---
Raedyn was dreaming. That or he was dead and in Hayir’kheed’alk, heaven. Sweet, refreshing liquid pooled in his mouth, dribbling down, soothing his scratchy throat and dry mouth. This is surely what heaven would feel like. Ensconced in the fragrance of glan’ki’tahh’hka flowers he smiled, breathing in the fresh scent, reminding him of Lexi.
A cool cloth pressed to his burning skin and a shudder of relief coursed through him. He felt himself melt further into the bed, hoping the reprieve from fever would last. Bliss, the cool cloth was his oasis in the desert. He wanted to immerse his entire body in the sensation. He thought he heard mumbled words of consolation, but he couldn’t decipher their meaning, as if spoken in another language.
His cock hardened at the words meant to ease his pain. He couldn’t remember a time he had felt so cared for. The sensations were overwhelming and when a chilled hand touched his fevered cheek, raking across the stubble he no doubt had grown in the two days he remained in bed, his body rebelled. With a moan, Raedyn spilled his seed, a hot spurt of fluid coating his lower belly and the sheet atop him.
The hand stilled, but remained on his face. He didn’t have any time to be embarrassed as the wave of darkness crashed over him, pulling him into the depths of oblivion once more.
---
Lexi stilled, eyes wide and round. That wasn’t? He couldn’t have? Her mind raced as she watched the sheet lower between his legs and the liquid spot spread across it. He did. It would appear the iceman enjoyed touch after all. Lexi was in a bind. Raedyn needed medical attention, but there were heavy fines for spermal emissions without collection. There was no doubt Raedyn was in violation and she was unsure if there were exceptions in certain cases. She didn’t want him to be penalized for something that had happened when his body was out of his control.
Jumping to action, she found a clean sheet in his bathroom and a fresh towel. She braced herself, removing his soiled linen before toweling off the evidence of his ejaculation. It’s just a body, she reminded herself as the towel brushed his most intimate parts. His anatomy was very similar to a human male. Raedyn had a large penis, one many human women would covet and Earth men envy. That was where the similarities ended though, as far as visual inspection went, Lexi didn’t see anything resembling testicles, possibly they were located internally. Raedyn also had a small flap of skin above the root of his cock, flaccid and malleable, it resembled a small human foreskin. Lexi shrugged and tossed the towel into Raedyn’s laundry hamper. She gently fluffed the fresh sheet over the bed and tucked in the end and sides.
Finally, Lexi alerted the medical staff to a non-emergent house call. She was relieved when they arrived in fifteen minutes and took over Raedyn’s care. Lexi provided the basic information she knew and was informed they would keep her updated on his condition.
In the hallway, she found Jaime walking toward her.
“Hey Lexi. Is everything alright? You look a little overwhelmed.”
“No, I’m fine. Raedyn is sick, I just sat with him until medical attention arrived.”
Jaime frowned. “I hope it’s nothing serious. Or contagious.”
Lexi simply shook her head.
“Are you still going to the mom’s group this afternoon? I can walk you there.”
She smiled. She had forgotten her afternoon’s plans. The mother’s group was something she didn’t want to miss.
“Yes, I’m anxious to see mother’s interacting with their children. I haven’t had much opportunity to observe the young.”
They left together, Lexi’s mind still worrying about the man she left in the apartment.
“Hey. No worries. I’m sure he’ll be fine,” said Jaime. He had a look on his face that Lexi couldn’t quite decipher. “We Azurites are a hearty breed.”
Lexi smiled wanly. No, she wasn’t concerned with his health. She was more concerned about the crime she had just committed and the implications she could face if she were caught. Furthermore what had it meant that Raedyn had that kind of reaction to her touch?
9.
Raedyn awoke with a start, bolting upright in his bed before clutching his temples in agony and lowering back down. His head throbbed with what felt like the worst hangover he’d ever had.
“Ah, awake at last.”
He opened his eyes to small slits and viewed the doctor from the nearby clinic sitting in a chair beside Raedyn’s bed. The old man rose and began scanning Raedyn with a handheld implement.
