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  Vincent dragged his gaze from the women and looked at Miroc . “Look how hungry they are, poor little undernourished things. They're fighting over the food I sent down for them,” he whispered behind his hand. “They must be starving. I am really glad you had this idea, man. I feel better already."

  Miroc crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Vincent indignantly. He forgot what he'd been about to say, however, when he glanced at the women again and it dawned on him that the women weren't staring at their faces. A puzzled frown drew his brows together. “If I didn't know better, I'd think they were a little more disturbed by our bare forms than the fact that we're alien to this world. Did you notice anything that gave you the impression that they have taboos about their bodies?” Miroc whispered back worriedly.

  "We should try to comfort them before we take them up,” Vincent said, ignoring Miroc's concern as hardly worth a discussion and then loudly addressed the women directly before Miroc could object to the suggestion of offering comfort since it was obvious to him from the nasty look of suspicion that crossed Miroc's face that he distrusted his motives. “We have come to rescue you."

  Jody didn't have a clue of what the beautiful bald guy had just said, but she didn't have any trouble catching the lilt of triumph in his voice or interpreting the grin of supreme satisfaction that lit his whole face. She turned her head ever so slightly towards Berny and, without taking her eyes off the alarmingly large very nude men, strained a falsely sweet smile and whispered through gritted teeth, very slowly so that the movement of her lips was only barely perceptible, “I'm not really sure what it is he just said, but I don't like the sound of it. You might be right. They do appear to be looking at us, only they still look hungry. I'm thinking crazed cannibals here, mind you, not stag hunts. On the count of three, I say we make a run for it in the opposite direction.” With that said, she batted her eyelashes at the men to lend credence to her innocent demeanor.

  Berny, still locked in open-mouthed, wide-eyed, body debilitating awe at the well-endowed nature of the magnificent naked men, turned, shook her head slightly as if rousing from a daydream, blinked at Jody, and said, “Huh?"

  "Run!” Jody shouted frantically, grabbing Berny by the wrist and almost yanking her arm out of its socket as she jerked her friend to a run in the opposite direction of the strange naked men.

  Jody and Berny made a hasty retreat back down the trail towards the safety of camp. Unfortunately, they had not been blessed with speed.

  Vincent and Miroc exchanged alarmed glances. “Now you've done it!” Vincent growled. “You scared them, scowling at them like that. They'll all know about us before we can spit!"

  "I scared them?” Miroc demanded indignantly. “I wasn't scowling at them. I was scowling at you."

  "It was probably that barbaric hair of yours. Do we have to argue about this now?” Vincent demanded. “We can't let them go back and tell the others. Now we have to rescue them. I knew this was a bad idea."

  Miroc looked like he was more tempted to clobber Vincent than chase the frightened women, which he was, but Vincent had a point. The only thing worse than letting the two women know about them was letting all of the aliens know about them. Uttering a sound of frustration, they charged after the fleeing women. It was almost pathetically easy to catch them, even with their head start. Miroc suspected their shrieks of alarm had further weakened them, because the one he caught was making strange noises in her throat as if she was suffocating. In spite of her weakness, she struggled so valiantly he was ashamed that he had to exert his superior strength over her, but then it was for her own safety. She couldn't be wiggling and thrashing around when the beam locked onto them.

  Jody was too caught up in trying to wiggle free to notice that the stranger that held her captive had stopped moving all together. The bright light that had announced the presence of the men in the clearing before, previously forgotten, suddenly moved in their direction at an alarming speed, stopping just overhead.

  Before Jody had time to contemplate the source or meaning of the all-encompassing brilliant white light, blackness enveloped her, like a very long blink. When she opened her eyes again, she found that they were no longer on the island. Instead, she found herself inside a small, dimly lit room filled with blinking lights.

  As she looked around in openmouthed disbelief, she got the impression of being inside something like an airplane. When her gaze lit on the window, though, her eyes widened. Outside she saw nothing but cold, black, endless space. Dread filled her stomach like lead and a knot of emotion welled within her throat, almost making it impossible to breathe. When Berny turned around and stared at her blankly for a heartbeat and then began to scream her head off, Jody completely lost her cool and started screaming in response.

