Amanda's Amorous Aliens (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (3 page)

“Hijack?” the voice asked, sounding amused. “I would think the fact that we saved you from crashing would negate the whole hijack idea. But, hey, if you want to play it that way. Sure. Name, rank, and serial number…please.”

“What the hell? I’m a civilian, you idiot.”

“Fine,” the voice said in what seemed to be a tired tone. “Please provide your name.”

“Amanda Hasbro.” She’d meant her tone to come out sure and clear, but the realization that she was a woman alone on an unknown ship, run by unknown people, in an unknown area was finally starting to sink in. As much as she wanted to sass these men, maybe the whole “damsel in distress” approach would was a safer bet.

“Do you prefer to be addressed as ‘Amanda’ or ‘Hasbro’ or perhaps both?”

“Amanda, please,” she said in a shockingly submissive tone. Hell, damsel-in-distress? Maybe. But, roll-over-and-submit?
Hell, no!
“I mean, um…who are you and where am I?”

The voice seemed to laugh quietly before answering. “You are approximately at the same coordinates you were 4.4 million years from now.”

“Oh.” She really didn’t know what to say. According to her extensive knowledge of low-budget sci-fi series, time travel could explain the bright flash and the instant change in scenery, but surely it wasn’t possible. “Why did you bring me here?”

“Do you mean here as in here here, or here as in now here?”

“Huh?”

“What To’h means,” the man standing in front of her said with a half smile, half scowl on his face, “is that we brought you aboard because you were going to crash. We did not, however, have anything to do with bringing you to this point in time.”

“You speak English?” she asked, rather stupidly when she thought about it.

“I do now,” he answered cryptically.

“Oh…Well, I don’t know how to time travel so…um…” She had all sorts of comebacks forming in her head, but they all seemed to be the equivalent of the childish “so there” reply common in primary school. Disbelieving their claim that they didn’t drag her through time because of her own inability to time travel seemed rather lame. Whatever had happened, however she’d gotten here was something she couldn’t explain, so even if they were lying about the time travel she still had no explanations. Perhaps she should go back to that damsel-in-distress idea. Their “ship” had been far more advanced than anything she’d ever seen before.

Hang on a second. Wouldn’t that mean she’d gone forward in time, not backward?

“Amanda,” the man in front of her said in a far friendlier tone than he’d used earlier, “I’ve adjusted the environment to suit your breathing requirements. It’s safe to remove your equipment and step out of your vessel.”

She sat frozen for a few moments, her indecision so out of character for her that she wanted to punch something.

“I promise that we mean you no harm,” he said with a friendly smile.

“Uh-huh,” she said, unable to swallow the “harmless” speech. Even if he didn’t plan to hurt her, just his appearance was messing with her head. He was huge, but perfectly formed, his shape and facial features very pleasing to the eye. It didn’t help that the smile he was giving her right now set all of her feminine parts tingling. Hell, it had been so long since she’d given in to her body’s baser urges that she wasn’t so sure
she
wouldn’t be the one to hurt
him
.

Fuck. Get a grip, Hasbro!

Making a decision that she sincerely hoped she wouldn’t regret, Amanda undid the seal on her helmet and removed the oxygen mask from her face. She took a tentative breath, pleased to find the air clear and fresh.

The man stood back to let her climb out of the cockpit. She’d always hated this part of flying. Climbing into and out of the cramped spaces often put her ass on show. She’d grown used to the chauvinistic comments back home, but this man’s soft groan set her alight in ways that sleazy comments never could have. Holy shit, she was in a whole heap of trouble.

She stumbled slightly, losing her balance as her feet reached the ground. The man wrapped two big hands around her waist to hold her steady. She swallowed hard, trying not to mimic the groan he’d released only moments ago.

Amanda quickly stepped away, grateful when the man’s hands fell back to his sides and he seemed to stand up a little straighter. Hell, he was tall, maybe even taller than seven foot. From her above-average height of nearly five eleven, he seemed even larger now than when she’d first seen him.

She gazed up at him, anything she was about to say lost to her forever as she stared into the bluest eyes she’d ever seen.

“I’m Karriak-Sektannen,” he said as his hand lifted toward her as if to touch her face.

“Karriak,” she repeated, almost swaying toward him, wanting that gentle touch instinctively, but thankfully he seemed to realize what he was doing and dropped his hand to his side.

“No,” he said, flexing his fingers as if he was in pain. “My name is Karriak-Sektannen. The full thing. One whole word.”
Wow, touchy
. He waited for her to nod her understanding before he went on. “To’h tells me that you’re most likely here from the twenty-first century.”

“Um.” Okay, not her most intelligent response, but it seemed that both he and this mysterious To’h believed she had actually traveled to another point in time. Maybe it was safest to play along until she could repair her ship and find a way back home. “Er…yes. I’m from the year 2018.”

* * * *

Karriak-Sektannen could see the disbelief written on her face. She didn’t believe that she’d jumped four million years into the past, and had apparently labeled him as delusional. He stifled the urge to correct her assumptions. He needed to get her ship repaired and her through that damn time fracture quickly, very quickly. And he needed to do it before he did something stupid like taking her into his arms, peeling away her clothing, and spending the next several days exploring her body.
Shit
. Fix her ship, set her course, wave good-bye—none of that required him to explain that he wasn’t crazy.

In fact, thinking him crazy just might keep her at arm’s length, despite the fact that he wanted her much, much closer. Her hair was long and blonde, but no longer properly secured by the ponytail, the messy curls framing her face beautifully. And she was tall, quite tall for a human if he remembered correctly, and slender without being emaciated. Hell, if he’d designed his perfect woman she’d probably look a lot like Amanda Hasbro.

Damn, talk about fucked-up timing.

