“Better?” he asked, his voice husky.
“How did you—”
Aidan laid his fingers flat against her lips. “Shhh, don’t talk. We’re on Earth, remember?”
Jacey nodded. Aidan took her hand and pulled her down to the grass. The cool blades pressed against her bare skin, light caresses that brought with them memories of lying in the grass as a child, looking up at the stars. Aidan lay beside her, his arm draped across her breasts. His lips teased her hair, her cheek. The soft touches made her eyelids flutter closed, and she sighed. Aidan’s long fingers slid over her abdomen, pausing over her navel.
“You should have your navel pierced.”
Jacey smiled. “I’ve thought about it but never gotten around to it.”
“Something you’ll have to soon remedy.”
He leaned forward, his lips caressing the flesh leading to her belly button. His tongue darted inside the hollow, and Jacey shivered.
He nibbled his way down to the small tufts of hair covering her pussy. Inhaling deeply, he stroked her outer lips, his fingers sliding easily into the slick folds.
“Mmm,” Jacey murmured. She looked down to see Aidan’s dark head moving between her thighs. He grabbed her hips to hold her still.
At the first lap of his tongue, she shivered. Her hips bucked as he speared her with his tongue. He licked her inner lips, his tongue slipping into her channel, then out again. Jacey bit her lip as wave after wave of arousal pummeled through her. His lips circled her clit, and she thought she would die from the pleasure of his gentle sucking.
“Yes,” she hissed. Her body built to a crescendo far more quickly than she had wanted, and soon her orgasm washed through her. She cried out, her body trembling beneath his touch.
Aidan raised his head and smiled. “Would you like more, my lady?”
He looked at her with such an open expression on his face that Jacey thought she might be dreaming. She realized he might be a wet dream come to life. “Yes,” she said with a smile. “I would.” As Aidan dipped his head to her cunt once more, she wondered for the first time if she really cared if she made it back home.
His tongue proved to be just as intriguing as his cock, for he licked and sucked her until she speared her fingers through his hair to hold him against her. She bucked her hips and he reached up and cupped her breasts. His talented fingers toyed with her nipples until he pulled back and rose onto his knees.
His cock still held a human shape.
Jacey sat and stroked him, testing his weight in her palm. “Make it change inside me.” She leaned back and spread her legs, not caring how wanton she looked.
“As you wish, my lady.” He moved between her thighs, leaning over her to rest his weight on his hands.
Jacey lifted her legs and hooked them around his back, pulling him closer. His cock pressed against her opening, and he waited until she lifted her hips to thrust forward. The smooth shaft filled her. Aidan groaned. He pulled back, and when he pumped into her again, his cock shifted, the smooth flesh turning to rings.
She cried out, his changing flesh making her hypersensitive. She met his thrusts, moaning as the nodules rubbed against the sensitive places inside her, and when the rings made a delicious friction, she screamed his name.
Her fingers tightened against his back, and she couldn’t hold back her orgasm any longer. With a panted “Yes,” she shattered. Her muscles tightened around him, and above her, Aidan stiffened. He shuddered and moaned as he came, and the hot, wet feeling of his seed filling her followed.
Jacey gasped. Tiny spasms still darted through her, yet there was no mistaking the feeling of his cum inside her. He was an android, or so he’d said. She fought to catch her breath and wondered what exactly she’d done by fucking him.
Chapter Three
Feeling deliciously sated, Jacey followed Aidan down the corridor. He’d mentioned something about wanting to show her the control center. He stopped in front of another door and waved his wrist in front of the blue disk. She really had to ask about those things. After seeing the ship and the holographic suite, she didn’t want to remain confined in her room. She didn’t think she had to be confined either. For all that she’d been abducted, she certainly didn’t appear to be a prisoner, and she had yet to see a lab and freaky exam equipment.
The door slid open to reveal a small, circular room. A large chair sat in the center, numerous dials and controls surrounding it. Off to one side, another man sat. He typed on a keyboard in front of him, and looked up as Aidan entered. The man brushed a lock of white-blond hair out of his eyes. “Giving her the grand tour?”
“I thought she might like to see some of the ship, yes,” Aidan replied. He turned to her. “Jacey, this is Linu. He is a true-born.”