  Vincent released the woman he held abruptly. Retreating before a cacophony of blood curdling screams and slightly befuddled body movement, he studied the two women in utter dismay.

  The trip to the ship appeared to have strangely affected the nerves carrying messages to their limbs from the way they were flapping them around and writhing in place. He wondered at first if they were convulsing, but although he studied them both carefully, he couldn't see any outward sign of brain seizure. They weren't having any difficulty vocalizing, and they weren't foaming at the mouth.

  In fact, almost the moment the thought occurred to him, they looked down at themselves, obviously identified the fact that they were now nude and began screaming again, louder if that was at all possible, and trying desperately to cover themselves with their hands.

  When the women scrambled together into a corner, clutching each other protectively, he turned to see what Miroc thought about the situation.

  Miroc looked more disgusted than alarmed. “I don't think I can handle any more of that strange squawking sound coming from the Earth women. If you don't do something about it, I will,” he said uneasily, lifting his large hands to shelter his ears, his temples beginning to pound from the stressful situation and the chaotic noises the women emitted.

  Racking his brain for a solution, the only option Vincent could come up with was to sedate them, their hysterical noises even rattling his brains. “Alright, Miroc,” Vincent shouted over the din, “I can't say I like it, but I'll grab a Slephlurr."

  Inching past the women in an effort not to disturb them anymore than they already were, he gently touched a small panel in the wall opposite the women and stood with his hand palm up a few inches away. The panel reversed itself and an object the size of a large softball appeared from behind the wall, slid off the panel and into his hand. Holding it just the same as he had received it, he turned to face the women, who seemed, from what he could understand of their babble, to be as alarmed by the fact that they'd lost their clothing as they were by the transport from the planet's surface.

  Miroc should have considered how much the rescue was likely to frighten them, he thought angrily, but he hadn't thought of it himself. Then again, who would have? After all, the Earth people weren't that far behind them technologically.

  They acted like they'd never seen a space vehicle before, and he knew for a fact that the Earth people had them. True, their range was actually pretty pathetic, but just the same they did have them, and they liked to play pretend about going to other worlds. He'd studied their entertainment. One would've thought they would have been honored and thrilled with the experience.

  Approaching them cautiously, Vincent knelt down slowly onto the floor a few feet from the cowering women. They quieted at his approach, their gazes focusing on the Slephlurr. To his relief, they didn't seem to find the ball of organic matter threatening.

  Jody grew quiet as she watched the alien (he was an alien, however human he looked because he sure as hell wasn't an astronaut), partly because she was getting too hoarse and tired to keep screaming, and partly because his behavior was almost more alarming than it was comforting and that called for thinking, not hysterics. She could tell he was trying to behave in a non
-threatening manner. She just couldn't decide why he was working so hard to make them think they were in no danger.

  As embarrassed and disturbed as she was at discovering herself naked when she'd had plenty of clothes on only moments before, she couldn't help but notice the aliens didn't seem to be any more unsettled by it than they were by their own nudity.

  Not that they had any reason to be self-conscious, because unless she'd lost her mind and she was hallucinating, these two were a really stunning pair.

  Or maybe they didn't actually look like they appeared to look to her, she wondered in sudden suspicion, realizing it was just two coincidental that they were so human like and at the same time so perfectly beautiful.

  Studying Mr. Bald and Beautiful piercingly as he moved carefully around them, she examined him for anything that might indicate that the outer appearance wasn't his actual form and finally concluded that he just looked too comfortable and moved too naturally to be in disguise.

  Or maybe they had some sort of mind bending device that made her think she was seeing a beautiful man instead of a—lizard man or something like that?

