Gravel and Grit

by Stacy Jones

  Seeing the effect she had on him made her feel confident and playful. Returning his look with an impish smile, she held his gaze then slowly trailed her tongue up his length.

  “Fuuuck!” he bellowed.

  For a second she worried he was going to have a heart attack. He made a choked sound then dropped back to the floor with a loud thump. She felt his legs move against her inner thighs and looked down to find his tail writhing between them.

  “She is definitely trying to kill us,” he croaked to himself.

  Mira snickered and relaxed. Feeling devilish, she opened wide and closed her lips around his cock while his eyes were squeezed shut then gently sucked. He shouted in surprise and bucked his hips, shoving his shaft deeper into her mouth. Rearing back up, he gave her a look of shock. It morphed to one of impending retribution when he saw the laughing twinkle in her eyes.

  That was all the warning she got before she felt his tail slide between her legs, gliding through her wetness and brushing against her clit. Her lashes fluttered and she moaned around his shaft, the vibrations making him exhale in a whoosh.

  Liking this game of one upmanship, she took him deeper then flicked her tongue against the bumps and ridges on the underside of his cock as she rose back up. His response, other than to growl out a string of feverish obscenities, was to slide his tail backward between her legs. She mistakenly thought that’s all he would do. He took her by complete surprise when he blindly found her opening with the gently rounded tip and pushed it inside her.

  Lifting her mouth off of him, she gave him wide eyes and squeaked, “Zaek!”

  He chuckled, low and menacing, then began to thrust his tail in and out of her.

  “Yes, Fluffy Bunny?” he drawled tauntingly, his voice low and smoky.

  “You-ah, your tail… ” her voice trailed off into a moan when he found that special, knee-weakening spot on her upper wall.

  Dropping her head forward with a gasp, she let her hair brush back and forth over his length as she rocked with his movements between her legs. After no more than a minute of teasing her, she caved and admitted defeat. She wanted—needed—more than his tail inside her.

  That is definitely not a thought one ever expects to have.

  “Okay, okay,” she panted, giving him a mock glare through her curls, “you win!”

  With that she quickly crawled back up his body and positioned herself over his cock.

  Hovering there for a moment, she gazed down at him and had a moment of feeling like she was about to step off a cliff. It was a scary feeling but breathtaking and electrifying at the same time.

  She searched his face, but for what exactly she didn’t know. His bright orange eyes were alight with a mix of lust and urgency, but there was tenderness there, too, and real affection. His harsh face was taut with need but his lips were curled, just at the corners, in a smile. He looked happy, and ravenous, but it was the happiness that really struck her.

  She still didn’t know what she’d been looking for, but something in his expression made the tight feeling in her chest relax. The intense arousal, excitement, and eagerness came back as if they’d never been gone.

  29

  Mira

  Biting her lower lip, Mira reached down and wrapped her fingers around him then aimed him at her opening.

  Zaek’s breath exploded out of him and he went perfectly still. His fiery eyes, so striking against his dark grey skin, caressed her face, her hair, down her body to where they were so close to joining. It was like he wanted to witness everything, like he was committing this to memory and didn’t want to miss a single detail. His intensity heightened her arousal until she was so wet it slicked her thighs.

  Sucking in a sharp breath, she rocked her hips in a circle, spreading that wetness over him, then slowly, carefully lowered herself down. His abs tensed, and they both moaned as he entered her. His thickness stretched her so that every one of those bumps and ridges rubbed against every single nerve ending, setting her on fire.

  Mira curled her fingers against his chest while he gripped her hips in his huge hands. He didn’t rush her, didn’t pull her down over him. He supported her and let her take him at her own pace as she sank down one deliberate inch at a time. She could see the strain in his face, his clenched jaw and furrowed brow telling her he was holding himself in check with no small amount of effort, but there was patience in his eyes.

  She was panting by the time she took all of him and the warning flutters of an orgasm were already pulsing through her. He felt heavy between her legs, but the sense of fullness was good. Better than good. Leaning forward, she slowly lifted herself up. Her eyes rolled back and her lips parted on a throaty moan.

  “So good,” she breathed.

  He growled under her. The sound was deep and vibrated into her through her hands against his stomach and his cock inside her. It was low, hair-raising, and probably should’ve been terrifying, but it wasn’t. It was electrifying. He was so big, so fascinatingly fearsome, and she was so small in comparison, but it felt like he was at her mercy.

  She tried to set a slow rhythm. She wanted to savor the feel of him inside her, but she didn’t have his patience. As soon as she adjusted to his girth, she sped up, rocking over him, every drop accompanied by a cry and every slow rise by a shuddering sigh. It didn’t take long before those warning flutters turned into trembles. She was right there, right on the edge. Her pace stuttered and she gasped, her eyes opening wide and locking on his.

  “Zaek, I’m… ”

  He bared his sharp teeth in a snarl and surged upward. He pulled her hips down, shoving his cock deep so they were pressed tightly together, then flipped them over. He rose above her.

  His massive body was a wall of dark grey skin, huge, hard muscle, and glowing orange eyes. His wings snapped opened and curved around them, shrouding them both in darkness. All she could see was him. All she could feel was him. He surrounded her, enveloped her, but it wasn’t imprisoning. He was a shield.

