Chapter 27

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Olivia roused with the sun, her body full of energy despite, or possibly because of, the vigorous activities of the prior night. She slid from the bed and walked Rykker’s spacious home, taking in the sunrise from their vantage point on high. It was early, and the city was still quiet. Beautiful, futuristic, and one with the landscape around it, the perfect blending of technology and nature.

I could really get used to this place, she said, almost surprised to find herself feeling truly relaxed and happy despite being lost in space on a distant alien world.

She quietly put the crusted dishes in the cleansing unit, as she’d seen him do last night—that is, before she interrupted him with a vigorous mouth hug—then quietly spoke to his home’s AI unit. The note she dictated was short and sweet, thanking him for a wonderful meal and delightful time, and saying they would talk soon. She then retrieved her dress and coat and stepped out onto the lift disc, descending to ground level.

The air was still a bit crisp but warming already as the sun bathed the alien berg in its welcoming rays. The living pigment in her flesh seemed to sing out in welcome, invigorated by the energy it was receiving, sharing its pleasure with its symbiotic host. And after what she’d felt last night when her runes leveled up her orgasms, it was quite the symbiotic relationship indeed.

She walked home at a leisurely pace, taking her time, enjoying the fresh morning air as she stretched her limbs, head held high. If anyone happened to notice her wearing the same clothes she’d been in the prior evening, she didn’t care whatsoever.

This wasn’t a walk of shame. It was a walk of pride .

Olivia shed her coat the moment she was inside her domicile, her dress following a moment later.

“ Welcome back, Olivia. Can I prepare anything for you? Breakfast, perhaps? ”

“I’d love something. But first I need a nice shower. Hot water this time.”

“ Of course. ”

She lay the dress on her bed and stepped to the large open area beside it where she could most comfortably enjoy the shower. Yes, the system allowed her to wash anywhere she wanted without getting the place wet, but it just felt better to not have the lingering habitual thoughts of keeping her place dry intruding in her shower time.

“The dress was a big hit, by the way,” she said as the water rained down upon her. “You outdid yourself.”

“ Though our female population is small, I have extensive data on attire from thousands of worlds. Given your physique, bearing, and gait, I went with a design that would best highlight your attributes. ”

“All I can say is well done. And can you give it a cleaning while you’re at it? Things got a little… messy last night.”

“ Of course. I’ll see to it at once. I detect increased activity in your Infala rune, as well as other areas of your body, ” the device noted, popping up a display screen as she bathed. “ Have more abilities become apparent as your runes set in? ”

“I seem stronger, for one. More stamina and endurance. And I can really, really smell things now. Like, distractingly so.”

“ You will learn to control that. It is not uncommon. ”

“There’s also this whole seeming to be able to, I don’t know, feel things around me, as if I could touch them without actually touching them, if that makes sense.”

“ Hm, that is unusual. I suppose we will just wait and see how that develops. Do keep me apprised, I will maintain a detailed log of your progression. ”

“You got it,” she replied, stepping out of the shower, dried in a flash by the device as she walked then flopping on her bed. “Hey, could you do that purge thing again? And the oxygen scrub? It really feels amazing.”

“ I have already begun. ”

“You’re the best. Thanks.”

“ It is my pleasure. I will have a selection of foods ready for you in the stasis cover when you feel you wish to eat. ”

“Thanks. I won’t be too long.”

As it turned out, she spent quite a while basking in the restorative fields, the oxygen scrub flooding her system with delightful O2, and the purge system making her skin—and her tattoos—positively radiant.

Olivia slipped into some comfortable athleticwear the AI had made for her and spent nearly an hour stretching and doing a very relaxed bit of yoga, the movements far different from the positions she’d been contorted into the night before. With her senses purged and Rykker’s distracting scent out of her system, it was much easier to slip into a regular frame of mind. It was crazy, the Maldonian pheromone thing, but Zoldana had been quite frank and open about how it affected her when she was a young woman.

“You just have to accept that rational thought is not an option. Not where the pheromones are involved,” she told her young guest with a happy chuckle. “And those first moments when you feel your bond? Oh, the intensity…I may be an older woman now, but I can assure you, I was once young too, and I put my body to very good use.”

Having felt the reaction herself, Olivia could only imagine.

Zoldana had also experienced the Infala bond, which was partly why she remained in the city. Many did if they found a compatible pheromone mate at home if they set out with their companion males to search for their Infala mate but came up empty. Most did, actually. To find one’s Infala mate, however, was what all hoped for, but only the lucky achieved.

In Zoldana’s case, she’d been blessed in that sense, meeting another of her own race in her own city when he was escorting another Maldonian from a distant colony in search of her own mate. And so it was that the other companions continued on with while he stayed behind, forever bound to his fated love.

Olivia was pondering how that fascinating woman, the extremely strong and competent leader of the entire city, had at one time been unable to control herself, when her door chimed. She walked across the room and opened it, her body reacting at once in spite of herself, all of the scrubbing and purging undone in an instant.

