Alien's Challenge: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Outlaw Planet Mates) Read online

  She said nothing, shuffling her feet. Eventually, she said, “You’re naked.”

  “Have you not seen a grown male before?”

  “No. Yes! I mean, yes, but not a lizardman,” she said, sounding flustered. He bet she looked adorable when she was flustered.

  “Should I stand so you can examine me for your edification?”

  She made a strangled noise, halfway between panic and amusement. “Nooo…You stay there.” Then, in a quiet voice, “Who talks like this?”

  Alice hustled to the shower stall, grumbling about the cold deck. He did not look but he heard the water run, more muttering about the cold and an alarming clack of chattering teeth, then the shutting valve. Her steps pounded against the wooden deck, he heard the robe falling, and then the satisfied moan as she eased herself into the water.

  His cock jerked with interest.

  Faris risked a glance in her direction. Submerged to her neck, she had her eyes closed and a smile on her face.

  “Nothing should feel this good,” she said.

  The silence was companionable. The heat eased sore muscles. His body ached not from the injuries sustained but from the rapid growth of new scales pushing out the older. His hormones were unbalanced. It would pass. By tomorrow or the next day, he would be himself again.

  Alice’s sighs of pleasure went directly to his cock. He did not think that would pass so easily. Still, if he did not look at her luscious form, it was tolerable. Platonic. They were two strangers enjoying a hot soak, watching the snow. Nothing more.

  The companionable silence did not last.

  “Tell me about the man you murdered,” she said.

  Alice

  “It is not important,” he said, like it wasn’t important.

  “Look, you said you weren’t a serial killer. Fair, but it is important because I’m trying to figure out if you’re going to murder me. A random act of violence, or did he have it coming?” Alice asked.

  Faris probably wouldn’t murder her. Probably. If he wanted to kill her, he could have let her freeze in the snow or suffocated her while she slept. She could lower her guard, unless getting her to trust him and then making with the murdering was how he got off.

  Ugh, this was impossible.

  “Sorry. I trust you, for some reason, but not knowing is throwing me into a tailspin of anxiety.”

  His quills, half plucked, went up and down. “Do humans have tails? Did you lose yours in an accident?”

  “What? No. Humans don’t have tails,” she said, not even bothering to touch on vestigial tails. Not the time or the place. “I answered your question. You answer mine.”

  “The male had it coming. I do not take a life without cause,” he said.

  When he offered no further explanation, Alice went to the next question on her list. “What does ‘fourth child’ mean?”

  He sighed dramatically, the drama lizard. “I have already said that three is a sacred number. A clutch is three hatchlings. Always.”

  Pieces slide into place.

  “Unless there’s a fourth,” she said, turning to watch his reaction.

  He sank in the water, his head dipping under. His knees poked out of the top, and his tail lolled over the side like he was too large for the tub.

  “A first child is the heir. The second, a scholar. The third is for the Empire and enters the military. The fourth is a sacrifice.” He paused, sitting up. Water sluiced off his arms, his red scales dark. “In the old days, the fourth child was given to ancestors or left to the kindness of the wilds.”

  That sounded ominous. “Is that a pretty way of saying adopted out, or do you mean they killed the extra—” she attempted to ask.

  “It was a cruel time and long ago,” he said, not letting her finish the question. Fair. It was a gross question. “Now the fourth child is raised to be a useful tool. An instrument deployed at the right moment. We are told that we have no destiny of our own and that we will likely die serving the family.”

  “A sacrifice,” she whispered.

  “Yes. So it was with my family. We are traditional and a...minor noble family. My sister had a political marriage, but it was a bad match. He was a violent male.” His quills went back. “He treated my sister poorly but there was nothing to be done. His influential family protected him. I did what was required of me and was sentenced to life here for my sacrifice.”

  Nothing to be done, her foot. “Are you telling me that murder was better than the fallout from a divorce?”

  “Politics,” he said, his voice gruff.

