Chapter Nine

 

Anya cleaned up her plate and then headed down to the supply room. Her heart was pounding the moment that she stepped into the hallway where the room was located. She was about to be in a small room, alone with Kromin. Would he make a move on her? Jupiter, she hoped so. She was tired of holding back around him. She was tired of the two of them dancing around their feelings for each other. Sure, she knew it had been necessary back in the mines. There had been nowhere for them to be alone, and it’s not like they’d wanted to put on a show for the rest of the miners. But now, they were here. Alone in the Zocronian hospital with no pressing work needs. Maybe right now would finally be the moment where they gave in to the passion that had been building in them both.

The door to the supply room was slightly ajar, so Anya pushed it open wider and peeked in. The place was a mess. Papers and boxes were everywhere, and in the middle of those papers and boxes sat Kromin with his head in his hands.

“Kromin?” Anya asked. She had said his name so that he would know she was coming and so she wouldn’t startle him. But he had been lost so deeply in his own thoughts that he jumped anyway, sending the pile of papers nearest to him scattering across the floor.

“Oh, sludge!” he muttered as he tried and failed to catch the remainder of the stack before it fell off his lap and into the chaos as well. Then he turned to look at Anya with a somewhat dejected look on his face. “I’ve been trying all morning to get this place organized. It’s not going very well, as you can see.”

Anya took a few tentative steps into the room. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. I just thought maybe you could use some help, but it looks like I may have done more harm than good.” She glanced guiltily down at the pile of papers Kromin had just dropped. But he shook his head at her.

“They weren’t organized. They were just more papers I need to go through. I haven’t been through our supply records since I took over the hospital. I’ve always just gone with my gut when ordering supplies. I order more than I think we’ll need of all the most important things, and it’s always worked out. Until now.”

Anya came to sit beside him. She almost had to hold back a laugh as she looked around the room. “Organization really isn’t your thing, is it?”

He groaned. “No. I should have hired an assistant years ago. But the last group of doctors never had an assistant and they seemed to handle things just fine. I thought I could do the same.”

“Well, you can’t,” Anya said flatly as she looked around the room. “But even if you could, why would you want to? What have you been trying to prove? Your talent is being a good doctor. Other people don’t know the first thing about being a doctor, but are really sludging good at keeping things organized. I say you find a Zocronian looking for a job who knows how to get a place in order, and you hire them to go at this.”

Kromin sighed. “I guess you’re right. Even if we have a slow week as far as patients are concerned, the thought of sitting back here shuffling papers is nearly unbearable. I don’t care about most of these papers, anyway. I was only looking though them because I was trying to see if there are any records as to the actual amount of skinsealer we’ve ordered in the past. That’s the supply we’re the lowest on, but I’m confused about how it’s so low. I’ve never come even close to running out in the past. Yeah, we’ve missed a few shipments of it by now, but we still should have had a little bit left. The next minor wound that needs closing is going to wipe out our supply. I shudder to think of what will happen if someone needs surgery.”

“Hmm, well, you’ve had quite a few unexpected surgeries in just the last week. There was Maisie’s ABR surgery, then that little boy’s appendectomy. The open heart surgery. And the miner. You used a ton of skinsealer to patch up that miner.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. There’s been a lot lately. But maybe we need to keep a bigger stockpile of skinsealer in the future, just in case.”

Anya studied Kromin’s face for a moment. He looked exhausted, and frustration was written across his face. She gave him a friendly poke in the arm. “I think what you need to do right now is take a break. You’ve been at this all day, and staring at this mess isn’t going to magically improve it anyway.”

Kromin nodded somewhat absentmindedly. “I suppose you’re right.” Then he gave her a sidelong glance. “What I really need is a good distraction.”

Anya felt her body instantly heating up at the look in his eyes. This is what she had really come down here for: to see the desire that was written across his face now. The way he wore his passion so plainly on his face emboldened her, and she lowered her eyelashes coyly. “Oh? And what sort of a distraction?”

“I think the beautiful woman sitting in front of me would do just fine.” He leaned toward her, his head angled slightly like he was going to kiss her. Anya wanted nothing more than to be kissed by him, and yet for some reason she panicked.

“Wait, Kromin. What are you doing? We’re in the middle of the hospital. In the middle of the supply room. I’m not sure this is the most appropriate place to…to…”

“To what?” he asked with a smirk. “To be distracted?”

“Well, uh…yeah.”