“Hello, Olivia,” Arkness said, his scent making her stomach flutter even more than the look of pure adoration in his eyes. “May I come in?”

“Uh, sure,” she replied, unsettled by how hard his unexpected presence hit her.

Mentally, she knew what was going on. She’d been with Rykker just the night before and it was wonderful. So much so that she’d decided that he was the one. She had to break it to Arkness and let him down sooner than later. But with him there, physically in front of her? The pheromonal sway was stronger with each passing day, and she was experiencing firsthand what Zoldana had warned her of, the man’s scent making her logical mind short circuit.

“I brought you something to brighten up your place,” he said, stepping inside, an oval package in his hands. “It is small—I didn’t have much time to work on it—but I hope it will bring you joy.

He unwrapped the protective covering to reveal a three-dimensional image in a simple wooden frame, carved with vines and decorative scrollwork. The image itself was a landscape, not a photograph, but a very stylized painting somehow unfolding in 3-D. And with the unmistakable outline of a grounded ship in the background, it was somewhere she recognized, her cheeks flushing.

“That’s where we?—”

“Yes. Where we consummated.”

“And you painted this?”

“Yes. I wanted to make you something to commemorate what we have. Something that would make you smile whenever you look upon it. Do you like it?”

“I love it. I had no idea you were an artist.”

She’d known he was a skilled pilot, and a strong fighter, as well as an experienced outdoorsman with a knack for survival skills. But fine arts? The chiseled, imposing man was full of surprises.

“It’s always been a love of mine,” he said with a genuine passion shining through, his bright, engaged smile melting her heart into a molten puddle she felt quickly gathering between her legs.

No. What are you doing? You’d made up your mind. You were going to ?—

“I was thinking we could take a walk, you and I. There’s a beautiful park on the outskirts I’ve wanted to show you.”

Getting out of the privacy of her home and into the open was a very appealing idea right about then. If she stayed inside with him, who knew what she might do?

“Yes! That would be great,” she blurted a bit too enthusiastically. “Let me just put this here and we can go.”

She rested the painting on the counter, her AI automatically keeping it upright for her with a carefully placed application of energy. Olivia slipped on her shoes and rushed out the door, Arkness right behind her.

“Um, Olivia? We go this way,” he called after her as she strode off in the wrong direction.

“What? Oh, right. Lead the way.”

They walked casually, winding through the city, taking their time, and Olivia found the fresh breeze actually helped, diminishing his distracting scent enough to think more clearly than when he’d first overwhelmed her with it—though quite unintentionally. It was just what his body emitted, and it was beyond his control.

Arkness, for his part, remained quite attentive, watching her with an appreciative gaze, his intentions crystal clear. But he was a gentleman, playing tour guide and leading her to a multitude of interesting sights as they strolled.

They stopped in at a small shop where he purchased some sweets for her to sample. They were a specialty of his kind, made of a mixture of fruits and some starchy pod that, when combined, made an almost marshmallow textured treat entirely sweetened naturally. The taste was fascinating, with a fruity note up front but an almost chocolate one on the back end. It was unlike anything she’d ever tasted.

“They really are wonderful,” Olivia said, chewing another of the treats happily as they strolled up into the lush hills at the outskirts of the city. There were a lot of people out taking in the nature, she noted. It seemed his kind were very fond of the outdoors. Another surprise from such a high-tech race.

“I’m glad you like them. They’ve always been a favorite, ever since I was a boy.”

She leaned against him without thinking, his body like a magnet for hers. The initial flood of pheromones had been intense, but where that had hit her like a smack in the face, the last few hours together had been more of a frog in hot water situation, the attraction building stronger and stronger in little increments as they spent more time together. By the time they reached the scenic overlook both were barely able to keep their hands off one another.

“There,” he said, pointing to what looked an awful lot like a picnic basket, though alien in construction.

“What is that?”

“A little selection of treats. I thought we could enjoy a little time together out here, and food and drink are, of course, a necessity.”

“You came all the way out here before you got me just to set this up?”

“Of course. Wouldn’t any man do the same for such a radiant woman as yourself?” he replied, her stomach doing flip-flops from the intensity of his gaze.

Olivia felt the fabric of her top grazing her nipples in the most distracting way. They’d been hard for the last half hour, and she didn’t know how much more she could take. She shifted her attention to the trio of small high-tech items laid out in a large triangle around them.

“What are those?”

“Ah, yes. Those are our privacy shields,” he said, tapping one of them, a small light activating on all three. Aside from that nothing changed.

“Uh, they’re not doing anything.”

“But they are. They aren’t true cloaking, of course, but they work well enough. We are now invisible to anyone outside this space. Only if someone were to come right up to it, would they notice the slight distortion around us.

She looked around. There were plenty of people out in the hills and trails, though not exactly close to them. Still, they were close enough. She waved big and energetic at a trio of hikers off to the left a way. None of them reacted.

“Wow, it really works.”

“Why wouldn’t it?”

