AVREN

Vanessa and I walked back together from Anders and Gwen’s suite in the castle. The sun setting behind us gave the building a rosy glow. The air smelled sweet and comforting. I had missed fresh air and nature during the years we spent in space.

Anders had invited us over to eat. Vanessa and I had been busy getting our research started. We hadn’t had time for anything but work and had barely seen them since arriving on Auxem.

It had been a good visit, and I looked forward to the time our whole family would be together again. The mothership with the rest of my family would arrive in about a week. Father was going on a diplomatic mission and wouldn’t come until later. We wouldn’t miss him much. We had become accustomed to using the word family without referring to our father.

The first spaceship filled with women from Earth had arrived yesterday. They had already bonded to Auxem men and were expecting babies, but they weren’t supposed to be here.

Officially, the only human females on Auxem came from the compatibility trial. Unofficially, my father and the president of Earth had formed a secret treaty. The humans would never have agreed to send their women to Auxem without making sure it was safe for them.

It made sense. What if we were lying and wanted to sell their women as slaves?

The same day the agreement was signed, my father met secretly with Earth’s president. She had promised him all the women we wanted. My father sent another ship for them as soon as they sealed their dark bargain. The ships had met halfway between the planets, and I heard the parties that ensued had lasted for days. The result was a bunch of couples falling in love, getting married, and forming bonds.

The general public didn’t know about it. They wouldn’t find out until we made an announcement about the babies. We wouldn’t draw attention to the timelines. With luck, no one would read between the lines.

Regardless of how it had happened, the first girls in twenty years would soon be born on our planet. We were really doing it! The Auxem race wouldn’t go extinct. My brothers and I had been enraged by our father’s subterfuge, but we couldn’t argue with his results.

I wondered how I would feel when I was a father myself and held a baby in my arms. It seemed like a strange idea at first, but the more I thought about it, the more it felt right. I had held my niece and nephew before, and babies weren’t the annoying nuisances I had previously imagined. I glanced over at Vanessa, unable to think about children without including her in the daydream.

I wasn’t thinking about having babies with her, of course.

But I had to admit to having more than one dream lately where we had been trying to make a baby together. I cleared my throat at the thought and tried to think about anything but sex — I was getting hard already. Ever since I started working with Vanessa, I was in a state of permanent wood. All she had to do was ask for help spreading the DNA strands, and my dirty mind was all over it, thinking about how I would spread her legs.

I needed to get my thoughts under control. Vanessa wasn’t making it easy for me. She seemed to favor Susohnnan outfits. The skirt she wore tonight was long and forest green with a slit up each side extending all the way to her thigh. It had been giving me tantalizing glimpses of her bare legs all evening. The shirt had a diamond cutout over her flat stomach and another hole exposing her back.

I had been trying not to drool over her.

We were doing okay keeping things friendly between us. I had slipped up and almost kissed Vanessa the other day, but Dalvor interrupted us. I was mad at the time but got over it eventually. There was a reason for everything. Maybe we weren’t supposed to be together, no matter what we felt. My mind was willing to accept it.

My body wasn’t trying very hard, though. It wanted Vanessa to take me into her hot, wet pussy.

“Penny for your thoughts.”

I felt my face turn red as I scrambled to find something to say.

“What’s a penny?”

“It’s an old form of money on Earth, kind of like a microcredit. The expression stuck around, even in Standard. It’s a way of asking you to share your thoughts.”

Yeah...no. I didn’t want Vanessa to know what I had been thinking.

“Wait a second. Are you blushing?” She looked at me carefully.

“Of course not. Only women blush.”

She squinted at me. “I hope not because I’m pretty sure you’re doing it right now.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t be privy to my private thoughts, Vanessa, not even for ancient Earth currency.”

Vanessa smiled, then a calculating look came to her eyes, and she frowned. She realized why I was keeping my thoughts a secret.

“Damn it, Madellan. Every time we get on a good stretch of being friendly, you have to go and spoil it.”

“I’m not ruining anything.” I was getting angry. “Do you think you can wear Susohnnan clothes, bare half your damn body, and have me think about anything except sex? I’m from Auxem, and I have self-control, but I still have emotions. No one has that much restraint.”

I started to walk faster, and she scrambled to keep up with me. “I’m not the only one who’s looking too sexy to be legal.” Fire filled Vanessa’s green eyes. “I’ve asked you not to wear a suit before.”

Of course I knew. That’s why I had worn it.

We had reached the door to her suite. It was in the same wing as mine, and adjacent to the ones assigned to Arnon and Ayrie. Suites for Allex and Anders were in another wing, along with my father’s rooms.

I hesitated for a moment at her door. “Goodnight. I’ll see you in the lab in the morning.” The words were curt, but I didn’t care about manners. I just wanted to get away from Vanessa and avoid the lust that was threatening to consume me.

She wouldn’t act on it, and I couldn’t. There was nothing for me to do but leave. When I looked at her, she didn’t look like she wanted me to go. She looked like she was aroused. Her cheeks were pink, her pupils dilated, and her chest was rising and falling quickly.

“Madellan, just kiss me.” Vanessa closed her eyes.

“Excuse me?” I reeled with the shock of her abrupt change-of-mind. “Don’t fuck with me, Vanessa. I’m wired right now.”

She opened her eyes. “Did I stutter?”

“Why are you saying this? You told me you wanted us to be friends and colleagues before. Now you’re asking me to kiss you. You’re going to fuck me over again, aren’t you?”

“I’m the one who could barely get back on her feet after you left me. I’m the one who almost threw away her career for a man.” Vanessa spat out the last word as if it were something dirty and stamped her foot into the ground.

All she was doing was turning me on even more.

