Alien Mate 2 (5 page)

They ate in silence, Lex too fascinated by the concept of food cooked and created from raw ingredients and enthralled by the taste to do any more than eat. On his planet, only the finest restaurants and naturalists cooked in that method. Everyone else used a food replicator from the culinary series.

The newest one, the Culinary 6000, boasted over one million dishes.

At the completion of their meal, Maya washed the dishes using—
wince
—

water. Lex still had a hard time adapting himself to the way these earthlings used and treated water so casually. He also learned another lesson. Dishes that were washed must be dried, a job she relegated to him by flinging a worn towel at his face.

The chore quickly done, Maya moved back to the living room area and opened an odd rectangular contraption. The screen on it lit up, and she tapped a series of commands.

Interested in this piece of technology, Lex sat beside her on the couch, only too aware of her body next to his. A part of him wanted to grab her up into his arms, bring her back to her bedroom, and join his body to hers in a 26

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way that would leave them both sated, but her words from earlier echoed in his mind.

I am here for another. I must concentrate on my mission and not allow Maya and her
delicious body to distract me.
Now if only his rock-hard cock would listen.

“Amanda Beckworth,” Maya muttered. “Where are you?” She typed furiously and with an “Aha!” pulled up a screen with the same picture the computer on his ship had found.

The nonsmiling face of his intended stared at them from the screen, and Lex tried to find the sense of connection—and lust—that Maya provoked in him. Nothing, not even vague interest, stirred him.

“She’s pretty,” said Maya sounding dejected.

“She’s too pale,” said Lex without even thinking of curbing his tongue.

Maya looked startled at his statement, but looking at the pale white skin of the mate his ancestors had chosen, Lex couldn’t help wishing that Amanda’s skin was a soft tan color like Maya’s, a color that reminded him of a decadent treat called caramel that Kor’s human mate Diana had introduced him to.

Caramel Maya—Lex hardened painfully as he remembered her sweetness, and oh, how he longed for another taste.

Maya kept typing away and let out an exclamation, unaware of his erotic thoughts. “Mierdo!”

“What?” said Lex looking at her screen but unable to read the gibberish characters.

“Don’t your ancestors like you?”

Lex was beginning to wonder the same thing. “Why? Is there a problem?”

“They selected none other than a military liaison for your mate, the daughter of a general, no less.”

“That is not a good thing?” he said, not fully grasping the issue.

“If the military is after you, then no, that’s not good. If she decides to reject your suit, she could turn you in. Lucky for you, she lives off base.”

“You think she might refuse?” Lex couldn’t help feeling elation at the thought of avoiding the trap—yes, that was how it felt, he realized—that his ancestors had set. Perhaps they had erred, a blasphemous idea, yet one that he clutched at.

“She might not be too eager to leave her life behind to go become some dutiful housewife.”

“Would you?” The question popped out unbidden, but now voiced, he leaned forward and watched her, waiting for an answer.

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“I would love an excuse to leave this place. I don’t suppose you’ve got a brother or a buddy who’s also looking for a mate?” Her words said jokingly enveloped him in a rage whose cause he couldn’t understand. Why would the thought of her mating with another bother him?

But the urge to hit something—say the male who dared touch her—nearly made him boil over. And for the first time, he truly understood her words from earlier.
Is this how she feels when she thinks of me mating with another? This . . .

this jealousy that I never knew could apply to one of the opposite sex.
No wonder she’d seemed annoyed.

Closing her handheld computer, Maya stood up and headed to her sleeping quarters. “I’m going to get dressed and run some errands. I want to see if I can find you some clothes that fit better, and I’ll take a drive around the neighborhood where your Amanda lives.”

Lex remained on the couch lost in his thoughts.
But I don’t want Amanda.

The question is, do I have the courage to reject tradition and the wishes of my ancestors?

Could he be so selfish as to put his foolish desires ahead of those of his race and their need to rebuild their population?

