Seduced By The Alien (4 page)

Chapter Seven

Crystal luxuriated in the tub until her fingers pruned and every last ounce of tension flowed out of her body. Only when the water was beginning to get uncomfortably cool, bordering on cold, did she heave a sigh and reluctantly decide it was time to get out.

She shivered slightly, gooseflesh rising over her skin as she rose out of the water and stepped over the edge of the tub, onto the mat on the floor. She stretched her arms up, over her head, and rolled her shoulders as her arms dropped back to her sides. For a moment, she simply stood there, relishing in the feeling of being utterly at ease for the first time in what seemed like an eternity.

At last, slowly, she picked up a towel and began drying herself off, dragging the soft fabric over her skin. Eventually, she wrapped her hair up on top of her head and began to dress, pulling on the loose, lightweight, sheer clothing that she had grown accustomed to surprisingly quickly.

Dressed and with her hair still drying, Crystal stepped back out into the bedroom. She strolled over to the bed and sat down on the edge of it in silence. Eventually, she unwound the towel from her hair and dropped it to the floor, and officially ran out of things to do. It left her with little choice but to think about what had just happened.

She didn’t want to have a baby. Maybe eventually, but she certainly didn’t want to be pregnant right then. She wasn’t even sure of how she felt about Gerralt. Adding a child to the mix wasn’t going to make anything anymore stable. Sure, the odds of it happening on the first try were slim, and she didn’t even know if it would be possible between them, considering Gerralt was an entirely different species from her, but she had to assume he had at least known a
little
about how it would work when he first mentioned an heir. And it wasn’t as if they had gone ahead and decided that they wanted a child right at that moment. So maybe, just maybe, she could head it off at the pass.

Her gaze darted to her purse, still sitting abandoned on the vanity. It had slipped her mind before, what with the whole ‘getting dragged off to a new world’ thing, but of course thinking about the possibility of getting pregnant dragged her mind back to her birth control. She was pretty sure it was in her purse.

Crystal pushed herself to her feet and walked the short distance to the vanity, where she began to rummage through her purse. Coming up empty handed, she instead simply picked the handbag up and upended it over the vanity.

Pens and pencils, a notepad from work, a dead cellphone, a wallet, and an assortment of hard candies fell out. And then, sticking in the mouth of the purse for a second before it too fell out, came an envelope.

Crystal’s heart sank as she stared at it. It looked innocent enough, but she knew what the contents were. She had meant to open it after that last night of work, but…well, things had gotten a bit out of hand since then, and it had slipped her mind, like so many other things.

She ran one finger along the edge of the envelope, looking down at it, her doctor’s address staring back at her. Finally, with a deep breath in, she slid a finger beneath the tongue of the envelope and ripped it open. Carefully, she pulled out the folded paper and unfolded it.

It had started with the occasional headache. It wasn’t anything too out of the ordinary. But when the headaches began to turn into the occasional blinding migraine, she decided that asking her doctor about it might be a good idea. To her horror, her doctor had suggested they scan her for a brain tumor.

Crystal skimmed over the majority of the page. She didn’t need to see it. All she needed to see were the big, bold words ‘
confirmed
,’ ‘
terminal
,’ ‘
inoperable
,’ and ‘
six months
.’ Those few words told her everything she needed to know.

Tears began to well up in her eyes, and she leaned over to bury her face in her hands. Stubbornly, she clenched her jaw as she struggled to keep quiet. She didn’t need to start bawling and bring every servant in the corridor running.

Despite herself, she giggled damply as she thought, ‘
well I guess the birth control is pointless now
.’

There was no time to see if things with Gerralt would go anywhere. There was no time to have a baby, regardless of what she decided on the matter. There was no time for…much of anything, really.

And there she was, feeling sorry for herself, instead of taking advantage of the time she had left. She didn’t know what she was going to do, but she couldn’t just keep it to herself. She was Gerralt’s soul mate, apparently. His one and only. He would be alone once she was gone.

She had to at least let him know, so he could prepare himself for that. Besides, it seemed like a horrible thing to spring on someone at the last minute, and that was if she would even be able to hide it as it progressed.

Crystal dragged her hands down her face, scrubbed them over her eyes, and sat up straight. Slowly, she got to her feet and looked in the vanity’s mirror to make sure she didn’t look
too
much like she had been crying. She didn’t want anyone to panic, after all.

Crystal spent much of the rest of the morning and the early afternoon with Mellia and Kelso, though only after looking to make sure Mellia’s gloves were where they were supposed to be. As she tried to put the words together to think up a way to tell Gerralt, her emotions were a mess of stress and nerves and she spent most of the day feeling like she was on the verge of bursting into tears. She didn’t want Mellia getting a whiff of that.

