Page 17

Chapter Seventeen

Amara

My next sexy lesson with Roth’kar is about doggie style. He warms me up in missionary, then I flip over and spread my legs for him. When I glance over my shoulder, his mouth is hanging open, almost comically. Then he swallows and approaches, his culans snapping closed as he readies himself.

He feels even more incredible at this angle, in this position. I might just combust. Roth’kar really gets into it, growling my name and reaching around me with his many arms to tweak my nipples, stroke my clit, touch me everywhere.

I come so hard I see stars.

When we’re finished, he pulls me into his arms.

“I liked that position,” he says. “This doggie style . Despite the name.”

I waggle my eyebrows. “Wait until you see cowgirl.”

After a while of cuddling, Roth’kar says, “We ought to get ready.” He helps me up off the bed, but I got fucked so senseless I’m a little wobbly on my legs. “Think you can dance tonight?”

“Psh.” I flap a hand at him. “I can always dance.”

When I’ve recovered my senses, we make a quick dinner out of some leftovers, then head for the bus stop.

“We’re going to meet Kendall,” I tell him as we find our seats. “She’s my work bestie. There’s no better way to bond than in the trenches of an office.”

Roth’kar nods sagely, like he understands. “No friends like friends on sewer duty.”

Kendall is meeting us at Skunk, a big venue downtown where her favorite DJ is playing. The place can fit three or four hundred people, and Rooster Squad is popular, so I expect a wild night ahead of us.

“I’m already in line,” Kendall texts me when we arrive. “Come sneak in.”

We get some dirty looks as we slide in behind Kendall, but most people are too surprised by the blue alien in their midst to be upset about it.

“So here he is, in the flesh,” Kendall says, spreading her arms wide when she greets Roth’kar. He stares at her, clearly not knowing what she’s about to do. She hugs him with a bear hug, the way she does everyone, and his arms flatten against his sides.

Kendall guffaws. “Aliens don’t do a lot of hugging, huh?”

Roth’kar shakes his head, eyes wide. “Not typically with strangers.”

“I’m not a stranger!” She places her hands on her hips. “You’re Amara’s beau, which means you’re my friend now. Sorry!”

She trounces ahead of us, her ticket held out as we approach the counter. I buy tickets for Roth’kar and me, and then we’re inside, the walls already rattling. Huge speakers line the stage, the kind that I know better than to stand too near. That’s how you get tinnitus, thank you.

Kendall leads us to the bar, where we have to wait in line again before we’re served. We order gin and tonics, and then head upstairs to the second level, where we can look out over the railing at all the people going wild down below.

“This place is cool, huh, Roth’kar?” Kendall asks, sipping her drink. “My favorite venue. And Rooster Squad is awesome. This is going to be a great show.”

As the opener finally finishes and their equipment is cleared away, a tall woman in a huge rooster head comes out on stage. The crowd goes absolutely ballistic as she bows, then lowers her hands to the turntables.

I don’t remember much after that. We finish our drinks and head down the stairs again, getting sucked into the whorl of dancers taking up the main floor.

When we’re exhausted from dancing to the frenetic pace of the music, we go for more drinks and slug them down fast. Kendall finds someone to dance with on our second foray, and she waves at me as she’s whisked away.

Now Roth’kar’s arms are around my waist, and he’s smoothing them down my hips as we start to move in time with the beat.

We have more drinks, and then return to the dance floor, swerving and shaking our bodies faster and faster.

Time disappears, and all there is before me is my alien, his bright blue eyes boring into mine before he leans down to kiss me.

We kiss and dance at the same time, his cock thickening under his pants as we gyrate our hips together.

A few other dancers hoot and holler at us, and Roth’kar’s antennae shrink in embarrassment, but he kisses me anyway.

How we get home is a mystery, but we manage, stumbling in the front door of my condo and laughing after Roth’kar told me his story about the surprise spider.

“Spiders aren’t bad , per se,” I tell him. “Some of them are, like, super dangerous. But not most.”

“ Some of them?”

“The ones who are good just, like, eat mosquitos and leave us alone.”

He does not look convinced by my argument in favor of spiders.

“It was tiny,” he says, very seriously. “The tiny ones are the ones you must watch out for.”

I can’t help laughing, and he seems offended by this, so I kiss him all over, even his antennae. He moans when I do this, and I feel like a dumbass for not having tried touching him here before.

“Very sensitive,” Roth’kar warns as I straddle him on the couch, kissing his ear and stroking one of them.

“I’ll be careful, then.”

Soon he’s good and hard for me, and even though we just had sex a few hours ago, I’m already in dire need of having him inside me. So I strip off his jeans, then pull up my skirt and dispense of my underwear before sitting on him again.

His culans part, one of them sliding up and over my clit, the other downward, over my sex and toward my ass. Roth’kar cocks his head.

“You know,” he says thoughtfully, “there are two of them.”

I know immediately what he’s implying, and I’m all about it.

“Fuck me hard right now,” I tell him, kissing the tip of his nose, “and then yes. I want to do that, too.”

