Daahn Rising (6 page)

“Yeah. Got it.”

The speaker went silent.

“It’s an intercom system,” Zondra offered. “When the speaker is off, the mic is, too.”

So MacNair had granted them privacy. Evan nodded.

Zondra reached for the lacy underwear, and Evan swept them into his hand. She stared up at him, her eye slits widened as a result of her climax.

“I believe I’ll keep these.” He slid them into his front pocket. “You can sit there and inspire me for a few minutes while I dress.” But there was no question that looking at her lithe body was going to keep him aroused.

Who am I kidding? Her scent on my skin will do that. Memories of her scent and touch will do it and have for more than a week.

If the order to sit naked while he dressed surprised or offended her, Zondra showed no sign of it.

Evan pulled his half-opened dungaree shirt on and tucked it in. He fastened his pants over it and decided to leave it open. SLAL knew why they were here. What sense did playing at social graces with them make?

None.
But that didn’t mean he was going to expose Zondra to them.

With exaggerated care, Evan smoothed her miniskirt down her thighs. Zondra rose against his hand, seemingly begging for another quick round before they docked.

“Soon,” he promised her. “As soon as they’re done with us, you’ll take me in every possible position there is.” He didn’t question it.

Zondra moaned at the command.

Evan stuffed her ripped shirt in his back pocket and retrieved the knotted T-shirt she’d slipped out of. He untied it and shook it out, then pulled it over her head. It was vastly oversized, covering her chest and extending past her skirt. To someone that didn’t know better, it would appear to be all she was wearing, especially with her scrumptious nipples tenting the fabric. Just seeing her in his clothes made him hard.

Again, Zondra tipped her hips in silent offer.

Silent plea.

Evan was on the cusp of talking himself into another quickie when MacNair tapped a warning that he intended to enter through the control pod door.

Evan stood, disgusted with himself that he’d wasted their chance deliberating. He lifted Zondra to her feet, then called out a terse, “Come on in,” to her godfather.

MacNair slipped into the main cabin and focused his gaze in their general direction. A moment of stillness passed.

Evan stiffened in response. “Problem, MacNair?” he challenged.

“No problem. You’re more fully dressed than most soon-to-be-mated men are, I suppose.”

“Would having my dick hanging out be more appropriate?” he growled in response.

“No!” Zondra and MacNair’s exclamations came in unison.

Their reaction forced a smile to his face.

Zondra huffed in seeming exasperation. “Are we going to —”

“Absolutely.” He waved MacNair toward the outer door.

Halfway there, MacNair stopped, lifted something small from the table’s surface, and stuffed it into his shirt pocket.

“Pap?” Zondra asked.

“Just a button.” He peered at her as he worked the door controls. “I imagine I’ll find more of them.”

“I imagine you will,” Evan agreed pleasantly. He scooped the discarded glasses from the floor and offered them back to Zondra.

“You won’t need those,” MacNair informed them. “When there is a Xxanian aboard, all areas of the lab he or she will visit are set to a Xxanian’s comfort level.”

“Good. Seeing her eyes really fires my cock for more.”

The admiral shot him a dirty look, then turned his back. The door opened with a hiss of equalizing pressure, letting in a blast of warm, moist air.

Chapter Four

If Zondra could blush, she imagined her cheeks would be a fiery red. It seemed Evan and Pap Mac liked needling each other.

At my expense.
It was a Dominant show to them, she was sure.
Dominants must establish a line of ascension.

Pap Mac went down the ramp first. Evan took her hand and preceded Zondra down in Mac’s wake.

The lighting wasn’t the only thing set to her comfort level. The air was made to simulate a nest environment. It was humid and comfortably warm, smelling of green, growing plants and a faint hint of musk and clove.

Not enough to seem ostentatious to the Xxan but enough to hint at home.
Zondra wondered if the intent was to put mating Xxan at ease with the environment.

There was a group of six scientists waiting for them at the far side of the landing bay. One stepped forward and extended his hand to them, and Evan released Zondra’s hand to take it and observe the niceties.

