Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
ETHAN
Could I have really misread things so wrong? I was sure she wanted me. I was convinced she desperately wanted me to grab her and make her mine.
While she was under me, her body melted, as if a great weight were lifted off her shoulders. But to find out that I’m just a mistake? She doesn’t really want me here?
“We’re still trying to figure out how you came aboard our ship. Normally we only take females so we can milk them.”
Shock floods my brain for a moment. Now the terms bull and cow are making a lot more sense. Though how they plan to get milk from me is a sight waiting to be seen.
However, it also puts the whole making me come the way they did into perspective as well. “Kinky.” It’s the only word I can summon as I try to make sense of what she’s telling me.
This time, it’s her turn to tilt her head to the side. “Kinky?” she repeats slowly. “I don’t have that word in my lexicon. You will define it for me, please.”
Another smile curves my lips as I step even closer to her. “Well, let’s see now.” With each step I take, she goes further away until her back is against the wall.
Unless I’m just completely misreading the situation, her eyes dilate as I draw her hands into mine and slide them up the wall to pin above her head.
“What are you doing?” she whispers, looking every inch like a lost little submissive desperate to be taken in hand.
“I’m showing you examples of kinky.”
“This still tells me nothing,” she cries out as her body wriggles against mine.”
“Patience. Allow me to collect my thoughts. Now then.” Dipping low, I run my lips along the smooth column of her neck while drinking in her intoxicating scent.
“Other words for kinky. Deviant.” I brush a kiss along her pulse point.
“Illicit.” I kiss her again. “Commanding. Controlling. Dominating.” Each word is punctuated with another kiss until she trembles beneath me.
“But most of all,” I continue. “It’s different for everyone. I enjoy being in control while I give pain to the person who submits to me. That makes me pretty deviant. Don’t you think?”
“A Painsmith,” she whispers, her eyes widening.
“Now it’s my turn to say, ‘I don’t understand’.”
“Some males on Icora dabble in the art of pain. Painsmiths, as they’re called. I have heard of them, but never knew for sure they existed. More so, I did not know humans were capable of such proclivities.”
“Oh, we’re capable of so many things. Do not underestimate us.”
Her pretty lips twist into a wry smile. “I am certainly adding to my education. But you don’t understand.
I have to be in control. Not you. You cannot show any sign of hostility or any inclination that you will rise up.
They will take you away and send you to the prison planets. They are horrific, to be sure.”
Leaning back, I cross my arms and look the alien up and down for a moment. “Tell me truthfully. Do you enjoy being in charge?”
She looks around for a moment, her eyes widening. “I have to.”
“Have to and want to are two vastly different things.”
“If they find out...”
“Do they monitor the rooms inside this house?”
“Not to my knowledge. If they did, many of the other Ranchers would be scandalized, to be sure.”
The weariness in her eyes calls to me, beckons me to gather her into my arms and simply hold her.
“Then no one will find out. If me obeying you is vital to your success here, then I’ll obey you.
In public, I will be the paragon of obedience.
I can even fool everyone into thinking I like you commanding me, if that’s what’s needed.
However, I can be whatever you need me to be here in the safety of these bedrooms.”
“You know nothing about what I want or need,” she lashes out as tears gather in her eyes. “You’re just a human.”
This time, I slam her against the wall and slant my lips over hers. For a moment, she protests. Her body tightens against mine as she shoves against me. All too soon, however, she goes limp, confirming my original suspicions.
“Don’t underestimate me, Mistress Rancher,” I breathe against her lips. “I earned my living by reading people and knowing what made them happy.”
“This makes no sense.”
“It doesn’t have to.” A wry chuckle hums in my throat. “I’m still trying to figure out my role in all of this. Between the two of us, I find I’m far more likely to be off kilter here.”
Her soft sigh grazes my face like a gentle caress, making everything clench up.
“You are not the only one with no knowledge of what to do or what your purpose is,” she murmurs, her gaze drifting down to the floor.
“As the first human male here on Icora, we’re all learning what purpose you can have. Besides sexual that is.”
“I can handle sexual.” For a moment, my gut clenches as I realize I’m back in the same role I was down on Earth.
Granted, this time, I’m actually giving my body instead of just my likeness to a magazine, but it’s all the same. No real purpose except to look pretty and smile like a docile, chastised puppy.
“But that’s not why I want you,” she groans, threading her fingers through her hair. “At least not initially. The fact that you are pleasing to the eye and have a charismatic way about you is a bonus, but doesn’t satisfy my need.”
At her words, my pulse quickens a touch. Could it be I’ve misread the entire situation? “Tell me, celestial goddess. What is it you truly need?”
Is it my imagination, or do her eyes dilate just a touch more? Unwilling to leave anything to chance, I lean in again and capture her lips with mine. It doesn’t matter to me that it keeps her from talking. To be honest, we’ve already said too much as it is.
I’d much rather feel her lips lower, sucking me dry. Better yet, I’d rather have mine buried between her legs. Wrenching my mouth away from hers, I grab her by the waist and drag her over to the bed.
Her breasts heave under the shiny, alien material stretching over them, drawing my gaze to the metallic zipper gleaming like pure silver in the overbearing suns. She doesn’t say a word as I lean forward and grasp the tiny tab between my teeth and pull down.
“P- please,” she whimpers, finally moving back from me. “I’ve been outside working. I stink. At least allow me to cleanse the day off of me before we do anything else.”
“I can’t let you do that.” A soft growl reverberates through the air as I slide my body on top of hers.
