Chapter Three
Candy
How did Candy get lucky enough to end up on a balcony with a slutty Phantom of the Opera?
Okay, maybe she wasn’t slutty. But Candy definitely didn’t remember the Phantom leaving the top two buttons of his shirt undone.
Candy found herself drawn to the expanse of dark blue-gray skin the color of Earth’s skies before a storm.
She could barely make out a sliver of harder, bone-colored skin that matched the horns that circled Votra’s head.
What she could see of Votra’s face wasn’t bad to look at, either.
Half of her face was obscured by her mask, but the other half was all sharp edges.
Her cheekbone was high and prominent, the slope of her face ending in a sharp, pointed jaw.
She found her mind wandering, envisioning her fingers sliding down Votra’s neck, across her firm chest, and even lower until—
Stop being such a creep, she told herself.
She wasn’t sure how long the silence that fell over them lasted, but Votra didn’t seem bothered by it.
In fact, she seemed happy to stare out into the night.
Xyxy’s apartment was in the middle of a bustling residential colony on Veterok-III, on the outskirts of a major trading hub.
Candy was learning pretty quickly that this was a planet that never slept, much like her home.
Candy rose from her chair, the muscles of her ass screaming in protest. “God, I gotta tell Xyxy these chairs are the fucking worst.” She crossed the small balcony to sit against the wall of the apartment’s exterior. More than anything, she needed a little bit of distance from Votra.
But much to Candy’s surprise, Votra moved from her chair to join Candy on the ground. Candy wrapped her arms around herself, the cool night air nipping at the exposed skin of her shoulders.
“Are you cold?” Votra asked, reaching up to untie the cape from around her neck before Candy could answer.
“A little.”
Votra passed the cloak to Candy, and she knew it would probably be more practical to just use it as a blanket but she tied it around her neck as well, letting the fabric drape over her arms. “Better?”
“Yeah. Thank you.” Candy knocked her knee against Votra’s, and Votra didn’t pull her away. Votra’s leg pressed against hers felt like a hot iron against her bare skin, despite the two layers of clothing separating them.
She had to distract herself somehow. “So, you like Phantom of the Opera and Dr. Love’s Biology? I’m gonna need you to tell me something really off putting about you, or I’m gonna think you’re not real.”
The laugh that erupted from Votra caught Candy by surprise. She tipped her head back, her laughter sharp and harsh, almost like a dog’s bark. “To many people those are the off putting facts.”
“Well, those people are wrong.” There was no way Xyxy had thrown a party on Candy’s first night in the galaxy, invited a hot alien who liked soap operas and Earth romance and not told her about it.
Surely, there was something about Votra that was going to make Candy want to stay miles away from her.
Votra hummed in thought. “Perhaps I am a little pretentious. I take my taste in literature and film very seriously.”
Candy had dated many a film bro in her day, so she was no stranger to pretentiousness. But for some reason, it was hot to imagine Votra explaining the symbolism in The Scarlet Letter because Candy was too distracted by Demi Moore’s bathtub scene to care about anything else.
“Okay, give me your most pretentious take. Go ahead, make my skin crawl.” Candy sat back, folding her arms over her chest. She hoped that the next words out of Votra’s mouth were so annoying that her vagina dried up like the Sahara. Because right now, it was quite the opposite.
Votra took in a deep breath, and Candy found it almost comical how quickly she responded. “To preface this, I will not be upset with you if you feel the need to leave the balcony after this.”
“Oh, so this is a juicy take,” Candy said, waggling her eyebrows. This was gonna be good.
“I genuinely believe that anyone who regularly reads or watches romance is more emotionally intelligent than someone who believes that romance is meaningless. You are much more likely to understand the differences you might have with others if you spend your free time consuming media about loving someone for who they are despite those differences.”
Fuck. Candy didn’t think it was possible for Votra to be pretentious and hot, but she’d done it. “Okay, but that opinion’s just correct,” she said, drawing Votra’s cloak tighter around her as if it would conceal the raging lust she was feeling for Votra right now.
God, doing this again made her feel… alive. Before Ross, she did this all the time. Flirting, especially. Candy loved to flirt. And Votra was proving to be easy to flirt with.
Votra laughed, and it was only then that Candy realized just how beautiful her eyes were–large and pupil-less, they glittered like a precious stone under the moonlight. Looking into them reminded Candy of watching the galaxies swirl past her out the window of her uncle’s shuttle.
“We do not have many romance novels in Alqen. My people value action, power, money… romance is not high on our priority list. Every now and then, though, someone will publish a romance about a bounty hunter.”
“Ooh, I’d read that. A sexy bounty hunter and a human, forced to work together for a common goal—and despite all odds, they fall in love along the way.”
“Why a human? Are you in the market to fall in love with a sexy bounty hunter?” Votra teased.
“Hey, if it happens, it happens. I’m not closing my heart off to whatever sexy bounty hunter wants to sweep me off my feet,” Candy said, shrugging.
Love was simultaneously the first and last thing on her mind.
Ross had left a lasting enough impression on her dating life that she couldn’t imagine opening herself up to anyone any time soon.
But sitting here with Votra, allowing herself the guiltiest pleasure of getting to know someone new and being drawn to everything she learned—she loved everything about the act of dating.
Not that she was going to date Votra, of course. They’d just met, and it would be presumptuous to assume Votra would even be interested in dating a human. Maybe Votra was only staring at Candy with those exploring eyes because she thought humans were actually grotesque-looking.
