by Rena Marks
“I don’t think you understand about Blaze—”
“Irina, you were thrust right in after the excitement of coming to interview in a new city and having a medical emergency right when you walked through the gates—with no one else available to tend to Blaze but you. The other doctors had this explained to them, but you? You weren’t really paying attention at that point; you were just riding the adrenaline high from Blaze’s emergency surgery. And afterward? His constant, unprecedented care because he wanted to see no one but you for follow up. Now he’ll agree to see Dr. Eric for his medical care, but he is volunteering for your procreation program. I wouldn’t turn him down. He may be the only volunteer you ever get. The program isn’t medical care. It isn’t a necessity. To the Xeno Sapiens, it’s another experiment and we know how they feel about being experimented on. I don’t think anyone else will be interested. So even if your methods with Blaze are a bit unorthodox, he’s all you get.”
“Unorthodox? He wants to—”
“Leave your training behind,” Amanda urged. “Do what feels comfortable for you. But throw out the rule book. Like I said, this is your only shot with the program. Either take what’s offered…or not. But let loose with the rigid rules of morality here because they don’t work with Xeno Sapiens. They may be half human, but they weren’t raised like us.”
It dawned on Irina suddenly. Amanda was with Renegade. Robyn was with Steele. Oh, God. Two Xeno Sapiens who were also the women’s patients at one point. To protest would be a slap in the face to Amanda—to show judgment for her relationship with the man she loved.
Irina nodded slowly. Amanda smiled wide. “I think you’ll get farther than we ever thought possible with the program. I’m excited for you to jump in.”
As soon as Irina accepted it, she felt a forbidden excitement hit her belly. She’d have to make it clear to Blaze this all was clearly for the program. But maybe she could learn to have a little fun.
“Here she is.”
Robyn poked her head into Amanda’s door, her baby, Kaden, on her hip. One thing Irina noticed about the new mother was she broke all protocols. On the outside world, babies were hardly carried anymore, instead being hoisted around in carriers that doubled as beds or seats. Which was a shame because they seemed to lose that vital human connection from early touching. But everyone here were hands-on parents and extended caregivers. It made for a much happier baby; that much was for sure.
“He’s going over to visit his baby cousins after your appointment with him, since it’s Tuesday and the extra staff will be arriving. Blaze will fly him over to Heather’s where Nanna Elsa waits. In fact, I think Lily is over there, too, helping out.”
Every Tuesday, human staff arrived to work on Xenia. Each Tuesday, they hid the infants just in case the secret that Xeno Sapiens could procreate was leaked out. Robyn’s significant other, Steele, was working on a plan to keep certain memories humans had forgotten at the gate when they left each day, but of course it was easier said than done. So far, the only implant they’d developed caused complete amnesia once a person hit the scanning laser at the gate.
Robyn handed her his overstuffed bag, but Kaden held out his arms for her.
Irina took him, transferring him to her hip in the same position Robyn used. With her help, he practiced blowing a kiss and giving a wave to his mother, Irina took him over to her own office.
She pushed open her door and dropped his diaper bag onto a chair.
“Here we go, little guy,” she cooed, taking him to the exam table and sitting him down with pillows propped around him. “You know the drill. I’m gonna get readings from you to record and compare to your little cousins. Are you excited to see the boys?”
Kaden bounced excitedly. He had an uncanny intelligence that shone in his inky, dark eyes that matched his father’s. His slender limbs were jerky and he always touched whatever he could reach for. He had a fascination with her hair and reached for a lock.
She ran the scanner over him while he played with her hair, recorded the readings, and then set the device down.
“Let me get you naked,” she said, tickling his belly. He held his tiny arms over his head while she pulled his shirt off. Then she extended his legs out from under him, making him fall backward against the pillows. He giggled loudly.
She laughed. “Don’t you tell your momma and daddy how I bounce you around. They’ll have heart attacks.”
He laughed some more, kicking his feet into the air. She grasped the bottoms of the attached foot coverings and pulled, the pants coming away and leaving him clad in a cloth diaper.
She checked every detail of his body, each toe, the sensitivity on the bottom of his foot, the range of motion on his ankle. His knee joints, his hips. She felt around his belly, tickled under his arms.
“I’d say we should change this little diaper before your Uncle Blaze gets here. What do you think?”
Kaden spoke in baby coos, and she smiled as if she understood what he meant. He really was a remarkable infant.
She changed his diaper and redressed him, laughing at him as he wriggled his arms and legs to avoid the redressing. “You can’t fly naked,” she teased. “It’s cold outside. I’ll bet your daddy packed you a spacesuit in that bag.” Steele, his father, and another Xeno Sapien, Pax, were always getting together and coming up with new gizmos and gadgets. Most were incredibly remarkable. But some, like the memory wiping implant, required a lot of work still.
When Kaden was finally dressed, she pulled him up onto her hip and pressed a kiss to his cute head, inhaling the baby sweetness that surrounded him. He twined another lock of her hair around his fist, studying it carefully. She moved over to the window where they could watch Blaze arrive.
