Seven
The afternoon stretched pleasantly, revelations about themselves and their planets punctuated with “accidental” bumping of hands, shoulders, and even hips once. They discussed where they would live if this relationship worked, and Lola had no hesitation saying she’d love to try settling on his planet. Her only stipulation being that she would get to join him in his space travels, an idea he could really get behind. To have Lola all to himself in space… He couldn’t help but let his mind drift back to how her breast had nestled perfectly in his palm. It wasn’t a large breast, but its heft had seemed damned near perfect. As the day wore on, it was more and more difficult to not simply drag her back to the hotel and take care of his throbbing hard-on that felt like it had become permanent.
Pace knew Lola was having a tough time, too. He’d found it extremely amusing that she’d lifted her hand nearly half a dozen times, coming close to touching his face, but stopping herself. He finally called her on it.
“Lola, I know there’s a mutual and rapidly growing attraction here,” he said honestly. “But why do you keep reaching for my chin?”
She ducked her head, sheepishly. “Ah, hockstad. I guess I’m pretty obvious, aren’t I?”
“Yes,” he returned with a grin. “Now, tell me.”
“Right,” she huffed. “I find the darkness across your jawline unbearably fascinating.” She raised her hand again, pausing several inches away. “I want to touch it in the worst way and understand its texture.”
Pace certainly didn’t mind, but what was Lola’s reasoning? “My five o’clock shadow? You’ve never seen one? Do the men of your planet keep full beards?”
“Wait. What is this called? A five o’clock shadow or a beard?”
“This is a five o’clock shadow. I shave, uh…scrape my face with a blade every morning,” he explained. “This is what grows back before I can shave it again. A beard is when the hair is allowed to grow without scraping it off.”
She nodded, as if taking it all in. “I’ve seen facial hair on other species, but I’ve never been friendly enough with the bearers to ask about it.” She looked fascinated. “Other than the hair on their heads, brows and lashes, Hydroxenes have no follicular growth.”
“Wait, what?” Pace felt his brain nearly explode. “No hair…anywhere?” He didn’t know how to process that. He’d bedded the occasional woman who went bare, but the idea of a penis with no surrounding growth was new to him. He tried not to picture it. In his future, that was off the table.
“It’s true. No hair. I hope…” She shook her head, her digits twitching. “May I feel it? Please?”
Instead of making her reach the distance, Pace leaned into her hand.
“Ohhh.” Her purr hit him viscerally. He knew it was how she’d sound when he licked her nipples or pulled her clit between his teeth to suck…if they did oral sex on her planet.
“It’s so soft… Eeee!” she squealed. “And so scratchy when you brush it the other direction.” She paused in her exploration and blinked languid black orbs up at him. “Oh my. I can only imagine how this will feel when your head is between my legs.”
Pace grinned. Question answered. “Umm, yeah. The ladies seem to love it.”
“I bet.”
And damned if it didn’t look like her mind was going there. As was his, picturing his face scraping her lovely bare mound.
He moved back, taking the napkin from his lap once his cock settled down. He wiped his mouth. “I think we’re finished here,” he told her. In fact, their clutches had disappeared several minutes ago. “We’d better walk.”
He watched her throat work as she swallowed, clearly struggling before nodding. “Maybe it will lessen my lust and dry the wetness between my legs.”
Pace groaned. “Lola, how am I expected to maintain my gentlemanly behavior if you keep talking like that?”
She gave a pout of her plump coral lips. “If this gentlemanly behavior of which you speak is what’s keeping us from fucking, I hope I make it go away.” Her tongue darted out to swipe one small crumb from the corner of her mouth.
He abruptly stood to dislodge thoughts of what else that tongue might do. “Come on,” he told her gruffly. “More sightseeing.”
“If you think that will help.” She sighed and came to her feet, tossing her napkin onto the table. She placed her hand trustingly in his, which felt damned right.
“And we’re going to change the subject,” he decreed.
“Fine.” She narrowed her eyes. “But I’m calling gerbshit. You’re totally ready to fuck.”
Pace found himself chuckling for what seemed like the hundredth time. “Okay. I am, but we’re not. And we call it bullshit. Explain what a gerb is.”
“Well, you’ve already said animals on your planet tend to have one head, but does that number also extend to assholes? A gerb has three, which is why the term gerbshit denotes some really deep shit. Do your bulls have many assholes, as well?”
He laughed. “No. Just one. But they excrete in very large quantities.”
She nodded sagely. “A vein does not have to sport many branches in order to produce the most ore.”
She made yet another mining reference, which reminded him. He’d like to hear more about her job. She’d said she worked underground, which had nearly blown his mind, but they’d become sidetracked, segueing into other things.
“Tell me about your work,” he queried. “It sounds like you enjoy it.”
Her eyes widened. “What’s not to enjoy? I’m among the best people, doing a job I’ve dreamed of all my life.”
“And what exactly do you do in the mines?”
“I’m a Crusher,” she said proudly.
“A Crusher?” He’d never heard the term before. Then again, there was no mining industry around Boston.
“That’s right. I tend to the conveyors and grinders that crush the raw gypsum extracted by the diggers.”
“Is that an important position?” Pace held back the frown that wanted to spring to his lips. Her job sounded dangerous.
“Extremely,” she effused. “I run the gates, grinders and belts while observing the flow of materials. If rocks get wedged, I unclog chutes and remove the blockages.”