“Open your door.” My tone sounded rough to my ears. She looked surprised. “Do you want me to kiss you? I’m not doing it in the hall where everyone can see us, and no one is going to interrupt me this time.”

Vanessa’s mouth opened slightly. She scanned her retina, opened the door, and we stepped inside.

I glanced around. The room was like every other in the castle with luxurious furniture, tapestries, and modern conveniences. There weren’t any personal touches yet. Maybe Vanessa was keeping her things in the bedroom.

The thought of Vanessa and her bedroom brought me back to the moment. We were alone, and she wanted me to kiss her. I was about to open a big can of worms, and we would never get the lid back on if we removed it.

I couldn’t bring myself to care. Vanessa looked delectable standing in front of me with red cheeks and a bare navel I wanted to lick.

I stepped closer, blocking Vanessa’s stomach from view so I could better see her face. I wanted to lose myself in her eyes. I wanted to possess her lips. I tried to ignore it, but my heart was doing a peculiar thing too.

It felt happy. But this wasn’t about love. It was about sex.

Maybe it was just about a single kiss.

Vanessa licked her lips. Her eyes never left my face. I couldn’t help but groan as I felt my cock stiffen.

“Are you waiting for something?” Vanessa sounded nervous. I pushed my hair off my face, thinking I should get a haircut.

I knew what I had been waiting for all this time — for Vanessa to love me. The rules said we couldn’t have sex without love.

But a kiss? I could do that.

Something held me back.

Vanessa muttered under her breath, “Fuck it.” She reached up, wrapped her small hand around my neck and pulled me down to her. “I need this.” She claimed my lips for her own.

It was everything I had remembered and more. Vanessa pressed her body against mine, and we fit together perfectly. Fireworks exploded throughout my body, culminating in a surge of lust in my groin. I wanted to throw her onto the couch and fuck her right there.

Vanessa moaned, wrapping her arms around my neck and threading a hand through my hair. She opened her mouth, and our tongues started dancing. I fucked her mouth the way I wanted to fuck her body, plunging my tongue in and out to the sound of her mewling. Desire lit up my body and set me on fire. I knew I had to touch her.

My hand slid under her shirt. I knew she wasn’t wearing a bra. The Susohnnan shirts left no room for anything underneath. Vanessa had told me before that they had built-in support.

The softness and heat of her skin urged me on. I explored further, running my hands up her back. She intensified the kiss, and I wedged my leg between hers, moving up her skirt in the process.

Emboldened by her moans, I brought a hand to her front, sneaking up to cup her breast, which was round, full, and perky. The nipple was hard. I pinched it, feeling her legs give.

I caught Vanessa and walked her backward to the couch, easing her gently down until she was lying on her back and I was looming over her. I took in the sight of her body, overcome by lust.

“Madellan, please.”

“What do you want, Vanessa?” I pinned her with my gaze.

“I want something we can’t have. We shouldn’t. Can we?” Her voice was hoarse with desire. “Madellan, I’m begging you.”

“Do you want me?”

She nodded.

Perfect. Vanessa was never going to forget this.

* * *

VANESSA

Considering the way Avren had been kissing me by the door, I thought he might devour me. Instead, he started so slowly that I almost wanted to tell him to hurry up.

That wasn’t the way he worked.

I intentionally wore a shirt with buttons down the front. I had fantasized about Avren unbuttoning it when I put it on, but I hadn’t thought it would actually happen.

My train of thought went off the rails as he unbuttoned the first one and placed a kiss on my collar-bone. He unbuttoned another and kissed my chest. The next button was right over my breasts, and he placed a kiss in the valley between them, brushing their sides with his stubble and making me shudder.

He reached the missing panel in the shirt, kissing his way down my abdomen. The last button and final kiss were below my navel, and so close to my pussy my hips bucked in response.

Avren sat back and stared at my body. My shirt was completely open, displaying my breasts for him. I wondered if I should have been embarrassed to be naked before him, but I wasn’t. In the bedroom, I liked my men hot and my sex hotter.

He was slow, methodical, and deliberate. He started kissing his way back up my body. I gasped as his warm, wet mouth closed over my nipple. He sucked, and I practically lost my mind, arching my back for him to take more of me.

When his hand slid under my skirt and into my panties, I thought I would pass out from the pleasure. He lightly put a hand on my pussy and started circling my clit.

“Avren.” I hated how needy my voice sounded, but I yearned for his touch so badly that I could hardly stand it. He gave me what I wanted and slid a finger into my folds.

“Fuck, you’re wet.” He slid his finger over the slickness, found my opening, and pushed inside me.

“Jesus, yes.” I wanted more. I wanted everything.

We couldn’t go all the way so I would take what I could get. I needed to come so badly I could taste it.

* * *

AVREN

The feeling of Vanessa’s hot, tight wetness around my finger almost made me explode in my pants. I thrust my finger in and out of her opening, circling my thumb around her clit as I went.

She began to writhe, and I had to see her come. I needed her orgasm as badly as she did.

“Fuck, Avren. Keep doing that.” She moaned as I slid another finger inside and continued to fuck her with my hand. I couldn’t keep my mouth away from her breasts. I licked and sucked until I knew she was on edge.

The skin of her chest flushed a beautiful rose red, and her breathing was speeding up. Too much pressure on her pussy would kill her mood. I needed to be gentle.

Vanessa cried out as her climax arrived. Her muscles clenched around my fingers, making me wish I was inside her and she was gently milking the cum out of me.

Her orgasm continued to rock her body, and I didn’t take out my fingers until she quieted down. Vanessa lay on the couch with an arm over her eyes. Her legs were spread, and her breasts were bare — I had never seen anything as beautiful.

Her next words sounded more beautiful than she was. “It’s your turn, Madellan.”