard Raedyn enter the room. He wore a fresh uniform and appeared much less agitated than the last time she had seen him back on Earth.
“Yes. Thank you.”
“I am sorry. I did not prepare you for travel adequately. I forgot the medicinal patch that would have lessened your travel vertigo. I beg your forgiveness.”
Lexi shook her head. “It was an honest mistake. Are you feeling better yourself?”
The nurse’s eyebrow ridge rose at Lexi’s words.
He narrowed his eyes. “I’m fine now that we are back on the ship. If you’ve settled into your rooms I can take you on a tour or I can have a meal delivered for you.”
She looked around the room for the first time. It was amazing. The ship’s room exactly mirrored her apartment from home down to the dust bunnies under the sofa.
“Extraordinary!” She rose and continued through the rooms. All her belongings, books, clothes, and messes at her disposal. “Is it all real? Or is it a replication of my things from home?”
“This is all yours, transported here for your stay.”
Tears prickled behind her eyes. It wasn’t Earth, but it was the second best thing. She rushed Raedyn, wrapping her arms around his waist. Raedyn breathed deeply and held his breath, blood rushing to his groin, reminding him of his missed visit to the CR. He exhaled and caught a whiff of her scent, like the flowers of the glan’ki’tahh’hka plant in the gardens on the ship. Sweet and sultry. A plant whose venom would paralyze and digest its prey.
He took a step back and Lexi fumbled to gain her balance at the loss of his support. He cleared his throat.
“I um…I’m pretty tired from the traveling. May I just have dinner in my rooms tonight and take a rain check on the tour?”
Raedyn cocked his head to the side. “Rain check?”
Lexi laughed a full-bodied, throaty sound that made his cock twitch. “I’m sorry, it’s an Earth saying. Delay. Can we delay the tour until tomorrow?”
He nodded his head, “As you wish,” then left the room with the nurse.
“Inconceivable,” Lexi muttered to herself in the silence.
4.
After a shower and change into her fuzzy pajamas, Lexi felt as good as new. She answered the door to an automated cart containing several of her favorite dinner choices. Apparently she wasn’t the only one with a dossier. With the array of Earth food, Lexi wondered if there were any other humans aboard the ship. She was pleased to be immersed in the Azurite culture, but it might be nice to have a connection with someone from home too.
Her television still had her favorite shows available on DVR and she settled in with an episode of X-Files while she ate her Fettuccini Alfredo, moaning in surprise at the creamy goodness.
She planned on blaming her overfriendliness with Raedyn on the space travel. Tomorrow she would return to her professional self, keeping her hands and arms and erm, tongue, to herself. Maybe that part really was her imagination? She could only wish.
She set her alarm after her evening ritual and snuggled into her comforter, her last thoughts of Grandma’s homemade oatmeal cookies, strong arms and deep blue eyes.
---
Raedyn thrummed his fingers on the arm of the easy chair while he sipped his drink. The CR had been closed for a software update and he didn’t want to travel to the other side of the ship to find another location. He briefly considered relieving the pressure on his own, but didn’t want to risk the fine he could incur should anyone find out. Male azurites typically spilled only one viable seed during an ejaculation and men were heavily fined for releasing an emission without the possibility of capture. It took sometimes one hundred seeds to fertilize a female egg and none were to be wasted.
Frustrated, Raedyn knocked back the rest of his drink wishing it was something stronger to help forget his predicament. He was on-call though and couldn’t risk inebriation should Lexi need him. His communicator sounded and he answered.
“Ra’yed’n.”
“Hey man! How was your first day on babysitting duty?” Brah’k’ndahhk, Raedyn’s longtime friend asked over the line. Brahk had been giving Raedyn a hard time for weeks about his new assignment. If he found out about the…touching, Raedyn would never hear the end of it. Brahk didn’t know that the Earthling was a man, he dreaded sharing that bit of news as well.
“Brahk. Good to hear from you. Things went well today.”
