I waited for her to situate her things, exit the bedroom, and close the door behind her. Then, we walked side-by-side to the dining hall, saying nothing but comfortable in each other’s presence. When we reached the open double doors and the smell of food permeated the air around us, I gestured for her to enter first. She smiled appreciatively at me again and took the lead, and I couldn’t stop myself from admiring the way her supple rear swayed in her smoke-gray jumpsuit.
While the humans’ craft was, overall, a nice vessel, I hadn’t been able to adapt to the food. Earth cuisine was not to my liking, nor to the liking of my A’li-uud cohorts. It tasted chemical and manufactured, either too bold in flavor or too bland. I would have ordered some of my own men to take over control of the kitchens, but there was no Albaterran food onboard, so we were stuck with what we had. Nevertheless, knowing I was about to partake in a meal with Roxanne, I found myself actually looking forward to it.
We collected our trays piled with strange lumps the humans called mashed potatoes and a thick slab of something known as mutton before making our way to an empty table. Most of the crew was in the hall, but there were significantly more tables than necessary as the ship was built for a crew much larger than the one we had, so Roxanne and I had a measure of privacy thanks to the empty seats all around us. As we sat and began dining, I watched her.
She chewed gently and rhythmically, and she dabbed her mouth often with a napkin. Her elbows never rested on the table but instead remained tucked closely to her sides, and her forearms pressed into the table’s edge. The fork was held in her right hand between her thumb and her index finger while her middle propped against the utensil’s curvature, and she took smooth strokes through the clump of potatoes. Even the way she stabbed the meat was graceful, gliding the tines into the grain and tugging gently to separate one piece from the rest. Watching her eat was like watching a performance, and I was enthralled.
“Stop it,” she said finally. I wrenched my eyes from her hands and her mouth to look at her.
“Stop what?” I asked, confused.
“You’re staring,” she said. She flicked her fork toward my tray. “And you haven’t touched your food.”
I sniffed, glancing down at the mess in front of me. “This is not food,” I told her with a scoff. “When we get to Albaterra, I will make you a meal fit for a queen.”
Her movements slowed, and she looked back at me with muted delight on her lovely face. “You’re going to cook for me?” she asked softly.
“Yes, and you will never want to eat this food again.”
I had intended for the exchange to be light-hearted and witty, but her features were serious. It was not an unpleasant expression, yet it was certainly not the cheerful one I’d anticipated. I studied her, trying to figure out what she was thinking without asking.
“You’re doing it again,” she murmured. She wasn’t eating at all now, and her fork rested untouched on her tray. “Staring.”
“My apologies,” I murmured back. Despite my words, I didn’t look away, and she didn’t ask me to.
Without warning, the table jerked so violently it sent my tray skittering toward the edge, almost toppling it onto the ground. I whipped my head around and saw General Morgan perched heavily across from us. I’d been so wrapped up in Roxanne that I hadn’t even seen him approaching, and it was certainly not a welcome interruption.
“Don’t you two look cozy!” he crooned, a strained grin on his weather-worn face.
Roxanne was glaring daggers at him. Her fingers had curled around the fork again, and they were clutching so hard her fingertips were purple, and her knuckles were nearly the same color as my skin. I was sure she would have jammed that fork into his eyeball if she could have gotten away with it. Somehow, to see her so upset with Morgan brought a wave of tingling satisfaction crashing over me.
“Perhaps another time,” I told him. He slowly turned his head, pulling his stare away from Roxanne and fixating it on me. I offered him an expression of the same smug arrogance he’d given me when we’d first met. His grin melted away into a glower.
“I just wanted to make sure everything’s okay,” he said with sugary coarseness. “Roxanne said she wanted to be alone earlier, and she might not have wanted to hurt your feelings by telling you that.”
“I always prefer good company to solitude,” Roxanne shot icily. “Please leave.”
Morgan darkened, and he turned his scowl to her again. “We have something to discuss,” he hissed. He’d dropped all pretense of neighborly concern. “Human things.”
