She clears her throat, her fingers gripping my forearm more tightly. “I’m sorry, what?”
“I have tasted the delights of females from across the galaxy, but your nectar is all that interests me now, my flower.”
“My what?!”
I frown, irritated that the translator seems to be malfunctioning again. “Your honey. Your nectar. The juices of your pleasure. The sweetness between your legs.”
“What the fuck?” she whispers. I can barely see her face, but her eyes are wide and shining. She squirms against my grip, pushing against me.
I loose a low growl. “Do you want me to put you down and chase you? Is this the way of mated humans, my sweet wife? You enjoy the chase?”
“Wait. Wait.” She pushes her hand against my face.
Perhaps she wants me to lick it. Humans are strange. I press my tongue against her palm, and she lets out a small squeal of surprise.
“Stop,” she says. “Put me down.”
Confused, I do as she asks. In the dark, I can see her place her hands on her hips, a stern expression on her face at odds with the delectable scent of her arousal.
“I can smell you are ready to mate,” I tell her.
“Why… Why would you—” She holds up a hand. “You know what? I don’t want to know. What I want you to do, my fine scaled friend, is get us the hell out of here.” Gen plunks down on the ground, the water licking around her boots. She takes them off, dumping the liquid that’s pooled there out. A small fish wiggles free of one, but she appears not to notice.
I boggle at her, turning her words over in my head.
“What do you mean, you do not want to know? You do not want me to tell you of how I will bury my head between your legs and wring screams of pleasure from you?”
“Did you not just tell me all about how many other women you’ve had sex with? That’s not the compliment you think it is, my dude.”
“I do not know what this dude is you speak of. If that is what you want me to be to you, I will be it. And why would that not please you? I have practiced until I am very skilled with many kinds of females. I have never known a human female, but I am confident in my ability to lick your cunt.”
The perfume of her mating scent grows stronger. I smile to myself, my tail lashing behind me.
“A dude is just a word. A saying. Uh, kinda like friend. And I am not saying, ah, what you’re suggesting is a complete no,” she says thickly, “but we have several things we should discuss first, and I’m not doing any of that in the dark, in a ruined temple, with dinosaurs and prehistoric snake monsters lurking about.” A small laugh erupts from her. “Snake monsters.”
She mutters something about a one-eyed purple monster under her breath.
Disappointed but determined to do as she asks, I trudge up the gravelly shore, wracking my memory of what I was taught years ago about the ancients. There should be a light source around here. A glassy-textured wall looms before me, reflecting the dark and my own silhouette.
I trace the tips of my talons over it, searching for a clue as to what will illuminate the space. The ancients wanted their peers and heirs to marvel at their creations, trap doors and all. There will be a way to light this pit, I only have to find it.
“Do not worry, my wife, my sweet flower, I will find a way to bring light to this place, and then I will look upon you as you scream my name in hedonistic desire.”
“Wife?” Gen asks loudly from behind me, a note of something unfathomable in her voice. “Wife. What the fuck? I thought that was a translation fail. The fuck?!”
“We will,” I agree, pleased she’s decided to succumb to my mating overtures already. “You will be a treasured princess among my people once I am able to rescue you from this situation we find ourselves in.”
“Princess?” she asks, a weary note to her voice. “Is this like the flower thing? A cute name for your pet human? Can you just call me Gen? I’m trying to roll with the punches here, my dude, because frankly, there’s not a whole lot of other options available, but call me Gen.”
“Princess Gen of Sueva, the Light of Perzivor,” I agree. “My bride and chosen, my human flower.”
“Fuck.” Then, a beat later, “You’re a prince. And you’re telling me we’re married.” Her voice is flat, and I turn away from the wall and my search, frowning into the darkness at her.
“Of course, we are married. That is what happens after a mating ceremony, after all. You chose to come here as our brides, a token of good-will from your Earth Federation in exchange for our technology. Was our communication unclear?” I chuckle at her obvious joke. “You ate from my hand, I ate from yours, you danced with me. We are wed. Now you are a princess of the Suevan people, and I—”
I stop talking, familiar shame filling me as she remains silent, the only sound the gentle lapping of water against the shore and her sharp, uneven breathing.
“You did not know?”
“No, my dude, Prince of Sueva, I most decidedly did not know. The Federation left that tiny piece of information out of our mission briefing. Did Niki know? She couldn’t have known. She would have told me. I’ll kill her if she knew.”
“I find your bloodthirstiness most alluring,” I tell her, my cock rising immediately.
“That’s messed up,” she says, “but thanks, I guess.”
“Would you like to appreciate it with your hand?”
“Can you not? Now is not the time,” she sputters, and I frown.
“So there will be a time?” I cannot keep the hope out of my voice, and sudden wonder fills me. Have I ever been as besotted with a female? Is it because she is mine, my mate, and I long to claim her as the goddess demands?
A weary sigh sounds. “I tell you what, buddy. If you can get us out of this pit, I will blow your damn mind.”
“My dam mind?” She would seek to let the tide of my passions loose, surging forth from a burst dam? I was already motivated to find a safe exit for us, but now? Now I would move the skies themselves for a chance at what she has promised.
She is my wife, and I will enjoy every morsel she deigns to give me.
Finally, my talons scrabble over a familiar surface, one every Suevan worth his quarn knows as soon as he can stand. A smug smile curls my lips, and I strike my talons across the rougher surface of the wall. Sparks fly and briefly illuminate Gen’s enticing figure, before igniting the tinder inlaid inside the wall. A line of fire rapidly consumes it, racing along the glossy surface. I blink against the sudden light.
“Did you light that fire with your fingers?” The firelight flickers across her stunned features, and she trudges closer to the wall, wet and shivering slightly.
“How else would I have done it? Do human males not know how to do this?”
“They probably couldn’t find the spot to hit if they wanted to.” She laughs at this, and I frown, confused.
“You think it is funny that your males do not know how to make fire?”
Gen doubles over, and alarm fills me, until a hoarse wheezing noise chokes out of her. When she straightens up, her eyes leak and her shoulders shake. With laughter.
“Oh,” she finally gasps. “Don’t worry, we’ll just pretend they did.”
“Wife, why do I feel as though there is something to this joke that I do not understand?”
Her laughter dies as quickly as it started, and I narrow my eyes, concerned about her rapid change in mood.