“Did the guy just bore you to death? I’d hate being someone’s tour guide for a year. I probably wouldn’t last a day.”
Raedyn sighed. He might as well tell him now before he finds out through the ship’s gossip. “Well. It was interesting to say the least. He was actually a she.”
Brahk laughed. “Wait, wait. Isn’t Alexander a human male name?” Brahk lowered his voice, “Is he one of those changeling, uh, what did they call them, transgendered, people?”
Of course Brahk would go there. Their own Azurite culture did not change gender and it fascinated many of their race that people shifted from one sex to another.
“No. Her name is Alexandra. Dr. Alexandra Phillips. She was all female as far as I could tell.”
“Hmph. Still sounds boring. I’m not sure a woman ambassador is much better than a male one.”
Raedyn disagreed. Lexi had been anything but boring on her first day aboard. Raedyn still felt guilty about not preparing her for transportation, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it now.
“She’s not so bad.”
“Does she look like all those other stick women that we keep getting mail from? The ones with the white hair and skin and bones?”
No. Lexi could not be described as a stick woman. Her head only came up to his chest and when he had picked her up earlier she was soft and warm, with generous curves around her hips and chest. Raedyn’s pulse began to pick up.
“No. She’s different.”
“Well, at least you were able to ditch her for the evening.”
“She had a bad reaction to the transport. I carried Lexi to the visitor wing and sent a nurse. She preferred to be alone tonight after the eventful day.”
“You touched her! Lexi? I hope you sanitized after contact.”
Shit.
“She asked me to call her Lexi. And of course I decontaminated, I saw a doctor as well.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Who said anything about a doctor?” Brahk asked.
“I wasn’t feeling well after…contact. I thought I should get checked out.”
This was not going well. No way could he tell Brahk about the arousal. It was archaic. It was unheard of.
“Did everything turn out okay?”
“Yeah, yeah. I just need to make sure I keep up with my deposits.”
“Your deposits? You can’t neglect those man.”
“Yeah, I got that. I’m gonna go. I’ve got to get up early to give Dr. Phillips a tour,” said Raedyn eager to end the phone call before he gave any more personal information. They ended the call and Raedyn turned in for the night. His silken sheets were cool on his heated body and his hand slipped down to his throbbing member, tenting the sheet. He hadn’t been this hard since his adolescence. Youth were allowed to relieve their own pressure, unable to commit to the CR until after they reached maturity.
He clasped his fist around the firm muscle and gave a long, languid stroke from hilt to tip. His body shuddered at the contact sending a ripple of need through him. Maybe just this one time. Just once, just to take the edge off. He checked the drawer next to his bed for a retrieval container. Maybe if could save the specimen his mind would be at ease, but no, there was no container.
His left hand con
tinued to rub himself, gathering the drops of pre cum from the tip before sliding back down to the base. Faster and faster, he brought himself to the edge of relief until his mind raced back to the afternoon. Lexi in his arms, her tongue licking his shaft instead of his neck.
“Oh gods!” he cried as he came in a rush before retching on the side of his bed. What was he thinking? Lexi licking his cock? Raedyn shook his head. He was a sick, sick man. As he changed his sheets and washed up he was thankful that it was only in his mind. He would have to ensure that he never touched Dr. Phillips nor let her touch him ever again.
5.
Purely out of guilt, Raedyn made a visit to the CR first thing the next morning. The sterile room and cold metal furniture were a penance for his mistake the night before. That’s what it was. A mistake. His body demanded release and in its medically induced state, drove him to a sick hallucination that gave him the best orgasm of his life.
No! It was the vomiting after coming that made him weak kneed and dizzy.
Raedyn attached the vibrating cylinder to his dick and leaned back in the chair, letting the machine pump him for his seed. When the procedure was complete, he placed the device in a sterilizing bin, washed his hands and left the room.
“Ra’yed’n?”
Raedyn stopped and faced the assistant, “Yes?” he asked.
“Congratulations, you have reached deposit number 4,995. After five more deposits you will be sent to the database for partner assignment and familial cultivation.”
