by Marie Dry
The bed shook and she rolled toward the center, her limbs too weak to stop herself. Then scorching heat pressed along the length of her body. A small functioning part of her brain knew the alien had climbed, naked, into bed with her, and knew she should be alarmed. But her frozen body craved his heat and she snuggled closer. "Hmmmm."
His warm body seared her skin everywhere they touched and she would've crawled inside his hot skin if she could have.
While he grated something at the doctor who stood just outside, Zacar gently cupped the base of her head and neck with one of his large hands. His other hand he placed at the juncture of her thighs. At any other time, she would've been alarmed and done everything in her power to get away from him. But now, she nearly screamed at the heat searing her body. She could almost feel the ice crystals melting in her blood, her feet tingling painfully as circulation returned.
This time she did scream. Loud and painful. It hurts. Please, make it stop.
Zacar made soothing noises in his throat, and hunched his body over hers, his legs trapping her restless feet. He snarled something at the doctor.
"W--what's happening?" Her ears still rang from her screams and she wasn't sure she'd even said the words aloud until Zacar answered her.
"Hypothermia," he said, as if reading from a textbook.
She knew she should feel scared but the pain in her awakening limbs drove all thought from her mind. She burrowed further into Zacar's delicious heat in an effort to make the pain go away.
The doctor responded in that grating tone of theirs then all she could hear was the sound of her own breathing. Forcing an eye open, she discovered a thin metal dome-like structure had been placed over the bed, cocooning them inside. The air around them heated almost immediately.
Her shivers increased and she buried her cold nose into Zacar's chest. Her body was shaking so much, Zacar had to forcefully hold her down.
She moaned in pain. "Why does it h--h--h--hurt s--so m--m--much?" His heat should be making her feel better, so why was she in so much pain? Violent shivers took over her body and she couldn't control it, no matter how much she clung to him.
"Sleep, Natlia."
As if obeying, her muscles relaxed as the heat finally reached into her very bones. Every naked inch of Zacar was pressed against her, his warm palm cupping the flesh between her legs intimately. Yet instead of alarm, all she felt was safe. Her last thought before she fell asleep was that this alien was better than a fire.
***
Something wonderfully warm caressed her stomach.
Natalie moaned and moved closer, rubbing against the warming cushion. When it rumbled against her skin and moved lower, she jolted awake, as if someone had administered an electric shock to her senses.
She wasn't cuddling a warming cushion. Zacar held her in his strong hands. The metal cover over the bed was glowing softly, bathing them in an intimate golden cocoon. Every muscle and tendon in Zacar's smooth coppery body gleamed with sinful beauty. With her nose pressed to his chest, she could smell the scents of spice and male. Her mouth watering, she had the strangest urge to trace the beautiful lines of his chest with her lips, her tongue. Her fingers smoothed over clearly defined muscles that tapered into a flat stomach and narrow hips.
A wandering hand gripped her rear and she gasped.
This isn't a dream.
She jerked her hand away from where it had wandered dangerously south. She frowned. Her hand had traveled almost to the point where the angles of his hips met, without encountering any body hair. Only smooth hot skin.
She could feel a blush creeping across her face and traveling all the way to her toes. She'd seen him naked before she fell asleep but all she remembered was a vague image of him becoming bigger and greener.
His hand lazily caressed her naked skin. "You are well?"
"Y--yes," she said shyly, mortified at how husky her voice sounded. She knew it wasn't just nerves but something else. Something she wasn't ready to acknowledge, even to herself, yet.
She stared, fascinated at the change in his pitch black eyes. At first, she'd thought he had no pupils, because they were so dark they were barely noticeable. But little tendrils of red dripped into the black, and little by little, his gaze changed from eerily dark to that fiery, warm colour.
