5. Vanessa

Chapter 5

Still a dream. Still a dream. Still a dream!

No matter how many times I repeated the phrase in my mind, I wasn't convincing myself it was true.

Surely, I was back home in my bed, sleeping. I'd wake in the morning, shake my head about my vivid imagination, and get ready for another shift at the diner.

The creature galloping beneath me felt much too real.

So did the cock rising under the loincloth of the male alien who held me. Fuck, I was going to be raped in my dream. Whose mind made up shit like that?

As if he was worried I'd fall, he tightened his arms around me and rested his chin on the top of my head. He was warm and he smelled amazing, like leather and a spice I was unfamiliar with but would crave for the rest of my life. This would fit with a dream. I'd always had a thing for sci-fi romance, let alone blue alien guys, the ice ones. That must be why my mind had taken me in this direction while I was asleep.

Talk about a fantasy feeling incredibly real, though.

The rocking motion smoothed me, and I bit back a yawn. My eyelids drooped, but I snapped them open once more, taking in the scruffy dark purple trees growing along the wide path where the crystal beast galloped.

After suppressing another yawn, I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. I dropped into sleep within my sleep . . .

In my next dream, someone carried me with so much gentleness it made my heart ache. They stopped walking, saying something in a guttural voice, and chatter erupted around us in the same language. Someone touched my arm and their voice got louder.

I couldn't make myself wake up.

When the person holding me started walking again, I slipped into another lovely dream where the yummy smelling alien male laid me on a bed of furs. Now this was a true fantasy of mine. Normally, I'd be appalled by the thought of lying on dead animal skins. In a dream? Why not?

I was jostled back and forth, and my arms tugged in a couple of directions before I was covered with yet another fur. I snuggled down into the softness, breathing in the light scent of fresh air and flowers, and luxuriated in how amazing the furs felt against my bare skin.

In reality, I'd be horrified to think fuzzy animals had died to create my bedding, but this was a dream. Might as well savor the rich feeling, knowing I'd wake up to simple blankets.

A cool draft of air sliced down my spine, but even that couldn't drag me out of the wonder I floated in.

Until a warm body snuggled into my back and pressed his cocks against my ass.

His hand landed on my breast, and he rolled the nipple.

I shrieked and sat up, staring down at the alien from my dream—nightmare!

Scrambling away from him, I burst from the big bed, staggering across a smooth surface. I grabbed the first thing I found to cover my naked body—a strip of leather lying on the floor. It wasn't wide enough to cover my breasts unless I scrunched them together.

Something scraped and a light bloomed.

I got my first, second, no, make that third look at . . . my bedmate.

Heaven help me, but this wasn't a dream.

Realizing what I clutched against my front, I held it away from my body, grimacing. "This is your loincloth."

"It is," he said softly, one side of his thick brow ridge lifting in a sardonic manner. His impossibly Caribbean-blue eyes gleamed with humor, which riled me up even more.

"Dirty or clean?" I bit out.

He shrugged. "Why should I care?"

Shit, I was trapped in a . . . I peered around. Trapped in a round two-story blue crystal structure topped with white that appeared about twenty feet across. A crystal yurt, that's what it was.

Anyway. I was trapped inside this odd place with a big, too-appealing alien guy who, like every other man I'd met, tossed his clothes on the floor whether they were clean or dirty. As if the cleaning lady—who would not be me—would come by, scoop them up, and "magically" return them to his bureau as clean as they were before he wore them.

No bureau in sight.

Since his dubious loincloth was all I had to cover myself with, I stretched it across the front of my body.

"Leave me alone," I snarled.

He sat up, giving me a look of confusion. "But you're my crystal-given mate." He gestured to the luxurious furs he lay on. "Come back to bed, my pretty one, and I'll plant our first youngling in your belly."

A feeling I couldn't define coiled around my spine. Whatever it was sent warm tendrils to my core. As if I wanted to have a kid with this guy? Never.

"You're not a dream." I shook my head, hoping that would clear my mind. "I should be in my apartment, kicking myself out of bed and straggling into the kitchen to eat something appropriate for breakfast. Like tacos."

His head cocked, and I couldn't miss the way something else wascockedto lift the furs below his belly.

"You fiend," I shrieked.

Wait a second right there.

"I understand what you're saying," I whispered. "No more guttural gobbledygook. And you understand me."

"And here I thought you were sick or something."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"You kept wailing and thrashing, no matter what I said. Can you blame me for thinking there might be something wrong with you?"

"You were going to stuff you cock inside someone who might be sick?"

He winced. "Only with your permission, of course."

"Well, I haven't granted it." I shrugged off the direction the conversation was heading. "Where am I?"

