He eventually asked, “Did Teddy or L’niik tell you why I asked you to join me?” To her confused negative headshake he sighed and said, “It figures. Well, Dear, it’s like this: I’ve got kind of a ‘personal’ problem. Any time I’m near S’leen, I have a difficult time keeping my…my, uh, self under control.”
Apparently that didn’t make sense to F’haan so he elaborated. “Since I’m new to living as an actual H’kaah male I’m discovering that lots of things are different from what I’d expected. One way human physiology is different from ours is that human males aren’t limited to desiring sex with their females only when the females are fertile.” This time she nodded in understanding. “As you should know from living with Teddy,” he carefully stated, “human males are capable of and are interested in sex at virtually any time.” F’haan momentarily frowned and D’jiin added, “From what S’leen told me after I got to know her better, most H’kaah females would like their males to show interest in them between their estrus cycles, but that just doesn’t happen. Right?”
She gave him a faint smile, and he asked, “That’s one of the things you females find attractive about human males, isn’t it?” His strange questions were making her nervous, and although she again nodded in agreement she worried about what he was going to say next.
D’jiin noticed her unease and quickly smiled, saying, “Dear, this isn’t a criticism of you or any other female. I’m just trying to learn why I’m having the, uh, problem with S’leen that I told you about a few moments ago.” Oh! “I first thought that she still had traces of estrus pheromones lingering in her fur, and that was what was making me so…so excited when she was in my arms.” He carefully reached to gently stroke her soft cheek. F’haan’s eyes widened in surprise, but she didn’t draw away.
“Teddy and L’niik and I wanted to know if another familiar, personally attractive female, one NOT recently in estrus, would have the same effect on me. Or,” and he gently turned her to face him, then stroked her other cheek as he looked down into her incredible sea-green eyes, “if not stricken with an immediate reaction, would I even find a female who was between estrus cycles desirable at all?” D’jiin reached down and gently grasped her soft hands and brought them up to his downward-tilted face, then he rubbed them over his long ears.
WOW! The sensation of her hands stroking his ears was like an electric shock traveling through his body, and it seemed to terminate in his groin. He drew in a hissing breath, then quickly released her hands while he tried to get his breathing under control. F’haan was now beyond surprise; she was as shocked at his reaction as he was, but for a far different reason.
It is not my time, she thought in amazement, yet he acts as if it is! “I…I would not mind your touch,” she hesitantly offered, “where…wherever you might wish.” Like him, she was becoming caught up in the wonder—and the heat—of the moment.
D’jiin slowly enfolded the shorter russet-furred female into his powerful embrace, and she lay her lop-eared head against his bi-colored, broad chest. Ever so gently he stroked first one, then the other of her droopy, silky velvet-furred ears and she shuddered with apparent delight. Then he slid his right hand under her long deep-red ponytail and glided it down the cool, lush fur of her back. He carefully fondled her plush tail, and she responded by rising up on the balls of her feet, pushing her body firmly against his.
Her human-style uppermost breasts were firmer than he’d expected under their angora-thick cover of fur, and as he nuzzled the top of her head, marveling at the enticing, musky scent around the base of her ears (something his numb human nose had never noticed with S’leen) he used both hands to untie her halter top and drop it to the floor.
Firmly moving her out to where he could face her he carefully asked, “Are you OK with this, Dear? While Teddy understood that something like this might happen, YOU are the one it’s happening to, and I want you to understand that I am NOT forcing myself on you. You can stop this now, but if it goes much further we…we both might lose that choice. Our people, as well as the humans, have strict laws against rape, and I don’t want whatever happens next to come back to haunt either of us.”
Her answer didn’t come in words. She reached behind her back and unsnapped the fastener above her tail, and her shorts dropped to the floor. D’jiin saw that, like the fur covering her breasts, her crotch fur was the same deep shade of russet as the rest of her body. With a flip of a foot she kicked the lightweight shorts into a corner. While inside the Patrons complex and not on public display, most H’kaah wore nothing on their feet, and both D’jiin and F’haan were no different. Once free of her own garments she quickly stepped behind the dark, muscular male, and D’jiin felt her stubby fingers deftly unfasten the snap above his tail that held his own blue satin shorts in place.