“Is it some sort of combat thing?”

He moved closer, his hands resting on her hips, making her belly tingle. “Hardly. Just a means for people to find a little privacy in even the most unlikely of places.”

Arkness slid his hand inside her top, squeezing her nipple and pulling her close with his powerful hands. Olivia felt her knees go weak, but he held her up easily, his mouth lowering to hers. She was overwhelmed by him, unable to think straight, her body on auto-pilot, reacting from her very core. Before she realized what she was doing, she had his cock in her hand, stroking fast and steady. She looked at the nearby hikers as she crouched down and took him in her mouth, insanely turned on by the men oblivious to what was happening just a stone’s throw away.

Arkness groaned softly as she sucked his pulsating cock, her tongue coaxing pre-cum out of him with delight, the salty taste setting her clit on fire. She slid her hand between her legs, the sensations rising like a tsunami wave, looking shallow at first before abruptly rocketing up in an unstoppable wave.

Olivia’s lips slid free with an audible pop as she pulled away, yanking her bottoms off as fast as she could before dropping to her hands and knees. He didn’t need to be told what to do, kneeling behind her at once, sliding into her with a shudder running up his spine.

The feel of him was even stronger than before, the rippling thing his cock did inside her even more intense than ever as he thrust, coaxing her G-spot just right while his balls slapped low and hard, banging into her clit in the most oddly satisfying way. It wasn’t the usual rubbing sensation, but a steady, rhythmic impact that made her abruptly cum so hard she couldn’t breathe.

The world went black as ecstasy engulfed her, his relentless hammering from behind sending her into climax after climax until she lost count. She was in another state of mind. A different world. An out-of-body experience. And it was incredible.

Olivia rode the wave of sheer bliss with no sense of time. At one point a spike of white and silver tingles cracked through the warm fuzz of her orgasms. He had cum inside her, her primal senses somehow knew, and his jism was mixing with her juices, coating them both in the most wonderful lube imaginable.

Eventually, the black gave way to blurry light as Olivia slowly surfaced back to conscious thought. She felt something on her face.

What is that? she wondered, forcing herself to focus.

It was grass, she realized. She’d passed out and fallen forward into the soft grass. She rolled to her side. Arkness was likewise sprawled out, spent and exhausted, his chest heaving from the raw intensity of their union. Olivia scooted closer, resting her head on his chest, listening to the comforting thunder of his heart.

“I love you, Olivia of Earth,” he said softly, his hand gently caressing her head. “And I will until the day I die.”

The lovers had taken their time coming down from their outing, walking hand-in-hand with a satisfied glow about them. If any looked closely they might have noted the strands of grass clinging to their clothing or the slightly mussed hair. They wouldn’t have cared one bit. This was perfect.

They stopped at her door at long last as evening fell.

“Stay,” she said, her eyes full of want.

“I wish I could. But I have an obligation I must take care of this evening that will take me out of the city for the night. But I will see you tomorrow?” It was both a question and a statement.

“You can count on it.”

He leaned down, sharing a tender kiss, then turned and walked away, looking back as he went with a gaze so loving it threatened to melt her on the spot. Olivia, belly warm with joy, turned and stepped inside.

Rykker stood absolutely still half a block away, watching in disbelief, his eyes full of shock, hurt, and rage, the flowers in his hand trembling with his barely contained emotions. Tears welled up in his eyes even as his jaw flexed angrily, a confusing mix of feelings bottled up like a hurricane in a jar.

“You changed your mind about staying!” Olivia exclaimed as she opened her door. “Oh.”

Rykker stared at her with such a hurt and confused look in his eyes it made her step back in surprise. “You—” he growled. “How—why?” He was at a loss for words, the normally verbose man rendered nearly speechless in shock.

Olivia’s body reeled more than her mind as his pheromones clashed with Arkness’s, her senses abruptly subjected to a whirlwind of confusing and conflicting feelings rushing through her. “Rykker, I?—”

“I gave you my heart,” he blurted, the veins in his neck pulsing hard. “I—we—we were supposed to be together. Together forever,” he said, the words finally flowing more easily. “I am yours, Olivia. Yours to do with as you please.”

“You don’t understand.”

“Don’t I? I gave myself to you. I didn’t think you would betray my love like this.”

“Whoa, hang on. We’ve only known each other a little while.”

“And we have bonded. And you can’t pretend you don’t know what that means. Not now. Not after all we’ve been through.”

“I didn’t mean to hurt you, Rykker. It’s just, Arkness?—”

Rykker’s whole body shook at his rival’s name. “Fuck Arkness! And fuck you!” he shouted, throwing the flowers in her face and storming away, leaving the confused woman reeling.

Olivia shut the door, standing there silently a long moment before picking up the scattered flowers. Wildflowers, by the look of them, hand-picked just for her. She put them on her counter. The counter where Arkness’s painting also sat. Olivia walked to her bed and flopped down hard, her mind reeling.

“What the hell have I gotten myself into?”