by Lauren Esker
"It's cleverly designed to baffle even ordinary Earth humans." She started to reach around to undo it herself, then thought better of it and turned around, leaning forward to display her bare back. "There are little hooks under the band. Lift it up a little and push them in to unhook them, then pull them apart."
With her back turned and her head bowed, curls hanging in her face, she couldn't see exactly what he was doing. The sight-unseen feeling of his callused fingertips on the skin under her bra band was unexpectedly thrilling. There were some little tugs against her breasts and then the cups loosened. Heck, she'd had Earth boyfriends who had more trouble with it.
"You're a natural," she told him.
"Your planet," Rei murmured, pressing kisses to her back and shoulders as he carefully slipped each strap over her arm, "is in desperate need," more kisses, "of some proper clothing-fastening technology."
"How does yours work? That thing you were wearing when we—oh—" He'd reached around from behind her, cupping her breasts in his hands. Her aching nipples pressed against his fingers. "It was ... sticky? Down the side ...?"
"The fabric adheres to itself." He spoke into her hair, nibbling at the back of her neck between words. Heady tingling flowed through her with every touch of his lips, with the brush of his breath across the fine hairs on the nape of her neck.
"Where did it go? I'd like to—ah—" He'd figured out that she liked her nipples played with. Concentrating on the conversation required a concerted effort of will. "—see it."
"It's in the ... hailoft." That was English; he must have learned a few more words from her dad. His breath huffed in a soft laugh, tickling her nape. "Right now? Are you sure?"
"No, I—nngh—" She pushed back against him, her whole body tingling now. His hardness pressed against her buttock; she wasn't the only one. Rationality managed to reassert itself a moment later, despite the neck-nibbling and his attentions to her sensitive nipples sparking a growing heat between her legs. "Rei, I—oh—I don't have a condom. Do you know that word? Condom? Protection?"
The neck-nibbling paused. "Are you talking about protection from pregnancy?"
She twisted her head around so she could see his face. "Pregnancy, yes, and STDs—I don't think you could actually get me pregnant, could you? I mean, Earth humans and your kind of people—"
"I should be able to, in theory." He sat back, settling her more comfortably in his lap, and kept lightly stroking her nipples as he spoke. "Most types of humans are cross-fertile with each other. I couldn't right at this moment, of course. All slave soldiers wear contraceptive implants."
"Removable?" she asked, leaning her head back against him. Not that she wanted his—she just wanted to—It was scientific curiosity, damn it.
"With permission. Though ..." He mouthed lightly at her neck. "I don't need anyone's permission now that I'm free. Except yours, of course."
"What about diseases? Do you have space STDs?"
His gentle biting and kissing moved down to her shoulder; he spoke between kisses. "I don't know that last word, but you don't need to worry. I've never had sex before, except for the—" and he said a word that didn't translate.
Sarah's eyes opened. "Except for the what?" She squirmed around in the circle of his arms until she was straddling his lap and facing him; she couldn't have this conversation if he was talking to her neck. "Rei, are you telling me you're a virgin?"
Rei kissed her forehead. "I don't know that word, but if it means inexperienced, yes, I am. I've been taught but I haven't had an opportunity to put it into practice with a partner yet. Is something wrong?"
"Taught? Taught how? By whom?" The sexual energy between them hadn't ebbed—she still had her arms around his neck, her face mere inches from his—but if he was an actual virgin (good God, with a body like that, how?), she didn't want to make him feel like she was springing Sex-Crazed Earth Humanity on him all of a sudden.
He was frowning now, looking worried. "Is that a problem for your people?"
"No, no, of course not." She kissed him to make sure he knew she wasn't upset, nibbling at his lips. "How did you learn?"
"With robots." It translated this time; she wasn't sure if he had used a different word or if the translator had managed to pick up an equivalent meaning from her mind this time. "That's how it's done on Galatea. You learn with robots before you have sex with a person. Not just for slaves; for everyone. You have to practice before you do it for real. I guess it's not like that here?"
