Tara

Tara is the first in a series of origin stories for characters or events that will take place in my new series the Bloom Chronicles. The origin stories tend to be a little spicier than the novels, but far shorter and open-ended. Keep that in mind and enjoy this for what it is! If you want more, reach out and let me know!

"Hey Tara," the reddish brown skinned Bregan said as she walked out of the shared bathroom toward her built-in closet wearing nothing but a smile. She looked at the human leaning in to the display on her desk. "Seriously, are you studying again?"

"Hey Chelz," Tara said and turned, her mouth opening to yawn. She clamped it shut as she took in the woman's slender physique and she blushed. "Studying you now though, if that counts. I can make a case study for practical xenobiology."

The Bregan laughed. "It does! Well, you're xenobiology to me and I am to you. I was going to start getting ready for that get-together but we could be late."

"Oh! Is it almost time for that?"

The Bregan put a hand on her bony hip. "I told you that when I hit the shower, or don't you remember?"

"No, I remember," Tara lied. "I just... this is my first dissertation for my doctoral. The established interfaces have terrible efficiencies and I need to find a better—"

"Yawn," Chelzee teased her. "Come on, baby, put it aside, just for tonight."

Tara nodded and stood up. "Maybe a little break would be nice."

Chelzee slipped into her arms and kissed her. "Mmm, you're so soft," the Bregan said.

"And you're hard," Tara said. "Or at least bony."

Chelzee smiled and kissed her again. "You really know how to get a girl going."

Tara laughed. "Sorry, but calling me soft just reminds me I'm fat."

"You are not fat!" Chelzee insisted. "You can't compare yourself to me, baby. My people are skinny and bony. You're aren't. You're beautiful!"

Tara blushed. "I'd still like to drop ten kilos."

"You'd be skinnier than me!"

Tara snorted. "Hardly."

"Let me show you something," Chelzee said and lifted her chin while wrapping her arms around Tara's neck.

Tara let her girlfriend pull her in closer. "What?" she asked before Chelzee kissed her harder. Tara let a moan escape her lips and Chelzee slipped her long and slender tongue in to her mouth. When the Bregan broke the kiss Tara was panting.

"I'm going to show you how much I love your body so that maybe you'll learn to start loving yourself."

Tara could still taste the musty spice of Chelzee's tongue. "Uh huh," she said. "I'm willing to let you try."

Chelzee grinned and twisted the woman around so she could walk her back to the beds they'd pushed together in the center of the wall. Tara yelped as she fell and then hit the bedding. Chelzee grinned and bent over her, tugging her loose fitting pants down her legs and tossing them on the floor. She licked her lips as she stared at the underwear stretched across Tara's sex and then reached for those as well.

"Oh god," Tara groaned as Chelzee tugged her underwear down and left her exposed.

Chelzee's thin nostrils flared as she inhaled Tara's scent. "You smell so good," the Bregan growled. "You should make a perfume of your scent."

"Gross!" Tara blushed.

"No, divine! Kerdin herself would be tempted by you," Chelzee said.

Tara laughed. "I'm pretty sure the archangel of your goddess has better things to do than having sex with non-Bregans."

"Tolerance and inclusion is taught from the earliest of ages," Chelzee said. She lifted Tara's legs into the air and bent them back at the hips. She kissed along her left inner thigh and then moved to gently nibble with her large teeth on Tara's left leg.

Tara gasped and growled.

Chelzee grinned and dragged her teeth up Chelzee's leg. She paused long enough to kiss the blond curls and bury her rigid nose in Tara's hair and inhale her scent. She shuddered and then made sure Tara's legs rested on her shoulders as she opened her mouth wide and began to gently maul the woman's sex.

Tara cried out as the Bregan's teeth mashed her folds and gently crushed her in all the right places. Then Chelzee's tongue began to lick up and down her slit, tasting and then gathering her wetness. Not satisfied, Chelzee worked her tongue down to the Tara's entrance and slipped the agile muscle inside of her.

Tara let out a low and steady moan. Her eyelids fluttered as her girlfriend tickled all the right places inside of her. She bent her back to push her pussy up into Chelzee's mouth, silently begging the woman for more. "Too hot," Tara mumbled and somehow managed to tug her loose-fitting shirt up and off her body.

