Rocked: Elemental Warriors

by Ashley West

  But Silvia wasn’t giving up any information about Kain. Not because she didn’t want Bridge to have any info about him, but… Okay. Maybe exactly because of that. Kain was like...her own little secret. He was someone from another planet, and while she’d told Bobby about the experience, she hadn’t told him that she’d run into Kain more times than just that one. She didn’t know how he’d react to it, and honestly she didn’t want to know. His possessive streak was latent at times, but it was still annoyingly present, considering they weren’t in a relationship and all Bobby would boast at the moment was that they slept together sometimes.

  He wasn’t even the only one she slept with. And...in the privacy of her own head, she would admit that she had her curiosities about Kain. Mostly about how proportional he might or might not have been in certain areas and if aliens were kinkier than humans. Things like that.

  And honestly, why shouldn’t she think about it? It wasn’t like either of them were attached, and Kain would be leaving when these peace talks were over. He’d go back to his planet, and take the fond memories of his time on Earth with him, so it wasn’t like there was any danger of this getting out of hand.

  Interesting.

  Of course, following their fight, he might have been too angry to ever look at her that way. And there was nothing to suggest he looked at her that way to begin with, even before they’d started arguing in a public park.

  But it was something to think about. Something to pursue. And it would take her mind off of Bobby while she tried to figure out what she was going to do about that situation.

  “You’ve got your calculation face on now,” Bridgett said. “What are you scheming?”

  “I don’t scheme,” Silvia said, making a face. She really needed to work on not showing everything on her face, for crying out loud.

  The hard part of the plan, was of course trying to figure out where Kain was going to be at any given time. It wasn’t like she had a foolproof way to get ahold of him. She did, however, have a fairly solid idea of places that he might frequent, so she headed back to the park to stake out near the ice cream cart.

  It only took an hour of waiting before his large, bulky frame came marching into view, and she smiled in spite of herself to see him. He spoke to the girl who ran the cart for a moment, was offered three different spoons to sample flavors, and then offered her a warm smile in return.

  Silvia made a face.

  It wasn’t that she didn’t think he should smile at other people like that, it was just… Well. She didn’t really know what it was. Her feelings were a confusing jumble, and it was mostly Kain’s fault.

  As if he was summoned by her thoughts, he looked over at her and raised both eyebrows in surprise.

  She gave an awkward little wave, and then wanted to take it back immediately because who did things like that?

  Kain still didn't look overly thrilled to see her, but he came over all the same, holding his ice cream (a cone this time), like he thought she might take it from him. In a weird way, it was cute, and honestly, he was like a big puppy. A big puppy who could summon rocks from the ground and use them to take out his enemies, but a big puppy all the same.

  "Hi," she said, when he was close enough. "Nice day for ice cream."

  "The girl said that any day is a nice day for ice cream," Kain countered, still looking defensive.

  "And she definitely has a point about that," Silvia agreed. "I was looking for you."

  That seemed to take him by surprise, and he took a cautious lick of the ice cream while still watching her. If he'd been a woman and a human, she might have accused him of being intentionally erotic. As it was, he got pistachio ice cream on his nose, and Silvia was having a hard time not laughing.

  "For me?"

  "Yep. Any other seven foot tall aliens walking around here?"

  "Well, actually," he said, and she could tell he was about to list off all the ones who came with him and his Prince on this trip, so she just sighed and lifted a hand to cut him off.

  "Okay, I get it. Sorry. That's...actually what I came here to say."

  "That you're sorry?"

  "Yes. For the other day. I was...I am really defensive about the whole Bobby thing, and my friend Bridgett thinks you're right about him not respecting my answer when I gave it, and that means you probably are. I just have a hard time seeing stuff when it comes to that guy for some reason."

  "Because you love him?"

  Silvia made a face. "Maybe. But I don't want to talk about him right now. I'm sorry I snapped at you and tried to imply that you don't know anything about respect on this planet. That was rude and not even accurate, and you had a very valid point, I just didn't really want to hear it. So. I'm sorry."

  Kain looked at her for a long moment, and Silvia wondered if he was coming up with some clever way to tell her to take her apology and shove it. Maybe his people didn't forgive as easily as humans pretended to sometimes. But then he was pressing his right hand over his chest and bowing to her from the waist. "I'm sorry as well," he said. "It wasn't my place to tell you how to handle your own relationship. I shouldn't have gotten involved or pushed so hard."

  She smiled, surprised. "It's okay. I think that's sort of how you are. You push because you don't want people to be taken advantage of or hurt."

  "How do you know that? We barely know each other."

  "I think we're getting to know each other pretty well, don't you?" She looked him in the eye, and he looked back, holding the eye contact for much longer than she would have expected. She swallowed hard as he looked at her, those dark eyes seeming fathomless as he stared.

  If he were a human from this planet, this was the part where she would try to get him to take her home. Or to come home with her. Where she'd have on something low cut and daring that made her chest look great and caused him to not be able to resist her. It was how she picked up men when she was out at bars and clubs and even sometimes when she was just at the park. You know, when she wasn't talking to a mountain of an alien.