  His eyes were kind. Try though she might to read something else into that, she couldn't. And he didn't look at her like she was something that had just crawled out from under a rock. In fact, unless she was completely deluding herself, he'd given her an interested once over, as if he actually liked what he saw. Dimly, she recalled that she'd gotten looks like that from men in the old days, when she'd been closer to model slim. Now, she didn't even get that kind of look from the weird guys that liked fat chicks, because she wasn't quite fat enough to suit their taste in women.

  When he knelt in front of her and Berny, it took a real effort to focus on the thing hovering above his palm instead of the massive joystick dangling between his thighs. She wondered if it was as generous as she thought it was, or if it had just been so damned long since she'd had a chance at one that she'd forgotten what they looked like. With a tremendous effort of will, Jody refocused her gaze from the ‘backdrop’ to the thing he was holding out. A thrill of pleasure coursed through her. It was the most exquisite flower bud she had ever seen. The bud had probably a hundred long, thin almost translucent pale pink petals which were only as wide as a pencil, stretching becomingly from a small brown base that resembled a lily pad. A few hair-width green stems peeped through a slight opening at the top.

  Distracted by the angelic beauty of the flower bud before them, Jody didn't notice the alien gently blowing on it. Suddenly, the bud began to ease open, blooming right before their eyes, and the green stems inside began to waft gently towards them, releasing a fine, barely perceptible pollen which they unknowingly breathed in. The scent from the flower was heavenly. Jody smiled faintly as she inhaled deeply of the sweet perfume, wondering dreamily what kind of flower it was as a strange, invasive warmth began in the pit of her belly and blossomed, spreading outward so that her skin suddenly seemed acutely sensitive and way too tight for her body.

  Chapter Two

  Frowning slightly, Vincent stood and discarded the Slephlurr on the floor. As he did, a soundless robot dutifully popped from a seamless panel on the floor, quickly secured the mess, and vanished again. He studied the now quiet Earth women, his face awash with relief and more than a little confusion. “Well, thank Methusala that's done the trick. I don't think even cardigaradoos make that kind of horrible racket when they're mating.” He rubbed a hand absentmindedly over his head, noticing he'd begun to grow bristles. Mildly irritated to discover the stubble, he wondered if he ought to just have it permanently removed and be done with it. “I know I agreed when you suggested we help them, but perhaps that was a hasty decision? Damned if it didn't seem to me that they acted more frantic and mistreated than they did when they were being tortured on their own planet. It's almost like they didn't want to be free,” he added thoughtfully, completely oblivious to the ferocious glare Miroc was burning into his back. “Maybe they've been captive so long it has warped their minds? Perhaps they cannot cope with any other reality? I'm thinking you've gotten us into a hell of a mess here, my friend."

  Miroc's eyes narrowed dangerously. “I got us into a mess?” he demanded, more than a little outraged.

  Vincent gave his friend a smile of reassurance. “Don't worry. I'm behind you all the way,” he said, landing a friendly hand heavily on Miroc's shoulder. “Don't I always have your back? Anyway,” he added, his smile turning wry, “I was as smitten with them as you were. I freely admit I might have let my male interest outweigh the logical scientist in me, just like you did."

  "They're cute, but they're not that damned cute! I'm not the one that was thinking with my wonder worm. They're luscious alright, and tempting, but not cute enough to spend four seasons in prison and lose my license to study!” Miroc growled. “Now what? We can't just send them back."

  Vincent glanced down at the two women, smiling at the pretty one reassuringly, the one the other female had called Jo-dy. A puzzled frown creased his brow, however, when she returned his smile with a sultry glance that made his heart rate flutter uncomfortably. “Is it just me or does it seem a little odd to you, too, that they're still awake? Shouldn't they be sleeping by now?"

  Miroc glanced at them, but distractedly. “I don't care as long as they aren't making that deafening noise. Quit avoiding the issue. What are we going to do with them now? We can't just keep them here, and we can't take them back.

  Vincent shrugged. “If we carry them home, I expect the Medical Collection Staff will know how to treat their condition. And think what we could learn from them on the trip,” he said, wriggling his brows.

