Page 19 of Wanted by the Alien Warden (Cowboy Colony Mail-Order Brides #4)

19

TASHA

W hen I woke up, I was both relieved and disappointed that Tenn had already left the tent. It was nice not to start my day with the utter humiliation of having tried to fuse my body to his in my sleep.

But there was an acrid emptiness left behind. The punch of that loneliness that I’d felt last night when I’d asked him to come into the tent. I rolled onto my side, facing Tenn’s side of the tent.

We’d kissed last night.

And now he was gone.

Ugh.

I kicked off the bedding, rebelling against this annoying, creeping sadness. Tenn was just outside the tent. If I wanted to go see him right this second, I could. Judging by the quality of the light, it looked like it was already another beautiful, sunny morning on Zabria Prinar One.

A wonderful day to get to work.

“Good morning,” I said as I emerged from the tent and shoved my feet into my boots. Thank goodness I’d at least brought appropriate footwear if not enough clothes and other supplies to sustain my stay.

“It is a good morning,” Tenn said, rising from where he’d been crouched on the ground, unpacking food for breakfast. “Clear skies. Not much distance left now. I anticipate today will be our final full day of travel. We will reach Warden Hallum’s province tomorrow. I have sent him a message confirming this.”

“Oh, wow. That was fast!” I said, taken aback.

Tenn flicked his tail. I noticed with a shy warming in my belly that he wasn’t wearing his belt with the hook today. Without the hook to hang itself on, his tail seemed like it was at loose ends and looking for things to do.

“Not any faster than anticipated,” he said, flicking his tail again. “I told Warden Hallum it would be two or three days of travel after a day or two to prepare.”

“So we’re right on schedule, then.”

“Yes.”

That should have been great. That should have satisfied me, made me happy.

But it didn’t. Instead, it reinforced the ache of that loneliness I’d felt before. Which was silly, considering we were about to meet even more men. I’d be surrounded by people. Loneliness made no sense.

Unless it wasn’t loneliness at all.

Maybe it was simply missing Tenn.

I’d grown used to this little bubble we’d created together on our trek. Just the two of us, riding the slicer and sharing the tent. Tomorrow, that would end.

But he still has to take you back to his province , I reasoned, fighting panic. You’ll get to repeat this journey with him on the way home!

On the way back . Not home.

Home was Elora Station. Wasn’t it?

“I’ll be right back,” I said, hoping he couldn’t read any of the confusion on my features. I hurried into the treeline to go pee. But once I was finished, I still didn’t feel quite ready to return to him yet. I knew I’d have to soon. I had a job to do and we had kilometres of distance – or spans, as Tenn said – to cover yet.

Instead, I started to walk.

I’d never gotten the chance to explore a real forest before. The only trees I’d ever seen on Terratribe I were leafless stalks of black and grey. There were indoor gardens and various biomes to explore on Elora Station, but I hadn’t visited any of them yet. I’d told myself that I would do so – that I’d do all the fun, touristy things on Elora Station – when I had someone to do them with.

Water from the cold creek nearby burbled merrily. I was surprised to find myself assigning such emotions to a simple natural phenomenon, but I couldn’t think of any other way to describe the subtle optimism of the water making its way over the land and the rocks. The sun spilled down through the thick, green needles and leaves of the various tree varietals, dappling the forest floor. Even the dusty dirt, which had been such an annoyance on this trip so far, took on a quality I could appreciate. It created a soft carpet beneath twigs and fallen needles, hushing each of my footfalls and softening my path. Even the air brought me pleasure, making my silky pyjamas flutter with the kiss of its breeze. It wasn’t too hot yet, everything comfortably warm and clear.

I kept walking, and for the first time in my life, I just took my time and enjoyed the act. I wasn’t hurrying somewhere. I wasn’t trying to reach some final destination. I was just… here. Walking.

And loving it.

I could do this every morning.

I couldn’t, obviously. Because I didn’t live here.

I had no reason to stay.

Tenn’s face flashed in my mind. The feel of his hands on my waist, his mouth moving over mine, echoed forcefully in my body.

I shoved it all aside. There was no point in ruminating on all the ways I’d allowed myself to get too close to Tenn. I wasn’t a bride in this world. He wasn’t my fiancé or my husband. He was the warden. I was the liaison. And in less than a month, I’d be leaving.

Besides, he had no interest in marriage. He’d only wanted it when he was young. Even then, he hadn’t been thinking of love.

Love . Oh, God.

Was I falling in love with Tenn?

Jesus take the fucking wheel.

