26 Sam
My foot was bouncing. I was in the commons where the food court was, a half-eaten plate of salted fish and fruit in front of me. People weren’t staring as much anymore, but looking around and not seeing even one human wasn’t something I was going to get used to in a few weeks. I was biting my nails again, slowly trying to pick up words in Takesh, but admittedly, I wasn’t as fast a learner as Saleuk… or any valerian for that matter.
I was starting to know my way around, but I still wasn’t comfortable going anywhere unfamiliar without either my young escort or Saleuk. That day, Saleuk had requested I meet him in the commons halfway through the day and since I had no idea when that was when their sun didn’t move, he gave me something similar to my old Buddy. It was a smart cuff that fit around my wrist and had the time, a translator that transcribed valerian words when they were spoken to me, and a few other perks that helped me exist more easily on the foreign planet.
I arrived in the commons early, dressed in a pair of leggings, ankle boots, and a silky, t-shirt type of top. My friendly escort, whose name I’d learned was Hesa, had the clothes made special for me when she realized humans weren’t really the “wear fancy dresses every day” type.
Finally, after what seemed like hours, I saw Saleuk maneuvering through a thin crowd of people walking in the other direction. He was in a stark white suit with a high collar and it fit him so damn well, accentuating his broad shoulders and slender form. How an alien could be so attractive to me was still such a mystery, but there was no question that I liked him.
Loved him…
I took a deep breath, my heart stopping when he set his eyes on me and started heading my way. I felt like I was on a first date.
I stood and watched Saleuk’s face light up like he’d been looking forward to our meeting all day. My cheeks flushed at the sight of that look.
“I have a surprise for you,” he said, holding out his hand. “Come.”
We walked hand in hand down a wide corridor until we got to the elevators. But we didn’t go toward my apartment. Instead, we ascended high up to another level of the settlement where more apartment buildings and even a whole other common area with shops and overlooks and spiral ramps leading to gardens, overpasses, and sitting areas. Since the first night we admitted we wanted to continue a relationship, Saleuk had been sleeping in my apartment with me, so the idea that he had his own place on Sylos hadn’t really crossed my mind. But something in me knew that’s where we were going.
Looking out at the view of the purple mountains and the twilight horizon, I was breathless. I slowed my gait and Saleuk looked at me, curious.
“This is gorgeous up here,” I said, feeling a breeze skate across my cheeks.
“I think you’ll enjoy the next view you’re about to see.”
He gently tugged me along and I was suddenly giddy as we wove around a curved hallway to a silver sliding door. Saleuk pressed his palm to the door scanner and the entrance opened up into a room three times the size of mine. One wall was a window looking out over the red-tinged terrain below and the rest of it was a clean, blue-hued chamber with a silver work desk with a screen over it, a bed covered in silky, purple sheets, and shelves filled with trinkets I just knew were Saleuk’s random belongings.
“This is your place?” I asked. “Why the hell are we sleeping in my tiny dorm?”
“I haven’t been doing much sleeping, Sam,” he admitted as the door slid closed behind us. “I’ve been busy and coming up here takes longer than going to your little dorm. Besides, depending on how you react to what I’m about to tell you, we won’t be sleeping here much longer.”
“What do you mean?”
His room had one of those mirror walls like mine and with a swipe of his hand and a few other little commands, the wall lit up with images of green and blue rolling hills. Plants. Fields. Bluish-purple skies and oceans of sparkling water. I felt like I was watching a nature documentary of an alien world.
“This is gorgeous,” I said. “I’ve seen this landscape before. “On the wall in my room.”
“It’s Valer,” he said. “A very specific part of Valer, actually.” He walked up and circled a portion in the top right corner. “All this is mine. Well, ours.”
My head snapped toward him. “Excuse me?”
“It was my family’s and since I’m the only Mena’tauve left, it’s mine. Nothing is there yet, but anyone in the military is allowed a personal place of residence. One that isn’t on a base. I’ve decided to make this mine. With you.”
“Are you shitting me?”
He raised his brows at the volume of my voice, but I couldn’t help it. I stepped toward the image and started to zoom in on areas, taking in every exciting detail. The plants. The colors.
“Do you like it?”
Those damn happy tears started to burn in my eyes when I turned back around to look at him.
“This is what you’ve been doing? You’ve been planning this?”
“Among other things.”
“And we can build a house? For us to live in? In this gorgeous place?”
“Yes,” he smiled.
I slapped my hands over my mouth to conceal the squeal of excitement threatening to tear out of me.
“Saleuk, I… Are you serious?”
“I would still be working for the military. I’d still have assignments. Some, I can take you with me, others you won’t be able to come.”
“Yeah.”
“And I would need to teach you to at least pilot a demeran, which can fly you anywhere on-planet.”
“Sure.”
“And you’d need to learn Takesh and maybe—”
I reached up and grabbed the front of his jacket, pulling him down into a kiss.
“We could make you a lab for—” he said against my mouth before I cut him off with another kiss. “The plant life on Valer is—” I kissed him again.
“Saleuk, I appreciate all of this so much, but you’ve gone and made me so crazy for you, I can’t even think.”
He paused, taking a few rugged breaths before returning the kiss with equal passion.
“Take these damn clothes off, Sam,” he growled against my mouth.
