“I mean, look, I guess I know I’m asking a lot.”
He looks at me with confusion. “You are not asking a lot. You are setting the conditions for you to become my mate. I expect a negotiation period. Most of my previous mates asked for small countries, or massive hoards of precious stones.”
“And they got them?”
“Of course. The mate bond is precious. They asked for lands and riches. You are asking for me.”
He looks rather pleased about that, actually. And that’s when it hits me. He’s actually really completely not angry. He’s flattered.
“You’ve never had anybody ask for you?”
“No. Females approaching a royal are always aware of how much they stand to gain. The negotiations used to take weeks sometimes, and be attended by hoards of accountants and negotiators. This, the two of us on a simple roof, watching the mountains and the jungles, this is the most peaceful and easiest mate discussion I have ever had.”
I breathe a sigh of relief.
“So you think you could give me what I’m asking for? You wouldn’t want your harems? Or if some other lady arrived here tomorrow, you wouldn’t start courting her immediately?”
“I would not.”
Just like that. Way too fucking easy. I wonder if he is telling me what I want to hear, like some scummy human guy would.
“You look as though you do not believe me.”
“Most men need more convincing, or they just lie. It’s easy to tell a woman what you want to hear before you have sex. It’s harder to actually be a good mate. That’s why good girls on my world wait to have sex. It’s a way of testing if the guy is actually into her, or if he just wants to dump his come somewhere.”
“Do you want to wait?”
“I do not. But…”
* * *
Rex
She will not mate with me unless I form this mate bond with her. That is the simple matter. It is also a simple matter that there’s absolutely nobody else on this world that I can see. And it is another simple matter that I am now a king ruling over little more than a garden, a stone tower and a single mount.
Whatever is happening on this world, I know I must adapt to it. Trying to maintain an imaginary harem at the cost of the beautiful human female before me is foolish to the point of being a crime against nature.
“If you want me as your own, you shall have me as your own.”
Kristine does not look convinced. I could take that as a personal insult, but I believe it is a product of the many lies the males of her species must tell females in order to attempt to circumvent the love bond they themselves have put in place as a requisite to mate. It sounds complicated and ultimately self-defeating to me, but I do like that there is a promise made and kept when the situation is ideal. And most of all, I like that Kristine wants me. She has held out her entire life for the right mate, and she has selected me. That is a great honor, and one I do not intend to waste.
“It can’t be that easy.”
“Why not?”
She looks down at her feet, as if they hold some special significance, and her face changes color, more closely approximating the fiery hue of her hair.
“Because it’s me. And things are never easy for me.”
“They can be sometimes. You want something, you ask for it, and it is within my power to give it. It is not hard.”
“I’m asking for a lot, and you don’t even know if the sex would be good.”
* * *
Kristine
“Oh, I know the sex will be good.” He flashes a brilliant smile at me and I feel myself swoon. I don’t know if he’s telling me the truth, and I don’t really expect him to promise me forever. But I can suspend my disbelief for long enough…
Long enough to wrap me in his arms and kiss me. Long enough to drive all thoughts of everything besides my own physical need from my brain. His kiss is perfect. His tongue is agile and alien, gliding over mine, exploring my mouth, and making every single part of me sing with immediate carnal connection.
I’m going to sleep with him. I know that as certainly as I know I will be taking one breath, and then another after it. It is just as essential and just as predictable.
He lays me down on his primal bed of skins and feathers, completely naked. I don’t know what he did to my clothes. As far as I am concerned, we were kissing and they melted off beneath his commanding alien touch.
Now I watch him perform the same magic trick on himself, though this time I see how it is done. He lowers his leggings, pushing them off powerful hips by hooking his thumbs in the waistband. This is the view I have been craving since I arrived. This is what I have needed to see.