Unfortunately, I remained in control of the wheel – or my feet – and while having my internal mental breakdown, the toe of my boot got hooked under the gnarly root of a tree. My arms windmilled wildly as I attempted not to fall forward. But I overcorrected, and I did fall, more sideways, and then backwards.

“Ow!” I hissed. It wasn’t just the impact on my legs and ass that hurt. It was the scrape and poke of what felt like a hundred tiny little teeth.

I’d fallen right into an alien bush. A brambly one, by the look and feel of it. Luckily, it appeared that my pyjamas weren’t snagged anywhere.

Thank goodness for small kindnesses.

I leaned forward in an attempt to stand. And felt about a dozen places on my scalp pinch painfully.

Oh, hell no. My pyjamas hadn’t gotten caught anywhere.

But my hair had.

It was down this morning after getting washed last night. I hadn’t tried to detangle it yet, and those knots only made it all the easier for my hair to snag…

And get stuck.

OK. Forget all those nice things I was thinking about walking around here a minute ago. This forest sucks.

I tried to twist my head to get a better look at what I was dealing with, but that only made things worse, pulling existing knots tight and getting new brambles caught in the loose strands.

I was trapped. By a fucking bramble bush.

And now, I had a decision to make. Was it better for Tenn to realize I’d been gone too long and come looking for me?

Or to suck it up and call for help?

I never got the chance to make my choice. Because that very moment, I heard the authoritative boom of Tenn’s voice in the morning air.

“Tasha?”

I couldn’t lean out of this bushy area, so I couldn’t see him until he was almost directly in front of me. He paused in the clear path I’d been walking in. His ears twitched.

Then, he spun to face me. Surprise registered on his hard face when he saw me on the ground, my hair spread across the brambles and branches like tangled streamers. He hitched up his pants and left his hands on his hips, cocking his head.

“What the blazes have you managed to do to yourself?”

“I don’t know!” I exclaimed. “I tripped and fell in this bramble bush from hell! And now I’m stuck!”

“Stuck?” His brows lowered heavily. “How are you stuck?”

I tugged my head, making the branches shake with ominous meaning.

“My hair is stuck, that’s how!”

Tenn’s eyes flamed white for a moment before he cast his gaze up at the sky. He pressed his lips together. His throat tightened.

“Oh my God,” I breathed, affronted. No, I was more than affronted. I was offended. Shocked, appalled, and aghast.

This insufferable warden was laughing at me.

Or, trying not to, I guessed. But pretty much failing.

“Tenn!” I shouted. “Stop laughing! I’m really stuck!”

“I can see that now,” he said on a funny-sounding gasp.

Ooh. Fuck this man. Fuck this man so hard he… he…

Great. Now all I can think about is fucking him. And that is not going to help me get out of this stupid bush. Especially if he won’t help me!

I used Tenn’s laughter to fuel me, letting rage stoke the fires of strength in my body. Yes, I could do this. I was righteous in my fury. I was invincible.

I girded my loins and put all my strength into wrenching my head forward.

I gave up almost instantly, tears flooding my eyes. My scalp was going to fucking fall right off at this rate.

My attempt did, however, pull me free of one little brambly branch. It came loose from the trap of my hair with a wicked snap! Momentum sent it flinging away, and then violently back towards me. It smacked me right in the middle of my forehead.

“Ouch!”

Well, that seemed to get Tenn’s attention, at least. He sobered instantly.

“Are you alright?” he asked, crouching before me, his eyes still white.

“I will be,” I hissed, “when you help get me the hell out of here!”

He ignored my words for a moment, staring intently at my forehead where the branch had so rudely smacked me. His eyes moved from my forehead to the other branches that held me fast.

Then, without even seeming to have moved, he suddenly had a knife in his hand.

“How did you do that?!” I gasped, flinching despite the fact that this was Tenn. And Tenn would never hurt me.

I may not have known him long.

But that much, I did know.

“Don’t move,” he murmured, leaning in close.

Heat simmered beneath my skin. I gazed at the open collar of his uniform’s shirt, where the base of his thick, purple throat was exposed. His leather-and-spice scent washed over me.

I wish I could bottle that scent. Take it with me when I go.

“Are you going to cut my hair?”

He looked horrified by the suggestion. Absolutely stricken.

“What? No!” he said fiercely. “I’m cutting the branches. Many of the brambles will remain in your hair, but we can deal with that after.”

We , he’d said. We can deal with that.

He was going to help me. With something as small and stupid as a bunch of brambles caught in my hair, due entirely to my own clumsiness. He’d laughed at me for a moment, sure. But there had been no malice in it. Only warmth, underpinned by the certainty that he would get me out of this eventually.