For the first time that I’ve ever seen, Roth’kar gets a wicked smile on his face. His culans clasp together, and then he guides himself inside me, right where he belongs.

“Fuck,” I say, sagging forward as he glides into his seat right away. “That’s so incredible.”

“You are incredible, Amara.” Two of his hands lift me by my ass, then lower me down again. I moan as he burrows into me a second time. “I am so, so lucky I was matched with you.”

We fuck that way until my legs give out, and then Roth’kar throws me unceremoniously onto the couch on my stomach, my ass in the air.

Then he really goes to town, and those amazing soft ridges drive me wild again.

I come hard, but Roth’kar doesn’t. He just keeps going, clasping me with all of his hands, reaching down around my thigh and between my legs to play with my clit.

Soon, I can’t take any more, and he finally lets go. I collapse to the couch, and he nearly falls down on top of me.

“Sorry,” he says into my hair. “It was really hard to orgasm.”

I snort into the fabric cushion. “That’ll be the alcohol. Not that I’m complaining.”

Then, finally, we’re in bed—and I’m not sure how I got there, either. I fall asleep to Roth’kar stroking my hair, saying, “There are no good spiders.”

The next morning, of course, we both pay for it.

Neither of us has the energy to cook, so we drag ourselves a few blocks down to a cheap diner that serves bitter coffee and massive pancakes.

I load up on grease and sugar, then suck down coffee.

Roth’kar tries it a second time, and though he squints like it tastes bad, he has a few more sips, squinting like it hurts and heals at the same time.

Then we’re back at the apartment, napping in front of a movie. I might be hungover, but I’m pleased as a cat, curled up with Roth’kar and snacking on caramel popcorn.

I might just be happy.

Time flies by. Roth’kar expresses interest in getting out of the house more and having things he can do while I’m at work. Because even though we spend all of my time at home together, I’m also gone for eight hours a day on weekdays, which is a lot of time for him to spend alone.

He inquires about working at the corner store, but until he has permanent citizenship on Earth, he can’t take a job.

Still, now he knows it’s a possibility, and that seems to excite him for the future.

He goes to the park every day, where he has befriended a mother and daughter who play on the playground.

The daughter is fascinated with him, and he likes to entertain her curiosity, answering questions about Karthinian life and culture.

It feels inevitable now that Roth’kar will stay.

I spent so much time wondering if he might choose to leave at the end of this, but these days, I’m almost sure what he’ll choose.

He doesn’t need to tell me in so many words, but he’s happier now than when he first arrived.

He smiles more, and eventually, opens up about his life on the spaceship.

I don’t know how he survived it, and I start to understand better why he’s been reluctant to tell me about that time.

The Hole sounds like a terrible place. He tries to pepper his descriptions with good things, like the sense of community they shared, but I can tell that it’s still painful to think back on. I remind him that he’s here now, with me, and we have each other.

As we approach the end of the trial, any anxiety I might have had about us as a couple fades. We both sought a partner in life, someone we could love, and we found it. I have to hand it to Gazargo for making it possible.

It’s almost Halloween, and Roth’kar has enjoyed the sight of pumpkins popping up on porches all around the neighborhood, people stringing up decorations in their windows and skeletons in their yards.

“Are those… bloody handprints?” Roth’kar asks, mouth twisting as we pass some windows smeared with blood. “Like in that movie we saw?”

“Oh yeah. Cool, huh?”

We’ve been watching some horror movies to get into the Halloween mood, and Roth’kar is riveted by them.

He clings to me during the scary scenes, and once I even catch him hiding his face with a hand, peeking out between his fingers.

After the first scary movie, he was so rattled that I was certain he’d never want to watch one again.

But he did the very next night. And the night after that.

He expresses an interest in decorating the condo, so we pick up some spiderwebbing and hang a few bats in front. Roth’kar is immensely pleased by the act of picking out where each bat will go, and even cajoles me into buying some of those same bloody handprints for the big window.

“They will believe someone has been murdered in your house,” he says gleefully. “But the trick is that no one has been murdered!”

Then I suggest we visit a haunted house, the very same thing he had once thought to be a ridiculous activity.

But if anything, he’s excited by the prospect, and so we get tickets to a big one outside of town.

There’s a corn maze involved and a barn full of butcher implements.

We’re both absolutely scared out of our skins when a man leaps out with a chainsaw, but we run away giggling, arm in arm.

Soon, it’s going to be time for the biggest, best party of the year—the one Marguerite holds at her house. All our friends will be there, as will dozens of other strangers. Marguerite knows everyone and has whole other friend groups I’ve never even met.

“We need costumes,” I tell Roth’kar a few days before the party.

He’s familiar now with the concept, having seen a man dressed like a chicken trying to sell fried chicken.

“Do I need one?” Roth’kar asks, holding up his four arms and waggling his antennae. I laugh outright.

“It’s about the spirit of the thing, but no, you really don’t have to.”

“I will. For you.” And then he kisses me, and I forget whatever we were just talking about.