Manifest (3 page)

* * * *

Under her uniform, she rubbed at the slight scratch. It was annoying more than anything. A message was waiting at her desk. The tahs were holding their departure for another two hours and they would like to meet her for tea before they departed.

She sent a reply that she would enjoy that if she wasn’t occupied with her duties, and she got to work.

Mel rubbed at her bicep as her shift went on. It didn’t itch, it didn’t burn, but there was a throb that was a little odd coming from her arm.

The tahs were waiting in the Adru-Skari warship. Since she was working in the docks, she made her way to their berth and presented herself to the guards.

“Ident please.”

She extended her wrist, and their machine took a tiny sample of tissue when it scanned her.

“Ow!”

“Apologies. It does not harm our kind.” He inclined his head. “Identity confirmed. Please head to the second deck, forward arboretum.”

She nodded and headed up to the designated space, smiling as Ashur-tah greeted her when she came in. “You are looking much better.”

“Thank you. The shopping here is quite satisfactory.” The elegant black gown was studded with beads that made her gold skin glow.

The men were also no longer wearing hospital garb and they got to their feet and bowed low.

Yirka-tah smiled brightly at her. “You have done our family a great service.”

“I have done my duty. But you are very welcome.”

A fourth figure moved out of the shadows. “Agent Geller, it is good to meet you.”

Dornin-tah was smugly looking her over from head to toe.

“I wasn’t aware you weren’t aware who I was earlier.”

“You were at the spa?”

“I was getting a massage. Yesterday was a little hard on the body.” She raised her eyebrows and shrugged. “It happens.”

“There was no trace of another person’s touch on you.”

“That is why I used a solar shower. It is hard enough doing this job smelling like a Terran. If you add anyone else into the mix, it just gets weird.”

Ashur-tah chuckled. “Please, have a seat. I promised you tea and you look like you could use a bit of a meal.”

Mel settled into one of the chairs, and the tah family took seats around her, with the exception of Dornin-tah. He remained behind her, and she could almost swear he was scanning her somehow.

Mel learned about their trip to finalize Ashur-tah’s marriage and to get Koru-tah into the marriage market at the browsing level, about Dornin-tah’s stubborn refusal to settle down with a nice Adru-Skari woman, and Yirka-tah’s first marriage that gave him such complicated children.

When she finally was able to escape, she promised to answer all of Ashur-tah’s correspondence and bowed low to the others before she slipped free of the ship and returned to work.

Being with the tahs, she forgot about the itch on her arm, but when she was off duty at the bar later that night, it drove her to distraction.

It took two weeks of constant irritation to send her to medical. Mel sat in the scanner and tried not to fidget.

“How much exposure has your species had to the Adru-Skari?” Doctor Kvi gave her a curious look.

“None. As far as I was told, I am the only Terran ever posted out in this direction. Why? Did I get some kind of weird infection?”

Kvi smiled. “You can say that. Females of the Adru-Skari have two states, unfixed and fixed. It refers to their mating status.”

“Right. What does that have to do with me?”

“Your status is moving into what we would consider to be fixed.”

She blinked and gave her physician a narrow-eyed look. “What does that mean? Why am I getting so itchy and achy when I am out socializing?”

Kvi chuckled, her voice deep and amused. “Your biology is setting you to be receptive to one particular Adru-Skari. Do you know who it was that scratched you?”

“Yes. Is there an antidote?”

Kvi tilted her head. “Not really. It is not something that is required under normal circumstances.”

Mel gritted her teeth. “These are not normal circumstances.”

“Oh. Right. I will work on it. Most of the species around here aren’t susceptible to the Adru-Skari change.”

Mel felt like grabbing Kvi and shaking her, but she said, “Please see what you can do. I might have to resign my commission if it continues much longer. This is enough to drive me mad.”

“Stay away from men who are sexually interested in you. It will ease the feeling of irritation and nausea.”

Warily, Mel said, “I haven’t experienced nausea yet.”

“Oh, you will.”