How depressing would it be , I wondered to myself , if I admitted that Tenn is probably my best friend?

It was too pathetic to even put into words. Especially when I dared acknowledge just how beyond friendly most of my feelings were for him these days.

I stayed still, just as he’d told me to, letting his scent and the warmth of the sun bathe me. Closing my eyes, I gave in to the physical sensations: his chest brushing mine, the gentle tugs at my scalp as he freed my tangled strands, the occasional stroke of a knuckle or thumb against my ears or throat. Leaves and brambles rustled gently around us as the knife snapped and sliced easily through their branches.

“There.”

I opened my eyes, slightly disoriented, like I’d been under some sort of spell.

“All done?” I asked.

“All done.”

Gingerly, I tried moving my head. There was no resistance.

“Thank you,” I said. I felt my head with my right hand, wincing as I encountered dozens of tangles and spiky brambles in my hair.

“Come out of there, would you?” Tenn cajoled. “Or you’re going to get snagged again and ruin all of my hard work.”

“The hard work hasn’t even happened yet,” I told him with a sigh as I got to my feet and carefully stepped out of the brambly mess. “I still have to fix all this,” I said, waving my hand around my head, “and I don’t even have a comb.”

“I have a comb.”

“Oh! You do?”

“Of course I do. You think I don’t comb my hair? I’m not Silar.”

“Well, I don’t know! I’ve never seen you use it. Can I please borrow it?”

“No.”

For fuck’s sake.

“Why not?” I asked, barely restraining myself from stomping my foot like a two-year-old. “Why would you bother telling me you have a comb if you weren’t planning on letting me borrow it?”

“Because lending it to you would be useless,” he said in a maddeningly statement-of-fact tone. “You can’t see what’s going on back there.”

“So, what, exactly, do you propose?” I asked him as we returned to the area of our camp.

“I propose,” he said, sitting down on a fallen log near the tent and indicating the place between his thick thighs, “that you sit down, be good, and let me do it for you.”

Be good.

God, how I wanted to be good for him.

Too much. Way too fucking much.

“Fine,” I muttered, hoping I sounded more belligerent than obedient. “Where’s the comb?”

But Tenn’s tail was already way ahead of me. His tail seized upon his pack and dragged it over to where he was sitting on the log. He started rifling through it, and when his hand emerged, his knife had been put away. In its place was a beautiful wide-tooth comb made of some kind of shiny white material, shot through with streaks of gold. It reminded me of Old-Earth marble, or opal.

“That’s a beautiful comb,” I said, sitting down between Tenn’s legs on the warm grass.

“It is,” he agreed. “It was my mother’s. She gave it to me when I first joined the training ranks of the Zabrian Guard.”

I craned my neck to look back at him. His eyes were orange once more.

“Are you still close?” I asked.

“No,” he said. “Neither of my parents have spoken to me since the scandal that sent me here.”

I clenched my molars together to keep my mouth from dropping open. I’d never had parents. But to think that you could have parents somewhere out there, parents who’d once loved you, who’d raised you, who would completely give up on you like that…

It hurt.

I was hurting for him.

When you’re hurting, you tell your warden

I tightened my jaw and didn’t say a word.

“I thought about getting rid of it after I was sent here,” he said, studying the white-and-gold material of the comb. “It didn’t really seem right to keep it, considering that it was a gift for entering the Zabrian Guard which I had then been ejected from. But…” His free hand coasted over the rough surface of my hair. “I am very glad I kept it now.”

“You are?”

“I am. And I am even, I must say, a little bit glad you got caught in the brambles this morning, Tasha.”

“What?” I asked with a bout of surprised laughter. “Why?”

His response made the laughter die in my throat.

“Because,” he said in a low voice, “I’ve been wanting to comb this beautiful hair from the very first day I met you.”

“You… What?”

“Technically the first night,” he amended, gently gathering all my hair together in one hand. “In the spare bedroom at Fallon’s ranch. When I watched you take those pins out of your hair. It spilled all over your shoulders. Just so astoundingly beautiful. I was dying to touch it.”

He’d wanted to touch me that very first night. He was dying to…

“You think my hair is beautiful?”

“Any fool with eyes would think so,” he answered with a slightly sarcastic click of his tongue, like I’d asked a very silly question. Then, quietly, so quietly I almost missed it, “Your hair is not the only part.”

Not the only part, what? Not the only part he’d wanted to touch that night?

Not the only part he thought was beautiful?