“I’m not discussing anything until I’m finished eating,” she said angrily.
“I think you need to remember I’m your boss, Ms. Rigby,” Morgan retorted in a silken tone.
Roxanne sneered. “You’re not my boss. I answer only to the Board.”
“And, as the only member of the Board on this ship, I represent the Board in its entirety.” He snapped his fingers and pointed to the double doors. “In the hall. Now.”
I was on my feet before I knew what I was doing. My tray, which had already been teetering on the table’s edge, crashed to the floor and sent bits of mush spattering over my boots. There was a thick rushing and an intense pounding in my ears as my heart raced with adrenaline, and my fingers curled into fists. Before I could say or do anything, though, something streaked past me.
Roxanne flew at Morgan, her hand plunging through the air. In slow motion, I watched her knuckles smash into his nose. It bent further and further to the side until a sickening crack marked a break, and Roxanne’s fist retreated. Morgan’s head fell forward as first a single droplet, and then an entire stream of blood blossomed from his nostrils, and he reached up to cup his injury with a roar of surprise and pain.
“Fucking bitch,” he cursed, glaring at her through streaming eyes. He twisted around and stormed from the hall, leaving a thin trail of blood behind him.
I turned to look at Roxanne. She was still beside me, on her feet and breathing heavily. Her fist was cradled in her other hand and pressed against her chest, and a light sheen of perspiration was beginning to bead along her hairline.
“I’m probably going to jail for that,” she panted.
14
Roxanne
There was no finishing dinner after the hullabaloo. Dane volunteered to take my tray, along with what he could salvage of his, back up to the dish area while I waited at the table for him to return. Everyone nearby was watching me out of the corners of their eyes, but nobody approached. I was grateful for that.
When Dane made his way back, he didn’t sit. “Perhaps you should visit the infirmary,” he suggested, looking at my fist. I was holding it against me because it ached and stung every time I moved it. “You seem to be in pain.”
“I don’t want to,” I told him with a shake of my head.
He gave me a stern look, and I could tell he was wrestling with himself on whether to argue with me or not. Finally, he asked, “Would you like to go back to your room?”
I nodded, pleased that he didn’t press me on the matter of the infirmary. He held out a hand to me, which I took with my uninjured one, and helped me up. As we left the hall, I could feel the gazes of every crewmember in there on me. Almost like a shield, Dane pressed his palm into the small of my back to guide me forward. I felt a shiver creep up my spine to the nape of my neck as I realized it was the second physical contact we’d ever had.
He kept his hand on me the entire way to my room, but, when we reached my door, he removed it. “I suppose you would like to relax after such an event,” he said. His words sounded even choppier than usual, and there was a strange look in his eye. “I will leave you to rest. Thank you for dining with me.”
With one last glance at my fist, he turned to leave. Panic suddenly burst through me like a torpedo, and I grasped at the only thing that popped into my head.
“Why have you been ignoring me?” I blurted out.
Dane stopped in his tracks immediately
and spun around so quickly that he was a mere blur. “You believe I have been ignoring you?” he asked.
I snorted with derision. “I don’t believe it. It’s not like it’s a perspective, Dane; it’s a fact. You’ve been ignoring me. Why?”
His mouth opened, his chiseled jaw dropping an inch or so, and then closed again. His milky eyes flicked between mine as though he was searching me for the right answer. I refused to give him any indication of what I wanted to hear and remained steadfastly silent, staring unblinkingly back at him.
“I do not like to be near you,” he finally admitted rigidly.
I gaped at him, hurt and stunned by his answer. “You—what?” It was impossible for me to process what he’d said, and the hurt gave way to defensive rage. My uninjured hand jerked out in front of me in a furious gesture, and I demanded, “If you don’t like to be near me, why would you offer me to join you for dinner?”
He just stared at me. His mouth didn’t even open and close this time. He just stared. Embarrassed and angry, I shook my head violently and reached for the button that would open my door.
