by Bertina Mars
She didn’t even have to think about it. Mira knew exactly what he was talking about. There was a moment right after she came that she started to have a second orgasm, but it was more different than the first time, or any that she’d had before.
It dawned on her that that was because it wasn’t her orgasming. It was Arzak, their minds linked together. Though she was finished with her food, now it was Mira’s turn to grip onto her cutlery. “You tried to mate with me?!”
“It was an accident,” he corrected, reminding Mira of what happened afterwards, how wide his eyes were with shock. He’d apologized, and she couldn’t figure out what for. But now she knew.
What Arzak had shared with her was amazing, and it was what made the experience between the two that much better. “And I stopped it.”
He said it like the fact that he stopped it made it null, like she wasn’t affected. Mira’s mind began to race over everything in the past week, though, and even the lite version was changing her.
Mira hadn’t thought about being with another man since she started sleeping with Arzak. Even entertaining the idea of her and Jak, the one she pined over for years, seemed empty, worthless. It hadn’t been her love of Jak Newson that had taken her to Tyroc Valdek’s laboratory. It was her love of science and nothing else. Because she didn’t love Jak anymore.
“So you’ve never…” she trailed off.
“I’ve been with women,” Arzak defended irritably, “But never have I done Zethrada’vass. As a leader, I consider my options carefully.”
“What does that even mean?” she sputtered, suddenly feeling very hot. Whether dinner was over or not, she needed out of the room. It was getting too stuffy. Arzak followed suit, standing up on the opposite side. She could feel his eyes on her, feel the blush rising up in her cheeks.
He sighed. “It means… I don’t know what it means, Mira.”
Mira wondered what she would have done had he not told her. It was already so difficult to keep Arzak out of her mind that if he’d taken her completely, she didn’t think there’d be any going back. And she wondered why that seemed so appealing.
As if reading her mind, he moved to the other side of the table and captured her lips in a passionate kiss. Mira’s fingers reached behind her to grab onto the edge of the dining surface, but he had one hand reaching behind her waist, pulling her closer to him so that their pelvises met.
Kissing Arzak was even better now. The first night, they’d been so rushed, so eager to ease out all the tension. Since then, she’d spent an entire week getting to know his body and his lips, spent each night getting to know the personality underneath.
The young soldier that was new to leadership, a son who’d lost his father and was immediately expected to fill his shoes, a jealous lover who was afraid of losing the woman he’d let himself get closest to.
She lifted one hand to grasp at his dark curls, nails digging up into his scalp. Their lips smashed together, but though their intensity was ever the same, incredibly strong on its own, Arzak was taking more time to learn the taste and feel of her.
“Tell me you want me,” he demanded, voice soft as his teeth bit lightly along her jawline. Arzak moved his teeth up her chin, capturing her lower lip and tugging on it teasingly.
“I want you.” The words tumbled out immediately. There was no fight in her. Mira had given up fighting the minute he had her pressed to the floor of the foyer. She’d given up fighting even as she pretended to Tyroc and Viera that she wasn’t okay with being his plaything.
And when he finally revealed what he’d been doing to her, her to Arzak, them to each other. Mira wondered if they were cursed from the minute he grabbed her from the flames of an exploding star shuttle. “Arzak, I want you.”
He didn’t take her forcefully, didn’t even take her right there. Arzak had one arm around Mira’s waist, but she finished the embrace, wrapping her legs around his hips. And then their lips were together again.
It had been just a little bit less than 24 hours since their last kiss and Mira felt like it’d been ages. Was that how it was going to be if she let him have her fully, if they both completely gave into Zethrada’vass? Was she going to want him all the time?
It wasn’t like the night before. Instead of crashing through the door, Arzak opened it with tried patience, not wanting to lift his lips from hers. Mira didn’t want him to either. His lips were soft and their slower movements allowed her more time to taste him, to nip at him for payback.
She whimpered softly as he got the door open. Arzak smiled against her lips, kicking the door shut behind them. “Tell me you need me, Earth girl,” he ordered, just as they reached the bed.
