CHAPTER SIX
VERDAN
Verdan drifted in and out of sleep, but every time he woke, he felt Rebecca’s comforting hand in his own. This time was different though, so he forced away the sleep.
“You’re making a strange sound,” he grated. “Why?”
Rebecca snuffled. “I’m not.” The thickness in her voice told the truth.
“You are,” he said. He removed his hand from hers and touched her shoulder. “Also, you shiver. Come lie under the blanket.”
“Your bed’s too small.”
“There is room.” When she didn’t move, he sighed, and pulled her down beside him. “See. Room.”
“You aliens keep your ships too cold,” she grumbled as she shoved her cold feet against his warm ones. Human bodies are so inefficient.
“Ennoi run warm,” he said. “It also conserves power. Explain the dampness on your face.”
For a moment, he thought she wouldn’t, but when she spoke, her voice was small. “I’m sad.”
“Only infants weep.” The glib saying rolled off his tongue before he could stop it.
“Well, excuse me for being Human,” Rebecca said. But she tucked her hands against his side. Her shivers seemed to be abating. “What do Ennoi do when they’re sad?”
“We rage.” We stomp our feet. We scream at the heavens. We tear apart hospital rooms. We fight guards until we are sedated, and when we wake up, we do it all over again. Until your dead wife’s father leans over the bed to which you are strapped and warns you that he will remove his granddaughter from your care if you can’t pull yourself together.
Rebecca shuddered, and squeezed his arm. “I don’t think they would have really taken Farrah from you.”
Verdan raised his eyebrows. “Oh, did I speak aloud?”
Again, that strange bark of laughter. “Yeah, you kinda did.” She patted his chest, but when she stopped, her hand remained flush against his skin. His heart thumped.
He’d been alone with his thoughts for so long that he’d forgotten how to keep his mouth shut. Yet, if he had to spill his guts, he was grateful Rebecca didn’t judge him for it.
“Don’t get me wrong,” she said. “It was a rotten thing to say to a grieving man. They probably said that to get you to snap out of… to bring you back.”
Her hand traced the patterns on his chest, and Verdan’s attention wandered. “I suppose I’ve threatened Farrah with the same regarding Min. When she refuses to clean her cage.” His words were slow. “I was insufferable, though. Perhaps weeping would have been better.”
“What happened next?” Her hands were starting to get quite bold, sweeping across the planes of his chest. Verdan’s scalp tingled.
“When I could, I took Farrah and left. Poured my money into the Moon’s Pride. Never looked back.”
“It sounds lonely.”
“It is.” She now explored the ridges along his arm.
He grabbed her hand, quelling its motion. “Why are you doing that?”
“Oh! I’m sorry, I fidget when I’m nervous. Is it bothering you?”
The scales along his shoulder flickered. “In a way. Why are you nervous? You have no need to be nervous with me. Nor I with you.”
Why did his heart thunder, then?
She mumbled something. Her face, warm now, burrowed into his arm. Why did she feel so soft and enticing lying beside him? He became aware that only a thin layer of fabric separated his naked body from hers. A tingle ran down his spine, and settled low in his belly. He was losing his mind.
“Rebecca…” His voice trailed off. What could he say? What should he say? He’d been out of polite society for so long. He knew nothing of Human interactions. Was she aware of how her body made his react?
“I-I should go,” she said. She sat up.
Cold air rushed in to surround Verdan. After the warmth and softness of Rebecca, he felt adrift.
Lonely.
“No!” He sat up, made to grab for her, but his hand stopped when she flinched away from him. A flicker of fear crossed her face.
She bears scars, deep as my own.
Don’t misstep, you fool.
He dropped his hand. “My words are rusty.”
“Ookay?”
“I will not force you to stay. If you want to leave, you may. You are free here, Rebecca.” He swallowed down the lump in his throat. “I would be grateful if you choose to stay. To stay with me.”
All he could do was wait. Would she bolt? Why did the thought send a sharp pang into his chest?
She licked her lips. “Verdan, I- Your offer is… It’s not you…” She closed her eyes. The frown on her brow lifted, and a tentative smile quirked the corner of her mouth. “Small joys,” she whispered.
“Small-?”
Before he could finish the question, she leaned forward, and placed her mouth directly on his. Heat flooded his body. The chill of the air no longer registered. Only the sweetness of her mouth and the way her hand fluttered against his shoulder. He froze for a moment, overwhelmed by his body’s reaction to her, and she jerked away, her mouth a small circle of surprise.
“Oh! I’m sorry! Do Ennoi not kiss?”
He didn’t bother to comment, just reached his hand behind her head and dragged her back. His tongue slipped into her mouth, savoring her taste. Everything about her was unfamiliar to him, but the longer he kissed her, the more certain he grew of how much he liked tasting her.
A small moan escaped her lips, and he groaned. Lips still locked, he pulled her downward, settling her on top of him on the bed.
His fingers tangled in her hair, and his breathing grew ragged when her soft thigh brushed against his hip.
“More,” he said. “I need more. Strip.”
He placed his hand on the collar of her flight suit, and yanked. She yelped, and he froze. “Did I hurt you?”
She shook her head. “No, I just… Too fast.”
She didn’t need to say too rough, but he added in the words for her.
Restraint, fool!
“Apologies. It has been too long.”
“Me too,” she said. She sat up, and unzipped the flight suit. He watched as she shrugged it off her arms. Her skin glowed in the low light, daring him to touch.
He lifted a hand, and trailed a finger down her neck, making her tilt her head. When the finger explored the curve of her breast, her lips parted.
“Oh. That feels good.”
Verdan smiled. “What else makes you feel good?”
She stood and kicked off her clothes, then straddled his belly, tunneling her fingers through his hair. He froze as her naked skin rubbed against his, as the curls at the vee of her legs tickled his abdomen.
