The Naked Truth

by Lilly Cain

  “I want to taste you,” she whispered to him. Despite the soft sound of the nearby waves, the quiet of the place seemed unnatural, increasing the intensity of the moment.

  He hesitated, holding his body away from hers. He grimaced. Had she done something wrong?

  “I’m sorry,” she began.

  “No, no.” He lowered himself onto the black sand beside her, leaning on one elbow and reached with his other hand to caress her cheek. “To follow the L’inar lines along the path of a man’s saiin, especially with your lips or tongue, is to court a permanent mating—marriage.”

  “Oh!”

  He pressed against her, the dark ridges along his skin so hot against her. So different, she thought as she leaned into his embrace. But as she looked into his eyes and read the passion there, she understood that despite their differences they were in many ways the same.

  She ran her fingers over him again, lightly stroking the ridges that extended along his abdomen. His emerald eyes darkened as she reached for his cock.

  She murmured in appreciation and took him in her hand, feeling the heat of him, the size of him. Thin ridges decorated his length, firmed as she stroked him. His taste was a forbidden desire. Something that part of her yearned to savor, despite the consequences. Instead she lifted her lips to his and met them with a desperate kiss. This was a moment stolen in time. For now she didn’t need to think about what she had suffered or what would happen to her in the future. She had only to forget the past and enjoy the moment, to live in it with a being that promised to love her body, and love it well.

  His hands roamed over her skin, and she returned the favor, each of them exploring the other’s differences. She wanted to touch, to taste, but she held herself back, using only her hands as she explored him. Nothing held him back—he delighted in suckling her breasts, taking each nipple deep into his mouth and pulling hard until the pressure had her groaning aloud, squirming beneath his hands.

  Her groans turned to soft pleas when he dipped one hand between her thighs, stroking her core. With sudden inspiration she took his other hand and brought it to her lips. She kissed the pad of each fingertip and then as he began to press into her, exploring the wet folds of her pussy, she sucked his index finger into her mouth. He moaned aloud, the physical metaphor affecting him as she’d hoped. She sucked at his digit as she would have enjoyed sucking his cock and was rewarded when his eyes darkened even more and his breaths grew ragged. She arched against him, sucking, and breathed in the scent of his hot skin. Hints of alien spices infused with male musk teased her, made her mouth water. She dragged her teeth over him as he parted her and slid one finger deep into her.

  “Yes!” She groaned out the encouragement. But he took too long, seemed barely to stroke her, until she could stand it no more.

  Sue gripped his shoulder and flung one leg over his hips. With a twist and a thrust, she rolled with him and pressed his back into the beach beneath them. His long hair spread against the ground, the hue of his hair contrasting like gold against the fine black sand. She leaned forward and took his lips, determined to possess them, but fell back with a gasp as she realized his fingers were still pressed against her core.

  He grinned at her and teased her, pulling her quickly to join him in a rhythm over which she had no control. She rode it, spread over him and open to his touch, unable to do anything but follow his lead as he took her again over a crest of desire and into orgasm.

  Sue’s juices dripped and she gasped for breath. He shifted her, lowering her until she could feel the heat of his cock against her. She spread her legs wider, straining to reach the hot skin stretched so tightly over his throbbing member. Slowly he lowered her onto him, allowing only one ridged section of his cock into her at a time.

  She tightened over each ridge. Each textured crest enhanced and prolonged the sensation of penetration, that moment when she was first truly opened by her lover. Sue found her moans harmonizing with his soft grunts of passion. “Oh…my…God.”

  She clenched his biceps with her hands, hanging on as she rode him, at first slowly, then faster. The ridges rubbed inside her, informing her of nerve endings she’d had no idea she possessed. She rocked against him, delving deeper into the sensation. With each swivel of her hips she could feel the pattern of his L’inar rotating against the sensitive skin of her pussy lips. A soft noise drew her attention to his face, and it was her turn to grin as she watched the control leave his eyes. She began to rock in a figure eight over him, and the sensation took both their breaths away.