  Being small had always been a sore point for Mira. But, imagining what they looked like—him a giant, menacing beast, her all but hidden under his bulk, impaled on his cock, stretched wide around him—was almost painfully arousing.

  For the first time in her life, she understood what it felt like to be protected, to have someone bigger and scarier than you ready to defend you against a world that preyed on the weak and small.

  “My Mira,” he rumbled, his voice low like thunder.

  He pulled his hips back then thrust forward, making her cry out in pleasure and rocking her body against the floor, but he froze there, his panting breaths ending on growls. She felt the shudder that traveled down his spine and knew his restraint was fraying. She wanted that, wanted to feel him lose a little of that control. She trusted him not to hurt her.

  Wrapping her legs around him, she dug her heels into the small of his back to spur him on.

  “Don’t stop,” she whispered, her head tilted back to gaze up at his face.

  That was what he needed. He dropped to his forearms, cradled her head in his huge hands, then fucked her. He stared at her as he surged in and out, each thrust a little harder, a little faster than the last.

  Moaned words of demand, of praise, of need spilled unnoticed from her lips as she clung to him, pulling him to her, needing more, staring into those beautiful, alien eyes. He roared from behind clenched teeth when she scratched her nails down the tough skin of his back. That sound, the repressed ferocity and wild passion of it, pushed her over the edge.

  Throwing her head back, she screamed his name as she came. Her thighs shook where they were clamped around his waist, and her walls spasmed around his heavy, thrusting cock. Pleasure expanded to every part of her, coming in waves, each stronger than the last. He didn’t stop. He powered inside her three, four more times then shoved himself to the hilt and went rigid. Even through her own orgasm, she felt his release—the hard jerks of his cock each followed by a warm rush of cum filling her to overflowing.
His deep grunts, forced from him with every heave, blended with her cries as they clung to each other.

  The warmth of his cum spread outward, becoming that same tingling burn she’d experienced with his kiss. It intensified her orgasm until her screams were choked off by her frozen throat. Starbursts exploded behind her lids.

  Just when she was sure she couldn’t take any more, the waves of pleasure ebbed until she could suck in a gasping breath, but it took a long time before she stopped shaking, before the pleasure receded enough for her to collapse back to the floor.

  Zaek stayed bowed above her for a long minute until his arms shook threateningly. Before he squished her, he groaned and haltingly rolled to the side, like his muscles weren’t quite ready to work. Mira understood that perfectly. Sparks were still firing through her body and she was pretty sure if she tried to stand she’d just end up collapsing on her ass. He took her with him as he rolled, extending his wing beneath her to protect her naked, sweat-slick skin from the cold floor.

  Tilting her head back on his supporting arm, she pried her eyelids open and looked up at his face. His eyes were closed, but he must have felt her gaze on him because his lips curled and he cracked one open to peek down at her.

  He hauled her up higher so he could nuzzle his nose into her hair, then released a deep, satisfied sigh that warmed her scalp and sent a shiver down her spine.

  Burying his clawed fingers into her curls, Zaek used his grip to gently tip her head back. He pressed his lips to her forehead, each of her eyelids, and to the tip of her nose then finally sealed his mouth to hers.

  He kissed her softly, leisurely, the urgency from earlier replaced by aching tenderness.

  Mira felt her chest tighten with an emotion she wasn’t ready to name. It was too soon for that unnamed feeling. Things were too uncertain. It was too unrealistic. They were on the run from men who wanted to kill them. They were, quite literally, from different worlds.

  And he would be leaving her’s soon.

  She knew all of this, but she melted into his kiss anyway, unable to hold onto her logical arguments when he kissed her like she was precious to him.

  When he pulled away she thought, this is it, this is when he gets up to make a sandwich or watch television or any number of things men did after sex, but that was just a weak, half-hearted effort to push that feeling away. Zaek wasn’t a man and had never once given her the impression he was that thoughtless or selfish or uncaring. No, what he did instead made that sneaky, stubborn, persistent emotion grow a little stronger, a little harder to ignore.

  He scooped her up into his arms, carrying her like a princess, but he wasn’t the knight in shining armor she’d never wanted. He was the dragon.

  He climbed to his feet, his hold of her never faltering, and carried her into his bedroom. Using his wing claw, he pulled back the covers then laid her on his bed and followed her in. He immediately pulled her into his arms again, where she felt safe and warm and protected.

  Mira stayed awake for a long while after Zaek fell asleep. As they lay in his bed, the room aglow with the dying light of the setting sun, his soft stroking of her curls slowed before stopping altogether, but his arms never let go as if, even in sleep, he needed her close.

  She had so many questions for him, so many things her scientific mind wanted to pick apart and explore, but they took a backseat to what she felt.

  When he told her he was leaving Earth she’d been more upset than she thought she should’ve been. Hadn’t she already told herself a relationship with him was a pipe dream? A fantasy and not something she should even let herself think about? But, talking with him for hours on end, learning so much about him and liking everything she learned, only made that sense of loss stronger.