“Fever’s gone. I’ll give you something for the pain. You aren’t dehydrated, but close. Here,” he said handing Raedyn a cold bottle. “Drink this, it will rehydrate you.”
Raedyn gulped the beverage, reveling in the instant refreshment.
The doctor chuckled, “Slow down, you’ll make yourself sick.”
Raedyn obeyed.
“You have the flu, believe it or not. Did you receive your vaccine this year?”
He nodded.
“Hmph. It happens. It was a good thing that your friend Dr. Phillips found you when she did. You would have had to been hospitalized if you were much worse off.”
Raedyn’s eyes popped open at the doctor’s words. “Lexi was here?”
The doctor eyed him knowingly and nodded. “She stopped to drop off something and found you passed out. She called us immediately though. Sweet girl.”
He thought back to the dream he had. The flowers, the drink, the cool cloth, her soft hand…oh, fuck. The spermal emission. Raedyn shifted slightly in bed and found himself clean and dry. Was it possible that he had imagined that memory? Perhaps he had been hallucinating?
The doctor fiddled with a tablet, sighing before speaking again. “You’re overdue again for a visit to the CR. Haven’t we already talked about this once before?”
“Is that what made me ill?”
The doctor shook his head, “No. That will make you uncomfortable, but not physically ill. I see you are at 4995 and it’s been over three weeks.” The doctor removed his glasses and sat back down in the chair, reclining and propping an ankle over a knee. “I’ve been a doctor for many years, there’s not much I haven’t seen. Many times I’ve witnessed young men racing to the finish to get on the partner list to finally slow down at the end, unsure if they are ready or not. Let me give you a piece of free advice.” He leaned in toward Raedyn. “The system we have in place is very good. Even if a man enters the queue, the powers that be can sense whether he is truly ready to be paired. They don’t match people willy-nilly. They take their job very seriously and only combine a male and female that they believe are completely compatible. Are they always right? No, sometimes circumstances change that makes a pair separate. But, we must trust the system.” The old man patted Raedyn’s knee as he stood. “Of course, that being said, I have also met some very happy rebels,” he winked. “Present company included. I’ll check up on you tomorrow, get some rest.”
---
Lexi’s sides hurt from laughing so much. The adorable children of the mom’s group she was visiting pulled no stops as they showed off their skills on the jungle gym. They coaxed her from her seat to push on swings, catch at the bottom of slides, and spot during monkey bar crossings. She collapsed in a heap on the bench with a few of the other mothers.
The woman asked to be called Annie was nursing a baby and another mother named Cl’ien fed a toddler something out of a jar, the third woman, Jaihl, kept her eyes glued to a child tottering on a balance beam.
“Do you have any questions for us?” Annie asked. “Jaime said you might.”
Lexi smiled. “I don’t really. I prefer to observe and question if anything comes to mind,” Lexi paused. “Actually I thought of something. Are Azurites naturally hairless? I thought you were, but I saw a friend of mine with stubble and am curious.”
Annie and Cl’ien exchanged glances with raised ridges.
“No,” answered Jaihl. “We all have hair. Women on our heads and men. Well, men, all over,” she laughed. “Azurites have long
used depilatory oils to remove hair and slow growth.”
“How well do you know this man with stubble?” asked Annie, smoothing a hand over her baby’s head.
“He’s a friend. Why?”
“I’ve never seen any man’s hair but my husband’s,” Annie replied, switching the baby from right to left breast in a swift movement.
“Sometimes,” Cl’ien whispered, “D’hav’ind lets me rub the oil on his skin.” She smiled sweetly like it was a secret she saved. A special thing between her and her husband and Lexi thought that perhaps it was.
“I imagine it must be hard. To separate the love for your children and the touch from your husband. You are all so loving with the young ones: holding, hugging, kissing, and petting. I don’t know if I would be able to turn it off. Especially when they reach maturity and it’s expected,” Lexi mused.