“Welcome aboard SLAL One, Petty Officer Duncan.”

He nodded and released the scientist’s hand. “Duncan will be fine.”

“I’m Doctor Rayn, head of Xxanian studies.” He motioned to one after another, firing off names and job descriptions.

The one he’d identified as Doctor Tamsen reached for Zondra, and she recoiled behind Evan. Before she could reason herself out of the instinctual response, Evan had planted himself firmly between them.

Pap Mac slid a glance over them and took a step closer, blocking any attempt Tamsen might make to reach around Evan. “Your men don’t know better than this, Steve?”

Dr. Rayn scowled at Tamsen, and the latter darkened in a flush.

“We hadn’t anticipated such a powerful bond between them, considering how long they’ve been separated.” He tipped his head to Evan. “Our apologies. I assume you’ll want to be present for Zondra’s testing.”

“Expect it.” His muscles were strung tight, and the Dominant show made his scent even more enticing.

Zondra wrapped herself around him, burying her face in his throat, moaning at the heavy musk she’d soon carry. She looked up and met Rayn’s startled gaze.

The head scientist cleared his throat. “You couldn’t stop them?”

“Did you really think I could?” Pap Mac countered. “Duncan was still affected when we got to him. We’re lucky he didn’t launch into a killing rage.”

“And he stayed away
how
long?” Tamsen gushed out.

“Can we get this over with?” Evan barked in return. “I don’t intend to wait forever to finish getting acquainted with my mate.”

The scientists shot wary glances at one another.

“What is that look for?” he demanded.

Rayn cleared his throat. “We need you to abstain for a while.”

“How... long?”

Zondra inhaled his increased scent.
By the
Seir-God
!
As hard as it was going to be on Evan, it was going to be just as hard on her. And there was no way Evan would allow them to be separated while they waited. She repeated his question.

“That depends on the two of you.”

****

“You need to do what?” Evan asked in disbelief.

Dr. Rayn’s assistant peeked around nervously. “We need to get a mold of your erect length to make the collection bags from.”

“And you’ll do this... how, precisely?”

“You need to be erect for ten minutes. And still. You definitely need to stand still for it.”

Words deserted him. Out of the corner of his eye, Evan saw Zondra smirking. He scowled at her. “You think this is funny.”

“Well... yes. I guess. But I don’t see the problem. I can keep you erect for that long, easily.”

“Yeah. Erect but without any chance of sating myself.” He wanted to grumble curses at the scientists for their decreed moratorium on sex.

The assistant looked to the far corner of the room, probably issuing a silent plea for someone else to tell Evan he wasn’t getting any. He nodded. “One time, after the mold is completed,” he agreed. “But then —”

“Nothing until the collection begins,” Evan parroted.

“The good news is —”

“There is some? Stars be praised.” He was being sarcastic and more than a little juvenile, but the lack — with Zondra around to stimulate his senses — was unbearable.

The assistant darkened to crimson. He cleared his throat. “The good news is that, once the mold is made, we can have the first of the collection bags made in about two hours. After that, it will be whatever you want until we’ve collected enough of your various fluids. As long as you use the collection bags every time, that is.”

That was enough to make him hard. “You better clear out the minute that mold comes off my cock, because I’m not waiting for anything.” And he certainly wasn’t going to stand for someone watching him have sex with Zondra. He’d regained that much control over himself.

“Got it. Anytime you’re ready, Duncan.”

Zondra turned toward him, her hands going to work on his trousers.

Evan lowered his head and inhaled her pungent
Zhigaaah
. It seemed sex with him had strengthened it again. It wasn’t enough to smell it. He sucked at her throat, leaving love bites in his wake while he feasted on the musk.

The door behind him closed, most probably some of the scientists clearing out. The assistant remained.

She stroked him, moaning against his temple. His trousers retreated, baring his ass to whichever scientists remained across the room.

The assistant opened a metal lid at the edge of the table.

Evan glared at the semisolid mass in the receptacle beneath. “I see you were prepared for this,” he grumbled.
And did it have to be pink?

