I have been shooting at moving targets for too many years to count, and my finger pulling the trigger is entirely second nature. This time, my leg does not fail me, and the stunning shot flies true, catching the frozen alien in the back and dropping him in an instant. The Velorian is gaining distance, and we follow. Vince, Jari, and I sprint after him while the Xzerg stays behind, working at securing the alien and likely ready to explain to the other Xzerg that at least one of the bombs is nearby.
We give chase like hounds closing in on a fox. I have been captured and held hostage, and hunted like prey myself. Since boarding Jari’s ship, this is the first time I have been on the right end of this pursuit. I always forget how exhilarating this part of a mission is until I’m looking it in the face. My legs pump, my lungs burn. Jari passes Vince and I by, his superior speed leaving us both panting in his wake. Perhaps only a Velorian can capture another Velorian.
As Vince and I round the last corner, there is the sound of blaster fire. We approach to find Jari standing over the stunned and barely conscious body of Seldyn, the one who had threatened us so thoroughly and so enthusiastically with torture. The muzzle of the gun is flush against his red skin, and somehow, in the space between Jari’s first shot and this move, the setting on the gun has been switched from stun to kill.
The Velorian mumbles incoherently, offering alternating bribes and apologies. He offers to sell out all of his men, apologizes for being sucked into to such a scheme, for what he had put us through on the ship, for not feeding us (of all things). Jari stares down at him.
“Children,” he says, and that is all.
I take a tentative step forward, put a hand on Jari’s arm. It is hotter than it should be, and the muscles are trembling. It’s been scarcely five days since I stepped onto Jari’s ship from my own, but it seems indeterminably long.
“Jari,” I say, softly.
Vince steps forward, deciding to take advantage of the current dynamic. “Show us where the rest of the bombs are,” he says. “And then we’ll consider how much your life is worth.”
Seldyn nods excessively. His tail is twitching nervously from side to side. The muzzle of Jari’s blaster does not move as he rattles off the locations, and Vince relays them to the Xzerg officers through his comm. When the leader is finished talking, the blaster is still there, waiting, Jari’s finger still poised.
My hand tightens on his arm. My eyes seek his out. As Vince kneels down to bind the Velorian’s hands with his own custom-made cuffs, the Xzerg call back a confirmation. The bombs have been found and are being defused.
Both Jari and I have, over the years, killed more people than we can easily count. There are certain situation in which the risk of stun not doing the job is too much to bear. This is not one of them.
“We’ve already won,” I say. “He can tell us more.”
He’s not worth adding one more soul to the scale. I cannot make my lips form the words, but Jari seems to hear them regardless. He lets the muzzle of the gun move to the side, and slowly, with great care, fastens it back in place at his side.
I wrap my arms around him as tight as they will go, as though I might fuse the two of us together and keep us from parting again.
Vince’s ship stays docked on the Xzerg landing port for several hours more, waiting for the verdict on our involvement from the officials, and more importantly, waiting for clearance to leave. In the meantime, there is drinking. They are bored soldiers still exuberant from a successful mission. What else is there to do? It is much the same as last time, except this time, there is a sense of celebration instead of one of anticipation. The cult had not been destroyed, but there had been reliable transmissions from Veloria claiming that the hideout had been shut down, with many arrests and many important documents discovered in the process. Between this, and the several members that have been captured here, everyone has accomplished what they had set out to do—further the mission and take steps toward wiping out the cult. Granted, I haven’t exactly accomplished my own mission, considering the fact that I wouldn’t be paid for this.
“You could still get paid,” Vince says, already fairly drunk after several drinks of whiskey and currently nursing a beer.
Vince’s tiny ship is more crowded than ever, with Xzerg milling through at various intervals, passing out benevolent words and dropping off their satisfaction in the form of various bottles of spirits that are safe for multi-species consumption. For me, it seems to be having a similar effect to that of Velorian alcohol, meaning I’m already well on my way to being intoxicated after a single beer.
“I don’t think the Velorian government is in the habit of handing checks to bounty hunters,” I gripe. I watch Jari share a handshake with the Xzerg officer who had met us at the landing zone, who had come so close to shooting. There is still animosity there, but it is already growing less. I wonder if, since the Xzerg wars, such a large number of both species has set down together with nonviolent intentions. It seems unlikely. “Not that I mind terribly,” I say. “I suppose this story is as good as a paycheck. I don’t know any other bounty hunters who’ve been invited to drinks on the Xzerg homeworld.”
“And now,” Vince says, clinking his glass with mine and successfully coaxing me into taking another drink. “There are two.”
The night passes in a blur of stories and cards and good-natured sparring matches. A few Velorian soldiers disappear, talked into visiting the shooting range in the officer’s quarters. Eventually, the majority of the Xzerg law enforcement retire for the evening, having not received the next day off despite being heralded as heroes of the city by the citizens who live here. In their absence, the setting grows more intimate, more relaxed. The careful politeness that lingered disappears and it is the same as any gathering of soldiers after a long battle. My own tiredness still wears on me, and the medic gives me several looks that range from pleading to threatening, but I remain with the others regardless. I need to soak up the feeling of this much happiness surrounding me. Vince and I sit with Jeyal and the stoic ice Velorian who had spoken to me so harshly several days ago. Most of his harshness seems to have abated, the same way Jari gentled toward me after we survived the eruptions of Mahdi together. When our small group runs out of things to talk about and games to play, I heave myself out of the chair I have been occupying and stand.
