My gaze lingered shamelessly, drinking her in. The faint sheen of warmth across her chest, the quick rise and fall of her breath as her own gaze traveled across me, the way her hair framed her face in loose, unbothered strands. She was lush. Fertile. A vision carved for worship as well as touch. Her softness wasn't weakness; it was abundance. Every curve, every ripple of her body spoke of life and warmth and decadence, and I couldn't look away. I didn't want to look away.
She took a step forward, looking around the space, her entire body jiggling with such unabashed seductiveness. I wondered how on all of Earth she hadn't been snatched up by some other male. I was so incredibly lucky. Lucky that she was willing to leave her home, her planet, her family, just to come be with some male she had never met. Humans had their own concept of mates; they called them soulmates, but they didn't have as reliable a way of spotting them as other species did. TheNorratar had their symbiotes that helped with the process. For my species, long-lived and slow breeding, we sought our mates by scent, recognizing them in other species with frequency, our alien parent contributing to the appearance of our smaller forms. Finding a mate in the form of a fertile human was a blessing that was not uncommon.
She finally spotted me, her eyes widening as they fell on me, her thin lips dropping to form a cute little o as she took in the sight of my humanoid form. I tensed my muscles, presenting this smaller form of mine to her for her pursuit.
"Wow," she gasped, then she blushed and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear as she offered me an embarrassed smile. "Sorry, I meant hi. I'm Brielle. You are Vaelith? You're a lot... taller than your photo."
"I am," I said, controlling my air only to let the smallest amount out. My predatory desires smouldered as she gazed at me with flustered eyes, her body already showing signs of visible arousal with how she pressed her thighs together, shifting slightly, how her nips peaked so hard that I could see them poking through her shirt despite her undergarments' attempts to control them.
I wanted to stretch this moment out, to feast on her with my humanoid eyes for as long as I possibly could.
"The contract said... You need me to run?" she asked as she glanced at the huge dirt expanse of the massive greenhouse, then down at her feet, where she wore bright red heels.
"Not immediately," I said, continuing to conserve my air as I spoke. I knew it made me sound stilted, but I wanted to have this chance to talk to her. "Only once I scent you. I am holding my breath so we can speak. Do you have any questions?"
She bit her thick lower lip, and heat flooded me, the prickling warning of the change. By the stars, she was affecting me already, and I hadn't yet caught the scent of her essence from theair. I hadn't ever heard of spotting one's mate from sight, though my kind had a heightened sense of smell, so it was unusual to see a mate before scenting her.
"What happens if I don't run?" she asked, the words coming out in a rush.
The question startled me. The sight of my kind transforming was universally considered terrifying to smaller species.
"I... don't know," I said. "Humans always run from my kind."
"Oh," she said. "Well, that was my only question. What else do you want to talk about?"
"What brings you comfort and joy?" I asked.
"Oh my cat," she said without hesitation, but she didn't stop there as she held up a hand and began counting off on her fingers. "Cute pillows, chocolate, books, the super spicy ones as well as the steamy and the ones that are really the author just standing there patting themselves on the back with how clever they are, I love them all."
I tapped the com-unit embedded in my wrist to bring up a screen and quickly began stroking my fingers along the holographic matrix that projected in the air, sending instructions and the list to my ship. She paused as the screen came up, but her hesitation vanished into a broad smile as she continued to list things off.
"Spaghetti, those Japanese cakes, music, tulsi rose tea, strawberries, oversized sweaters, writing handwritten letters to my friends with super pretty gel pens, fostering stray animals, though I guess I'm done with that one if I'm going to live in space from now on, is this too many things? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to go on like that. I'm just a little nervous," she said, her skin flushing a little darker.
I finished sending the instructions. It wasn't exactly what I meant by the question, so I needed to be more specific with my words.
"Do you have any needs not listed in the contract?" I asked. "The additions you made to the contract were minimal."
The need to breathe was creeping up on me. My breath control was reduced in my humanoid form, and there was only so long I could stand it.
"Oh!" she looked down at the ground. "I got excited. I didn't think to add other things."
The words were lightning, illuminating this moment in their brilliance. She was excited.
I was desperate to scent her.
"You are my mate, my treasure," I purred. "I will provide for your every need, your every desire, you only need to voice them. The contract isn't to limit you, it is to ensure that our first mating isn't frightening."
She gazed up at me through her lashes, her tongue running along her lower lip before she bit it gently in her teeth. Stars, what it would feel like to have that soft mouth latch around me.
"I'm not frightened," she murmured. "I..."
She hesitated, her eyes glancing around the space as if she were embarrassed by what she was going to say next.
"Say it," I commanded.
She flushed again, the color creeping down her neck and into her blouse. Her eyes caught mine again, and the shock of that look in her eyes was so heated and determined.
"When I was little, I used to look up at the clouds and imagine someone like you was flying above me," she said, her lips parted and glistening as she stared at me, as if I were the answer to all her dreams. "I would wish you would fly down and pick me up so that I could leave the world behind and travel through the sky with you. I'm not frightened because I've spent my whole life dreaming about running away with you."