It was a fairly simple day, thankfully. Crystal was introduced to one of the unicorns that had recently lost its rider. A calm, laidback gelding with pale, golden fur, a mane like snow, and a horn and eyes like red jasper.

Once Crystal was shown the bare basics of riding, the three of them spent much of the day riding along the coast and the forest trails while Gerralt was effectively trapped in a meeting with his advisors and counselors. Luckily for Crystal, the unicorn’s gait was smooth and he proved easy-going enough and smart enough to simply follow Kelso’s and Mellia’s steeds along the trails, freeing Crystal up to think.

“Are you alright back there?” Mellia eventually called, looking over her shoulder to peer back at Crystal. “You’ve been so quiet!”

Crystal’s attention jerked back to the present, and she offered Mellia an automatic smile. “Just fine,” she replied. “It was just a, uh…it was a busy morning.”

Mellia’s eyebrows rose slowly, and then she burst into delighted giggles and exclaimed, “Oh my!”

It was dinner by the time Crystal had a chance to talk to Gerralt again. The dining hall was far too loud to carry on a conversation, though, and it wasn’t the sort of conversation she wanted to have in public, regardless.

“I need to tell you something,” she told him when there was enough of a lull in the conversation for her to get a word in edgewise. “After dinner,” she added. “It’s important.”

Gerralt looked concerned for a moment, but he was quickly drawn back into the conversation. “I’ll meet you in the garden, then,” he replied, before his attention was drawn away.

Regardless of how much attention Gerralt was or wasn’t paying, Crystal nodded in acknowledgement and directed her attention back to her food. She picked at it for a few moments, managing a few bites as she prodded it around the plate, but it wasn’t long before she excused herself to go wait out in the garden.

Once more, she found herself in the garden with the waterfall, the fan, and the tent. The fan was off at that moment, but with the sun setting, there wasn’t any pressing need of it.

Crystal looked up from the water when she heard footsteps approaching, and a moment later Gerralt joined her beneath the tent.

“What did you need to tell me?” he asked, short and to the point.

Crystal had intended to dress the words up a little. To make them sound good, or at least better. But what came out of her mouth was, “I’m dying.”

Gerralt looked at her sharply, but Crystal plowed onwards, determined to finish before he could interrupt her.

“It’s a brain tumor,” she added. “Terminal. Inoperable. I’ve probably got a little over five months to go.” She snorted. “Somehow, I actually managed to forget about it.”

Gerralt was silent for a moment, his expression warring between thoughtfulness and concern. When at last he spoke, it was so he could say, “I think we might be able to help you.” He glanced at her cautiously. “It’s not a guaranteed fix,” he added, “and there’s always a bit of risk involved in things like this, but we’re not so limited as people on Earth were.”

Crystal blinked at him slowly, openly gaping until she shook her head to gather her composure.

“You mean…you can save me?” she asked, her voice unsteady. “I don’t have to die?”

“Not yet,” Gerralt replied. He held his hand out for hers and said, “Come on. Let’s go speak to the doctors.”

With a smile slowly creeping into place, Crystal took his hand.

It all seemed to go so quickly. One evening, Crystal was sitting in a doctor’s office that was all smooth, curved edges and pristine gleaming, and two days later she was getting ready for the procedure. She didn’t understand most of the medical jargon that they spat at her, but she got the gist of it; they could make the tumor go away, with any luck.

Gerralt kissed her slowly in the exam room before he left to let her get ready. Once he left, Crystal quickly stripped and put on the surgical gown, and then she sat down on the bed. Her legs trembled with her nerves no matter how she tried to still herself or convince herself that she would be okay.

The nurses weren’t an overwhelming comfort. They shushed her quickly and told her not to worry, before leading her into the room where the procedure was to take place.

Of course, after that Crystal feared relatively little, as they rather soundly knocked her out with something that smelled and tasted of sweet fruit.

The entire world went a little fuzzy and loopy after that, but Crystal remained just coherent enough to be confused as she was loaded into something that almost resembled an MRI machine with clear walls and an abundance of buttons and cameras. Crystal lied down the table and the rest of the machine slide over her like a tube. Soon after that, the entire world was lost to Crystal as she finally fell asleep.

Whatever the procedure was, Crystal didn’t know. She knew it wouldn’t involve shaving any part of her head, so she was grateful for that. She slept through it peacefully, save for the strangest dream of a scorpion being pulled from her ear. She woke slowly, hours later, in a dark room with quiet music playing; it sounded like a strange, oddly pleasant combination of a piano and a xylophone.

She rested quietly for a time, until she could finally bring herself to pry her eyes open. She smiled when she saw Gerralt sitting beside her cot.

Chapter Eight

“Hey,” Crystal greeted quietly. “How long have I been out?”

Gerralt looked up from the files he was reading, and he offered her a small smile. “A few hours,” he replied. “How are you feeling?”

