Cyberella: Preyfinders Universe (7 page)

“Sure.” He smiled. It could have been an innocuous piece of body language except something hinted at a depth of emotion that shouldn’t have been there.

Ella nodded.
Be careful around this man
, her internal, female alarm seemed to be saying. Maybe the danger was minor, but with Torgeir, she could never let down her guard.

She swallowed as the grip of his hand on hers tightened, a fraction. A tingle unfurled, spreading, warming her everywhere with an awareness of how close they were physically.

Her breathing deepened and she had to clamp down hard to calm herself.

The man versus woman world of sexuality never went away.

For the first time, she went farther with those thoughts. What was so wrong with that? Torgeir attracted her. Why not explore a little? He’d released her on Sicar. What he’d just done for her was incredible. If not for him, she’d be a slave and in the hands of some stranger.

The pain and horror of what the captain had done would never leave her entirely.

She smiled back at him, feeling it liven her eyes. The man had beautiful lips. Her toes curled as she imagined kissing him.

Did he even want her? She was pretty sure the attraction went both ways.

He’s different though. Not from Earth.
Whatever he thought normal, it might horrify her. Did they even have one-night stands? She’d need to spell this out, make certain they were on the same page. No confusion.

“How did you know? To rescue me?”

“Kalfa is my friend. He told me your captain had asked him suspicious questions about your buyer.” He shrugged. “I thought you were in trouble, so I helped you.”

Said so nonchalantly and yet again, in the narrowness of his gaze and his stillness, she sensed he wasn’t telling her everything. He’d gained a whole ship doing this. That would be motivation enough for anyone. It didn’t matter though if he wasn’t some pure white knight sort. He’d still helped her.

A memory surfaced.
Mimi!

“Your pet, Mimi. Did you know she was here? Is she
supposed
to be here?”

“Ha. No. I mean, yes, I know she’s on this ship though she’s hiding somewhere. But she’s not supposed to be here. I don’t know how or why. Perhaps she was somehow forced on board? We’ll have to watch for her. As far as I know, no MeMoMe has ever left Sicar, until now. But...enough talk. I’ll leave you to get dressed. Those are your pajamas I put on you, I guess?”

She blushed hot. It had been him. “Yes.”

“Come out when you’re ready. The midday meal is in an hour. We’re on Riptide standard time already. There’s only Dresdek, me, and you, to get this ship running properly again. We’re still doing repairs. If you want to help, I can find stuff for you to do. Okay?”

She nodded.

He sat up straighter, with those big hands on his thighs. The gray ship’s pants, standard-issue heavy cloth, made his legs look like pillars. Torgeir was far bigger than her. She liked that in a man.

Having Torgeir in bed with her might do more than rock her world.

“See you out there.”

The door closed behind him.

The healing wounds across the front of her ankles reminded her of who she was inside. A plain human might’ve torn her legs off doing what she had.

Would he mind? Did he know how close she was to cyborg status? She was worrying over crap that might never be an issue. He might not like her that much. Maybe he’d rather take Dresdek to bed? Or a squid monster from the planet who-knows-what?

She let herself fall backward onto the bed so she was flat on her back staring at the ceiling.

Interplanetary relationships were going to be hell to figure.

*****

Slowly, over the next few days, she figured out where she fit in, what she could do to help. Not a lot. The ship had ample food supplies and air and the ship’s mess could be automated. The food the robot chef produced beat anything she made by ten. She wasn’t up on ship mechanics but she could hand over stuff. So she found herself following Torgeir about being a general fetch-it person.

She had healed so fast it’d worried her, but apparently that was standard if you could afford the best. The police doctor had access to the best, at least when it concerned cuts, bruises, and strains.

On the third day, Dresdek was off attaching some hull structures so a repair bot could rig a temporary skin over the missile-created hole, while she helped Torgeir with the back-up cybernetic brain for the fuel system. He sat before the waist-high console, in the middle of the room, peering at the innards. A square of surface from the console had been removed so he could replace some slightly frazzled brain cards.

His hand appeared at his shoulder. “Next.”

