Chapter 23
When Thorn stirred, Led lifted her from the bed and walked outside to the pool, going deep enough that his lap was submersed when he sat. By then she was fully awake.
The water was, of course, just the right temperature for a mollok. A little cool for a s’kar, he guessed, from the peaking of her nipples. Idly, he stirred the water with his appendages. Seeing them sliding through water on the opposite side of the pool, yet those appendages also being him was a surprising revelation. Took a while getting used to being mollok.
“Hmmm.” Thorn slid her palm up his arm until she found biceps.
“You like?”
“Yes. I like. Is this your favorite loaner?”
“Is it yours?”
“Yes.” She curled up, snuggling closer. “You’re so warm.”
“Of all the bodies? Yes, this is perhaps my favorite. With the thrassian second.”
The waterfall chattered for a while before she again spoke.
“I suppose it should be up to me to begin this. You have convinced me.” Her mouth twitched a few times.
“More?”
“It’s still difficult to say this aloud but...I understand why you did what you did.”
He sneaked a tentacle close to her rear then toyed about near her cunt, rippling the water, making her squirm. “Keep going. I wanted you to see that the s’kar indoctrinated you with a skewed view of sex.”
“I know. I can say it. I can. Sex can be...is good. It isn’t bad. Though if you poke at me again down there I will bite you. I’m terribly sore.”
He chuckled softly. “Good then. Liking sex does not make you a bad girl. Should I get you to write that out a hundred times?”
“No! Don’t push your luck. I’m back to being my bossy self now.”
Except during sex, he thought to himself, musing. He’d figured out that weakness of hers, prayed she would let him experiment again.
“So, which way will your decision fall? S’kar or siren?”
“I’d sort of...” She wriggled and having her wriggle when all naked in his lap, jiggling those breasts with their pink-red centers...it was the most adorable and sexy thing. “I’d probably already decided on siren. I know that may surprise you but I think I would’ve...I think. Anyway. Now I’m sure.”
“Would they have even accepted you back, as a true s’kar?”
“Well, that is the problem. It’s what persuaded me. I don’t think so. I’d not be a pure blood.” Thorn sighed sadly. “A fish is nibbling on my toes?”
He leaned forward. “Want me to scare it away?
“As long as they don’t have big teeth, it’s fine.”
The waterfall poured neverendingly, churning the far edge of the pool, and he held a tentacle tip beneath, watched the water patter and bounce droplets. A white blossom floated past his knees.
With her in his lap, the serenity of this grotto almost made him forget what happened today. He roused himself.
“Your appointment is today. Soon. There is something else that I need to talk about.” He frowned down at her and she stared back with those pretty eyes. “Fucking you was so much easier.”
Her mouth formed an O then she shook her head a little.
“I think I’m in love with you, Thorn, and those are words I never wanted to say, never thought I could say... However I have said them.”
And he’d opened his heart to her rejection. The pain was there, waiting. He knew this was ridiculous.
“Love?”
“Yes.”
He steeled himself, feeling more vulnerable than he’d ever been in any battle.
“Love, from what I know...” she began.
Already he was going oh shit, oh shit, but he waited.
“Is not something decided from so little uhhh experience.”
He blinked down at her.
“Even though!” Thorn had raised a hand and waggled a forefinger at him. “We have done you-know-what...fucking, see I said it...a few times. A lot. Okay I admit that. But is that love?”
He blinked some more. “I’m a cyborg. You’re asking me what love is?”
Then she lay there in his arms, and his temporary tentacles, looking cuter than anything cute should ever look, and sucking her lip until it was wet and shiny. He wanted to crush her in his arms and never let her go. And do other things.
“Talk faster or I might want to fuck you again.” Molloks truly were sex fiends. His mating tentacle was filling up with the cum they produced even as he sat here trying to look serious. But those tits were so...
He let out a hard sigh. “Go on.”
“I’m a s’kar, you’re an ex-cyborg. S’kar I have come to realize know fuck-all about sex, and love seems a close second.”
“Your father loved you.”