My empty glass clinks down on one of the many tables that have been dragged inside. I walk purposefully toward Jari.
A slight hush falls over the room as I do so, several of the soldiers turning to watch with knowing smirks.
When I am close enough to touch him, I do so without reservation, pulling him as far down as he can stretch. His broad hands cup my face on either side, one thumb stroking over my lip as he pulls away, frowning at bit at the sound of his soldiers whistling and laughing. I hear the clang of change passing from one set of hands to another.
“Really?” I say, but the word is only met by more laughter.
Vince sighs. “There are only three rooms on this ship,” he begins. “And in case you’ve forgotten, you’re now the one who owes me a favor.”
“How about I owe you one more?”
I need to touch Jari and to feel him touch me in turn, without the blade of a guillotine hanging over both our heads.
The next sigh he gives is louder, but it is accompanied by him shaking his head, already rueful, and gesturing to the second bunkroom of his ship. The rest of the soldiers will bed down in the ship itself, or else in one of the many cots that the Xzerg have thoughtfully set up inside the security station. I grip Jari’s hand and tug him behind him me. He walks there with confidence and excitement, not a trace of embarrassment or regret visible in his countenance.
It is a small ship, and when I close the door between us and the rest of the soldiers, we can still hear their chatter. There are three bunks in the room—all of them narrow. A small snort of amusement leaves me, though I try to hold it back.
Jari’s lips quirk upward in an echo o
f the sentiment. “This isn’t exactly what I envisioned,” he says.
“It’s a step up from a prison cell,” I say. I tick off each positive point with one finger. “There’s a mattress this time. Everyone has full use of their limbs—”
“I wasn’t exactly opposed to that,” Jari says. “You’re quite the performer.”
“Thank you.” I lean forward to kiss his collarbone, visible since his armor had been removed several hours beforehand, leaving him in just a space suit. “I’m curious to see what you can do with these.” I lift his hand to my lips and draw them across his knuckles, pressing a light kiss to each one.
He seems determined to show me. Jari steps toward me, wrapping those hands around my waist and nearly tossing me back onto the bed. The action leaves me breathless with laughter, even as his lips cover mine. His tongue presses into my mouth, his lips showing mine the way he wants them to move. His hands go straight for the clasp of my suit, stripping it away and leaving me in the nothing I’d had on beneath it. When I’d changed from my trashed suit into one of Vince’s, underwear hadn’t been my first priority.
Jari grips my legs, and drags me to the edge of the mattress, my legs hanging off. He wastes no time before kneeling in the floor in front of me, and smiling before he ducks down to lap at my nub. His mouth fits there perfectly, his tongue sliding against my clit without a single navigational mistake. Though I know we somehow haven’t, despite the number of drunken nights accumulated together in each other’s company, it feels as though we have done this particular act before. It is as if he already knows what I like, what movements will drive me to orgasm quickest. I am nearly there when his mouth pulls away. He presses a kiss to the inside of my thigh, the heat of his mouth tickling, and then dips lower. His attention moves from my clit to my pussy, his tongue plunging in and out. I need the pressure of something against my clit, and my hand creeps down to take care of the urge.
Jari captures my hand before it can touch home, and then captures the other one when it follows instinctually. The feeling of being so close and unable to push myself over is maddening. He licks me for what feels like a century before he finally releases my hands. When he does, I hesitate to reach downward again and this seems to satisfy him immensely. I am shaking with the need to cum, sweat rising on my brow, my legs trembling and chest heaving.
“Jari,” I say. “Please,”
I do not realize until I have spoken that they are the same words I drew from him so many times in the cell, when I undressed so slowly and so teasingly that he nearly came without me around him. He never could stand having me one up him at anything.
The words are all that it takes. My voice must be desperate enough for him to consider granting me this boon. His mouth travels upward, his tongue returning to my clit while two his long fingers take the place of his tongue within me. The combination drives me forward, over the edge of the cliff in front of me. The feeling is overwhelming, my vision rushing toward blackness, my hands clutching at the sheets, at anything within reach. As Jari joins me on the bed, taking a moment to catch his breath and lie beside me, I clutch at him as well, pulling myself to him and resting my head on his chest to listen to the sound of his too fast, oddly centered heartbeat. He had shown me this before five or so years ago, with no romantic connotation. It had been the first time I drank with him, and with no barriers of sobriety keeping me in check, I had asked him if it were true that his heart beat faster than mine. Even then, there had been a spark of arousal and intrigue when I pressed my ear to his chest. Then, it had easily been pushed aside due to various factors—how far above me Jari ranked, how tied we both were to our jobs, how disconcerting I found the fact that I was attracted to someone so different from myself. I wonder if even then, we were fated to be.
