Pheromone, page 25
part #1 of For the Love of Aliens Series
When he releases my wrists, I sneak my hand down to my clit and he slows again to watch. Abraxas sits back and then, much to my fucking surprise, he brings his tail in between us. The first thing he does is rub the tip against one of the spirals on his horn—and then he uses the slick of his pheromones to touch me there.
My body explodes. I just shatter. I’m not a person now. I’m his mate. I literally care for nothing else. That’ll scare the shit out of me later, I’m sure, but in the moment, it’s exquisite.
By the time I come down and regather my senses, I realize he’s finished and is poised over me, staring down. I thought at first that he was hard to read with his mouth closed—it really is little more than a faint seam—but that’s not true at all. His brows move. His eyes. He tilts his head. His spines and scales ripple and raise. His tail smooths across the forest floor and then teases the sensitive skin of my hip.
“Do we get stuck together every time?” I ask, because I can feel it again. I felt it all night. The exchange. His heartbeat. A burst of energy that makes me feel like I could climb the skyscraper-sized trees all by myself.
He sweeps his wings under me and lifts me up, still attached at the pelvis, eyes peering into my own.
Based on his claims, he was a virgin before we, err, mated with each other. Staring back at him now, I find that so hard to believe. He has those beautiful shadows dancing around him, the wicked tips of his horns glinting, his body hot and slicked with pheromones and what I think is sweat. It smells amazing, whatever it is. He’s sex incarnate. I’ve never seen anything like him—not even at the K-pop concert my sister dragged me to. We were seeing ATEEZ together, so you know that I’m serious when I say this.
No human male has ever topped this feeling in me. I feel happily small, smugly female, disturbingly content. Normally, I’m a crass, sarcastic dick. So what is this? What am I doing?
Abraxas nuzzles my face, and I close my eyes tight. If he keeps doing that …
He separates our bodies. There’s that sharp pinch. There’s a tiny bit of blood on my thighs.
I turn away from him, intending to walk on my own and … then I trip. My legs are like jelly and my knees are weak. Oh my God, that gets him. He howls. Literally. The sound raises the fine hairs on my neck and arms as I peer over my shoulder at him. Now this is most definitely laughter.
He stalks past me on all fours with a slyly tossed out snarl that I just know means, “you can walk on your own, eh?” And then he keeps walking and acts like he’s going to leave me behind. At the last minute, he snatches me by the waist and returns me to his back.
I ride him like a horse, arms crossed, pouting.
And then I hear water.
Abraxas pushes through a thick cluster of ferns, and my breath catches so sharply that I start to choke. So damn elegant. So sexy. What a mate. I rub the happy tears from my eyes with my knuckles, still choking, and find myself open-mouthed and gawping like a dumbstruck fool at the sight before me.
Steam rises from a sapphire hot spring that’s shaded by trees and surrounded by ferns and wildflowers. Multiple waterfalls drain into it, the water hissing as cool meets hot. But that’s not the most amazing part of it: the waterfalls are coming from floating rocks. Yes. Floating rocks. They drift lazily above the falls, the waterfall from one hitting the next, and then the next, until they reach the springs. There are a few groupings like this scattered about. I tilt my head back to see where the water’s coming from and find that it’s draining off the leaves of a tree.
Huh.
I look back down at the otherworldly set up. Did I mention that it was glowing? The entire thing. It sparkles and shines, pulsing gently like the swirls on Abraxas’ body.
“Um. I don’t know how I feel about glowing water. What if it’s radioactive or—”
Abraxas uses his tail to lift me up and chuck me into the springs. I let out a small scream, but it’s just deep enough to be safe for a fall, and just shallow enough for me to hit the black sandy bottom and push off. I break the surface with a gasp, kicking my legs to stay afloat, and swiping hair from my face.
“What if I couldn’t swim, hmm?” I ask as he lazily saunters his way over to a nearby bush. The first thing he does is … lift his leg and piss on it. I narrow my eyes as I tread water, watching as he moves to a different bush, one with budded purple flowers. Abraxas sweeps his tail around the base of it and then pulls gently upward, gathering all the flowers together. He tosses them into the water around me where they unfurl softly, releasing an intoxicating perfume into the air.
