by Sadie Marks
She frowned, absent-mindedly stroking her hand over his chest to compare what she felt with what she could see. She couldn't tell a difference. "Then, what is it concealing? H-how different do you look?" she asked finally. Her voice was nervous, and she was almost afraid of the answer. She wasn't attracted to him based on looks. She'd first fallen for his skills as a Dominant and then, when she'd gotten to know him, everything else had just fallen in line—but could she deal with a whole new face on someone she loved?
He didn't respond at first, and she realized he was nervous too, probably afraid of what her reaction would be. It helped somehow, knowing that he wasn't as confident as he seemed. She wrapped a hand around his neck and pulled his head down for a gentle kiss, holding it a few seconds before moving to whisper in his ear, "Show me."
He let out a slow, shuddering breath and then nodded. "You're right. It needs to be done."
He moved her off his lap and she stood, waiting to see what he would do next. He offered her a slight smile, saying, "I'll be right back," as he left.
She sat down to wait. She had no idea how long it would take, and when he returned in just a minute or so, she looked up surprised and then gasped. He'd stripped off his shirt along with the disguise, and she got up slowly, examining him without a word as he approached.
She kept her eyes on his chest, determined to take it in one piece at a time so she wasn't overwhelmed. He was the same, mostly, but the differences were striking. She had to touch his skin, to run her fingers over it. No human had skin the color of warm honey. There were small glittering flecks that caught the light as his chest moved, and she wondered what the purpose was. It was beautiful and strange.
But she knew the shape of his body well after their intimate months together and despite the color change, she still recognized him. She let her eyes go a bit higher, inch by inch, comparing what she remembered with what she now saw. Nothing upsetting, nothing that she couldn't handle. His face, the jawline she loved, his hair, still that deep blue-black color she loved.
She began to relax—and then she met his eyes and her heart seemed to jump into her throat, thumping rapidly. She inhaled sharply and held it as she forced herself not to look away. His eyes were unexpected. They'd always been dark, so dark you could barely tell the iris from the pupil, but now—now they were alien.
They were a solid black now, with no white at all. They seemed bigger than normal; maybe she was just imagining it, she couldn't tell. There was a prickling on the back of her neck, and she had a sudden urge to bolt from the room, but she controlled it.
She realized she was still holding her breath and began to force count slow, deep breaths, trying to settle the irrational fear that had swelled when she met his eyes. The color of his skin changing hadn't bothered her, not like those eyes did.
"Are you okay?" he asked. He sounded concerned but also distant.
"I-I think so. It's just going to take a little getting used to." Her face flooded with heat, suddenly embarrassed by how little-girlish her voice sounded. "You're actually very beautiful, but the eyes—sorry, they're just—different."
"It's okay, Sam. I'm your first alien. I knew it was going to be hard for you. Do you want me to close them for a few minutes while you look at the rest?"
It was a kind offer, but she shook her head firmly. "No. Just let me get used to it." Samantha had run away from her problems once, and it had caused her years of trouble. Now she faced things and forced herself to get over them.
He chuckled, "Silla."
She tilted her head, trying to remember why that word was familiar—yes, he'd called her that before, but it sounded different hearing it as part of the Sadec language. "Sometimes."
"All the times, you mean?"
She laughed, shrugging. "Okay yes, all the time, but don't pretend like you don't like it. It gives you the excuse to spank me more."
"It does. My people call masochists Pain Receivers. You're very highly prized in our culture," he said.
"Good to know someone respects us. We don't get a lot of it back home." She rolled her eyes thinking about how the normal people tended to sneer at people who were into S&M. She'd had her fair share of rude comments since she didn't bother to hide her interests. Pain Receiver had a nice ring to it, though.
"That's probably going to change soon."
She gave him a skeptical look, but before she could ask what he meant, he'd changed the subject. "Do you have any questions about my body before we move on?"
"What are these marks for?" she asked as she gently pressed one of the silver freckles.
He closed his eyes and took a deep shuddering breath and she grinned. She loved knowing that even the slightest touch could affect him like that.
"Sadecs absorb nutrients from light through them. There are certain requirements that we can't get from food. There's a lot of nudity at home, planet side, so we can be sure to soak up everything we can. On ships, it gets problematic so most of the time, we just wear what's necessary. As long as there's enough skin showing, it's fine."
"But there's no sun on a ship? Does any light work then?" She looked up and frowned. She'd noticed the lighting was a bit strange but hadn't thought much of it.
"Not any light; our ship's lighting is specially designed to change throughout the cycle to ensure we get everything we need. It's actually easier on the ship—no need to worry about overcast days. It was tough on Earth. We could get everything we need from your sun but walking around without a shirt on is unusual in your cities, and you have a significant problem with pollution that blocks many of the nutrients we need."
"So, what did you do when you were visiting?"
"The same thing you do when you aren't eating right. I took vitamins, but it's not sustainable. After a while, I would have had to set up a portable light system or leave, even if there weren't other concerns."
