Tangling With Topper (3 page)

“Greetings, Glacieran. Why are you naked?”

Unable to stop herself, Topper snorted at her own question, but there simply wasn’t a polite way to ask a strange naked alien why he was saluting them with his erection. His eyebrows drew together as if he hadn’t quite understood her statement. Topper fought back a laugh because it would be even ruder than what he was doing.

“Research told me your climate was inhospitable to me. I thought this would be the best way to deal with your planet’s hotter temperatures.”

Topper waved her hand in front of his stomach, nearly brushing his still rising erection in the process. She blushed over his eyes widening as much as hers at her near miss, but also felt panic when her magic fizzled off her fingertips in a short burst of purple sparks as it failed to clothe him.

She stepped back and away. Her body suddenly felt weakened, drained, and sexually needy for the first time in several decades. Of course, it was also the first time she’d seen a prime nude male in several decades as well, so maybe that explained the last thing. But why wasn’t her magic working? It must have been the portal. Maybe it had drained her more than she’d realized.

Moonie tapped her on her shoulder. “Want me to give it a shot? Seems a shame to cover all that up, but what the hell… I’ll give it a go.”

Topper silently nodded. She felt Moonie step to her side and wave a hand. Their naked alien fisted his Johnson protectively and stepped back from both of them.

“Please cease whatever you’re trying to do and tell me how I’ve offended you,” he commanded.

Topper rolled her eyes at his order and held up a hand when the giggling and whispering grew loud around her. She looked over at Theo and motioned for him to approach them. When Theo arrived, she waved a hand over his bottom half and Theo’s pants completely disappeared, just like they were supposed to.

“Hey!” Theo yelled.

Stunned, they all watched Theo use one hand to cover a penis as equally impressive as the naked alien’s.

Topper sighed with relief to know her magic was working. It just hadn’t worked on the Glacieran. That was strange too, but she didn’t want to overreact and let him see that her failure had concerned her.

“Damn it, Topper,” Theo exclaimed.

“Sorry, Theo. Just checking,” she said cheerfully, waving her hand again.

When Theo’s pants reappeared, the irritated dragon patted them down checking for his keys and other belongings. “Don’t do that ever again. It wasn’t funny.”

“No, it wasn’t, but I had to know. It was a matter of… security. Now we know something we didn’t know a few minutes ago.”

Topper’s gaze swung from Theo’s sigh and nod back to the Glacieran when he spoke again.

“Ah… now I see the reason for your strange discomfort around me. Conventions on your planet require the covering of one’s mating organs. I should have guessed Earth’s primitive classification might have also meant prudish about mating. But you never know. I haven’t been off my own planet in over seventy-five of your Earth years. I read all of Frost’s observations, but he neglected to talk about those sorts of habits.”

Topper’s gaze came back to her naked alien guest. “Yes, we cover them and keep them covered at all times. What’s your name, Glacieran?”

“Stark,” he said, bowing again.

“More like
Stark Naked
,” Moonie declared. “Is that your porn star name, big fella?”

“I do not use more than one name,” Stark insisted, lifting his chin.

Topper sighed at the huffy irritation in his voice. If he understood what Moonie had meant by the porn star comment, they might as well kiss their efforts in intergalactic diplomacy goodbye. Despite his nudity and his uncompromising stare, she could see a glimpse of the seasoned warrior Frost had warned her about. She didn’t want to make it worse.

“Stop harassing him,” Topper ordered. She swallowed hard as she fought not to look at the impressively hard body part Stark still held in one hand. “Um… got any clothes with you… Stark?” She bit the inside of her cheek when he let go of himself.

Ignoring his erection, Stark calmly pressed a button on some kind of tight fitting arm band and pulled a large swatch of purple cloth from it.

Topper bit the inside of her cheek harder trying not to laugh.

“Oh, this I have got to see. Weak bladder… don’t fail me now,” Moonie pleaded in a whisper.

Without looking at her, Topper reached out and smacked Moonie’s arm hard enough to make her yelp.