She handed him another of the thumb-sized things. It was a clear bluish plas-g with some shiny stuff embedded. “Last one.”

“Yup.”

She grinned. Saying
yup
instead of the alien
yes
was a mannerism he’d seemingly adopted since knowing her. Something bugged her about how he held the card. She put a hand on his shoulder and leaned in to look, tugging automatically at the skirt she wore. It rode up way too high, almost to her butt but then she’d known that.

When she’d considered what to wear this morning, something provocative had been her first pick. Torgeir brought out her inner slut. Shamefully. But no one apart from the three of them would see or know, so she’d said
to Hell with it
and put it on.

“Upside down again,” she whispered.

“It is?” He stared at it and turned it around.

“Yes. It is.”

“Half these things are way too old to be allowed on most ships.” He used the tool loupe that lay on the console. “You’re right. Second one today.” He slotted it into place then half-turned to look up at her. “How did you spot it?”

“Um. I just...do?” The man’s gaze never faltered and she tumbled into an awareness of his near vicinity, the heat of his body, and the solidness of his muscles under her palm. A high, thin note sang in her ears.

His chin had blond stubble, and he was watching her ever so closely.

“Oh. Sorry.” She went to snatch away her hand but he caught it.

“No.” Then he swiveled his chair about until he faced her. “Come here.” He towed her closer until she stood between his parted thighs. She didn’t have the fight in her to resist. “You give me those looks every day. You say things. And never act on them.”

Ella tried to swallow but her throat had seized up. “I don’t.”

He placed his other hand on her neck and traced small circles over her throat with his thumb, mesmerizing her. “Liar.”

She couldn’t blink.

She was such a coward, but he was an alien lord cross warrior from some ancient tribe. Until recently he’d probably kept women on a chain at his breakfast table. Her face heated at that unwelcome image, her nipples peaked also, then between her legs warmed.

Seemed like something about that idea turned her on.

While she was thinking about the why, he let go of her hand and found her plait, gripping it and her neck so as to slowly pull her lower. A smile grew in his eyes when he saw she wasn’t resisting. She should have.
This is a little presumptuous
, was her last thought before his lips met hers.

“Better,” he murmured then he kissed her softly a few times. She could feel him winding her plait around his hand. “I knew there was a good reason for you to wear your hair like this. Stay there.” He kissed her harder, surrounding her lips with his, taking what he wanted in such a male way and so arrogantly, that she found herself panting already, and shuddering.

That tug on her hair while his hand was at her throat...thoughts vaporized in the heat of swelling passion.

“You like that?”

“
Mmm
.” She wanted to be closer, skin to skin, and slid her hands down his arms.

“Good. I like doing it to you. Sit.” He rearranged them so she sat on his legs with hers to either side. It was comfortable, and terribly vulnerable, with her thighs wide open. His rigid cock brushed against her clit through their clothes, whenever she leaned in, or rubbed herself against him. Her moaning grew louder when he bit her neck and opened her shirt, button by button. His hand sneaked inside, into her crop top, then he paused, with finger and thumb holding her nipple. His kissing stopped too.

Eyes closed, she breathed awhile, knowing how harsh the noises were that she made, and how wet she was. She whispered, “Don’t stop.”

“No? Do you want me to fuck you? Is that the right Earth word, Ella?”

Of all the words to learn. Her eyelids fluttered open and she could’ve sworn she felt some part of her be absorbed by his gaze. There was a force there, in him, that drew her so hard.

“Yes. Please. But...no strings attached. I don’t want you to think this is forever.” She frowned, wanting him dreadfully, but knowing she must be clear. She didn’t know what rules he abided by.

“We will see. One time only, first?”

Phew.
“Yes.”

Then he bit the side of her neck, here, there, then at the top of the muscle, below her ear. “Put your hands on me. Open my pants. Take out my cock.”

Oh my.
She shut her eyes. Though she was eager, this would be the first alien man she’d ever done this with. She eventually looked down at him, at the bulge in his pants, and she put both her hands on him, and slowly she undid the fastening. The fastener was something like Velcro, but smooth on skin. His cock was clearly ready to perform, standing up proud and stiff when she freed it.

