GalacticFlame Read online

  He nodded. “Yes. That’s it, exactly.”

  They remained silent the remaining minutes of the craft swooping through the air, as though weightless. He knew that time would have ceased to have meaning to Eden after she’d slept those twenty days on the craft. For her it’d be as though their meeting had occurred just hours earlier.

  She’d need this scant time now to digest her present. And her future.

  When the craft gently dropped the last few hundred meters before slowing to land, he sensed her shock. A despair so profound she closed the gap between them and clutched his forearm.

  In her mind the red land that stretched out as far as the eye could see was undoubtedly a barren wasteland.

  Selfish bastard that he was, while she held on to him as though he was her lifeline, he wasn’t about to tell her these same lands came to life for brief periods when their thrice annual rains came. The entire land was transformed with plants so gloriously beautiful, it wasn’t unknown for Earth women to be transfixed by the sight.

  * * * * *

  Eden swayed, feeling weak kneed and not even caring she was clinging to Genesis as though a damsel in distress.

  She never expected the planet to be so…lifeless.

  Her stomach knotted. Plants were her life. Here…here she’d be lost. A nothing in a land of nothingness.

  What have I done?

  She’d more than sacrificed herself to an uncertain future, she’d destroyed whatever happiness she’d hoped to eke out on foreign soil, with foreign plants. Doing the one thing she loved.

  She bit her bottom lip, staring almost helplessly at the red-tinged sky and the ochre sand that scorched beneath three suns sitting far apart on the seemingly endless horizon.

  Her eyes narrowed. Twin dust trails bit into the air. She leaned forward, peering hard. Two males rode some sort of machine. Motorcycles? No, they’d be the cercannes her father had often spoken about.

  Genesis smiled. “Trasean and Auron, right on time.”

  The craft settled onto the ground with a slight jolt, the distinct hum of its engine abruptly silenced.

  All her focus remained on the riders who approached fast.

  One of the males had long, dark hair that streamed out behind him, resembling black smoke, the other had the short-clipped hair that her father sported in honor of his once province. She turned to Genesis. “These men aren’t of your land.”

  “That’s true.” He reached into the wall once again and extracted the pants he’d worn before takeoff. Reaching in again, he pulled free a dress made of the same material as the pants. He held out her garment. “Unless you want an audience, I’d suggest you change now.”

  Snatching it from him, she slithered out of her suit and into the slippery fabric of the dress in no time, barely acknowledging how his appreciative gaze slid over her while nude and then clothed in the too-revealing dress that was as fine and seemingly strong as a spider web.

  Genesis peeled out of his suit and tugged on his pants in a far more leisurely fashion as he explained, “These men are royalty in their own right, brothers of Renate and Dar. They’ve pledged themselves to me for six meras—six Earth months—helping me to tame the land in exchange for the use of my craft when we’re able to find more Earth women.”

  Her belly hollowed out as she repeated, “When?”

  The door parted and rolled outward, forming a step beyond her field of vision. A hot breeze pulsed inside the craft. She sucked in the thin, insubstantial air that nevertheless filled her lungs to the point of burning and left a faint, honeyed taste in her throat.

  He nodded. “This province boasts one mountain—Mount Heamington—high enough for an airwave transmitter tower to signal for signs of other humans on your planet.”

  Shit.

  “Trasean and Auron were working on the tower while I was away. I imagine it’s finished now and all ready to be powered-up once I give the order.”

  She gritted her teeth and swung away—just as the men on their cercannes pulled up outside with a muffled whine. She could only be grateful they provided distraction from Genesis’ too astute gaze.

  She stared unseeingly at the red world outside. What would happen if the airwave transmitters found her sister? All her lies would count for naught! Worse, Aline would be forcibly taken as well.

  Resolve lifted Eden’s chin and straightened her spine. She wouldn’t let it happen! Somehow she’d find a way to sabotage the tower.

  “Come,” Genesis murmured, proffering a hand. “I’d like you to meet my friends.”

