The ship’s flight smoothed. Jacey glanced at the observation window. Brilliant hues of red and orange streaked past the craft. Blue bolts interspersed the swirls of color, and Jacey almost shielded her eyes against the brilliant light. Never had she seen anything as beautiful as the solar flares against the inky sky.
She turned to stare at Aidan. He split his attention between the console before him and her. Looking up from his work, he glanced at her, then past her to where the solar flares rapidly faded in the view screen. “Beautiful, aren’t they?” he asked, his eyes never leaving her face.
Jacey gasped. Not only had Aidan brought the ship out of trouble, but he’d done it and still made her feel like the most cherished person aboard. She nodded, her lips suddenly too dry to speak. She’d never seen the northern lights in person—nothing could have prepared her for the beauty of the solar flares. Yet even they paled in comparison to the man standing behind the controls. Aidan looked once more at the panel in front of him, then over at Linu.
“Do you think you can handle everything from here?” Aidan asked.
Linu nodded. “I’ll synthesize some food here so I can watch things. Why don’t you get your lady settled?”
“I was hoping you would say that.” Aidan stepped from behind the controllers and crossed the bridge.
Jacey watched, admiring the way the white robe hinted at the hard muscle that lay beneath. Aidan stopped in front of her. “Why don’t you let me take you back to your quarters?”
Up close, she smelled the heady musk of his skin. Cologne, she wondered, knowing that as a machine he shouldn’t have any scent. He extended his hand, and graciously Jacey took it. The warmth of his skin belied his mechanical nature, and he gently helped her to her feet.
She wobbled as she stood, her knees not quite buckling. With her other hand she reached for him. Her fingers closed around his hard biceps, and she waited for the strength to return to her limbs. “Sorry,” she said, “that was a bit more intense than I thought.” Her lips quirked into a smile.
“Let me carry you.” His voice rumbled through her, the low notes filling her with warmth. The suggestion sent heat flooding to her pussy. Without waiting for an answer, he scooped her into his arms. Jacey felt herself swooped into the air, then cradled against his hard, masculine body.
She rested her head against his chest. The silken robe caressed her cheek. Beneath it, the planes of his chest pressed in bas-relief against her face, and Jacey couldn’t help but snuggle into his embrace. Adrian had one hand behind her shoulders and one beneath her knees, cradling her. She felt suspended against a great mountain, one that would shelter her from harm.
She closed her eyes as Aidan’s long strides carried them into the hall. The door to the bridge slid closed behind them. Aidan brushed his lips against her hair.
“Jacey, you know that Linu and I can pilot through any solar storm,” he said, his words probably meant to be reassuring.
Jacey swallowed hard. “I suppose so,” she said.
“Ahh, my little true-born, you must have more faith in me. You are to be my lady. I cannot have any harm befall you.” He strode purposely down the hall. The corridor looked much the same throughout the ship, and Jacey closed her eyes.
Silence hung heavy between them. In her mind, Jacey tried to console herself with the fact that both men must be accomplished pilots to have arrived at Earth. Images from newscasts broadcast too often for mortal comfort filled her mind. Images of ships and planes burning in fiery balls in the sky. Images of coffins draped with flags. She hated flying. She really did.
Aidan pressed a kiss to her temple. “Do not worry,” he said as if he sensed her thoughts, and perhaps, Jacey realized, he did. “I will keep you safe. You are my life now.”
His words evoked a primal tenderness within her. Earth and her life seemed so far away. Turning her head, she kissed his chest through his robe. “Yes,” she whispered, though at the moment she didn’t know to what she assented.
Aidan paused in front of a door. He bent his knees enough to allow him to wave his wrist in front of the door, and it slid open.
“How did you do that?” Jacey asked, freed from the lull by his motion.
“Open the door?” Aidan looked down at her and smiled. “Everything from the wall curtains to the doors are triggered to open when a certain electromagnetic frequency comes close enough to them. Only the exterior doors and the doors to the cargo hatches have any sort of switches on them. The doors are set to a domanin. True-borns wear bracelets or have small transmitters that allow them to open doors.”
Jacey nodded. She looked around, realizing that Aidan had brought her back to her room. He didn’t stop. With long strides, he crossed the room and gently set her down on the bed. She rose into a seated position as Aidan sank to the mattress next to her.