He laughed, reaching up one of his big blue fingers to affectionately trace a line down her face. “Trust me, Anya. No one is coming down here anytime soon. And even if they did, I don’t care. I still make the rules around here, and I just made a new one.”

“Which is?”

“Which is, when the hottest girl in the Seven Galaxies shows up in my supply room, I take the chance to make love to her and don’t give a sludge whether anyone else thinks it’s appropriate or not.”

Anya felt like his words sent fire through her body. Kromin had never been so direct in telling her that he wanted her. Of course, they hadn’t had many chances to be alone since the mines, but still. She had been expecting him to work up to talking about the subject of making love. Instead he had jumped right in.

“Kromin, I, uh, well.” She forced herself to shut her mouth. She sounded like a blubbering idiot.

“What?” he asked, his finger still caressing her face. “Don’t you want this too?”

“I do! It’s just that…here? And shouldn’t we talk about things first? About where we stand with each other and that sort of thing?” Anya still felt like she was blabbing and not making much sense.

“Is that what you want right now? To talk?”

Anya looked down, unable to meet his eyes. He looked so intense right now. “Well, no. I don’t really want to talk.”

“What do you want?”

“I…” Just say it, Anya. Just tell him. “I want you.”

He pulled her chin up so that she was looking into his eyes once again. “Say it again, only look me in the eyes this time.”

“I want you.” Her voice was barely more than a whisper, but she managed to keep eye contact with him. He smiled, the warmth of it spreading from his face all the way to the very core of her.

“Good,” he said, his voice low and husky. “Because I want you, too. And listen to me: when a Zocronian man wants something, he doesn’t wait. He takes it then and there. So I’m going to take you in this room, right here and now. No one is going to stop me. No one is going to come by here, and even if they did, I don’t care. This is my domain. And when my woman is in my domain, I claim her.”

Anya shivered with delight when he called her his woman. “Am I yours?” she asked, forcing herself to keep her eyes locked on his, even though it was difficult. The heat in his gaze right now was more intense than anything she’d ever seen before. Her whole body was responding to that heat. She could feel hot pressure building in her core, and between her legs she was growing wet with desire. How could he do this to her, with just a look and the touch of one finger to her face? She was completely lost under his spell.

“Mine,” he growled, his voice going even lower. “You’re all mine. I know we got started off on the wrong foot, and I’m sorry for that. But I promise I’m going to make everything up to you. Starting right now.”

With that, he leaned in and put his lips on hers. Anya moaned as his rough, strong lips covered her smaller, softer ones. He had kissed her several times before in the mines, when they weren’t in danger of having too much of an audience. But those kisses had been quick and stolen, and she could already tell that this kiss was going to be anything but quick. It was leading somewhere.

Somewhere good.

She could feel her thighs start to tremble as he pulled her up into his lap. He positioned her so that her legs were spread, one on each side of his hips. This allowed her to fully feel his growing erection, which strained against his doctor’s scrubs as it poked insistently at her scrubs. Her whole body trembled, and the juices of her desire grew wetter and wetter between her legs. She imagined what it would feel like to be sitting like this with no clothes in between them. She had a feeling she was going to find out soon enough.

He wasn’t in too much of a hurry, though. Right now, he was focusing on kissing her. And what a kiss it was. He slid his tongue past her lips and into her mouth, surprising her once again with how rough and strong it was. She would never get tired of feeling that tongue. It danced with her tongue, and she closed her eyes as a thousand tingling sensations radiated out from their kiss and into the rest of her body. He was magnificent.

His erection had grown so enormous and hard now that she could barely believe it was real. How was it possible for anyone to be this big? Would he even fit inside of her? This thought only made her tremble harder. She had a feeling that he would make room for himself deep within her, and that when he did, it was going to be the best feeling she had ever experienced in her life.

The thought briefly crossed her mind that she was crazy. Why was she doing this? Why was she making out with a man who, up until a few days ago, had been one of her worst enemies? She’d thought that no one could ever be as insufferable as him. He’d been arrogant and selfish, putting his own petty wants ahead of the good of an entire planet. She had always thought that the purpose of being a doctor was to serve the community, and his actions had definitely not served his community. No matter how good he was at practicing medicine, and no matter how handsome he was, he hadn’t been a good citizen. And Anya hadn’t wanted anything to do with that. Sure, she had been part of a smuggling crew, so one could argue that she didn’t have much room to point fingers. But she felt like it was different. She had been responsible to take care of the crew on the Starburst, and she had done that. Anya believed that everyone deserved to be healthy and free of pain. Even smugglers.