Mira pulled away a centimeter, her fingers entwined in his wavy locks as their gazes locked. Arzak’s eyes were dark with lust, but as she looked at him, Mira realized he was still smiling.
It wasn’t cocky, despite his order. He looked happy. Mira smiled back and pressed her hips up against his as he laid her on the mattress. She hadn’t even looked away from him long enough to see whose bed they were in, if it was even one of their rooms or one of the spare ones. “I could just show you, Ve Dominok.”
“I want you to tell me,” he insisted. Arzak pressed his hips back into hers firmly. His fingers encircled her wrists and pinned her hands on the mattress above her head as well. Punishment for making him repeat himself.
“Are you that in need of an ego boost?”
“I want to make it impossible for you to take any of this back again.”
Mira frowned, trying to lift her lips to his, but Arzak had her restrained pretty well. “I didn’t try to back out-”
“Just dismissed it as you using me,” he finished for her, “That it was for a deal we never shook on.” Squirming, she grew frustrated. Mira didn’t want to fight; she wanted to fuck.
With his hand and hips still immobilizing her, Arzak dipped his head down and kissed the crook of her neck. “I have wanted you from the minute I laid eyes on you, but it wasn’t until seeing you talk down to my officers at the restaurant that I knew you were the one.”
“Arzak, what are you-”
He bit down on her neck and sucked harshly. Mira writhed, moaning loudly as he caught her by surprise. She already had so many hickeys from him, and there was no doubt in her mind that this would leave another.
“I want you as mine, Mira Hawthorne,” he whispered, easing the pain of the bite with his tongue, “No one challenges me like you. We could rule over Zethrad together.”
Mira’s eyes widened at his offer. At her silence, Arzak lifted his head. There was a hesitation with him, almost as if he really did expect her to deny him again. They hadn’t even gotten to the intense physical portion of their activities, but her chest began to rise and fall dramatically.
It wasn’t as if the thought hadn’t crossed her mind. Arzak had admitted that he already accidentally started it with her, and what had she done? She’d told him she still wanted him. It wasn’t a lie, not in the slightest.
“You think too much,” he observed, after too much silence.
“Only when I have to think for the both of us,” Mira shot back, “Your people would never accept me as a queen. I’ve heard how J’kar speaks about Earth – about anything outside of Zethrad. “
“It’s a good thing that I’m not asking J’kar then,” Arzak said. They were still so close, hot breaths on each other’s faces. His hands moved down to grip her wrists, “He’s only afraid of new things. And he hates that he’s attracted to you despite his fear.”
“He’s not attract-” she started.
Arzak silenced her with a kiss. “I know when men are looking at you,” he sighed against her lips, “And he looks at you.”
She pressed her lips together and gave a sardonic look, pulling away. “If he does, it’s only because you’ve got such short supply here.”
The Lord Commander moved his hands from her wrists to her ass, kneading gently. “When I became Ve Dominok, the women we ha
ve all lined up for me. Zethradan women. I want you, Earth girl.”
“It’s not that easy, Arzak,” she breathed. They weren’t easy. Mira was not Zethradan. She had a home on Earth, had friends, a job she loved, a life. Sure, it wasn’t much, but what did she have here?
She meant it when she truly believed no one would take her seriously as queen. Half the council didn’t like her or were just using her for gains. And her career? Wasn’t that the only reason she was here?
Suddenly, Arzak sat up, Mira instantly missing the warmth of his skin against hers. “What are you doing?” she asked. He didn’t answer her, but soon his clothes were starting to come off, falling to the floor beside the bed.
Mira sat up and stripped herself of her jacket and top, lifting her hips as he peeled off her tight pants. Wearing the dresses had been so much easier, she observed.
He was still moving slow, but she didn’t mind at the moment. Her palms ran up his abdomen, fingers trailing over the hard muscles and puckered scars from fights long won.