“We’re not as cold hearted as you depict us,” Jaihl replied with a harshness in her voice and Lexi blanched. “You can’t understand what it was like for so many generations to have a difficult reproducing. We gave up. We gave up on having all this,” she said waving her hand around the playground. “Yes, we’ve had to make sacrifices, but it has all been to protect this.”
“I am so sorry if I offended you. It was not my intent. I do have a difficult time understanding,” Lexi placated. Jaihl made her feel small. She needed to remember that this was a different culture. I’m so out of my league. Earth would have been better sending an anthropologist.
“Think of it this way,” began Annie. “Think of our relationships as arranged marriages during the time of Regency England. A time and place in Earth history where men and women did not marry for love or romance and oftentimes married after very few interactions with each other. Sometimes they grew to love each other and sometimes not, forming partnerships. We have the same here. More often than not, couples grow closer when they are given children and closer resemble current American marriages.”
“Thank you,” said Lexi. It appeared that the Azurites knew more about Earth than Lexi should assume. She also shouldn’t assume that because another culture was different from the one she knew that the people in it were unhappy.
Annie nodded.
“So on another note,” said Lexi, ready to break the tension, “What about sex?”
Annie coughed on her drink before blushing, Cl’ien covered her little ones ears, and Jaihl grinned like the cat that ate the canary.
“My partner and I engaged in physical intimacy once,” said Jaihl, leaning in and whispering. “It was magical,” her eyes widened on the last word. Then she straightened as her daughter approached.
“Did you see mama? Did you see me on the beam?”
“I did dear one! You were magnificent.”
The ladies weren’t able to have any further discussion on the topic of sex after the interruption. All the children in their presence seemed to need something or other and they decided the play date had concluded.
Lexi left the park with her head swimming. Three wives had just dispelled everything she had learned through dossiers. The information she gleaned on Earth about the Azurites had not been completely accurate. She wasn’t sure if it was to protect their culture from humans, or if it was an attempt to depict what they wished their culture proclaimed. One thing was certain though: the Azurites were becoming more and more human in her eyes. Lexi wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
10.
The crowd inside the sport’s stadium was wild. Lexi had never seen so many blue-eyed people in one place at one time before, but it was becoming the norm for her. She jokingly thought to herself that the next time she was in a roomful of humans she might feel uncomfortable with all the people having different eye colors.
Jaime’s inter-office team was playing tonight and he had invited her to attend the event. Lexi didn’t understand the rules. The game was called Plinkersknoff, or something similar, and was a popular sport from another galaxy. There were three hoops and two balls differently sized on a multileveled court. It reminded Lexi of capture the flag and basketball combined utilizing three teams.
Lexi was pleased to find Raedyn playing on Jaime’s Public-Relations team. He looked so much better than he had when she saw him last, sick in bed, three days ago. He was hair free once again and looked handsome in his athletic wear: strong and lean, muscles rippling with his movements.
She sat in the stands with some of the other women from the PR office, drinking malted beverages and munching on crunchy, salty snacks. She felt as though she could have been in any sports stadium back home watching any other game with a group of girlfriends.
The game ended with the PR team winning and erupting into a series of man-grunts. Lexi rolled her eyes, men were men no matter what the planet it seemed. She was admiring a sweaty Raedyn when his eyes met hers in the stands. Surprise registered on his face before a slow smile spread across it. He raised his finger in a ‘just a minute’ gesture as he and his teammates exchanged back slaps before he could make his way down the upper level court to her.
He caught up with her in the stands and Lexi was taken aback by his sexiness. He smelled good, the smell of sweat from good clean exertion, it was so much nicer than the smell of sick he wore the last time she saw him. His skin was its normal healthy tan and had a slight tinge of pink from the exercise.
“Hey,” he said when he finally reached her.
“Hi, Raedyn. Great game.”
“Did you have any idea what was going on?” he asked, his brow ridge raised and a smirk on his lips.
“None at all!” They both laughed.