Crystal yawned. “Tired,” she replied. “But otherwise fine. How am I?”

Gerralt’s smile broadened somewhat. Had he simply been anyone else, he would have looked pleased. But given what Crystal had seen of his expressions so far, anyone else would have been shouting for joy.

“You’re just fine,” he replied. “Like there was never anything wrong.”

Crystal’s expression brightened, and she slowly began to sit up. She had to clench her fists against the edge of the cot to stay upright, but she suddenly felt like she had to sit up. She was healthy, so why waste anymore time lying down than she had to?

“So I’m not dying?” she asked. “I’m going to be okay?”

“You’re going to be okay,” Gerralt confirmed. “Would you like to get out of here?”

Crystal nodded gratefully. “Please,” she replied, though when she tried to get to her feet, her knees trembled and sent her right back down onto the cot.

“Still a bit wobbly, I see,” Gerralt teased gently.

Carefully, he helped her take off the hospital gown, and he helped her put on some more comfortable clothing. With that done, he simply picked her up bridal style. Crystal rested comfortably—safely—in his arms as he carried her through the corridors.

By the time they reached the bedroom again, Crystal was nearly asleep in his arms. She didn’t stir until he laid her down on the bed. He sat down on the edge of the bed beside her and leaned down to kiss her forehead, but she shifted her head to capture his lips in a proper kiss.

Gerralt hummed in amusement into the kiss and he took the hint. He broke the kiss long enough to lie down beside her, facing her and partially supporting himself with one elbow. From there, they continued to kiss, chaste and slow at first, but gradually getting sloppier and heating up as Crystal woke up.

Crystal wrapped her arms around Gerralt’s neck and sank the fingers of one hand into his hair as they kissed, her other hand pressed to the skin of the back of his neck to keep him close.

At last, Gerralt’s tongue pressed at her lips, and they parted easily for him. Their tongues tangled and slid together and they breathed each other in.

Crystal leaned back slowly, breaking the kiss reluctantly. “You’re glad I’m going to be okay, right?” she asked, still close enough that their lips brushed together with each syllable.

“Of course,” Gerralt answered, sounding slightly baffled.

“Show me,” she replied.

Gerralt needed no further convincing. He leaned up, off of the bed long enough to strip his shirt off, and then he rolled over to straddle her hips. He slipped his hands beneath her shirt and ran his hands up her stomach, fingers dragging over her breasts.

Her shirt hitched further and further up as his hands dragged upwards, until she sat up enough to help him pull her shirt off.

With that barrier out of the way, Crystal pulled Gerralt down on top of her, warm skin pressing against skin as they kissed once more. She curled one hand around the back of his head, fingers buried in his hair, as their lips slid against each other and their tongues tangled.

Crystal broke the kiss with a quiet sigh. “Let me-

” she started, as she lifted her hips off of the bed as much as she could, pressing against him. She wriggled her hands into the space between them to slip them under the waistband of her pants. “Let me get these off.”

Gerralt was only too willing to comply, rolling partially away from her so she could hitch her hips off of the bed and pull the pants down to her knees. From there, Gerralt pulled them the rest of the way off and tossed them off of the bed, before he shifted towards her again, straddling her upper legs.

The next kiss was only brief before Gerralt pulled away again. He sat up on his knees and instructed, “Turn over.”

“What for?” Crystal asked, though she turned over as he commanded.

Without answering, Gerralt moved her hair to one side and kissed the back of her neck, before he sat back again, his weight resting on the backs of her legs. Slowly, he began kneading his hands into her skin, starting at the base of her neck. Crystal hummed contently once she realized what he had in mind.

Gerralt’s hands worked over her back slowly, his fingers digging into her muscles, kneading and working them slowly. He dragged his thumbs along the bumps of her spine, and leaned down to follow his hands with his lips, pressing a kiss to each bump.

He made his way to the small of her back slowly, and then worked his way back up, his hands drifting on the return trip, stroking along her sides, fingers darting along her belly and her breasts, getting a small shiver out of her.

By the time he made it back up to the base of her neck with both his hands and his lips, Crystal was wiggling slightly beneath him, her thighs rubbing together as she tried to get some sort of friction.

“Enjoying yourself?” Gerralt teased, and his hands came to rest on her ass once he dragged them both slowly down her back once more.

Crystal made an impatient whining noise in answer and tried to spread her legs as much as she could with him straddling them. It turned out to not be very much. Still, it got her point across.

Gerralt slipped one hand into the space between her legs, and he started by delicately dragging the tips of his fingers along the lips of her sex, humming in amusement when he wound up with damp fingers.

He stroked gently and slowly, only occasionally dipping his fingers between her folds enough to graze her clit. Only when Crystal was whimpering steadily and trying to force herself onto his hand did he oblige her.

