*** This is sexy excerpt from my novella, Brightest Sky, featuring a mind-invading alien who has taken the body of a human after he was shot and killed, and a club dancer who is hiding from a violent past. ***
Ch. 10
*Joe
His instincts to claim Sky as his own flooded his human body, mixing with the emotional drive stemming from his new heart. She was the one, the only one he could ever love and desire.
All that was left, was to make her understand. In his true form, he had never had a female—a male could claim only one female in the course of his whole life, but this body knew what to do.
"Joe, what the hell is wrong wi—"
He took her mouth with his. Arms around her tiny waste, he lifted her enough that she was on her toes, clinging to him. She was sweetness itself. Soft and wet, which led his mind to want to explore other parts of her exquisite body.
She put a hand on his chest to push him away, but almost instantly changed, and fisted his shirt. The cloth twisted in her fingers and a whimpering sigh escaped her throat. She opened her mouth for him. She softened against him, but at the same time began to sway and writhe gently. Her hips ground into his hardened cock, whipping up the heat in the base of his stomach.
It was time. She accepted him.
He stepped backwards, carrying her to the table. With a swipe of his hand, he cleared the bottles and make-up from the surface and set her ass on it, instead. He moved between her legs and she parted them wider. He ached. It was a painful torture to not be inside her already.
And he had waited his entire life, with only a sliver of hope that one day he would find a female for him. Never had he imagined one as beautiful, soft, and small as this one would choose him as well.
Except she was human. Would this make her his? She was trembling against him, hands winding into his hair. Her gasps for breath drove the doubt from his mind. He pulled at the bottom of her shirt to remove it.
Her hand grabbed his. "Joe, wait, we can't."
It was an order, he could only obey. His heart—his human heart—seemed to stop beating for a moment. He sucked in air, starting it again, but otherwise froze, his hand on the smooth, warm skin of her back.
"If that is your decision," he said. His voice gave away none of the pain he felt. Years of training wouldn't let him show emotion.
"Joe, it's not like that," she said.
He glanced up sharply to study her face. He begged his human parts of his mind to interpret what he saw. Her eyes glistened strangely, and her lower lip trembled. Memories assailed him of the other woman crying, but this wasn't the same. "Then tell me what it's like."
"There are things you don't know about me. I've lived through things..." her voice broke off.
"Name the persons who hurt you, and I will take revenge for you," he said. It was a promise he would never break, he swore it to himself.
"I can't talk about it now. Maybe not ever. You just have to understand, that I don't get to enjoy things that other people can enjoy. I can't let myself be with you, or with anyone. I can't—"
"Sky," he whispered, wrapping his arms around her to nestle her head under his chin. "You are my only, my one. I will never take another, just as I have never had one before you."
"That's sweet of you to say, but you can't possibly mean it. You'll find someone else. With your looks, you'll be a hit with the ladies. But not me."
"You don't understand." He cupped her face to have her look at him. "I can't find another woman. I have chosen you. There is no one before, no one after the chosen one. Technically, it is not sealed between mates until they have consummated, but my heart, mind, and spirit have chosen you. There is no other for me, ever."
She squinted at him, obviously confused. "You really aren't human, are you? How is this possible?" She drew back to study him. "And you are telling me, you've never been with another female before? Ever? And now that you want me, you can't ever be with anyone else?"
Her eyes began to widen in alarm. He took her hands to press them to his chest. "Sky, what I was before is not important. It's who I am now that matters. I would your warrior, your fighter, the father of your children and protector if you let me."
"Whoa, back up, and I mean several steps back, like literally!" She pointed to the middle of the room, which was barely a hand's span behind him. He took a step back. "There is no, absolutely no talk of being the father of my children. Out of the question. I can't even think about a relationship right now. Hell, just thinking of sex is difficult, so no."
She waved her hands, shooing him, flustered.
"If those are your orders," he said, spine straight, and expression calm. Inside, he raged, he mourned. He wished he could prove himself somehow, but the laws of this planet were incomprehensible, and completely incompatible with his own rules and customs.
"Fuck, Joe. I have to get out there and work. Listen, we will talk about this later. It's not that I don't want..."
He tilted his head to listen, but she didn't finish her sentence. Her nostrils flared and it seemed that her eyes filled with tears again, but none spilled. He was at a loss. Neither his bio-computer nor his host's memories told him what to do.