Chelzee was only too happy to oblige. She tilted her face forward and mashed the bony ridge of her nose into the top of Tara's slit. This time Tara bucked. Chelzee's tongue slithered inside of her while her nose mashed Tara's clit and accelerated the woman into a breathless climax faster than the strongest plasma engine.

Chelzee spared the gasping human when her body started to jerk with overstimulation. She tilted her head back and withdrew her tongue, but only far enough so she lick the woman's juices as they ran from her tingling hole.

"Oh... oh Chelz... oh sweet Chelz!"

Chelzee looked up over Tara's body and through the steep valley of the young woman's breasts. Tara's face was flushed and she was panting for air. Chelzee grinned and, with a last lingering lick, she crawled up her lover's body and began to kiss her.

Tara tried to push her but not only was Chelzee strong for her petite size, but she had the leverage she needed. As Tara's thigh rose to plant her foot against the bed Chelzee trapped it between her legs and began to rub herself on it.

"I want—" Tara mumbled into Chelzee's mouth.

Chelzee growled a response and rubbed her sex against her lover harder and faster while she swallowed her protests and kept Tara's tongue tied up with her own. In no time Chelzee was panting hard through her nose and then she began to let out a trilling wail that signaled her release. Tara's leg grew wetter by the second.

"You're amazing," Tara whispered in her girlfriend's ear when the woman slowed and then relaxed on top of her. "Let's just stay here and do this all night."

Chelzee lifted her head and smiled at the cute blond and gave her a quick lick across the lips. "How about we go out and then come back for an encore?"

Tara pouted. "Chelz, can't we just—"

Chelzee licked her again, distracting her. She grinned and lifted herself off of Tara's leg so she could slide down her body. She took a detour past Tara's still weeping sex and inhaled as deeply as she could. Tara's breath caught in her throat. Was she going to give in to her?

Chelzee turned her attention to Tara's glistening leg. She attacked it, sliding her tongue and lips along the pale flesh and savored the flavor of Tara's flesh and her own wetness.

Tara gasped and reached up to grab her breast. She pinched her nipple and twisted it, sending a bolt of lightning through her belly to her steaming sex.

Chelzee lifted herself up and straightened. "Come with me, baby," Chelzee said. "Come and dance with me."

Tara's libido crashed. She let go of her boob and stared at her girlfriend. "You're still going?"

"Come on, baby. We're only young once! Let's have fun before we can't anymore. I've only got two terms left until I finish my degree. Then I have to find a good adult job or go back to my people. I want to live before I have to be responsible and I'm expected to settle down."

Tara snorted. "I thought Bregans considered their own genders as pleasure and the opposite gender as only good for reproduction? Even after they take a partner."

"Well, yes, but that would still have me back with my people."

Tara sat up and reached for her shirt. "Go ahead, Chelz. I feel like I'm so close to having this figured out. If I can it will be a bit leap in understanding how we can improve the merging of biological systems and the machines meant to interface with them."

Chelzee rolled her eyes. "Are you sure?"

Tara nodded and grabbed her underwear and pants.

Chelzee darted over and kissed her again. "All right... don't stay up though, okay?"

Tara sighed. "Wouldn't be the first time you found me asleep on my desk."

Chelzee smiled and shook her head. "You're already amazing, you know. Some day though, you're going to change the universe! I don't know anyone so driven and smart as you... and you're human too! Who knew?"

"Hey!" Tara protested.

Chelzee grinned and blew her another kiss before bouncing over to her closet built into the wall of their shared apartment and opening it up to look for the right clothes to wear out.

Tara watched her for a moment and even offered some opinions before being drawn back to her terminal. She soon was lost in the work as she began cycling through different studies and tried to pull bits and pieces together to support her theory.

When Tara's stomach rumbled she looked up and found herself alone in the tiny apartment. Chelzee had kissed her on the cheek on her way out... she remembered that much. She stretched and realized four hours had passed. She had a good reason to be hungry!

She stretched and stood up. There was no food in their apartment. Or at least nothing she wanted. Chelz was a vegetarian, like all Bregans, and Tara never had time to stock up on food or make it. Besides, there were food vendors all over the place, even a small food court down the hall she lived on.

Her stomach chose that moment to remind her thinking about food wasn't the same as eating food. She sighed and looked down at herself. Could she go out in a ratty shirt and threadbare sweatpants? Maybe...

