Runner's Moon: Jebaral

by Linda Mooney

Warm. Soft. The skull beneath was firm. Pulling him toward her, she kissed it. And kissed it again. Oh, God, she could kiss every inch of him.

  “If we’re not meant to be? How will you know?” Damn, but her voice wouldn’t stop wavering. Neither would the tears stop stinging her nose.

  Beneath her hands, he shook his head. “It won’t matter, Hannah. I’m not leaving you.” He raised his face to look at her. In the soft lamplight, she could see tears running down his cheek. “Maybe it’ll be different because you’re human. But believe me when I tell you, I’ll never leave you, Hannah. I won’t…” His voice cracked, forcing him to swallow before he could continue. “I can’t leave you. You’ve taken too much of my inner self.”

  “Your heart?”

  “Yes. My heart.”

  Reaching up, she brushed away the wetness on those dark green cheeks. “I have never been this happy in my life. I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t afraid of being hit. Pain and hurt have been a part of my life for so long, I never dared to dream of loving a man who didn’t hit me.”

  “Even if you are not meant to be my life partner, I could never hit you,” Jeb promised.

  Hannah smiled at him. “I know that. I guess that’s why seeing the real you doesn’t upset me.” Her fingers continued to roam over his head. His small ears were fanlike. At her touch, they spread outward like a flower blossoming in sunlight. “What was her name?”

  “Who?”

  “The woman you joined with ten years ago.”

  “Tiron. The Arra tried to force joinings upon us, hoping to increase the population.”

  His eyes drifted to a spot over her shoulder. Even for a Ruinos, she recognized what he was doing. “Did you care for her?”

  “I did. I still do. She was an innocent like me, but I never loved her to the depth I feel for you.” His soft brown eyes came back to her. “That doesn’t bother you?”

  “No,” Hannah admitted, surprising herself with the truth. “And do you understand why?”

  “Please tell me.”

  Shifting her body, she reached under her arms and grabbed her nightgown, lifting it over her head. Jeb took it from her hands and flung it over the side of the bed. “There has to be a reason why you’re on my world,” she said, taking his face between her hands. “There has to be some cosmic reason why you found me in Laughlin. Why we were drawn to each other. I believe it’s because we were meant to be together. I believe it’s because God chose us to save each other. You saved me from a life of misery, just like I’m saving you from a life of loneliness.”

  She pulled his face down to kiss him. Jeb ran his hands behind her shoulders and drew her up against him. His mouth was sinfully addictive. His taste alone could keep her permanently glued to his exotic difference. Even now his tongue was building the embers between her legs into a roaring bonfire.

  He began to pull away; she reluctantly allowed him to withdraw from their deepening kiss. “Tell me what pleasures you,” he breathed, his voice guttural and so damn sexy. “Tell me where to touch you. How to touch you. Don’t hold anything back.”

  “I will if you’ll do the same for me.”

  She opened her eyes to see the glittering gold flecks literally dancing in his eyes. Oh, he had the most magical, mesmerizing eyes.

  “Kiss me all over. Lick me. That’ll get us started.” She needed to feel his mouth on her, and it was the only thing she could think of. Instinctively she cupped her breasts, lifting the hard, eager tips toward him.

  He saw her movement and bent over them. She watched as his lipless mouth closed over the closest pink button. She felt his tongue like spiky velvet flick over it. A rope of pure lust jerked tightly, knotted, and she nearly climaxed when his hands closed over the full globes and squeezed.

  When he bent over to take the other nipple in his mouth, she could feel her thighs sliding together as her juices flowed into overdrive. Arching her back she could sense his heat just beyond her reach. The tantalizing feel of his heavy weight was making her crazy.

  “Can you lie on top of me?”

  She heard him shifting, kneeling above her. The single sheet remained between them as he lowered his body against hers. The thickness rising from his groin nearly speared her.

  Hannah recalled the sight of his manhood when he had taken off his pants and changed into his Ruinos form. Slack, it was still larger than Carl had been fully erect. No telling how much bigger it could get, and she let her imagination run wild with visions of becoming impaled on the steel-hard staff.