Sarah couldn't help the nervous laugh that escaped her. "No, it's definitely not like that. Although maybe the sex would be better if we did." She'd lost her virginity in a fumbling encounter in the back of a pickup truck the year she graduated from high school. Not her most shining moment, especially since they'd broken up two weeks later when she found out he was also having sex with two other girls in her graduating class.
"Do you mind?" His golden gaze searched her face anxiously.
"No! No, of course not." She kissed him again fiercely, letting her body say what her words couldn't. "Do you mind," she asked in sudden worry, her cheek pressed to his, "that I've had other partners before?"
"Different cultures do things differently." He kissed the side of her face, lips trailing across her skin, leaving a shiver in their wake. "My people, we don't ... we tend to cleave to one partner. Sex without attachment is not easy for us. Not like some of the other races of humankind—my friend Skara's people, for example, who have sex as casually as breathing." There was another twist of pain in his voice that she didn't ask about. "For us though, for Polarans, we don't have sex without love. Perhaps it's something in the way we were made. Wolves mate for life, they say. I only know that I never really had much interest in it until ..." He hesitated.
"Until now?" she whispered. Love. The word bounced around in her mind, unable to settle.
"There was one other," he whispered. "Before you. A girl in another sept. But we never—she wasn't—she was transferred elsewhere. I didn't have a chance to get to know her. Learning about sex with the training robots was pleasant, the physical sensations at least, but it wasn't ... I didn't want ..." He trailed off, frustration written in every line of his body, the spots on his face cooling to subtle shades of pale blue and gold.
"Shhhh." She pressed a kiss to his shoulder. "We're both here now, and that's what matters. You can show me what they taught you, and I'll show you what I've learned here on Earth, all right?"
"All right." His voice was a ghost of a breath against her hair.
She kissed him gently all over his neck, his collarbone, his chest. If he'd never had sex except with robots, she wondered, had anyone ever touched him like this—tenderly, with love?
He was certainly responsive, his breath quickening as she trailed kisses over his blue skin. His hands were all over her, one gliding down her back to cup her buttock over the fabric of her jeans, the other fondling her breasts and fingering the sensitive nipples.
If the dual-layered hair on his head was different from what Sarah was used to, his body hair was just the same, dark and close-curled on his chest and in a narrow stripe down his flat abdomen. He wasn't as hairy as some guys; along with the lack of facial hair, his chest hair was sparse, his shoulders and back smooth. And his cock was just like anyone else's—erect and ready, large but not tremendously so.
Eagerness pulsed through her. She wasn't used to guys who wanted to take it slower than she did. The slow pace heightened the need, leaving her wet and aching, struggling not to do what she really wanted to do, which was to fling herself on him and rub on him all over like a cat in heat.
She showed him how to undo the button and zipper on her jeans, and rose to her knees, hands on his shoulders, so he could pull those down.
"Can I look at you?" Rei asked.
"Look at me? Like this?"
"Just like that." His hands resting lightly at her waist, he slid back a little on the sleeping bag, gazing at her with that same look of wonder.
Smiling, Sarah
put her arms over her head to lift up her breasts and give him a bit of a show. He sucked in his breath, his cock lifting eagerly in its nest of wiry curls. When he leaned forward, she let him take the lead, laying her down on the sleeping bag so he could strip her the rest of the way out of her jeans and underwear.
There was a considerate gentleness in him that she hadn't encountered in her previous boyfriends, the boys and young men her own age who seemed more concerned with their own pleasure than with hers. Inexperienced though he might be, it was obvious that Rei was interested in pleasing her above all else. With hands and mouth, he explored her body, and when he made his way down her body to the soft place between her legs, she found that, whether through training or instinct, there was nothing at all lacking in his technique. She arced her head back and let go, releasing herself to pleasure as he took her apart.
***
Her skin was soft. So soft. Rei kept losing himself in the wonder of it. Warmth flooded him, not just arousal, but the sheer delight of touching and being touched.
His people were not meant to be alone.