Zondra nibbled at his earlobe and thrust her hips against his.

“Oh yeah. That was the visualization I needed.” Evan lifted her by the waist and settled Zondra on the table, her legs spread around the pot of pink goo. There were appealing pink places that he could use to make him forget where he was really placing his cock.

She wrapped her legs around him and dragged Evan toward her body. Forcing himself to angle his cock down into the waiting mold material took all his newly recovered self-control.

“All the way in,” the assistant reminded him. “Balls, too.”

“Fuck off,” Evan grumbled.

Zondra urged him closer to her, and Evan grimaced at the warm ooze sucking at the base of his balls. The urge to pull out and tell them to get bent rode him hard.

“That’s right,” the intruder complimented him. “Now just hold it there for ten minutes.”

“You want to eat this shit?” Evan snapped.

The offensive little man retreated, and Evan focused on Zondra.

She dipped her head and laid kisses on his chest. Her nimble little fingers undid the few buttons he’d fastened on his shirt. When they were all open, she straightened and pressed her lips to his chin, inviting his face down.

Their kisses were deep and slow. Zondra wrapped her hands around his waist. At every shift of his weight, Zondra dug in her nails or tightened her legs to remind him not to move.

Evan growled in frustration.

“Do you want to do this twice?” she asked.

“And wait longer than two hours? Not a chance.”

Zondra stretched up and nibbled at his lips. “Then we should get on with this, I think.”

“Five more minutes,” Rayn’s assistant murmured.

Just five minutes. Already half done.

It was endless.

Waiting the two hours will be worse. By far.

Just kiss her.
Surely he could spend five minutes kissing Zondra.

It was easier thought than done. By the time the assistant announced four minutes left, his muscles were strung tight in restraint. Another minute and sweat rolled down his bare chest. Another...

Stars burn, a second attempt doesn’t sound that bad, if I can have her now.

“Okay. Let me get you out of that.” The young man moved closer and reached between them.

Evan tensed, then calmed in the realization that he was reaching for the hardening goo. “I thought you said ten minutes,” he complained.

“I lied. I knew it would take a minute or two to get you out of this. If I told you eight and took two more —”

“I’d’ve kicked your ass,” Evan assured him.

The assistant chuckled darkly. “Good thing I lied to you then.”

Against his better judgment, Evan smiled. “You’re okay, kid.”

“Tim. Tim Carew.”

The solidified mass pulled away from Evan’s body with an odd tingling sensation. Tim waved him back, and his cock slid free.

“Great. Now if you don’t mind —”

Carew pulled the receptacle out of the table. “I get it. There’s a bed through there.” He jerked his thumb toward the door opposite the corridor. “If you can wait that long.”

With that, he was gone through the corridor door. It closed behind him.

Zondra started working her skirt up. Evan took one look at the view, scooped her up, and headed for the promised bed.

****

There was no denying that Evan was at the edges of control. Zondra wasn’t certain what he’d do when they reached the bed, but it would be an adventure. She was sure that the next two hours would drive them both nearly mad.

His grumbled curse brought her head around. Zondra didn’t have to question what had him so pissed off.

The mirror took up the top half and two-thirds of the length of the wall to the left of the king-size bed. There was little question it was a two-way mirror with an observation room on the opposite side.

“I am covering that fucking thing,” he promised.

The speaker in the wall next to the mirror squawked. “
Not this time, Duncan.
”

Rayn.
Zondra considered shooting a rude Xxanian gesture at the mirrors.

The head doctor continued. “
And not in the bathroom either. Not now.
”

“I said I wasn’t going to put up with anyone watching us,” Evan warned him.

Zondra silently offered her agreement. If there was one thing a Xxanian woman learned, it was to stay out of a battle between Dominants, and she didn’t doubt that Rayn was a human alpha, though she hadn’t tongue-scented the human to be sure.

As if proving that point, Rayn pushed back. “
Are you saying you can promise you won’t break the rules set for you?
” the scientist asked with exaggerated calm.