  Asler rolled over, taking her with him. He drove into her as he rose up on his elbows. She couldn’t think, couldn’t stop herself as she touched him anywhere, everywhere. Her lips brushed the L’inar across his chest and she licked and sucked at his hard nipples. He shuddered, thrusting so deeply into her she felt split in two. He roared her name, and she felt the spurt of his climax, felt its heat and joined it to soar for the third time beneath him.

  With a jerk, their m’ittar broke apart. Gasping, their breaths racing, they held on to each other in the suddenly harsh light of Asler’s office. Her jaw dropped open in shock as the realization that they were both still clothed, her hands fisted into the soft material of his robes, hit her. She stared into the depths of his startled eyes. Neither could look away, and when she pressed herself back into his arms he welcomed her, wrapping his arms around her.

  For the first time in her life, she clung to a man.

  A sudden, odd noise interrupted their embrace with a quick start. She flushed with embarrassment and cursed her fair skin once again as she realized the source of the noise came from her own belly. Great. It’s embarrassing to be so obviously embarrassed, and now my stomach is protesting like I haven’t fed it in weeks. So much for a little real-life sex. I could use some more of that…comfort.

  He grinned. “We have growling bellies too, the same as humans.” He let her go and walked to the desk. With no small amount of satisfaction she noted that he swayed slightly as he stepped away. After tapping a few keys, he turned back and took her hand. “You’ve just gone through a major healing. Your body needs to be cared for.” He stroked the pad of his thumb over the back of her hand. “Come with me.”

  Asler watched the human woman take in the scene before them. Perhaps it wasn’t the best idea, exposing her to their cultural differences so quickly. A meal in his room might have been better.

  Her eyes were open wide as she glanced around. Couples lay on low couches in various degrees of undress, enjoying their meals and each other in equal and obvious delight. Her tongue flicked out, and she wet her lips.

  No, she wasn’t shocked and dismayed. She was shocked and aroused, he realized with a grin.

  This was more than he’d hoped for. Her desire opened channels between them that allowed him greater access to her thoughts, her emotions and her memories. His smile faded. Discovering the truth about what happened was becoming more important all the time—a second attack meant greater risk to the Treaty, and to the human world, whether they knew it or not. Susan believed she had done the right thing but still felt guilty, and he would soon have to discover why.

  “What the hell is this, a lunch orgy?” she asked, never taking her eyes off the scene before her.

  “This is how we enjoy our meals. This is a sterali. The couch will mould to whatever shape you require and has attached tables that revolve around the seat, lowering or raising as you request. It’s quite comfortable.” He led her to the nearest empty couch, held her hand while she sat down.

  “I think they’re enjoying a hell of a lot more than their meal.” Susan’s attention still focused on a nearby couple. A woman lay naked on her back on the soft sterali, which had reacted by levering her hips up, opening her to her partner’s caress. Their meal lay half-devoured as the Inarrii male licked at the sticky sweet syrup he’d spread on her thighs.

  Susan’s breath came quickly as the man worked ever closer to his goal.

  “Perhaps you w
ould enjoy some of the same?” Asler teased her.

  “What?” She glanced at him, alarm in her eyes. “In front of everyone?”

  “I meant the noodle dish.”

  “Yeah, right. Sure you did.” Susan glanced around the room again. “No one cares that it’s so public? Do you eat every meal like this?”

  Asler took a seat beside her. He waved a hand over the low table which rose and hovered near his elbow. “Yessin for two, rothan and saiithan.” He spoke to the air.

  “What’s that?” Susan eyed him, and he found her suspicious glance oddly endearing, and arousing. Introducing her to Inarrii custom and cuisine was going to be a lot of fun.