She glanced at the built-in closet she and Chelzee shared. Yeah, she should get dressed. She kept hitting dead ends in her research, a little break might be good. In fact, maybe she should go to the club Chelz had wanted her to go to. They served food there. Good food too, she'd been there once or twice. Some tasty drinks, which she shouldn't get. A miner's slurry had enough calories for a full day... but they were sooo good!

Tara sighed and went to the closet. She didn't have much for clubbing— anything really... at least nothing that fit. A few smaller outfits that she'd outgrown. It almost wasn't worth bothering until she remembered Chelz would be so happy to see her. Tara dug in and fought past her insecurities. She was going and she was going to look good for Chelzee. Or as good as she could look.

Forty minutes later Tara was imprisoned in a dress that didn't fit her anymore. She walked into the club, Reactor, and was hit instantly by the throbbing music as soon as she passed through the noise deadening field at the entrance. Tara paused a moment to adjust and realized there was no adjusting to it. The music, the lights, the entire atmosphere was more than just loud, it was a physical pressure hitting her from all directions. She made her way past the entryway and over to the bar. She needed a drink if she was going to spend a significant amount of time here!

One miner's slurry in hand from the automated drink station and she turned and took a sip. It was good. Darn good! She drank more, swallowing the creamy chocolate and alcohol infused beverage until it was half gone. She panted and shivered as the almost frozen drink chilled her core.

"Okay," Tara said out loud. She was talking to herself but it didn't matter, no one would hear her anyhow. "Now where's she at?"

She sipped more of her drink and moved away from the bar and looked for a table. Yeah, that was a waste of time. The place was packed, which wasn't surprising for a Thirdday night. The first crew of the galactic standard six day week was finished and had three days off now. What better way to spend it than partying?

Tara took a step and raised her hand, only to drop it a second later. That wasn't her Bregan. Whoever the woman was wearing a similar outfit to Chelzee, between the temporary paint and matching purple and red colors of her top, but it was clearly someone else. Tara sighed and took another drink.

She kept looking, changing positions a few times to look onto the writhing mass of people on the dance floor. Most of them were humans rubbing up against one another, but there was no shortage of Bregans, they were just harder to see because they were shorter. The Zendari on the station, however, looked like mountains among the hills. They were a head taller than almost anyone else.

Tara's straw sucked air. She looked down and frowned. Her drink was gone. She started to turn to get another when she caught a flash of red and purple. She snapped back and stared, a smile lifting her lips. There she was, dancing and twisting and... and...

Tara set her empty drink down on the railing that separated the dance floor from the small tables near the bar. Her hands went to the bar and gripped it, hard. Chelzee wasn't dancing, she was having sex. Sure, she was standing up, sort of. Clinging to a mountain of a Zendari woman and grinding her pussy against the Zendari's leg just like she'd done to Tara a few hours ago. That they had some clothes on didn't matter, Tara knew Chelz loved getting off like that. She loved riding Tara's leg even more than letting Tara user her fingers or—

Wait a darn minute! She was Tara's girlfriend! They lived together! What was she doing with someone else? How dare that woman put the moves on her girlfriend!

Tara was marching onto the dance floor and pushing people out of the way as much as she was working her way through them. She forced a small bubble around her as people began to realize she was there. She stopped with a meter between her and her girlfriend. The Zendari woman saw her first.

She stopped swaying to the music and grinding herself against Chelzee. It took Chelzee a few seconds to realize she'd stopped and then she looked up, a dreamy smile on her face and sweat glistening on her ridges. She saw the Zendarian looking over her head, behind her, and turned.

Chelzee's grin didn't fade, it grew bigger. She threw her sweaty arms out and wrapped them around Tara before the hurt and stunned woman could react. "Baby, you made it!" Chelzee squealed in her ear.

Tara remained frozen long enough for Chelzee to pull back and look at her. Her bony brows crinkled her skin when they scrunched into a confused look. "What?" she said almost loud enough to hear. Tara read her lips but she could only shake her head and turn away.

Chelzee grabbed her arm and tried to pull her back. Tara pulled harder, slipping free from the woman's sweaty grip. She pushed her way off the dance floor and stormed out of the club. When she hit the sound deadening field she stumbled and then lurched back to her feet in the cooler corridor just in time to nearly run into a beautiful brown haired woman.

Tara jumped back just as the pink haired woman on the far side of the one she'd almost taken out took a step forward and reached out. "Sorry," Tara mumbled and turned away.