Kromin, on the other hand, hadn’t seemed to care that his actions had put his planet’s people at risk for disease and pain. At the very least, he hadn’t realized how great the risk was. But then he had changed. And perhaps the only thing that impressed Anya more than someone who was an exemplary citizen from the beginning was someone who overcame their shortcomings and changed for the better. Kromin had done that. She’d been so frustrated with him at times that she’d thought it was impossible that he would ever step up and be the leader the hospital truly needed. But he had done it, and Anya found that his courage to do so was a major turn-on for her.

She wanted this courageous Zocronian to be hers. And, wonder of wonder, he wanted her to be his. What more could she ask for? She was tempted to overthink things—to insist that they talk first and work out all of the details of their relationship before they went any further physically. But that was her reasonable, logical side talking. And for once, Anya was way too turned on to be reasonable. She had never felt this attracted to anyone, and that fact alone was enough to make her keep going.

She had longed for this her whole life. She had wanted to feel pure, unbridled passion for someone. To be so caught up in desire that she could not hold back. To know what it felt like to truly burn for someone.

She was burning now. Kromin’s fire consumed her. Every movement of his lips against hers, every touch of his finger, was another spark, adding to the inferno. How was it possible to feel this hot without actually going up in flames?

Kromin knew just how to build up the intensity of his touch. He had started out slow and steady, but he was gradually moving faster and with more intensity. He’d had his hands on the side of face, caressing her cheeks with his giant thumbs as he drove his tongue deep into her mouth. But now, he moved his hands down to tear off the plain green scrubs top that she was wearing. He pulled it off her head, only breaking their kiss for a split second as he removed the shirt. Then he tore at her bra, not even bothering with the clasp as he ripped it away from her body, leaving her breasts open and exposed in front of him.

He did break their kiss then, leaning back slightly to look down and admire the parts of her body that were newly naked.

“You are incredible,” he whispered, cupping one full breast in each hand. Anya closed her eyes for a moment, drinking in the sensation of his hands on her breasts. Those hands of his were so strong and warm. She felt like putty, melting at his touch, and free for him to mold and move however he wanted. Her nipples were hard with desire, and she ached for him to explore them as well. She wanted his fingers all over her, but especially on her nipples.

Either he sensed her desire, or he was simply overcome with desire of his own. Either way, in the next moment he did something even better than just putting his fingers on her nipples. Instead, he put his lips there as well. With one hand, his warm, rough thumb rubbed against the hard nub of one nipple. The other hand cupped her other breast as he lowered his lips to the second nipple. When his warm, wet mouth closed over that nipple, Anya thought she was going to die from sheer ecstasy. Electricity sizzled between his tongue and her hard, sensitive nub, and the tingling shock of it spread through every part of her. When he switched to using his teeth to nibble at her, she nearly lost it.

“Kromin,” she cried out. She could only say his name, but it was enough for him to know that she was pleased. He grunted happily, then switched his teeth to her other nipple, sending a fresh wave of electricity through her. Anya had never had a man move so slowly and with such deliberation. It’s like Kromin was taking his sweet time, making sure that he was doing exactly the things that would pleasure Anya the most.

And oh, was she ever feeling that pleasure. She almost felt like she could fall over the edge into an orgasm just from what he was doing to her breasts. Was she going to be able to contain it at all when he started to move lower?

She was about to find out.

He stood suddenly, holding her up by her ass as he did. Then he let her legs slide to the floor so she was standing in front of him. He moved to push down her pants and underwear, making her completely naked within seconds. He stepped back and admired her for a moment, just the way he had admired her breasts when he first took her shirt off.

“Sludge me,” he said in a husky whisper as his eyes grazed over her. “I’ve never seen any woman of any species look so beautiful. Your curves are just…phenomenal.”

Anya looked down at her feet, feeling suddenly self-conscious. She had always been on the curvy side, and over the years she’d been teased about it quite a bit. Was Kromin truly being sincere now, or was he just teasing her? She wasn’t sure, and she wouldn’t be able to bear it if he decided to make fun of her. But in the next instant, he put her mind at ease.

“Hey,” he said softly, stepping closer to her and once again lifting her chin so that she was forced to look into his eyes. “Why do you keep doing that?”

