Terran (Breeder) by Cara Bristol Page A

release had been perfunctory, if shameful, but she had complicated it further.
    She thrust out one hip and cocked her head. “Don’t you want to touch me?”
    He could have pointed out he had been about to touch her when she’d wrested away and demanded he strip naked, but the quiver in her wavering smile had him reaching out to wind a strand of pink hair around his finger. He settled the curl on her shoulder, and then traced a vine of flowers down her arm.
    “I have never met anyone like you,” he said.
    “Terran?”
    “Colorful.” She lit up the starkness of his existence, painted the grays, the blacks, the whites to vivid hues like her hair, her eyes, her skin. He lived a life of harsh simplicity, actions and reactions defined. Expectations set and met. Certainty a certitude.
    Yet she aroused questions, raised impossibilities, and caused him to yearn for things he should not want.
    She sashayed up to him, rose on tiptoe, and wrapped her arms around his neck. He lowered his head. She closed her eyes and pressed her mouth to his.
    Startled, Marlix froze, unable to make sense of her behavior or why it should cause heat to flood his body as if he suffered from a massive infection.
    Tara pulled back and opened her eyes. “You have been with a woman before, haven’t you?”
    She made it sound like an embarrassment if he had not, rather than the disgrace it was that he had. He stiffened. “I have used many women. Why would you say such a thing?”
    “Then kiss me.”
    “Pressing lips is kissing?”
    “It involves some other stuff, but yeah.”
    He hesitated, wary. “What other stuff?”
    “Let’s lie on the bed.” Tara strode to the platform and stretched out in the center.
    Marlix eased down next to her. She scooted close. “When I kiss you, open your mouth,” she commanded.
    “Open my—”
    Tara covered his lips with hers. She closed her eyes so that her lashes formed crescents on her cheeks. Marlix stared as the tip of her tongue stroked the outside of his mouth before slipping inside. Debauchery to be sure. Depraved. But…monto…so good… She surprised him again when her eyes sprang open, and he found himself drowning in a sea of green.
    “You’re supposed to close your eyes,” she murmured against his mouth.
    “Why?”
    “It’s better that way. Trust me, okay?”
    He could not and did not trust anyone except for Urazi, but her request seemed harmless. He had nothing to fear from her; he could overpower her.
    He closed his eyes.
    She kissed him again, and without the distracting visual, her touch electrified him. Her lips caused his to tingle.
    He groaned.
    She smiled against his mouth and pressed her body even tighter to his. Such softness for such a commanding creature. Under her tutelage, he learned how to kiss and found he could not get enough of her sweet taste. He plundered her mouth with increasing fervor. When he came up for air, she turned her head to the side, and he could not resist the curve of her neck. Perhaps one could kiss other parts besides the mouth? Tentatively, he sucked and nipped her creamy skin.
    Tara moaned and arched her neck, an incitement to his lust.
    Twice he tried to roll her over to take her, but both times she resisted. “I’m not ready yet.”
    Ready for what? he wondered. But he was enjoying their game, so he did not force the issue.
    She grabbed his hand and placed it between her legs. “Touch me, here,” she said.
    He tangled his fingers in damp curls. “You’re wet!” He looked at her.
    “Umm,” she murmured, unconcerned, and he surmised the moisture was a Terran response. Though shocked at first, he liked the way his fingers slipped and slid among her folds, so he plunged two fingers into her channel. A groan erupted from his throat as he encountered even more wetness. Her muscles contracted.
    Monto! He imagined her grip around his manhood. He’d never taken a female there—it had never been required because he had not yet sought to produce a