His garment, however, didn’t immediately drop to the floor; it was being partly held up in the front by his towering erection. Her hands reached from behind and carefully worked the fabric free of the obstruction, and he felt the sudden coolness of air ruffling the fur covering his butt, his balls—and something else. He looked down and was amazed to see the size and shape of his unsheathed organ. It damned sure doesn’t look that way when I piss! he thought, amused.
D’jiin felt F’haan’s body press tightly against his back, pinning his elevated tail against the small of his back. Again, a feeling like an electric shock coursed through his body, and again it seemed to terminate in his groin, making his member throb all the more insistently. Her soft hands gently reached around his middle and stroked the fur on his flat stomach and muscular chest, and D’jiin was grateful that his body donor had been in the prime of his young adulthood.
And then F’haan slowly spun him around to face her. Her eyes widened once more as she looked at his impressive maleness, and at the same time D’jiin took another long look at her, sans clothes.
God but she’s a pretty little thing! his inner voice cheered. He slowly reached out and, using his thumbs, gently stroked her pink peek-a-boo nipples. F’haan quivered and moaned in response, and she quickly grabbed his wrists and brought his hands up to her wide, furry cheeks where she nuzzled first one, then the other hand. A moment later D’jiin gently, firmly grasped her head in his hands and, tilting his head down, tilted hers up.
“This is how humans kiss,” he rumbled and then slowly, passionately guided F’haan through the right of passage all human lovers make. At first she was reluctant, but after a few awkward moments and some shared giggling she discovered that the activity was at least as sensual as ear stroking.
Maybe more.
* * *
When they came up for air over an hour later the two lovers had done more than simply break new sexual ground. F’haan, like most female H’kaah recruited by Patrons, had been a virgin when she first set foot on Terran soil. Her time spent with Shapiro had technically removed her from that status, yet as far as relations with her own kind were concerned she was still “untouched”; that is, until D’jiin came into her life.
He, on the other hand, had bedded a variety of women, as well as S’leen in his former life as a human. In his new form, however, he was as virginal-pure (regardless of D’raan’s indiscretions) as a lifelong monk, and his encounter with F’haan was as clumsy for them both as any between two similarly inexperienced humans.
A great deal of laughter, loads of squeals, groans, hisses and an occasional energetic scream punctuated their lovemaking. When they were both thoroughly spent they dressed themselves, talked intently for several minutes in the outside hallway, shared one last human-style kiss, then F’haan headed for the private quarters she and Shapiro shared.
D’jiin, however, took a far different path.
Several abrupt turns made as he purposefully strode down short hallways brought him to an unmarked doorway, and he opened it and barged in without knocking. Inside the dim room were Shapiro and L’niik, both seated at an elaborate audio/video console that housed a dozen flat-panel screens and a bank of D
VD recorders. Both of the room’s occupants expressed undisguised surprise at seeing the dark-furred H’kaah, but D’jiin didn’t let them begin any kind of alibi.
“Enjoy the show?” he brusquely asked, then wouldn’t let the pair answer. “I figured that room would be fully monitored,” he continued, “so I trust you got enough steamy video to produce your own National Geographic Special, complete with descriptive sound effects.” When again they tried to make some sort of reply D’jiin added, “So, who wins the bet? F’haan wasn’t in season, her normal scent didn’t give me an instant hard-on, yet I was able to satisfactorily perform my studly duties without chemical enhancements. I’d say that, as in humans, normal H’kaah sexual performance, as well as the traditional limitations, lie mostly in the mind.” And then he simply waited, a faint smile on his non-human features.
L’niik was the first to actually say something coherent, but even he took several moments to formulate his thoughts. “I don’t understand how you did that,” he stated bluntly. “It’s true that F’haan is mid-way between her estrus periods, and I detected no pheromone enhancements before she entered the conference room. By all rights you should not have been capable of arousal.”
