Chapter Sixteen

What is it about that woman that loosens my tongue? She’s a subtle, but relentless interrogator.

Something about her made me want to confide in her. Before I realized what I was doing, I’d revealed I was half human. There was no reason to share that kind of personal information.

By tomorrow evening, the mission would be finished one way or another, and we would part company. End of probing discussions. End of temptation. I could leave this planet behind.

Would have to leave. Subject to the rules of no-contact, I would be in violation of the law if I stayed after the mission ended. I could be arrested.

I popped a couple of frozen vegetable omelets in the flash cooker and set about brewing some coffee. I couldn’t stomach the bitter, vile stuff, but humans seemed to like it. My mother did. One of the few benefits of being stationed on New Terra was that I’d been able to bring her back her beloved beverage. The first time I’d gone home on leave and brought her a couple of bags of beans, she’d cried.

As much as I identified and lived as Copan, I couldn’t escape the reality of irrefutable, immutable genetics. My hands were the first giveaway. I could have surgically removed the extra finger, but my hands still wouldn’t have looked “normal,” i.e. Copan, and I couldn’t hurt my mother. Not mentioning I was part human was different than trying to erase my humanity. She had encouraged me to take steps to make my life easier, but to deny my genetics would be to deny her. I loved her with all my heart. Because of her, I’d joined the LOP. Because of her, I fought to save her people.

But there was no question my mixed genetics had limited my options. My odd appearance would make me an outcast on Nomoru. Besides my telltale fingers, my fur grew sparse, even patchy in spots, my horns were stubby by Copan standards, my forehead was more flatter than ridged, and I lacked the tusks considered desirable in a bond-mate.

Those traits enabled me to pass for human on New Terra—if I shaved and kept my horns covered.

In reality, I didn’t fit in either world.

My enlistment with the LOP had afforded me the closest thing to a normal life. Prior to this assignment, my work had taken me to the far-flung corners of the galaxy, where I was not the strangest sight to behold. If I never bond-mated, well, I still lived a good life.

“Is that coffee I smell?” Jessie appeared.

“Do you take anything in it?”

“Nope. I like it dark and strong—like my men.” Her lips twitched.

It took a moment for her meaning to hit. When it did, a flush of embarrassment crept up my face. She’d called me ruggedly handsome before. I suspected she felt sorry for me. “There’s no need to flatter me. Would you like orange juice?”

“I’m not flattering you. I might be flirting a little, but I’m being honest about how I feel. Yes, I’d like orange juice. But I can get it. You don’t need to wait on me. Would you like juice?”

“Thank you.” I rather enjoyed the liquid squeezed out of a citrus fruit. Unlike coffee. I carried the eggs from the flash cooker to the table while she dispensed the juice.

“Is there any bread for toast?” she asked.

“It’s frozen.” I pointed to the cold storage unit.

“Would you like a slice of toast to go with your omelet?”

“No, thank you.” I did not understand the human penchant for burning their food. They roasted coffee beans, toasted bread, charbroiled meats, and burned sweetener and called it caramel.

She popped a slice of bread into the flash cooker and adjusted the setting. When her bread was burnt to her satisfaction, she slathered a butter substitute on it and joined me at the table.

We began to eat.

After a while, a tiny smile played around at the corners of her mouth.

“What’s so funny?”

She looked at me. “So, dear, what are your plans for today? Will you be home in time for dinner?”

What was she talking about? “I’m not sure what you mean…”

She chuckled and waved her fork. “How domestic is this? Cooking breakfast together, sitting here in our jammies—well, me in jammies—eating together. Like we’re a couple.”

“This is pleasant to you?” It was painfully pleasurable to me, undeniably enjoyable, yet emphasizing what my birth had denied me. This normalcy, the routine people took for granted, maybe even considered boring, was something I’d never have.

Jessie nodded, serious now. She covered my hand, five fingers touching five fingers. “I like you, Maxx. I’m crushing on you. You’re leaving after the big event, and I’ll never see you again. So…I’d like to make the most of the time we have.”