It’s like I’m possessed, consumed, unable to think of anything else other than the sweet smell of her skin peppered with the nostalgic scent of my childhood. Only, the feelings I have now feel far more raw and explicit than when I was younger. Nothing is the same, and yet, somehow, everything is.
Dragging my nose down her neck and to the valley of her breasts, I inhale her scent and pull it deep into my lungs.
The things she makes me feel are just as otherworldly as this strange planet.
Here, there’s no thought of what comes next.
It’s the primal joining of two beings separated by space and time.
Each inhale is laced with her intoxicating scent, and it makes my head spin. Perhaps I’m still woozy from whatever it is they did to me. Perhaps it’s just her. Perhaps it’s my brain understanding the inevitable—that this could very well be my home for the rest of forever.
Either way, there’s no longer a sense of anger or fear. All I want to do is wrap myself up in her. It’s an obsession, a madness, a longing I’ve never known before.
For the first time in a long time, I finally feel clear-headed. There’s nothing muddling my senses. Somehow, it’s as if I’m finally living for the first time.
It’s not just her. It’s everything. It’s this planet. It’s the very air I breathe. It’s her scent that keeps me locked into this odd dichotomy where I’m torn between two worlds—my past and my very real present.
She smells like forbidden nights out in the barn with only the hay to cushion me as my flavor of the week rode my cock.
She smells like nights out by the bonfires while the stars twinkle in the heavens above.
She smells like bad decisions, too much whiskey, and addiction.
She smells dangerous.
I tug at the zipper and follow it down, kissing every bit of skin I can that’s revealed to me.
If this is going to be another one of those bad decisions, then I might as well let it envelop me fully.
With this Mistress Rancher, there will be no halfway.
I can already tell it’s a fully in or fully out situation.
There’s a pain there lurking behind her eyes.
It’s a longing I’ve seen in so many of the submissives I’ve played with.
Exhaustion lines her face, not allowing her smile to fully meet her eyes.
She’s pinched, stilted, and unable to blossom into the woman she truly can be, the woman I can give her the freedom to allow herself to be.
Even if it’s just here in the safety of this bedroom, I can give it to her. And in return? Unfortunately, I’m not able to think that far ahead. I’m so consumed in the here and now.
As the zipper reaches the end, I find I’m still thwarted by this ridiculous outfit. Rising on my palms, I hover over her as she works her arms out of the tight fabric so she can shimmy it down her body. There’s a desperation to her movements that thankfully seems to match my own.
Each thrust or pull of her hand is jerky as she peels the uniform away, revealing her naked body to my hungry gaze.
For a moment, she lies there on the bed, still and tentative as she looks me up at me, locking her gaze with mine.
There’s an almost shyness in her gaze, as if she’s never been with a man before.
“Is this your first time?” I ask, my eyes watching her every micro-expression as it crosses her face.
Not that it matters to me. God knows I’ve done my fair share of fucking. I only want to make sure I don’t somehow ruin this for her. Or worse, I harm her in some unintended way.
“With a human. But not to the act itself. I- I suppose we’re alike enough that it should work the same way?”
My lips curl up into a wicked slash as I make my way down the bed.
“I suppose I need to do a thorough inspection to know. Don’t want any surprises when I go to fuck you.
Like teeth down there or something.” Though it’s a joke many humans would understand, her face scrunches as she leans up on her elbows.
For a moment there, she looks rather concerned. “Are there humans who have teeth down there? I don’t understand how it would work.”
Unable to keep the laugh at bay, I shake my head as the rusty sound trembles through me. God, when’s the last time I laughed like this? When’s the last time I actually felt alive?
“Trust me. Based on the film. It didn’t work. Now, lie back and allow me to inspect you.”
“This is wrong, you know,” she murmurs, obeying me anyway. “I’m the one who should be inspecting you and ordering you about.”
My lips dip down into a frown as I ease back up her body so I can look into her eyes. “Is that what you really want?”
Moments go by like hours as I wait for her response. Eventually, a heavy sigh drifts from her lips. “No. No, it’s not what I want. But it’s what I’m supposed to do.”
“Says who?”
She blinks at me as if the thought had never occurred to her before. “I mean, it’s what’s done. It’s what all the Ranchers do.”
“But you’re not an ordinary Rancher, are you? How many of them have bulls?”
“Well, no one.”
“Then why can’t you make your own rules?”
It may very well be na?ve of me, seeing as I don’t know how anything really works on this planet, but I, for one, am tired of living up to everyone else’s expectations and not my own. If I can start over here, then why can’t she?
“The capitol has strict rules on keeping our herds docile. I can’t just allow you free rein here.”
I ease my hand around her throat, just enough to feel her pulse quicken under my touch. “But again, in this room, with just you and I, who’s going to know?”
“It can’t be this easy. Nothing is.”
Ahhh, so that’s where some of this damage is coming from.
“I cannot guarantee that submitting to me will make everything else easy, but this can be. All you have to do is say yes. Tell me, Mistress Rancher, don’t you want things to be nice and simple for once?
Don’t you want to just lie back and feel? ”
Her eyes close for a moment. And in that instant, she looks so tired, so vulnerable, so utterly delectable. There’s never been a greater aphrodisiac for me than seeing a strong, capable woman willingly putting herself at my feet.
“Please. At least for now, just let me feel.”
“Very well then, Mistress Rancher,” I growl, lifting off of her to stand at the foot of the bed. “Then kneel.”