His Naughty Little Mate (7 page)

His heart sank to see Big Hair enter the screened-in porch, and Erik returned to his chair and stared at the large purple birds swooping down upon the water’s surface. Occasionally they sprang back up with a flailing fishlike creature in their talons. He ran a hand through his hair, frustrated that Big Hair had come to stare at him again. Big Hair liked to stare at him and Carmen a lot, and it was finally starting to get on his nerves.

“I am called Nuemis, alien friend.”

Erik jumped up and turned around to face Big Hair with wide eyes. Had the alien actually just talked to him? The voice had sounded robotic, but it had been a voice. He stared at the smiling creature who could’ve been a human if not for his tiny, square-shaped ears and inhuman height.

“You can talk?” Erik sputtered, frozen in place. “You can speak my language?”

Big Hair tapped at a necklace he wore with a small black box hanging from it. “Yes, I have discovered a way to communicate with you.” His lips didn’t move, but the words issued from the black box around his neck, the box shimmering with each word that came out.

“Your lips aren’t moving,” Erik said, tilting his head to the side as he regarded Big Hair with curiosity. Except he wasn’t Big Hair anymore. He’d said his name was Nuemis.

“That is correct, alien friend. My species is called Blumeran, and we do not communicate verbally, as I’ve discovered your species does. Blumerans communicate telepathically.”

Erik stepped forward, fascinated by what he was hearing. Holy. Fucking. Shit. This was unreal. He was actually talking to an alien. “My species is known as human. My name is Erik, and my female friend’s name is Carmen.”

Nuemis grinned and clasped his hands in front of him. “Erik and Carmen,” he repeated. “Humans!”

“So how does that device work?” Erik asked, nodding at the necklace.

“It translates your words into images, feelings, and words I can comprehend and then transmits them to the communication center of my brain, similar to the way my kind communicate with each other. A temporary linking using what we call
thought pulses
. In reverse, it translates my thoughts into your language and transmits them audibly.”

“I’m sure it’s a lot more complicated than that,” Erik said, smirking.

Nuemis regarded him with an intelligent gaze. “It is more complicated than that, but I suspect our technology is far more advanced than yours.” He gestured to the chairs facing the forest. “Please sit down, Erik, my human friend. We have much to discuss.”

His mind reeling, Erik sank down in one of the chairs and watched as Nuemis took a seat beside him.

“I also suspect you are curious about how the Blumerans found you and brought you back to our planet, Vella.”

“Yes, very curious.” Erik sat on the edge of his seat, all ears as he awaited Nuemis’s explanation. He had about a million questions to ask his new alien friend.

“My colleagues were scanning the planets in your solar system when they detected a disturbance on an asteroid between the second and third planet from your sun. The high levels of radiation they detected from your spacecraft led them to believe a fuel leak had triggered an explosion, though they didn’t stay to investigate long enough to come to a definitive conclusion. After they detected you and Carmen, they rendered you unconscious, which is typical procedure when we encounter a new species, and then they brought you on board our ship.”

“How long did it take to journey from my solar system to Vella?” Erik was intrigued.

“We can travel almost anywhere in the universe in less than one of our days, using space-folding technology. The slip through space is instantaneous, but depending on the location, it sometimes takes us a while to program the settings on our ships to create the perfect space fold to enter.”

Space folding. Holy fuck. Scientists had been theorizing about space folding for years, but so far no one had devised a method of creating a space fold. Excitement bubbled up within Erik, but he kept quiet, willing Nuemis to continue with his explanation.

“You are the first species we’ve ever discovered that look similar in appearance to us. The similarity is astounding, in fact. So astounding that we assumed you and Carmen would be telepathic like us. When you didn’t communicate with us upon awakening, we assumed you were newly transplanted in your bodies.”

“Newly transplanted?”

“Yes. Might I ask how long you spend in each body?”

Erik shook his head, confusion sweeping over him. “I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about. Humans get one body. We’re born, we live, and then we die in the same body. The average lifespan on Earth is about eighty-five years old.”

