Candidate (Selected Book 4) (74 page)

"I am called Jaguar," said the black woman.

"And I am called Harp," said the other.

"Harp?"

"It is from," said Jaguar.

"A type of," explained Harp.

"Seal," finished Jaguar.

And no, I'm not going to write it like that anymore. I'll pick one or the other, whoever began speaking first, most likely.

"I am pleased to meet you, Jaguar and Harp. I am Andromeda Hayes. I hope you will call me Andromeda."

"Yes," said Harp.

"We do not have much experience with humans," Jaguar said. "We wish to learn about you."

"We will make mistakes," Harp said. "Will you forgive us?"

"I can forgive much," I said. "There are things I cannot forgive. I will not forgive betrayal or violence against me."

"We would never hurt you," Jaguar said. "You are small. Are you as delicate as you appear?"

"I'm tough for my size," I said. "For a human woman, I am athletic. I am not a fragile egg. But I do not like being treated roughly."

"We will not," said Harp. "You will guide us."

"We wish to touch you. We know human women do not like being touched without permission. May we touch you?"

"That is more complicated than it sounds. Touch has... a progression," I explained. "A brief touch upon the arm is unlikely to offend any human, with or without permission. Grabbing my chest in public will make me angry regardless of what I might allow in private."

"We understand," said Harp. "We wish more than a touch upon your arm."

I smiled. "Right now, about all you can touch is my face."

"May we touch you?"

"You may," I said.

"Thank you," said Jaguar. They both stepped closer, and then Harp caressed my face with two fingers. Her touch was gentle, perhaps hesitant. Jaguar added her touch, also a caress across my opposite cheek, and then my nose, and then across my lips.

"That is intimate," I said.

"This?" She did it again.

"Yes. I must know you better before I am comfortable with intimate touches."

"I am sorry."

"You are learning," I said. "I am teaching."

"And you will learn," said Harp. "We will teach. For now, we touch."

And then the strangest thing happened. All right. It was all strange, so that was probably hyperbolic. But Harp stroked some of the containing material near my face, and it retreated from her touch. She didn't release my head, but she was able to reach my ear. On the other side, Jaguar did the same thing. And then they were each touching my ears, and my cheeks, and much of the rest of my face.

"Do you like this touch?" Jaguar asked.

"It feels nice," I said. "But it is also surreal."

"We do not know that word," said Harp.

"I am imprisoned here and unable to move. Two aliens are standing here, touching me as if they wish to be lovers. Other people are watching while pretending not to. It is a strange experience."

"You will not understand," said Jaguar.

"We must do this," said Harp. "We must learn you."

"To claim you," said Jaguar.

"Hold on," I said firmly. "No one is claiming me three minutes after meeting me."

"We claim you
for now
," Jaguar clarified. But they stopped touching.

I thought about it. "For now. Because letting you touch me is not a promise of forever."

"For now," said Harp. "We are two. We wish to be three."

"But we do not know if we wish you to be our third, to form our triangle."

"You do not know if you wish to help us form our triangle," added Harp.

"But we hope, and we are decisive," said Jaguar. "We will act as if this is what we all want. It is the best path to mutual happiness."

"But we know humans take time to decide. You can be impulsive, but you consider permanent choices carefully. We are not as impulsive, but we also require less time. But we three need time. Will you give us this time?"

I looked back and forth between them. I smiled. "You may touch. You may claim me for now. But you understand you share me."

"We do not share."

"I have duties," I said. "You share me with my duties. And I have friends here. Not many, but friends. You share me in that way as well."

"In this way, we share," Jaguar said. "We have duties, although they are suspended as we decide. And we have friends."

"Jaguar does not like my best friend," Harp said. "He is difficult to like. I do not blame her. Who are your friends?"

"Jasmine Brighteyes," I said. "And the other people I work with. I have human friends as well, but I am not allowed to see or contact them."

"We will share in this fashion, but you will give us time to learn and to decide," said Jaguar. "May we touch? May we claim you?"

"You may touch, and you may claim me for now."

"For now," Harp said. They raised hands and began again to caress. "We know this is not a human way."

"But it is our way."

"It is not so far from a human way that I can't understand," I said. "Do I not touch you?"

"We are two," said Harp. "We claim you to make our segment into a triangle. You do not make your point into a triangle."

And then she pushed away the material binding most of my arm, but she kept my shoulders and wrists restrained. Jaguar did the same. And then they were touching my arms. Harp stroked my fingers and my palm, and then she used two hands, one on my face, one on my arm. Jaguar did the same, but then she exposed much of my back, leaving only enough of the containing pillar to continue to support me. She stroked me from the top of my ass all the way to my shoulder, pushing away more of the material. Harp saw that and did the same on her side. They had to reach underneath my clothing to do so.

Then they both knelt, and they freed most of my legs, stroking them. I stiffened as they reached high on the inside, but they stopped just before I was about to complain. Then they addressed the tops of my feet.

They exposed as much of me as they could without actually releasing me, and they spent time, quite a bit of time, touching what they had exposed. I eventually closed my eyes and enjoyed it.

It felt nice, even if I was socially uncomfortable to basically be getting pawed by two aliens I had just met while a room full of people looked on.

Then they stood, their hands still on my arm, each holding one hand. I opened my eyes and looked between them. "This is not sufficient to fully claim you," Jaguar said. "But we know if we do all we want, it will anger you."