Reaching down, he brushed a strand of her hair away from her face. “I’m sorry that the solar flares scared you.” He leaned forward and brushed his lips across hers.
“I don’t like flying,” she said. “My friend died—” Her voice caught, and she swallowed hard. “My friend died in a car accident. And I’d had an accident before you’d taken me.” She sighed. “I wonder what’s going to happen to my car, my belongings…everything.” She finished, realizing that she didn’t know. Her parents had died some years ago, and she hadn’t updated anything since Ebony had died. Her friend had been her beneficiary for business reasons. So many things to think about, and right now, she didn’t want to think about them at all.
Jacey reached for him. Her palm flattened against his chest. Beneath her hand, she felt the whirring of his motor.
He’s a machine. How can he be making me feel so cherished and protected?
She took a deep breath. “Aidan…” Her words trailed off as he caught her gaze.
“Tell me to stop,” he said. “I can’t reroute much more power to my self-control centers.”
Jacey smiled. His words turned her on like nothing had in a long time. And she’d been gone for days. For all intents and purposes, her life on Earth was gone. Even Aidan had said he couldn’t take her home right now. They were going to BelaZed. She better make the most of it.
She rose to her knees, capturing his lips with her own. Jacey kissed him. With tongue and skin she tried to convey how special this android made her feel. She wasn’t ready to give up on Earth, not yet. But right now she’d take the sexy man in front of her.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, drawing herself against his body. Her breasts flattened against his chest, the nipples beading at the contact. She slid her legs around Aidan until she sat on his lap. Heat filled her pussy, making her wet with need.
Aidan clasped her hips. He drew her close to him. His hard cock pressed against her. She wanted him. She pulled her lips from his long enough to gulp air, then captured his mouth in an openmouthed kiss.
He stroked his tongue along the length of hers, drawing it into his mouth. He suckled gently, his hands skimming over her ribs to cup her breasts. With his thumb, he teased the turgid peaks of her nipples. Jacey arched into his touch.
He caressed her from neck to navel with the back of his hand, the fabric parting at the touch. Jacey didn’t bother to wonder about the miracle of his actions, merely groaning when he cupped her bare flesh. Liquid heat filled her pussy, and she wiggled against his hard cock.
With gentle pressure, Aidan pressed her back on the bed. His hand skimmed her body, the robe falling aside at his touch. He stared at her naked body, his gaze lingering on her breasts and on the auburn curls covering her sex. Jacey’s cheeks burned, a red flush that crept down over her breasts.
“You’re beautiful,” he said. Leaning forward, he captured a nipple in his mouth. He sucked gently. With his other hand, he reached up and cupped her breast. He kneaded with his fingers.
Jacey arched beneath him. Molten pleasure ran from her pussy to her breasts. Her cunt grew wet beneath Aidan’s ministrations. She spread her legs, wanting to feel his body hard against hers.
Aidan pulled his head away. He laved her breast with long strokes of his tongue, the rough texture igniting her senses. As he licked a trail down over her abdomen, she felt like one of the solar flares, a quick burst of light that exploded against the sky. She whimpered and clenched her vaginal muscles.
“I want…”
“I know,” Aidan said. He swirled his tongue into her navel. With both hands on her breasts, he dipped his head between her legs. He worshipped her. That was the only thought that came to Jacey’s mind. His tongue painted long strokes against her outer labia, then dipped inside to taste her nectar.
He teased her clit with the tip of his tongue, and Jacey bucked her hips against his face. She moaned as exquisite pleasure rushed through her. Aidan seemed to give no thought to his own pleasure. He merely lapped at her as if she were the rarest delicacy in the universe. Jacey smiled. She might be, given that she was the only Earthling to come this far into the solar system.
Jacey reached down and fisted her hands in his hair. She wanted to come. Her orgasm pulsed like a living creature inside her pussy, and she rocked her hips against him. She wanted his tongue, his cock, his finger, anything inside her cunt, fucking her until she came.
Aidan sucked hard on her clit.
Jacey screamed. Her body pulsed with a life of its own, her vaginal muscles fluttering at the impending release.
He slid two fingers inside her. “Come for me, baby,” he said, stroking his fingers into her tight, wet pussy. “Come for me.”
