Romance: Craved by the Alien Lord: (BBW Scifi Alien Romance) (New Adult Alien Invasion Space Romance)

by Ruby Scott

  Amanda could tell that there was a depression in the middle of the room, a deep dip in the dark gray floor that was covered by a round pane of thick glass about twenty feet in diameter. The room below looked like one of those fancy private steering cabins on a luxury yacht; she could see a plush red chair, a pronged wheel, and a slim black panel of illegible controls, but the rest was angled from view. The door to her right was a brilliant white, she noticed, and on the other side of it was an empty glass cube that filled the rest of the room. On the opposite end of the room stood another cube, filled with a twinkling, mint-green mist that was constantly stretching, swirling and shrinking in the structure as though it were alive. The walls surrounding her were as dark gray as the floor, and they stretched about thirty feet upward before curving into a perfectly transparent ceiling that finally showed her what her gut suspected she would see: the inky blackness of space, uninterrupted for uncomfortably long stretches of time, until a twirling gas giant or rocky planet zipped by in the distance— or briefly loomed in the foreground to eclipse the view.

  “Oh my God,” she whispered. “I’m on a fucking spaceship.”

  A soft whoosh told her the door to her right had just opened, and she stood and turned so quickly that she almost fell on her ass again. Her breathing hitched and quickened as her eyes tried to make sense of what she was seeing: a man, six feet tall at least, with wavy black hair falling to his broad shoulders, sinewy muscles, and a slim waist. He was smiling warmly at her, regarding her in a manner that she could only call friendly. His body, though distractingly beautiful, was human enough, and even the subtle glow of his golden brown skin could be written off as a gift of genetics—but his eyes were far too alien to fool anyone on earth. She was unable to look away from him, and after a moment, she realized she was moving steadily toward him with one hand outstretched. It didn’t mark her as strange, because the pull of his gaze was undeniable, and she felt the need to touch him burning in every cell in her body. This must be what lust should really feel like, she thought, and tried to remember the last time she felt such fervor.

  Amanda loved going to the observatory for the cheerful atmosphere and informational exhibits as much as her sister did, but the main draw was always the incredible planetarium, with its ability to show every star you could imagine in one concentrated stretch of velvety black screen. Earlier that evening on the hill, seeing hundreds of stars twinkle to life above the city had been the closest she’d gotten in her adult life to matching the awe she used to feel while gazing at the projections on the screen; now, mesmerized by the pinpricks of light filling the alien’s eyes, she had the strange thought that if she could gaze into them forever, she could unlock every secret the stars could possibly hold.

  What?

  Amanda was a foot away from him now, and he was staring down at her with mingled confusion and a growing desire; she was trying to count the bright dots in his eyes, but she realized too late that each glowing point of light was rotating slowly in his sockets, so that the two onyx spheres looked like they were constantly crawling with real stars.

  “Are you okay?” the alien asked, and the concern in his voice was palpable. He looked at the hand Amanda was stretching toward him as it hovered next to his cheek. After a moment, he turned and hesitantly pressed his jaw against her palm.

  He was warm, which surprised her; she pressed her thumb into the flesh of his face, and it felt just like human skin. His beautiful eyes were almost completely unreadable now, but the hitch in his breath wasn’t—her touch had startled him. She drew back, surprised at the shame she felt at making him uncomfortable, and even more surprised at the relief she felt when he caught her hand in his and brought it to his lips, kissing the tips of her fingers and gazing back at her with unmistakable heat,

  She shivered violently, then remembered he had asked her a question the moment before. “I’m fine,” she said softly. I’m more than fine, she wanted to say as her eyes briefly traveled down his chiseled torso, but she wasn’t sure if the implication would translate. Did aliens understand suggestive language? This one spoke English, after all, and he was looking at her with more than a little interest, but that didn’t mean he had the full grasp of irony.

  What are you doing? A voice shouted in her head. You’re on an alien ship! Find out what the fuck is going on!