  Alice dipped under the water, letting her hair fan out. She noticed a comb in the pile of clothes that Faris scrounged and didn’t look forward to working out the tangles.

  She looked up at the sky. Snowflakes fell in lazy circles, obscuring the stars.

  “I’m divorced,” she offered, filling the silence. “Did you leave anyone behind on…”

  “Nakkon. No. I have no mate,” he said. “What did your mate do to be removed from your house?” He sounded so damn earnest it was sweet.

  “Ex-mate. It wasn’t him. It was me. I got old and fat. He thought he could do better.” The words were poison, but it felt good to speak them, like draining the venom from her body.

  Water splashed, and Faris climbed out of the tub. He crouched next to hers, his big red dick right at eye level, hanging between his muscular thighs.

  His eyes are up there.

  Alice forced herself to look up.

  “He is a fool. How many bones must be broken to restore your honor?”

  So damn earnest.

  “I like you, lizardman.” She wagged a playful finger at him.

  Faris frowned and grabbed her hand, turning the palm up. He poked at the pruney skin. “The water is damaging you.”

  “Oh, it’s fine. That happens.” She pulled her hand away, aware of how she brushed his thigh.

  He watched her intently. “One moment,” he said, then padded away to a stack of towels.

  Naked.

  Alice stared at his butt. He had a tail. She knew he had a tail, but she had never imagined how that tail would look, thick at the base of his spine and swaying with every step.

  Shit, Faris was hot. Like, hot hot. She thought that yesterday, but she’d been drugged so that didn’t count. Now her head was clear, and she was drooling over a lizardman’s ass.

  A fine lizardman’s ass.

  Stop it. You’re going home.

  Exactly. You’re going home, a naughty part of herself replied. What does it matter? Get some tail.

  He held out a large towel and said in a deep voice, “Let us return to the room.”

  Alice climbed out of the tub, water sluicing off of her. Wet hair dripped down her back, and she shivered, exposed to the cold air. If she worried about how her stomach rolls looked, one look at Faris’ hungry gaze erased any doubt that he liked what he saw.

  He dried her off with a large towel, his hands clinically brushing along her curves. His dick stood at full attention, letting her know that he enjoyed this. It was a deep magenta, wide in the middle, and came to a point. Ridges ran down the sides. It looked intimidating.

  His quills went up slowly, as if asking if she liked what she saw.

  “Yes,” she said. “We should definitely go to our room.”

  Chapter 9

  Alice

  Once in the room, Faris handed her a bottle of lube.

  “Wow, that’s direct,” she said, awkwardly holding the bottle.

  “Will you oil the scales on my back and reapply the ointment to the wound?” He dropped the towel around his waist and sat on the floor.

  “Sure, not a problem. You don’t want to know what I was thinking.” She grabbed a pillow to kneel on because her spirit was still in her twenties, but her knees were absolutely thirty-three.

  She reapplied ointment on the wound and declared it was healing nicely. Then she warmed up the oil between her hands before spreading it on his shoulders.

 
His scales were different today, brighter, and smoother. They gleamed in the dim lighting of the room.

  “Is all this new growth?” she asked, running her hand down his back to his hip. The scales absorbed the oil quickly, like soaking in the hot tub had stripped them.

  “Growth happens quickly over the first day.”

  A jagged line of pink scar tissue sat at his lower back. The scar was not as old as the others on his arms and shoulders.

  “Something happened here,” she said, brushing her fingers over the tissue. His tail flinched, thumping loudly against the floor. “Sorry,” she said.

  “It is sensitive.”

  “Looks like it didn’t heal well.” She worked the oil into the surrounding scales.

  “No. It was a wound meant to kill me,” he said. Then, in a grumbling voice, “Rand is sloppy in many ways.”

  “Randevere did this.” She brushed against the scar again. His tail twitched slightly.

  “I do not wish to speak of the male.”

  Understandable.

  She finished his lower back, arms, and even the back of his neck. “The feathers?”