Mira wanted to know the story behind every scar, once the ache wracking through her entire body was satisfied. They rested on his broad shoulders, pulling herself up to each muscle, going further up and finding the pulse point on his neck.
While his skin was more tan than most from his days spent on battlefields, it still had the Zethradan appearance of being very translucent, and Mira loved to watch when he grew flushed from her attentions, when his blood would begin to head south, or how she could almost feel his heartbeat speeding up.
The Lord Commander forced her back down, Mira gasping from the surprise. He took up the same position as before, fingers looped around her wrist and above her head, his now bare hips pinning her to the mattress. Arzak was hard and so very close. Mira could feel him start to rock gently, unable to keep still despite wanting to tease her.
“Easy now?” he asked her. Carefully, Arzak released one of her hands and pressed the back of his against her free palm. Mira’s heart sped up. The last time he’d started Zethrada’vass, it started with holding her hand.
She tilted her head up as much as she could and saw that his own palms were beginning to get a golden glow. It was beautiful, but the heaviness of what it meant… It intimidated her. “Yes or no?”
“Arzak-”
“Yes or no, Mira.” He dug his hips into hers more firmly, causing her to moan. He was so close… So close to being fully sheathed inside of her that her body could taste it, trying to rise to meet him.
She wanted him, Mira knew that. There were only two things holding her back, and that was her job and the job that Arzak wanted for her.
But he believed in her.
Jak… It was always clear, even before he became Head of the department, that he would be the successful one of the two. It was why Mira had become perfectly okay with conforming to his workaholic lifestyle, waiting for him to be ready to like her.
She was his best lab technician, and he left her on Zethrad by herself. Because she wasn’t all that important to him, not in the way she dreamed of being. She didn’t matter. And if she was being honest, that was how most people treated her. She let them, let them think that of Mira as the afterthought.
As soon as they realized she wasn’t the bold adventurer that her parents had been, that she was just a biologist, Mira could feel the disinterest take place of the intrigued.
She felt a number of things during her time on Zethrad. The men ogled her, the women were few, and there were people who didn’t want to welcome her there for the fact that she wasn’t a true Zethradan.
But the people here were like their glass buildings, or at least Arzak was. Tall and demanding, but beautiful and intricate. Glass-like clarity, what with the fact that she could always read him, help him, know what he was thinking, and a strong back bone of the finest, most unbending metal Mira had seen before.
She admired their way of life, even with the alpha male society, where everyone was expected to follow Ve Dominok and his Betinok. Viera and Tyroc were good people, and Arzak…
Even as he looked at her now, Mira was starting to believe him. It didn’t matter that there was a low female count, that he would have had more options on Earth had he been there. Arzak wasn’t on Earth, and neither was she. For a reason. And he’d picked her.
This muscular, alien god had picked her. And oh, he infuriated her, but there was never anyone that could make her feel so good, both sexually and with her own self.
He wasn’t afraid to disagree with her or argue, didn’t want to hide from the conflict but confront and solve it instead. He shared with her a passion that Mira didn’t think she’d ever get with anyone else.
Her brown eyes stared up at his gray seriously. “Yes,” she murmured, kissing him on the lips again, “Yes, I need you. I want you. I want to be with you, Arzak.”
“Completely?”
“Completely.”
He didn’t hesitate anymore after that, didn’t tease. Arzak’s hips eased off of her, but only long enough so that she could wrap her legs around his waist.
Guiding himself into her, Mira moaned. Over the course of their sexual relationship together, she realized that sex with a Zethradan was exactly like sex on Earth, except... She’d never had a more passionate lover than Arzak.
His lips grazed over her skin, from the ball of her shoulder, over her collarbone, and to the dip in her neck. Arzak’s touches left a trail of fire on her skin and comforting warmth within the pit of her stomach.
Everything she wanted, she had her legs wrapped around. “You’re wet for me,” he rumbled, pushing further so that he buried himself at the hilt.
“Please, Arzak,” she begged, her insides clenching around his length to tempt him even further.