With that admonition from her doctor, Mel suited up and headed back to her quarters.

She put on her education unit and sat, learning about the Adru-Skari. The more she learned, the more she looked at her arm with irritation. Her own skin had betrayed her.

She had confidence that Kvi would find some kind of a cure or a suppression method for her, but how long it would take was the issue. Mel had a massage and a pleasure session scheduled for the next day. It was her day off and she really needed Tymo to take his time.

Tymo held her hair as she vomited into the receptacle in the lav. “What is wrong, Agent Geller? You normally like a pre-sex massage.”

She glared at him and shook. “I told you to back away. Do it or I will knock you on your ass.”

He stepped back and frowned. “I don’t understand what is wrong.”

“I do; I just can’t believe it. Get me my clothing. I will pay you for the full session and get out of your hair.”

“But, I want you here.” He reached for her again.

“Stop. I have to go abstinent until this illness sorts itself out. I have already been to medical; it isn’t communicable, but it is a very violent reaction to being touched by anyone who has sexual interest.”

Tymo looked at her with horror. “That is terrible.”

Mel stood up. “You have no idea. My clothing. Now.”

She was careful not to touch him as she got dressed, she nodded politely as she passed him, paid a surprised Moffin and then she headed for her quarters with her jaw locked.

When she arrived in her chamber, she threw herself on her bed and bawled at the loss of the one thing that made her life on Makuada truly enjoyable. Paying someone to touch her had seemed odd at first, but she had thrown herself into the practice and now enjoyed her days off, knowing what to expect. That one predictable pleasure had become her focus, no matter whom she chose for the day.

She was alone in the universe, and for the first time, she actually felt it.

Several hours after her humiliation, her com chimed. She wiped her tears and went to the unit. “Display.”

Dr. Kvi smiled brightly at her, her gravel-grey skin looking hard and slightly shiny in the light of the monitor. “Agent Geller, I have found the information I was seeking. There is no cure or antiviral for the infection you received, but there is a treatment.”

Mel blinked. “What is the treatment?”

A knock at her door had her turning toward it.

“I had it sent to your quarters.”

“I think it has arrived.”

“Let me know how it works out.”

Mel opened her door, and she stumbled back when Dornin-tah stepped forward.

“Good evening, Agent Geller.”

She swallowed. “Good evening, Captain Dornin-tah.”

Her door closed behind him, and he stepped further inside her quarters.

“I thought you would have more space.” He smiled and removed the belt from around his hips.

She swallowed. “I don’t need more. Why are you here?”

“I received a message from the commanders on my home world and they ordered me here. Apparently, your kind are
vrasku.
” He smiled and continued to calmly remove one article of his clothing after another, setting it down on her small table.

“What are you doing?”

“Taking care of the issue you went to medical over. There is no cure for it, but there is treatment.”

She watched the fine-scaled golden muscles as they gleamed in the light. He sat to tug off his boots, but when he stood and removed the lower half of his suit, she swallowed as her mouth went dry.

“What is the treatment?”

He smiled, “The touch of the man who clawed you.”

Mel wasn’t sure about the thought behind that treatment plan, but when he gripped her arms and pulled her against all that hard golden skin, her body had no such qualms. She shook in relief as the craving that had been set beneath her skin took hold and was answered by his touch.

Her logical mind whirled as she stared into his dark purple eyes. “Why did you?”

“It was an accident. I had not counted on you being so soft.” He caressed her arms with his palms.

Mel grimaced. It wasn’t the first time that she had heard it in the last two years.

“Why are you frowning?”

“I learned very quickly that softy was not a compliment. It usually meant a fist coming toward me at high speed.” She couldn’t believe she was being this truculent with a naked man made of hard gold pressed against her, but the frantic confusion of the last few weeks disappeared with his touch.

His hand stroked up to her neck and followed the trail of bare skin across her breastbone. She enjoyed the texture of his skin against hers.

“How detailed does this contact with me have to be?”

