Page 25 of Rescued by the Alien Bull Rider (Cowboy Colony Mail-Order Brides #6)

ZOHRO

J olene sat up straighter, which in turn hid more of her cunt from me.

What a fool I was. This was the first opportunity I’d had to see her naked body, and I’d ruined it by asking the first stupid question that came to mind.

Now, that alluring dark slit with its swollen flesh, the hood that hid her most sensitive place, and the intriguing dark red hair, were almost entirely blocked from my view.

“What? That’s what’s on your mind right now?” Jolene asked. Water adorned her cheeks, glittered in her eyelashes. Glistened on the large orbs of her human breasts, mammary tissue that I knew was for feeding her infant but that made my cock pulse perversely anyway.

“It is always on my mind,” I replied.

My wife had grown more and more comfortable with me during our time together.

She conversed easily with me, even seemed content to spend time near me.

When she had her pick of tasks to do, she almost always chose whichever chore would keep her in close proximity to me throughout the day.

I did not think she was repulsed by me – at least not as much as she had been on the day of our wedding.

I thought that she might even stay beyond the trial period, which was due to end very soon.

Maybe that deadline was what had spurred the sudden question.

But I had not lied. It was on my mind all the time.

I knew kissing was something humans did as couples.

I understood that it could be quite arousing, and that maybe, being so pregnant, she did not want to feel that way.

Maybe she did not want it to lead to intercourse, even if I feverishly fantasized about that very thing.

Or perhaps she still just did not want to kiss me.

Maybe she never would.

“I just… I didn’t think you had any interest in that!” she sputtered. “It’s not exactly something you do with your sister!”

“What?”

“Well, then again, that isn’t necessarily true,” she amended thoughtfully. “Lots of people kiss their loved ones on the mouth, even family members. I never did, but…” She licked her lips, causing my throat to spasm. “Sure. OK. We can try.”

Was this it? Was this all I’d had to do, this entire time?

Just… Just ask? For what I wanted?

Was it truly that easy?

I was still bent awkwardly at the waist, so I lowered myself to my knees beside the tub. Jolene scooted her backside along the bottom of the tub, sending water sloshing over her belly and breasts, both of which were lined with purplish marks.

“Stretch marks,” she said with what sounded like an embarrassed laugh when she caught me looking. “They should fade in time. Hopefully.”

“Why do you hope for this?”

“Oh. I don’t know. You don’t think… Think they’re kind of ugly?”

She had said such a thing before. When she did not want me to look at her eyes, swollen from crying. Ugly, she had called them.

“I think you’re beautiful.”

Her self-conscious smile slipped away. As if rinsed off by the water.

Or slapped off by my words.

“What?”

Why did she seem so confused by that statement? Why did I feel the need to vigorously defend myself, as if she had just accused me of lying?

How could she not see what I saw?

“You have hair like the sky before nightfall and eyes like the sky in the morning,” I said fiercely.

“You have a smile that I fear I would lay down my life for. And you have such soft skin-” My knuckles brushed her belly.

Carefully . “-that stretches to accommodate everything you need it to. I once thought human skin was terribly weak. But now, I see the strength in it.”

“Oh.” She took a shuddering breath, then said, “Zohro. I am going to kiss you now.”

Even though I had been the one to ask about it, the one hoping for it, I now reeled with panic that I was ill-prepared.

There had been no mention of how to kiss in Tasha’s book, aside from the obviousness of putting your mouth on another’s.

But what did you do after that? Surely, you didn’t just seal your mouth to another’s and then… then just sit there?

Jolene shifted to her knees, placing her small hands on the edge of the tub.

“I can’t lean forward much with the belly,” she said. “You’ll have to come to me.”

I would always come to her. Just like I had that first night, when I saw her in the moonlight as my bull prepared to charge.

Somehow, this situation felt just as potent as that one. Just as important to survival. Like one of us would die if I failed.

My heart battering against the insides of my ribs, I slowly lowered my mouth to hers.

Her lips brushed mine. A silken caress. So tender, and yet astonishing in the effect it had on me.

With no more pressure than that of a fluttering bird flicking its feathers against my skin, she sent desire slamming through my body.

My cock bulged in my trousers, my cock tail writhing helplessly against my shaft.

I wanted to ask her what I should do now. But I did not want to appear incompetent. So I merely waited, shaking, every muscle straining.

“There,” she breathed against my skin. “Now you’ve had your first human kiss.” She drew back slightly, her perfectly round human pupils larger than before, turning the blue to a mere sliver in the white. “What did you think?”

I think I’m about to ejaculate.

She pressed her lips together and covered her breasts with her arms, her gaze darting away.

“That bad, huh? This is why I didn’t want to bother with it at the wedding!”

“Bad?” I croaked. “What makes you say that?”

“You’re all… All white-eyed and grumpy looking. Frankly, you look like you’re trying not to puke right now.”

“Trust me,” I gritted out, scrunching my eyes shut for a moment in an attempt to reestablish control. “Vomit is the last bodily fluid I am worried about involuntarily ejecting right now.”

“Oh. Oh, fuck .” A strangled gasp had my eyes flying open. Jolene’s hands were on her belly, her face drawn suddenly tight.

“What is it?” I asked, immediately alert, arousal forgotten.

“Oh. Nothing,” she said, her eyes unfocused. “Sorry. It just felt like… For a second there… Like someone just took a fucking hammer to my pubic bone and – fuck! ”

This time, with my eyes open, I saw the tightening of her belly, muscles squeezing beneath the skin.

“Jolene,” I said, immediately getting to my feet. “You are having contractions.”

When her eyes found mine, they were wild with terror I had not seen since our first night together, just before I’d thrown her up onto Wyn’s back.

“But I’m not ready!” she cried. “I don’t… I don’t know what to do!”

I bent and placed a protective, possessive hand against her belly. Just for a moment. Just for now.

I held my wife’s panicked gaze and said, “I do.”