Oh. Oh wow.
Abraxas slips into the springs like a snake or something. He’s smooth and sinuous as he glides toward me, circling me in such a way that I’m aroused all over again. Just from that. I try to turn in the water to keep up with him, but he’s too fast and I’m too clumsy. Why something as beautiful as him would ever want to be until-death-do-us-part mates with me, I’m not sure. That, I believe, is the weirdest part of our relationship.
“Never mind,” I respond belatedly, answering my own question. “I know what you’d do. You’d save me like you have so many times before.” I huff as I look down at the water, marveling at the beauty of it. Now that I can see that it isn’t going to melt my skin off, I’m like … devastated by it.
It’s the perfect temperature, heated from underneath by more of those thermal vents. Maybe a hundred-and-six degrees? I tweaked my parents’ hot tub so it could be heated up past the-hundred-and-four mark. That one-o’-six? Perfect. That’s about what this is. It’s literally the color of sapphires, and it glows even when I cup a small amount in the palm of my hand.
“This smells amazing.” I inhale nice and deep, closing my eyes and listening to the gentle splash of the waterfalls. None of them are very big, and I feel the sudden urge to see if I can’t climb onto one of the floating rocks. I open my eyes to see Abraxas in the water, staring at me. No, more like observing, trying to see if I like this, if I’m pleased by it. A smile lights my lips. It might be the very first genuine smile I’ve allowed myself since I got here. Maybe I’ve twisted my lips into a semblance of a smile before, but I didn’t feel it in my chest the way I do now. To be fair, I don’t smile very often anyway. I’m just sort of that way. “Like violets.” I breathe in deeply. “Powdery. Sweet. Romantic.”
I swim over to one of the floating rocks and he follows me. The rock itself is obsidian black, and shiny, threaded with silver veins. The water is much cooler here. When I reach a hand out to touch the falls, I see that it’s very cold indeed.
Abraxas seems to sense what I’m doing, using his tail to lift me from the water and set me on the rock. It tilts slightly as I balance up there, looking down and into the small pool that divots its base. My lips part in surprise as I see that it’s like a tidepool, full of little alien critters that panic at the sight of my shadow looming over them. I put a bit more weight on one foot then the other, and the rock tilts. My arms pinwheel and over the side I go, landing in Abraxas’ arms.
My cheeks fill with heat— swear that I’m not usually a blusher!—and I find myself staring up at him, completely awestruck.
“Hi.” It’s the best I can come up with. He splits his mouth into a toothy grin, grabbing one of the flowers with his wing-hand. He crushes it up, and it foams, like the ones back at the ship that I used to wash my clothes. When he starts to rub it into my skin, I’m dumbstruck all over again. More so than I was when I saw the springs. He’s … washing me? “I stink, don’t I?” I ask, and he growls at me. “That’s partially your fault. You make a lot of seed, my friend.”
He uses his other wing-hand to pull the cord from my hair, tossing it onto the shore. And then he scrubs me down from head to toe—including between my legs. I’m breathless as it’s happening, nearly paralyzed in his arms, but I like it too much to move. When he’s done, he pushes me into the water and leaves me to dunk myself.
I break the surface with a big breath, combing hair back from my face. Abraxas is washing himself now, starting with his horns. I bite my lip, and then I swim over to him, using his shoulders to haul myself up from the water. He grabs my bare ass in his big hands, his claws just barely protruding from his knuckles to prick my skin. I snag one of the floating flowers and then I bathe him, too.
If I said that he purrs as I do it, would you believe me? That’s what it sounds like, this wild noise caught somewhere between a growl and a purr. It’s such a pleasant surprise that I scrub harder, washing every bit of his body that’s above water before we’re forced to move closer to the shore.
I continue my work as he stares down at me, head tilted slightly to one side.