The room’s human occupant was much more uncomfortable when he finally began speaking. “I…I thought I had a handle on H’kaah physiology, but I guess I was wrong.” D’jiin knew that knowledge of alien physiology wasn’t the main thing bothering Shapiro. “You both, uh, really didn’t waste much time before…before, uh—”
“Before we ‘got it on’?”
Shapiro seemed embarrassed as he acknowledged D’jiin’s rather crude comment; the black-furred alien just laughed.
“Still got your hangups, huh,” the H’kaah commented. “Did watching us play ‘hide-a-snake’ make you uncomfortable, or did it just make you horny?”
“God damn it!” Shapiro snapped. “That’s not fair and you know it!” The white-furred H’kaah just looked confused. “F’haan means a lot to me, and—”
“Hold it, chaver,” D’jiin interrupted. “Let’s continue this conversation elsewhere. L’niik, I’ll see you later, and maybe we’ll sit down and try to make some sense of this biological puzzle.” He swept a cold, golden-eyed gaze over the DVD recorders. “Did you make more than one copy, Tzvi?”
The human’s face turned red and he sputtered several times before saying, “Uh, no. No. Just one.” He reached to hit the eject button on the unit right in front of him and it quickly spat out a golden disk. Shapiro guiltily handed it to the dark alien, who in turn inserted it into the nearest DVD unit, then hit the play button. After a few seconds of video hash on the monitor above the player a clear image, complete with sound, appeared, showing D’jiin and F’haan in the small conference room. The black-furred alien fast-forward scanned through part of the disk and satisfied himself that it did, indeed, appear to contain a complete, multi-camera-angle record of the incident in question. He also noticed that Shapiro was extremely uncomfortable with some of the scenes he reviewed, and after a few moments he stopped the playback and hit the eject button. Moments later he handed the disk back to the man.
“Nice little poke movie, chaver,” D’jiin softly stated.
“It’s not like that at all,” the man protested.
“No, I’m sure it’s not, Tzvi,” the alien said as he turned to open the door. “Meet me in your office in an hour, OK? That’ll give me time to wash F’haan’s musk out of my fur and grab a quick snack. Of food.” He grinned.
And then he was gone.
“Shit-shit-shit!” Shapiro quietly exclaimed as he stared at the door his once-human friend had just exited.
After a moment L’niik asked, “What are you going to do with the recording? Would you seriously consider making one of those…those nature shows—?”
“Jesus Christ!” Shapiro angrily cursed. “This isn’t something for a damned ‘nature show’; this is private. This is…is— ” He stopped, looked strangely at the golden plastic disk, then carefully bent it until it snapped in two. To the white H’kaah’s startled look he stated, “This is something that nobody else will ever see,” and to emphasize it he broke the resulting pieces into smaller pieces, then tossed the scraps into a nearby trash can.
Shapiro left the bewildered white male H’kaah standing in the monitoring room.
* * *
True to his word, at the end of an hour the black-furred H’kaah was patiently waiting for Shapiro in the man’s office. The human threw open the door and stormed in to find the alien kicked back in one of the two leather-covered rocker-recliner chairs, apparently perfectly at ease.
“Hello, Tzvi,” the H’kaah said pleasantly.
“Yeah, sure,” Shapiro growled as he plopped his bulk into the oversized chair behind his desk. “Speak your piece; I’ve got a lot of work to do.”
D’jiin slowly nodded, then unfolded his sleek, muscular frame from the chair’s aromatic confines. “Crazy as it may sound, Tzvi, sitting on dead animal skin really doesn’t bother me like I thought it would. After all, cows are kind of like my people’s ancestors—raised for food and skinned for their hides. Still, leather does make nice upholstery material.” He paused, then added, “The Nazis made nice lamp shades out of your people’s skin, too.”
“Fuck you!” Shapiro snarled, his Semitic features twisted in anger.
“Naah,” the alien casually replied, “I’m really not your type. Of course, I’m beginning to wonder just who is ‘your type’, chaver, since you apparently don’t seem to care much about anybody other than yourself.” He had slowly strolled to the far side of the office, and was making a show of examining a small plastic model of the original Star Trek ship Enterprise.
