Craving: A SciFi Alien Mail Order Bride Romance (TerraMates Book 8) (21 page)

With a further wave of my hand, I spun it around. "I know you can see Earth from your ships. By now, you've probably mapped it out in fine detail."

He didn't deny it.

I continued. "But I want to show you a special part of Earth."

With several swipes, the hologram zoomed onto a small house in the middle of the desert. It was a humble structure, but it was warm and welcoming. For a moment, I forgot I was on the Fortuna. I was a child again, running around with my brothers while our parents chased us beneath the blazing sun.

"This is where I grew up," I told Jidden. "This is my home. The image was taken last year when our satellites were last updated."

For once, Jidden's indifference disappeared. He seemed genuinely interested. "Where is everyone?" he asked, studying the image.

I had asked the same thing when I first saw the hologram. But I soon learned the answer. "Inside drinking lemonade," I said. "That summer was particularly hot. My youngest brother – he still lives at home – planted a lemon tree the year before. No one believed it would actually grow in the desert, but somehow my brother managed it. My family spend the entire summer indoors drinking his miracle lemons."

A thought occurred to me, and I spoke without thinking. "Do you honor family where you come from?"

"My planet is Surt. That is why we are the Surtu. And yes, we honor our family. We are very similar, humans and the Surtu. It is because of these similarities that we are here."

Oh yeah. The war. I'd almost forgotten.

Jidden had just exposed something significant. I wanted to ask more, but I didn't, afraid of breaking the momentum. He seemed to speak more freely when it was of his own accord.

Instead, I zoomed in closer to my house, all the way to the porch steps. On the side of the steps was my messy scribbling.

Love is intelligence.

"I wrote it when I was little," I reminisced. "After reading it in a book. It sits there today."

"What does it mean?" he questioned. "It doesn't make sense. Love is an emotion. Intelligence is void of emotion."

"Intelligence is many things, but void of emotion is not one of them. When I see an old man begging for food, my heart breaks because I have the knowledge that there is enough in the world to feed everyone, and the intelligence to understand that it will probably never happen."

He frowned. "I'm not convinced. I've seen people in love. They're idiots."

I flicked the hologram so that it zoomed back out, showing Earth in its entirety. Then I zoomed further, revealing the hundreds of millions of stars in our galaxy. "Love is a connection, and we are all connected. There's no higher intelligence than that – the understanding that everything is connected, including the Surtu and humans. Am I right?" I asked.

Jidden was confused. "That love is intelligence?"

"That the Surtu and humans are connected." The time for being coy was over. "You need something from us. Why else would you be here?"

He seemed surprised by my insight. "Maybe we're just bloodthirsty," he said.

"Or maybe you're stalling, waiting for more ships to arrive so you can take whatever it is that you need."

It was a risk. Jidden did not like being usurped.

Unfortunately, the risk didn't pay off. "I'd like to share a story with you," he said, retreating away from the direction the conversation had taken. "Will we walk as I tell it?"

"Okay," I agreed, trying to show him my trust, hoping to earn some back in return.

We strolled side by side along the creek, the willows brushing our shoulders. We walked for a while before he spoke again. "A popular goddess amongst the ancient Surtu was Nelti, a woman of great beauty with auburn hair and eyes without color, only flecks of light. She was a dark warrior, showing no mercy to her enemies. However, her ruthlessness was only to protect that which she loved. The ancients worshiped her because they believed she watched over their homes and their families. They considered her ruthlessness a gift."

His story of Nelti made me feel apprehensive. It sounded too much like the women of the Fortuna, so I went on the defense. "I don't think I understand what your point is. Are you saying it would be better if I was ruthless rather than peaceful?"

"I'm saying there is already something ruthless about you."

We were deep within the depths of the gardens now, in a spot where nature had run wild, claiming part of the space station as its own. Among the trees and wildflowers, I did not believe even Earth had surveillance.

We were utterly alone.

"Why haven't you made any demands for your sisters regarding their surrender? Isn't that why we are meeting this evening?" he asked, his voice full of authority, but his indifference from our first encounter waned, replaced with a hint of emotion.

It made me weak. It was easy to deal with him when he was cold. But to see any warmth in him at all made my heart flutter again. He was so exotic and strong...

"I was trying to earn your trust so that when I did negotiate our surrender, you were more likely to accept my terms."

It was a half-truth.

He moved closer to me. Too close.

My God, he was intoxicating.

I wanted to back away, I knew I should back away, but I couldn't.

"And what do you wish for your girls?" he asked.

"Their survival. Their freedom."

"I can guarantee their survival," he said, "but nothing more."

"That's not enough," I told him.

Why did I suddenly feel like a teenage girl again, the night I gave myself to Gerard Dalton? I was full of the same anticipation now as I was back then.

It's the gardens, I surmised. I'm not thinking clearly.

I turned to head back to where we could be seen and heard again, but Jidden grabbed my arm. His touch was gentle but insistent. "We have more to talk about," he said. "Tell me what you're hiding."

"Tell me what you have planned for the Fortuna," I countered, but I didn't move away. "And the women on board."