"It's not that I don't want to," she said, finally, very softly. "Is our deal still on?"
"I need the information the man from the laboratory will have," he said. His mission was the same. In the end, the mission was all he had now. He had his orders, and until new orders came, he would obey.
He should have known better than to become involved with a human female. He was a soldier, nothing more. He didn't deserve her, and worse, in trying to win her, he betrayed his commander.
She nodded. "Then I'll work him. I'll get what you need."
She turned, and he caught her hand. "Is that what you really want, Sky? Is money all you need? This place," he motioned to the room filled with cheap, skimpy clothes, crackled paint, worn carpet, and glitzy, fake jewelry, "isn't good for you."
"That's why I'm trying to leave it."
"But that doesn't explain why you are here in the first place. No female of my kind would be trapped in this kind of place. There is the stench of hundreds of males coating the air like grime. I can practically see it. You don't deserve this, and something has forced you to be here. Will money fix all your needs?"
She clamped her mouth shut, refusing to speak. With a slight yank, she freed her arm of his grip and disappeared down the hallway.
***
*Sky
She was shaking. Damn it, she was shaking and her legs were jello. It was like being back at her old house at seventeen—in the living room and finding—
Sky refused to let her mind picture her baby brother. She knew he would be on the floor. There was blood. Her gut clenched and suddenly she couldn't breathe. There was blood soaking the grey-green carpet. Then she remembered the parking lot in the pre-dawn darkness and the pooling black spread of Joe's blood.
The sight of Rudy prowling the space between the bar and the fake juke box brought her back to reality. He had been waiting for her. She shook her head at when he tried to approach, and slid her phone from her pocket.
He growled something. The sound carried over the low thumping of the early afternoon music pumped through the speakers, but she didn't catch individual words. By evening, customers and dancers would have to shout to be heard, but at this time of day, the club catered to a different kind sort of clientele. The few men present huddled at individual tables, faces buried in their drinks. They were loners, all of them, here to stare at nothing, and to pass their solitary time in a semblance of company. Sky sniffed. Joe was right. The stench of male body odor was like an invisible blanket soaked in onion juice in the air.
Zoe passed by, her generous ass shaking in ultra-tight shorts and breasts spilling out of her tank tube. "Hey babe," she said, pausing. "Are you all right? Heard there was some trouble early this morning. That was your shift, right?"
Sky feigned surprise. "Trouble? What are you talking about?"
Shit. Of course someone noticed the gun shot.
"Some assholes shooting up the parking lot. There was like, a shit-ton of blood, I heard. Rudy didn't tell you?"
"No, nothing."
"Yeah, we're supposed to have one of the guys walk us in and out, at least for a few days. Probably just random. Drugs or somebody's shorts tied up in a knot. I heard there's some kind of new gang in town, pushing people around. They've got an exclusive on that new drug, Derive. It's making the locals nervous. Everybody wants to be the goddam king of the middle of nowhere."
"New gang, huh?" Sky asked, making small talk. Her mind wasn't on the conversation, though. She knew for a fact, it wasn't gang or drug related.
"Hopefully nothing to do with the club, though. But be careful, right, hun?" Zoe said.
"Like always."
"Ain't that the truth." She yelled to Ed, "Can I get another beer for table fifteen?"
Sky glanced down at her phone. Was she doing the right thing? This whole situation—the shooting in the parking lot, Joe coming back to life, the alien tech she found in the desert, and the man walking toward them from nowhere—all of this was fucking crazy. She should get out while she still could.
Hell, she should already be running. That was how she'd survived the past four and half years. By not relying on anyone else to protect her, or to provide for her, but most especially by not getting mixed up in crazy.
On the other hand, this one job could set her up for years, even for life if she played it smart. There was no proof Joe could deliver, though. In fact, he'd almost killed himself by wandering off. She couldn't help trusting him, despite the craziness, though. Maybe it was wishful thinking, like a kid hoping for a miracle. Maybe she was an idiot.
She scrolled for Pepper's number. Even with the music low, it was too noisy for a call. She headed for the front door.
Rudy was at her side in an instant. "Sky, if you are going in or out, one of the guys has to go with you. I think you know about the shooting we had, so I won't waste your time on it."
Her throat tightened in guilt, but again she pretended not to know anything. "I have a call to make. I'll be right at the door." She shouldered past him to the glass door.
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