“Touch me,” she commanded, and helpless to resist, he did.
He cupped her breast with his hand, flicking her nipple with his hand. “Why do these stand alert when I touch them?”
She made to pull a hand over her chest, and he moved it back to her side. “They’re like your scales. They get pokey when I’m cold.” She mumbled something further.
“I beg your pardon?”
“And when I’m… turned on. Aroused…”
“Erect when aroused?” He dragged his thumb over her nipple, and gently squeezed. “Does this arouse you?”
She arched her back and raised her face to the ceiling as she gasped. “Yes, that kinda does the trick.”
“You’re beautiful,” he murmured.
He should have felt ashamed. He should have felt conflicted, but watching her writhe above him, he felt the rightness of the situation. Maybe it wouldn’t last, but in this moment, he and she were exactly where they were meant to be: together.
She grinned. “Not bad for rusty words.”
Had he said that out aloud?
She leaned back, letting her hand trail down his body until it found the evidence of his arousal. He grunted as her hands flicked over his length. Her eyebrows rose, and she peeked over her shoulder.
“Bumpy. Big.” Her face remained thoughtful as she ground her hips against him. She bit her lip. “Is that an okay thing to say to an Ennoi man? Is that rude?”
He moaned, and caressed her belly. “I don’t care. Be rude some more.”
Bracing a hand against his chest, she levered herself backward, and the warmth of her settled on his erection. Her weight was blissful agony. His horns grazed the bed as he arched his back. His hands gripped the sheets. His member twitched with every pound of his heart.
So close.
Not yet. Not yet.
“Keep touching me, Verdan.”
He complied, memorizing the softness of her skin, the way she bit her lip when he touched her hip, and how she giggled when he reached her ribs. Her eyes were heavy with desire and warm with invitation. Her tears were long gone, and a pink flush colored her cheeks. It was so easy to make her laugh. He wanted to make her laugh forever.
She spiked my drink.
It was the only explanation. Otherwise, why would he feel so unmoored, and yet so grounded?
She removed his hand from her thigh, and guided it between her legs. Verdan blinked at the wetness there. He moved his fingers and Rebecca’s giggles faded, replaced by the sweetest little murmurs.
Wriggling, she spread her legs open further, giving him access. “Fingers here,” she whispered. “Press here, and- Oh!”
“I believe I can figure it out for myself,” he said.
She smacked him. “Stop gloating, Verdan. It’s not sexy. Oh! But that is. Keep doing that.”
If he could do this forever, he would.
Suddenly, her thighs tightened around his hand. She threw her head back and moaned, loudly. She twisted against him, trapping his hand, and her knees ground into his sides.
“Verdan!”
Startled, he stopped, but the face she turned to him wasn’t scared or upset. No, it was filled with a radiance that made his chest hurt.
She leaned forward and kissed him again, hungry and demanding everything from him. He returned her kiss, knowing there was nothing he wouldn’t give her.
“Now it’s your turn,” she whispered.
She pulled herself upwards, and lifted the tip of his cock to her opening. The heat of her burned against him. For a moment, she paused.
“Don’t stop, Rebecca!” He hated the pleading note in his voice, but if she stopped, so too might his heart.
“Small joys,” she whispered. “Or really, really big joys, in this case.”
The infuriating wench was giggling again! At a time like this!
He bucked his hips upwards, and she hissed as he filled her. His plan backfired. Wrapped snuggly in her warmth, he lost himself to sensation and pleasure. If he drowned in her tonight, he’d consider it a life well-lived.
“Verdan,” she whispered. She lay down, pressing her cheek to his chest, using her new position to control his angle of entry. He closed his eyes, reveling in the exquisite torment winding its way through his body. Her hips gyrated, slowly picking up speed, and her breath puffed against his sternum in a staccato.
The pressure built until he couldn’t stand it anymore. The world narrowed to nothing but the point at which their bodies met. Nothing but heat and fire and need and want. When he came, he called her name, and he swore through the roar in his ears her heard her whisper his name, too.
Spent, he drew her into the curve of his arm. His eyes were heavy with sleep, but his heart thundered.
“Was that okay?”
He rubbed her arm. “Shhhh, go to sleep, Rebecca.”
“Was… was I okay?”
Cracking an eye, he peered down at her worried face. He bent his head and kissed her hair, taking in her scent. She smelled like sweat and sex, and if sleep wasn’t pounding on his brain, he’d pound her again.
Tomorrow, he promised himself. Or at least after a nap.
“You talk too much. You sweeten tea. You stick your nose into other people’s business. Other than that, you are okay. Now sleep.”
She shivered, and with a low curse, he sat up. Leaning over the side of the bed, he retrieved the sheet from the floor and tucked it around them both.
“You Humans are so delicate,” he grumbled, but he smiled to take the sting out of it. “You wouldn’t last a minute on an Ennoi planet.”
She snuggled into his arms. “Back on Earth, they have central heating. It keeps your toes warm at night.”
“Here, you have me to keep your toes warm at night.”
Whatever reply she tried to make was lost in a yawn. Her lashes fluttered against her cheek and her breathing evened. Verdan brushed aside a lock of her hair.
Back on Earth…
He could hold her forever, but he knew they didn’t have forever. In a few days, they would enter Ennoi space, and they would part. She would go where she belonged, and he would return to his quiet life with Farrah.
But not yet.
For now, he would take what he could get.
“Small joys,” he muttered into the darkness.
Murmuring in her sleep, Rebecca moved her hand, placing it directly over Verdan’s heart. His lungs tightened. A spasm crossed Verdan’s chest. Then another. To his amazement, his body filled with the thrum of his second heart beating once more.