Her eyes looked shinier than before and she gulped. “Yes. True. He did. In spite of what he didn’t tell me, I guess he did.” She swallowed again. “I don’t think this is the time, Led. We are definitely friends and what some species call f –”
“Fuck friends.” He’d finished it for her. It sounded less painful if he said it. Maybe.
“Yes. Love is for after you’ve known someone for ages. Isn’t it? After you’ve talked about more stuff than we can in one morning, or these past crazy weeks? However.” She wriggled straighter, sat up. “What I do know is that I want to explore this. My head is whizzing in circles. I have an appointment with a genetic surgeon. He might tell me my case is impossible. And I’m aching in places I never knew I could ache in.”
She reached over and took his hand.
“I’m not saying no, Led. I’m saying maybe.”
“Okay.” He nodded sagely, or hoped it looked wise. “I listened to Smorg and Jocelyn on the way up Mount Eccles. Beginning to think they know more than we do.”
She laughed then a smile broke free. “You might be right.”
Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered. Or the other way around? If he was the prince rescuing the princess, he hadn’t been sent his membership card to royalty yet.
Maybe, she’d said.
“Maybe is excellent.”
Suddenly, he recalled the mollok secret cache. He needed to contact them. Yesterday. Getting rid of whatever was inside him would be safer for them both if people were after it.
He played with her fingers while he put through a call to the mollok embassy on Skrull, left a message vaguely hinting at who he was and what he carried.
“You’re messaging someone?”
“Calling the mollok embassy. I may as well tell you.” He put his finger across her mouth. Thorn licked it, grinning, then chewed lightly. He scowled down at her.
Fuck friends? He needed to reassert the fuck part. No time though, alas.
They were answering already. Apparently he was a sought-after person. Not a surprise.
*Where are you?*
*First I need some information on this thing.*
*We’ve made this a closed call. No one else will hear any of this.*
*Okay. I still need more. What is it that I have in my head?*
The next message took a while to arrive.
*I’ve been authorized to reveal this. In summary. What you have was stolen from us by a Fellen Zed. It accidentally stuck to you instead of his brain framework.*
*Okay.* Figured. It suggested how this cache had been implanted. *So I wasn’t supposed to have this?*
*No. Fellen Zed was passing the cache from body to body. You have a synth brain and so does he. That unusual common factor made the cache glue to you even when you changed from the Fellen Zed loaner to another.*
*And is it some sort of deadly weapon?*
*It’s a way to transform a lifeless planet into one that can be lived on. Terraforming to be exact. The money to be made is prodigious.*
*Right.*
People were killing each other over this?
*Our own home planet suffers, and we have worked for generations to perfect the method. We must have it back. We will pay you but do not try to extract it yourself. That could destroy the data and could damage you.*
He needed somewhere neutral.
*I have to be at the offices of Bob Stardrake this morning. With Thorn Ironhand. Be there and I will return it. Can you do it there?*
It seemed wrong to ask for money, so he didn’t. Today he had bigger concerns.
*Yes. Easily. It’s just an encryption issue. We knew you were here, somewhere. Others do too. The politics on Skrull may create new problems. They’ve grounded all air transport this morning.*
*So it could be dangerous?*
*Yes. Take care. We will meet you there.*
Should he be going where Thorn was if he could potentially drag her into a bad situation? But he was her protector. Leaving her alone could also be bad.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“There are complications.”
“Let me try to sum it up.” He began with Fellen Zed, ended with the danger. “I think it might be safest if you travel to Stardrake’s offices by a different route.”
She twisted her mouth and was definitely frowning.
“You don’t like me leaving you while I solve this?”
“No. I don’t, because I think we are strongest together. Plus there is only one road up there.”
He raised her chin with a tentacle curled beneath it. “What if I disagree?”
“I follow you. We stick together.”
He considered the ramifications. “I’ll assess this once we get out there, on the street. If anything goes wrong, you disappear and leave me.”
“No.”
He shook his head. Starship captain wannabe, but she had said maybe to him. Maybe to love. This was the best day of his three hundred years.
It could also end up the worst, his nastier, more realistic side reminded him.
So? He’d destroy anything or anyone who dared to threaten her. And he was good at that.