Nuemis’s brow furrowed, and he scratched his head in a gesture of confusion that was so human Erik almost laughed. “Blumerans live a long time. Actually, as long as we don’t have an unfortunate accident, we can live forever, though the oldest Blumeran alive is only three hundred fifty thousand Blumeran years, which I believe translates to five hundred thousand Earth years.”

“How is that possible?” Erik’s mind whirled with possibilities.

“When our bodies began to show signs of ageing, we separate our consciousness from our old body and transplant it into an identical, younger adult body that is grown in one of our laboratories. After the transplantation, it takes the new body some time to function properly under the control of the mind. During this brief time, Blumerans cannot communicate telepathically with other Blumerans, and they are taken care of the way we have been taking care of you and Carmen. That is, until the body can finally operate under the mind’s control.”

Erik leaned forward. “Fascinating. So how old are you, Nuemis?”

“Oh, I’m actually rather young for my kind. I’m only ten thousand Earth years old. I am, however, one of the top scientists on Vella.”

Erik took a few moments to process this revelation while he gazed at the scenery, listening to the splashing of the waves in the distance. “If you grow bodies that are then joined with a consciousness, and everyone can live forever, how do you keep Vella from becoming overpopulated?” Overpopulation was an issue on Earth and one of the driving reasons to terraform Mars.

The single crease in Nuemis’s forehead deepened. “Our leaders determine how many unique Blumerans to create each year, but the number is always small. Never more than ten.” He paused and regarded Erik for a long while, his expression bursting with delight, as if he’d just made a new discovery in Erik. And he had. “Humans still procreate, and you do it the old way, don’t you? By mating, and the female then endures a pregnancy, like the animals we study on Vella, and gives birth to a small human creature. Amazing!”

“If you say so,” Erik replied with a laugh. “I bet plenty of Earth women would love to skip the whole pregnancy thing.” He recalled how uncomfortable his mother had been while carrying his younger brothers, and irritable too.

Nuemis remained in the screened-in porch with Erik for several hours, eagerly discussing the differences between Vella and Earth. Similar to humans, Blumerans were married and tended to stay with the same partner for a long time. Occasionally the paired Blumerans separated and found a new life partner, just as humans often divorced and remarried.

The most shocking bit of information that Nuemis shared was about the love lives of these paired Blumerans. Their marriages were more like friendships, and not only did they refrain from natural procreation, they didn’t even have sexual intercourse for fun. The act was considered unseemly, primitive, and unclean, and Nuemis claimed they’d evolved beyond it tens of thousands of years ago.

The alien went on to explain, and even apologize, for all the testing that had been done on Carmen and him, as well as their initial treatment when it was assumed they were incapable of the simplest tasks. The spankings Blue had given Carmen had apparently been a way to keep her from harming herself, and they used spankings and other pain deterrents to keep Blumerans who’d just entered a new body from hurting themselves before they gained control of their new bodies.

The twin suns dimmed as their conversation carried into the evening. A pink-orange sunset blazed over the trees, before the sky went black with stars twinkling down from the heavens. As they compared animal species on their planets, Spike returned and gave Erik an expectant look, but Nuemis glared at the other alien until he left them alone again.

“What was that all about?” Erik asked.

Running a hand through his tall, disheveled hair, Nuemis eyed the doorway as if worried Spike might interrupt again. He turned back to Erik. “It’s getting late and your caretaker wishes to return you to Carmen’s room. I told him I would escort you there myself as I’m not finished speaking with you.”

“I see.” It amused Erik that there seemed to be some tension between the two aliens, but the anxiousness spreading across Nuemis’s face made him uneasy. A flash of insight twisted his stomach. “We aren’t going back to Earth anytime soon, are we?”

Sympathy shone in Nuemis’s eyes, and Erik sensed a friend in the unkempt alien. An ally. “The Blumeran council will decide by tomorrow evening whether or not to return you to your planet. As a member of the council, I plan to vote in favor of returning you to Earth, but I fear my fellow council members are terribly curious about humans. However, your species is not terribly advanced and we detected an alarming amount of nuclear weapons during our scans of your planet. Contact with Earth is therefore a controversial topic right now, with the majority of Blumerans strongly opposing it.”

“Can’t you just return us to Earth quickly and quietly?”

