“The ones who would kill me,” Tabitha whispered. “Would they kill you, too?”

I stared back at her, unable to form the words to answer her. My ears were pricked for any noise that would give warning of incoming danger. If she hadn’t been looking at me with such desperation, I would have been pacing the room and looking out of each of the windows intermittently. When I didn’t respond, her face crumpled.

“No. No. You can’t do this. They can’t do this. I won’t let them!”

She cried out and sprang toward me, and I reached for her. She landed in my arms, and, the next thing I knew, we were kissing. I felt her legs wrap around my waist, but I couldn’t process anything other than her. She tasted exactly as I imagined the heavens would taste if I could pluck one of the lavender clouds from the sky. I was filled with that same sweet, delicate scent of hers I smelled every night as we slept beside each other.

I carried her to the bed, and we fell onto the mattress clumsily. Her lips were against mine in furious passion and carnivorous lust. I blindly reached for her clothes and ripped them from her. I was so hungry for her I was sure I wouldn’t survive it if I didn’t have her. She reciprocated rolling my pants down my legs, whipping them off and throwing them to the side carelessly. Through the darkness, I could see her eyes widen as they focused on my nether region, and I looked down too. I was erect and ready.

“Is something wrong?” I whispered.

She shook her head. “I’ve just never seen—you’re so big.”

I looked down at myself again, still feeling the powerful urges of lust but now also feeling the impediment of nerves, and asked, “Are humans smaller?”

“Usually,” she said. She crawled up my body, then, and pressed her lips delicately to mine in a kiss of sweetness rather than urgency. When she pulled back, she said, “I suppose you’ve never been with a human.”

“No,” I replied softly. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

She kissed me lightly again. “You won’t. I’ll show you.”

My lust took over again, and I enveloped her lips with my own. She kissed me back with equal vehemence, and I felt her hand drop to my erection. Her fingers cool to the touch as her skin always was, wrapped around my girth and started to stroke so slowly it was almost torture. I groaned into her mouth, and I felt her smile.

“Patience,” she whispered, lifting her face from mine, easing her way back down my body. When she was level with my groin, she exhaled softly, and I felt the breath caress me. I shivered with desire.

Her fingers continued to slide up and down my length, and I watched her. Despite the darkness, I had never seen her look so radiant. She was beautiful. Her dark curls hung down in imperfect perfection, framing her face in such a way I couldn’t help but stare. I saw those eyes that had captivated me the moment I had seen her looking up at me at the crash site. They had penetrated me to my very core.

I was in love with this woman, this human, this Tabitha Bartel. That was the truth of the matter, and I was going to do everything in my power to protect her from the prejudices and fear-founded impulses of my peers.

She lowered her head down and took me between her lips, and I inhaled sharply. My hips lifted against my will, but she pressed down on my thighs lightly to keep me in place. I had never felt anything quite like it, and I knew it was because it was she who did this to me. Tabitha was my beginning, and she would be my end.

I felt her tongue caressing my hardness the way it had caressed my tongue when we’d kissed, and it sent me into such a frenzy of desire that I writhed beneath her. I wanted to take her, to be one with her not just emotionally and spiritually but physically as well. However, I let her take control. I wasn’t sure how to be with a human; I didn’t know if human intimacy was the same as with A’li-uud.

I reached down and stroked her curls. She moaned into me, so I tangled my fingers in her hair and felt the way she pleasured me through my palms. I watched my hands rise and fall repeatedly atop her head in tandem with the rise and fall of my chest as I breathed, and my head rolled back against the pillow. It was, perhaps, the most intense experience of my life, and any experience I had had prior to Tabitha didn’t compare. With each burst of sensation that crashed through me came an even more powerful burst of emotion as the love I felt for her dominated my entire being.

When she lifted her mouth from me and looked up at me, I returned her gaze. I was breathless, wanting, but I didn’t want to go alone. I wanted her to join me; I needed her to join me. I released her hair and held out my hand to her. She took it. Then, I pulled her back up until we were face-to-face again, and I claimed her mouth with my own.

She rolled to the side without separating her lips from mine, and I followed until I was on top of her. Her hand dipped down again and sought my manhood. I growled, and she mewled in return. I felt her guiding me, and then I felt myself being pressed up against her most intimate of areas.

“Go,” she whispered against my mouth. “Slowly.”