“There’s the shuttle,” she said to him. The shuttle being just outside meant the human staff was already disbanded inside center, gathering their supplies to head out to various locations to clean. Some worked the kitchen, preparing food for the week so each day’s supply could be cooked easily.
“The shuttle means you have to stay indoors. Blaze will see it and come to this window to get you.” Robyn would have remotely unlocked the window in Irina’s office and released the alarm so she could hand Kaden out to Blaze once he arrived.
Kaden would stay indoors with the Xeno Sapien twins for the rest of the day. Someday, they’d decide if they had enough loyalty from the human employees to trust them with the knowledge that procreation had happened twice. It would be easier than having to hide the children, especially as they got older and wanted to have equipment like playgrounds.
While Steele and Pax frantically worked on the experiment of the humans forgetting the children they saw when they left the gates each night, they’d already come up with other amazing inventions. There was an invisible car and hovering devices like strollers that worked without heat, noise, or pollutants being released into the environment.
Hovering devices on the outside were registered because they did have pollution dangers. And limitations as far as weight and speed. As of now, a hover device had to be flown close to the ground in case it suddenly crashed and injured others.
What money the Xeno Sapiens could make if their own products were released. But on the other hand, Irina knew they could instill fear in people if the rest realized how advanced Xeno Sapiens were.
From around the corner, Blaze appeared, walking toward her window steadily. Her breath caught. His shoulders seemed wider than ever. She’d always been a sucker for broad shoulders, and while the doctor in her realized it was necessary to enable his flight, the woman in her appreciated the exaggerated “V” of his torso. His beautiful golden brown eyes were mesmerizing, framed by long, dark, inky lashes. His hair was a brilliant, fiery blaze, just long enough to twist into the sexiest male waves ever. He could be a model instead of a Xeno Sapien, most of whom had more alien traits than human.
He approached steadily, his gaze holding hers. When he was near, she pushed the button that opened the window.
The colder air wasn’t frigid, but it was enough to harden her nipples. At least that was what she told herself.
Instead of speaking to her, Blaze spoke to the baby perched on her hip.
“I told you, dude. Hands off my girl.”
Kaden threw his head back and laughed atrociously then rubbed his head against Irina’s shoulder.
She blinked, looking down at him.
Holy shit. This baby purposely teased Blaze. He was so…aware.
She stepped back, ignoring the comment. “Let me get his coat on. You don’t think flying will be too cold for him?”
“Nah. We do it all the time. Only his little face will be exposed as he peeks out of my jacket. If it’s colder than usual, I slap a blanket over his face to block the wind. Sometimes he’ll pinch me even though he knows it’s naughty.” He grinned at the baby while he said it.
She smiled at Blaze, the first smile she’d given him in a while. “He likes to see what’s going on.”
“Yup. He doesn’t care that Uncle Blaze knows best.”
Irina zipped up the one-piece thermal body suit around Kaden, bringing the hood up over his ears and head. She brought him back to the window and carefully lowered him to Blaze’s waiting arms.
“How are you going to…?”
“Release my wings under the jacket? Another Steele and Pax invention. They used the technology from the medical scrubs where the seams separate and created seams at my back for the wings.”
In the summer, he just went bare-chested.
“Well, that would have been nice to have this summer.”
“We did have it.”
She blinked. “Then why did you go around half naked?”
“So you’d notice.” He winked outrageously.
Even though a small smile threatened to curve her lips, she tried to frown at him. “That’s appalling.”
Unperturbed, he grinned as he unzipped the front of his jacket and popped Kaden in then re-zipped around him. Kaden smiled up at her, his little face excited where it peered out.
“Here’s his diaper bag and a travel blanket in case you need to toss it over his face.”
Blaze worked the blanket into his jacket with a small piece extended that he could grab and slung the bag over one arm.
“You want to kiss the good doc goodbye?” he asked Kaden.
Kaden looked up at her, his lips puckered.
Irina leaned out the window, pressing kisses to the exposed skin of his small face and letting him smack his lips against her cheek.
“My turn.”
Her lips parted on a gasp of surprise, but Blaze didn’t give her a chance to protest. He sealed his mouth over hers. It was a light and easy kiss, but she felt every inch of his glorious lips against hers. She opened her lips, either on a gasp or a moan, she wasn’t sure which, and he took advantage to slide his tongue against hers. The kiss deepened, changing from light to teasing and then hardened into tantalizing promises. It was over all too soon.
He stepped back, his arms wrapped around the baby bulge inside the front of his jacket, and his wings extended in a magnificent sweep. She never tired of seeing his glorious white wings break from his body. With one powerful stroke, he and Kaden swept upward and were gone. She was all alone…and her lips tingled.
She brought her fingers up to cover them as if she could press his kiss in permanently.
Chapter Two
As soon as Blaze and Kaden soared away, Irina opened her office door. It signaled Robyn that they were gone, and she was able to re-establish the window locks and alarms. She had two appointments this morning, and then she’d eat an early lunch, grabbing a tray from the mess hall and bringing it to her office.
There she’d study the amount of information Robyn had on each Xeno Sapien. Or at least, the information she had on which species they came from.
