Galactic Inferno

by Mel Teshco

  Lillian flipped back on her belly and swam to the other side of the pool, her long hair fanning out behind her.

  Ally absently touched her short, cropped hair. Just a few days ago she would have felt dowdy, ugly, beside this exquisite woman. Oddly enough, she didn’t. Somewhere in her short time with Renate, she’d grown past her insecurities.

  Renate.

  Pain lanced her heart, her soul. He might have helped her to find her poise and self-confidence, but he’d betrayed her trust. Her hands curled into fists. She wouldn’t be forgetting that fact any time soon.

  “Are you coming in?”

  Ally started a little, lost in her realizations.

  “It’s beautiful in here,” Lillian added.

  She nodded, and then slid into the liquid warmth that encased her body, caressed her with gentle bubbles. She all but moaned. “You’re right. This is heaven.”

  Lillian swam toward her, gliding close. “Almost,” she breathed. And then she moved closer still, her mouth settling over Ally’s like silk-on-silk, soft and inviting.

  Ally didn’t move, didn’t react—at least not outwardly. On the inside undercurrents of pleasure surged into a deluge of frustrated need.

  Lillian drew back, her eyes slumberous and hot. “Did you like that?”

  “It wasn’t…unpleasant,” she admitted hoarsely.

  The queen’s eyes darkened. “Good.” And then she moved back, swimming with slow strokes to where the bottom of the pool—the floor of the craft—dropped away. She flipped on her back again, arms scissoring forward and back through the water either side as she kept her head up and watched Ally. “I guess you’ve learned our men don’t want to share?”

  “So why do they?”

  Lillian arched a brow. “Aside from the fact the men would never find enough females to go around?”

  Ally moved deeper into the water, following Lillian as though an invisible lead tugged her forward. “Yes.”

  Lillian’s smile tilted with pleasure. “The more sex we embrace from our multiple partners, our soul mates, the more chance there is we’ll be impregnated to increase our population.”

  Ally stilled at the precipice where shallow became deep, her toes digging into the odd surface of the mother ship. Did the queen see the flash of pain that momentarily shot through her body, her soul, blinding her to any of the lust that had consumed her?

  “Barbaric and a little shocking, I know,” Lillian continued, evidently unaware. “But there is validity in their reasoning. Without alien men fucking earth women, both species would die out.”

  Ally barely heard the queen’s logic. She was dying—at least on the inside.

  Lillian swam close. “Are you okay? You don’t look so good.”

  “I’ll be fine,” Ally managed. “I’m just…shocked.”

  Traumatized. Devastated. Distraught.

  Lillian moved behind her. And Ally sighed as the queen’s hands clasped her shoulders and gently kneaded. The queen’s breath along her ear sent shivers through her body, her pussy.

  What the hell?

  She’d never been intimate with a woman before, never even been halfway interested in her own sex.

  “Relax,” Lillian said huskily. “Enjoy.”

  Lust reanimated as though a lightning bolt to kindling when Lillian began to gently kiss the side of her throat, her shoulders, her body a mass of quivering, sensitized nerves, hungry for so much more.

  “Let’s get you clean,” Lillian added.

  The queen retrieved a bottle of shampoo and conditioner wedged in a crevice of a purplish rock. She squeezed a blob into her open hand. “Allow me.”

  Ally closed her eyes as Lillian massaged the shampoo into her hair. She moaned, desperate to end this torture. Dunking under the water to wash the shampoo out, she luxuriated in the feel of the conditioner next, rubbed deftly through her hair.

  “I’m not supposed to use the human shampoo and conditioner,” Lillian admitted softly. “Dar—one of my husband’s—asked Maddox to make me a concoction, similar to what we have on earth, only plant friendly.” She let out a sigh. “I can’t help myself though, I just love the scent of our human stuff. And it’s the little things that take me back, even now.”

  “You miss home?” Ally asked, turning to face her.