Stark shook out the strip of purple. Figures it would be her favorite shade of that color. She watched him unfold the strip and deftly shake it out into a thin square. Then he folded it diagonally until he’d made a very large purple triangle. After doing so, he proceeded to fashion it into a diaper-like covering for his crotch before tying it as expertly as any bush-born aboriginal could have, knotting it securely in the front.

Topper smiled at his success. And Glacierans thought
they
were the primitives?

All eyes remained focused on him as Stark adjusted himself and carefully tucked his still partially hard dick behind the purple covering. Topper fought off a shiver as his strange eyes sought hers out once more while he finished tucking himself away.

“There. All better now?” he asked, lifting both hands into the air.

“Yes. Much better,” Topper answered serenely, matching her tone to his.

Then she turned her back to Stark, covered her mouth with her hand, and bent over to laugh harder than she had ever laughed in her life. She held her stomach until she managed to get some control back. She took a deep breath and straightened again when she felt him standing very close behind her.

“Excuse me. Were you bent over to present your rear to me because you wished to mate? I didn’t think you were aware of being the reason for my unfortunate arousal. I offer my apologies and my promise to control my reactions to you better. It might be a side effect of the portal travel. I confess I got very excited walking through all that raw energy of yours.”

At the end of his speech, Topper snapped back around to glare at him. He’d closed the distance between them so much that she found herself now speaking to his impressive chest. If she tilted her head, all she would see was the space beneath his chin.

“You’re surrounded by more than twenty staring females, and you want me to believe
I’m
the one who caused your arousal problem?”

Stark frowned as she glared. “Yes… because it is truth. However, my statement was an explanation, not an accusation of blame. I am endeavoring to be polite, but you seem determined to misread my every statement. Are you always so irrational?”

Topper shook her head and backed away until she could look up and glare into his shifting silver eyes. “I’m starting to think Moonie was right about you. How about you keep your endeavoring enclosed in your purple diaper while you’re here. Now let’s get this over with so you can take another arousing trip through the portal and go back to where you came from.”

Topper turned to walk away and saw the other witches still eyeing Stark. “Stop gawking at him. You saw what just happened to my power. Go home and recharge. Do it now.”

She brushed by them, refusing to be stalled from her quest.

“Theo,” she called over her shoulder. “See if you have something to fit our very large guest. Basic clothing shouldn’t over-heat him that much.”

“Uh… Topper?” Moonie began.

Topper shook her head and didn’t turn. “Save it for later, Moonie. Come on, Stark. I’ll show you the green meanies we’ve caught.”

***

Moonie looked at Theo when Topper and Stark had disappeared.

“Did I just hear the naked alien admit to being attracted to Topper?” Theo asked.

“Oh, thank the Fates,” Moonie declared, putting a hand on her chest. “I thought my hearing was messed up. My body parts just aren’t as reliable as they used to be.”

Theo grunted. “Wonder why Topper’s power didn’t work on him? That’s as alarming as he is distracting. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her fail before.”

Moonie shrugged her bony shoulders. “I don’t know, Theo. Mine didn’t work fully either. All Stark Naked felt was a tickle on his sausage from what I did, but that might have been because I was zapped from opening the portal. No one comes close to having her level of power, not even Nonny or Lacey. If Topper’s got a problem, what does that mean for the security of Magic?”

Theo frowned. Dragon smoke leaked from both his human nostrils, leaving trails as he worried.

“It means that after we send this guy and the green meanies back, we need to agree about not opening the portal again. Who knows what might get through next time? It’s one to thing to protect Magic, but we’re not equipped to defend the whole Earth from a whole planet of people like Stark.”

They both sighed as they watched the alien’s large purple-covered ass moving through town behind a stomping Topper.

Topper stopped in front of her house and held up a hand to slow them down. Her wards were practically vibrating in alarm. She glanced at her large, alien shadow and lifted her chin. Stark tilted his head down and raised an eyebrow over her gesture. She felt like a bug under a microscope.

“This is my home. Do not touch anything unless I say it’s okay.”