“Doing what?” Anya was trembling at his touch.

“Every time I give you a compliment, you look away or look down, like you don’t believe me.”

Anya shrugged. “I guess I’m just not used to people complimenting me, especially about my body. In my experience, if someone is saying something about my body directly, they’re making fun of me.”

Kromin’s eyes widened, as though he couldn’t believe what she was telling him. “Are you kidding me? I’ve never seen anyone as intoxicating as you. And I mean that.” He lifted his hands and cupped her cheeks, then slowly let his palms slide down her neck, over her shoulders, down her arms, and onto her stomach. He reached behind her and grabbed her ass, then used that leverage to pull her closer to him. Anya’s breasts felt like they were on fire as they pressed up against his chest, and she could hardly stand the passionate pressure building within her core as Kromin’s huge erection pressed against her mound, just above her dripping wet entrance. She only hated that he still had his clothes on. Her skin craved him. She wanted to feel him without this thin layer of fabric between them. But Kromin wasn’t thinking about his own clothes right now.

“Look at me, and listen to me,” he ordered. She looked up at him, surprised to see how much the color in his eyes had changed. It had gone from a light gray to a dark, velvety black. Anya only trembled harder when she realized how much emotion he must be feeling for his eyes to turn that dark.

“You are beautiful,” Kromin said, his voice taking on a note of authority. His tone said that he would not be argued with on this point. “I don’t make idle compliments, and I don’t make a habit of making fun of women’s bodies. When I tell you that you look incredible, I mean it. Understand?”

Anya nodded, her lips pressed together as she desperately tried to still the shaking she could still feel across her entire body.

“Good. Now that we’re clear on that, let me tell you exactly how I feel about your body. It is absolute perfection. Looking at it underneath your scrubs was always enough to turn me on, but seeing it completely with nothing hindering my view is almost more than I can bear. I think I’m going to have to claim that perfect body of yours right now.”

With every word he spoke, the tingling warmth inside of Anya grew. She wasn’t going to last more than a few seconds if he put that giant dick of his inside of her. But she didn’t care. She had never wanted anything more. With a sudden rush of boldness, she reached for the hem of his shirt.

“Well, if you’re going to claim me, then you’re going to have to get rid of these clothes. Besides, it’s only fair. If I’m going to be completely naked, then you should be too.”

She pulled the shirt up and tried to pull it off his head, which wasn’t an easy task since he was so much taller than her. She managed, though, and after a few moments of struggle his chest was bare in front of her. She took in its beauty, its broad, blue strength, the same way that he had taken in her curves. And then she moved on to pushing off his pants and underwear. She made quick work of that—the task was somewhat easier since unlike when she removed his shirt, the fact that he was taller than her didn’t matter here.

She didn’t let herself look directly between his legs as she got rid of his clothes. She felt shy and like she wasn’t quite brave enough to look directly at his dick. But finally, she took a deep breath and dared to take a peek. She couldn’t help but gasp at what she saw.

He was huge. Absolutely enormous. She had known this, of course, but she hadn’t been able to tell by feeling him underneath his clothes just how enormous. His stiff rod was the biggest thing she had ever seen on any man across the Seven Galaxies. Not only that, but it was ridged.

“Are you freaking kidding me?” she asked, looking up at him with wide eyes. “You’re this big? Really? And ridged?”

He looked confused by this. “Of course I’m ridged. Aren’t all men?”

Anya shook her head. “Um, no. Maybe all Zocronian men, but not all men. Definitely not human men. Holy shit, Kromin. You want to put that thing inside of me?”

He grinned. “Sludge yeah, I do. Is that going to be a problem?”

“Um, no. Definitely not a problem.”

“Good,” he growled out, growing quite serious once again. “Because I’m determined to have you, right here and now. Enough waiting.”

He stepped forward and picked her up again, his hands easily lifting her underneath her ass as though she were as light as a feather. Instinctively, Anya wrapped her legs around his waist as he carried her back to the chair. She could feel her juices dripping all over him, onto his stomach and onto his thick, stiff shaft which was poking just below her entrance right now.

When he sat down in his chair, he positioned her a little bit back on his legs so that he could look down at her sex.

“Perfection,” he murmured. “Absolute perfection. And I’m going to make it mine.”

With that, he slid her forward, angling her so that she slid right onto his erection. He moved her slowly, letting just the head of it slowly poke into her soft folds at first. Even that was enough to stretch her out, and Anya shivered with delight.