“The last time we tried to return an intelligent species to their native planet, the two ships we sent were destroyed. As I said, returning you and Carmen is controversial.” He glanced at the stars glimmering in the black sky, trouble clouding his gaze. “Perhaps I will have some luck in convincing them. If you and Carmen agree to tell us more about Earth, in exchange for passage home, they might view it as an even exchange, making it worth the risk we run returning you.”

“I will be happy to tell you anything you want to know about my planet.” Astronauts were trained to have an open mind and friendly attitude toward aliens, and they were permitted to share anything about Earth outside from any confidential information about weapons or experimental aircraft and technology. Erik had only half-paid attention to this brief part of his training, not really believing he’d ever be in the position to exchange information with an alien race.

“Thank you, Erik.” Nuemis stood up gracefully and motioned at the door. “I trust you’ll speak with Carmen. Given her somewhat volatile temperament, I decided to speak with you alone.”

Erik grinned. “I’ll fill her in, Nuemis. Thank you for your help.”

“Don’t thank me yet, human. I confess I don’t have a good feeling about the council.”

Chapter Five

“This porch is nice,” Carmen said as she stared into the forest, “but I wish they’d let us go for a walk outside. I don’t think I’ve ever stayed in one place for so long.” Over two weeks had passed since she’d woken up on this alien world, and so far she and Erik hadn’t been released from the medical facility—or whatever kind of building it was. Watching the waves lap against the sandy shore and gazing at the thick green tree line she was convinced held many wonders was a tease. She wanted to feel the sand between her toes and get a closer look at those huge purple birds, and to experience everything else the planet had to offer.

“Come sit beside me, Carmen,” Erik said.

Her tummy did a little flip at the annoyance in his tone.

“Why?” She pressed against the screen. “I bet we can break this thing down, and it doesn’t look like a bad jump to the lower roof there. I think we could scale the wall to the ground. Easy peasy, and then we can have an adventure.”

“Little girl, you had better get your conniving bottom over here right now.”

She turned to face him with her hands on her hips, feet planted wide apart. “No. If you’re not going to help me push through the screen, I’ll do it myself.” Ignoring the darkness filling his eyes, she spun around and started hitting the screen. The material, though soft to the touch, didn’t give in the slightest. Not ready to admit defeat, she moved to another section and beat it with her fists until she grew breathless.

A hand gripped her shoulder, and Erik’s no-nonsense voice sent a quiver straight through her. “I think a certain little girl needs a trip over her daddy’s knee.”

“No.” She gave a small stomp of her foot. Tears of frustration burned and threatened to spill from her eyes. She swallowed past the lump in her throat. They might have been rescued by the Blumerans, but now they were the aliens’ prisoners.

“We’ve talked about your behavior before, Carmen, and you agreed to be a good girl. Just because the council voted to keep us here for the time being doesn’t mean they won’t eventually take us back to Earth. Now come on,” he said, leading her to a chair. “Let daddy help you release some of your frustrations.”

Though she liked the naughty games they played in the evenings, she really didn’t want a spanking right now. She wanted to walk along the beach and get out of this building before the walls closed in around her. “I’m not frustrated, Erik!”

His face darkened as he glared down at her. He took her chin between two fingers. “That’s daddy to you, young lady.”

She gulped at the firmness in his tone, lowering her eyes. “Sorry, daddy. It won’t happen again. I will be a good girl, please, no spanking.” She cupped her bottom and finally met his hard gaze.

They didn’t have much to do when the aliens left them alone, which was quite often now that they’d stopped conducting the intelligence tests, so they spent hours talking, kissing, teasing, and sometimes, Erik turned her over his knee for a playful spanking. Except the mood wasn’t so playful right now, and a tingle rippled across her bottom at the thought of real discipline.

He led her to the chair he’d been sitting in, ignoring her protests. Her stomach fluttered and her pulse raced as the seriousness of the situation fell upon her. He meant to give her a real spanking. Gulping, she tried to pull away as he sat down on the chair, but he kept a firm grip on her arm and drew her in to stand between his legs. The tension in the room swelled, and she felt her bottom lip began to quiver. Embarrassed over her weakness, she bit her lip and looked out at the clouds.