And then … I get to his … it’s all flat right now, and I think stupidly how I mocked him for being dickless when we first met. As if in response to my sudden pause, he reaches down and strokes himself with two fingers, coaxing his cocks—in the plural—out of his body. There’s that sack, too, big and plump. Dude’s got balls, for sure.
I swallow hard as I study the pair of shafts, one positioned just above the other. There’s only the one sack though, and it hangs heavy and full beneath his second cock, the one I haven’t seen much of. I’m not usually one to be shy, but my fingers are tentative when I reach out to touch it.
Abraxas takes my wrist with his tail and puts my hand where he wants it to go, closing his eyes in bliss as I run my fingers down the length of him. His second cock, the one with the sack, is solid black. I remember that it never had spirals on it to begin with. Now, both of his dicks are solid black with thick veins under the skin and small, fine scales that mimic the ones on the rest of his body. It’s oh so smooth as I rub my palm down the length of it.
“Why don’t you ever use this one on me?” I murmur, looking up and through my wet lashes at his face. He can’t understand, but I hope I get my point across when I lock my fingers around the lower cock and give it a nice, hard tug. Abraxas bares his teeth at me as I cup his heavy balls in my other hand. This does have purple spirals on it that glow and pulse when I rub my skin against them. More of those honeyed pheromones collect on my flesh like nectar, and my heart races in response. I squeeze his balls and work my fist up and down his second cock, lifting up a bit on my haunches so I can put my mouth—
Abraxas’ hand fists in my hair to keep me from touching him.
He releases me right away and then squats down. Even with him squatting, he’s still tall as hell. I look up, breath catching, trying to figure out why he stopped me when he did. When he stretches toward me, I instinctively move back and end up falling on my ass in a tumbled heap. He makes that rumbling sound and splits his sexy mouth. Now that I’ve gotten used to it, I’ve decided that I like it. He’s a blur of angry black shadow with massive wings and a strong tail, spines down his back, long nimble fingers tapping against his knee in thought.
He asks me something in his language. I think. Or he’s just growling at me.
Something splashes in the water and his tail lashes out, lightning quick, snatching the creature and tossing it onto the shore. It flops around like a fish, but … my eyes skim to the side and lock onto it. The fuck is that? It might flop like a fish, but it’s definitely not a fish. It’s a, um, something fuzzy, I guess.
Getting onto my hands and knees is not a smart choice. I can feel Abraxas snarling at me, but I ignore him—not an easy thing to do—crouching low to stare at the creature as it goes still. Dead, I guess. It’s a sea sponge.
Abraxas steps over me—quite literally. He puts his hands, claws extended so they look like paws, on either side of me and then leans down to sniff the creature. I can feel his heat all over me, making it very difficult to remember that I’m supposed to breathe. He growls something in my ear and then withdraws.
I flick a sharp look over my shoulder when his warmth retreats, watching as he wades into the water on all fours, tail swaying as he waits for another splash. He snatches up a second sea sponge and chucks it my way. While the first was purple, this one is a pretty rose pink color.
He catches an entire rainbow of the things before returning to me. I sit back on my calves as he gathers sticks and leaves into a pile and then sits across from me, like a human with one leg stretched out, one knee up, arm thrown across it. He huffs a fire into existence and then drags one of the sponges close.
“I’m not eating that,” I declare, pretty proudly and ignorantly for someone who can’t procure their own food. Can you tell I’ve never had to starve a day in my life? Yeah, I know. I’m a brat. Good thing Abraxas doesn’t have the translator with him. I scratch at the back of my head. “So, um.”
His tail reaches across the fire, snagging me around the waist again and lifting me right over it. I’m plopped down into his lap. No dicks to be seen unfortunately. Fuck, I am thirsty for alien peen. What is wrong with me?
He uses the claws of his wing-hands on my hair, combing out the knots. As he does it, he stares into my eyes and I … I just don’t want to talk anymore. I don’t think about anything either. I relax and I close my eyes, and then I lay my head against his chest.
It’s the best day I’ve ever had.
In my entire fucking life.
Yep, I am royally screwed, aren’t I?