I did as she asked, easing forward so carefully that the movement was almost unnoticeable. Her hand remained in place at my base, and she pushed back against me after a second to indicate she wanted me to withdraw. I obeyed, and, when she gently guided me forward again, she moaned into me. It was the most intoxicating sound I had ever heard, and I engulfed her with a deep, soul-reaching kiss. This time, she didn’t push me back, and I entered her fully.

Tabitha’s back arched to the ceiling, pressing her breasts into my chest, breaking our kiss. I looked down at her, admiring the beauty of her face in ecstasy. Her mouth was parted very slightly to allow for the shallow breaths she panted to slip through her lips, and her eyes were closed, so her lashes kissed the shelves of her cheekbones. I grazed the tip of my tongue over her lower lip, and she opened her eyes again to meet my gaze.

“More,” she murmured heavily.

Her voice alone was enough to spur me on, but the command was an order I was happy to obey. Our chest rose and fell together, our skin sliding back and forth over one another, and we kept our eyes locked. Her mouth opened a little wider as I took her and panting gave way to moaning. I couldn’t keep myself from dropping my lips to hers, tasting the guttural moans on her tongue. She reached up and clawed at my back, her nails pressing unrelentingly into my skin, and I grunted with the onset of pain. It hurt, but it was the most delicious kind of pain. It was the pain of lust and love and promise and protection and trust and safety and fear and worry and all other things. It brought me to the edge, but I held back.

“Rex!” She cried, throwing her head back, scratching up to the nape of my neck.

My name on her lips was the most beautiful sound I had ever heard in my life, and I had to taste it. I lunged forward, plunging my tongue into her mouth, swallowing her passion into myself. Making love to her was an experience I could have never understood before her, something I could have never understood without her. It was not just a meeting of bodies as times past had been; it was the meeting of souls. Her lips, her nails, her skin, her eyes, her entire being held me captive in a never-ending circle of enchanted love. It was a circle that, in all its heresy, was the only thing greater in the universe than the Grand Circle.

“I love you,” I said. My voice was muffled against her, so I yelled it out. “I love you!”

“I love you too,” she panted breathlessly.

The words sent me spiraling into the throes of euphoria, and I felt her join me. We rocketed together through time and space, leaving behind everything that was, greeting all that would be. I knew of nothing but her. As I groaned her name and stared into her angelic face, I knew nothing would ever matter to me again. She was beauty personified, and our love was as visceral as our love-making.

I didn’t stop moving until she told me to, and, when she did, it was with a voice thick with satiation. Her eyes were dark and hooded, and her skin felt warmer than it ever had. I looked down at her without withdrawing myself and brought my fingertips to her cheek, which was crimson and flushed.

“I promise,” I whispered, “I will protect you. I will keep you safe.”

She gazed back at me and murmured, “But what about you?”

“You’re more important.” I brushed my fingertips along her jawline as I spoke.

“No,” she said, lifting her hand and pressing it against my own cheek. “It doesn’t matter if I’m safe if you’re not with me.”

I stared at her, drinking in the vision of the human I’d fallen in love with, and then I nodded. “Then I will do what I have to do to protect us both.”

She parted her lips and tilted her chin upward, and I leaned down to meet her mouth. I slid out of her as we kissed and eased myself down beside her, pulling her into my arms. When the kiss broke, I just continued to hold her, and she curled into my form in such a way it seemed my body had been meant for hers the whole time. We stayed like that in the darkness and silence and just listened to our breathing, letting our fears wash away in the undertow of our love.

I felt her chest slowing in its rise and falls, and I heard her breaths becoming deeper. I realized she was falling asleep, and I felt heaviness in my eyes myself. Just as she exhaled her last conscious sigh, I closed my eyes, buried my face in her hair, and allowed myself to drift.

Suddenly, I was wrenched awake by a sound. It wasn’t particularly loud, but, in the stillness, it was very clear. I bolted upright and looked around the room in a panic. Tabitha didn’t move right away, but she stirred when she realized I was no longer holding her and sat up sleepily.

“What’s wrong?” She asked softly.

“I heard something,” I whispered, putting a finger to my lips to indicate she needed to be quiet. Her eyes widened with obvious fright, but I climbed slowly off the bed and moved to one of the large windows, trying to remain in the shadows to prevent anyone outside from seeing me. There appeared to be nothing out of place or unusual at first glance, so I shuffled even nearer the window and looked out below.

I could hear Tabitha crawling out of bed behind me, and I extended a hand backward to silently tell her to stop moving. She obeyed, but I heard her voice waft almost imperceptible to my ears. “What is it?”

My eyes drifted down, and I saw a figure standing outside the front double doors.