"We cannot spend months claiming you," Harp said. "But to claim all of you, we must touch all of you."

"Well, you aren't doing that in public, and you aren't doing that tonight." I thought about it. "I will allow a little more in private than you have done. Have you claimed enough for now?"

"For now. We will claim more in private," Jaguar said.

"You must invest," Harp said. "You must accept our claim. We act as if you will join our triangle. You must also act as if you will join our triangle."

"I will need some time for that, or it will feel like I am lying to you."

"You must not lie," said Jaguar. "How much time?"

"Acting as if I will join your triangle is not the same as promising, is it?"

"No," said Harp. "It is simply being optimistic."

"It is an expression of desire to consider the choice and to believe it is possible."

"That much I could do over the next few days," I said. "Is that too long?"

They exchanged looks. "It is longer than we wish," said Harp. "But we know this is unusual for you."

"But we have claimed much of you," Jaguar said. "You are now of us, for now. You must not share yourself this way with others."

I nodded. "Are you going to release me? But I'll fall if you don't help support me."

They adjusted their grip, one on each side. And then the pillar withdrew from me. I would have staggered, but Harp and Jaguar supported me easily, straightening me on my feet.

"There is a human custom. Do Whiteblack hug?"

"We touch in all ways," Jaguar said.

"I do not wish to offend by hugging one first, then the other."

"Why would this offend us?" Harp asked. "We are two, but we are one. What you do with one, you do with both. When you hug Jaguar, you are hugging me. And when you hug me, you are hugging Jaguar as well."

"Well then." I turned to Jaguar, and as soon as I did, she pulled me into her arms. She was so much bigger than I was, tall, lanky, and powerful. I could feel the strength of her muscles as she drew me in. But she barely held me.

"I am not so fragile," I said. "I prefer being held more tightly. Do you mind?"

"I do not wish to hurt you."

"Some human males do not know their own strength. If you cannot distinguish between barely holding me, and holding me too tightly, I understand. But you can hold more tightly."

And so she tightened. "This is nice," I said. "More is nice, too." And so she tightened just a little more, and I smiled. "This is perfect."

But then Harp stepped behind us, pressing against me from behind, and I was the meat in the sandwich. And I decided I liked that, too.

Then Jaguar's hand, which had been in the small of my back, moved down to cup my ass.

"Jaguar, if a human girlfriend did that to me in public, I would be angry."

"We require more touch," she said.

"In private."

"No one can see," Harp said.

"In private," I repeated.

The hand moved.

"Thank you. It felt nice, but not in public."

"We do not completely understand," Harp said, "but we do not wish to offend you."

"Thank you," I said. Then I rotated, and I was hugging Harp with Jaguar pressing from behind.

But then Jaguar pushed the limits again. She lowered her head until her lips were near my ear. "You said you would allow more touch than you had. You will allow this touch." Then she was lipping at my ear. I felt teeth, but just a brushing. A moment later, Harp was doing the same thing to the other ear.

And my libido began to notice.

I clutched at Harp, and I let them do it, but then I said, "Okay. Okay. You're driving me a little crazy. Is that enough for now?"

"For now," Harp said into my ear.

They pulled away, but then they each took possession of an arm.

"I have duties," I said. "And I need refreshment."

"You have accepted our claim," Harp said. "We will attend your duties with you."

"Refreshments first," I said. "There."

And so they led me to the table we had set up. Everything was labeled, of course. We had pure water for all species, but it came in different temperatures, as not all species preferred their water cold.

"What is that?" Harp asked, pointing.

"Water," I said.

"It is so cold it has formed into ice?"

"Ice is added to make it colder," I said. "I find that to be too cold. Um. I need my arms."

I was sure it was done reluctantly, but they released me. In compensation, there was immediately one hand at the back of my neck, just touching, and another at my lower back, slipping underneath the sparse clothing to touch my skin.

They were as bad as a Catseye.

I poured a half glass of ice water then added a little more from one of the cold, but not ice cold pitchers.

"Most humans like cold water," I said. "But how cold can vary. We also have other beverages. I have no experience with Whiteblack and do not know what you can take."

"We require nothing at this time," said Harp.

"All right, then." I offered her an arm. Jaguar was forced to be happy touching my neck. "I must see to my duties, and then we will tell each other more of ourselves."

We worked the room for a few minutes, moving from group to group, intruding on conversations wherever I wished.

I had established signals for the women to use. The most common was to use my entire name. It simply meant she wished to speak to me privately. When that happened, sometimes it was a request to be rescued; she had no interest in an alien who was monopolizing her. The aliens could be, after all, quite insistent and intimidating besides. This happened on average once or twice per batch of women, but that was just an average.

I could also encounter the reverse. "I really like her. What do I do?" This happened less often than requiring a rescue, but it happened.

And the rest just wanted reassurance or to ask a question.

It was during the third group that the woman looked at me in clear relief and said, "Andromeda Hayes, how are you tonight?"

"I am good, Charlotte. Actually, I need to speak privately with you for a moment." She had been in conversation with Lotus, the Catseye, and I'd noticed Lotus was being very physically forward, with one tentacle wrapped around Charlotte's arm, another around her back, and a third reaching around in front of her to clasp her hand.