  She shook her head roughly and took a step away from him, pulling her hand back and slipping it into her jacket pocket. Amanda thought she read confusion in the alien’s face, and another pang of regret lanced her heart—to her dismay. This can’t be happening, she thought angrily. He’s using some kind of manipulative love gas or something—maybe I hit my head. Brain damage, that’s it!

  “Do I have brain damage?” she heard herself say aloud. Her voice was softer than she meant it to be, but it still seemed to startle him.

  He was gazing intently at her with his luminous eyes as he spoke. “No,” he said slowly. “You didn’t strike your head—just now, or on the hilltop. You’re not hallucinating, either; you didn’t drink enough.”

  Amanda felt herself nod, but she was too busy studying the fullness of his lips to feel her shock register for more than a second. “How did you know I was drinking?”

  “Your flask,” he answered, and held the item in question out to her with one large hand—pulled from nowhere, as far as Amanda could see. He wore black pants that clung to his muscular thighs, but they didn’t have any pockets or folds. She felt a stir of fear (how did he do that?) but she plucked the flask from his fingers and examined it between her hands.

  “I thought it fell from my pocket.” Her tone reflected the awe she felt; it was perfectly clean, not a scratch or a dent on it. How had he retrieved it from the ground?

  “It did,” the alien said, and he sounded amused. “But it got caught in my ship’s beam. Don’t you know how abductions work?”

  Amanda raised her eyes sharply, ready to throw an attitude back, but the curve of his golden-brown cheeks told her he was joking. “I’m a little rusty on the science,” she said dryly, and the laugh that bubbled from his lips warmed her like a hot drink on a freezing day.

  He gave her a real smile after he stopped laughing. “You’ll have to get up to speed, you know,” he said. “If you’re going to be coming.”

  She felt her head bob again, then she froze. Wait, what?

  But he was already moving away from here, stepping over to the wall on the opposite side of the door. He walked over the glass of the cockpit in his bare feet and tapped a spot on the wall seemingly at random; a second later, a ten-by-ten space blinked and lightened until it resembled a glossy classroom whiteboard.

  “Coming where?” Amanda asked nervously, fingering the flask in her right pocket. It was far from the last question she wanted to ask—who are you? was probably at the top. But right now, moving through space in a huge ship at an unknown speed, a destination seemed like a good thing to have in mind.

  The alien turned his handsome face toward Amanda and frowned, and the constellations in his eyes swirled a little faster. “Oh, I’m sorry,” he said, with more than a little anxiety lacing his tone. “You must think I’m terribly rude. I’m Lee, Amanda; my job is mainly research and protection of human artifacts around this star system and a handful of others, for the moment. I know it’s not as exciting as what my brother does—“

  His words cut off when he realized how confused Amanda was. “She didn’t tell you about me or the Star System League, did she?”

  Amanda shook her head numbly, trying to search the recesses of her mind for any mention of aliens her sister might have made over the past few years. “No, she never mentioned anything about…interplanetary travel.”

  “What?” he exclaimed, and his disbelief was almost comical. “She didn’t prep you for my arrival?”

  “She didn’t prep me for anything,” Amanda said, feeling bewildered. “She didn’t even explicitly tell me to go to that hill. Just…” she struggled to remember her sister’s
words. “…to go looking, but not for something specific. We both love stars, so I guess the hill was sort of inspired by her.”

  Lee tittered and shook his head. “What did she say to you, then? What did she tell you when she directed you to high ground? Just that you’d find a surprise?”

  Something stirred in her mind, and she smiled. “That I’d find the truth,” Amanda said softly. “If I opened myself up to the stars.” She laughed, and Lee didn’t seem to understand why. “You don’t get the X-Files out here?”

  He smiled, and Amanda felt giddy being the cause. “I’m familiar with Scully and Mulder, I’m just annoyed that you haven’t been debriefed. I must seem terribly rude, and I’m afraid I’m going to have to lay a lot of information on you in a short amount of time.” His face knotted together in apprehension, and Amanda felt guilty. Don’t feel guilty, she chided herself. This isn’t your fault.