  “We don’t eat every meal like this, no. This is a casual way of reaffirming ties, exhibiting bonds to others to ensure no mistake is made over who is involved in a permanent relationship and who is out of bounds, you might say.” He lifted his hand to her shoulder, stroked that incredibly smooth skin. Her exotic lack of L’inar encouraged him to touch, to taste. “No one cares that it is public—that is the purpose. I’ve just ordered lunch, some food I think you will enjoy.”

  She looked around again. He admired the blush of color that spread across her cheeks as she watched the couple nearby shift into an apparently universally appealing sixty-nine position. The male’s L’inar were fully raised, and the female sucked and licked at them with abandon as his face lay buried in the crevasse between her legs. Another couple wandered over, caressing each other as they candidly watched the mating couple.

  Asler observed Susan’s nipples harden at the sight. She needed to trust him the same way. Opening to him now, in a way that she would consider “in public” would go a long way toward establishing that trust. And, he admitted to himself, he wanted to have her now, like this.

  He frowned. The urgency of his desire was becoming worrisome. He should not have such a strong reaction. He dismissed it after a moment. It had been some time since he relieved his needs, surely that was all.

  A young woman approached, bearing a tray with two plates of steaming noodles and utensils, a decanter of rothan, two glasses and a small plate of long cylindrical cookies. She placed it on the table and moved on to the next couch.

  Asler took up a fork and swirled the noodles up into a bite. She watched carefully and seemed about to copy him when the couch beneath them shuddered. Plates rattled on the suspended tables.

  “What—” Susan began, but her question stopped as the floor beneath them bucked, and the lights flickered.

  Alarm tones sounded. Asler jumped to his feet.

  “We have to get back…” His voice was lost in the sudden roar of explosive force that ripped through the room.

  One side of the dining room outer wall crushed forward in the deafening boom. Thick acrid smoke began to fill the air. Asler’s heart constricted as he sensed as much as heard the pained screams nearby.

  Alarm bells continued to sound. He grabbed for Susan’s arm, intent on getting her out of the unstable area of the ship. He had to find out what had happened, if there had been a third attack. But most of all he needed to be certain she was safe.

  That fear tore at him with greater force when he realized she was no longer beside him.

  Through the smoke he searched the room for her, his mind open and searching for her now familiar pattern, despite the pain he felt mounting around him. He staggered forward toward the worst of the rubble, brushed past the injured but still mobile Inarrii who were retreating from the disaster. He joined those who were attempting to help the more seriously injured.

  Asler rushed to help a young officer pull a fallen light fixture from the crushed leg of a trapped Inarrii, only realizing after he’d gripped the debris that the victim was one of the Inarrii couple Susan had been observing earlier. “Have you seen the human?” he asked the officer as they yanked on the twisted metal.

  “She’s over there, near the fire crew.” The reply was harsh and abrupt, mind to mind as Asler realized that it was this Inarrii’s lover they were rescuing.

  Fire.

  Horror surged through Asler. Fire onboard was the worst thing that could happen on a spaceship. He strained, pushed aside the last of the ruined fixture and pressed a quick hand to the moaning man beneath, dropping him deep into unconsciousness until medical help arrived. He absently waved away the young officer’s thanks and stepped over the heavier rubble to tug at the crushed couch pressing down on the unconscious man’s side.

  Where are the Medtechs? Asler worked to stop the flow of blood. His eyes scanned the room.

  There. Susan was pressing a flat piece of sterali cushion against the last of the flames, beating the oxygen-stealing monster to death.

  Covered in filth, she had moved first to address the thing that endangered them the most, the uncontained fire. The fire crew arrived quickly to the scene, but Asler wondered why the automated system hadn’t kicked in first. The ship had to be badly damaged. He grimaced as he pulled off his outer robe, then used it to press against the injured man’s wound.

  “Examiner Kiis, thank you. We’ll take care of him now.” The soft mental command alerted Asler to the Medtech now standing beside him. He stood back, let the man closer.

  “Has the ship been hit?” Asler asked, although he doubted the Medtech would have much information at this point.