The smile faded from his face and was replaced with his more normal serious expression. “I wanted to thank you for your help the other day when I was sick.”
Lexi smiled. “It was nothing. I’m glad I could help.”
He ran a hand over his glistening head. “I hope I didn’t say or do anything to embarrass myself when you were there. I was really out of it.”
Lexi bit her lower lip. Should she tell him about his bodily function and her cleanup? Or did he already know?
“I know what you did. It was above and beyond and I appreciate it. I haven’t had anything like that happen since I was a kid and it would have been mortifying if anyone else found me like that.”
“Well,” Lexi began, clearing her throat. “I didn’t want you to get fined or anything.”
Raedyn threw his head back in laughter. “The CR is pretty understanding about wet dreams. But, I still appreciate it all the same.”
They stood in an awkward silence for a few moments before Raedyn spoke again. “I’ve been asked to visit Earth next week, New York precisely. Some PR stuff for the upcoming colony lottery. Would you like to go?” Raedyn knew that Lexi had lived in New York prior to the ship. After the care he received from her the night he was ill, he hadn’t been able to get Lexi off his mind. The meetings he was attending could have very easily been attended on the ship, but he had a niggling feeling that Lexi would want to go visit home. For some reason he couldn’t fathom, he wanted to make her happy.
Lexi’s eyes widened and lit up at his words. He continued, “I thought maybe you could show me around a bit, some of your favorite places, food and such?”
“Yes!” Lexi wrapped her arms around Raedyn’s neck before she processed what she was doing. He was warm from working out and she could feel the sheen of sweat on his skin, and didn’t care. He hesitantly patted her on the back with one hand and Lexi froze. He touched her. Of his own accord.
She released her grip on him and smiled widely. “I would love to.”
“Great. I’ll get the details to you when I have them. It will be a quick trip, just two days and one night.”
“Perfect!”
Raedyn glanced behind Lexi, his face becoming grim. “I’ll see you later,” he said, abruptly turning away and heading back across the court toward the locker rooms.
Someone rudely brushed past Lexi, nearly knocking h
er over on their way, following Raedyn down to the court. Lexi didn’t pay them any mind. She was going home.
---
Raedyn blanched when he saw Lae watching him from further up in the stands when Lexi wrapped around him like an octopus. He rushed down the court, hoping to lose her attention by hiding in the locker room, but his plan failed. Several of his teammates caught him and invited him out for drinks on his way, slowing down his escape. She reached him just before he could slip through the door, her hand grabbing on to his bicep, burning his skin in a claiming gesture. He shook her off.
“Lae. I need to go get cleaned up.”
“You looked awful comfortable in your present state with your human a moment ago.”
Raedyn cringed. “She’s not my human. She’s a co-worker and a friend. What do you want Lae?”
“You’re overdue. We should have been partnered by now. Your name hasn’t even appeared on the list,” she accused.
“I’ve been busy. A new work campaign I’m in charge of is taking up a lot of my time.”
“You need to make time,” she growled.
“Whoa, retract the claws,” Brahk said, saving Raedyn from what was already an awkward conversation. “You coming man?” he asked, clapping Raedyn on the shoulder in a protective move.
“Yeah, I’m just going to go shower real fast. See you in a few. Bye Lae.”
“We aren’t finished,” Lea responded seeking to get the last word in edgewise.
“Lae?” Brahk asked, looping an arm around her shoulder. “Have you heard of the Earth phrase ‘he’s just not that into you’? I find it might be enlightening in this instance.” Brahk winked at Raedyn as he turned Lae away from the locker room.
Thank the gods for best friends.
---
Lexi paced her apartment, debating whether to alert her mother of her impeding trip or not. She had already been away for a month and there was no telling when she would be able to come back to Earth. Surely she would conduct in-person interviews with candidates should she accept the job as colony representative, but even that wasn’t a guarantee. Lexi was still debating with herself if she would accept the job.
Educating the Alien: Raedyn (The Azurite Series Book 1) Page 4