  "I think you have space dementia,” Miroc growled. “Carry them home? Do you want to be imprisoned and lose your license?"

  "You think of something,” Vincent muttered, irritated himself now since Miroc seemed determined to shoot down all of his suggestions. It wasn't like he was in the habit of doing Miroc that way. No matter how hair brained Miroc's ideas were, and some of them were pretty wild, he usually agreed to go along. “You're the brains here. I'm just along for the ride. How are we going to explain having them?"

  "One of these days...” Miroc growled.

  "You're trying to blame this on.... “Vincent was distracted from his outrage by something petting his leg. He looked down to see Jo-dy, stroking his leg as if he was a favorite pet. His belly clenched.

  Apparently not content with that much contact, she started rubbing her face all over his leg, the top of her head just barely grazing his naked manhood in her attempt to get as much of her skin all over as much of his skin as possible. Alarmed more by his instant reaction than her behavior, he jumped back, falling on his ass since she didn't relinquish her grip on his leg.

  "Something is definitely not right,” he muttered in a strangled voice. “She's acting like I gave her a sexual stimulant instead of a sedative,” Vincent added, glancing at Miroc for help and discovering his friend had a cling-on of his own to worry about.

  Sweat beaded his brow as Jo-dy worked her way upward, wantonly caressing his flesh with her hands and body, tasting him with her lips until the blood pounding in his skull and his nether regions began to feel volcanic in nature.

  He was going to choke Miroc for talking him into this, because if she kept it up he was going to be forced to do something really stupid and illegal, like fuck her brains out, and then they would be in a hell of a mess. Four seasons of imprisonment was a walk in the park compared to what sexing an alien species would cost them.

  Placing one hand on the top of her head to hold her off, he glanced at Miroc for help again. “I could use a little help here, damn it, man!"

  Miroc's eyes were rolled back in his head. The guttural noises he made, apparently in an effort to respond, made Vincent distinctly uneasy considering the female seemed to have swallowed his cock and she should be the one choking.

  Cannibalism, he wondered?

  Or maybe they didn't consider it that since they were a
different species?

  Before he could reason it out, Jo-dy, who'd been driving him half mad by nuzzling her face against his lower belly, sucked his testicles into her mouth and began to make a humming noise. He almost exploded right then.

  His fingers fisted reflexively in her hair. As if that was some sort of signal to her, she released his testicles and, before he could drag in a decent breath of relief, covered his cock with her mouth.

  His eyes seemed to roll back in his head—or he went blind. In vain, he struggled to recall some of the language he'd been so carefully translating. Realizing finally that that was useless, he tried to prod himself to rise so that he could grab her and pull her off. He couldn't seem to do anything but writhe helplessly beneath her, for it took every ounce of concentration he could muster to keep from coming.

  "This OK not,” he said hoarsely when she finally lifted her head.

  She smiled, her eyes heavy lidded, though not, obviously, with sleep. “Better than OK,” she murmured, shoving his limp arm away and nibbling and licking her way up his chest.

  "Not law,” Vincent muttered a little desperately, grabbing her shoulders and trying to hold her away from him.

  "No it isn't,” she agreed pleasantly, dipping her head and devouring his mouth in a searing kiss, suckling his lips and darting her tongue daringly in and out of his mouth.

  When she straddled him, enveloping his member in her hot, wet cleft, Vincent lost the battle for reason. Grabbing her, he tipped her onto her back and began a mindless search for the paradise she promised. “Fuck it,” he muttered to himself. “She'll never remember it anyway with the Slephlurr."

  She was so tight and hot and wet he almost lost it before he managed to work his cock inside of her. She groaned as if he was killing her, but one look at her face was enough to reassure him it was ecstasy, not pain that dragged the sounds from her, and that was enough to finish him off.

  Grabbing her hips, he began pounding into her frantically until it began to seem like a race as to whether his heart, his brain, or his cock was going to explode first. She screamed, bucking against him, her channel quaking around his cock.