As if Aidan’s words were an order, she bucked once more, then came. Her vagina contracted around his fingers. She cried out, a wordless keen of pleasure. She gasped for air, pleasure darting through every nerve ending.
Aidan brushed his thumb against her clit. He pulled his hand away, and Jacey whimpered with loss. Aidan moved over her then, settling his body between her parted thighs. The tip of his hard cock, back to its smooth configuration, rubbed against her pussy, and it took all the willpower she possessed not to arch her hips and let him slide into her.
Aidan kissed her. His lips moved possessively over hers, his tongue branding her with each stroke. Jacey clung to him. She wrapped her arms around his body, her hands cupped on his shoulders. Pulling her lips away, she gasped in much needed air, then fused her mouth to his once more.
In a single stroke, Aidan entered her. His balls rested against her ass, and Jacey clenched her vaginal muscles around his cock. She wanted to hold him there forever.
Aidan pulled out. He paused once more, the head of his cock just inside her, and Jacey couldn’t help the bereft feeling that filled her. He thrust forward once more, and Jacey rose to meet him.
She cried out as he buried himself inside her, and then lust overtook her. Her hands slid down his back to cup his ass, and she pulled him to her with each stroke. His cock filled her as if it were made just for her body. His soft groans echoed in her ears, and the feel of the muscles bunching beneath her hands felt as real as any man she’d fucked.
His thrusts quickly brought her to peak again, and she came with a small, wordless cry. Her body shuddered beneath his, and Aidan held her tight until the spasms subsided. He thrust once more and stiffened. The cords of his neck stood out, and with a growl he came. His cock pumped inside her, and again the hot splash of his seed. He pressed his lips to hers, then rolled to the side, cradling her in his arms.
“My sweet true-born,” he said. His fingers lightly caressed the edge of her breast, and Jacey snuggled into his embrace.
She laid her head on his chest, hearing the whir of his internal motors.
“I felt…” She had to ask. “Can you…get me pregnant?” There were other reasons to use protection, but what sort of diseases could a machine have?
“No. It is simulated, a mix of proteins and sterile liquid. There is some nourishment there if you partake of my seed.”
“Oh,” she replied, his somewhat scientific answer soothing her. She gave a pleased sigh, and her eyelids fluttered closed. A gentle lethargy crept through her body, a bone-deep satisfaction that she hadn’t felt in a while.
I can’t believe I just made love to an android. I can’t believe I just asked him that question
. The thoughts spun in her mind like gears on a wheel. Aidan pressed a kiss to her temple.
Right now he doesn’t feel like a machine. He feels like a man, a man who fucked me like I haven’t been in a while
. She wished her room had a view screen so she could look out into the tapestry of stars outside. Earth suddenly seemed a distant memory, and being abducted didn’t seem like a bad thing.
Chapter Four
Jacey watched as in the view screen the blue-green planet of BelaZed grew larger. It looked like Earth but not quite. The oceans, if they were oceans, looked more turquoise than the deep blue that pictures of Earth always showed. Wispy clouds floated through the atmosphere, and Jacey bent forward in anticipation. Aidan had asked her to come to the bridge with him, and she sat in one of the observation chairs, a safety harness snugly fastened around her hips.
For a moment a pang of homesickness filled her and she regretted not being able to see Earth from this point in space.
I’ll make it back. It’s my home. I have to.
“So what do you think of my home?” Aidan asked. Pride filled his voice.
“It’s beautiful,” she said truthfully.
“Thank you. It is not very often I can see my home from space, and each time I am awed. Our creator made us, but I often wonder, who made BelaZed?”
“Your creator?” Jacey asked. He sounded as if he spoke of a deity, and she couldn’t help but smile thinking that Aidan, an android, believed in something akin to God.
“Yes, our creator, Abaensi, came to BelaZed to set up a resort planet. He created me and my kind, and for many cycles we served the true-borns. Then Abaensi died, and the true-borns forgot about him.” Aidan’s voice drifted into silence.
“You’re too modest,” Linu interjected. “What he isn’t telling you, Jacey, is that when Abaensi died, the people began to revere the domanins, and they became our gods. It is only within the last hundred years that we have accepted them as stewards of the planet and not deities. That is when Deactivation Day began.”