Alien Caller (18 page)

David explored
her closely, no longer thinking of Cyrea as alien. She wasn’t an
alien, she was a woman. He noticed her hair, but it had become just
that, her hair. It wasn’t a pelt or fur, just a part of her that he
enjoyed. He kept burying his face in it, loving her feel. Her tail
was fair game as well, and he found himself fascinated by the way
it moved in his hands. Then there was her musk, not an animal musk
but a woman’s musk that he breathed deeply and enjoyed.

Cyrea too was
exploring him, discovering his body and learning to appreciate it.
Her hands wandered over him from head to toe, studying his every
contour, learning him, enjoying him. But then she spent too long on
his leg, his hip, and he knew she was studying the wound, looking
at the scar tissue and disliking it. Her people had the medicine to
fix him she had told him on the first day she had come to live with
him. Now he knew, she would be more strongly motivated than before
to get him to go there, and he still had exactly the same problems.
Intentional or not, it was still a bribe and he couldn’t accept it.
Fortunately she said nothing to break their spell, and he said
nothing either. It could wait.

“You okay?
You’re not upset?” Like a fool he kept asking the same stupid
questions every five minutes, worried that she regretted what had
been, when he knew she didn’t, not yet anyway. For now she was like
him, still drunk on the pleasure.

“Will you stop
being so silly. I’m more then okay, and I’m not upset at all. I’m
far too happy to be upset, and I promise I won’t regret it later.
Only that it took so long.” She kept telling him everything he
wanted to hear, and it was slowly sinking in. He still knew he’d
ask again though.

“Amen.”

“I am a little
sore though, a good soreness, from muscles very well used, for
which I thank you. I hope I’ll be getting to thank you again too.”
The look she shot him told him she meant every word. He had much
more work to do that evening, when he recovered. He had given her
everything his body could and she wasn’t the only one who hurt.

He smiled.
“There’s every chance of that when I recover, though I think I
should mention that I’m fairly sore too. But I’m also very grateful
for it. That was probably the best workout I’ve ever experienced,
and I really enjoyed the exercise!” They both laughed, and yet knew
it was also true. Their heart rates still would not return to
normal, and sweat had to be wiped away continually.

Which left him
with the other matter that he should have thought about.

“Umm. We ahh…
didn’t use a condom.” He felt guilty, like a teenager caught in the
act. Yet he hadn’t even thought of it at the time. Nor he guessed,
had Cyrea. She just laughed, a pleasant musical sound he knew he
wanted to hear much more of.

“Now you think
about it?” But she wasn’t really upset, just gently laughing at
him. Teasing him. “After you’ve had your way with me, you want to
talk about safety?” But her arms held him tight, telling him she
wasn’t letting him go.

“Well you
didn’t say anything either!” It was all he could think to say, the
classic, ‘it’s your fault’ defence being as deeply ingrained in him
as it was in all men. She just laughed.

“No I didn’t. I
never even thought about it. But then there’s no need. None of your
diseases will affect me, none of ours will bother you. We’re too
different. And we can’t have children. We’re not the same species.
So unless it’s a fashion thing, let’s not worry about it.” He
chuckled softly at the thought, but still he wasn’t sure.

“You’re
certain?”

“Yes. Long
before we came here we tested out all the microbes that could
possibly cause us harm, and found out there were none, which was a
pleasant surprise. And then we checked that ours wouldn’t bother
you either, which they wouldn’t. And to have babies you have to be
of the same species, which we clearly aren’t, though we seem to
have a lot of things in common. A lot of very wonderful things.
This may be the first time I’ve ever done the practical, but
there’s no real worry.”

“Except for one
tiny little thing of course.” He looked at her, suddenly worried
again as she shot it in.

“Our feuding,
which just occasionally seems to explode into sex. Thank God! If we
hadn’t made love just then, one of us would have surely died!” They
both laughed some more, a lot more, wondering what they had ever
found to feud about in the first place. But secretly they were both
hoping and praying it wouldn’t return. In the afterglow things
looked rosy, but later? He didn’t want to go back to that.

“So I’m your
first human then?” He quickly changed the subject.

“Oh hell yes!
You’re almost the only human I’ve really met, and none of the
others would I ever find remotely attractive. So yes, you’re
definitely my first. Besides the others are mostly old. I don’t
think they’d survive the foreplay!” They cracked up at that, and
the laughter kept coming until the tears flowed. It was such a
relief to have finally done it, and not to be at each other’s
throats.

“As far as I
know we’re also the first between humans and Leinians ever.” They
grinned, pleased at the thought of being the first at anything, and
then discovered that they had that in common as well.

“I can’t really
imagine any of the scientists doing this, nor any of the locals.
They’re all so … narrow. In fact, I’m not aware that many Leinians
have ever mated outside our species. It's not exactly common,
especially when you consider the other races in this part of the
galaxy. And humans are locked onto a single planet, so it’s
difficult to see how you ever could have. We could well be a whole
new level of firsts.”

“Why so rare?”
She touched off his curiosity.

“You haven’t
seen the other races!” She started giggling into his chest at the
thought. “They look nothing like us. They need different
atmospheres, different gravities. In fact of the five major space
faring races in this sector, none could live comfortably on any of
the other’s worlds. We are all too different. Besides, some of them
don’t even seem to have sexes. That’s why we find your world so
amazing. We’d never imagined that there could be people so like us
anywhere. And now I find that we are even closer then we realized.”
She kissed him gently, and for once he didn’t disagree at all.

