Saved by the Alien Crime Boss (Aliens Among Us #4)

Chapter 7

SEVEN

Seeing Mina hurry away awakened something bestial in Sevik. His instincts clawed to the forefront of his mind, insisting that Mina wasn’t trying to escape him.

No, she was issuing a challenge, a test.

Catch me to prove yourself a worthy mate.

Mina left a trail of fragrance behind her, flavored by the aroma of her arousal. She might as well have been dragging him along by the nose.

Sevik clamped a hand on the edge of the table, digging his claws into its underside. His slit strained against the pressure of his hardening cocks. His fangs ached to their roots, but the discomfort had already spread, pulsing through his gums, his jaw, his neck, his skull, even into his horns. His muscles tensed, preparing to propel him off the chair and across the widening distance between him and Mina.

Difficult was far too mild a word to describe how hard it was for him to remain in place.

He’d gone too long without release. True as that was, it didn’t explain the magnetic pull this little female had on him.

He watched as she took her place behind the counter to help her new customer. Watched her put on that warm and welcoming smile. Watched as she filled the other woman’s order, doing everything she could to avoid looking in his direction again.

Sevik understood his own reasons for resisting. Revealing himself would only bring trouble for him. But even as detached as he was from the culture of his people, he knew the korasi did not shy away from sex and desire. What shame was there in mutual pleasure?

Mina desired him. If she’d been trying to hide it, she’d done a poor job. Why did she fight that desire so strongly?

He finally pried his gaze away from her, dropping it to the table. Food, drink, and a book. Simple gifts—at least based on the way she’d treated them.

Sevik’s claws sank deeper into the table’s underside. He told himself that Mina didn’t know, couldn’t have known, that such gifts would have a deep meaning for a korasi. Though his mother had rarely talked about her homeworld and their people, she had passed on a few korasi values to Sevik before she’d died.

Offering food was meaningful. Powerfully so. It was seen as placing the needs of another over one’s own. When parents offered food to children, it was a display of parental love and care. When friends offered food to one another, it was a display of affection and respect, and it had been the same when Sevik and his brother had given food to their ailing mother. The tradition had held particular meaning in his family given their poverty.

Food wasn’t always easy to come by, and it was no small gesture to give it freely to another, keeping it from your own belly.

And when a prospective mate offered food…

It was a sign of interest in something more than the casual rutting so prevalent amongst his kind. It was a sign of commitment, of a deeper desire.

When he’d cooked for her, it hadn’t been the same. The food had been hers to begin with; there’d been no sacrifice on his part. Yet what she’d given him now came from her business, from her profits—it came at a cost to her, however small.

He told himself again that Mina’s gift was merely one of gratitude, that it didn’t hold any other meaning. And yet…

Willing his hand to relax, he released the table and plucked up the pastry between the claws of his forefinger and thumb.

The soft crust was golden and flaky, drizzled with a white garnish, and had a glob of something creamy in the middle. Though he’d lived on Earth for a year, his diet had consisted primarily of meat. He remained unfamiliar with most other human food.

After another glance at Mina, who was now very intently mixing a drink, he lifted the pastry to his mouth and took a bite.

The buttery crust had a hint of saltiness to it; on its own, he might’ve found it enjoyable. But when that white topping and the creamy glob in the center hit his taste buds, he was assaulted by overwhelming sweetness.

The muscles of his neck and jaw twitched, and his tongue recoiled as though it could somehow escape the saccharine wave. Sevik pressed his lips together and fought back a shudder.

How the fuck could humans eat food like this without retching?

Mina gave this to me.

And he would eat it and be grateful, because he refused to insult her by rejecting this gift.

He exhaled heavily and forced himself to chew. Even after he choked down the bite, the sweetness lingered, coating the inside of his mouth. Returning the pastry to the plate, he sucked the crumbs from his fingers, hoping the slight saltiness would counteract the sweet.

Mina happened to look his way as he did so. Her eyes rounded, pink spread across her cheeks, and she froze, as though she’d forgotten she was carrying a drink to a customer. She shook herself and turned away from him abruptly.

But fuck if that hadn’t started him up again despite the persistence of that foul sweetness. His cocks strained for freedom with new insistence.

Vazk. I shouldn’t have come here.

Yesterday, he’d come dangerously close to rutting her right here in the café. That would’ve led to a very long night of explanations he didn’t want to give, of trying to calm a panicked female, of…

Of silencing her, if necessary.

But the tightness in his chest told Sevik that was something he couldn’t do, whether it became necessary or not. He couldn’t bring himself to harm her. Sevik, who’d taken so many lives without a second thought, would rather turn his weapons on himself than on Mina.

She was a risk. And being with him put her at risk, because she burned away his self-control.

Yet he couldn’t stay away.

Last night’s sensations refused to fade. He still felt echoes of her lips against his, of her skin under his fingertips, of the heat radiating from her sex. He still felt her hands on his shirt, pulling him closer.