I swallowed.

“Am I wrong in thinking you’re a little bit attracted to me, too?” She was still holding my hand.

“No, you’re not wrong,” I croaked. I twined my fingers with hers. Five and five did fit well together.

She smiled with her entire face. “So, what do we do about it?” Before I could reply, she said, “Maybe we should kiss or something.”

Did that mean what it sounded like? I felt like I’d been shocked with a stun stick, but I managed to say, “Maybe we should.” As I stood up and rounded the table, she got to her feet. I pulled her into my arms. “Are you sure about this?”

“I am now,” she said.

“You weren’t before?”

“I wasn’t sure if you’d be on board.”

“I’m stiff as a board,” I joked, trying my hand at flirting.

“Is that so?” She laughed and hugged my waist. My erection pressed against her stomach. “So, you are.” She laughed again, and then I pressed my mouth to hers. Our lips parted, and then we were kissing in earnest. It was as if all our suppressed needs, hopes, and dreams poured into that kiss. At least, mine did.

Jessie represented belonging and acceptance, desires and dreams beyond reach. For a fleeting moment, she could be mine. I’d met someone who wasn’t disgusted by me, who actually seemed to like me. Ruggedly handsome man. Perhaps she hadn’t just been being nice.

And, oh, I desired her. I admired her directness, her openness, her teasing humor, her honesty. Her form captivated me, her smooth skin, her rounded breasts, her cute shapely ass, her slim physique. She was a fantasy come to life.

I explored her mouth with my tongue, discovering texture and taste. She nibbled at my lip, and I nipped back. Her arms wound tight around my neck, and I cupped her delectable ass and pulled her harder against my erection.

Her hand in mine, I led her to the bedroom, marveling at how natural it felt to weave my fingers through hers. Copans did not hold hands. Was this the humanness in me coming out?

We kissed again, and I slid my hands under her loose shirt to stroke her smooth, furless back before slipping around to her front. Her breasts were rounded, full, soft, and enticingly alien. The females from my planet did not have mammary glands. She moaned and rubbed her lower body against my crotch.

“We could do this better if we were naked,” she said.

“You have the best ideas.” I smiled.

“I knew I could get you to see things my way.” She slipped out of my arms, and we undressed, and she was gloriously naked, all smooth skin and feminine curves. My ringed cock jutted out, harder than hard.

We stretched, facing each other. She curved her lips in an incredible, beckoning, come-hither smile then grabbed ahold of my horns and tugged my face closer. “Your handles are very…handy.”

We kissed, slow and languid, while my hands roamed over her body with leisurely but focused intent, discovering how to elicit her moans of pleasure.

She learned how to make me groan with satisfaction by grasping my cock and sliding her hand over the ridged shaft with a firm, steady stroke. The smallest touches brought me pleasure—her fingers dancing over my back, a tug on my horns, her face rubbing against the short fur on my chest. Absent my thicker coat, sensitivity was so much more acute.

We teased and explored, raising our passion for one another to greater heights. My cock ached, my balls pulling tighter against my body. Her pussy squeezed my fingers.

She rocked her hips. “You’re driving me crazy.” She thumped my back.

I groaned as I pushed into her hot, tight, wet warmth. My eyes rolled back at the perfection. Thoughts evaporated in the passionate heat as our bodies moved together, every thrust driving us closer to the brink. She shattered first, crying out in ecstasy as her pussy pulsed around my cock.

I squeezed my eyes shut and held back as long as I could, allowing her to find her pleasure, before surrendering to the white heat of rapture.

We lay together in silence and satisfaction, Jessie curled up next to me, her head on my shoulder. When her eyelids began to droop, I smoothed a hand over her damp hair. “Sleep,” I murmured. “You need it.”

She sighed and closed her eyes. Within a minute, she was out.

Awash in contentment, I followed her into slumber.

* * * *

I awakened to find Jessie grinning and leaning on an elbow watching me.