Human, Jacey translated.
Or at least looks like one
. “I’m Jacey,” she said.
Linu grinned. “The future lady, if Aidan has his way, I’m sure.” He chuckled to himself and turned his attention back to the console in front of him. Indignation filled Jacey. He laughed, hopefully at Aidan, but she feared it might be at her.
He shouldn’t have laughed. He doesn’t know what it’s like to be taken from your home and everything you know.
Images of her and Aidan in the holographic suite filled her mind. He’d intimately kissed her, his tongue working her pussy expertly, and with the memories rushing through her mind, she grew damp.
Jacey quickly turned her attention to the large screen in the front of the room. Numerous stars and a few planets shone against the backdrop of space. She stepped forward. “Can we see Earth from here?” she asked.
Aidan crossed the room to the captain’s chair. He consulted something on the console, then punched a few buttons. The view screen changed, revealing a bright sun with a string of planets. One of the farthest planets looked like images of Saturn she had seen. Jacey gasped.
“Is that really—”
Aidan nodded. “It’s just a composite image, taken before your arrival, but yes, that is your home system.”
Jacey stepped forward absolutely amazed. She made out the small red dot of Mars and what looked like rocks between it and a planet that could only be Jupiter. The planets were varied in their orbits, but there, three planets back from the sun, was the blue-green dot that could only be Earth. “My God,” she gasped. She looked up at Aidan. “Are we still in the Milky Way?”
“The Milky Way?” Aidan thought for a moment. “That’s what you call your galaxy, isn’t it?” He shook his head. “I’m afraid we’re quite a ways away.”
“So I can’t go home?” The question emerged on a squeak. “Damn it, you’re telling me you can’t take me home.”
Aidan stepped forward. Gently, he laid his hand on her shoulder. “We’re nearly to BelaZed. I don’t have the fuel to turn around and take you home. I’m sorry.”
Jacey looked at him. His sincere words made her feel slightly better. “If I don’t like BelaZed, will you take me back?”
Aidan ran his fingers through his hair. “You’ll like BelaZed.” Without waiting for a reply, he turned to Linu. “Stay on this same course. I’m going to leave Jacey here for a bit. I trust you can watch her.”
Jacey bristled at his words. Just because she’d never been on a spaceship before didn’t mean she needed watching. “I don’t need watching. I know better than to touch unfamiliar buttons.” She turned from him to stare resolutely at the view screen and the tiny dot that had once been her home planet.
I’ll get back there. I have to. This is ludicrous. How in the hell did he kidnap me without the military knowing? Aren’t there satellites and stuff to watch the sky?
Aidan gave her a puzzled look, then left. The swish of the door told Jacey he’d left, and she turned to look at Linu. “So,” she said, “did he take you against your will too?”
Linu chuckled, this time obviously amused by her question. The throaty notes filled the room and made Jacey smile. “No,” he said when the laughter subsided enough to allow him to talk. “I’m one of the true-borns who live on Lord Starsek’s estates. Since I prefer the stars to being planet side, he allows me to accompany him on his missions. We’ve had some times together, that’s for sure.” His voice faded, and he smiled. Jacey wondered what kind of memories the man held of her captor. “You know, I’m sure going to enjoy watching you and Lord Starsek battle this one out. I believe he may have finally met a female who won’t give in to him just because he’s too handsome for his own good.”
Jacey smiled at his words but didn’t like the sound of them. To know that Aidan had been pursuing other females made her blood turn cold. Instead, she flashed a brazen smile and walked to the captain’s chair. She sat down but folded her hands in her lap so as not to inadvertently touch any controls. Much to her delight, the chair swiveled, and she turned to face Linu. “So, tell me about Lord Starsek,” she said.
“What do you want to know?”
“Everything.” Knowledge won wars, and she needed all the ammunition she could get.
AIDAN HEARD LINU’S boisterous laughter as soon as the door had closed behind him. He gritted his teeth, forcing himself to run every self-control routine twice. He wouldn’t burst in there and demand to know the source of the laughter. Damn it, he’d done his best to get Jacey to open up, and within minutes, she’d said something to make his true-born friend laugh.
He forced himself to keep walking toward his quarters. He would win Jacey over. He had to. His life was at stake, and damn it, he was starting to like her—a lot.