Any sane woman would have run screaming upon waking up next to a humongous alien, but when he bent his head and rubbed his lips gently over the slope of her breast, all thought fled her mind. He nuzzled there before moving lower and rubbing his nose on the soft underside of her breasts. Everywhere his skin touched her flesh came alive. A thick vein pulsed in his shoulder, fascinating, almost hypnotizing her. Unable to take her eyes off it, she pressed her forefinger to it. The heat of his skin warmed her hand and she loved the way the raised vein pulsed against her finger. She moved, restless and unable to resist the temptation of touching him some more. Her other hand slipped up his chest to trace the lines of thick veins to his other shoulder.
He stiffened and lifted his head. For a long time, they stared at each other. Then he rubbed his thumb over her ribs. She winced, and his touch became impossibly tender. She swore she saw his lips move as his finger touched each of her ribs. Was he counting them?
Reaching outside the metal dome, his hand returned with the tube the doctor had used the night before. He opened it and she gagged. She'd forgotten that awful smell. Squeezing some of the salve from the tube, he carefully rubbed it onto her ribs.
"It smells awful," she complained.
"Is good," he insisted.
While she was still trying to come to terms with the fact she'd slept naked in her bed with an equally nude alien, he continued to rub salve with exquisite care into every inch of her body. With reality quickly intruding, she was no longer mesmerized by those seductive lips that had caressed her breasts. She cringed, in shyness at feeling helplessly exposed, in disgust at being made to smell so horrible and at the way she'd responded so quickly to his caresses.
"I can do that," she pleaded, desperately needing some space between them.
He ignored her, rubbing over her hipbone with slow lazy movements, and she blushed. Did aliens find jutting hipbones unattractive as well? Her ex-fiancé had always insisted that she needed more meat on her bones. Zacar lingered there and she saw him glance at her ribs again. Did he also prefer plump women?
She grabbed one of the bed linens and covered as much of her body as she could. "Please don't--"
"Care for breeder." He moved his head, staring her down the way she imagined he would an enemy. With a firm hand, he pulled the bed linen away, tossing it aside so she couldn't reach for it again.
"A--all right." It would take a braver woman than she was to defy that look.
Never taking his eyes off hers, he continued to rub the salve onto every part of her body.
"Please, it smells awful." Her arms instinctively crossed her chest in an attempt to cover her nakedness.
When he growled low, she dropped her arms to her sides again. Finishing with her ribs, he started at her hairline and gently traced the contours of her face, rubbing salve into her neck and even behind her ears.
"I don't hurt there."
"This help." He paused, as though searching for the right words. "Skin not rot."
Frostbite.
Natalie gagged and quickly held her hands out for him. When he didn't immediately rub salve into them, she looked up, almost certain he was smiling. He held her hand in his and turned it, looking at it from all sides as if he'd never seen a hand before. Was he looking for blackened skin?
Softly, so softly, he tapped the tip of her fingers, watching her reaction intently. After a moment, he grunted then caressed salve onto every inch of her hands.
He massaged the salve over every inch of her. Every movement of his rough fingertips spread delicious tingly warmth over her body.
It was like he was making love to her, his movements slow and sensual. Did aliens even make love like humans did? She knew
he was built like a human man from the peeks she'd been stealing every time he moved to get more salve. Natalie only hoped he didn't realize she was so aroused she could barely sit still. She wanted to rub herself all over him. Wherever he touched, she tingled. She could feel the junction between her legs moisten, readying itself. She wanted to blame the salve for the delicious shivers sizzling all over her body, but knew it was really his fingers that spread this devilish pleasure. As her breath escaped, broken and gasping, she clamped a hand over her mouth to keep from begging him to touch her more, harder, to kiss her. Anything that would break the strange tension within her.
"Turn."
"No, please. I'm sure my back is fine."
It was silly protesting when he'd already seen her naked from the front, but somehow giving him her back felt more personal, made her vulnerable. Her nape tingled at the thought of baring it to those long teeth of his.
"Viglar said all skin."