Momentarily speechless, Shapiro’s mouth hung open in shock. D’jiin used the pause as an opening for a pointed remark. “Y’know, Tzvi, if you really care as much about F’haan as you say you do, you might think real hard about making some changes in your relationship.” The man blinked in confusion. “Because if you don’t, old friend,” the alien added, “you’ll wake up one day and find far more than your H’kaah companion gone.”
“W-what the hell do you mean?”
The dark visaged H’kaah gave the old Mossad agent a cold scowl. “What have you given her that she couldn’t get back home; a roof over her ears? Big deal. She has family, friends, possibly a mate waiting for her on the homeworld.
“Sex? Get real, Tzvi. Human and Mn’rii scientists are about to open up the H’kaah species to safe, practical birth control, which will finally give the females control of their reproductive process. And in case you missed it, I just proved that out-of-season sex is possible among our kind—and very desirable. In a week or so she won’t need to look out-of-species to find someone to make her feel special.
“Attention? Love?” Again the human received a chilling look. “That sweet girl is literally starving for attention, Tzvi, and as for the ‘love’ you’ve shown her, give me a break! The way you’ve been treating her says loud and clear that, to you, she’s apparently no more than an…an ‘appliance’, an exotic piece of window dressing, maybe somewhere on the level of, oh, perhaps a ‘talking dog’.”
The man’s swarthy complexion had been getting darker by degrees, and as D’jiin uttered the final insult his face turned almost Negro-dark with rage. He lunged up out of his chair, scrambled over his desk and leaped to land squarely on the H’kaah.
He missed.
D’jiin easily sidestepped his snarling attacker, who suddenly found himself landing heavily on his face on the carpet. The man lay stunned for a moment, then tried to lever himself up, but he was unceremoniously shoved back down by a large, unshod rabbit-like foot planted squarely between his shoulder blades.
“You made the first move, Tzvi,” the dark-furred alien stated in an ominous voice, “so I’ll let you know when it’s your turn to move again.” Shapiro snarled something unintelligible and tried once again to rise, and once again he was forcibly shoved flat
against the floor, this time with a foot-thump between his shoulder blades so hard that it knocked the wind out of him.
“Somehow I don’t think you’re getting the message, chaver,” D’jiin said, his voice even colder, darker, “but if I have to repeat it again I’ll make sure you understand it by hurting you in a way you’ll really hate. Am I clear yet?”
Shapiro wheezed and gasped for a few moments, then spat something D’jiin understood—and didn’t like. The alien dropped punishingly to his knees into the middle of the human’s back, then grabbed a handful of the man’s thinning hair, pulling his head back at a painful angle. His other hand reached around and curled into a claw-tipped weapon, painfully gripping Shapiro’s throat. “Butcher?” D’jiin snarled. “No, Tzvi, not a butcher. An ‘executioner’, yes; a ‘murderer’, maybe—but never a…a butcher. Still, it’s been a long time since I’ve had an excuse to rip someone’s throat out with my bare hands, and you’re really pushing your luck.” He punctuated the comment with a wordless snarl and a painful prick of claws on the man’s throat, then he leapt free and waited for Shapiro to slowly regain his feet.
It took over a minute for Shapiro to crawl to the edge of his desk and pull himself erect, then he plopped bonelessly into one of the two leather-covered recliners. In time he gasped, “Aren’t you getting tired of (cough) beating the shit out of me?” When that brought no response from the H’kaah he continued, “Tell me, chaver, if you (cough) hadn’t killed all those villagers so long ago, would you really be as interested in saving these aliens’ hides? It looks to me like you’re looking for some kind of…of redemption for your sins.”
D’jiin stared at Shapiro like the man had crawled out from under a rock, but when he finally replied it was in a calm, almost emotionless voice. “That was really low, Tzvi, but I’ll grace it with an answer anyway. Had I not killed all the people I did—including those villagers—I probably wouldn’t have given much thought to how humanity would ultimately treat people like the H’kaah, or literally anybody else it thought it could get away with bullying. So, no, I wouldn’t have been the same person, but if I weren’t the person I am today, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
Redeeming Factors (Revised) Page 32