  Were there so few aliens now that the only ones who’d come to meet them were from other provinces?

  After long seconds, she accepted his clasp. “Just how many people live under your rule?” she asked, pushing aside her fears and putting on a brave face.

  He drew her toward the door. “Unfortunately my people were hit by the virus harder than other provinces.” He swung a glance toward her, as if reading her reaction. “Not counting Trasean and Auron but including the children born here from Earth women, there are twenty four of us remaining.”

  “Twenty four! That’s all?” she asked.

  “I’m afraid so.” He shrugged. “Well, twenty-five if you count my father, but he’s busy in the central lands, ruling Carèche along with the other kings.”

  She drew in a steadying breath. At least she didn’t have to worry about the other royals. And it was…exciting knowing there were a few other Earth women residing here. More than exciting. She’d known no one else other than her family, and suddenly she was hungry to meet the other women and learn more about them and their lives on Earth. Not to mention their life here on Carèche.

  She stepped outside the craft, her joy dimming and her face pulling into a frown. She looked over the harsh landscape. Surely no human would be happy living in such desolate conditions?

  A long whistle that was joined by another dragged her attention to the bare-chested men sitting loosely on their cercannes. Both sported a leather choker with an odd, glass-like bauble. Both exhibited stark admiration in their eyes.

  The long-haired man raised a hand in what seemed to be a universal gesture of greeting. “Eckn’a sa sheehar.”

  Genesis raised a brow and interpreted, “Trasean says, ‘Welcome, our princess.’”

  Auron repeated the welcome and she gave them a tentative smile, feeling all kinds of a fraud. “They speak no English?” she asked Genesis.

  Auron laughed, his expression lazily amused. “We most certainly do, Earth sheehar. Thanks to our new queen, it is now our second language.”

  Genesis drew her forward. But the moment her bare feet touched the baking ground she lurched back onto the step with a startled gasp. It was surely akin to walking on hot coals?

  Genesis bent and lifted her in his arms as though she weighed no more than the fruit from a lekkle plant. His mouth curled with wry humor. “Your feet are as thin-skinned as any pure-blooded human’s.” He glanced at the two men on their cercannes. “You might like to remember that for future reference.”

  Trasean grinned and jumped nimbly from his two-wheeled vehicle. “Since we’ll be sharing our intended, I doubt she’ll have the time or inclination to walk anywhere.”

  The two aliens laughed even as Eden swallowed past her dry throat. Trasean and Auron were going to share the next Earth woman? Her hands curled into fists. She couldn’t let her sister suffer such a fate! She glared at Genesis, but at the gentling look in his eyes she turned her ire to Trasean.

  The long-haired alien mounted the rear of the two-wheeled vehicle before he turned and met her eyes. He grinned and with a shrug, explained, “I’d drive, but I can’t have Auron swallowing my hair now, can I?”

  She could give a stuff who drove and if one of them choked on the other’s hair. Did they seriously have no conception how wrong it was to joke about sharing their future human women in front of her?

  Yes, but they have no idea it could well be my sister.

  Gen
esis strode to the motorbike—cercanne—and settled her onto the seat, diverting her attention. Just the same as the chairs in the craft, the long seat of the cercanne was covered in a red pelt.

  Breath squeezed from her lungs. Now that her pussy was bare, the fur underneath tickled and rasped, heightening the ever present ache building in her womb. She squirmed, wishing only to alleviate the throbbing, even with her own hand.

  Instead she forced interest on the machinery between her legs. The cercanne’s wheels were huge and spiky, eliminating the need for a side-stand. The webbed handlebars were long and high, the undercarriage little more than the seat itself.

  She sidled backward as far as she could when Genesis swung a leg over and sank onto the seat. The aliens really were tall, she could swear she was ten feet off the ground.

  Genesis clasped the handholds overhead and the cercanne came to life beneath them with a throaty hum. He swiveled a little in his seat, his stare connecting to hers. “Ready, Princess?”

  If only I was the princess…was your rightful intended.