Instinct drove him to be near her, to see her, to touch her, to…protect her.

Time to move to a different part of Earth.

Yet he knew it wouldn’t matter where he went, whether here on Earth or anywhere else in the universe. No distance would disrupt his thoughts of her.

With her face very firmly directed forward and her spine stiff, Mina raced into the back hallway, leaving his sight.

Again, Sevik battled the urge to go after her. He muttered a curse to himself, picked up the cup, and sniffed the steam rising from the opening on the lid.

It had that coffee smell, which was prevalent in almost any place humans gathered in any number, but there was more to it. He knew that other smell…

What was it called? Caramel? Another sweet thing, if he wasn’t mistaken. But based on the heat seeping through the cup, he risked burning away all sense of taste if he drank now.

He set it back down and opened the book to the first page.

Sevik’s cabin didn’t have direct access to what seemed to be humanity’s preferred sources of entertainment—television and the internet. He could get onto the latter via the aetherkey he’d brought with him, which functioned similarly to a human computer, but he limited his usage of the device for fear that it could be tracked from Vabos.

So, he’d turned to books—of which there’d been many in the fully furnished cabin—to occupy his time. The English letters had seemed bizarre to him at first. He’d understood them only due to his neural transceiver’s translation function. But practice over the months had made reading the language second nature, and he could do so now without need for the transceiver’s aid.

Books provided fascinating insight into humans, their experiences, and their minds. For all the differences between them and other species, there were even more similarities. So many common emotions and motivations.

Reading this book, which Mina had said was one of her favorites, would teach him about her. And based on the bit he’d sampled earlier…

This certainly wouldn’t make it any fucking easier to resist her.

Sevik read slowly, giving every word the time and respect it deserved. His gaze occasionally flicked toward Mina after she emerged from the back. She continued working as though he wasn’t there.

That amused him as much as it irritated him.

He forced himself to eat the pastry one bite at a time. The sweetness only compounded, not diminishing no matter how long he waited between mouthfuls. But the more overwhelming the taste became, the more determined Sevik became to finish it.

Sevik nearly gagged when he attempted to wash away the pastry’s taste with a swig of the coffee, only keeping the liquid in his mouth by pressing the back of a hand over his lips. The blend of overly sweet and overly bitter was almost more than he could handle. Though he could almost appreciate the smell of coffee, its taste made his facial muscles threaten to twitch with every sip.

He drank it all regardless. His female had gifted him the food and drink, and he would not spurn her by discarding either.

Not far into the book, the main characters agreed to something with which Sevik was quite familiar—sex with no attachments, merely for the pleasure of it.

Fuck, it has been a long time…

Even though Sevik and Mina weren’t anything like the book’s main characters, his mind inserted them into the roles.

He pictured himself taking off Mina’s clothes. Pictured himself stroking her slit, sliding his fingers into her. He pictured her lips parted and her face flushed, and it was the scent of her arousal rising from his memory as he imagined himself licking her slick from his fingers.

Sevik couldn’t keep his eyes on the page; they continuously sought Mina, and every time they settled upon her, his imagination strengthened. Molten heat flowed through his veins, clouding his mind with lust, dulling his resistance to his instincts.

Mina was right there. So close, so eager. If he moved now, if he took her, she wouldn’t fight. She’d be more than willing.

His slit parted against the press of his bulging cocks. Only his jeans kept them from extruding. He shifted upon his seat in an attempt to relieve the ache at his core, but nothing helped. One hand curled atop the table, nearly burying his claws in the wood.

Somehow, he kept reading, though each new word only intensified his yearning and made it harder to focus on the page.

This is what she enjoys. This is what she craves.

Had she gifted him this book as a message? As an invitation? As a…challenge?

Was she showing Sevik exactly what she wanted him to do to her?

Zekt’al , this was torture. The best fucking torture of his life. He’d never wanted anyone like this, had never had so immense an interest, so consuming a need. And he never would’ve imagined himself feeling this for a human, of all things.

He’d pleasured many females, and he had received pleasure from many females. But there was no part of him that was not desperate to have Mina. Not even Enthi, the korasi female to whom he’d been closer than anyone, had made him feel even a tiny sliver of what Mina had ignited in him.

Sevik wanted to see Mina’s hunger, wanted to feel it. Wanted to hear her beg. He wanted to drink her passion and wrap himself in her pleasure, and he wanted to take his own pleasure from it.

It wasn’t until Mina made eye contact with him again that Sevik realized he’d closed the book and had been staring at her for some time. His heartbeat quickened. He’d tried not to reveal anything in this little game between them. He’d tried to hide the depth of his desire while stoking the flames of hers.

Surely, he’d exposed himself now. Surely, she’d seen him staring, had seen the heat in his gaze.

But the smile she offered him was so pure, so sweet, so warm, that its radiance withered away his worry.

He knew in that instant that he wouldn’t hesitate to kill just to see that smile again.