Lex sighed, not liking the answer.

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The streets crawled with military jeeps and personnel. Maya, entering the thrift shop where she did most of her shopping, greeted the owner, whom she knew well.

“What’s up with the soldiers?” she asked glancing out the front window.

“Aliens,” said a gleeful Marco. “The military isn’t saying, of course, but my cousin whose sister is married to the brother of the assistant to the base commander says they tracked the alien to town.” Maya didn’t try to follow the convoluted family connection the news came from, but the chill from his words, though, made her ask. “Do they know where he is?”

“Nah, the dogs lost his trail apparently. They haven’t started a door-to-door search, but it’s coming.”

“Would you turn an alien over if you found one?” Maya asked casually as she browsed through the bins.

“Never. Knowing what the military would probably do, that would just be asking for an intergalactic war.”

Maya smiled. She remembered many a night by the glowing embers of a campfire listening to Marco and her parents discussing the military and their probably violent reaction to space invaders. She wished her parents could have lived to meet a real, live alien.
I hope wherever your spirits are that you can see
him. You were right. There is life out there.

Maya finished her shopping quickly, ignoring Marco’s raised brows at her choice of dark male clothing. But he rang up her purchases without question, and Maya drove from there, as promised, over to the neighborhood where the unknown Amanda—whom she already hated wholeheartedly—lived.

The streets of this quiet suburban neighborhood appeared clear of the military presence that prevailed in town. But once she saw Amanda’s house, it became readily evident that Lex would be insane to try to confront her on her home turf, for not only was her yard gated with a high fence, a Beware Dog signed had been posted. Affairs didn’t improve when she noticed a military jeep in one of the neighboring driveways.

But, the choice would be ultimately up to Lex. Which reminded her, she had yet to ask him how, and when, he’d be departing—
grrr
—with his bride.

Maya’s hands clenched her steering wheel tightly. She hated that, after such a short time, she’d fallen so hard and quickly for an alien who didn’t want her. Well, not forever anyway. He’d proven quite passionately that he wanted her body. Maya squirmed in her seat.
Was I hasty in telling him no more
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naughty stuff? I mean, it’s not like he’s actually dating or hooked up with this woman yet.

She doesn’t even know he exists, so is it really cheating?
Maya hated that her mind kept justifying and looking for excuses to seduce him. She already had an idea her heart would hurt when he did finally snag his mate and leave.

And she didn’t like it one bit.

* * * *

Maya had left hours ago, and Lex began worrying. What if the enemies who’d chased him had captured her? She could be in danger. Hurt. Or walking through the door with a grim look.

Quick strides brought him to her side, where he enveloped her in a crushing hug before he shook her.

“What took you so long? I was worried about you. Are you injured?” Looking bemused, Maya just gazed up at him, the longing clear in her eyes.

Lex gave in without a fight and raised her higher for a kiss. She returned his embrace for a moment before pushing away.

“Hi,” she said breathlessly. “As you can see, I’m fine, so you can put me down now.”

Lex wanted to protest, but clenched his jaw instead as he let her feet touch the floor. Maya avoided his eyes and moved past him into the living area. Crinkling sounded, and once again, flying material hit him. Apparently she had a penchant for throwing things.

He perused the clothing she’d brought him, dark pants of a strange material, a dark shirt, and a scrap of material for the groin similar to what she’d worn.

“Thank you.”

“No problem. You did stay out of sight, right? The military is crawling all over downtown. They’re not really saying what they’re looking for, but the rumor mill has been busy. The one I liked most was the one saying you were an eight-foot green lizard man here to devour our virgins.” Lex chuckled. “You jest?”

Maya smiled and shook her head, her brown curls bouncing. “It’s better than the one that says you’re actually a cyborg set to blow up during the balloon festival.”

What strange ideas these humans had. “And my mate?” Lex had to force the words out, and he could have kicked himself when he saw the slight wince on her face.