"In our home, my pretty one." He smiled, his lips curling deliciously around his tusks.

"I'm not your pretty anything."

"What else can I call you? You haven't told me your name. I'm Aizor, traedor of the Indigan Zuldrux Clan. I introduced myself after I killed the abadeer in the cave, though you didn't understand. You may call me Aizor. No title needed."

"I'm Vanessa Smith, exclusive chef of Dria's Diner, a fine dining establishment back on Earth. You can call me Vanessa, no title needed either."

"Van-eesa."

Close enough.

"Zuldrux. Is that your species?"

He pressed his fist against his chest. "The Zuldrux have lived in this area since longer than anyone can remember."

Species, then.

"The crystal gods sent you to me, Van-eesa," he said. "I saw you arrive from the sky. You should've waited for me to come for you instead of attracting the abadeer's attention."

"Crystal gods?" This was something straight out of a bizarre sci-fi movie.

"Our clan traedors beseeched the gods to give us mates." He held out his arm, twisting it to show off the underside. "See? The gods told me you, my mate, would be with me soon, and I'd be given a sign to show me you were mine. This is the sign."

I tiptoed forward, though I stayed beyond the reach of his muscular arms, and studied the marking on his forearm. "It's a tattoo. Everyone has them. Not me, not yet. It means nothing."

"A tat . . ." His smile only deepened. "It's a sign from our crystal god."

"You're out of your mind."

He frowned. "My mind is very much . . . within me still."

I was beginning to believe this could be real. The robocops kidnapped me, placed me on the ship to Mars that somehow deviated to bring me here instead. Did that mean the other women I'd seen in pods were on this planet too?

"Besides, you have one too," he said, pointing to my arm. "It's god given, just like me."

What was he . . .? I gaped down at my arm. "Where did this come from?" I shrieked, rubbing at the tattoo that eerily matched his. It was pretty if I was into couple's tattoos—but I wasn't. "Take it off."

"The gods gave it to you to prove you're mine," he drawled. "Now do you believe?"

I stomped my foot, making my boobs jiggle. "No!"

Spying my skimpy abduction pod nightie lying on the floor, I crowed and scooped it up, waving it around in the air before pivoting to face away from him. After flipping the loincloth over my back to somewhat cover my ass from his view, I wrangled into the gown, trying not to moon him.

After ditching the loincloth, I turned, feeling slightly better now that I was clothed, though still disconcerted about the "mating" tattoos. Mine would come off with water. Or a good scrubbing. Then I could tell him we'd obtained a crystal divorce.

"You appear upset," he said, his sultry gaze dancing down my frame, practically undressing me all over again. I couldfeelhis gaze like he was touching me.

And that only irritated me. "I'm pissed off. Those damn robocops. They . . ." I tilted my head. "You didn't bring me here."

"Our crystal god did." His voice had taken on a smooth seductiveness that nearly lulled me. "Come to bed. We'll celebrate our mating, and I'll happily plant our first youngling in your belly."

"It doesn't grow in a belly but a uterus, you . . . you . . . alien." The word didn't sound like much of an insult.

"I'm a Zuldrux warrior.YourZuldrux warrior. I'll cherish you. Kiss the very feet you walk on. Love you for a lifetime."

"What about massage?" I quipped, only joking.

"I'll happily rub all of you from your feet to the top of your head."

Some guys offered flowers. This one seemed to think he'd impress me with a foot massage—which he might.

He grunted, and his smile replaced the scowl, both of which made him highly attractive.

He was a complete rogue, and I'd always been partial to bad boys. They were my downfall back on Earth, which was why I'd ended up working at a diner. My ex was one bad boy too many, and I was now on a bad boy hiatus.

"Back up a sec. Did you say youloveme?" How could this be real?

"I will. The gods sent you to me, which means you're my perfect match."

"Look, you can't just run around making promises like that. I could have bad breath in the morning. Bedhead. Stinky feet you won't want to kiss, let alone massage. For all you know, I'm cranky until I've had three cups of coffee." I was. Totally was. "You might hate me once you get to know me."

He shrugged. "The gods wouldn't gift you to me unless they knew I'd love you." He waved to his cock still poking away at the lush furry bedding. "Join me on our bed, mate. You will soon loveme. Cherish me. Kiss the very feet I walk on."

"I don't do feet. And you can't just . . . assume we're going to love each other because of that." I pointed to his tattoo.

As much as I wanted to tell myself none of this was real, that it was all a dream, I knew in my heart I was wide awake.

I didn't believe in crystal gods or any of the stuff he was spouting, but I knew one thing.

Crystal beings had sent robocops to kidnap me and bring me here to be gifted to this big brawny alien.