He was shocked. He had known this day would come eventually, but was unaware he had finally reached the milestone. A partner would be assigned to him now based on the strengths and weaknesses that balanced each other and then a child would be given to them to raise as their own. A family. A partner. Was that what he wanted? Wasn’t that what he had been working toward?
A pair of amber eyes flashed through his mind. No. He would not be distracted by the ambassador. He would do his job working with her and then do his part to continue the Azurite race.
---
Lexi sat at the kitchen bar and finished her breakfast. This morning her usual bowl of oatmeal with brown sugar and raisins was delivered along with a pot of coffee and creamer. She sat in her pajamas reading the ship’s daily news, giggling to herself as the tablet scrolled changes and corrections to what appeared to mostly be gossip.
…Ra’yed’n, ship’s public relation’s officer will be on the short list soon for partner assignment having made deposit 4,995 this morning…
Lexi nearly choked on her mouthful of coffee at the latest ‘news.’ She was well aware, having been briefed prior to assignment, on the culture of the Azurites regarding procreation and families. It was all very sterile to her; of course they were a very sterile and clean society. Raedyn must have been disgusted yesterday when he stepped into her disheveled apartment, dirty dishes transported and all. She shook her head. She was thankful she lived in a society that touched and loved. She couldn’t imagine living in a world where a hug was unsanitary and sex unbecoming. Some of the best things in life were the messiest.
The front door alerted her to a visitor and Lexi jumped from her chair and answered immediately. She didn’t know anyone aboard ship, but she didn’t want to appear rude from behind the counter, or summoning him or her from the kitchen.
Raedyn waited for the door to open. He wasn’t used to waiting for doors to open for him, usually he could just gain entrance through voice command, but he didn’t want to intrude on Lexi, no, Dr. Phillip’s privacy. He couldn’t believe his eyes though when the door finally slid open, revealing Dr. Phillips in a shirt and visibly nothing else. Her hair was down from the tight form it had been in the day before, wavy around her shoulders and chocolate brown. Dr. Phillips face was fresh of makeup and if he hadn’t known any better, she looked like she just rolled out of bed. He had been alerted when she had woken and knew better. Too bad his dick hadn’t gotten the message.
Gods. His cock pulsed once, reminding him of his stance on separation, and he tore his eyes from the hem of her shirt back to her eyes. Who was he kidding? In this state of undress, she was Lexi.
“Dr. Phillips, I was alerted to your wakening and am prepared for your tour of the ship today.”
Lexi tugged on the edge of her shirt, suddenly conscious of how under dressed she was having kicked off her pants during the course of the night.
“I’m sorry, I was reading the news. I’ll go change and be ready to go.”
She turned and left for her bedroom giving Raedyn a peek of a sliver of ass peeping out from the edge of her panties.
“Congratulations by the way,” she called from the back room.
“I’m sorry? I don’t follow?”
Lexi poked her head out of the door, “On your deposit milestone.”
Raedyn froze. He was shocked and embarrassed simultaneously. His eyes widened as Lexi continued, “I know it’s important. You will have a family soon. It must be so exciting.”
It had been exciting, he thought. Until the moment the object of his dick’s newest desire was talking about spermal emissions. His masturbatory fantasy flashed through his memory and he fought the wave of nausea that threatened to have him retching again. In an ambassador’s dormitory.
Lexi approached in dress slacks and a neat button down blouse. She left her hair loose and had only applied a minimum of makeup. Beautiful. She touched his arm.
“All ready?” she asked, sensing the tension he displayed, his muscles taut and his expression unreadable.
Raedyn looked down at the hand on his bicep. “I would appreciate if you could desist from touching me Dr. Phillips.”
She blushed and removed her hand, “I’m sorry. It’s a habit. It’s comforting on Earth, the touching. I will do my best to remember.”
Raedyn nodded and then exited through the door.