  “Quills,” he corrected. He then reached up and pulled away the remaining quills. “They were falling out.”

  She massaged his skull. At first, his posture was ramrod straight, as if unused to being touched, but then the giant lizardman melted. She dug her fingers in and wondered how often he was touched by another person, even platonically. The last person to touch her was the masseuse who worked on the knot in her upper back, and that had been two months ago.

  Two years and two months ago, actually. So she was touch-starved. Big deal. She was human.

  Faris leaned back against her, his slippery back against the cottony front of her robe. The friction made her nipples rock hard. She wondered if he could feel them.

  “And your tail?” she asked.

  He stilled, then answered in a soft yes.

  “Is that too intimate? Tell me if I’m overstepping. I don’t know what the social protocols are regarding tails,” she said.

  “Generally, you do not touch another’s tail unless you intend to build a nest with them,” he said.

  “That sounds nice.” And permanent. Playing with the lizardman’s tail was more than flirting but she couldn’t stop her hands from staying.

  The scales were smooth, large at the base, and diminishing in size toward the end. A throaty groan vibrated in him loud enough that she felt it.

  He twisted to face her. Hunger burned in his eyes. “Alice Serrano.”

  It was a question.

  “Yes,” she answered.

  He slammed his face against hers. The hard scales of his forehead hit hers.

  “Oww!” She jerked away, covering her mouth with her hand for protection. “What was that?”

  “I replicated what you did yesterday.” He paused. “There is nuance to the maneuver,” he muttered.

  A kiss. That headbutt was his attempt at a kiss.

  “Like this,” she said, rubbing her fingers along the spikes of his jaw. They were more flexible than she expected. She drew him in and slanted her head to the side to avoid bumping noses.

  She pressed a soft kiss to his lips and drew back.

  He ran a finger over his lips, as if considering the kiss. “That was pleasant,” he concluded.

  “That was mild. Let me try again.”

  This kiss was harder, deeper. His lips were thin and not terribly responsive, but at least this time she knew he wanted to kiss. She ran her tongue over the seam of his mouth, encouraging him to open.

  It was like a light went on.

  His chest rumbled, and he pushed forward. He nipped at her lips, his tongue everywhere. Every. Where. Her mouth. Her ears. Her neck. The robe fell open and slid to the floor.

  He reached for her breasts, then hesitated.

  “It’s okay. I like for them to be touched, but they’re sensitive, so just grab them.” She cupped her breasts to demonstrate, rolling her thumb over her nipples.

  He mimicked her gestures, holding both her breasts and lightly squeezing.

  A lizardman is playing with my boobs.

  Life was strange but awesome.

  He pushed her back to the floor, the pillow now under her head. His tongue had to be magic because it felt amazing and found all the good places, like he was mapping her body. He’d lick and stroke, watch her response, nod, and then move on.

  Neck? Good.

  Belly? Nice but weird.

  Elbow? Ticklish. Stop.

  Hip? Good.

  Thigh? Very good.

  He spread her thighs open and kneeled between them. His short quills went down.

  “What?” she asked, suddenly self-conscious.

  “You are human.”

  Alice bit back her natural instinct for a sarcastic comment about his observational skills.

  He continued, “I want to please you, and that requires that I familiarize myself with your anatomy.”

  Oh, well, when he put it that way…

  “Let me show you how to please me,” she said. With one foot planted on the floor, she angled herself for him to watch her stroke herself.

  He leaned in, fascinated. “Repetitive rubbing?”

  “For me, yes. This is my clit. It’s a sensitive nerve bundle.” She circled her clit, rubbing and then stroking down. “Would you like to try?”

  His finger replaced her own, touching her too lightly.

  “Harder. I won’t break,” she said.

  He applied pressure, rubbing and circling. Alice tilted her head back, moaning. His quills went down at the sound. He leaned, pressing his mouth to her exposed flesh, and licked.

