Page 14

I’ve been to strip clubs on Earth.

This isn’t much different.

Dark, neon… Ogling patrons and dancing employees.

Shadowed corners hold groups in various numbers, sizes, and states of fuckery.

The main difference—aside from the robots bussing the tables—is that I’m one of only two people in sight who are human.

Glancing around the room, past the bar and gaming tables, I wonder if any of the patrons are hiding cocks I’m intimately familiar with.

It doesn’t matter if they are. There’s only one alien I’m looking for tonight.

Finding Lochdon in the public room is easy.

He sits in one of the semi-secluded couches, arms spread across the back, waiting.

I have to pass through the length of the room to get to him and hundreds of eyes glance at me as I go.

Some of them linger.

Let them watch.

Even if I wanted to pretend to be the cool and mysterious type, the moment Lochdon turns from watching the dancer to look at me, I know my smile gives me away.

God. I’ve missed him.

I manage to walk the rest of the way at a similar pace to the one I started with, but I have to clench my fists to remind myself not to run to him. I almost skip.

Heels, Maggie. You’re wearing heels.

Spraining my ankle wouldn’t get either of us where we want to be.

The couch he’s taken doesn’t have a corresponding table to get in my way, so when I get to him, I climb right up, straddling his hips and kissing him.

“Hello,” he says, the words are misshapen by his mouth, telling me he actually said it. It’s not the biological translation going wonky.

“Gihblec,” I respond.

His lips twist in a smile that tells me he’s trying not to laugh at me.

“Go ahead.” I kiss him again. “Laugh all you want. My mouth wasn’t made for your alphabet.”

“What was it made for?”

I bite his lip this time. “You know exactly what it was made for.”

He laughs and he doesn’t ask me any more questions as I slip my hands into his hair and hold him tight while I kiss him.

It’s only been a few weeks this time, but being able to talk to him throughout almost feels like it made it worse.

When I was here, I could see him.

Seeing him makes me want to touch him.

Fucking a toy is a sorry substitute when I can see the way his face contorts as he comes.

He should be coming in me, or at the very least on me.

I know at least part of the count of how many times he’s cleaned himself up after, when it should have been me.

When I have to come up for air, I ask, “Did you spend every night of your contract dreaming about me again?”

“Of course.”

“Would you lie to me if you didn’t?” I don’t want to know the answer if it’s yes.

I shouldn’t have asked.

“I’ll never lie to you, Peach.” He brushes his thumb over my cheek. “That would hurt you… and I would stab myself through the hearts before I ever did that.”

Maybe I’m into this too deep. Maybe Phantom should have already stopped us.

Maybe it’s not the worst thing in the universe to be falling in love with an alien I can never take home to meet my mother.

“Why did you frown?” he asks.

“Just thinking about how much I’d like to take you home with me.”

His smile is rueful too. “Let me buy you a drink?”

“Or I could slide to my knees?”

He catches me by the back of my neck, keeping me in place. “There’s something I want to do… something I’ve been thinking about for a week.”

Eyes narrowed, I study his face and try to remember everything that happened a week ago.

“Okay. Yeah. You can buy me a drink.”

Lochdon knows the rules, too, so even though I don’t know the drink by name when he orders it, I know it’s not going to break any of them.

Two hands on my hips, he holds me tight to him while another explores my babydoll’s cups.

“It’s softer than I thought it would be,” he says.

I’ve worn this for him once when we’ve chatted, but he’s seen me in everything from bathtub bubbles to the thirty-year-old, thrifted sweatshirt I wear to run errands.

He always asks about fabrics.

“I’ll bring a packed bag next time. We can work our way through my wardrobe.”

“Anything to spend more time with you.”

The drink arrives through a familiar black portal, held by a green tentacle and I glance back over my shoulder at the bartender.

They wink at me when Lochdon takes it and pull their arm back out of the hole a moment before it disappears.

“Those are handy,” I say, more to myself than him.

“Yes they are.” He offers the drink to me and watches my lips as I take the first sip.

It’s sparkly, it’s non-alcoholic-and it’s not too sweet.

“Yummy.”

He smiles. “Just like you.”

Then, he takes the glass from me and tips it, pouring it onto me and I shiver at the chill as it coats my breasts, sparkling on my skin. The rest catches in the lingerie’s cups before it slowly dribbles down my stomach.

Lochdon’s tongue traces over my collarbone and down over my breasts. I arch toward him as his fingers slip into the cup over my left breast, tugging it down until he can flick at my nipple.

I gasp as he takes me into his mouth and my hips rock as memory crashes over me.

A week ago, when I spilled soda down the front of my shirt on accident…

He’s been thinking about this ever since.

Lochdon makes my whole body sing and I don’t think I’m ever going to get enough.

Rocking against the hard bulge of his cock, I vaguely notice shadowy figures moving closer and when I glance back, more than a few of the patrons who had been nursing their drinks have turned to watch us instead of the stage.

Several have inched nearer and I know they also know the rules.

They have to ask to join, but I don’t want to have to pause to deny them. And I don’t want to take tips away from the dancers.

“We have an audience.” I tell him, softly.

“Wasn’t that the point?” He chuckles, his laughter a breath across my wet nipple as he moves to the other. “Didn’t you want them to know you’re mine?”

It was. And I do.

“Watching is fine.” I lift his head up and kiss the sweetness on his lips. “But I don’t want anyone to think they can join. Do you?”

“Not this time.” He pulls my lower lip down with his thumb. “Inside these walls, you are mine. Aren’t you, Peach?”

And out of them too, but I don’t tell him that.