"You sure this whole light absorbing thing isn't just an excuse to walk around without a shirt? I mean you've got some nice muscles there, and you look like you just walked off the cover of a romance texty. You'd have all of the women chasing you, and some of the men." She snickered and when she looked up with a teasing grin, she caught his eyes again, by accident this time, but she didn't flinch.
She was getting used to them then, she realized, letting her breath out slowly. "So, any other alien body surprises I need to know about?" she said as she stepped back to look him over.
He gave her an odd, almost embarrassed look. "A few." He cleared his throat and then shook his head. "Maybe we can wait on the rest. You're still getting used to my eyes."
"I am, which is why this is a good time to dump any other shocks on me. I'm numb to it right now."
"Well, you should know that we're not compatible for procreation," he said reluctantly.
"Good, I'm not really a fan of crotch goblins anyway." She had to revert to English because, apparently, that phrase didn't translate. "Just means I won't have to worry about getting my pregnancy implant replaced." She shrugged and made sure he could tell that she meant exactly what she said. No sadness about not getting knocked up as far as she was concerned.
It wasn't until she saw the look on his face that she realized that wasn't the part that was worrying him. Her eyes narrowed and her hands went to her hips as she gave him a 'get on with it' look.
"Well, I do have two cocks."
"Two…what?" She tilted her head and a look of complete confusion swept across her face. She understood the word he'd used but, "No, you don't. We've fucked like a thousand times by now and I think I'd have noticed a second dick!" She burst out laughing when she realized he was joking.
Except he wasn't laughing. He was just standing there looking like he really didn't want to discuss his double genital situation one bit. "The other one is internal," he said finally.
"You—you have a projectile dick? It shoots out?" The smile was rapidly leaving her face and her arms crossed over her chest as she prepared to get to the bottom of this. "How wo
uld that even work?"
"We have a special penis for breeding. It's thinner, and it stays inside until it's time for mating." With his skin, she didn't think he could blush, or at least if he could, she didn't know what to look for, but she knew if he was human, he'd be beet red at the moment.
"You mean I could have been having double penetration this whole time and you hid it from me?" She was joking, mostly, and her tone of annoyance was overly dramatic so he would know she was just teasing, but he shook his head.
"It's not something we'll be able to use together. It—it only works once you've gone through a mating ceremony and that's never been done with a human before. When you take a mate, and go through the bonding process, your mate's touch is what draws it out."
She pictured a snake hiding under a rock and having to be coaxed out and almost burst into laughter again, but one look at his face told her he wouldn't take it well. "Okay, well, if I'm never going to see it, I guess we don't need to talk about it anymore," she said, mostly out of pity. Though the idea of him taking her in both holes at once was hot and while he'd told her it was impossible, her body hadn't gotten the memo.
She could feel her skin tightening and a slow pulse beginning between her legs as she pictured what that would feel like. Him plunging in and out of her body, feeling so completely full of—the fantasies in her head became fairly graphic and she stopped listening to whatever it was he'd started to say.
"Sam? Sam!"
She blinked, swallowing hard as she tried to refocus. "Huh? What?"
He stared at her, and then he frowned and leaned forward with a suspicious look on his face. He inhaled deeply through his nose and then scowled. "You're fantasizing about my extra cock right now, aren't you?" he demanded.
"What? No, of course not!" Flustered, she suddenly remembered what he'd said about some of their senses being sharper. She wondered if he could smell her arousal and that horrifying thought sent a shudder down her spine. It did nothing to stop her from being turned on, though, she noticed.
With a growl, he swept her up off the deck and tossed her over his shoulder, muttering about 'insatiable humans' as he carried her off to the sleeping quarters. The bed wasn't very big, but somehow they made it work and everything seemed a little easier to deal with after some intense sex punctuated with plenty of spanking.
Sex didn't solve everything, no matter how good it was, but sometimes it helped her work through stuff, and right now she had a lot to work through. The spanking left her drifting in a haze, and while she was face down, she was able to completely forget his 'new' alien appearance. He still felt the same, those same rough, hard hands bringing her pain and pleasure until she was worn out and limp with exhaustion.
And she curled up against his side, head pillowed on his chest as she traced the small silvery flecks with the edge of her nail. Useful or not, his skin was pretty to look at and as she slowly regained energy, she decided to take the time to explore his body so she could really compare the differences.
He mumbled in a drowsy half-asleep voice as she pulled one of his hands over and flipped it so she could look at the palm. It was different from hers. No lines crossed the center—a palm reader would be entirely lost trying to see the future in a Sadec's hand. Instead, there were tiny hairs, short and colored to easily blend in with the skin. That was the prickling she felt when his hand rubbed against her skin.
And now, looking closely, she could see that most of his body was covered in fine hairs. Not bristly like the ones on his palm, of course, she'd have felt that under the disguise, but soft and almost invisible against his skin. She wrapped her fingers around a few of the hairs and tugged playfully, then yelped as his other hand cracked across her ass with an unexpected sting.
"Hey!"
"Haven't you had enough yet?" he grumbled.
