Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Bailey
I’m completely out of my element. I feel like I’ve slipped into a parallel universe, and in a way I have. I’m with an alien who plans to take me to another planet. It doesn’t get more out-of-body than that.
I’ve never been kissed. I’ve never been alone with a man. I’ve never even been on a date. I’ve certainly never been lying on a bed with a man who just took his shirt off.
If my father knew…
But he won’t ever know. Tomorrow morning when he calls and I don’t answer the phone, he will lose his mind, but I’ll be gone. The weird thing is part of me doesn’t care. I actually feel kind of giddy about the prospect of being free of him.
He’s not a bad man. He raised me alone, provided me with food, clothes, housing, and even an education. But he’s always been strict. His rules never let up even when I became an adult. He won’t even permit me to talk to guys let alone date them.
And I’ve been a doormat, letting him control me.
A part of me feels like I’m trading one bossy man for another. Zingar is very dominant. I’ve found myself obeying his orders on more than one occasion. Why does it feel different with him?
I stare into his eyes and know the answer. He’s genuinely interested in me. Enamored. He cares about my feelings.
My father is a grumpy man. His brow is always furrowed. When he speaks, it’s to bark out orders. When he calls me, it’s to demand to know where I’m going, what I’m doing, who I’m with. He doesn’t ask me about my day or my interests or how I feel.
“What’s going through your pretty head, Little one?” Zingar…Papi asks.
“Why do you call me Little one?” Granted, it’s obvious that I’m smaller than him, but there’s something in his tone that suggests the endearment has very little to do with my size.
He settles both elbows on either side of my head, threads his fingers loosely in my hair, and strokes my temples with his thumbs.
“Eleadians are very protective of our mates. We travel a year round trip to find a life partner. The bond we feel toward our mates is powerful. It’s instantaneous.
My heart beat only for you from the moment I inhaled your scent across the crowded room.
My instinct to coddle you and ensure nothing ever harms you is strong.
It’s how I’m wired. It’s how all Eleadians are wired. ”
I don’t glance away as he speaks. I can’t. I’m magnetically drawn to this giant sexy alien.
“I couldn’t have fully grasped how it would feel to find you, but now that I have, I understand.
The desire to care for you in every imaginable way makes me tremble.
I will watch over you and see to your every need for as long as we live.
It will seem odd to you at first. It is not the way of humans, but you will learn to accept my attention over time. Every Little girl does.”
I focus on his intensity, trying to understand what he’s telling me. It’s confusing. What I know is that I want to please him. I can’t explain it. It unnerves me.
I’ve never been the sort of person who got into trouble—not with my father or with my school or any other person of authority. I’m a pleaser. I’m well-aware of that fact. Often it annoys me. I’ve wished I could break the rules once in a while, but until tonight, I’ve never taken that kind of risk.
Lying to my father and sneaking out after bedtime to visit Club Zoom was the most disobedient thing I’ve ever done. And look where it got me.
Papi lowers his lips to mine and kisses me gently again before rubbing his nose against mine.
He inhales deeply. “You smell like heaven,” he murmurs.
“It’s intoxicating. I want to strip your clothes off and bathe you in Eleadian water with our natural soap.
I want to remove every Earthly scent that’s clinging to your clothes and skin and hair.
I want to inhale pure Bailey without the added impurities. ”
I start panting at the seductive suggestion. Bathe me? I can’t wrap my head around the idea of someone washing me, and some part of me wants him to do just that. I want to throw caution to the wind and let this giant man do whatever he wants with me.
I’m under some sort of spell. I think he caused it when he pricked my fingertips.
Perhaps I should be incensed that he’s controlling me, but I can’t find the will to care.
I like how I feel. For the first time in my life, someone cares about me.
Sure, Mary, Allisa, and Kate care in their own ways, but they’re girlfriends.
It’s not the same as having a man devoted to me.
He kisses me again and then trails a path with his lips to my neck before nuzzling behind my ear. His voice is soft and gentle as he whispers, “You’re mine, Little one. You will submit to me and obey me, and I will treat you like a princess.”
A shiver races down my body at his words and the feel of his breath on my ear. It’s like he’s hypnotizing me. I’m totally under his spell.
He nibbles on my earlobe and continues, “You can feel the bond, Baby girl. It’s strange and unnatural to you, but it’s consuming you at the same time. Don’t fight it. Let it wash through you.”