By mid-afternoon, she shoved her studies to the side. Her brain just couldn’t take any more. Everything was starting to blur. That was when someone rapped on her office door.
She knew before looking up it was Blaze. The quickening of her heart, a tightening in her belly. She gave him a small smile.
“Kaden do okay?”
He nodded. “They’re having fun. The house is packed with women and cooking and babies. I think Jett and Brax were relieved to get out.”
She snorted. She doubted that. Heather was their light and life. They were gone for a few hours from her before rushing back.
“I’d like to know when we’re starting the new program,” Blaze said.
“Are you so sure you’ve been picked for it?” She knew she was being catty, but damn if she’d let him know he was her only option.
“We both know you’ve picked me. We both know I’m your only option.”
“As soon as more Xeno Sapiens become comfortable with my presence here, I’m sure we’ll have more volunteers.”
He smiled as if he knew something she didn’t. Did he?
“Even if you do get more, you’ll be starting from scratch with them. Wouldn’t it be more feasible to have gotten a little road work already done with me?”
He had a point. She didn’t want to appear gauche when she had people trusting her with their most personal matters.
“You’re right.” She acknowledged. “I will take you up on your offer and carve out a path on you. We’ll see what works and what doesn’t. I’ll know much more when someone else comes.”
He snorted. “So then it’s time to exert a couple demands.”
She raised a brow. “Demands?”
“Yep.” He nodded solemnly. “You’re the only one who touches me. No student doctors who get to observe, not even the medical doctor I’ve switched to. Dr. Rick or something.”
“Dr. Eric.”
Apparently he didn’t realize he didn’t need to make those demands. This was her project alone. But negotiations did go smoother when one believed they had bargaining power, so she nodded.
“Also, no clinical talk. You treat me as an equal, not an experiment.”
“I don’t understand?”
“I’m a man. Treat me like it. I don’t want to leave your office smelling like rubber gloves and leaking of lube. You and I both know I’m clean, so I prefer the touch of your hands.”
“We don’t want to contaminate any samples…”
He raised his brow. “Without me, you don’t have any samples.”
Hell and damnation if he wasn’t right. He had her over a barrel.
“It’s up to you, doc. Do you want to study me or not?”
His eyes pinned her in place.
“I do.”
“What’s first on the agenda?”
“I’d like to study your sperm. You can produce a sample and get it to me within twenty minutes of ejaculation.”
“Speak English, doc. No clinical talk, remember? You want me to jack off and bring you my cum?”
She felt her cheeks heat.
“Well, um, yes. So I can study it. See how active your spermatozoa is, how long it lives, all of that stuff.” Gah, she was a medical doctor. Why was she reduced to teenage embarrassment?
“Why would I go home to jack off?”
She took a deep breath. “I’m sure it’ll be easier for you there. There are videos you can play on the vidcams. Magazines to look at.”
He looked blank. “I don’t have any of those.”
Uh, crap. “You can take some,” she offered. Her eyes jumped wildly around her office. Somewhere was a box…stuff she’d ordered for this moment. Where was the box?
“I’d prefer if you helped me.”
Her swift intake of air was obvious in the small office. “Helped you how?”
He leaned in and his woodsy, masculine scent filled her nostrils. “I’ve never done this before. I need a woman’s touch. How can I be expected to do it myself without need?”
His tone wasn’t smart ass or joking. There was something tangible there.
“What do you mean without need?”
“This is very awkward. It’s what I was hinting about earlier. Didn’t you study up on me? Our species doesn’t just have a human sex drive, doc. It needs activation.”
“Activation?” Stars, had she skipped a vital piece of research?
“This is why I want to be treated as an equal. Our drive is activated by touch, warmth, pheromones.” He shrugged. “Mine was never activated.”
Was he telling her he was a virgin? Good heavens, that must be it. The poor man must be horribly embarrassed.
“Oh,” she said awkwardly. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize. I guess I overlooked that.” She felt her cheeks heat with her blunder. How the hell was he going to trust her as his doctor when she overlooked such a crucial factor in his species?
“It’s all right, doc. I’m just gonna need a little…help.” He shrugged carelessly. “If you want this case study to work and all.”
She took a deep breath. She did, but not for the reasons he was guessing. No, the reasons were quite different, quite selfish. Ever since they’d been talking about his issue, her panties had gotten soaking wet.
“Explain to me your activation requirements,” she demanded.
His smile was small—either he was pleased that she was curious, or he knew that she blundered already.
“We have zero drive. Nothing whatsoever. I guess the teenage years wouldn’t be much of a problem, eh, doc? It takes the opposite sex to be attracted to trigger it. The release of their pheromones, the warmth of skin on skin. I can’t get off on cold magazines and dirty vids. It would be like trying to read a foreign language. Nothing is there.”
“I see. And mood-setting and ambiance? I imagine an office wouldn’t do?”
He shuddered. “Not only is it unsexy, I’d be on edge. Waiting for interruptions. No, a home location is best.”
“Okay, what then? How about if I just allow you access to my apartment to use whenever you want?”
He looked blank. “By myself?”
“Well, yes. I mean, the setting will be there. The warmth. It should smell of me—hell, you can even use my bed.”
