Page 52 of Monsters in Love: Lost in the Stars
Daisy awoke slowly. Her head was pounding even worse than it had after coming out of the cryopod, her flesh tight and painful, and what was worse was that she had a foul filmy taste in her mouth that made her gag. Retching miserably, she rolled onto her side and spat out the gob of filmy mucus that came up. A large warm hand settled on her shoulder, and she flinched in reaction, her head whipping around to peer over her shoulder. The Daranthiki grimaced back at her sympathetically.
Her lips twitched as she tried for a smile to relieve the tension, for the sake of her own sanity and dignity if nothing else. “I feel terrible.”
“You look…” He paused and wrinkled his nose faintly.
“That great, huh?” she weakly chuckled even as she inwardly cringed.
How mortifying. Daisy McGillin never went anywhere without being the image of class and highest fashion. She had to look a fright. If anyone ever saw her like this, she would never be able to live it down. She wondered if the Daranthiki’s armor contained recording units like United Earth’s military personnel did. Just because he no longer served didn’t mean that Zil removed them if he found them useful. If any footage were leaked to the press, they would have a field day with it. She lifted a hand to touch her face, wondering just how bad it was, but he transferred his hold to her wrist, preventing her from touching her skin.
“The healing ointment I rubbed over your face will be less effective if you touch it,” the alien gruffly advised. “You are severely dehydrated.”
Her hand paused and she swallowed, once again becoming aware of just how dry and scratchy her throat was. “Did you find anything to drink?”
He hesitated but shook his head. “Not exactly.”
Her brow knitted with confusion. “What do you mean? You had to have given me something if I’m so dehydrated that I passed out.”
“I did,” he verified, “but?—”
“But what? If you’ve found any water at all, just please give it to me,” she pleaded. “I’m so damn thirsty and you’re supposed to be taking care of me.”
“Very well, but you will not like it,” he warned and slowly removed something from the pouch at his side.
Daisy’s eyes locked on it and she recoiled. It was putrid, nothing more than a mass of slime with what appeared to be a huge air bubble bulging out its center that appeared to be filled with liquid.
“My liquid acquisition unit detects water sources. This was all that I was able to find in the vicinity. The growth is placed under your tongue and very slowly dissolves to provide water to you without risk of affixation.”
She gagged and turned away from it. “Don’t tell me that you fed one of those things to me! It’s wretched! That isn’t coming anywhere near my mouth.”
“It does not have a pleasant appearance,” he acknowledged, “but it did save your life. And without it you will just suffer the same effects—this time more quickly since you have not yet recovered.”
She peered at the slime over her shoulder and could feel the bile coming up her throat as she looked at it. Shaking her head, she jerked her gaze away and swallowed nauseously. “I can’t,” she whispered and then winced at the sound of dismay he made. “I swear that I’m not being difficult, but I will vomit if I put that thing in my mouth. I can feel it trying to come up as we speak. There has to be something—anything else—I can do.”
He regarded her steadily, his expression impassive. “There could be another way to help you now that you are awake. It will serve all of your nutritional needs and you will not be required to eat or drink anything from this planet—but it will not be one that you will find pleasant either.”
“So long as I don’t have to put something disgusting in my mouth, I don’t care,” she quickly assured him, and she nearly went weak with relief.
Zil didn’t look reassured by her answer. “There is a trait possessed by Daranthiki,” he began, and Daisy frowned in annoyance. Why was he giving her an oral report on his people when she was so thirsty? Surely he had to realize. “It is a holdover from more ancient times in our evolutionary history, when males had to go far to hunt and gathered nectar from the giant drigon and zalnara blooms that provided us much of our essential nutrients when hunting was scarce. As females and offspring remained within our nests, the males would collect the nectar and devour anything immediately perishable, such as rich organ meats, and digest it, our bodies turning the enzymes into nutritional material that we could return home with and give to them.”
Her brow furrowed. Where was he going with this biology lesson? “Meaning what exactly?”
