Chapter 6
SIX
Samantha was a nervous wreck as she waited outside her apartment building. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, tucked her hair behind her ears only to shake it free a moment later, and fiddled with the cuffs of her sleeves. Her eyes scanned her surroundings in a ceaseless search for Alkorin. Was he coming in a hovercar, or was he walking? What if she somehow missed him? What if he missed her?
She’d received a message on her holocom twelve minutes ago— Be there in fifteen, little terran —and her stomach had been fluttering ever since.
No, not just since the message. I’ve felt like this since I talked to him last night .
She couldn’t quite believe their conversation had been real, couldn’t believe that she’d taken active part in it. He’d flirted with her, and Sam… She’d flirted right back. His holographic image had been delectable, to say the least. If he’d been with her in the flesh, she feared she wouldn’t have been able to keep herself from reaching out to touch him.
Dream of me , he’d told her .
And oh, how she’d dreamed of him. His words had triggered something powerful in her subconscious. She’d dreamed of him sliding his metal hands up her legs and over her naked body, caressing and teasing her flesh, coaxing moans from her lips. She’d dreamed of his mouth brushing over hers. And in her dream, she’d welcomed him, opening her legs to take him into her body.
She’d woken with a start, her skin hot and sweaty, her sex pulsing and wet. A need unlike anything she’d ever felt throbbed at her core. The details of her dream had faded quickly, but she could still feel the aftereffects of his ethereal touch.
What am I doing? This is crazy.
She’d only just met Alkorin, barely knew anything about him, yet she was in danger of placing herself in the same position she’d sought to escape by leaving Earth.
No, he’s different. He’s not like James. He wouldn’t…he wouldn’t…
But he could. Anyone could. She would never have guessed what James was capable of—what he would do —in the beginning.
She already knew Alkorin was capable of violence. She’d seen him in action—he’d taken out four aliens within seconds of their attack, a couple of whom had heavier builds than him. And he’d been smiling and joking as things escalated, like he was completely unconcerned with the prospect of facing four hostile gang members at once.
As if it were a game to him.
They deserved it, though. He didn’t fight without reason. He was protecting me.
Samantha turned her head to the left, scanning the street nearby.
Someone grabbed the front of her shirt and spun her to the right. She gasped, lifting her gaze to her assailant as she grasped the hand clutching her shirt with both of hers.
The eyes she found herself staring into were unsurprisingly, terrifyingly familiar.
Rakkob leaned down until his nose nearly touched Sam’s. “I could have shown you a good time, terran ji’tas , but you chose to dishonor me instead. So now I’ll take my pleasure from this weak little body of yours.”
You are mine. You exist only for my pleasure. Weak. Worthless. You’re nothing.
Sam’s blood turned to ice.
Rakkob tugged her toward the apartment building’s entrance.
She scratched at his arm and dug her nails into his hand, leaning back to force her heels against the concrete. “No!”
Something— someone —darted past her; she caught only a flash of crimson cloth and long, dark locks before the newcomer grabbed a fistful of hair on the back of Rakkob’s head.
Alkorin!
Rakkob spat some sort of curse before his hand fell away from Samantha’s shirt. She stumbled back, raising her hands to her mouth. Rakkob seemed about to turn on Alkorin, but the sedhi was much faster. With one arm, Alkorin swung the borian around and slammed him face first into the wall.
Grunting, Rakkob lifted an arm to fight back, but Alkorin caught his wrist and forced it down.
“Fuck you,” Rakkob snarled.
Alkorin pulled the borian’s head back and hammered it into the wall again. Rakkob’s knees buckled, but Alkorin held him upright by his hair.
“I don’t understand what’s wrong with the people in this sector,” Alkorin said. He looked at Samantha over his shoulder. “Who is this? ”
She lowered her hands and curled them beneath her chin, pressing them together. “My neighbor.”
“Has he done this sort of thing before?”
Samantha nodded. “He’s…why I called you last night.”
“Oh. Here I was hoping you called me because you couldn’t get me off your mind.” He smiled a lopsided, roguish smile before he turned back to Rakkob and leaned his mouth close to the borian’s ear. When he spoke again, his voice was unlike anything she’d heard from him thus far—it was a low, bestial growl. “If you touch her again, if you so much as look at her wrong, I will break every bone in your body one at a time. Do you understand?”
The borian nodded, scraping his cheek against the wall.
Alkorin squeezed the borian’s wrist, and bone cracked. “I want you to tell me you understand.”
Rakkob cried out in pain. “I do! I understand. Won’t touch her. Won’t look!”
“Good. Now go back to your room, and make sure I don’t see you again.” Alkorin pulled the borian away from the wall and shoved him toward the door.
Rakkob dove inside the moment it was open.