“Forget it,” I snapped bitterly, jabbing my finger onto the button. The door started to slide open, revealing the small, unlit bedroom within. “Thanks for the lovely evening.”
I had taken one step over the threshold when fingers closed around my upper arms and spun me around. Dane’s face was only a breath from mine, his scent filling my nostrils until the only thing I could smell was him. His hands gripped my arms so firmly I had no chance of pulling back, and his eyes plunged so far into mine that it was like he filled me.
“I do not like to be near you,” he repeated, his voice hard and fierce, “because it makes me want to do this.”
And then his mouth was on mine.
Everything inside me erupted, bursting like pomegranate seeds and filling me with euphoric nectar. I tasted him as viscerally as I tasted a potent wine, an intoxicating blend of an alien palate I could only equate to menthol and cedar. His tongue slipped between my lips, pushing through my teeth, seeking my tongue. I accepted him willingly. Every one of my senses was overwhelmed with him, and, as he suckled on my lower lip, I moaned.
In an instant, my feet left the ground. I felt his hands slide underneath my thighs and hoist me into the air, wrapping my legs around his waist. My fist was no longer throbbing in the wake of the endorphins coursing through me, and I threw both arms around his neck to cling to him. He gripped me tightly, releasing one of his hands just long enough to whip it backward and slam it into the button that slid the bedroom door closed behind us. Then, without bothering to turn on the lights, he cradled me again and moved forward as his tongue swirled around mine.
The ship’s gravity seemed to falter for a second before I realized I was actually falling backward onto the cot. I landed gently with my legs still twisted around Dane’s muscular form, and he landed with a soft thump over me. Our mouths had separated for the briefest of moments before we rejoined them, desperate to continue devouring one another. Every inch of my body was singing simply from kissing him. I felt pleasure, need, passion, and fear racing through my veins with each passing breath, and it was the most divine sensation I’d ever experienced. My heart pumped wildly with both the thrill of the moment and the fruition of the emotional havoc I’d been feeling.
He straightened up suddenly, his pale eyes bearing down on me through the darkness, and I froze. “I’m sorry,” I whispered. “Did I do something wrong?”
A low, vibrating growl rose from his throat, and a zing of arousal shot from my ears to my loins. In a flash, he swept his hand down the length of my torso. Cool air licked my unexpectedly bare skin, and I realized he’d unzipped my jumpsuit and freed my breasts from the fabric. Instantly, my nipples hardened from the sudden temperature change and the electricity of his gaze on me, and his eyes became hooded like he was hunting and had spotted his prey.
“You are exquisite,” he said. Somehow, it sounded less like a compliment and more like a threat, and I was immediately so turned on that I burned.
“Dane,” I mewed desperately, squirming beneath him and trying to beg him for the attention I craved.
I didn’t have to ask, and he didn’t hesitate. His head dropped low, and his mouth sought my nipple. I felt his lips rolling the thin-skinned point between his teeth, and I groaned as my hips bucked upward. All of the feelings I’d been harboring for him over the past month completely exploded outside the boundaries of schoolgirl crush and, if the ripples of pleasure scrolling over every single nerve I possessed were any indication, rocketed right into full-blown infatuated dedication. As his tongue flitted around my areola and skimmed over the hardened tip, and I was unable to do anything but moan and claw at his back with mounting need, I realized this alien was more dangerous to me than anything else I’d ever encountered. Not because he could take my life—though he could—but because he could take my will.
One of Dane’s hands snaked between his body and mine, wriggling through the unzipped opening of my jumpsuit and worming downward. My breath hitched in my throat as his fingers found my sweet little button of sensitivity and curled around my sex. He heard the gasp, and I could feel him grinning against my breast. His teeth nibbled my nipple playfully for just a moment while his hand rested over my folds, and then he switched to the other nipple. This one, having gone unstimulated thus far, was extraordinarily sensitive and ready for play, and I was wrenched upward in an arc by the powerful spark that shot through my body the moment his lips suckled around it.