She gulped, a little awestruck, a little nervous. The head seemed bigger than on the cock of a man from Earth, but otherwise it was similar.

“Approve?” he asked, taking her hands and wrapping them around him. His cock pulsed against her palms and grew even larger, or so it seemed.

“Yes,” she said quietly.

“Stand up.” With his hands under the cheeks of her ass, he encouraged her and helped her up.

When she kissed him, using one hand to angle his cock toward her, while she began to lower herself, he stopped her, tightening his hands under her ass.

“Not yet.”

Her whine of frustration made him chuckle.

“Shhh. I want to make sure you’re ready.”

He stroked his fingers along the crotch of her underwear. Her practical black panties were all she’d been able to find in her messed-up bunkroom storage, but she guessed his fingers didn’t care because they were wandering in good places, tucking aside the sodden cloth, fondling her.

Embarrassing, how wet she was for him, this very first time. Why, she had no clue. In the past, men had taken ages of foreplay to get her this worked up.

She squeezed shut her eyes for his thumb was dipping delicately into her, and it was good, so
good
.

Her head had gone back and she gave a strangled whimper.

“I’m guessing,” he said, as he slid that thumb into her, deeper, along with a finger knuckle that pushed her lips apart, stretching her and circling...bumping into her hole, until both thumb and finger were penetrating her.

“Ohmigod.” She bounced a little, up, down, wanting something even bigger, preferably his cock. “You? Please?”

“Soon. If you’re like our females...this?” He popped out his thumb and applied it to her clit, working at her in soft circles, just as he leaned forward and sucked on her nipple.

“
Fff
...” She clutched his shoulder and the base of his cock, striving to insert that prize but he laughed again and kept toying with her, fucking her pussy with two fingers, making circles around her clit with that thumb, that awesome thumb.

“No, wait. I want...” She had this
need
to get him inside her, not just fingers. Him. His cock. But he refused to play that game and she shuddered, unable to stop a climax building and building, then thundering in. Her last cry cut short as she collapsed blindly onto him, her tongue tasting him where her lips met his skin.

His hands caught her, keeping her ass up in the air, and she could feel her moisture on her thighs.

“Oh. Oh. That was...” The words had gone. She hugged him, almost oblivious while she recovered.

“Now,” he whispered, “You can have me.” He drew her forward and made her sit.

The head of his cock
was
bigger. The damn thing, as it touched her entrance and pushed in, seemed to be carving a new hole all by itself. It sent shivers of new ecstasy spearing through her and she groaned, feeling pleasure reawakening. Irrevocable, unrelenting, and captive pleasure. The way he held her, she couldn’t leave, or extract him from inside her.

Her thighs quivered as he forced her lower, slowly, inch by inch taking her.

Damn.
Tunnel drilling machines had nothing on his cock.

“Stop. Wait.” She dug fingers into his biceps and he began to make her go up and down, each small thrust, taking a little more, conquering more, fucking her more.

When he was all the way in and she was sitting on his legs, she had to stop with her head tucked under.

“Hurts?” he whispered, turning to kiss her neck.

“Is good.” She shuddered, clenching in on his cock the small amount her walls could go. The stretch was the utmost. “Hurts and then doesn’t. Much. Fuck.” She squirmed on him. “Good, most of all.”

“Now I know you can take me...” He stood, still inside her, then he pulled out and let her stand also.

“Maybe we should go back to the bunk?” She wrapped her arms around his neck. Common sense had returned. Could she catch diseases? Babies? “Do we need condoms or whatever you use?”

“No. And no. Only the bondmated can get pregnant.”

His cock looked as rigid as any cock could be and even twitched as she looked at it.

“I can’t get pregnant?” she said absentmindedly, thinking she might need a crowbar to get that back inside her.

“No, you can’t. Find a bunk? No. Here.”

When she pouted, he turned her and had her lean over the console, with her breasts squashing to the panel. He dragged down her panties and, to her surprise, kneeled and used them to tie one of her ankles to a leg of the console.

“What?” She stared down. No one had ever done this. “You’re not planning anything weird?”