I didn’t even hesitate. I stepped away, pulling my shirt over my head, kicking off my boots, and sliding my leggings off. Saleuk’s eyes moved along my body, lingering on my breasts, my stomach, and then the apex of my thighs before he threw off his fitted uniform shirt and stepped out of his pants. His cock was standing toward his navel, pulsing with need, and my sex was throbbing like it had been neglected for months.
Saleuk slid his hands around to my backside and lifted me off the floor. I clung to him with my legs, my body pressing against the hard length of him as he walked over to my oversized bed. Laying me down gently on the soft sheets, he poured himself over me, reclaiming my mouth with slow, precise strokes of his lips and tongue.
I moaned softly, my hands exploring every inch of his body that I could reach. I basked in the scent of his skin. In the weight of him on top of me and the way his warmth felt against mine.
“I’ve always wanted you to stay with me,” he whispered, the head of his cock notched at my entrance. “If I had to watch you return to Earth, I would truly go mad. I cannot protect you there. I would not be able to touch you. See you.” He began to push forward, sliding his thickness gradually into me. “Feel you.”
I gasped, arching against him as he continued to bury himself in my sopping sheath. He stretched me like it was my first time all over again and when he settled all the way inside, the sense of fullness I had was something I never wanted to be without. The sense of completion was beyond our physical attraction.
Saleuk stopped, fully seated inside of me, and settled on his elbows, his thumbs gently caressing my flushed cheeks. I peered up at him with hooded eyes, my body so content to be there all day.
“There is so much I could show you,” he whispered. “So many things for you to see.”
My pussy throbbed around him, desperate for friction. Each minuscule movement he made caused my walls to clench around him, begging him to move. When my hips squirmed, a handsome and yet frustrating smile spread across his lips.
“I want to see it all,” I whispered. “But right now, I want you to fuck me.”
He slowly shook his head, kissing me again with torturous slowness.
“I’m not going to fuck you,” he murmured, gently pulling his length from me and then slowly sliding it back in. “I’m going to make love to you.”
I tilted my head back and he was quick to assault the sensitive skin of my throat with his lips as he gradually pulled out and then sunk back in. Every thrust was felt over every inch of my body. In every nerve. In every hair follicle. I curled my fingers against his arms as the tension built, my nails digging into his flesh, but he didn’t mind. He seemed to enjoy it as he picked up pace, remaining gentle and steady.
“Saleuk,” I gasped into his ear, my hand skating down the curve of his back to his hips.
Feeling his body undulate and knowing it was all for me stoked a fire deep within. The tension only kept building until I was panting. Whimpering. Writhing with pleasure.
“You are my everything, al’fira,” he said against my neck. “My life is yours. I would give you everything if you let me.”
“I don’t want everything,” I said, lifting my legs to encircle his waist. I dug my heels into the backs of his thighs, my toes curling. “I just want…”
Words fizzled on the tip of my tongue as my walls squeezed around him.
“Tell me,” he rasped.
“I want…”
I arched, my body shaking with building pleasure. I knew the moment was coming and I tensed, trying to make it last. Trying to draw it out.
“What do you want? I will give you anything, Sam.”
He rocked into me deep, one of his hands coming up to gently knead my breast. I cried out, throwing both hands against the wall behind me.
“Saleuk,” I sobbed absently.
He sped up his rhythm but remained steady and gentle, his body rubbing up and down my clit in just the right way. And every time he thrust, I rocked my hips to meet him.
“I just want you to love me,” I cried out as the thin barrier between control and release tore and electric pleasure coursed through every inch of my being. Saleuk suddenly slammed into me, hard and desperate. My eyes flew open and I looked up at him, begging for relief. “I want you to love me,” I whined. “Like I love you.”
He thrust faster, driving me over yet another ledge that I didn’t know existed. I wrapped my arms around his neck, my blunt teeth biting down on his shoulder. At the slightest sense of pain, Saleuk stiffened and liquid heat burst inside me like fire. I shuddered through another climax, my legs hugging him tightly against me as the remaining waves of his release took him. A low groan was muffled against my neck as he came inside me, filling me with every bit of him.
Once the sensations ebbed, he was still wrapped in my arms. He was still buried deep inside me, barely starting to soften. I turned toward his ear, my whole body pliable as warm wax under his protective weight.
“I love you,” I said again.
Wordlessly, I felt Saleuk’s arms coil around my body. I was so small in his embrace and it felt so wonderful. His strong arms squeezed me, his head pressed into the bend of my neck.
“Stay with me,” he whispered. “Don’t leave. That’s what I want.”
I shook my head, the question like a distant idea turned to dust in my thoughts.
“I don’t want to. I can’t,” I said. “Whatever we have to do so I can stay, I will do it.”
Finally, he lifted his head to look at me. “I love you, Sam. I will fight for you for as long as I breathe. I will be what you need me to be. Your shield. Your lover. Your friend.”
“You already are those things. Just stay exactly who you are, Saleuk.”
. . .
Thank you so much for reading "Crash Landing." I really hope you enjoyed Sam and Saleuk's story! Please check out book 1 and 2 in the series if you haven't already. And if you liked this book, please leave a review! Just a few words go a LONG way in supporting indie authors like myself.