When he pulled himself out, Mira thought he meant to drive her absolutely insane. “Get on your knees,” he ordered. Mira moaned, untangling her legs quickly and scrambling to do as he said.
His smug smirk was on his lips again, enjoying how much he could control her. When they were out of bed, Arzak had trouble with her listening, but he liked to be challenged, and he liked taking a strong woman to bed and making her beg for his cock. “Turn around.”
She did as she was told, facing the headboard. Mira knew what he wanted now, what position. Reaching for a cushion, she propped herself on her elbows, tilting her head to the side to catch a glance of the ceiling.
There was that mirror, meaning they were most definitely in Arzak’s bed. She smiled to herself, waggling her ass in the air to taunt him. Able to see Arzak’s reactions, Mira watched his chest fall in a sigh.
He seized her hips, letting out an animalistic groan. “Tease,” he muttered, losing himself so much that he slipped back into Zethradan.
“You like it,” Mira replied softly, a smile in her voice.
“No talking.” And unlike the first time they met, Mira listened. Not that she had much of a choice anyways. He pushed inside of her again, rough and deep.
This was what she was used to, not the slow movements that they were doing before. The blonde bit her lip hard, trying not to cry out. She looked up at the mirror, Arzak’s expression becoming frustrated. “I said nothing of screaming.”
He thrust again, just as hard. “Fuck!” she gasped.
Mira loved the feeling of him inside of her. There were no apologies, no insecurities, just two bodies joining together as one. There was never an awkward moment, and Arzak was wonderful at guessing what she wanted next.
He set a fast, unrelenting pace. Mira pushed her hips back into his. It was a bedroom symphony, the slapping of their skin, the bed creaking from the force in which Arzak fucked her, her cries, his grunts of pleasure and calm orders for her to move a certain way, to yell louder, or to tell him again that she wanted and needed him.
She got lost in it all, becoming a mess of love and lust. Mira’s head grew cloudy as she got closer to her point of release, and soon she was screaming, none of it making any sense, just mindless soun
ds.
Arzak surprised her when he started to slow. Mira hated when he did this, but in the same way that she loved it. He was bringing her to the edge and pulling her back, making it impossible for her to cum.
His hands rested on her shoulders, having been using that to drive her further onto his dick, but now Arzak used it to pull her up, Mira’s back flush against his chest.
They were both covered in a sheen of sweat, their breaths labored. Arzak continued to move his hips now, his fingers digging into her skin. It was taking restraint for him to do this, an incredible amount.
He licked at her skin, and Mira reached for one of his hands to place over her breast. “Are you sure you want what’s next, my love?” he asked her.
What oxygen was left escaped her lungs. My love. That wasn’t one of his pet names. In fact, his favorite was Earth girl. But Arzak was asking her to be more than that. He was asking her to join him now, here, on this planet. Mira would be “Earth Girl” no longer. And she could see it.
She could see Arzak loving her, protecting her, making her happy. If his people didn’t like her, they would win them over together. She could see herself loving him back, always by his right side to give Arzak council, changing this world with him.
Mira didn’t want to stop this, what was happening with them, and saying no would do that. Arzak had too much pride to make the offer again.
Much like she had the minute she stepped off the star shuttle on Zethrad, Mira took the plunge.
“Yes,” she answered. It came out as a whisper. Afraid that he hadn’t heard her, she turned her head to look at Arzak, nodding. “I want this, my love.”
He kissed her ardently. Not like a conqueror or a competitor, but as a lover. Mira felt the hand on her breast squeeze gently as his hips began to speed up again. Arzak left one hand on her breast, the other on her stomach. “Put your hands over under mine.”
Her heart was already beating so fast, and now it felt like it was about to explode. Mira had never felt so many things at once. So anxious and stressed, so happy and complete.
She almost wanted to tell Arzak to stop his slow thrusts, as it added the lustful pleasure, but she couldn’t and wouldn’t actually tell him to stop.