  “An attack alarm was sounded, but that’s all I know.” The Medtech turned his attention to the care of the ashen-faced man below them.

  Asler glanced back toward the fire only to find Susan quickly approaching him.

  “What the hell happened?” Susan’s chest heaved as she fought to get the question out and catch her breath.

  “Come with me. We’ll find out. An attack here…it shouldn’t be possible.” Asler hated the fact that his voice sounded so uncertain, even to his own ears. An attack really shouldn’t be possible. The ship was one of the most heavily defended in the Confederacy contingent that waited upon the signing of the Treaty.

  His mind retraced recent events: first the ridiculously simple attack on the Inarrii warship at the Earth Starforce Base, then the surprisingly powerful attack on the secret Confederacy Jupiter Moon Base, and now this…what was driving the attacks?

  Asler grabbed Susan’s arm and led her toward the exit. Most of the other diners, injured and shaken, had been taken to safety, and only the damage crews remained.

  “Thank you for your help!” a heavily protected fire-crew member called out to Susan as she passed.

  She nodded, moving with Asler, keeping pace with him.

  Her actions had been heroic, Asler reflected as he stepped over another ruined couch. She’d moved instinctively into danger to help, despite the fact that she was on an alien vessel, facing charges. His gut feeling, as humans so quaintly phrased it, was that she was innocent, and her unselfish reaction to the enemy attack only supported his feeling. She hadn’t tried to escape or even to simply remove herself from danger. Instead, she’d acted to protect an alien ship and its crew.

  Some might say she acted only to protect herself. But Asler could almost taste her innocence, her guileless need to do the right thing, even at the risk of her safety. Now he had to prove it and make sure that he had every piece of information available. And that meant accessing her memories of the terrorists.

  Chapter Six

  “Damage has been confined to level five, and the attacking force has retreated,” the ship’s captain explained to Asler over the communication panel. “The ships involved were unmarked, but definitely not of human origin.”

  Asler glanced over at Susan, who listened from her perch on the low couch. She took another mouthful of her dinner, clearly enjoying the yessin noodles she’d missed tasting at the dining room before the explosion. He’d ordered them brought to her here in his office instead. The scent of the savory dish tickled hi s nose, reminding him how unsatisfactory the nutro bar he’d eaten earlier had been—devoured in seconds during the captain’s report.

  Susan’s
pettan and skin still bore the sooty marks from the fire in the dining room. A shiver ran along his L’inar as he thought again of how she risked being badly injured when she attempted to put out the flames.

  “Injuries?” Asler asked the captain.

  “Three Inarrii have been seriously injured. No deaths, but it was a very close call.”

  “Where did the attackers come from? Who are they?”

  “That’s what we’d all like to know, Examiner.” The captain’s face sagged under the weight of his concern. “We’re not even certain that the same ones were involved in the other two attacks, or if they are related to the initial terrorist attack.”

  Asler rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. More questions. They needed the answers, soon. “Understood. Has any of this information been passed on to the Earth Consulate? Are they aware of the attacks or how little we know? Is the Treaty in jeopardy?”

  “At this point, the command decision stands. We keep knowledge of the new attacks to ourselves. The Earth Consulate still believe the first attack belongs entirely to the terrorist group Terran Purity. We’ve passed on nothing to the contrary, and the Treaty discussions are continuing. Examiner Salis Fiiten is attending. As usual the lawyers are pulling everything apart and rewriting the Treaty.” A hint of the captain’s strong character seeped back into his voice, tinting his tone with mild sarcastic humor.

  “Good. We will continue to investigate, and leave the defense to you. I expect, and I believe you do too, that these attacks will continue—the timing, the locations, are all tied to the Treaty talks.”

  “Except for this last attack, I would have to agree. Why attack us here? The Treaty discussions and even the dignitaries and lawyers involved are housed either at the Earth Starforce Base or at the Confederacy Jupiter Moon Base. Nothing is going on here.”

  “Nothing except Captain Branscombe.”