  “This isn’t your fault,” Lee assured her then, echoing her thoughts when he saw the guilt written in her features. “I’ve met Liz; I’m sure she thought she was sparing you anxiety.”

  “That sounds like her,” Amanda admitted. “You’ve met my sister?”

  “My brother was her partner for two years,” Lee explained, and colorful map of a system of galaxies appeared on the whiteboard behind him. “He catalogued parts of many of the same planets we’ve been assigned.”

  “Liz traveled space too?” Amanda exclaimed. “How is it that she never told me?”

  “She was sworn to secrecy,” Lee said, and something about his tone suggested he didn’t agree with the practice. “She was only to tell you a few months before your orientation, to give you time to think about it and ask questions.” He sighed heavily and tapped the wall again, and a high-backed purple couch descended from the ceiling and landed between them. “Please, sit. We don’t have a lot of time.”

  Amanda felt dread start to gather in a hot ball in her stomach, but she walked over to the couch and sat, gazing uneasily at Lee as he sat down. He pressed his long fingers to his brow and sighed again, seemingly gathering his thoughts before he spoke.

  “A few years ago, your family was chosen to participate in our research, rescue, and renewal program, along with hundreds of others in each country around the world. Our job is to partner with humans and other species to catalogue as much data as we can while also preserving natural wonders, repairing ecosystems, and cleaning and rehabilitating habitats and wildlife.”

  “So you’re like an eco-ranger?” Amanda asked.

  Lee laughed. “You could put it that way. Anyway, two years is the general length of service. It can be dangerous, and it can be difficult, but it’s a one in a lifetime opportunity. You’ll be reimbursed a lot of cash, also.”

  “But I’d be leaving Earth?”

  “For months at a time,” Lee confirmed soberly. “You might be home for up to a month at a time, but you’ll never be gone less than two weeks. This is a full-time job, but it very well may be the most important one you ever have.”

  Amanda laughed at the grim statement. “What, are we going to save the universe from the brink of implosion?”

  Lee blinked slowly. “Liz and Keith once saved an entire planet from being destroyed by its own radiation. They’ve rescued a few cornerstone species on a few different planet. If Liz hadn’t walked away at the end of her term, she could have been the head of her own Special Force team.”

  Amanda’s mouth fell open. “My sister?” Then something Lee said clicked. “Wait, end of her term? You can serve more than two years?”

  Lee looked surprised. “Oh, yes; I’ve known several humans who never returned to Earth for various reasons. Some settled on other planets. I can sympathize. In any case, you can renew your term at any time if you feel it’s a good fit.”

  Amanda’s mind was racing with the possibilities. Unless she was really hallucinating, what Lee was saying was true: she was being given an opportunity to explore the galaxy, and even get paid for it. She could travel and find herself in a way that almost no other human would get to do in her age; who knew what sort of place she might find out she belonged?

  “So we’re eco-explorers,” Amanda said. “And I get paid for this? Where do I stay?”

  “We have bases around the universe,” Lee explained, and he gestured toward the part of the wall that was still a glossy whiteboard. The stars in his eyes stilled, and the board zoomed in on a grid and enhanced itself, showing a large green dome a chocolate-brown planet that appeared to be called Arzemiya. “This one has twenty luxury cabins on each of its six levels.” The picture on the whiteboard changed to show what looked suspiciously like an expensive hotel room on earth: low, flat beds in muted greens and blues with a spacious bathroom sporting a sunken tub and some sort of television screen in front of a very round toilet.

  “All of our accommodations will be generally familiar to you,” Lee explained as Amanda watched the screen cycle through photos of the inside of the dome. “They resemble what are normally called resorts on Earth. Comfortable rooms, entertainment sectors, lounges, meals en suite, if you prefer. But you’ll see other humans, as well as species from other planets, like mine.”