Her hands combed through his hair as he tasted her salt, learning to match the strokes of his tongue to the soft sounds she made and the responsive jerks of her body. He was delighted to find that he could read what she was feeling by her reactions, and adjust his own movements to draw more of those soft, ecstatic little sounds out of her.
Making love to robots was nothing like this. It wasn't love at all. This ... this was what he was meant for; he was made to give himself wholly to a mate, body and soul. Her touch consumed him. Her scent and taste filled his world.
There was nowhere he wanted to be, nothing he wanted more than this. His own aching need became one with the pleasure he sensed rising in her, until she bucked under him and he had to jerk back, drawing slow breaths to stop himself from joining her as she fell over the edge.
Sarah's gasps of delight faded to softer breathing. She pushed herself up on her elbows, looking at him through tousled sandy bangs. "Rei? Are you okay? Why did you stop?"
"I just ... need a minute," he panted. "They said ... a woman might not be ready again right away, depending on species, and I don't want it to be uncomfortable for you. I need—"
"Rei." She lifted her hips, spreading her legs to expose her inviting pink folds, all but shoving herself at him. "Please."
He needed no more invitation to slide into her. It was ...
It was everything.
She enfolded him in her warmth, and for that first instant he couldn't have moved if he'd wanted to. All he could do was lean forward, shuddering, to press his forehead against hers, as her arms wrapped around his neck. Her fluttering eyelashes tickled his sensitive tsinde, sending tiny electric thrills through his body, coalescing around the heat at his core.
"I didn't know ..." he whispered, and felt her stir beneath him, around him. "I didn't know it could be like this."
She moved her hips, and he jerked in a pleasure so great it bordered on pain. For years he'd tried not to feel anything, physical or emotional. He had taught himself to focus on things outside himself, to detach himself enough to stop caring that his body was nothing but a possession for others to use as they wished.
Now feeling swept over him in a tidal wave, the physical and the emotional.
He had almost forgotten that bodies could feel good.
Sarah pushed against him and he met her thrust for thrust, feeling out her rhythm as he'd matched himself to the rhythm of her pleasure-pulses when he was tasting her earlier. They moved together as one body. It was not so different from sparring for pleasure, in certain ways—moving in sync, matching parry for thrust. But sparring was never like this ...
Heat and urgency grew in him. He breathed out her name, and heard her gasp his. He couldn't tell if she was approaching another climax of her own, but he knew that he wouldn't be able to hold himself back much longer. He didn't want to. He wanted—needed—to feel this. All of this.
He went over the edge with a white-hot burst of sensation that made him cry out involuntarily, breaking the habits of a lifetime. Be silent. Be in control. Never let them make you scream. Now this rush of impossible feeling tore a cry from his throat, and Sarah added her own soft cry to his.
They came down slowly, together. He could feel her pulsing around him, sending shivery aftershocks through his body. Afraid that he might hurt her with his greater weight, he rolled to the side and lay beside her on the sleeping mat as he softened gradually inside her.
"I didn't know ..." he whispered. "That it could be like that."
"Me neither," she murmured back.
Rei propped himself up on his elbow to look at her face. The shadows were almost as clear as daylight to his dark-adapted eyes, showing him every freckle on her pink skin. She gazed back at him with sleepy eyes, their deep blue-gray making him think of the often stormy skies of his homeworld.
"But you've been with others, correct?" he asked. "You said I wasn't your first."
"You're right; you aren't. But Rei, I'm not with those men now. None of them were like you."
He couldn't help smiling. He felt light, almost effervescent. He couldn't ever remember feeling like this. "Blue?"
Sarah smacked his shoulder with her hand and rolled against him, pressing her cheek against his skin.
They lay like that for awhile, as the shadows of the moving sun crept across the wall. The flying vehicle did not come back. Finally Sarah gave a little shiver. "I don't know about you, but I think we might want to put some clothes on. I'm chilly."