  As she had asked, Jeb had begun licking her, alternating between his tongue and his mouth. Every now and then he would drop a kiss to her skin, then sniff. He was working his way up to her throat after totally demolishing her sanity with his complete domination of her breasts. Still pulsing in his grasp, they felt plumped and lovingly bruised.

  A low moan was wrenched out of her when he lightly nipped the underside of her jaw. Another delicate sniff followed. “Are you smelling me?” she tried to ask. It was difficult to tell if she was able to speak at all. There should be a law against what she was feeling. There was no way on earth to describe the fiery cinders inside her making her writhe under him.

  “I’m drowning in the scent of your lust,” he growled in her ear. “You smell delicious, all wet and burning. I could dine on you all night.”

  “Don’t let me stop you.”

  She felt him release her breasts, only to grab her hips. Or so she thought. The sheet was literally ripped away from her trembling body and a second later Jeb had grabbed her thighs and lowered himself back down upon her. Time dropped dead in its tracks when he started from her upper abdomen and worked his way down. As he savored her skin, her smell, and the salty moisture beading on her flesh, those huge hands dragged the tips of their claws over her body. Hannah cried out from the feelings the act ignited in her. Gentle yet demanding. Dangerous but loving. A tear slipped down the side of her face.

  She continued to touch his face and head. Her fingers followed the undulating motions as he fed on her. She tried to watch him as he feasted, but too many times the sharp, piercing pleasure washing over her nerve endings was too much to withstand. Her body jerked from the sensations, and she could feel his manhood press harder against her legs. If she didn’t know any better, it seemed to get larger, thicker, and longer with every passing minute.

  Jeb moved his hands downward. Hannah gasped as his thumbs reached between the juncture of her thighs and separated them. Wide. Wider. Automatically she raised her knees.

  “You’re making my mouth water,” a voice hovered over her.

  “Can you lick me there?” she pleaded softly, her eyes tightly shut as her whole body quivered in anticipation. Carl never put his mouth there, only his fingers.

  The world exploded when Jeb dove into her innermost core. Hannah tried to scream, but a hand covered her mouth a split-second before her orgasm erupted. He continued to suck and lick and nibble as wave after wave of pleasure rolled and washed over her like a surging tide. Her swollen nub tingled as the shockwaves continued. It wasn’t until after the crests had peaked and were gently coming to a lull that he raised his face from between her legs. Hannah opened her eyes to see him staring deep into her eyes. His mouth and cheeks were shiny with her juices, and he was breathing heavily. Just below his chin she could see down the length of his body where his manhood raised—aimed, primed and ready.

  “That was your first,” Jeb stated flatly. The gold flecks in his eyes glittered like a thousand stars.

  “My … fir—”

  She got no further. Suddenly he was over her. His hands no longer held her thighs. Instead they were flat against the mattress on either side of her head.

  “I cannot hold back any longer, Hannah. Forgive me,” he begged, and a pole of pure satin and steel pierced her.

  She cried out, lost in his invasion when his length continued to enter her. At some point she felt him stop and withdraw slightly before plunging back into her again.
Her arms found his neck and locked themselves there. Everywhere his piney, sun-baked scent permeated the room. It was in the sheets, in the mattress … in her skin. Inside her nose. It was in the walls of her lungs, and in the cells of her blood.

  She called out to him, but she had no idea what. There was no sense of time or place as his body played havoc with hers, pistoning in and out with increasing speed. She could hear nothing but his heavy breathing and the wet, sucking sounds made by their flesh. There were tears on her face; some of them were hers.

  He adjusted himself over her, then reached down with one hand to where their bodies fused. Hannah heard him gasp as a harder orgasm ripped through her and her muscles grabbed him like a vise. This time she had no chance to scream. Perfection so intense ballooned hard and taut, then exploded. Jeb choked on her name as his body went rigid, then shuddered as he emptied himself into her tight channel, buried all the way inside her. His heat was almost enough to singe her skin. Yet, miraculously, he managed not to crush her with his weight.