* * * *
The ship lurched beneath Jacey’s feet. She grabbed a slim metal tube that held the consoles in front of her. The chair whipped around. It jerked her arm as she clung to the thin metal tube. The ship bucked again.
“Linu? What’s happening?” Jacey asked. She closed her eyes, trying to block the awful news footage of the Challenger and Columbia disasters from her mind.
Linu bit his lip and focused his attention on the controls in front of him. He turned, looking at something that looked like a different kind of radar, then punched in something on the console in front of him. “Solar storm,” he said.
“What’s that?” she asked. The ship dipped beneath her. The metal bar bent beneath her hand, and she clamped her fingers on the arms of the chair.
“Buckle your harness. Aidan would kill me if anything happened to you,” Linu ordered.
Jacey forced her white-knuckled fingers to uncurl from the arms of the captain’s chair. She reached for the belt, fastening it around her with an audible click. Linu didn’t even look up. The ship lurched again. Jacey shifted. Her hand flew past the arm of the chair, her knuckles banging against the metal pole supporting the console. “Fuck,” she growled as pain speared through her fingers.
She hated flying and hadn’t done it for years. Jacey tried to block from her mind the knowledge that she was in some alien spacecraft in outer space, but all she could think about were her grandmother’s words every time some tragedy happened. “Man wasn’t meant to fly,” she said, shaking a gnarled finger at Jacey.
Jacey whimpered. She hated this lack of control.
Linu knows what is causing this. He’ll keep us safe
. She wished with all her might Aidan stood at the controls instead of his underling, and when the bridge doors slid open to reveal a harried-looking Aidan, relief rushed through her. She slumped in her chair.
* * * *
The first rumble reverberated through the ship. The floor dipped beneath his feet, nearly pitching Aidan to his knees. Only mechanical balance kept him upright, and he cursed as his hearing picked up another solar flare outside the ship.
Jacey
. He’d left her alone in the command center, the least stable part of the ship. With a low growl, he hit the door at a dead run.
His feet skidded on the metal floor of the ship. Another flare rocked the vessel. Unbalanced, he slammed into the wall. His pain receptors flared for a moment until he could shut them down. Right now, he didn’t need the distraction that physical pain caused.
He paused in front of the door to the bridge long enough to wave his hand in front of the blue sensor. It recognized his electromagnetic field, and the door slid open. He rushed inside.
Linu stood at the controls, punching commands frantically into the computer. He didn’t see Jacey. He bit back a native curse. Another flare shot past the ship. The hull shuddered. His chair rocked. It swiveled.
He saw Jacey. She sat in his chair, her hands gripping the arms so tightly that her knuckles had turned white. Her face was set in a determined mask. When she saw him, her eyes widened.
“Aidan,” she said, her voice little more than a whisper.
“I’m here,” he replied with a brief nod of his head. “You stay strapped in there, and you’ll be safe. I’ll take care of this.” He looked up at Linu. “I’ll take control at Sub Panel B.” Without waiting for an answer, he vaulted up to the command bay next to Linu and seated himself. Nimble fingers fastened the safety strap, and he keyed in commands. A loud roar rumbled through the ship. It dipped, then straightened itself out. “I think we’re through the worst of it,” he said.
A boom reverberated through the ship. Bright lights swirled in front of the view screen. “Damn it, Linu, we’re not going to lose her now!”
AIDAN STOOD IN the doorway. He scanned the room, worry etched in his gaze. Jacey tried to read him, wanting to know if the worry were for his beloved ship or her. He visibly relaxed when he saw her, then ordered her to stay put. Jacey started to bristle at his words. It wasn’t like she was going to get up and dance in the middle of this, but the fact that he barked orders at her warmed her. He cared for her safety. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t have spent the time giving her an order. She tried to unclench her hands from the arms of the chair and watched as Aidan took the controls of the ship.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the bright lights flaring against the view screen. Aidan’s voice rang through the room, and Jacey suppressed a shudder. She turned the chair, focusing her gaze on him. His fingers moved over the controls as deftly as they had caressed her body. With calm efficiency, he commanded his ship. Jacey found herself easing into the seat, letting the soft leatherlike fabric comfort her.
He can do this. I know he can.