  Worse, it made her wonder why she was holding herself back.

  Giving in to the desire to have sex with him was probably a bad idea, for a myriad of reasons, but she’d never felt this kind of connection to another person.

  She’d spent the majority of her life alone, first because she was the sad kid who cried all the time, then later because she didn’t care about dolls and dress up, she liked aliens and science and that made her the weird kid. So she built a wall to keep the rejection from hurting so much. That pretend indifference and self-reliance helped protect her from the monsters that preyed on kids who were desperate for someone to love them, but it kept everyone else away, too. After a while, she convinced herself she liked being alone and focused on school, then her career.

  Zaek was just so different, so wholly unlike anyone she’d ever met. He was this irresistible mix of stoic, quirky, playful, protective, and devastatingly sexy. That he was an alien, a real freaking alien, was just too much. How could she be expected to resist that? He was everything she wanted and knew she’d never find.

  Maybe whatever this was would never be more than a fling. Maybe she would fall madly in love with him and live the rest of her potentially short life pining and heartbroken when he flew off into the sunset on his spaceship.

  Maybe, just maybe, they’d fall in love with each other and live happily ever after on an alien planet.

  Regardless of what the future may bring, and despite the potential for heartbreak, Mira decided to give in to the desire to explore the feelings she was developing for him.

  When she couldn’t keep her eyes open anymore and finally fell asleep, it was to images of soaring above an alien landscape, of petting the magical-sounding animal he’d told her of, the at-ukris, and of visiting cities filled with a hundred different species.

  In every picture, Zaek was with her, holding her securely in his arms, standing at her side, and showing her a world full of wonder. In every picture, they were smiling and happy and she never had to be alone again.

  30

  Zaek

  Zaek woke to the comforting weight of Mira curled up against his chest and the warmth of her soft breaths sighing against him, warming more than just his skin.

  They’d fallen asleep in each other’s arms, but at some point during the night he’d wrapped his wings around her so she was cocooned against him. It was an instinctive move for a mated Khargal, a way to protect their Hondassa, and that he’d done it without conscious thought made him smile.

  It seemed, more and more, that his fears of being unsuitable were unfounded. His gland was functioning properly, though she had exhausted it the day before, and his instincts were, so far, working impeccably. From what he’d been able to observe, she did not even gaze at him as if he had lost his mind on the few occasions she’d caught him conversing with himself, so his worries about the state of his sanity being an issue were unjustified as well.

  Zaek studied her sleeping face and lay very still so as not to disturb her. He was sure she would have countless questions when she awoke. He was eager to answer them. But, for now, he was content to trace her delicate features with his eyes, to gently stroke her soft hair, and to breathe in her scent, now mixed indelibly with his.

  From the daytime television plays he enjoyed watching, he’d expected wooing a human to be much more drawn out and fraught with drama, for there to be misunderstandings and fights followed by reconciliation, only to get into another quarrel over a different misunderstanding. He was not upset to find that, with Mira, this was not the case. Vastly relieved, in fact. While entertaining, the constant turmoil they portrayed looked exhausting.

  Of course, he would never be unfaithful to her or fail to take proper care of her or treat her with disrespect, which quite a few of the males on TV did.

  The need to get up and move that usually set in when he was still for any length of time was absent. He was perfectly content to enjoy their first waking together, as mates. His mind was calm and quiet for the first time in a very long time.

  The sun was just rising, its gentle, golden hue filtering through the windows and setting the room, and Mira, aglow when she woke. She looked breathtaking bathed in the morning light, like some kind of ethereal being. Her long black
curls showed hidden red highlights, her pale skin was painted with the faint blush of sleep, and when she blinked them open, her big, blue eyes were soft.

  A smile curled her full, pink lips when she looked up and found him staring. He was glad she did not mind, because he was sure he could not stop himself from gazing at her at every opportunity.

  “Good morning.”

  “Good morning to you as well, my mate,” he purred.

  She looked more alert all of a sudden. The smallest frown flickered across her brow, but he missed it as he bent to kiss her. He kept his dassa to himself, for now, just enjoying the soft press of her lips against his.

  “Mate, huh?” she asked quietly when he pulled back, a small smile on her lips and a question in her eyes. “Is that what hondassa means?”

  “Mmm, yes,” he purred, loving the sound of it on her lips.

  Her expression turned hesitant, or maybe it was hopeful. He could not quite decide. Perhaps a mix of both. Her eyes flicked back and forth between his, and he could feel her heart beginning to pound where their chests were pressed together.

  “Do your people, uh… ” She stopped and the faint blush on her cheeks got darker before she sucked in a slow breath and met his gaze, her blue eyes now bright. “Does having… intercourse with someone mean you’re married, or mated, in your culture? Did we— is that what we did?”

  At her question, and the implications it held, his breathing stopped and his smile melted away. His heart stuttered before a horrible realization set it to thundering, so hard he could barely hear or think past it.

  What have I done?

  He thought she knew, thought her kiss was…

  Fool! Humans kiss all the time, not just when delivering dassa! We know this. She does not even have a gland. She bestows us with a human gesture of affection and we lose all sense and think she is agreeing to be our mate.