Alien Mine (13 page)

Natalie moaned and moved closer, rubbing against the warming cushion. When it rumbled against her skin and moved lower, she jolted awake, as if someone had administered an electric shock to her senses.

She wasn't cuddling a warming cushion. Zacar held her in his strong hands. The metal cover over the bed was glowing softly, bathing them in an intimate golden cocoon. Every muscle and tendon in Zacar's smooth coppery body gleamed with sinful beauty. With her nose pressed to his chest, she could smell the scents of spice and male. Her mouth watering, she had the strangest urge to trace the beautiful lines of his chest with her lips, her tongue. Her fingers smoothed over clearly defined muscles that tapered into a flat stomach and narrow hips.

A wandering hand gripped her rear and she gasped.

This isn't a dream.

She jerked her hand away from where it had wandered dangerously south. She frowned. Her hand had traveled almost to the point where the angles of his hips met, without encountering any body hair. Only smooth hot skin.

She could feel a blush creeping across her face and traveling all the way to her toes. She'd seen him naked before she fell asleep but all she remembered was a vague image of him becoming bigger and greener.

His hand lazily caressed her naked skin. "You are well?"

"Y--yes," she said shyly, mortified at how husky her voice sounded. She knew it wasn't just nerves but something else. Something she wasn't ready to acknowledge, even to herself, yet.

She stared, fascinated at the change in his pitch black eyes. At first, she'd thought he had no pupils, because they were so dark they were barely noticeable. But little tendrils of red dripped into the black, and little by little, his gaze changed from eerily dark to that fiery, warm colour.

Any sane woman would have run screaming upon waking up next to a humongous alien, but when he bent his head and rubbed his lips gently over the slope of her breast, all thought fled her mind. He nuzzled there before moving lower and rubbing his nose on the soft underside of her breasts. Everywhere his skin touched her flesh came alive. A thick vein pulsed in his shoulder, fascinating, almost hypnotizing her. Unable to take her eyes off it, she pressed her forefinger to it. The heat of his skin warmed her hand and she loved the way the raised vein pulsed against her finger. She moved, restless and unable to resist the temptation of touching him some more. Her other hand slipped up his chest to trace the lines of thick veins to his other shoulder.

He stiffened and lifted his head. For a long time, they stared at each other. Then he rubbed his thumb over her ribs. She winced, and his touch became impossibly tender. She swore she saw his lips move as his finger touched each of her ribs. Was he counting them?

Reaching outside the metal dome, his hand returned with the tube the doctor had used the night before. He opened it and she gagged. She'd forgotten that awful smell. Squeezing some of the salve from the tube, he carefully rubbed it onto her ribs.

"It smells awful," she complained.

"Is good," he insisted.

While she was still trying to come to terms with the fact she'd slept naked in her bed with an equally nude alien, he continued to rub salve with exquisite care into every inch of her body. With reality quickly intruding, she was no longer mesmerized by those seductive lips that had caressed her breasts. She cringed, in shyness at feeling helplessly exposed, in disgust at being made to smell so horrible and at the way she'd responded so quickly to his caresses.

"I can do that," she pleaded, desperately needing some space between them.

He ignored her, rubbing over her hipbone with slow lazy movements, and she blushed. Did aliens find jutting hipbones unattractive as well? Her ex-fiancé had always insisted that she needed more meat on her bones. Zacar lingered there and she saw him glance at her ribs again. Did he also prefer plump women?

She grabbed one of the bed linens and covered as much of her body as she could. "Please don't--"

"Care for breeder." He moved his head, staring her down the way she imagined he would an enemy. With a firm hand, he pulled the bed linen away, tossing it aside so she couldn't reach for it again.

"A--all right." It would take a braver woman than she was to defy that look.

Never taking his eyes off hers, he continued to rub the salve onto every part of her body.

"Please, it smells awful." Her arms instinctively crossed her chest in an attempt to cover her nakedness.

When he growled low, she dropped her arms to her sides again. Finishing with her ribs, he started at her hairline and gently traced the contours of her face, rubbing salve into her neck and even behind her ears.

"I don't hurt there."

"This help." He paused, as though searching for the right words. "Skin not rot."

Frostbite.

Natalie gagged and quickly held her hands out for him. When he didn't immediately rub salve into them, she looked up, almost certain he was smiling. He held her hand in his and turned it, looking at it from all sides as if he'd never seen a hand before. Was he looking for blackened skin?

Softly, so softly, he tapped the tip of her fingers, watching her reaction intently. After a moment, he grunted then caressed salve onto every inch of her hands.