Nope. Pace didn’t like the sound of her job at all.
Lola continued, not sensing his displeasure. “Our planet is the only one in our galaxy to produce the raw ingredient for fertilizer. Our jobs are the most important since the mines account for almost one hundred percent of our economic survival.”
“Fertilizer…,” Pace repeated, his lips moving in a semi-smile against their will.
She looked at him excitedly. “That’s right. Perhaps with our alliance, your planet will become a purchaser, and I will be lauded for my part in it.”
He hated to burst her bubble. “Uh, not likely, I’m afraid. We have chemicals that do the job.” Although he didn’t have a clue as to what was in them. “And people also use the bull shit we talked about to help grow things.”
Lola laughed. “That’s a joke, right?” She paused thoughtfully. “You are very funny. You know, if I hadn’t seen you grow serious when you took that call from Calamity, I’d say you were incapable of gravity.”
“Not so. Gravity affects me just like it does everybody else,” he teased.
She punched him in the arm. And not a gentle punch. The woman put some serious muscle behind the gesture. He supposed strength came with her job. And it stoked his libido even higher. He loved a woman with bulk.
“You never told me what was going on with your ship that had you upset. You want to talk about it?”
Pace shrugged. “Nothing much to talk about. Three nosy characters were lurking around the ship, trying to look in through the cargo bay portals. Calamity saw them and shut the meteor shields. They left. End of story.”
“There are bad dudes on every planet.” Lola shook her head. “If you hadn’t set security protocols—”
“I wasn’t about to be lax.” Pace reached up and rubbed the back of his neck. “Earth leaders packed my ship to the gills with goodies for your government. All kinds of things from food delicacies to priceless jewels. God help me if I lost any of it.”
“I’m sure the High Lord on Hydrox has similar items for you that will be bound for earth. I’m just sorry we couldn’t have kept this between us and skipped all the political stuff.”
“Funny. I thought it was all about us, but I guess Gerri thought the publicity would do her good and let it out back home before I left. She was a little pissed your government found out, but when she discovers who leaked the information, I wouldn’t want to be them.”
“She is rather formidable for such a small woman, isn’t she?” Lola speculated.
“She is. Although it looks like she’s also pretty good at her job. She knew I’d be interested in you.”
Lola’s eyes sparkled as she glanced up at him. “You couldn’t prove it by me,” she chided impishly. “I haven’t so much as provoked you into a kiss.”
If he’d let her, she would have provoked him into a lot more than that, but at this point, Pace had been deliciously worn down and was tired of waiting. He let his gaze travel to two booths on his right, an alley running between them. His cock jumped. Time to ramp things up.
With the pretense of looking at one of the merchant’s wares, he pulled her toward the first stall, only to veer at the last minute, tugging her in front of him and propelling her into the alley.
“What…?”
Before the second word left her lips, Pace grabbed her arm and pushed her back against the nearest wall, smothering her body with his and clamping a hand over her mouth for silence.
Pace growled. “I’m going to kiss the hockstad out of you.” He hadn’t missed Lola’s word for hell. “And you have one opportunity to say no. What’ll it be?” His breath, so close, stirred the tiny platinum hairs that had fallen across her forehead as her heart beat a rapid staccato against his chest.
As he’d hoped, far from being turned off by his caveman tactics, her nipples and pulse said she relished it.
She lowered her lids over big, liquid eyes and nodded, giving him the go-ahead.
Thank cripes.
He shifted his hand and she licked his palm, which brought a smile to his face and fire to his loins. He took the hand away and threaded it behind her neck. “Not my palm, Lola. You wanted to lick my dimples, remember?” he prodded. “Here’s your chance.”
She raised on tiptoes and darted her tongue forward for a swipe, but at the last minute, she pivoted and drew a scorching line across his lips instead. “I’ll get the dimples later,” she hissed. “Right now, I need more.”
Pace obliged. He dropped his head and kissed her like he’d never kissed any woman before. He used her mouth as he would a man’s, and short of shaming him, it felt liberating when she returned his ardor, impact for impact, teeth for teeth.
Who knew how long the contact lasted? All Pace understood was he never wanted it to end. He drew her scent into his mouth, like a dog using extra senses, and smelled her sweetness on his palate, almost like earth and spices.
Unconsciously, he’d been thrusting his pelvis into hers in time with his tongue, and… Damn, when had that happened? She’d climbed him like a tree and wrapped her legs around his waist, positioning her damp, torrid cunt right where it should be, sending both of them into the stratosphere.
A small part of his brain registered her fumbling with his belt, and he reluctantly dragged his lips away. “Uh-uh. Not here.” He dove in for another quick mash-up against her mouth. “My ship’s closer than the hotel. You game?”
Lola breathed hard. “If that means do I want to, then yes, take me to your ship.”
****
All his blood lay heavy in his cock, while his balls drew painfully upward, clenching and demanding. Their feet flew the distance to the spaceport, and his eyes kept sliding toward the two, diamond-hard points at the front of Lola’s shirt. His mouth watered to take them both in.
He leaned toward her and poured his hot need into her ear. “When we get there, I’m going to bite your nimples until you scream my name.”
She drew in a sharp breath, then turned and nipped his chin. “I’ll scream even louder if you bite my quim lips.”
That picture blasted into his brain. “Done. And your clit, too.”
She moaned deep in her throat.
Yes! She likes things rough.
Could this woman be the answer to the burning dreams on which he’d nearly given up?