Stark stiffly nodded as he watched the strange, hostile female climb a series of small platforms until she reached a large wooden landing. He imitated her actions until he was standing behind her on the platform. She held both hands palms out facing the door and was chanting something.

Her power was erratic, but it wrapped strongly around him. The only being he’d ever known who rivaled her was the Goddess herself.

His gaze roamed the back of Topper as he waited for further instructions. That turned out to be a misjudgment as his body once again reacted to her. Soon he was straining against his pathetic covering and it was all he could do not to lean in and sniff to see if she was aroused.

To keep from doing so, Stark imagined he and Topper being together on the rug in front of his crystal fire at his residence. He imagined her face relaxed in pleasure instead of wearing her current scowl. The vision was surprisingly easy to hold in his mind—natural even.

The witch provoked some very strange feelings in him. Her need of him was nearly palpable. Trusting the instincts the Goddess had given him, he had to pursue his interest.

“Are you mated?” Stark asked softly.

Topper froze mid-chant at the question. She looked over her shoulder. “I can’t talk right now. I need to focus on the words.”

“Sorry. Was your mated status too personal a query?”

“Yes. Stop asking me,” Topper ordered through gritted teeth. “I’m way too old for this nonsense. Let me finish altering my wards so we can go inside.”

She turned back to her door. Nearly yelling out the call to action part of the spell, the energy strands woven over her entry unwound like a magic spider web.

Pushing open the door at last, Topper sighed as she crossed the threshold. Her home was a special place for her. Now aliens had invaded it, but for the moment, not even magic could change that fact.

“Follow me. The green meanies are out in the sunroom.” She headed that direction, expecting Stark to follow, and he did.

“You put the dakkari in your home? Amazing. I’m surprised you even still have them. They are very cunning when it comes to escaping all sorts of traps.”

“Not my traps—they’re magical,” Topper explained. She motioned to a set of plastic cubes lined up on the table. “Their containers allow in light and air, but do not allow them escape. I’ve been feeding them leafy vegetables to keep them alive. They don’t seem to mind. Though I have been concerned about their lack of struggling. Something tells me they’re not normally this calm.”

Stark was surprised more than he’d expected to be at how well Topper had constrained them. He walked to the small plastic cubes and studied the miniature dakkari inside each. Several were strangely malformed.

“Did the trip through the portal cause them to shrink and change forms?”

Topper snorted and shook her head. “They’re under a magical spell and will stay that size until you’re ready to take them back. Any deformities you see are temporary. Not all those who helped me catch them are equally skilled in magic.”

Stark looked from creature to creature. Outside of a few strange features, they appeared mostly unharmed. He turned back to face the witch responsible for their capture.

Now he knew why Frost had contacted Glacier for help.

“Where are the beeberg and her mates?” Stark asked.

Topper shook her head. “I’m sorry—the what?”

Stark frowned and thought hard, searching for words in her language. “The beeberg is their female leader. She takes two males as her mates. They never leave her side.”

Topper sighed in frustration. “Well… damn. So we are missing three of them.”

“Yes, if they passed through with the rest, and my guess is they did. A dakkari pack travels together, but the beeberg is the decision maker. She’s the one in control.”

Topper nodded. “Okay. How do we catch her and her mates?”

“Strategies vary by situation. How long have they been missing?” Stark asked.

“Not quite a week—uh… almost seven Earth days,” Topper corrected, remembering how Frost had struggled with understanding time.

Her gaze glided across Stark’s smooth, broad back and down to his trim waist as he turned back to inspect the captured ones again. He was more attractive than any of the other Glacier males she’d seen on Frost’s planet during her visit. She grinned at what she knew was hidden behind his purple cloth and let her gaze wander down the backs of his legs to his feet as he paced in front of the cubes.

All she knew about Glacierans was what Frost had shared with her, but she didn’t need magic to see Stark was restless. She recognized the signs because she often felt exactly the same. Despite his youthful looking body, an older, more impatient soul was in residence.

“I’m surprised the beeberg and her mates have not taken hosts yet. You would have known if they had because the host creatures would have been acting strangely by now. And they would have come back for the rest of their pack, even if they are being held captive in your home.”