“Meaning that I can eat and drink for both of us so that you will not be forced to endure. The sap even tastes pleasant.”
Daisy made a face. “You want me to eat your waste material? Gross!”
The Daranthiki frowned back at her. “We do not produce waste material like humans or many other species. Our bodies metabolize everything perfectly—even the garbage your species pretends is food. What I would provide for you is considered a reverential gift that a male seldom does outside of specific rituals with his family, or in a case of emergencies where he may need to provide for them. I do not offer it lightly.”
Her cheeks grew warm, shame flooding her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to insult you. I also didn’t realize that the Daranthiki body worked that way,” she mumbled.
Zil peered at her for a long moment, weighing her words before finally nodding. “I accept your apology, McGillin.”
She shifted uncomfortably. “So how, uh, does this work?”
He slowly parted his lips and extended his tongue—and continued to extend it from between them. It wasn’t freakishly long, but it was quite a bit longer than a human’s tongue and possessed a slightly more tubal shape with a tapered end. The tip flexed, and she jumped as she saw grasping a little hole open and close in a slightly sucking motion.
“What the hell is that?” she yelped. His tongue retracted back between his lips, and he closed his mouth as he fixed her with a stare.
“My tongue,” he replied. “It has a singular feeding tube that feeds into two internal tubes, one connected to our stomach, and one connected to where we store excess nutritional sap until we require it. I can either draw nectar through it or deliver an excretion of my sap.”
“So like honey from a bee then. I will be feeding from… your tongue.” Her cheeks grew hotter as her blush crept higher into her face. She could see why they didn’t indiscriminately offer to feed others that way, but she didn’t know if she would be able to do it and not die of embarrassment in the process.
He inclined his head. “It is either that or this,” he pointed out as he lifted the slime in front of her once more. “I have not tried hunting yet. You may remain optimistic on that front if you wish.”
She glanced around the surrounding terrain. There was no water and nothing green. It would be just her luck that anything on this planet would be more insectoid than marching in the form of a choice cut steak to her plate.
“You know what…? I think I’m going to try the tongue tube,” she said slowly. How bad could it really be? She could just close her eyes and get through it like the time Warren Pierce dared her to French kiss him for twenty minutes in middle school.
Zil nodded and dropped the slime back into his pouch. Opening his arms for her, he gestured for her to come nearer. It felt strange stepping that much into his personal space, but she understood the reasoning—it wasn’t like his tongue could stretch across the distance between them. Drawn close against his chest, his warm arms circled around her, Daisy’s mouth parted as his tongue extended and brushed her bottom lip.
The texture of it was strange. That was the first thing she noticed. It had tiny ridges along it that brushed the inside of her mouth and slid against her tongue. A startling heat bloomed brightly and unexpectedly within her before slowly slipping lower into her belly as his tongue settled into place against hers, rubbing in tiny motions that seemed to stimulate it just the way he needed it to because a sweet, tart flavor filled her mouth that tasted just like cherry pie and fresh cream on a hot summer’s day. Unable to wait for another spurt, Daisy leaned into him and sucked on his tongue hungrily.
She didn’t know what she expected but it wasn’t for her body to go white hot and quiver with pleasure as Zil growled into her mouth, his arms tightening around her. Nor for her own arousal to spike so that her sex grew soaked with her desire as she savored the sweet offering he continued to yield to her. It was so decadent and obscene—and likely violated more than one United Earth law—and gods help her, she wanted more! And the things her imagination conjured that she wanted him to do to her became increasingly filthier and more graphic as his honey filled her stomach.
She wanted and needed him. The realization burned through her, luminating recesses of her mind she had been content to ignore despite the way she had drifted to him and clung to him, taking comfort in his presence and enjoyment in his grim company. She enjoyed being with him, and now she wanted to drink from him and ride his cock until she was completely filled with him in every way. The mental picture the desire raised was unsettling and intriguing at the same time, and she wanted all of it.