Alkorin straightened the silky fabric of his robe, tucked one of his long, thin braids behind his pointed ear, and turned to face Samantha again. His expression was serious as his eyes raked over her, the eye on his forehead moving independently of the other two. “Are you all right, Samantha?”
He stepped closer to her and settled a hand on her cheek, tilting her face up so she met his gaze. The pad of his thumb brushed her cheekbone. It sent a shiver through her that had nothing to do with fear.
Hesitantly, she grasped his wrist and held his hand there, pressing her cheek into his palm. Though it was a simple gesture, his touch calmed her, grounded her, melted the icy fear that had welled in her heart. She needed it, craved it.
“You’re always saving me,” she said.
His smile tilted, becoming a mischievous smirk. “Anything to make me look better in your eyes.”
Samantha laughed. His humor in the face of what had just happened was a welcome change from the usual, just the distraction she needed at that moment. Her smile stretched wide, making her cheeks feel tight, and she tilted her face down as a fresh wave of heat flooded her cheeks. “I don’t think you can look any better. It’s already hard for me to believe you’re real…”
Her lips parted, and her breath hitched when his tail sensually brushed along her calves. She longed to feel it against her bare skin.
Alkorin leaned closer. His cheek almost touched hers as he spoke in a low, sultry voice. “Oh, Samantha, you have no idea how difficult it is to resist, do you? No idea how much you tempt me…”
Samantha drew her head back and met his eyes; all three glowed bright, their slitted pupils expanded wide. She released a shaky breath.
Then don’t, Alkorin. Don’t resist.
She wanted to say those words aloud so badly, but they lodged in her throat and refused to budge. All she could do was stare, torn between her undeniable attraction to him and her fear of letting go. Her fear of trusting him.
She couldn’t understand why—why her? She didn’t know what the standards of beauty were for alien species, but she couldn’t imagine many women not finding this sedhi sexy as sin. What could he possibly see in Samantha?
Alkorin looked past her for a moment, and a strange, mirthful glint entered his eyes. “Are you ready to leave, little terran? My driver is somewhat impatient, and I’d hate to inconvenience him.”
Sam turned her head to follow his gaze, breaking contact with his hand. A sleek, black hovercar idled on the street just outside her building, its windows tinted as dark as its external paint, which made it impossible to see into the cab.
“That’s your car?” she asked. “And you have a driver?”
“Yes, and yes,” he replied, lowering his hand to the base of her spine. He gently guided her toward the vehicle. “I hope you don’t mind. I simply wanted the freedom to focus on giving you as wonderful an experience as possible.”
“I guess document verification must pay well. What, um…what exactly does that entail, anyway? Do you work for a big company?”
When they reached the car, Alkorin stepped forward and opened the rear door for her, standing aside. “I work primarily with Consortium identification documents. It’s lucrative enough to keep me comfortable.”
“Would they happen to be hiring?” she asked as she entered the car. She slid along the seat to allow room for Alkorin.
“It’s…contract work, mainly. Difficult to obtain without relevant experience,” he replied as he climbed in behind her and closed the door.
She glanced toward the front of the car, and her eyes widened when they met the driver’s, who had twisted to look back at her. He was a very large, gruff-looking azhera with intense green eyes. Like all his kind, his features were reminiscent of a big cat’s—a lion, or maybe a leopard—blended with a lupine hint and something vaguely human. They looked like…well, like werecats. But it was this azhera’s coloring that caught her attention; the tan and brown of his fur was similar in hue an d pattern to that of her grandmother’s old cat, Mister Wiggles.
A wave of homesickness rushed over her, dragging the sorrow of loss in its wake. Mister Wiggles and her grandmother were gone. Her father was gone. She’d never see the only people she truly loved again.
The azhera shifted his gaze to Alkorin. “You know people saw you, right?”
Alkorin stretched out his legs, leaned back in a leisurely slouch, and shrugged. His tail lay between him and Sam on the seat, hanging partially over the edge so its slowly moving tip ran up and down her shin.
“And?” Alkorin asked.
The driver released a low, frustrated growl. “We’ve talked about this before. Very recently.”
Alkorin turned his head to face Samantha. “Don’t mind him. He’s just a bit of a worrier.”
Samantha glanced between them. “You won’t…get into trouble for what you did, will you? To Rakkob, I mean.”
“Your neighbor? He would have some difficult questions to answer if he tried to go to the Eternal Guard, wouldn’t he? There’s nothing to worry about.”
The driver released a heavy breath through his nostrils. “Arc—”
“Anyway,” Alkorin interrupted, directing a pointed glare at the azhera, who snapped his mouth shut, “I should properly introduce the two of you. Samantha, this is Drakkal. He’s worked for me for a long time. I haven’t had the heart to let him go, even though he’s often rude and steps out of line.”