  But...she wondered if the same tricks would apply here. Because there was no way she could ever deny that she was curious, and he was standing there looking like he might be curious, too.

  Silvia licked her lips. Her shirt wasn't as scandalous as it would have been if she was somewhere other than the park on a Thursday afternoon, but the good thing about having nice breasts was that they looked good in just about anything.

  She adjusted her posture to put her best assets forward, as it were. "So," she said, going for casual. "What are you up to?"

  Kain sighed. "I got kicked out of the Marriott."

  "Wait, wait, wait. You're staying in a hotel?" Silvia asked, losing the thread of her plan in her surprise. "Seriously?"

  "If that's what the Marriott is, then yes. I'm not supposed to talk too much about it, but there are more extraterrestrials on this planet than you would think."

  That honestly both shocked her and wasn't surprising at all. Usually, none of them had any idea what was going on in their world when it wasn't loudly broadcast, and the things that were broadcast could easily be covering up for other things that the powers that be wanted to keep hidden.

  "Anyway," she said. "What did you do to get kicked out?"

  Kain rolled his eyes. "I challenged Lennos to a duel."

  "What?"

  "He was being insufferable, going on about how one of the other leaders at these talks is so much better than Comman, while Comman was right there. He wasn't even trying to be respectful, and I couldn't deal with it. So I challenged him to a duel."

  "You know, here people just punch other people they have a problem with."

  Kain looked sheepish. "We do that, too. It's just not proper for a warrior."

  "The Prince kicked you out? When you were trying to defend his honor or whatever?" Silvia wanted to know.

  "Yes. He doesn't like it when we fight, and he says he has his own ways of dealing with people like Lennos. He probably does, but I just got so
angry."

  "I think that's fair. It's clear you have a lot of respect for your Prince. I think that's admirable." She gave him a slow smile and dipped her head a bit, and she could feel it when he followed with his eyes to look at her chest.

  "You do?" he asked, and unless she was just imagining it, his voice sounded a bit rougher.

  "Mmhmm. Who doesn't like a man who stands by those he believes in?"

  "I...don't know."

  "Idiots, that's who," she said, glancing up. He was definitely looking at her, and he definitely seemed interested. "Since you can't go back to your hotel just yet, do you want to come with me?"

  "Where?" Kain asked.

  "To my place."

  He looked at her for a long moment, probably weighing the pros and cons of following her home. She didn't know what could possibly be bad about it, but she was sure there were rules in place to keep things like that from happening. He hadn't come to make nice with human girls, after all.

  So she didn't rush him. That seemed rude, when she was already planning on seducing him.

  "Alright," he said finally. "Although, I know what you're trying to do."

  "What am I trying to do?" she asked, making a face at him.

  He just arched an eyebrow and gestured for her to lead the way.

  Her apartment was in a building that was part of a block of property that had been owned by Bobby's father and transferred into Bobby's ownership when he'd turned twenty-one. He ran the building as a sort of place for those who needed time to get back on their feet or needed a place to hide from other aspects of life, which was to say that the rent was cheap and the apartments were nice.

  All kinds of people lived in the building, so when Mrs. Han, the older Korean woman from upstairs was in the elevator when they got on, Silvia smiled at her.

  "Is he over the weight limit?" she asked, nodding to Kain.

  Silvia pressed a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing. "I think it'll be fine, Mrs. Han," she said. "We're going up two floors."

  She sniffed and didn't look convinced, and Kain tried to make himself look smaller, which did make Silvia laugh.

  They made it to her floor without accident, but they could both tell that Mrs. Han was relieved when they got off. "Maybe your lifts shouldn't be so flimsy," Kain said as they walked down the hall to her apartment, and Silvia was still laughing.

  She let them into her place, and told Kain to make himself at home while she stepped into the bathroom for a moment. A quick check to make sure there was nothing in her teeth and to resituate her breasts in her bra and she was back out there, ready to see how this would happen.

  Kain was still standing in the middle of the living room floor, looking around at her things from the vase on the end table by the door to the pictures on the wall. When she stepped closer, he turned his eyes to her.

  "I'm surprised, you know," he said.

  "What, that humans don't live in hovels?" Silvia replied.

  He gave her an unamused look. "No. That you're interested in me."

  "Why wouldn't I be?"

  "Because you pretended not to like me for so long?"

  She snorted. "Maybe I just didn't like you."

  Kain crossed the distance between them in two long strides and loomed over her, making her swallow hard. He was so much bigger than she was. "You liked me plenty," he said, and his voice was low and rich and teased things inside of her.

  "Oh," she breathed, and when she went up on her toes, he met her halfway, kissing her hard.

  Kain didn't kiss like he fought, and she'd wondered if that would be a thing with warriors. Swinging their bodies around like they were used to fighting more than anything else. But it was clear that Kain knew how to do things other than fight, and when his mouth pressed to hers, he immediately took control of the kiss, their lips moving together in tandem before he was urging her mouth open and pressing his tongue inside.

  She made a soft noise into it and her hands came up to cling to his shoulders, holding him closer and pressing herself up more.

  His arms came down to hold her around the waist, nearly lifting her off of her feet like she didn't weigh anything.