He wasn't, but he sat up and watched her clean herself with a handful of disposable towels from a roll she found behind a crate, before putting her clothes back on. It was unexpectedly erotic, a strip tease in reverse, covering up each part of her gorgeous body in turn.
She kept stopping to smile at him, as if she sensed his thoughts—or maybe, he thought as her gaze lingered on his bare chest, because she liked looking at him, too. She wanted him. She liked him. He could still smell that wanting on her, along with the powerful scent of sex.
When all her clothes were back on, he reached reluctantly for his borrowed leggings. "Will your father be upset?"
"About what?"
"About ... this."
"We don't have to tell him," Sarah said.
"He'll be able to smell it."
Sarah wrinkled her nose. "Ewww, Rei. Mood-killer."
"He is very protective of you," Rei said, refusing to be distracted. "Will he ask me to leave?"
"I'm a grown woman, so it's none of my dad's business who I have sex with." She fell silent for a moment as she tied the thongs on her shoes. "Maybe we'll just ... not tell him yet."
"He'll be able to—"
"Rei, no, humans can't just smell sex on people, okay? Not unless they get really close. Dad's not going to be sniffing my neck, and I'll take a shower back at the house." She took his hand. "Don't worry, I won't let Dad come after you with a shotgun. He'll be cool about it. I promise."
***
In all honesty, assurances aside, Sarah couldn't quite figure out how to tell her dad that she'd been banging their alien guest in the mill. She brought the sleeping bag back to the house with her and stuffed it into the washing machine. It seemed way too weird to just leave it there for other people to sit on. But not as weird as her dad smelling her; ewww, Rei.
She could figure out how to tell Dad later. The afternoon slid past in a pleasant haze. She'd forgotten how good sex made you feel. Her whole body felt like it was bathed in midsummer sunshine, even when the sun went away and the gray late-October clouds rolled in again.
Rei and her dad spent the rest of the day working on the spaceship in the barn. Sarah helped them for a little while, but she really couldn't do much more than fetch, carry, and hold things—granted, that was all her dad could do either; Rei was the one who actually knew what he was doing. When that started to wear on her, she did some homework and put in a load of laundry while th
e sleeping bag dried, and then worked on a little bit of long-deferred farm maintenance. One of the hens had turned into an escape artist, so Sarah checked every inch of their pen until she found the escape route and blocked it with rocks. She called in an order to the feed store for more of Princess's special feed to help with the mare's chronic colic, and scribbled a note to herself to pick up a case of oil the next time she was in town, or preferably in Eau Claire, where it would be cheaper; the truck needed an oil change before winter. She peeled some potatoes and put a pot roast in the oven, before chopping some of the last of the summer's cucumbers and tomatoes for a salad.
Simple routine, as if it was an ordinary day.
As if her heart didn't sing every time she moved, the slickness between her legs reminding her of the secret delight she and Rei had shared.
What is Dad going to say?
If it had been anyone else—one of the local farm boys, say—she knew he'd be overjoyed for her. He didn't talk about it much, but she knew he worried about her. He wanted her to have friends and a social life, go on dates.
But ... an alien? And one who was planning on leaving as soon as he got his ship fixed?
Sarah screwed her eyes shut to stop an unwanted prickling at the corners.
Don't set your sights too high, remember? If you don't want unrealistic things, you won't be disappointed. Live for the moment. Don't worry about tomorrow.
Always easier said than done, when there was something she really wanted.
The timer went off on the stove. She took out the pot roast and went out to the barn to let Rei and her dad know that dinner was ready.
"And dinner that I ain't cooked," her father said, grinning at her as he limped into the kitchen, grease-stained and cheerful. "That's a change."
"I even vacuumed the floor."
"Where is my little girl and what have you done with her?" Her dad peeked under the lid of the roasting pan. Sarah batted his hand away.
"Dad! At least wash the grease off."
Rei came downstairs from the bathroom, toweling off his hands. There was a moment of awkwardness when Sarah started to reach for him and quickly dropped her hand, spinning away to pick up the salad bowl and put it on the table.