“You find something amusing?” I asked self-consciously.

“No, I was enjoying watching you sleep.”

“It takes little to entertain you.”

She traced the line of my jaw with a finger. “I’m committing your face to memory, so I never forget.” The smile slipped off her face.

“I’ll never forget you,” I said. For a crazy moment, I considered the possibility of her joining me, leaving New Terra when I did. While taking her would put me in violation of the rules, one could always find loopholes if you looked hard enough. However, the life of an expat human wasn’t easy. She would be alone for long periods. Missions often sent me away for months. This assignment had lasted three years.

Where would she live during my absences? On the space station with my parents? My mother would be thrilled to have another woman for company, but Jessie would be subjected to the same prejudice my mother experienced.

Araset? Her friends resided in the palace, but that didn’t mean King Saar—notoriously xenophobic—would accept her. He’d been forced to tolerate the others because two of them had bond-mated to his sons, another to his chief advisor. He’d had little choice.

By virtue of the king’s protection—unless Imana succeeded in the invasion—Jessie’s friends were safe and insulated from the harsher realities.

But for a lone female without a powerful protector, life could be miserable and dangerous.

That’s what I had to offer her—misery and danger.

I’d witnessed the hardship and prejudice my mother had experienced—the gawking stares, the suspicion, the rude comments, the loneliness of being the sole human for millions of ypnots. She’d once admitted she’d felt like a speck of space dust. I would not wish to put someone I cared about through that.

Jessie would be leaving under far different circumstances, but it would be a huge assumption to think she would abandon her home, family, her friends, her job, and James Bond for an alien man she barely knew, who would, in the long run, bring her more sadness than joy. A half-breed with a human bond-mate? I could not imagine a match more doomed.

“I’ve got a question,” she said, her expression serious now. “I’ve been thinking about the cartel.”

“Not sure I’ll be able to answer it,” I said, although grateful for the diversion. I’d rather think about the cartel than our inevitable, imminent separation.

“What role do the Ceruleans play?”

“Cerulea is a Copan ally. Its government provides sanctuary to the traffickers and outfits the slavers with the tech that has enabled them to escape detection. For that, they get a cut of the action. When you got captured from the Star Cross and were transferred to the slave ship, you were put in a cell with a force field, right?”

“Yeah.” She nodded. “Holly burned her hands when she tried to run away.”

“The Ceruleans invented the force fields—and the stun sticks. They are technology innovators. It’s a natural gift. They’ve created holograms so realistic you can’t tell you’re looking at a mirage unless you touch it. Their shimmer technology renders spaceships—and entire towns—invisible to the eye and scanners. The LOP would swoop in on a slave ship, and it would vanish. Only recently did the league acquire shimmer tech.”

“So that’s why no one has reported seeing ships—they’re cloaked. I’d assumed they landed in remote areas.”

“Yes, they’re cloaked. It enables them to get close to population centers. For obvious reasons, they need to be where the people are. They land in open fields near enough to a town to be convenient to abduct and transport captives.” New Terra had the perfect combination of geography and urban planning to facilitate the abductions—cities surrounded by undeveloped lands. Fields hidden from view by trees. A traffickers’ paradise.

“You know a lot about what’s going on,” she commented.

“A lot more now than when I started. I’ve been on the task force since I graduated from the academy.” My enlistment seemed like a lifetime ago. So much had changed since then. “Situations are dynamic. I try to stay on my toes.”

“I suppose I threw a wrench into the works.”

“You had us scrambling,” I admitted.

She bit her lip. “The people who are going to be abducted…the LOP will be able to rescue them, won’t they?”

“That’s the plan.”

“That’s not a yes.”

“Yes.” A white lie. Certainty did not exist in my line of work. However, she needed reassurance, and I felt confident the slave ship would be raided. We had the situation under control.

“And after Imana is taken into custody, then there will be no need for secrecy anymore? People can be informed of what has been happening?”

“We wouldn’t be able to keep it a secret then even if we wanted to,” I replied.