---
Lexi’s eyes wanted to roll into the back of her head with boredom. While knowledgeable, Raedyn’s tour and history of the ship were about as interesting as a bag of lettuce. He spoke in a monotone voice and if he hadn’t paused and raised his brow ridge in expectation of response from time to time, she would have sworn he had been replaced by an android. The ship was utilitarian with clean lines and neutral colors. If she didn’t occasionally catch a glimpse of the galaxy beyond through the window’s, she would have suspected she was in a large hotel building.
She had never been so happy to see a bay of offices when they finally arrived at her new workplace. The office was next door to Raedyn’s and she would be sharing it with the ship’s interpreter.
“J’hm’ehd, I’d like to introduce you to our visiting ambassador, renowned linguist Dr. Alexandra Phillips. Dr. Phillips, this is our ship’s interpreter J’hm’ehd,” introduced Raedyn.
“Dr. Phillips. It is an honor and a privilege,” said J’hm’ehd in English as he extended a hand for Lexi’s. She obliged and he lifted her hand, touching the back of her fingers to his lips before lowering it. Lexi was impressed. J’hm’ehd had been busy. His eyes, the same azure blue as Raedyn’s, sparkled with amusement. He wasn’t as tall as Raedyn and his posture and expressions gave him a boyish quality that Lexi found endearing. She could already tell that her days in the office were going to be memorable.
“I look forward to working with you, J’hm’ehd.”
“I have been studying Earth culture, please call me Jaime, I believe it is an appropriate nick-name.”
“I will leave the two of you to your work then,” said Raedyn, ready to return to his own office now that his babysitting was complete.
Lexi and Jaime didn’t even acknowledge Raedyn leaving before they dove into their work. While Lexi was American, she had vast knowledge of the cultures of the other twenty-nine languages she knew and was anxious to share the information with Jaime, a fellow linguist. She was surprised to find he knew over fifty languages, most intergalactic that Lexi had never heard of before.
Six hours later and th
ey were still carrying on. Raedyn rubbed his hands across his head and massaged his ridge. He was torn between leaving the door open and listening to their banter and laughing or closing the door and not knowing what was going on. He was tired and hungry and experiencing a feeling similar to annoyance, but somehow much more personal, over the easy relationship between Lexi and J’hm’ehd.
He stood and gathered his things from his desk before approaching the doorway.
“Aren’t you the cunning linguist?” asked Lexi. The office was silent for a moment before Jaime broke into raucous laughter and then Lexi followed.
Raedyn peeked in the room and found the pair leaning over the desk looking at a monitor, their shoulders were touching and he frowned at how happy Lexi appeared with Jaime.
“Oh, my gods! Cunning linguist. Because I’m clever and a linguist, but it is also a sexual term similar to cunnilingus,” Jaime looked into Lexi’s face. His face softened and he brushed a lock of Lexi’s hair behind her ear.
Raedyn cleared his throat and Lexi turned to look at him while Jaime immediately dropped his hand and pasted an impassive look on his face.
“Raedyn, done for the day?” questioned Lexi.
“Yes. I am going to the dining room if you are interested in dinner before retiring to your quarters.”
Lexi smiled and glanced at Jaime. She scrunched her nose, “We already ordered, it should be here in a minute. We probably have enough if you’d like to join us.”
He shook his head. “I don’t want to intrude. I’ll see you in the office tomorrow.” Raedyn left, suddenly devoid of an appetite and headed in the direction of his quarters instead.
6.
“Ra’yed’n!” called the last voice in the galaxy that Raedyn wanted to hear. Well, second to last, his mother’s being first.
“I saw the news today,” said Lae’hear’dahi. She didn’t touch Raedyn, but her presence enveloped him in a fog, heavy and thick with pheromones. It made him feel claustrophobic. Lae’hear’dahi was the same age as Raedyn and had followed him on his heels since childhood, through space training and then on assignment aboard the Fier’the’yi Fho’rd. Regardless of the fact that partners were matched systematically, Lae had a notion that the two would be paired.
Educating the Alien: Raedyn (The Azurite Series Book 1) Page 2