He wouldn't. I already knew that. His silence confirmed it.

"Then tell me why you insisted we talk in private."

This caught him off-guard. "I thought it would be better," he answered after a moment.

He's not sure why, I realized. Cold, indifferent Jidden had acted on impulse.

"At least tell me something real about you," I pushed. "Anything."

"I'm an orphan," he answered, surprising me, and I think he surprised himself. "My mother died from the disease when I was young, and a few years later, my father was killed in a military training accident. He was a celebrated soldier, so his Captain took me in and raised me. The military is all I know. I don't know what it's like to have a home out in the middle of the desert. Or to drink lemonade. All I know about are ships."

There was a real sadness when he spoke. It appeared neither of us was winning this game of tug-a-war between us, each trying to draw the truth from the other without revealing too much of our own.

"I'm sorry to hear it–" I began, but before I could say anything further, he kissed me.

* * *

K
issing Jidden was wrong
. I knew it. I was a traitor to my people. But I couldn't stop. During our time in the gardens, we had revealed more to each other than either of us meant to. I had enjoyed sharing images of my home with him. It felt compulsory to do so as if we were connected by a force much greater than our flawed selves.

And his kiss...It was firm and passionate and impossible to turn away from.

It was strange kissing an alien, but not in a bad way. It was like tasting a new exotic fruit – sweet and tantalizing and, in Jidden's case, extremely dangerous. But it was the danger that made it all the better.

Gallia was right. There was more pleasure where there was danger.

Jidden pulled me tighter into his arms, and his kiss became more urgent. He had no intention of stopping, and I didn't want him to. My body was already responding to his touch, and his to mine. I could feel his cock growing as we kissed. Jidden may be an alien, but he was all man.

I pulled him back beneath a tree, using a thick, low branch as support. He was tall and broad, much more so than the average human male. I could handle the weight of his muscle as he leaned into me, but only barely.

"I want to know what a human woman feels like," he said, his voice deep and powerful.

"Go ahead," I permitted, feeling myself grow wet in anticipation.

He gently positioned me on the branch so that I was sitting down and his hand disappeared beneath my dress. His hand was strong as it traveled up my thigh, pushing the pale blue fabric of the dress away as he edged closer to my center. My eagerness to know his touch caused my core to pulse and my heart to race.

Finally, his hand reached me.

Exploring me, I felt his fingers lightly circle the edges of my folds, lingering on the outside, causing me to swell.

"You're not wearing any garments under your dress," he observed.

"No," I said, breathless. Willing his hand to explore deeper inside me, I secured myself on the branch and opened my legs wider.

With a smug smile, he complied, pushing two of his fingers in. I moaned and arched my back, letting him explore.

"You're so ripe and healthy," he said, moving closer into me. "You feel fantastic."

I couldn't respond. His strong, ardent touch blew my mind. His fingers moved inside me like a key turning a lock, hitting all the right places, sending chills of rapture across my body. I shuddered, and he responded by exploring further, caressing his fingers in and out of me as I grew wetter, soaking him.

"I'm going to come," I warned, feeling a glorious heat build within my core. "You're going to make me come."

He didn't stop. Instead, he thrust harder, rocking my body. "I want to watch you," he said, plunging his fingers deeper inside me. "Come for me."

I did. I couldn't control it. A fury of ecstasy overtook me as I rode the sweet release, falling further into his touch, taking all of him in.

Even after I came, his hand lingered, readying me for more.

He wasn't through.

And neither was I.

My core pulsed again, craving more. I reached down and took his cock into my hand. It was large and thick, much like the branch I sat on, but his cock was also warm, like a furnace. I wanted to know what that furnace felt like inside of me.

Jidden closed his eyes as I removed his uniform, exposing him to the wilds of the garden. His cock looked as massive as it had felt in my hand, but despite its enormous size, it was normal. Human-looking.

"Tell me you want it," he demanded.

"I want it," I said with the greatest of truth. "I want your cock inside me."

With much more force than before, he grabbed me around the ass with both hands and pushed me in close to him. Then he raised me slightly off the branch and slid me over his cock.

The fullness of it sent electric shocks surging through my body. I felt complete. It was almost sentimental, if not for the excruciating pleasure that came from his deep, lingering thrusts. I laid back on the branch, allowing him to drive deeper into me, as much for my benefit as his.

His movements were slow, his cock caressing me much like his fingers had. But when I began to moan, the heat building inside me once more, like a tidal wave of power, his thrusts became more urgent, igniting me from the inside in a way I had never known before. I floated from my body, swimming in agonizing bliss until I could bear it no longer. I went supernova, becoming like the stars in the sky, releasing my joy all around me.

With one final thrust, he joined me, calling my name as he came, as if I were his last wish. Together, we experienced just how closely connected a Surtu and human could become.

When he finished, I sat up on the branch and held him as he collapsed into my arms, our sweat mixing together as our bodies tangled, breathless and recovering.

* * *

J
IDDEN

As I leaned into Terra's arms and breathed in her scent, which was earthy, like cinnamon, I realized what a fool I was.