Blaha was very conscious of the human sitting beside her in the little shuttle taxi she had hired to take them home. She busied herself setting the directions for the flight, but still felt his gaze like a physical touch.
What had she been thinking, promising to have sex with him? She was a fertile female from aβ Ruthlessly, she cut off that thought. She refused to think about her family. But she was still a fertile female and she did not indulge in casual sex, even with her own species. How was she going to be able to go through with it?
She knew sex with humans was possible. The Tiresome Twins were proof of that. She had even heard of Erisians marrying humans. It was clearly possible, just not something she had ever imagined doing.
She didn't even know what he looked like. What was he hiding beneath all that camouflage? The thought of mating with the human beside her sent a shiver down her spine. And a tiny dark thread of excitement.
She glanced quickly over at him. He still wore those sunglasses that hid his eyes, but he had turned his body in her direction and all his attention was focused on her. "Where are we going?" he asked. His voice sounded deeper than she remembered.
"My apartment." Her voice came out breathless and she stopped, annoyed with herself. This was a job, not something that mattered to her.
"You said you are to take me to my family." She nodded, not looking at him. "Why you?"
She blanked for a moment on the unexpected question. "We're cousins of a sort," she told him. "One of my relatives is married to one of your relatives." It was the answer she had prepared if this ever came up. With large Erisian families and complex inter-marriage connections, it was so likely that no-one ever checked up. This time, it was actually true. Not that she planned for anyone to find out.
He made a rude sound and gave her a once-over. "Honey, none of my cousins look like you."
She turned away and didn't answer. She knew what she looked like, and had come to terms with features so ordinary she was almost invisible. She liked it, she reminded herself. Being pretty was over-rated. Pretty was memorable, and she didn't want that. She really didn't.
It was a short flight and they arrived before he could ask any more questions. She halted the taxi outside her apartment on the eighteenth floor. It hovered while she opened the door and gestured for the human to enter. He glanced down at the drop but said nothing when he stepped from the taxi to her apartment.
He did a slow spin. "Man, do you people not know about corners?"
She looked at it with fresh eyes. Her apartment didn't have corners, it was a typical rounded Erisian chamber. It was atypically small, however, since she was a student who was saving all her credit. If she stood in the middle of it with her wings spread, she could almost touch all the walls, and it took only a single beat of her wings before she touched the roof.
It was tidy, because she has very few possessions, and they were always packed carefully, but it was very bare.
With Luis Reyes in the room, it looked tiny and over-crowded.
She panicked. She had brought this human here to have sex with him, but where could they do it? She slept in a recessed alcove which was barely big enough for her, never mind anyone else. She had no idea how humans even did IT. Did they have some weird appendages she didn't know about?
She backed away from him. She couldn't do this. He was a human. What if anyone found out? She would be disgraced.
"You changed your mind." Was he a mind reader? "It's okay. I'll go back to the ship."
The blasted taxi was still outside, hovering, still available to take him back to the port. She couldn't let him do that. "No."
She gathered herself. She would do it. "I haven't changed my mind."
She took a step closer to him, reached up and pulled his head down to her. She kissed him, willing him to believe that she wanted to do this. That she wanted him.
His mouth was like nothing she had ever tasted. Dark. Exciting. Erotic. She tightened her grip on him. "Take your clothes off," she said. She had to know.
He raised his head slowly, then pulled off his cap, and the sunglasses. His hair was a thick mane of dark brown that curled into the back of his neck. His eyes were a startling amber color, fringed with thick lashes. Sharp cheekbones and a thin blade of a nose added an air of subtle menace, only slightly diluted by the curl of his mobile mouth. He looked younger, and more dangerous, than she had imagined.
"Take off the rest." Her demand came out more like a plea.
He grabbed the bottom of his sweatshirt and hauled it off over his head, then in a single motion, shucked his pants and shoes, leaving him standing naked in front of her.
She swallowed. She had not imagined anything like this.
He was lean, and muscled like a snake, with golden skin stretched over flexing muscles. Wide shoulders tapered down into a rangy chest and down into tight stomach muscles. Her eyes tracked down and then jerked up again. Some things about humans were different from Erisians. Her hands itched to caress the biceps which moved when he clenched his fists under her gaze, but more, they itched to investigate the scattering of hair across his chest, which narrowed into a thin line that led down to hisβ
Steeling herself, she stared at it. His cock. She was looking at a human's cock. It rose out of a nest of dark curly hair and was pointing right at her. Was it looking at her? She jerked her gaze back to his face.
Luis was watching her, a smile in his eyes. He moved, flexing his muscles and preening for her. "You like, babe?" The long muscles in his thighs bunched. There was a light scattering of hair there too.
She licked her lips. "I had no idea. You should never wear clothes." She moved in and reached up to kiss him again. This time he met her halfway, and pulled her against his body. The slight roughness of his body hair against her bare skin was exquisite.
Blaha forgot all about her assignment, about her misgiving and her reservations. Family? She had no family, she could do whatever she wanted. And she wanted this human. She wiggled against him, trying to feel more of his delicious warmth engulfing her.