Biology
lectures from long ago came back to him, as he realized all that
she was referring to. It was far more than just the basic body
plan, which surely had to be unusual in itself. It was more than
even breathing the same air and eating the same food. They made
love exactly the same way, with the same genitalia, the same things
turned them on, breasts and other sexual stimuli. They even found
each other attractive, and that he recalled was often pheromone
based. The same scents. Given what she had mentioned of the other
races it was a miracle. But then it was also a miracle they hadn’t
killed each other first. Which brought him back to one burning
issue.

“Cyrea. Please
don’t take this the wrong way, but I really don’t want to fight
with you anymore. I yield.” He was worried even through his
pleasure that she would react badly, but for once there was no
stiffening in her eyes, no rejection. She simply smiled.

“I don’t want
to fight you either. In fact I don’t need to anymore. I think maybe
this is what I was really after all the time, and you too. But you
still can’t yield.”

“Why not?”

“Because I
yield.” And she kissed him passionately, making sure he understood
she meant it. He kissed her back just as hard, for the same reason.
Neither of them wanted to fight, and neither of them had any reason
to anymore. They both understood that like little children all
they’d been doing was testing each other. ‘I like you, do you like
me?’ Feeling the water, trying desperately to find out if it was
safe to swim, or if they’d drown. Finally they had their answer,
and swimming season was open.

“How about we
both yield, regularly.”

“Sounds good to
me.” It was another contract, but this time one with absolutely no
sort of competition in it. All they had really agreed to was to
carry on, as they both wanted. And they both signed it without a
moment’s hesitation.

“You know. If I
was still an agent I’d have to report all this. After all I’ve been
consorting with a member of another state. Then, once they’d found
out the details, they’d sit me down in front of a bunch of
psychologists, and start analysing me until I didn’t know my own
name. And that would be if you were human. Since you’re not, I
suppose, there would have been a few hundred other scientists as
well, probing me, taking samples and turning me into a human pin
cushion. After them, if it ever got out, well the press would be a
nightmare, and I’d be on every talk back show for the next thousand
years. Just think; the first human being to have sex with an alien.
I really don’t want to ever have to tell this story to any living
soul on my world.” Which was his roundabout way of assuring her
that he really didn’t want to tell his people about hers, if he
didn’t absolutely have to.

“You think
you’ve got it bad? I’m not planning on telling my people either.
They’d write it up for their scientific papers, and we’d be all
over every news programme for months. I can see the headlines now.
‘Wild bald savage ravishes security officer’. Or how about ‘Officer
gets her man’.” She shuddered, half seriously and they both
laughed.

“I’m not bald!”
But then again he wasn’t furry either, which was what she meant.
Cyrea ignored him.

“Then they’d
start prying, hunting for video of it. We’d be spied upon day and
night. And once they had it we’d be in full 3D for the whole
universe to watch, every night at the dinner table. They’d have
learned panel discussions about every tiny piece of the act, and
probably game shows too!”

But they
laughed too soon as David suddenly remembered what he should have
thought about from the beginning. That he was sure his house was
bugged, even if he hadn’t found any listening devices. Quietly, he
whispered it too her, not wanting to upset her but knowing she
needed to know. He was rewarded with a groan.

“Shit! I hadn’t
thought of that. I thought Alice was just reacting to the mess, but
you’re right. She did talk about us rolling around on the floor.
She knew too much, and that means they’ve been naughty scientists.”
That was something he hadn’t considered. That her people’s
scientists might not be allowed to bug him. Cyrea saw his
expression and explained.

“Science
parties are only supposed to carry equipment suitable for
monitoring the larger populations. Spying on individuals inside
their homes is forbidden. That applies to our people and to
yours.”

“But given the
situation, I’d guess they might have made an exception in your
case. After all, you are both in military intelligence and living
in the region. You were a serious threat.” Which made him feel both
good and bad. It was pleasing to find he’d been taken seriously,
especially after finding out how badly he’d been deceived for more
than three years, but he also found he didn’t want them to fear
him. From what little he knew of them, they were nice people.

Then another
thought hit him, as he remembered the way Alice had made them sit
so close together, and her parting comments. Something about a
rematch, and seeing who won. At the time he’d thought she was just
stirring, just being Alice. But now, something about it stank.

“You think they
could have done more than watched? That they might have known and
nudged us in this direction?” On the one hand he could see that the
comments might have been innocent though cheeky, and on the other
he realized they were a part of what had brought them back
together. Alice had suggested a rematch, and she had made it a
competition, even if they were too besotted to understand that at
the time. Then too she had made it more blatant, making them sit
next to each other, touching, and telling them how much they had in
common.

Cyrea thought
about it for a few moments, and then swore again.

“When did you
learn to swear?” The question struck him out of the blue as he
realized she’d been swearing like any Earth woman, and without an
accent.

“On Sunday.
Colloquialisms were in my language tape. You like?”

“Bloody useful
tool.” Learning languages from a tape. It sounded on the one hand
quite freaky, but on the other hand it would have been damn
convenient. He was considered almost a polyglot, speaking thirteen
languages well including most of the major Slavic and Asian
languages, but it took him months to get to even conversational
levels. Cyrea had learned U.S. English in three weeks, and now
spoke with a genuine cultured American accent. To make it more
incredible it was a completely alien language for her, with no
common derivatives to any other languages she might speak.

“I think you
might be right, about the nudging that is. That first time we
fought, you liked it. I felt you. And so did I.” If that wasn’t
confession he didn’t know what was. He kissed her again for good
measure.

“The second
time I liked it even more, and the third, well it was just
fantastic.” The smile returned to her face, and he knew she was
agreeing with him.