Her arousal faded as she remembered why he was massaging her in the first place. Frostbite. She swallowed her panic at the thought of her flesh dying and moved to turn over. But her ribs protested.
Sliding his arms under her, he gently settled her on her stomach with effortless strength.
She couldn't stifle a moan of pleasure as he rubbed her sore back muscles. Embarrassed, she buried her face into her pillow. When he reached her buttocks and carefully rubbed salve into the crease between her cheeks, every muscle in her body tightened.
A sigh of relief escaped her when he finally moved on to her thighs, only to stiffen again as his hands massaged the soft skin of her inner thigh, coming dangerously close to her throbbing core.
What if he discovered how wet she was there? Would he know what it meant? She prayed he'd move on down her legs and not notice. When he did just that, she refused to admit her disappointment.
Why did her body seem to develop a will of its own around him?
He moved on to her feet. As he rubbed salve into her ankles, she had to bite her lip to keep from moaning. She never would have thought that ankles could be an erogenous zone. He took her left foot in his large hands and lifted it, exposing her privates for all to see. She blushed and grabbed the patchwork blanket to cover herself.
Intent on her foot, he ignored her movements. She frowned when she felt him tweak each toe and tap the tip as if expecting something to happen.
"Why are you doing that?"
"Claws," he said.
She turned her head to find him studying her toes intently. His large fingers moved her big toe back and forth. What on earth was fascinating him so much? Then she remembered her shock at seeing his claws lengthening.
"Humans don't have claws."
He rubbed the sole of her foot and she nearly came of the bed from the intense pleasure. It tickled, too, and she bit her lip to hold back her giggles. He started at her heel, cupping her foot in his palms and rubbing with his thumbs. Circling over her heel, he worked there for a long time, before moving on to the sensitive area between her heel and toes. Natalie melted into a puddle on her bed.
At last, he finished with her other foot and, putting aside the salve, he settled in next to her.
"Sleep, my breeder."
"Don't call me that," she mumbled.
As relaxed as she was, she knew she wouldn't be able to sleep now. His beautiful body shone like polished copper in the weak light. Braced over her, he presented too big a temptation for her tingling fingers. All those interesting veins and bulges under his smooth skin begged to be touched.
Still feeling too shy and embarrassed, she decided she'd rest for a bit then explore, hoping by then he'd be too asleep to notice.
***
Natalie woke sore and tired, but toasty warm, instantly remembering her aborted escape attempt. With care, she lifted her head and looked at the space next to her. Only the indent in the cushion and dishevelled bedding told of the male presence that had been there.
It hadn't been a dream. Zacar had really brought her back, using his body heat to save her from hypothermia and the foul smelling salve to cure any possible frostbite.
She jerked up her hands, almost crying in relief when she saw her fingers healthy, each one accounted for. Struggling into a sitting position, she counted her toes then touched her nose, cheeks, and ears. Seemed that salve wasn't just smelly after all.
A cold draft moved over her skin, even though she was still under the covers, and her bones ached with remembered cold. She shivered and clung to the blankets.
Maybe I should move to Alaska. It's always sweltering hot there, she thought. And potentially alien free.
She could've died out there. And he'd nearly let her, saying he'd done it to teach her a lesson.
Battling to breathe normally, she jumped out of bed and hastily grabbed the robe lying on the chest at the foot of her bed. Sliding her arms into the sleeves, she stopped with her hands on the sash as the chill of the stone floor seeped into her bare feet.
Where are my boots?
Then she remembered. Zacar cutting her boots off her feet. Zacar tearing her wet clothes from her body.
Her whole body flushed, burning her until she could've melted snow.
Zacar pressing his warm naked body against hers.
She'd slept in bed with Zacar. Naked.
Tingles of pleasure raced over her skin when she thought of the way his fingers had caressed every inch of her body as he rubbed it with the healing salve. Last night, for the first time in her life, she'd felt like the most desired woman on Earth.