Her eyes were burning and her chest was tight. The woman said something but Tara missed it. She looked up and watched them walk away. She was as skinny as Chelzee but shorter. She was also missing a her left arm other than a bandage covered stub below her elbow. A recent injury, maybe? Why didn't she have a prosthetic or a vatjob arm grown and transplanted?

If she needed a prosthetic maybe Tara could—

"Tara! Baby! What's wrong?"

Tara spun around as Chelzee came rushing out of the club to her. She was breathless and flushed. Her flush was due to a lot more than just exercise too.

"What's wrong?" Tara sputtered.

"Yeah, I was dancing with Domina, so what?"

"Dancing?" Tara asked.

"Yeah... why?"

"So were you dancing with me earlier?" Tara snapped.

Chelzee opened and shut her mouth. She shook her head and said, "Look, baby, you know that was special. We have a lot of fun together. We get along... we're good, right?"

"We're good? What's that supposed to mean?"

"I like you, Tara. I'm comfortable with you and you beautiful and you know how to handle me and you taste and smell sooo good."

Tara stared at her. "That's it?"

Chelzee blinked. "That's a lot! Tara, come on, don't make this more than it is. So I was dancing and maybe I had a little fun... who cares? This is our time to live and try things!"

Tara shook her head. "I... can't."

"You can't? You can't what? Tara... come on, you know this isn't going to last between us, right? I mean, I care about you— I really do— but you're going to end up in some giant company curing viruses or mapping out strange xeno genomes or building the next generation biotech interfaces. If I'm lucky I'll end up either trying to sell spaceships or solar bays or some nonsense for a few years to prove my worth. Sooner or later I'll be pulled back to my home world so I can use my education and experience to further my family while I have a suitable partner chosen for me to continue our family lines."

Tara stared at her. "Are you.. Chelz... no, you don't want that, do you?"

She shrugged. "That is the Bregan way. It's what it is. I'll make the best of it, but that's what my life has always been leading to. I get one shot, Tara. If I fail, I go home and have to hope that my family's worth alone will merit me a decent match... Even that's not truly a failure, I suppose, it just gives me fewer options and less say in who I may choose and what I might do. It sounds harsh to outsider, I know, but it is our way. Our families have to continue and I'll have a good life regardless. It just won't be like this... here I'm so free. I can do anything!"

"Or anyone?" Tara muttered.

Chelzee sighed. "Baby, don't be like that. You're human, I'm Bregan. It never lasts. I don't know any inter-species relationships that last."

"So the Zendari?"

Chelzee waved her hand. "You know I love big, strong women. They get me so hot. I'd never been with a Zendari, you were my biggest so far."

"And now I'm big, great," Tara said.

"Bigger than me, baby," Chelzee said with a grin. Her grin faded when she saw the tears finally spilling down Tara's cheeks. "Oh... oh Tara, it's not a bad thing! You're so beautiful, baby, don't ever think I'm making fun of you! You shouldn't want to be skinny like I am. You look amazing and you're well within healthy metrics for your species. And your breasts, Kerdin herself would nurse at those if she could!"

Tara winced at Chelzee's awkward choice of words. Sometimes the Bregan got so caught up she didn't think about what she was saying when she translated it into the galactic standard language. Then again, she obviously didn't think about a lot more than just her words before they went from thoughts to actions.

Tara wiped her cheeks and shook her head. "You're wrong, Chelzee."

Chelzee frowned. "Wrong? About what?"

"About us. About me. I could have made it work. We could have."

"Oh," Chelzee said. "I mean, maybe for a little while, but after I graduate..."

"I'd have gone with you," Tara said. "I can work anywhere."

Chelzee winced. "I don't know if that would work. The people of Brega are tolerant, but nobody's ever done anything like that... I mean, other species visit and some even live there, but you and I... I mean, I'd have a partner so we'd only be, you know, consorts."

Tara wiped another tear. "I could have done it. You couldn't— can't. You can't."

"Baby, it's just not that easy!"

"It is... if you loved me the way I love you," Tara managed to say.

Chelzee froze. She stared at her and then swallowed. "You love me?"

Tara didn't hesitate before nodding. "I did. Do. I do."

"Oh Tara... I didn't... I didn't know. I never realized... I thought..."

Tara swallowed a sob and then turned and took off at a run.

* * * *