Slowly, he pressed two fingers to her entrance and began to press them into her, sliding them in, increment by increment. By the time his hand was pressed tight to her skin and his fingers were as far in as he could get them, Crystal was moaning shamelessly beneath him, shimmying slightly to try to get even more contact.

Gerralt let her wiggle for a few seconds before he drew his fingers back out slowly. Crystal moaned and gasped out desperately, “Please,” and just like that, all attempts at slow teasing ended.

He leaned down to press a kiss to her back, between her shoulders, and when he sat up again he began thrusting his fingers in earnest. Each quick thrust brought his fingers almost the entire way out and then pushed them back in as far as he could get them. There was only the sound of Gerralt’s breathing, Crystal’s panting, and skin against damp skin.

Beneath him, the pitch of Crystal’s voice grew slightly higher and turned into a stream of, “Oh, oh, oh,” with each thrust, and Gerralt knew she was close. He crooked his fingers and twisted his wrist to find just the right angle, and he knew when he found it. Crystal’s voice rose in a desperate shout, and Gerralt held that angle as he continued to thrust, until at last she came, spilling over his hand. Her voice broke off, and she hid her face against the bed.

As she caught her breath, she could feel Gerralt and the mattress shifting. His weight left her legs, and he pushed at one of her shoulders and one hip until she got the cue and rolled over. Once she was on her back again, Gerralt knelt between her legs, and Crystal noticed with some surprise that his pants were gone.

“Ready?” he asked.

Crystal nodded once, and Gerralt lifted her legs to wrap them around his hips. He closed one hand around his straining, weeping cock, stroked it once, and lined himself up with her entrance.

Gerralt was beyond ready to go and Crystal had been rather thoroughly prepared, so there was no sense in going slow. He took hold of her hips and thrust in quickly, sheathing himself entirely in one swift movement. They moaned in tandem, and Crystal let her head fall back against the mattress and curled her fingers in the blankets.

For only a moment was Gerralt still, and then he jerked into motion again, drawing out and then thrusting back in quickly. Each thrust was enough to jolt Crystal up the bed slightly.

After only the first few thrusts, she reached up to paw at Gerralt’s shoulders until she could pull him down into a kiss. He kissed her eagerly and used it as an opportunity to pin her hands over her head. He held them in place with one hand, the other hand holding his weight up beside Crystal’s head.

The new angle forced him to slow somewhat, but to make up for it, each thrust became that much stronger, so that it almost seemed as if each thrust would rattle her bones.

Even after coming once, Crystal could feel herself quickly careening towards the peak once more, like she was racing up a mountain and readying herself to be struck by lightning. It felt as if she was going to fly to pieces, and there would be nothing she could do about it. As luck would have it, she didn’t
want
to do anything about it. She was rather happy with the way things were at that point.

Crystal turned her head to press a kiss to the wrist beside her face, and her hands shifted in Gerralt’s hold, her fingers wiggling. Her hips jerked fitfully, pushing to meet each thrust, and it wasn’t long before she was keening out barely intelligible words, openly begging for more and faster and please.

Each thrust was like being rocked by a storm, until finally, her back arched and she moaned loudly as she came for a second time. For just a moment, every muscle in her body was taut and rigid, and then she went limp once more, her chest heaving as she panted for breath.

Gerralt continued to thrust, but it wasn’t long before his rhythm began to waver, and soon enough he closed his eyes and groaned as he came. He managed only a handful of thrusts after that before he had to stop.

Slowly, he withdrew his softening cock and released Crystal’s hands. He sat back, and a moment later, her legs fell from where they were wrapped around him.

They were quiet for a few seconds, during which Crystal lazily tracked a bead of sweat as it trailed down Gerralt’s chest. Eventually, though, he cleared his throat and wondered, “So, are you suitably convinced that I’m glad you’re going to live a long, healthy life?”

Crystal paused for a beat, staring at him, as if she had forgotten what had gotten the entire intimate ordeal started, and then she laughed.

She lifted one hand to trace it along his cheekbone before she let it drop back down to the mattress. “Color me convinced,” she answered.

“Oh, good,” he replied. “I don’t think I’ve got the energy to try to keep convincing you right now.”

Crystal snorted. “I’m pretty sure that I would pass out if you tried.”

He arched one eyebrow and pointed out, “Given what you’ve been through today, that probably wouldn’t be a bad idea. The passing out bit, I mean.”

She hummed in acknowledgment, and as if mentioning it was the key, she could feel her eyelids beginning to grow heavy once again. “You’re probably not wrong,” she conceded. “And taking a bit of a nap does sound nice.”

She was asleep almost before she could finish speaking the words. When she woke once more, several hours later, Gerralt was still on the bed beside, his eyes closed as he slept, and Crystal couldn’t help but smile.