I begin to ask Jari if he remembers the moment—he should, as he was the more sober of the two of us at the time—but he is already reaching across me to fit his hand over my heart, feeling the beat that is so similar to his own, but that does not match by any stretch of the imagination. I know without asking that he is remembering the same instance, and asking the same question to himself.
“How much sooner could we have had this?” he asks.
“We have it now,” I answer. I turn my head to let my lips trail over his chest. “Speaking of now.” I look down at the length of him, standing tall and hard. “I think we have unfinished business.”
I climb astride him, take him in hand and give him a few slow, firm strokes, teasing him the rest of the way to hardness before I guide him into me. I let myself sink all the way down in one stroke. He is a bit larger than a human man, but I am already so wet from my own orgasm that there is not so much as a trace of discomfort. It has only been a little over a day since we last had each other in such a manner, since we mated, but it already feels as though it has been too long. I do not know how I can go without such a feeling again.
Before I can sink into the rhythm I have chosen, Jari grips my waist yet again, and flips us over in one smooth movement. Taking into account the narrowness of the bunk, it’s quite the impressive feat that we don’t end up in the floor. I chuckle into his mouth, nearly breaking the kiss he is giving me to do so, as he begins to thrust into me with excruciating slowness. He angles his hips just so, and the slide of him against the perfect spot inside of me steals my breath altogether. I have no words to form his name. His hands move to my chest without provocation on my part, but I am happy to find them there. They tweak at my nipples, both at once, as he fucks into me. After what seems to be a long few minutes, my hands creep again toward my clit, testing, eager to see if I can push myself to a second orgasm. I can feel it approaching, bare toes curling against the rough sheets. The feel of Jari’s hands against my breasts becomes rougher, pinching instead of tweaking and lightly kneading. I gasp into his mouth, the slight pain making me clench around him, making my clit throb even more persistently, begging for stimulation. Jari continues to drag just so against the pleasurable spot within me, but it isn’t quite enough.
“You’ll have to say more than please,” he says.
I moan, breaths coming harder. “Please,” I say anyway, because it is the first thing that pops into my head. In fact, it is very nearly the only thought left in my head. I struggle to think of more. “Jari, please let me cum,” I say. It feels strange, letting my lips form the words please in such a situation and feeling excited and anticipatory instead of humiliated. With anyone else, I could not see myself saying such a thing, giving up even a modicum of control, but with Jari it is easy.
“Not quite,” he says, still rolling his hips within me.
“What do you want me to say?” I offer. At this point, I can think of few requests I would outright refuse.
“Say you love me?” he asks.
My heart fills with warmth, nearly overflowing. “Of course I do,” I say breathlessly, earnestly.
“Say you’ll stay,” he asks next. “Say we’ll find a way to stay together.”
“Of course we will,” I answer.
“Say I’m the better shot.”
My lips are halfway round the words when I realize what I’m about to spit out. I laugh, loudly and quite excessively, and I think that I never want to do this again without someone that I can share such easy laughter with.
“No,” I laugh. “Never.”
“Then I guess I won’t be giving you anything,” he says teasingly. “What was it you wanted me to do?”
“I wanted you to touch my clit,” I say. “But if you’re not up for it, I can—“ My hand sneaks down once more, but he catches it quickly, traps it with the other, and pins the both of them above my head.
He is done tormenting me, and his hand snakes downward, taking over where my own had almost reached. I am so marvelously close that it only takes a few quick circles of his fingers, matching the quicker pace his thrusts have finally taken on. In the end, I hold out a second longer. Jari finishes inside me, at the rush of warmth, and the feel of hi
m convulsing within me, are what causes me to finish myself, more so even than the perfect pressing of his fingers to my clit. I say his name with a loudness that proves me uncaring of the soldiers separated from us by a single wall.
I shake apart around him, like a ship plummeting toward the earth through a rough atmosphere. When I land, he has had a moment longer to recover, and he is waiting there for me to find him. Gasping hoarsely, I lay my head in the crook of his arm, still shaking a bit. Jari’s breath is shallow as well. His skin does not flush like my own, but it is warm and damp. His fingers stroke their way along my shoulders and back, the small divots of my spine. For a long while, I allow myself to revel in these small touches, and think of nothing at all.
“You are most certainly not the better shot,” I say at last, when I am again able to form words. “Hand to hand—maybe.”
“I most certainly love you,” he says.
“I most certainly love you too,” I agree. I have loved Jari for ages, in one way or another. I have loved him as a commander, as someone brave and selfless and trustworthy to follow. I have loved him as a comrade and a friend, and now as a lover, as a mate. I love him with everything in me, and I do not think I will grow tired of finding new ways to tell him.
“I love you,” I say again. “But I have never been so fucking tired. Don’t tell the medic, but he may have been right.”
“Sleep then,” he says, pulling me closer, into his strength and his waiting warmth. “I’ll still be here when you wake. We have things to discuss.”
Primal Planet Captive: SciFi Alien Fated Romance Page 11