  Amanda tore her eyes away from the screen and was startled to find that lee was already looking at her expectantly. “What planet are you from?”

  “Arzemiya,” Lee said. “But I’ve lived off-world most of my life. I’ll be introducing you to my council there. Please understand,” he begged when he saw the panicked look on her face, “your family was chosen fifty years ago, when this program was begun; your name has been on a list since birth. You were meant to have much more time to process this, and I’m very sorry you don’t have it. I’ve been studying human culture my whole life, so even though my species might find some of your tendencies to form attachments odd or worth dismissing, I don’t. I understand. Please believe that.” His exasperated tone of voice pierced Amanda’s heart, and she found his concern endearing and heartbreaking at the same time. She decided several things at once, and the anxiety in her stomach lightened.

  “It’s okay, Lee,” she said calmly. “I’m still going to do it.”

  His mouth dropped open, but Lee recovered himself quickly. “You are? I mean, that’s excellent! Thank you!” His relief was painfully apparent, and Amanda wanted to laugh. “Thank you so much. Liz said you’d be excited, and that you’d always been adaptable.”

  “I have,” she admitted. “I was always the one to roll with the punches when we changed schools. I don’t know if you’re aware, but I’m pretty used to moving around every few years.”

  Lee dipped his head bashfully. “I know a lot about you, Amanda. Your sister should have been the one to tell you this, but I know…quite a bit about you. I was given a huge dossier on your life, and…” he cleared his throat, and the embarrassment on his features was as clear as day. The stars in his incredible eyes were zooming around the blackness of his sockets, and Amanda thought they must respond to his heart rate. He took a deep breath and started to speak again.

  “Like I said, I’ve lived off-world most of my life, but I still know my home planet. I go back every few years, I’ve taken years worth of video tours, read all the texts available, taken courses…what I mean to say is, I know very few other things as well as I know Arzemiya…but you’re definitely one of them.” He raised his head and met her gaze, and current of lust flooded her body so quickly that a soft gasp was torn from her lips.

  That’s why he’s so comfortable with me, she realized. He knows me already. He’s been following along.

  “I’m sorry if that makes you uncomfortable,” Lee said nervously. “But it’s true. My people don’t really respect privacy as such, and they handed it to me without thinking. I admit that even after I found out about the concept of journals and diaries and spying on Earth, I still read it. I’m ashamed, but I wanted to know everything about you that I could, because I believed it would help foster a bond with you, and I could find the same happiness Kei
th found with Liz, but avoid his mistakes.”

  “Mistakes?” Amanda asked, wrinkling her brow.

  Lee looked startled, then nodded his head. “Right, you don’t know the truth about Keith. His mistake was trying to rush her into permanently staying off world. He said later he should have known about her fear of commitment. But it wasn’t until much later that I realized how much more you value your privacy over any bond I might try to make.”

  Amanda stared at him, trying to formulate a response from the whirlwind of emotion in her head. “I…I’m not mad,” she said finally. “Really,” she added to the look of surprise on his handsome face. “I understand we have cultural differences. And my sister is right, I take things in stride better than most people I know. So I’m not mad. I just need to…take my mind off this right now. Maybe think about something else for a while.” She dropped her eyes after Lee nodded sympathetically.

  A few moments later, she looked up to see that Lee was still meeting her gaze, and she didn’t know how, but she felt like this was the time to make clear her other decision. If he knew all about her, then he must already know what she was going to bring up.

  “Lee,” she said cautiously. “Would you do me a favor?” She unzipped her hoodie, and noted with satisfaction that his eyes flickered down to the cleavage pressing against her royal blue tank top.

  Lee smiled hesitantly as he watched her stand and pull the edges of her shirt up and over her head. “What’s…what can I do for you, Amanda?” He was trying and failing to keep his gaze level with hers as she unhooked her bra and let her enormous breasts spill free from her red bra.