"I was just investigating. You can't expect me not to experiment a little with all of this alien hardware you've got." She gave him a sweet look, about as innocent as she could manage, which was wasted since he hadn't bothered to open his eyes.
"Uh-huh, investigate later; I'm trying to sleep."
He let his hand settle on her ass, possibly as a warning. It amused her that he thought that would stop her; if anything, it was likely to get her going again. But it had been a long day, or night—it was hard to tell in space, and she was tired too. Her brain felt completely overloaded with new information and she decided to hold off on provoking him until she'd had some rest.
It seemed easier the next day. His appearance still took her by surprise at times when she caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of her eye, but it wasn't the shock it had been. Certain things she loved, like the retractable claws that he'd used on her during scenes without her knowing what the sharp scratching was from. Other things—were more difficult. His eyes were still the hardest to get used to and they pulled her attention, so she'd find herself staring at them with horrified fascination until she finally forced herself to look away.
It was hard to say why exactly they made her so uncomfortable. Maybe it was because she couldn't read them as easily. People expressed so much through their eyes, but with him, there was only blackness as deep and dark as the space that surrounded them. It did get better over time, but it took longer than she expected to stop catching her breath when she accidently met his glance.
It was such a small thing in comparison to the other changes, and when she finally adjusted, she didn't notice immediately. It was so gradual that one day, she just realized that she no longer flinched when she saw them unexpectedly. She started to see the beauty in the dark pools, but they would never be mistaken for human eyes.
The rest was easy in comparison. Living on a spaceship turned out to be not much different from living in an apartment, and she quickly settled into a routine though small things frustrated her. She was unable to keep track of whether it was night or day back on Earth and when she complained about it, Trev just laughed.
"Why does it matter when you're not there anymore?" he asked.
"It just does!"
"Well, you'd be better off letting it go. Sadec ships function on a twenty-one-hour day. Three light cycles of about seven Earth hours each. Our days are shorter, and you'll have to adjust to that eventually." He leaned against the bulkhead and crossed his arms over his bare chest, the slightest hint of a smirk curling the corner at one side of his mouth.
She rolled her eyes and pushed past him, deliberately thrusting an elbow into his side and receiving the predictable swat across the ass. She liked that the easy relaxed association they'd formed on Earth had continued on the ship. She was in a real relationship, and she was happy despite the fact that he was so dominant all the time.
Maybe even because of it. What had begun as a trial run, to see how it felt, had now become a cornerstone of their relationship and sometimes it annoyed her, but others, it was the closest thing to perfect she'd ever had. And it was easier on his ship to surrender control to him. He was the owner, the captain, the pilot of the ship, and she was the stranger this time which meant he had to teach her how to do everything anyway. She got used to deferring to him and it began to feel normal.
Maybe that was why the idea of considering herself a submissive began to feel a little more natural. Back on Earth, she'd snarled at more than one person who assumed they could tell her what to do, but on his ship, he was the Master and she followed, if not exactly willingly, then at least without too much protesting.
He caught her in the galley one day while she was fixing herself a snack. His arms wrapped around her and he pulled her back against him, holding her tight until she relaxed. Her head tipped back against his shoulder and he nipped the side of her neck. Just a sharp little flash of pain followed by a slow and seductive lick.
It made her want to drop everything and jump him right there, but then her stomach made a loud gurgling sound that reminded her of a more important need. She tried to pull free, but a fist wrapped in her hair, and he held her in place
.
"Stay."
"Food first, unless you want me to run out of energy in the middle of whatever you have planned." She winced as he tugged the golden strands tighter for a second and then let her go abruptly with a low growl that sent a shiver down her back.
"Fine, you're going to need your energy for what I plan to do to you later." His dark eyes settled on her ominously and she could feel her skin stippling with little dots. She'd come to love his threats and the excited fear his words sent through her body like lightning. She was never really afraid, not of him, but when he fixed that intense alien stare on her, she could forget for a second that he wasn't likely to give her more than she could handle.
Fear, it seemed, was an aphrodisiac, and in all her time in the scene back on Earth, she'd never, not for a moment, been in any real danger so her play had lacked that one component. The pain was exciting in its own right, and she loved the mix of sting and pleasure she could get at the club, but always there had been safewords and monitors to protect her.
It didn't matter that she never used her safeword. She'd known that at any time she could stop things, and even if she didn't use the word, sometimes the monitors would step in if they thought she was out of it enough that she might not have been making conscious choices. Protected.
And her trust issues had kept her from playing outside of the club. A quick sex romp at their place, which, yes, did have its risks, but even those had been minimized. A Dominant's reputation was everything in the scene, and if they'd ever once overstepped, a few words from her and they wouldn't have been welcomed back.
But now, she was far from home and all the rules and safeguards were gone. She supposed she could still use the safeword she had on Earth. Trev had learned the club conventions well and had always been careful to follow the rules when they'd played back home, but out here, there was no one to make him do anything he didn't want to do. She was aware every minute that she was on an alien ship and Trev was the Master of that ship—and it was such an incredible high, that thrill of fear.