My heart rose to my throat, where it lodged painfully. Tenn didn’t say anything else, instead getting to work on my hair.

He combed my hair the same way he sewed my clothes. Competently, thoroughly.

Carefully.

And it felt so fucking good. So good it made me want to lean further back towards him, to cry, to run. Having his strong hands gently tugging apart my tangled strands, to feel him work the comb along my scalp and through the ends, felt like it was ripping something inside me open and healing it at the same time.

No one else had combed my hair for me since I was eight. After Angela left, my guardians in the system cut it short so that no one would have to deal with it. It was part of the reason I wore it so long now as an adult. To take back a little bit of control, to assert myself over at least that part of my body, my life.

I would have let him cut it.

But he’d refused. He’d taken the longer path, the path which involved so much more work. The painstaking path that involved combing every twig and bramble out from my hair.

I was feeling fewer and fewer tugs now. The comb was gliding, smooth and easy, through my tresses.

But still, Tenn didn’t stop. He kept going, long after he’d run out of brambles to evict.

“How does it look?” I asked, when I could no longer justify sitting there enjoying his touch.

His voice came out in a throaty rasp as he gathered all my hair in both his hands.

“Perfect.”

I turned to look at him. But before my gaze made it up to his face, it snagged somewhere else first, as surely as a strand of hair on a bramble.

“Tenn… Are you…” My eyes bugged as I took in the bulge at his crotch. “Are you hard?”

He shifted on the log, ran his hand along his jaw, then blew out a harsh breath.

“Yes.”

Oh, wow. Not even trying to deny it. Maybe there was no point in trying to hide it when it was so visually obvious. My head was basically directly in front of his crotch, after all.

My tongue darted out to wet my lips. My skin felt sensitive and hot. My pussy clenched.

“You need not concern yourself,” he grunted. “I’ll deal with it.” He sighed again. “I really liked combing your hair.”

Clearly.

Pure, ecstatic joy exploded inside me. I never would have expected that something as simple as combing my hair would have such an effect on someone like Tenn. He struck me as a male who took pride in maintaining control at all times.

And here he was. Hard simply from touching my hair.

It was probably because he was just as desperate for some lady loving as his men were. It sounded like the only woman he’d ever been with was years ago.

He may not have wanted to admit it, but he was just as alone out here as his men.

Even more so, since some of those men now had wives.

He moved his feet, as if to stand.

“Wait!” Before I could stop myself, I gripped his thighs with my hands. “Could… Could I see?”

White fire flared in his gaze.

“You want to see my cock?”

Cock. Oh. That’s… That’s a word.

A hard, thrusting, erotic growl of a word I never in a million years would have imagined hearing from his mouth.

“Yes please,” I breathed. When I registered how humiliatingly desperate I sounded, I quickly added, “For the book! So that future brides can get a better sense of Zabrian anatomy.”

He let out a shuddering breath.

“You’re not going to take a picture this time, are you?” he growled. But even as he asked the question, his hands were already moving to the fasteners at his crotch. Fasteners, that, if I were being brutally honest, did not look long for this world at the rate his swollen cock was shoving against them.

“I won’t take a picture,” I promised.

Just a mental picture…

“Alright,” he grunted. He gripped the sides of his trousers’ opening, holding them together while he hesitated. “Just…”

“Yes?”

“Just… don’t run.”

What the hell? What kind of thing was that to say right before I got my first eyeful of Zabrian dick? At least I’d already seen the diagram from the others. I was prepared.

Except, I wasn’t. Not really. When Tenn released the two sides of his trousers and his thick cock jutted forward, I was fairly certain I felt my soul leave my body for a second.

Beautiful. Alien. Terrifying. Massive. Purple.

Adjectives pounded through my brain in time with my stuttering heartrate. Tenn’s hands gripped the log on either side of his hips, his claws digging into the bark. He gritted his fangs and stared up at the sky.

I stared at his cock.

Holy Terra.

The girls hadn’t exaggerated the girth of Zabrian anatomy. I wasn’t sure I’d even be able to get my fist around the base of Tenn’s shaft. It was heavy, hard, and tapered to a smooth, bruise-coloured tip. My tongue was dry against the roof of my mouth as my eyes traced the matrix of swollen veins that throbbed all over his shaft. Beneath the shaft was a round sack, so dark purple it was nearly black.

“Where’s the – oh! There it is!”

I spied the infamous cock tail, only right now, it was more like a cock ring. A tendril of purple flesh wrapped tightly around the base of Tenn’s dick.

“Are you,” Tenn rasped, “getting what you need?”