  Lillian smiled. “Home? This—here—is my home. Besides, I could hardly miss the life I had on earth where I was forced into a marriage I hated. In comparison, this new life with my alien lovers is beyond par. Dar, Ezra and Maddox make me feel things that would’ve been impossible with a human.”

  “I think I know what you mean,” Ally whispered. “Renate makes me forget my old life, my loveless marriage.”

  Lillian’s expression softened with understanding. “The captain is a remarkable man, even without his lineage.”

  His lineage? Captain?

  “Lie back now,” Lillian suggested softly, “and allow me to rinse the conditioner from your hair.”

  Ally floated on her back, surprised to discover the bubbling water supported her weight, as though this alien water was denser than what was found on earth.

  Lillian’s hands worked the conditioner from her hair and Ally’s lashes fluttered closed as sensation speared from her scalp to her toes and back again.

  “Oh, look who’s here,” Lillian murmured, a smiling lilt in her voice.

  “Here?” Ally spluttered, sinking under the water before quickly surfacing and only too aware she’d been putting on quite the show.

  “Yes.” My husbands, Dar, Ezra and Maddox.”

  Ally’s eyes goggled. The kings were as different as three men could get, but each one was deliciously handsome. One of them resembled Renate—short cropped hair, compelling green eyes—but with a gem in his brow and restrained anger in his stare.

  “What are they doing here?” Ally whispered, a flush heating her cheeks.

  Lillian’s smile pulled the corners of her lush mouth. “They’re here to watch us.”

  “Watch us?” she echoed.

  Lillian’s eyes turned smoky with need. “Yes. You and me.”

  “But—why? I don’t understand?”

  Lillian brushed back a lock of wet, darkened hair. “These males are no different to our earth males,” she murmured. “It would give them great enjoyment to watch us pleasure each other.”

  She moved back, shaking her head. “No. No! I’m sorry, I just…I can’t do that.”

  The other woman looked more bemused than rejected. “Then I take it you care for Renate a lot, perhaps more than a lot?”

  Why did it take such a simple question to break through her walls? Why did it take the gently worded knowing of another woman to catch her off-guard?

  She felt the blood drain from her face, felt passion ebb away even as sadness engulfed her, followed soon after by the wretchedness of pain. “I…do.”

  “Then why so sad?”

  “He betrayed me,” she admitted in a small, shaky voice. “He broke my trust.”

  “He saved your life.”

  “And yet I wonder if it wouldn’t be better to die with the rest of my race than face a life of lies, of shattered dreams and broken promises.”

  “Kitten, I’d never do that to you. Not deliberately.”

  Chapter Seven

  Ripples eddied around her as she spun toward Renate. He sat at the water’s edge, as buck naked as she and wholly unselfconscious. His eyes regarded her with an intensity that struck at her soul and snared her heart.

  She shook her head. “How do I know that?”

  Really know?

  He moved into the water, his movements so graceful, so masculine it left her mouth dry, her heart pounding.

  “You don’t. Not for sure.” He swam close, and in that moment Ally realized they were alone. Lillian was even then moving out of the other side of the pool and into the kings’ arms, all four then leaving Ally and Renate to their own devices.

  Her eyes narrowed. Had this been some kind of a tes
t? A trial to see how deep her feelings for Renate really ran?

  Had she passed?

  Anger flared. “I’m not sure that’s enough.”

  “I can’t promise never to hurt you. But I can tell you without question—I love you, and will keep on loving you until we’re both just memories left behind.”

  Her chest hurt. Something came undone inside. He loves me.

  The very idea was surreal. Indescribable. Incredible.

  She bit her quivering bottom lip. “You will?” she asked in a small voice that somehow echoed the little girl crying out from deep within. The same girl who’d been abandoned by her mother and raised by a father whose ability to love had left right along with the woman he’d once called a wife.

  Ally squeezed her eyes shut, willing away the sudden memory, the knowledge. She couldn’t take any more sadness, any more despair. Especially not after hearing those three little words that had the ability to make everything right.

  “Yes, Ally,” he whispered with a seriousness that couldn’t be denied, “a thousand times, yes.”