The sea sponges open up like clams or something, and their meat is weirdly similar if not a tad sweet. I’m not a fan. I might even gag as I eat them, and Abraxas might even laugh at me, but I eat them anyway because, well, what other options do I have?
He carries my sleepy, well-fed, well-fucked ass back to the ship and hops in, finally deigning to show me what’s in the cloth bag from this morning.
It’s another translator.
I feel this huge, stupid smile spread across my lips as I jerk it onto my head and put the other onto Abraxas. It seems like the translators are similar, like maybe they came from the same place.
“If you had these, why didn’t you bring them with us this morning?” I ask, and he gives me this look, like why am I even asking such a silly question.
“We did not need them.” That’s his response. It’s as smooth as I’ve ever heard him sound. The new translator is better than the one he has on (which is about a million times better than the hideous hot pink one that we started with). I should probably switch with him so he can understand me better, but I’m selfish. I want to hear every single thing he’s saying.
“What else is in there?” I ask, gaze shifting to the bag again.
“Useless things,” he tells me, but I can’t even begin to figure out what those ‘useless things’ might be because he’s getting that look in his eyes again. My body warms in response, and I curse myself. I put my hands up on either side of his face as he crouches there on all fours, watching me with undisguised thirst. Apex predator thirst. Yikes.
I clear my throat.
“We should try to do things other than just fuck,” I explain, and he rumbles all over with laughter, shaking his head at me as he prowls past and into the shadows of the nest. I find myself drawn around to face him as he collapses on his side in dragon pose. How else do I explain it when he’s curled up like that? He lifts his wings up and then out, like he’s inviting me in. “Don’t we … uh … have other chores to take care of?”
He tilts his head at me again.
“Chores? I will clean our sex off the nest in the morning. Other than that, what chores do you mean?” He sounds genuinely curious, those violet-sapphire-gold eyes blazing. “Are you hungry perhaps? I will catch you something else to eat.”
“No, not hungry, just …” I don’t even know what to say. It seems so slothful and decadent to just lounge in this bed all day and have sex. I bite my lip to keep back the thoughts. Tomorrow, goddamn it. Let me just have the day. I walk over to sit beside him and he sweeps his wings around me, drawing me in closer. The bright green of the headset looks hilarious on his massive head, but at least it has a super flexible headband or it’d never fit. “How often do you have someone to talk to?”
Not sure why that’s the next question I choose to ask.
The corner of his mouth lifts up, baring those knife-like teeth.
“Talk? There is no one to talk to.” His statement is matter-of-fact, but damn if it doesn’t make me feel sad. “Until now,” he corrects, a growl rippling his mouth. I throw my arms around his neck, crushing my eyelids together to hold back tears.
“Why me?” I whisper, because I just cannot for the life of me understand why he picked me. “You could’ve had that female. Clearly she was into you. Stronger than me. More useful.” I draw back to see what he thinks of being hugged. I don’t think it’s something a female Aspis would do, having met one myself. But he seems absurdly pleased by the action. “Why?”
“Why?” he repeats, like the question is strange on his tongue. The cute little whistle-growl that actually comes out of his mouth—as opposed to through the translator—is knee-weakening. “Sweet, little, affectionate, fierce.” He breathes in the smell of my hair. “And your scent.” This last part is nearly obliterated by his growl, scrambling the translator and making it crackle. His face, which I’m already learning how to read, is determined when he speaks again. “I made a vow that I would not mate a female who would force herself on me. I have fought and killed dozens of times to keep that reality. For you, I had to court and woo.”
I lift a brow.
Damn straight he courted and wooed. I’m still in awe of the display.
Yep. Thoroughly charmed.
“Yeah, I guess that’s true. You try harder than most guys on Earth.” It’s a joke, but not really.
I frown.
Maybe there’s a reason I’ve never had a relationship that lasted longer than six months? And even then, Mack, my most recent ex, was the one who held that record. Before then, I believe six weeks was my longest. I thought it was a ‘me’ problem, but … I put my hand on Abraxas’ chest, and he grins at me.