As soon as my spine curved, pressing my breasts upward and exposing my nipple even more to his titillating teeth, his hand started working. The pad of his thumb sought my bead and began painting light swirls over its surface while his forefinger slipped inside me. Instead of the gentle but helpless moans I’d been eliciting so far, a deep, pulsating moan sprouted from my belly and burst out of my throat like a monster from within. My voice filled the room from wall to wall, and I had no means of controlling it.
Dane released my nipple and skimmed his face upward until his mouth found mine, and he kissed me so passionately it sent me into a light-headed whirlwind to rival the climax I was rapidly approaching. Our tongues intertwined, his fingers kept moving, and I was about to explode into a million pieces. I closed my eyes and felt the waves of pleasure cresting. He stroked my clit over and over relentlessly, determined to send me spiraling into euphoric oblivion.
“You are mine, little vixen,” he growled.
I opened my eyes again and looked at him through slits, desperate to see the danger and dominance on his face. As I did, however, something else caught my attention. My gaze slid over his shoulder. I saw a pair of white eyes that weren’t Dane’s staring at me.
It was Lokos!
15
Dane
I hadn’t known he was in Roxanne’s bedroom until she’d screamed. When I whipped around, he glued his eyes to mine in a show of respect for her vulnerable state.
“You are needed in the command center, Fierce One,” he said in A’li-uud.
“Thank you,” I’d replied at once, trying to hurry the conversation. “I will be there shortly.”
After he’d left, Roxanne was still breathing heavily and looking up at me through hooded eyes. “You have to take care of something, don’t you?” she asked.
“Yes,” I told her ruefully. Then, with a glint in my eye and a grin on my lips, I’d added, “However, do not think the interruption is the end of our tryst. I am nowhere near done with you yet, little vixen.”
Now, still aroused and with my mind lingering on Roxanne, I tried to concentrate. Lokos looked at me rather sheepishly, an expression I had never seen on his stern face before and thoroughly enjoyed.
I walked into the command center with Roxanne’s sweet scent still lingering in my nose and the image of her beautiful body fresh in my mind. It took me a minute to realize all eyes had turned to me and, when I did, I straightened up and crossed the room to Loko
s. He was standing at the navigation panel with a mask of slight embarrassment.
“What can I do to assist?” I asked him in A’li-uud.
He opened his mouth to reply, but, before he could, General Morgan piped up.
“You’re supposed to be the one captaining this thing,” he snapped. He was holding a pack of ice and pressing it to his face. I could see a dark red stain on the heel of his hand, and I felt a surge of satisfaction. “They’re telling me we’re almost there.”
“Actually, we are ready to bring the ship in,” Lokos corrected him scornfully. The disdain on his face was evident by the curl of his lip and lift of his nostrils. He glanced at me, then, and added in A’li-uud, “I need to know where you intend to land, and orders must be sent out to the rest of the fleet.”
“Speak English!” Morgan barked, sounding nasal thanks to the pressure of the ice on his nose.
I rounded on the General. My disgust for him had been established from the first time we’d met, but now I was also filled with rage for the way he’d treated Roxanne and sexual frustration for the interruption to my moment of intimacy, and it boiled over into a storm of harsh tongue-lashing.
“If you speak out of turn again, I will have you thrown in a cell, and you will remain there until you are nothing more than a pile of bones. You are in my galaxy now,” I hissed.
“I don’t take orders from aliens,” he threw back.
“No, you are a member of the Board, as you kindly reminded us in the dining hall just a short while ago,” I said coldly, inclining my head toward his nose. He shifted the ice and glared at me. “Let me reiterate that conversation, but with my own little twist. I am an Elder, one of eleven who make up the Council of Elders, and, as the only member of the Council on this ship, I represent the Council in its entirety. Do I make myself clear?”
Dane: A Scifi Alien Romance: Albaterra Mates Book 3 Page 7