He smiled slowly. “The honest answer or the one I want to give you?”

“First one and then the other.”

“The direct contact of my hand to your skin was probably enough. What I would like to say is that I need to be inside you for at least an hour for it to have a lasting effect.”

Mel licked her lips. “Oh. That is a quandary.”

“Isn’t it though?” He stroked his hands down her breasts, then up again and eased her gown off her shoulders.

He leaned in and stroked his cheek across hers. “Just tell me when you have had enough.”

She felt more than heard his voice. It ran along her nerve endings and down her spine.
That
was what she had been missing. She closed her eyes and pressed her hands to his chest, working over the strange muscle formation and across his belly. His skin was softer the lower she got. Slicker with a tighter feel. It was still hard to the touch, but it was a finer grain.

Her dress whooshed to her ankles, and she stood with him, skin to skin, in her small quarters. Mel groaned as she pressed herself as tightly to him as she could manage. His erection was mashed against her pelvis, but it was sturdy enough to hold its own.

Dornin-tah walked her back until she was up against her desk. With a smooth move, he lifted her until she was sitting on the edge of the desk with her thighs spread apart.

He would stop if she said
no
, but
no
was the furthest thing on her mind.
Please
was by far the most uppermost comment in her thoughts.

He slid a hand between her thighs and rubbed her honey between his fingers. “Every inch is a delight to the senses.”

Her blush could have started a fire. When he tasted his digits, she shivered and looked away. That was something she couldn’t watch.

He flicked his tongue across her cheek, and the split appendage caressed her skin in two places with surprising strength.

Mel twisted and she turned her head to look at him, but he took her mouth with his and her eyes closed as she draped her arms over his shoulders. His fingers slid into her and she lifted herself toward his hand, rotating her hips in a slow circle.

She knew the signs of her body achieving orgasm, and she was rapidly approaching her climax. Just as she was on the edge, he pulled his hand away and she mewled against his lips.

The wide, blunt head of his cock pressed into her, and Mel gasped at the girth. As he eased into her, she moaned and her fingers scrambled for purchase on his hard shoulders.

He gripped her hips and pulled her against him while he forged inside. To her confusion, once he was inside her, he stopped moving.

She opened her eyes wide when his cock began to undulate inside her and something small latched onto her clit and sucked voraciously.

He caught her lower lip between his, and he plucked at it softly. The twin prongs of his tongue slipped inside her mouth, and he caught every gasp and quiver as her body was treated to something so deliberate, she had no idea what came next.

Time slowed and sensual torture ripped through her as she waited for the rush, the release that she wanted. His kisses were slow, thorough, and he backed away when she was depending on him to lead her over the edge. She whimpered and held his head, but she had no leverage to keep him where she wanted him.

Mel strained upward when he retreated, and she caught his mouth, nipping at his lips. A sound penetrated through the roar in her ears.

She heard a low voice whispering, “Please, please, pleasepleaseplease.” in a dozen languages. It was her voice but she didn’t stop.

His undulations inside her picked up speed, and her arousal went up another notch. She locked in place, breathing in short pants. A low moan built in her throat, and it didn’t stop until he flexed his hands on her hips. The slight prick of his claws sent a shockwave of adrenaline through her, but when he pushed her flat on the desk and pounded into her, she arched and screamed.

Dornin-tah shoved into her over and over until he shuddered and the shaft inside her pulsed. He stood with his back straight and ran a hand between her breasts to her belly before lifting it and starting over again.

Mel gradually came back to herself when he was putting his clothing on. She rolled to stand up and stumbled into the shower, getting her sweat and the slickness from between her folds.

She knelt on the floor of the shower and tried not to sob. Whatever she had thought that sex was, Dornin-tah had just shown her the difference. Her body had gotten higher for longer than she knew was possible.

Realizing that he was still out there, she got to her feet and left the solar shower. It wasn’t worth the extra money to get a water stipend in action when the solar was just fine.

That practical thought got her out of her lav and into her bedroom.