  He smiled, “Or perhaps I’ll call you Sheehar now.”

  Desolation swamped through her. She’d never be the woman he wanted her to be. Bloody hell. Did she want to be that woman, anyway? She lifted her chin, fighting back a maelstrom of crazy emotions. But when she answered, there was little conviction in her words. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

  Something flickered behind his stare before the other cercanne thrummed into life beside them. His expression reverting to neutral, he said, “Then I suggest you hang on.”

  She wriggled forward. His stretchy, formfitting pants provided nothing to hold onto and she had no choice but to clasp his shoulders. Warm skin and hard muscles bunched under her hands, and she couldn’t help but admire his inherent strength, his power.

  This wasn’t a man who sat around on a throne and expected to be waited on hand and foot. His was a power borne from physical labor and exertion.

  And he’s all mine.

  In that moment it no longer mattered that she wasn’t meant to be with him. All that mattered was…she was.

  Her belly crunched, her nipples tightening almost painfully. She had no doubt she’d soon be underneath all that rippling power, experiencing the intimate act that Earth women had once taken for granted.

  His thumbs brushed the underside of the handholds and the webbing glowed green before the cercanne lifted a little, almost airborne except for the spikes on the wheels resting on the sand.

  “Hey Genesis,” Auron shouted, “want to practice for your cercanne title? I’m betting you’d be a little rusty since your absence.”

  “Another time,” he answered. “I have my intended—”

  Eden glowered and leaned forward to whisper harshly, “You think I’m afraid?” Something wicked had her thrust her pussy tight against his rear, her damp inner flesh opening to his steely lower spine. She gulped back insidious need and instead added, “My father was once the cercanne champion. Do you doubt I have his need for speed in my blood?”

  He looked back, his expression intense, hot. Passionate. A promise of things to come. “No Sheehar. I have every confidence you’ll be addicted to the speed high.”

  She shivered even as a hot flush coursed through her body, but the sensation was as much from hearing his husky Carèche translation of princess, than any excitement for the coming ride.

  He released his clasp of the overhead handholds for a moment to reach down and catch her feet before bringing them up. At her startled hiss of breath, he murmured, “But if we’re to race, I’ll need you to place your feet in the safety stirrups.”

  She nodded, allowing him to guide her bare feet through the red-furred loops that were seemingly part of the pelt itself. Except, her pussy pressed even closer to his ass, causing her womb to feel honeyed and weak, her insides ready to dissolve.

  She sighed, eyelids drifting half-shut. The dreams she’d had of being with a man were nothing compared to the reality—and she hadn’t yet even shared a kiss!

  Genesis clasped the overhead handholds one again, his knuckles white, his jaw tight. Clearly he wasn’t immune either.

  Seconds later the cercanne powered forward. Her eyes snapped wide open, her sharp cry whipped away into the wind. She sank against him fully, taking short, sharp breaths of the too-hot air as the red-orange sand blurred beneath.

  This must have been how the Earth passengers of a jet plane had once felt, with the runway flowing by just before takeoff.

  She scrunched her eyes a little against the wind and looked down. The spikes of the wheels almost cleared the sand, only the tips digging in then releasing hold, puffs of the powdery sand dissolving into the air.

  She looked behind. The aliens on their cercanne were keeping pace. She narrowed her eyes, peering hard. The craft that’d brought her to Carèche was all but invisible. Was that intentional? Did Genesis keep the craft out in the desert to keep it secure?

  The aliens were drawing close when she twisted to face the front. Her eyes widened. Ahead, a wall of red rock jutted from the sand, now all too noticeable.

  Auron and Trasean whooped and veered their two-wheeler away even as Genesis pushed his cercanne faster.

  What the…?

  Her shriek was lost in the wind as Genesis flipped the vehicle onto its back wheel. Spikes screeched against rock. Then the ground gave way to air and they abruptly dropped. Genesis leaned forward, pushing the cercanne’s front down.

  They landed on two wheels with a bone-jarring thud. Coming to a standstill, he twisted around and asked, “You okay, Princess?”