Suddenly he licks a spot on my neck behind my ear and pierces my skin so quickly that it’s over before I have a chance to gasp.
I whimper as his power consumes me. A small voice in the back of my head argues that this is not natural.
Humans don’t meet people and succumb to their will.
Apparently Eleadians do. And it’s happening so fast.
Papi drags his nose along my neck, growling as he inhales deeply. “You’re going to be my good girl, aren’t you, Bailey?”
A strange moan escapes my lips. I want to fight this pull. I shouldn’t want to be anyone’s good girl. I’ve spent my life being good. But I also want to be Papi’s good girl. I really do. It’s a deep need I can’t fight.
I feel too warm. Constricted. I want my clothes off so I can feel my skin against his. I’m losing my mind.
His lips come back to mine, and he holds my gaze intently as he drops tiny kisses on my mouth.
“I will have rules, Little one. Many of them. I will be very strict with you. But my rules are for your safety and wellbeing. My rules will exist to ensure you are never harmed because it would destroy me for anything to happen to you. Do you understand?”
I don’t, but I nod.
“When I ask you a question, I want you to respond politely, Little one. Yes, Papi or yes, Sir. The same thing applies to any other Eleadian men who speak to you. You’ll address them reverently as Sir.” He lifts a brow.
I’m trembling as I lick my lips. “Yes, Sir.” I’ve never felt the kind of power bouncing back and forth between us.
He’s demanding my compliance, and I’m giving it to him.
That small voice in my head is screaming at me to run from this apartment and the building, but I’m tethered to Papi.
I can’t even take my gaze off him let alone shove him away from me and leave.
I haven’t really had the ability to leave from the moment I spotted him.
A gorgeous smile spreads across his face.
“That’s my good girl.” He slowly rises until he’s on his knees, straddling me, looking down at me.
He lets his gaze roam around my face and hair, touching me reverently.
Gentle strokes to my cheeks, my chin, my nose, my eyebrows.
It’s like he’s memorizing me. He fingers my hair.
“I’m going to change into comfortable pants, Little one. And then I’m going to remove your clothes and give you a bath.”
As he slides off the side of the bed, my heart races. I push to sitting. “I can take baths by myself, Papi.”
He cups my chin. “From now on, Papi will bathe you, Little one.”
I gasp and shudder. He’s going to see me naked and touch me. I want to argue, but the strange power he has makes me want him to do just that—touch me.
He’s still holding my chin as he leans closer. It’s like he’s waiting for something.
Suddenly I know what he wants. “Yes, Sir,” I whisper.
“Good girl.” He kisses my nose and smiles.
My heart beats faster when he praises me. It pleases him immensely when I submit to him. I can already see a pattern developing. He will make demands on me, I will comply, and he will praise me. Is this a healthy arrangement?
“Do not move from this spot, Little one. The bed is high off the floor. I don’t want you to fall.”
“Yes, Sir,” I murmur breathlessly.
Another kiss to my nose and he turns to pad across the room. With his back to me, he opens a dresser drawer.
I’m stunned as he removes the rest of his clothes, every stitch. I can’t blink as I stare at his firm butt. I start panting. I’ve never seen a man’s butt cheeks before. I find myself wanting to grip them. Thoughts of wrapping my legs around him and digging my heels into his glutes make me tremble.
I don’t even know who I am anymore.
A whimper escapes my lips as he steps into loose black pants, and he’s grinning when he turns around. I kind of hate that I didn’t get to see the front of him, but I might have fainted. I wonder if he intends to have sex with me tonight.
“Your pheromones are intoxicating, Little one,” he says as he saunters toward me.
My breath hitches as he grabs my hips and drags me to the edge of the bed before lifting me off the mattress and setting me on my feet.
He drops to his knees in front of me and eases my cardigan off my shoulders and down my arms.
The man is over two feet taller than me. Kneeling in front of me still doesn’t put us at eye level. He’s looking down at me from a few inches above. “I need to see all of you, Baby girl. I need to wash you. After that, I’m going to taste every inch of your body.”
I gasp. His words are so gentle and so vulgar at the same time. His suggestion is incomprehensible, and yet I want him to do what he’s suggesting. My body burns for him. It’s like he lit a spark inside me, and it’s growing by the minute. I want his gaze on my naked skin. I want his mouth on me.