  When he kissed her, she knew she was a fool for not trusting him to begin with, for not seeing him as the hero he was. He’d stayed to fight off a dog pack to keep her safe, he’d taken her to his people—undoubtedly at great risk to his own safety—to save her life.

  She opened her eyes, struck by the strength of his deep green stare. “I don’t want anyone else,” she breathed. “Just. You.”

  He didn’t say anything, he didn’t need to. Words weren’t needed. His mouth pressed over hers once again, his lips soft and dominant all at the same time. He walked her slowly backward, kissing her even when he laid her back in the shallow water and she was pressed fully against his aroused body.

  When he pulled his mouth free, his eyes searched hers, as if ensuring she really wanted this as much as he did. “I want to make this special for you.”

  More special? Impossible.

  God, how had she thought anyone, male or female, could be a substitute for Renate? He held her heart in his hands. Her soul was irrevocably entwined with his.

  She cupped his face in her hands and urged him down, wanting him with all the pent-up emotion and needs of before, only this time she had absolutely no doubts, no restraint.

  He put his hands over hers, stilling her. “Trust me, okay.”

  She leaned back, a little deflated but a whole lot more intrigued and aroused. “Yes, of course.”

  Because she did trust him, just as she should have from the very first. Besides, if it was possible their lovemaking could be even more special, who was she to have doubts?

  She relaxed, putting herself in Renate’s hands and staring up at the domed roof. Odd-looking insects flittered through the air, all colors and shapes. Something much larger soared up high, its skin spotted with crimson and yellow. Carèche’s, or perhaps some other planet’s, version of a flying fox?

  The water rippled around her as Renate’s weight moved away from her. “Give me a moment,” he said thickly.

  When he moved back, he placed something warm and squishy on her thigh. She started when it began to pulsate. She looked down. “What is that?” she squeaked.

  “Kio kio.” His stare was unmistakably hot as he guided the spongy thing that was about the size of his hand along her inner thigh, toward her pussy.

  “What are you doing?” she gasped, turned on and horrified all at once.

  “Carèche people use the kio kio as a stimulator.”

  “A sex toy,” she breathed.

  He looked up, his stare hot. “Yes. Relax, kitten, you’ll be thanking me soon.”

  She swallowed, holding his stare. “Okay. I…I trust you.”

  He nodded, then said with a smile, “I know you do.”

  The vibrations strengthened as he pushed the kio kio plant up and down one thigh, then the other, at times so close to her pussy she gritted her teeth to stop her hips from gyrating toward it and force the pulsations over the inner folds of her pussy, her tender but sensitized clit.

  Her breath left her lungs when he moved upward, placing the stimulator on the underside of one of her breasts.

  “Nice?” he asked hoarsely, his stare every inch knowing.

  “Are you trying to make me explode?” she asked in rebuke, except her voice pitched into a mewl as he swept the kio kio right onto the stiff peak of her nipple.

  Sensation pierced her breast and shivered all the way to her womb, her pussy shuddering in reaction even before Renate’s mouth replaced the kio kio and he suckled on her taut nipple, his tongue expertly flicking the puckered areola.

  She groaned, arching closer. His head reared back. His mouth curled into a satisfied grin. And in one deft movement he used his free hand to spread apart the folds of her labia, his other hand pressed the kio kio right over the stiff bud of her clitoris.

  She pushed into its writhing pulsations with a gasp. Bolts of pleasure darted through her clit then spread every which way as a climax tore through her, her body shuddering in reaction. He pressed the stimulator harder against her and more powerful vibrations set off another round of shudders as a second climax ripped through her body.

  Renate leaned down, his mouth taking ownership of her mouth, his tongue sliding past her lips and curling like smoke around hers

  Only when he removed the kio kio from her insatiable cunt did she wind her arms around his neck and kiss him back fully.

  God, I love you.

  She stiffened.

  He pulled back, eyes searching her face. “I think it’s safe to say you’ve had enough pleasuring for one day, hmm?”