“You would love Outlaw Koran. Koran is a former criminal who gets caught and is forced into the life of a bounty hunter, and her mark is her former partner. But then her former partner gets kidnapped by a rival crime syndicate and she has to rescue her. It is so–” Votra stopped, her cheeks flushing.
All Candy wanted was for her to keep talking.
“I just spoiled a large part of the movie, I am so sorry.”
“No, it’s okay. Keep going.” Votra’s voice was so pretty, Candy could listen to it all day. Hell, Votra could dictate the phone book and Candy would be enraptured.
And she did. She continued on about Koran and her girlfriend–Calypso, the criminal–and how the movie had been serialized into a book series that Votra frankly didn’t like as much as she liked the movie but she still recommended because there was a lot of lore in the books that wasn’t in the movie.
But the book series carried on for too long.
“The writers were simply drawing out the plot to make more money, I think,” Votra said, and at this point, Candy would agree with literally anything Votra said.
In a sudden moment of self awareness, Votra cleared her throat. “I apologize. You came out here to get fresh air, not to listen to me ramble.”
“I liked it.” Candy could feel a blush rushing to her cheeks. Suddenly, being at this party didn’t sound so bad after all.
Votra looked everywhere but at her. “Well, I hope that I did not hold you from the party for too long.”
“I’m not really in a hurry to get back,” Candy said. “I’m not gonna lie, the party’s been kind of overstimulating. I literally just got to Kratos this morning and I think my brain is totally fried.”
“I feel the same. I have spent my entire day at work and I am exhausted.”
Candy laughed, her head coming to rest on Votra’s shoulder.
“When I was in my early twenties, I could be at work all day and then go out to the club until three in the morning. Xyxy and I used to go out every single weekend when she lived on Earth. But I definitely couldn’t do it now, so props to you. ”
“Believe me, I am only here because my friend Qaed asked me to come. Otherwise, I would be asleep right now.” She held one of her thick fingers in the opposite hand, brushing a finger along the underside of her hand as if soothing herself.
Votra only had three fingers on each hand, but each one was probably two of Candy’s.
“And you can’t say no to him, huh? Xyxy’s like that too. I wanted to kick her ass for throwing a party my first night here, but I love her too much.”
“It sounds like she is lucky to have you,” Votra said, the tenderness in her voice sending Candy’s heart into a frenzy.
“Qaed’s lucky to have you, too.”
“He has supported me through times that no one else has.” Votra’s eyes flicked over to the glass door next to them. “I owe him a lifetime of parties.”
“Well, I’m glad you came,” Candy said, heart drumming against her ribs.
She liked to flirt. She would even say that she was good at it.
She liked to take charge of situations like this, liked to lead the conversations.
But she found herself studying Votra, analyzing her every motion so that she could follow along in this flirting but not quite flirting tango they had going on.
“I am as well.” Votra placed a hand on the ground between them, the tips of her fingers brushing Candy’s hip as she did so.
Despite the fabric covering her hips, her skin felt hot where Votra’s fingers had been. The effects of the alcohol she’d consumed were long gone, but she was still dizzy. All she could think about was how badly she wanted Votra’s hands on her properly.
“Did you… leave anyone behind on Earth?” Votra asked.
Was she asking what Candy thought she was asking?
“Just my family,” she said, a statement that choked her up more than she intended it to.
She was just trying to play coy, not lead the conversation in a completely different direction.
“My parents and my sister. My uncle lives out in space. But that’s it.
Nothing… romantic.” She looked Votra in the eye upon the last word, and Votra’s dark blue lips fell open a fraction.
“I am sorry about your family,” Votra said, her eyes raking down Candy’s body shamelessly. Candy really regretted even mentioning her family. “Are you planning on going back to visit?”
Candy raked her teeth over her lower lip.
“I’ll go back later on in the year, when my uncle does.
He travels for work, but he always comes back for Christmas.
” One thing that she was learning rather quickly about Votra was that she wasn’t subtle at all.
Her eyes were glued to Candy’s lips; she licked her lips to test that theory, and Votra’s eyes widened a fraction. “What are you thinking about?”
“I–Nothing.” Her eyes darted away from Candy.
“Didn’t look like nothing.” She parted Votra’s knees with one hand and slid between them, pinning Votra against the exterior wall of Xyxy’s apartment. “I, for one, was thinking about kissing you.”
“I would like that,” Votra whispered, sliding her hands beneath the cape to rest on Candy’s hips.
Candy kissed her softly at first, pulling her closer by the jaw.
But when she pulled away, Votra didn’t let the kiss be broken.
She kissed her harder, deepening the kiss into something hungrier, more demanding.
Candy gasped against Votra’s lips, and Votra took that as an invitation to slide her tongue into Candy’s mouth.
She hadn’t been touched like this in ages.
Even before she and Ross broke up, their physical intimacy had dwindled to an almost complete stop.
Her heartbeat pulsed between her legs already, and she slipped a leg between Votra’s.
Her thigh was greeted by a steadily growing erection, and it took every ounce of her self control not to immediately dip her hand into Votra’s pants.
“Do you wanna come back to my room?” Candy asked between feverish kisses, her stomach swooping as Votra’s lips moved down the slope of her neck.
“Yes.” Votra was already breathless, which only served to make Candy even more desperate for what was about to come.