  And oh god, that was such a turn on. He just held her like she was light as a feather and kept kissing her, leaving her to kiss back breathlessly.

  When they parted, it felt like long minutes later, she was breathing heavily and her mouth felt swollen.

  "Is that how they do it on your planet?" she asked.

  "Why? Planning a vacation?"

  Oh, she liked him like this. He'd never had a problem giving her attitude back when she was rude to him, but that had always been defensive stuff, this was pure confidence. Kain wasn't new to this, and he knew what he was doing. That was exciting in a way she hadn't been excited in a while, and she shivered, even as she started to get wet between her legs.

  If she was already this interested when they hadn't even truly started yet, she couldn't wait to see how things were going to progress from here.

  Somehow, they ended up in the kitchen. Silvia had made some comment about showing him the apartment, and they’d walked into the kitchen first. It quickly became clear that Kain couldn’t have been less interested in seeing her stove.

  There was a playful look on Kain’s face as he pressed her back against the kitchen table. His eyes were even darker than they usually were, and they seemed to burn with his desire.

  No one had ever looked at her like that before. Not any of the men she'd been with in college, or the ones she'd picked up here and there when she went to clubs or parties, not even Bobby had watched her with lust in his eyes like he wanted to devour her.

  It sent shivers racing down her spine, and she licked her lips, one hand pressed to the breadth of his chest, the other curled around the edge of the table.

  "Is this how you woo all the girls back on your planet?" Silvia asked, eyes glinting.

  Kain smiled, and she liked his smile a lot. It was rough around the edges, much like he seemed to be, but warm and sincere. "No," he said. "I usually don't have to do so much work to woo them."

  Silvia rolled her eyes. "Well, excuse me for being hard to get," she said, a smile tugging at her own lips. "It's not like I fall at the feet of every strong alien warrior who shows up and flexes his muscles at me. Not to mention that you seem to think arguing with me and wooing me are the same thing. I didn’t even know you were trying to woo."

  That surprised a bark of laughter from Kain, and he shook his head, fingers tracing the skin between the hem of her shirt and the waistband of her skirt. "Do many alien warriors show up and flex at you?" he asked. "Should I be flexing more?"

  "No," she said. "I think this is the right amount of flexing. Don't you see me swooning?"

  "Not yet," Kain said, and in a move that was too quick for her to follow, he had turned her around and pressed her front to the table, bending her over it in a way that left nothing to the imagination when it came to his intentions.

  Silvia gasped and pushed up a bit, but one broad hand kept her pressed firmly over the surface of the table. It was a rush, honestly, the fact that he was so much stronger than her and so much bigger. He held her down like she didn't weigh anything, and it had her turned on in a second.

  Kain knew it, too, if the way he chuckled was any indication, and he pressed himself closer to her, his crotch, and the bulge she could feel there, pressing right against the part of her that wanted it the most.

  She swore under her breath and couldn't help the way she pushed back against him.

  "You like this."

  It was nearly a question, just the slightest upturn of that last word, but it was enough of an assertion that she blushed, face going red and her legs trembling just a bit.

  "Maybe."

  Being flippant to the end was her thing. Bobby had told her that years ago, in a position not all that different from the one she was currently in. Of course, Bobby had never made her feel like this. She didn't think she had ever soa
ked through her underwear with her arousal when it came to Bobby.

  That wasn't to say that sex with Bobby hadn't been good. Because it had. The two of them had known each other so well by the time they were sleeping together that everything was just easy and natural and fun between them. She'd enjoyed every minute of it, comfortable and fulfilling as it had been, but it had never been like this.

  Kain had a fire burning inside of her, heat spreading from the core of her out to her limbs, collecting wherever she was the most sensitive.

  He wasn't even touching her all that much yet, and she was still trembling and desperate for him. He ground his hips forward, pressing against the heat of her center once more, and Silvia moaned. She worked her hips back, giving a soft, pleading noise that broke free of her with a force she didn't even recognize.

  "You do like it," Kain said, and his voice was warm and pleased.

  "I do," Silvia admitted. "I'd like it even more if you'd do something other than tease me."

  He laughed again. "But you're so easy to tease. And perhaps I want to make you beg. Would you do that?" he asked. "Would you beg for me?"

  A part of her wanted to insist that she wouldn't. She didn't make a habit of begging for anything, let alone for sex. If someone wanted her that was fine, and if they didn't, then it was also fine. But here was Kain, large and attractive and making this seem so effortless, and the biggest part of her definitely was willing to go to her knees and beg for him. Just to get a taste of what he had to offer.

  "Please," she managed, licking her lips while her heart raced. "Please, Kain. Please, I want you so bad." She had always thought that women in porn who begged like that sounded fake and over the top, but she was starting to feel like maybe she understood the desperation.

  "That's it," Kain rumbled, and his hand went from holding her down to stroking over her back. "Say it again."

  "I want you. You jerk," she couldn't help adding.

  Kain laughed, so it was clear he wasn't that upset about her addition to the end of that sentence, and his other hand moved down between their bodies to rub right between her legs.

  Silvia gasped and spread her legs wider when Kain lifted up her skirt more, flipping it over her back so her bottom and underwear were exposed.