  Sanity and stability gradually made their way back to the present at their own pace. The waves retreated but never completely left. Not while his erection remained thrust to the hilt within her. Somehow she managed to turn her head to kiss his sweaty cheek.

  Sweat. The man could sweat like a human. Hannah smiled wearily. It was a nice anomaly to know.

  He was also panting. His face was buried in the pillow under her head. The fragile butterfly wing of an ear was close to her lips. “I love you,” she managed to whisper into it.

  If he replied, she never heard him. She was already deep inside her dreams.

  Chapter 14

  Discovery

  It was the soft stroking of her pubic hair that awakened her. Hannah blinked drowsily against the buttery glow of light in the cabin. She was lying on her side, facing him. He had his head propped on one hand. It was his other hand currently making little twirling motions over her womanhood, tugging gently on the satiny curls. But it was enough to get her attention. She flashed him a weary smile.

  “Naughty boy.”

  “You fell asleep.”

  “You tired me out.” Her statement was immediately followed by a yawn.

  “After only two climaxes?” he teased.

  Her eyes flew open. “Oh, geesh! That’s right!”

  Laughing softly, Jeb reached around her waist and scooted her closer to him. His manhood obediently nestled between her legs. “You never let me finish exploring you. Find out what turns you on, what feels good.”

  “And I didn’t get to reciprocate,” she admitted.

  It felt odd, lying naked against a hulking, green-skinned but intoxicating alien—a very intimidating and turned-on alien—discussing sex. No, not sex. Love. Love the way it was meant to be between two people. Physical love that paralleled and reinforced the emotional love.

  It felt odd, but it didn’t stop her from reaching down between them to grasp the thick, ridged pole that brought her so much pleasure.

  “Roll over on your back,” she ordered. He obeyed without hesitation.

  Now she could look at all of him without embarrassment. She could study him. Examine him. Fondle him.

  The fondling part was what she really looked forward to.

  The first time she had looked at him, right after he had changed, she had given him a cursory once-over. Her emotions had been in turmoil as she fought her fear. The fear was long gone now. Their feelings for each other were real and forever. And right now she could delight in learning every detail about this man to her heart’s content.

  She started at the top with his face and head. Jeb watched her in silence, but with a little smile turning up the corners of his unique mouth. She saw the amusement in his expression and smiled back. “What?”

  “Nothing.”

  And then it hit her. “You did the same thing to me, didn’t you?” she demanded with mock irritation.

  “You were asleep. I wasn’t a bit sleepy. What else was there to do?”

  No wonder she woke up on her side, when the last thing she remembered was being flat on her back with him on top and inside her.

  “See anything you liked?” she questioned, unable to hide her grin.

  “Maybe.”

  “Bastard.”

  The remark made him laugh out loud, but he didn’t move. Instead he seemed to enjoy her examination.

  Her palm skimmed his wide chest. He wasn’t a solid green as she’d first thought, but several hues. Mottled, like someone had painstakingly daubed him with camouflage. “You feel like silk. How does a man who’s built like you are with all these muscles come off feeling this wonderful?”

  “Mmm, genetics?”

  “Damn. You don’t have nipples?”

  “No, but you do. Nice ones, too.”

  “Yeah, but they’re an erogenous area for me.” Hannah glanced up into his eyes. “Are there any areas on your body that I can play with that’ll turn you on?”

  “Trust me, Hannah. When it comes to turning me on, my whole body is one big erogenous area for you to manipulate.”

  Continuing down his stomach, she noticed various little scars and marks she hadn’t seen before. It pained her to see such evidence of what he had endured. And she realized for the first time that they both had been victims of others’ cruelty. Whereas her wounds would heal, and the resulting scars hidden inside, Jeb’s body would forever bear the testimony of his past life.

  A huge clawed hand came down gently over hers where it rested on his belly. “What’s the matter?”

  “How long were you a prisoner on that spaceship before you escaped?”