He massaged the salve over every inch of her. Every movement of his rough fingertips spread delicious tingly warmth over her body.

It was like he was making love to her, his movements slow and sensual. Did aliens even make love like humans did? She knew he was built like a human man from the peeks she'd been stealing every time he moved to get more salve. Natalie only hoped he didn't realize she was so aroused she could barely sit still. She wanted to rub herself all over him. Wherever he touched, she tingled. She could feel the junction between her legs moisten, readying itself. She wanted to blame the salve for the delicious shivers sizzling all over her body, but knew it was really his fingers that spread this devilish pleasure. As her breath escaped, broken and gasping, she clamped a hand over her mouth to keep from begging him to touch her more, harder, to kiss her. Anything that would break the strange tension within her.

"Turn."

"No, please. I'm sure my back is fine."

It was silly protesting when he'd already seen her naked from the front, but somehow giving him her back felt more personal, made her vulnerable. Her nape tingled at the thought of baring it to those long teeth of his.

"Viglar said all skin."

Her arousal faded as she remembered why he was massaging her in the first place. Frostbite. She swallowed her panic at the thought of her flesh dying and moved to turn over. But her ribs protested.

Sliding his arms under her, he gently settled her on her stomach with effortless strength.

She couldn't stifle a moan of pleasure as he rubbed her sore back muscles. Embarrassed, she buried her face into her pillow. When he reached her buttocks and carefully rubbed salve into the crease between her cheeks, every muscle in her body tightened.

A sigh of relief escaped her when he finally moved on to her thighs, only to stiffen again as his hands massaged the soft skin of her inner thigh, coming dangerously close to her throbbing core.

What if he discovered how wet she was there? Would he know what it meant? She prayed he'd move on down her legs and not notice. When he did just that, she refused to admit her disappointment.

Why did her body seem to develop a will of its own around him?

He moved on to her feet. As he rubbed salve into her ankles, she had to bite her lip to keep from moaning. She never would have thought that ankles could be an erogenous zone. He took her left foot in his large hands and lifted it, exposing her privates for all to see. She blushed and grabbed the patchwork blanket to cover herself.

Intent on her foot, he ignored her movements. She frowned when she felt him tweak each toe and tap the tip as if expecting something to happen.

"Why are you doing that?"

"Claws," he said.

She turned her head to find him studying her toes intently. His large fingers moved her big toe back and forth. What on earth was fascinating him so much? Then she remembered her shock at seeing his claws lengthening.

"Humans don't have claws."

He rubbed the sole of her foot and she nearly came of the bed from the intense pleasure. It tickled, too, and she bit her lip to hold back her giggles. He started at her heel, cupping her foot in his palms and rubbing with his thumbs. Circling over her heel, he worked there for a long time, before moving on to the sensitive area between her heel and toes. Natalie melted into a puddle on her bed.

At last, he finished with her other foot and, putting aside the salve, he settled in next to her.

"Sleep, my breeder."

"Don't call me that," she mumbled.

As relaxed as she was, she knew she wouldn't be able to sleep now. His beautiful body shone like polished copper in the weak light. Braced over her, he presented too big a temptation for her tingling fingers. All those interesting veins and bulges under his smooth skin begged to be touched.

Still feeling too shy and embarrassed, she decided she'd rest for a bit then explore, hoping by then he'd be too asleep to notice.

***

Natalie woke sore and tired, but toasty warm, instantly remembering her aborted escape attempt. With care, she lifted her head and looked at the space next to her. Only the indent in the cushion and dishevelled bedding told of the male presence that had been there.

It hadn't been a dream. Zacar had really brought her back, using his body heat to save her from hypothermia and the foul smelling salve to cure any possible frostbite.

She jerked up her hands, almost crying in relief when she saw her fingers healthy, each one accounted for. Struggling into a sitting position, she counted her toes then touched her nose, cheeks, and ears. Seemed that salve wasn't just smelly after all.

A cold draft moved over her skin, even though she was still under the covers, and her bones ached with remembered cold. She shivered and clung to the blankets.

Maybe I should move to Alaska. It's always sweltering hot there
, she thought.
And potentially alien free.

She could've died out there. And he'd nearly let her, saying he'd done it to teach her a lesson.

Battling to breathe normally, she jumped out of bed and hastily grabbed the robe lying on the chest at the foot of her bed. Sliding her arms into the sleeves, she stopped with her hands on the sash as the chill of the stone floor seeped into her bare feet.

Where are my boots
?

Then she remembered. Zacar cutting her boots off her feet. Zacar tearing her wet clothes from her body.

Her whole body flushed, burning her until she could've melted snow.