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“Her place is pretty tight. At least one dog, maybe more, and she’s got at least one military neighbor, but I’d guess with the base being so close, there’s probably more. I wouldn’t recommend hitting her place ’til real late. If she screams when she sees you, there’s no telling what will happen.” Lex at this point would have preferred to never encounter this Amanda person, but the needs of his planet had to come before his own.

“So what would you suggest we do?” he asked knowing he still needed Maya’s help, this strange world being more than he could handle on his own.

“Nothing right now. I’ve got to get to work before they fire my ass.” Work? Lex puzzled over this. He’d noticed Maya lived on her own without male family members to care for her, but the idea that they also made their women work shocked him. The females on his planet held some positions, but the majority preferred the role of mate and mother.

Maya emerged wearing the same outfit as the previous day, a white blouse and skirt. Her hair had been pulled back tightly and fastened to her head.

“When will you return?”

She kept avoiding his eyes and sighed when she replied. “I’ll try and cut out early. Fake a tummy illness or something. We’ll go and visit your fiancée once I get home.”

And with those words, she left, but her presence remained and refused leave his mind. He tried lying down on her bed, but her scent clung to the sheets, and before he knew it, he had his cock in his hand, stroking it. He slid his hand up and down his dick, harder than steel already, remembering the way her scalding wet mouth had suctioned him. He’d only wished he could have seen her, watched those luscious lips sliding back and forth. He would have laced his fingers in her hair and guided her in a rhythm. Lex’s breathing hitched as he pumped himself faster, the fantasy playing out in his mind too erotic to resist. He remembered the way she’d swallowed his semen, draining him and enjoying it. Lex reached for something to shoot his come into, and his fingers found the scrap of material that had covered her cunt. He brought it to his face and sniffed. The musky scent of her arousal still perfumed them.

By all the moons, she tasted so sweet.
He wrapped the fabric around his cock and continued stroking, now picturing her on her back again with her beautiful pink sex exposed, her lips glistening and her clit swollen. He thought of sliding his cock into that moist haven, and with a shout, he came hard into the cloth.

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Lex couldn’t believe he’d come again. What earthling sickness was he afflicted with that, even when she was not there, he could not stop thinking of her? Wanting her?

Lex groaned.
Ancestors, help me.

But no one answered, and she continued to fill his thoughts—and his cock.

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Maya walked into absolute chaos. Military personnel swarmed all over the hotel, and her stomach tightened in fear. Somehow they’d figured out Lex had been here. She made her way to the employee locker room, where staff buzzed.

“. . . doing a room-by-room search.”

“. . . saw them with a Geiger counter . . .” The words flowed over her, and Maya pasted a smile of interest on her face, all the while thanking the fact she’d shown up for work. Calling in sick today would have instantly put her in the spotlight.

But she wasn’t out of the woods yet.

Andre, the night manager, walked in and clapped his hands, quieting the clamor. “You may have noticed that the military are here. They are seeking someone who they believe was last seen at our hotel.” Murmurs sounded, but Andre clapped his hands hard, and the room silenced again. “All who were on duty last night are wanted for individual questioning. Your cooperation is expected.”

And with that, the cacophony started up again, and Maya rubbed sweating palms on her linen skirt.
¡Dios mío, I’d better lie convincingly, or Lex will
have worse problems than trying to meet a possibly reluctant mate.
Visions of scalpels and various supposed alien autopsies her parents had studied flashed in her mind, and Maya winced.

I won’t let them catch him.

She found waiting hard, even more so considering everyone just wanted to talk about one thing—the alien. The only problem with that? None of them had the slightest clue of what they were talking about. Maya tried to act normal. She listened, nodded, or exclaimed in the right spots. She crossed herself several times, but still she was almost glad when her time arrived and they called her name. She walked behind the gun-toting soldier into the hotel suite the military had taken over, then almost stumbled when she saw who waited to question her.