Samantha smiled at the azhera. “Hi.”
Drakkal’s eyes flicked to her. “Hello.”
“Now that introductions are out of the way, shall we get to it?” Alkorin asked .
Drakkal muttered something that Samantha’s translator couldn’t decipher, turned his face forward, and directed the hovercar into a smooth ascent.
Alkorin settled a hand on Samantha’s thigh.
She jumped at the unexpected touch, but he didn’t pull away; he kept his hand in place with such nonchalance that it seemed to belong there. Her heart fluttered. The longer she stared at his hand, the more she yearned for it to move upward, to slide between her legs…
“Just relax and enjoy the ride, Samantha,” he said. His voice was so smooth and sensual that she couldn’t help but find extra meaning layered in his words, couldn’t help but hear the promise of something more in his tone.
But she couldn’t relax—not with his hand on her thigh, not with his tail stroking her leg, not after the dreams she had of him, and especially not while a fire burned low in her belly. That heat built to a throbbing ache in her core she couldn’t ignore.
Turning her head slightly, she glanced at Alkorin, catching her lower lip between her teeth as she studied him.
He was reclining with such leisure that it seemed the most natural position in the world for him. The sides of his robe were spread outward slightly, exposing a wide expanse of his chest. She raked her gaze over his delectable gray skin and toned muscles, shifting it up to his yellow tattoos.
A glint of metal caught her attention; his right nipple was pierced. Were she someone else—someone bolder, someone more confident—she’d have crawled onto his lap and run her tongue over that piercing and every one of his glowing marks.
Just imagining that scenario intensified the ache between her legs. The sensation spread up to her breasts, and her nipples hardened. Breath quickening, she tore her eyes away from him .
Oh my God. I’m getting turned on right next to him, and all he did was set his hand on my leg!
As desperate as Samantha was for release from the ache, she didn’t dare squeeze her thighs together; it would’ve been a dead giveaway of what she was feeling.
“Tell me about the city,” Samantha blurted.
Alkorin chuckled, calling her attention back to him. He smiled down at her, his gaze burning with want, and she had the sense he knew what was really on her mind.
“Arthos is very big and very old,” he said. “It’s not without its blemishes, as you already know, but neither is it lacking in beauty. Still, I find myself as unable to put that beauty into words as I am to encapsulate yours in any language I know.”
Drakkal snorted.
Samantha’s cheeks flamed in embarrassment. She tried to ease away from Alkorin, but his hand tightened around her thigh—not enough to hurt, but enough to halt her retreat.
“It is something to behold, not to describe.” He leaned toward her, his face stopping extremely close to hers. “Embrace yourself, Samantha. Embrace this world. There is happiness to be claimed here, with a little boldness.”
Samantha turned her face toward him, but she didn’t meet his eyes. Instead, her gaze fell upon his lips. His bottom lip was fuller than the top, and the glowing mark at its center only made it more tantalizing.
“I’m not…bold.”
His lips stretched into a grin, revealing his fangs. They should have given her pause, should have frightened her, but they only aroused her further.
“You are.” His hand slid a centimeter closer to her pelvis. “You just haven’t realized it yet.”
Her heart leapt, and she dropped her hand over his. A thrill pulsed through her, igniting a flood of liquid heat between her legs. Panic and desire warred in her mind, each threatening to conquer her, to reduce her to an unthinking creature driven only by instinct.
This…this wasn’t normal. Couldn’t be. She’d never felt anything close to this, her body had never reacted like this.
Samantha’s arm trembled; she didn’t know if she wanted to prevent his hand from moving higher or force it to. Her craving for his touch equaled her fear of it at that moment; she was afraid of what he made her feel.
What is he doing to me?
“Hmm…” Alkorin’s grin softened into a smile. He brought his free hand to her face and brushed her hair back, tucking it gently behind her ear. His fingers lingered there, lightly stroking the rounded shell, his touch delicate despite the size and strength of his hand. After a few moments, he lowered that hand to grasp her chin and tipped her head back, making her lift her gaze to his.
“You will blossom soon enough, little flower,” he said softly, “and then you will realize your own beauty. I look forward to witnessing it.”
He stroked her lower lip with the pad of his thumb before he pulled away, returning to his prior position. His other hand remained upon her thigh.
Samantha stared at him as he looked out the window; she ran her gaze over his profile, from the piercings in his long, pointed ear up to his dark horns. She squeezed his hand a little more firmly. She wasn’t sure how long she sat there ogling him, but it felt like it had been both much longer and not nearly long enough when the world outside finally caught her attention.
She leaned forward to look past Alkorin as the hovercar emerged from the tunnel it had been traveling through. The windows—which had been crystal clear from within despite the dark tint on the outside—dimmed slightly to soften the bright light from the sky.