Apparently, she'd been on this mountain too long if it took an alien to make her feel like a woman.
Her lungs burned and she took her inhaler out of the chest, along with a fresh set of clothes. She stilled, with the inhaler poised in front of her mouth. Other than needing it during her arduous climb out of the valley the day before, she hadn't needed it much lately. Before she'd met Zacar, she had to use it almost daily, but now she didn't feel a tenth as sick as she used to. If this kept up, perhaps she could make her stash of inhalers last longer. She didn't know what she'd do when she ran out. With the mountain snowed in, she had no way of getting more. She shivered, the image of her mother gasping for breath flashing before her.
Depressing the pump twice, she took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. About to slip the inhaler back into the chest, the hairs on the back of her neck rose and she stilled. Someone was watching her. She turned slowly to find the scarred alien looking straight at her through the sheer plastic door of the tent. Then he glanced pointedly at the inhaler in her hand.
Twice now he'd caught her using her inhaler. Did he somehow know what it was, that she was weak, and despised her for it?
Gathering her robe tighter around herself, she lifted her head, tossing her hair in a defiant gesture, and stuck her hands into her pockets to hide their trembling.
After a moment, he turned and left.
I need to do something about my lack of privacy. Living by herself for so long, the clear plastic door of her tent had never before been an issue.
Eyeing the door warily, she hastily dressed then sat down on her bed, chewing her thumbnail. When half an hour passed, without Zacar storming in to kill her for being weak, she relaxed slightly.
The cave outside the tent had been quiet for some time, and from what she could see through the door, it seemed empty of aliens. Natalie wanted to continue with her preparations for winter but feared a repeat of yesterday. She felt like a child who'd been grounded for misbehaving, but she didn't want to risk leaving the tent and angering Zacar.
Despising her own cowardice, she stood and walked out of the tent, eyeing the growing pile of equipment.
They really are planning to stay here forever, aren't they?
And what had Zacar meant when he called her a breeder?
She shivered, and not entirely from fear. She had a very good idea what he planned to do with her, but surely he didn't expect her to sit around doing nothing while waiting f
or him to come home each day. In the end, she decided to continue with her normal routine as if they'd never invaded her home.
She was preparing more jars for canning in the kitchen area when the aliens trooped in at dusk. Zacar homed in on her immediately. Natalie's whole body tingled, remembering his hands rubbing salve over her naked flesh, and she could feel the burn spreading from the top of her head to her toes. She kept her back to him, hoping he wouldn't notice.
What did he think of her? Was he as drawn to her naked body as she'd been to his? What did Zyrgins find pleasing in a woman?
Standing at the kitchen table, she wrung her hands. Why was she even worrying about it? Why should she care if a stubborn alien found her attractive or not?
Sneaking a quick glance at Zacar, she lowered her head again, her face flaming at the memories of last night.
He walked over to her and lifted her face, crooking a finger under her chin.
Chapter 8
Frozen, Natalie stared up at him, not sure how to react. He bent down and gentle pressed his head against hers, the raised ridge on his forehead pressing into hers. His skin was so warm he almost burned her. His spice and pine scent wafted into her nostrils.
Was she supposed to move her forehead or something? He'd done this before, but after the intimacies they'd shared last night, she was aware of every muscled inch of him standing over her. His red eyes stared so deep he penetrated her innermost soul.
Just as suddenly, he released her, turned, and growled orders at the others. She was vaguely aware that the young one had disappeared. Zacar lifted her face with the heel of his hand and, bending down, rubbed his face over her neck. When he scraped his teeth over the veins he found there, she whimpered. He stepped back before she could do more than gasp in alarm.
Frantically, she searched her brain for something that would distract his teeth from her neck. "I made some stew--if you want to join me." The words sounded as hollow as the cave they stood in, echoing her uncertainty and fear. She ignored the chills breaking out over her whole body.