  She breathed slow and deep, re-gathering her thoughts, her emotions around her, before tucking them all neatly away. Even without all her memories—and the tonic running through her veins—she’d learned firsthand that life wasn’t all hearts and flowers.

  Perhaps old wounds really did take time to heal.

  At Renate’s faint frown, she half-sat. “I think you’re right.”

  He nodded, then released the kio kio in the water. Its tentacles vibrating through the water, the spongy stimulator moved out of sight to the bottom of the pool.

  In one graceful motion Renate stood and offered a hand. “Come, let’s get you dry, dressed. And fed.”

  She arched a brow at his massive erection, at the veins criss-crossing his cock like hard railway lines. He was the one who looked about ready to explode. She looked up at his vaguely amused stare before looking pointedly at his ripe-to-fuck cock. “Shouldn’t we take care of your needs first?”

  His bark of laughter was honey over her senses. Warm and golden smooth. “Waiting will make my release that much sweeter when your body is ready for me.”

  She took his hand and he brought her to her feet with effortless power. The inner walls of her pussy clenched. “Then I look forward to it,” she admitted huskily.

  His eyes flared. But then he stepped away, toward a yellow vine that held his pants aloft with sucker-like leaves. He swiped its scaly trunk and the leaves retracted, releasing his pants. He turned to her and used the alien fabric to swipe the moisture from her skin in gentle, reverent strokes that were more an intimate massage than anything practical.

  She closed her eyes, resisting a sudden need to purr as he rubbed slowly, deliberately along each of her breasts, the outer folds of her cunt.

  He stepped away again and her eyes jerked open. She tried not to focus on the sexy globes of his ass, the long, lean length of his spine and the muscles of his broad shoulders that flexed and rippled as he bent and retrieved something from another vine further in.

  He turned back and she tore her gaze from his cock, to the dress he held out for her, made from the same alien substance as his pants. She accepted the feather-light fabric that looked similar to the web weaved by a spider, only silky soft. “What happened to my clothes?”

  Renate shrugged as he pulled his surprisingly dry pants up past his thighs and then snapped the waistband low on his hips.
And somehow his arousal looked even larger tenting the fabric. “I suspect they’re now compost for Maddox’s plants.” He looked up. “We have no use for earth clothes here, not when our own self-clean.”

  “Yes, well I could see how that would be an advantage,” she muttered drily, pulling the dress over her head and allowing it to drape over her body in a perfect fit.

  His hand was warm around hers as he led her back through the jungle of plants. But a sudden coldness gripped her. Damn. She didn’t feel too good. She stumbled, pain slicing through her head as her thoughts slammed back to reality. Her breath hissed. “I think that damn tonic has worn off.”

  Renate turned and scooped her up into his arms. “I’m sorry Maddox gave you that, unfortunately Ezra insisted.”

  “Ezra?” she asked weakly.

  “Yes. He’s one of the three kings.”

  “Let me guess, the one who looks like you.”

  He nodded. “That’s him.”

  Another pain ripped through her frontal lobe, making her gasp. She put a hand on her brow and squinted up at him. “Why? What has Ezra got against me—against you?”

  He looked down at her with a faint frown marring his face. “Don’t fight against the pain, ride with it. The anxieties you had before the…tonic are struggling for recognition.”

  And then it hit her. Bonnie had been left behind! Her pulse jerked in alarm. The head pain abruptly disappeared, but she felt no less anguished. In her mind’s eye she saw loyal Bonnie waiting for her mistress, laying in a pool of blood and slowly dying. She clasped Renate’s forearms, fingernails digging into muscle. “We have to go back. We have to get Bonnie.”

  He let out a heavy sigh, as if unsurprised by her request. But something close to regret shadowed his stare when he said, “Unfortunately our course is set.”

  She pushed upward, pinning him with the full force of her stare. “There must be something we can do.” It wasn’t a question.

  “Unless all three kings are in agreement, there’s nothing—”

  Her vision narrowed. “Everyone has a weakness. Even alien royalty.”

  A wry smile tugged at his sexy lips. “Lillian.”

  “Yes.”