She’d seen Arthos from above after completing the registration process, had stared out the window of the shuttle that had brought her to her new apartment complex with her jaw slack and her eyes wide, and the sight was no less astounding this time. The city was comprised of countless buildings of staggering height and variety. Metal and glass gleamed everywhere, an endless stream of vehicles filled the air, and people of every size and shape bustled beneath a colorful sky dominated by an immense quasar.
The Undercity was all deep shadows contrasted by flamboyant neon lights and pulsing holos; the city above was polished chrome and gold complemented by pure, natural light and the vibrant greens, purples, and reds of living plants—at least the parts of each area she’d seen for herself. Like Alkorin had said, it was impossible to put Arthos into words.
They called it the Infinite City, and Samantha understood why; it seemed to go on forever, stretching to the distant horizon and beyond, ever changing and yet all one.
Samantha was so absorbed by the sights that she didn’t realize how close she’d come to Alkorin until he dipped his head, pressed his nose to her hair, and inhaled.
He groaned softly and lifted his hand from her thigh, moving it to her lower back. “It’s becoming increasingly difficult for me to believe you’re doing this by accident, Samantha.”
Sam stilled. Had he really just sniffed her? “D-Doing what?”
“ Teasing me.”
Her eyes widened. “I’m not! I swear! I was just—”
Grasping Samantha by the hips, Alkorin turned her toward him and drew her onto his lap so she straddled his muscular thighs. She put her arms out, flattening her palms against the back of the seat to either side of his head to prevent herself from falling against his chest. Her hair tumbled down, brushing over the exposed skin of his chest, and Alkorin grinned up at her, his half-lidded eyes gleaming with desire.
“Whoops,” he said. “I can be so clumsy sometimes.”
“That was on purpose,” Sam shot back.
His smile tilted to one side. “The burden of proof rests upon you, whereas you rest upon me.”
Her face heated. Despite her position on top, he was entirely in control, and she felt more vulnerable than ever.
Without looking away from her, Alkorin said, “Drop us off at one of the entrances to the Ventrillian Mall, Drakkal.”
“Don’t you think that’s a bit crowded, boss ?” Drakkal asked.
“We’ll be fine. I’ll take every precaution to avoid standing out.”
Samantha couldn’t imagine Alkorin not standing out.
Alkorin slid his hands down to her thighs, and Sam’s breath hitched as he tugged her closer. “My little terran has seen some of the worst this city has to offer, and she deserves to see some of the best.”
Samantha heard a soft creaking sound from up front, as though Drakkal were tightening his grip on the controls, before the hovercar angled into a gradual descent.
She leaned forward slightly and whispered, “I don’t think he likes your idea.”
“He’s just upset because I woke him up earlier than usual today,” Alkorin squeezed Sam’s thighs gently. “I’m far more worried about whether I’ll be able to bring myself to exit the car once we’ve landed.”
Samantha frowned. “Why? What’s wrong?”
“I’m not sure I’ll have the willpower to let you go.” He lifted his pelvis slightly, rubbing it against her center.
Her breath hitched. She curled her fingers into the back cushion as realization struck her. Lowering her gaze, she took in her current position, and desire flared within her.
Never in Sam’s life had things escalated so quickly between her and a man—she couldn’t even imagine things moving this fast. She’d only met Alkorin the night before last! Why wasn’t she panicking, why wasn’t she freaking out and darting for the opposite door to escape?
Because for some inexplicable reason, despite how strong he’s coming on…
I feel safe with Alkorin.
As much as she should’ve wanted him to release her, she…didn’t.
Their bodies swayed gently as the hovercar slowed to a stop.
“Here,” Drakkal growled.
Alkorin made no move; he just stared at Sam, his eyes and the markings on his skin brighter than ever. “I suppose we should step outside. Drakkal would only put a damper on the mood if we stayed in here.”
I’m straddling him while his driver is right there .
Samantha’s skin was so heated that she might’ve mistaken it for a sunburn had she not known better. She opened the door.
The pure light of the quasar—the sort of natural light Sam hadn’t seen for days—flowed into the cab through the open door, making Alkorin’s long, straight hair shimmer.
Alk’s tongue emerged briefly from between his lips. “After you, then?”
Sam hesitated for an instant before she hurriedly, but carefully, climbed off his lap and stepped out of the hovercar.
“I’ll let you know when we’re ready for you to pick us up,” Alkorin said to Drakkal as he exited the vehicle.
“Be careful, boss ,” the azhera replied.
“Don’t worry, Drak. I’ll be fine.”
Drakkal uttered another guttural, untranslatable oath before Alkorin closed the door.
Standing up straight, Alkorin turned to face Samantha with a wide grin. “Well then, here we are. I don’t know that anyone can see the entire city in one lifetime, but this seems a good place to start.”