He was absolutely not going there. His time for telkobar was rapidly approaching. There was no way he was getting involved in any sort of relationship—even a hot, sweaty, temporary melding of two bodies built to perfectly align…
Fuck!

“Are you okay?” Amanda asked him with a concerned look on her face.

“Fine,” he growled.

“Oh,” she said again, obviously still unsure how to deal with him.

“Perhaps I could interject,” the computer said with a snicker. “Amanda would probably appreciate a meal and a place to rest at this time. Perhaps you can play host to our guest while I run a diagnostic on her ship and see if I can begin repairs.”

“No,” Amanda said sharply. She seemed to reconsider her stance as she glanced up at the surprised look he most likely wore. “I mean…I just…It’s
my
ship. I designed it. I built it from the ground up. I know it better than anyone. I would be more comfortable working on the repairs myself.”

“Certainly,” To’h said in a voice Karriak-Sektannen was beginning to think of as poisonously amenable. The computer’s personality had proved rather efficient at punishing him when he didn’t agree. Cold lasers in the shower, changed gravity in different rooms, strange ingredients mixed together in his food. None of it had been particularly dangerous, more like humorous pranks, but there was really no getting over the taste of choc-fudge sundae sprinkled with red-hot, burn-your-lips-off chili flakes.

Karriak-Sektannen almost found himself looking forward to what the computer might do to Amanda for disagreeing with it.

Except that—fuck, he had to control his need—she wasn’t staying that long.

Fix her ship, set her course, wave her good-bye.

End of story.

Yeah, right.

* * * *

“I just need to borrow a few tools, if you have them. I should be out of your way in a jiffy.”

“What’s a jiffy?” the man asked, looking perplexed.

She raised an eyebrow at him, but couldn’t for the life of her explain what a “jiffy” was. “I think it’s just an expression. You know, I’ll be out of your way quickly, as soon as possible, before you know it.”

“Oh,” he said, almost perfectly mimicking the way she’d said the word earlier. It seemed that confusion was contagious. But then he smiled as if a thought occurred to him. “To’h, can you send me the colloquialisms common to Earth English in 2018 as well, please.”

“In a jiffy,” To’h said with what she would have described as a perfectly straight face if she’d been able to actually see his face.

“Are you two the only ones on board?” she asked curiously. She hadn’t seen evidence of any others, but it seemed implausible considering the size of the ship.

“Actually it’s just me,” Karriak-Sektannen said with a forced smile. “To’h is the ship’s computer system.”

“To’h is a computer? Are you sure?”

He laughed and moved as if to grab her to give her an affectionate hug. But again, at the last moment, he seemed to realize what he was doing and backed away. “Yes, very sure,” he said instead.

“Oh.”

There was that word again.

Fabulous. Fan-fucking-fabulous.
Karriak-Sektannen must be wondering how a woman who sounded like such a twit could be an aeronautical engineer. In fact, she was beginning to wonder that herself. “Are there any side effects to time travel?”

“Not that I know of,” he said grimly, “but since you seem to have passed through a fracture it is probably wise to run some basic medical scans.” He held a hand out for her to take, this time stepping closer to reach for her.

The moment his warm fingers curled around her own, a sharp pang of desire speared her middle. Holy heavens, if that was the reaction she got from touching the man’s hand, she was nearly certain she didn’t want him touching her anywhere else. Okay, maybe she really wanted him to touch her
every
where else, but it certainly wasn’t a wise thing to wish for. She wasn’t even sure that he was human.

The question was out of her mouth before she thought to stop it.

He laughed softly and his thumb caressed over the pulse point on her wrist. “No,” he said with a smile, “I’m not human. Your species won’t meet mine for another six years after the time you left.”

“So you’re a…?”

“Kobarian.”

Of course the word meant nothing to her, and going by the smirk on his face, the annoying man—the Kobarian—knew it.

She wasn’t really sure what possessed her to ask her next question, but judging by his affronted reaction, she’d insulted him, or at least annoyed the hell out of him.

“Yes,” he ground out through a tightly clenched jaw, “I
am
the male form of my species.” And then, as if he suddenly realized something she hadn’t, he grinned and lifted her closer, their lower bodies pressing together as he leaned down to whisper in her ear. “And I can assure you, Amanda Hasbro, that our species are compatible—very, very compatible.”

“Oh.”

She swallowed nervously as he brushed his thick, hard cock against her soft belly.
Oh wow
.

* * * *

Almost lost in the sensual torture he’d been planning for her, not himself, Karriak-Sektannen finally managed to pull away. He held tightly to her hand, unwilling to let her retreat despite the fact that he planned not to follow through on what his body wanted.

Judging by the disappointed sigh, he wasn’t the only one wishing for things they couldn’t have.

“To’h,” he practically shouted, “we’ll be in the medical bay.” He clamped his jaw together, trying to get a grip on his wild emotions. Surely this uncharacteristic loss of control was due to his upcoming telkobar and not the sweet, sexy, beautiful woman currently staring at him like he had two heads.

“Of course, sir,” the computer said with all the efficiency of a programmed machine. “Should I close my eyes while you
examine
her?”

“To’h, knock it off,” Karriak-Sektannen said, using the newly downloaded colloquialisms of twenty-first-century Earth.

“Are you sure, sir?” To’h asked politely. “Earthlings seem to have had an extraordinary number of words and innuendos for what you two are about to do.”

The woman beside him stiffened at the computer’s words, but he noticed with grim satisfaction that she wasn’t objecting. She’d already started breathing harder, her eyes had darkened, and the sweet smell of her arousal floated around her.

“To’h,” Karriak-Sektannen said, making deliberate eye contact with Amanda, “Amanda and I are going to the medical unit to make certain she was not affected by her trip through the time fracture. That is all.”