  I couldn’t be better.

  She laughed, her shoulders shaking and her spinning-out-of-the-stratosphere insides coming back down to melt like warmed butter. She really hadn’t felt this alive, this exhilarated. Ever. “That was some shortcut.”

  His eyes alight with satisfaction, he said, “You really must be just the same as your dad.”

  She stared, mesmerized. His once arctic eyes glowed hot as his head lowered as if it was in slow motion. She didn’t withdraw. She reached up and met his mouth with her own, her lips softening under his.

  God, he tasted good. Nutmeg and vanilla and a dash of something wholly masculine. And damn, did he know how to kiss, his mouth pressing over hers and the tip of his tongue stroking, tasting. He led the dance and she followed, learning the act, loving it.

  He pulled back, his stare hotter than hades. “We’ll continue this…later.”

  She swallowed, a little dizzy, her body hyperaware. If this was lust then she had it bad. “Okay.”

  She held his smoldering stare. Only when his attention dropped, to where her thighs were spread apart by the stirrups either side of the cercanne, did she experience a true rush of need, her imagination going wild.

  “Soon,” he promised thickly, “I’ll take full advantage of you like this. But for now, let’s get you home, to my bed.” His eyes snared hers once more, his smile all carnal possessiveness as he smoothed back a long, errant piece of her hair. “Guess there’s more than one reason now to win this race.”

  Chapter Three

  She smiled, unable to repress the fuzzy sensation deep in her belly, her womb. Her heart shouldn’t be stuttering with excitement. Her pussy shouldn’t be contracting with anticipation.

  Somehow she didn’t give a damn.

  As his supposed intended, their coupling was inevitable. Why not enjoy the few pleasures this world would bring?

  When he turned forward again and pushed the cercanne into motion, she no longer pretended she didn’t want him. She flattened against him, breasts pressing into his back. Her hands dropped low, just below the lightly rippled musculature of his belly.

  Her fingers twitched. What would he do if she clasped his cock? Stroked and fondled?

  She didn’t get a chance to explore the idea. The land beneath the cercanne’s spiked wheels dropped off sharply, and as he pushed the two wheeler even faster downhill, she surrendered
instead to the rush of adrenaline charging through her body, trusting Genesis’ obvious ability even as the world blurred around her.

  She squinted. At the end of the seemingly endless descent, a big blue body of water glinted under the harsh trio of suns. And in the far distance, the gold-red peak of a mountain reared into the rosy sky.

  The excitement that curled through her belly came from a far different place as she scanned up high. The airwave transmitter tower would surely be on the mountain summit? Only when they were closer to the lake did she drag her stare away to see a row of tentlike structures strung along the shoreline of the water.

  She frowned. Was this where Genesis and his people lived?

  Movement caught the corner of her eye. Auron and Trasean cleared the ridge to their far right and hurtled toward the mini tent city, powdery plumes of the fine red sand trailing beneath their cercannes.

  Even above the wind she made out Genesis’ shout of victory, which sounded more like a war cry from some battle-hardened warrior.

  She clung to him all the harder, her imagination running riot at what it would be like to have him as her lover, experience his skill firsthand.

  Thank the lord her mother had taught her daughters to read.

  Though Eden might never have been with a man, she’d read books, even climaxed to them on occasion when one of her hands had crept between her legs to ease the ache burgeoning within.

  The land abruptly leveled out beneath them and within minutes the encampment loomed ahead. A pair of long-snouted creatures the size of Rottweilers appeared from between two of the tent structures and loped toward them, their short, round ears flipping back and forward, their red and white fur seemingly rising and falling along their backs.

  Genesis pulled the cercanne up in a one-eighty, the spiked rear wheel sliding out from beneath them, a cloud of red pluming up and around them.

  She laughed, exhilarated and turned-on all at the same time. She pulled her legs free from the stirrups, before a wet, sticky slide along her foot caused her to suck in a startled breath, all joy cut short even as Genesis’ deep chuckle filled the air.