  “Oh!” Absolute delight shot through her, curling her toes. Her fingers tangled with the short quills on his head, holding him in place. This new growth had a soft, feathery feel.

  Faris responded eagerly, licking and sucking with a voracious appetite.

  Pussy? Very, very good.

  Faris

  His mate’s taste flooded his mouth. He worked his tongue, licking and sucking until she reached a climax. It was a glorious thing to watch.

  His cock throbbed.

  “The bed. Now,” he commanded.

  “How do you want me?” Alice asked.

  “Hands and knees.” He did not know how humans usually mated, but this was the typical position for the Nakkoni who had to navigate tails.

  He ran an appreciative hand over the curve of her ass. Her body was soft and generous here. She was soft everywhere.

  He spread her cheek, exposing the silky pink flesh of her sex. He ran a finger over her folds, enjoying her shivering response. Warmth enveloped his finger as he pushed in. She was a marvel, moaning for him and pleading for more.

  Faris, please.

  “You are luscious,” he said, leaning over her to take his position. He licked the shell of her ear. Human ears were much larger than Nakkoni but so much more sensitive. He rather liked them.

  Now, Faris.

  He pushed into her. The heat of her made him gasp. Tight and eager, she rocked back to meet his thrusts. One hand rested on her hip, the other tangled into her still -damp hair.

  They moved together, bodies acting on instinct even as they fumbled over their differences. Those were minor details. Alice fit him like they had been made for each other, Nakkoni and human. Softness to his harshness. Laughter to his sulking silences.

  Alice trembled and quaked. He could watch this again and again, the give of her flesh against his, the beige against his scarlet, and the way her eyes fluttered shut as she moaned so beautifully.

  His mate. He couldn’t let her return to Earth, not now. Not when his twin hearts beat for her.

  Alice cried out underneath him, collapsing until her arms rested on the bed.

  His climax sent bright and sparkling shivers throughout his body, emptying his seed inside her.

  He stilled, his cock expanding as the petals unfurled.

&nb
sp; “What is that?” Alice gasped, which quickly turned into a moan.

  “My petals.” He drew back, one petal slipping out.

  She reached for it, running her hand over the length. The outside was smooth, but the inner flesh had suction cups designed to hold onto the female. He moaned as she stroked him, rocking his hips forward.

  “Is this a tentacle? I saw your dick. It wasn’t a tentacle.”

  “It is my petal. The stem expands into three. The inner flesh—”

  “Don’t you dare stop,” she gasped. The petal rubbed against her clit, sucking and pulling the sensitive nub.

  He complied, rocking into her. The two petals inside her channel expanded until he could hardly move. Her core squeezed him, sending unimaginable pleasure through him. She gave a throaty moan, and he felt the raw ecstasy of it coiling around himself.

  He released again, planting more seed deep inside her. Perhaps one would take. He knew that the drugs used in a stasis pod adversely affected fertility until they left the body, but he hoped for a hatchling.

  They collapsed next to each other on the bed.

  She raised herself on her elbows and examined his petals. She ran a finger down the inside flesh, gliding over the suckers.

  He shivered, then moved her finger to the less sensitive seam where the petals joined. “You are insatiable,” he said.

  She chuckled, warm and rich. “Just curious. Is this okay?”

  “Very. You are welcome to stroke my cock and my petals anytime.”

  “Will you explain how it works?”

  His tail twitched. “I believe I gave you a very thorough demonstration.”

  Her cheeks flushed a deep pink. “You came then it—” She held up a fist and slowly uncurled her fingers.

  “Expansion is to ensure that my seed takes root. The sucker cups are to ensure that it is a pleasurable experience for the recipient.”

  She nodded, then yawned. “That’s fascinating. I’ll need another demonstration.”

  He pulled her to him, wrapping her in his embrace. “Insatiable female. I am no longer a young male. I require rest.”

  That earned him another laugh. Then, with a mischievous grin, “Three is a sacred number, huh?”