Getting what I needed? Um, no. Unfortunately, what it felt like I needed right now was to shed my pyjama pants, straddle his hips, and see just how far I could bounce on that dick.

But that would be insane. Not to mention hypocritical. Last night, I’d been the one to say that a second kiss was a bad idea. I couldn’t now tell him that I really needed to mount him. For science.

“You can touch it…”

I jolted, dragging my eyes up to his face. He was looking at me now, his chin angled down towards his chest, his eyes feverish white slits.

“If it’s useful,” he tacked on the end.

That would be extremely useful. Useful to my own sense of perversion, that is. I couldn’t even pretend it would be for research now.

“Is that… Is that alright, though?” I asked. “Do you want that?”

“Yes.” The fearsome hiss of his response went straight to my clit. “Please, Tasha.”

Please. Please?! The man had not said please to me once so far!

Maybe he realized that fact. He gave a scraping sort of laugh.

“How does it feel,” he murmured, “to be the only one in this world capable of making a Zabrian warden beg?”

He was begging me.

I was dying to touch you.

And now, I was the one dying to touch him. I knew I should stop this. Stop this now.

Instead, I raised my shaking hand.

At once, his cock tail was unspooling, a writhing, tiny tail of flesh that secured itself tightly around my middle finger. Tenn groaned deeply when that happened, and a bead of moisture appeared at his tip.

“Oh. Wow,” I breathed. I shuffled closer on my knees, squeezing my thighs together. “What does this… Um, what is the cock tail for?”

“Zabrian females,” he panted, “have one internally. They entwine together… Inside…”

I used my other hand to gently pet the cock tail where it was wrapped around my finger. The cock tail squeezed, and Tenn’s entire shaft visibly jerked. Clearly, this was an immensely erogenous zone.

I wondered if he’d miss it, considering I didn’t have one, when we…

When we did not have sex. Because that was obviously not going to happen.

I wasn’t even sure if this counted as a hand job. Was I merely exploring?

Or was my goal to actually make him come?

The latter. Definitely. There was no way around it. Now that the idea of making him explode was in my head, I couldn’t get it out.

I wrapped both my hands around his shaft and gently squeezed.

Tenn’s next inhale sounded like someone had just stuck a knife between his ribs. Sharp, jagged, pained. But obviously not too pained. Because the muscles of his legs contracted tightly, shunting his hips upwards. He needed more.

I could give him that. Today, at least. Just this once.

Using both hands, I stroked up and down, establishing a relentless rhythm. I relished the velvet feel of his hide, the rock-hard heat of him, the ropes of veins beneath my palms. The surface of the log cracked, bark crumbling as Tenn dug his claws in deeper. His tail – his normal, big one – flicked its way over to me, wrapping itself around my waist just like his cock tail had done to my finger.

I wondered if he even knew that he was doing that. His eyes were closed now, his nostrils flaring, every muscle and tendon in his neck and jaw bulging.

“ Tasha, ” he hissed. A violent shudder wracked his frame. His eyes snapped open, furious and white. “Blast, Tasha, I’m going to-”

He came before he got the rest of the words out. I gasped, flinching, then shivering with pleasure, as viscous fluid shot forward and coated my cheek, chin, and even the tip of my nose.

Tenn gave a vicious, charred-sounding groan. His shaft throbbed inside the clutches of my fingers. His cock tail fluttered and clenched. Another jet of come spewed, this time hitting my mouth.

Acting purely on instinct, I opened my mouth to taste him.

Tenn made a choked sound of surprise. His white gaze was fastened to my tongue.

The tongue that was currently licking his hot, salty come from my lips.

Shit.

Was that weird? It had to be weird. A human guy might think watching a woman lick his semen off her face was hot.

But what the hell would a Zabrian warden think?

“Sorry!” I said. I scrambled up, pulling my hands away from his genitals. His cock tail let me go, but only with what seemed like a stubborn moment of hesitation.

“Sorry? Why are you sorry?” Tenn croaked.

“Sorry for licking your… That was…” Jesus, I couldn’t say “inappropriate” now. Not after I’d just had both my hands wrapped around his dick. “That was not right.”

“It was wrong?” He sounded confused, maybe even concerned. “I am sorry that I-”

“Oh, God, don’t you apologize!” I cried. A dribble of come dripped from the tip of my nose. Tenn’s eyes went there at once.

“Tasha, your face. Let me-”

“It’s fine! I’ll get cleaned up!”

“Tasha-”

“And then I’ll pack,” I said, already stumbling towards the creek. “And then we’ll go.”