  He paused in answering. She didn’t press. If he could show patience when questioning her, so could she.

  “Oh, look! You have a belly button!” She tossed him a wicked grin, then dipped her head toward his abdomen. It was sinful to press her tongue into that puckered groove, but she was dying to know if had the same sexual cord tied between it and his erection as a human male did.

  His hand touched her face and tugged slightly. “Careful.”

  It did! Great! She made a mental note.

  Now came the interesting part. His male member wasn’t flaccid, but neither was it at full alert. Still, its size started her heart pounding. Sliding her fingers around its heavily-veined girth, she heard him gasp at her touch at the same time his whole body tensed.

  Damn. Her fingers could barely go all the way around it. Looking back up at him, she could see the flecks of gold already shimmering in his eyes. He was growing warmer, and she wasn’t surprised when his member swelled in her grasp.

  “I didn’t know aliens circumcised their young like humans do.”

  “What do you mean?” Jeb questioned. The brows over his eyes lowered at his confusion—noticeable in spite of not having any body or facial hair.

  She gave his staff a gentle squeeze. “You weren’t circumcised?”

  “I am the way I’ve always been from the day I was born. I have not been altered or changed in any way.”

  “Except for the scarring,” she added gently.

  He nodded to answer her. “Ready for me to turn over?”

  “Not yet. I’m not through checking out what I’ve won.”

  Jeb chuckled. “What you’ve won?”

  “Oh, yeah. You’re my prize. Didn’t I tell you? And you’re a doozy. A lifetime of unlimited orgasms, and don’t you forget it.”

  The resulting heat in his eyes brought a fine blush to her own cheeks, and Hannah dropped her gaze as his thick rod jerked in her palms.

  She started to lay it back down when her eyes suddenly flew open. The blush went from pink to scarlet as she dropped him. “Oh, geez…” Hastily she looked at him, then back down. Jeb’s soft chuckle reached her ears.

  “Yeah. I know,” he said. “Imagine my surprise when I had to shapeshift that part of my anatomy.”

  “You have, uhh … you have three, uhh…”

  “Testicles. Balls.”

/>   “Why?”

  “Why?” he repeated. “I guess for the same reason I have no hair, no nipples, no anus—”

  “You don’t have an anus?” Hannah took a moment to absorb this new detail. “Then how do you—”

  Jeb sat up, propping himself with his arms behind him. The lamplight caused his deep green skin to glisten. “Different but alike, Hannah. Just remember that. We share a multitude of commonalities. And sometimes our differences are so slight, they don’t matter.”

  She nodded, going back to her investigation. His legs were long and muscular, just like his arms. Some more of that natural body armor padded his outer thighs and the backs of his calves. His feet looked human except for the shorter, blunter claws on the tips of his four toes.

  “The nails on our feet are more for getting better traction in the dirt. But we’ll use them in battle if we’re forced to,” he explained.

  “What did your people do on your homeworld?” She glanced up from his feet. “What was the name of your planet?”

  “Barandat Vor. We were an agricultural people. We grew plants. Cultivated vast, enormous woodlands.” He raised a hand. “We used our hands to plow the hard ground. We grew strong under the light of our blue sun.” Jeb stared at her. “We were a proud people. Generous. Loving. Family-oriented.”

  “Like farmers on Earth,” Hannah sighed. “That’s why you enjoy hard work, isn’t it?”

  He nodded. “My family and I were taken from our home when I was three.”

  She would forever remember the pain on his face from the memory. “But you said you were forced to join with Tiron ten years ago…”

  Slowly the truth began to make itself known like acid on her skin. Tears threatened to close her throat with their bitterness.

  “How … how old were you then?” she whispered huskily.

  “I was fourteen. I had just reached reproductive age,” he whispered.

  “Oh, God.” Her hands went to her mouth as she stared at him, at the sorrow and pain in his eyes. Warm tears trailed over her fingers.

  He was twenty-four. The same age as she was, give or take the difference in time and the number of days in a year on his world. But he seemed older. Or maybe he appeared that way because of what he had been forced to endure.