“How are you so huge?” she whispered, wonder filling her voice.

He looked into her eyes with that characteristic intensity of his. “How are you so perfect?” he countered. Then he slid in a little more. Slowly, inch by inch, he began to fill her, drawing her body closer and closer to his even as his dick moved deeper and deeper into her body. Anya closed her eyes, concentrating only on the magnificent, hot pressure building deep inside her. She had never felt anything as amazing as Kromin, and just when she thought he couldn’t possibly go any deeper, he did. Finally, she had reached the point where her body was pressed up against his, and he was as far into her as he could possibly go. Anya’s breasts were pushed against Kromin’s chest, her hard nipples rubbing against his rough skin and sending more fresh little waves of pleasure all through her.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned her head against the side of his, wanting to drink in the feeling of this moment completely. She never wanted to forget what it felt like to be here, safe and secure in the arms of her big, blue Zocronian. She never wanted to forget what it felt like to feel claimed.

He began moving then, thrusting his hips forward and back with impressive dexterity, especially considering the fact that he was sitting on a chair. But he continued to move faster and faster, thrusting so rapidly that the chair began to creak in protest. But Anya wasn’t paying any attention to the creaking sounds. She wasn’t paying attention to anything except the throbbing between her legs. Kromin’s dick was causing that throbbing to grow stronger with every passing moment. As if his sheer size wasn’t enough to drive her wild, the ridges on his dick teased and tugged at every sensitive spot as he continued to move back and forth inside of her.

Anya arched her back and tried to lessen the pressure a bit, wanting to draw out this moment forever. But it wasn’t easy to shift away from him even a little bit while she was literally sitting on top of him. He pulled her closer, and she finally stopped the little bit of resistance she’d been putting up. She gave herself completely over to the heat and pressure, and in the next moment her release was washing over her in fiery, intense waves.

Her inner muscles clenched around him over and over again, squeezing his giant ridged dick and claiming it as her own. The fire within her grew to an inferno, and all she could do was throw back her head and scream his name loudly as the best orgasm of her life tumbled across her body in never-ending tremors. A flood of emotion filled her as she realized that for perhaps the first time in her life, she felt truly beautiful. She felt like a goddess, like a woman with something to offer a man. Kromin had brought that out in her, and she knew that now that she had been with him, there was no going back. There would never be anyone else who could ever satisfy her, no matter how long and how far she searched into the Seven Galaxies.

There was only him.

Kromin let out a low growl of satisfaction, clearly pleased that he had been able to make her feel this way. And then, he too found his release. With one last, final thrust, he stiffened and drove himself deep, deep into Anya’s throbbing inner walls. He pulsed into her, emptying himself deep inside of her in a hot, wonderful stream of himself. He roared as he came, and Anya clutched her arms tightly around him, amazed at what a beast he could be when he wanted to.

They sat there, bodies connected and hearts intertwined, for quite some time. Still, when Kromin finally started to stir, it was too soon for Anya. She wanted him to stay with her, connected to her for eternity. It was getting late, though, and she knew they both had things to do before they could leave for the day. Reluctantly, she let him lift her off of him and set her feet down on the floor next to the chair. The papers strewn about had become even more of a disorganized mess than before, with several of them torn or bent where Kromin and Anya had stepped on them in their lovemaking frenzy.

Kromin didn’t seem to mind. He looked down at the papers ruefully and shrugged. “I’m tempted to throw away all the supply records and just start over. Maybe if I hire an assistant who knows how to order stuff he or she can just figure it out without my wasting a bunch of time on this.”

Anya laughed. “You have turned over a new leaf, haven’t you?”

Kromin shrugged, then laughed. “I suppose I have. Why? Don’t you like it?”

Anya smiled up at him, filled with such admiration that it was hard to believe she had ever hated him. “It suits you,” she said softly. “I think things are only going to get better from here.”

A dark shadow crossed Kromin’s eyes. “Maybe for you and me, yes. But I have a feeling that tough times are ahead for Zocrone.”

Anya slipped her hand into his. “Even if that’s the case, we’ll make it through, together.”

“Together,” Kromin repeated. He leaned down and kissed her then, and Anya let her worries slip away. She knew the storms were still raging outside on Zocrone’s surface, but surely, love was stronger than any storm.

And she was pretty sure that she loved Kromin, despite all the odds against it.