Mating Flight Read online

  MATING FLIGHT

  By

  Shay Lacy

  © copyright January, 2007, Shay Lacy

  Cover art by Jenny Dixon, © copyright January, 2007

  New Concepts Publishing

  Lake Park, GA 31636

  www.newconceptspublishing.com

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, events, and places are of the author's imagination and not to be confused with fact. Any resemblance to living persons or events is merely coincidence.

  "Everyone is a prisoner of his own experience. No one can eliminate prejudices--just recognize them."

  --Edward R. Murrow

  Chapter One

  The young Averan mother's eyes were huge with terror. She clutched her small child to the front of her body until it whimpered. The two Averans drew back from us as though we were monsters.

  This was the strongest fear reaction to humans I'd witnessed since we landed on the planet two months ago. Averans in the capital had grown accustomed to us and no longer flinched at the sight of us. But this excursion was the furthest we'd been from the capital since we arrived. The Averans here had never seen humans before. It was a forceful reminder that they were afraid.

  Dr. Sheleigh O'Brien stopped typing her observations as one of her orange curls fell forward into her eyes, obscuring the computer screen. She brushed it back, and then returned her hands to the keyboard. But her train of thought had evaporated like morning mist in sunlight.

  She exhaled a disgruntled breath and frowned. She was a trained anthropologist and should have found a reason for their fear by now. Averans looked so much like humans that the depth of their fear didn't make sense. She'd found nothing in the Averans' current society to explain their reactions and, for some inexplicable reason, she'd been unable to learn their history. When she asked questions, she received polite silence. Why couldn't she concentrate hard enough to find answers?

  She knew the reason why: Kleet Kryszan, oldest son and heir of the Averan ruler. She'd never felt the desire for another man that she felt for Kleet. Between studying hard for her dual doctorate, then anthropological missions to various planets belonging to Unified Sentient Planets, most of whose species weren't human, she'd never met a man as magnetic as Kleet. And he was forbidden fruit. Scientists were strongly discouraged from fraternizing with the native population on newly discovered planets like Avera. Too bad she couldn't seem to keep a clinical detachment about him.

  As though her thoughts had conjured him, he dangled a piece of orange food in front of her. She followed the long familiar fingers up the masculine arm to gaze at Kleet's face. Her heart sped up and her breath caught, as it did whenever she saw him. His dark brown hair set off his burnished skin beautifully. His light eyes sparkled with happiness. They reflected whatever he wore. Today they were the warm gray of his neatly pressed shirt. He smiled and she melted inside.

  "I brought you something," he cajoled in a smooth baritone that caressed up her spine. "It matches your hair. Open your mouth."

  She'd learned to trust his frequent gifts of food.

  She allowed him to slip the segment between her lips and she chewed the sweetly succulent fruit. It tasted similar to tropical fruits she'd eaten on Earth.

  "Umm," she relished the morsel.

  He smiled at her response and moved around her desk, handing her the rest of the fruit. "I chose the ripest one for you. I thought you'd like it." He sounded smugly satisfied. Her heart fluttered at the thought that she'd made him feel that way.

  "You're going to make me fat with all this food." It was hard to think with him standing so close.

  He eyed her body, openly hungry, and she grew warm inside. "Never. May I taste it?"

  "Sure."

  She offered him the fruit, but he sampled her lips instead. The kiss electrified her. A sensual jolt shot to her lower body. She savored the taste of his kiss as hungrily as she'd savored the fruit. His kisses had become more frequent and more ardent lately. They were always exciting and usually unexpected.

  "Umm." The sound rumbled through their joined lips. His hand slid down her shirt to mold her breast and she jerked. "Easy," he murmured. She tried to calm her rioting nerves. Her nipple pebbled under his stroking hand. Heat pooled in her loins.

  His lips moved to her neck to nibble the soft skin there. "When will you give yourself to me?" he invited, not for the first time. A nip on her ear made her gasp.

  "You know I've never given myself to anyone. It has to be right." But her protest had begun to ring hollow in her ears.

  "It feels right to me, Shel. Don't you want me filling you where you ache? Imagine me hot and full inside you, and the pleasure of joining with me. I want to be with you like that."

  She groaned with want. His words made her lower body clench and she grew moist between her legs. She might not have physical experience with sex, but her girlfriends and female co-workers had described their love affairs to her for years. She'd collected those tales, mostly from a sociological and anthropological standpoint.

  She imagined what it would be like, she wanted it, and she wanted to be one with him ... but she remembered the obstacles. She sighed. "I need time."

  "I need you, Shel."

  "I know. I'm just not ready. We've only known each other two months." And at that, they barely knew one another.

  "You know enough to let me touch you here." He stroked her nipple, making her moan. "No man has been here before me. If this intimacy is right for us, then joining together is also right."

  He was so compelling when he talked about them making love. She felt like getting naked and letting him come inside her. Her body burned with the desire to be filled with him. She wanted to see him naked and touch his bare flesh, hold it against her own body. He made her weak and mindless with need. In her thirty years she'd never met a man with whom she wanted to share her body intimately. She was beginning to feel ridiculous for still having her chastity in the face of her attraction to Kleet. If only this was Earth and not Avera.

  "Soon," she moaned, giving him what he wanted. She'd think about the repercussions later, when she was alone.

  He kissed her again, crushing her to him. The kiss was possessive and triumphant. She felt a tendril of fear that there was no backing out of it now. She'd just promised to give herself to him. She told her fear to shut up and enjoy the kiss.

  Kleet was a marvelous kisser. He made her whole body riot, down to her tingling fingertips. She wanted to devour those wonderful lips, drown in them and savor them endlessly.

  Being close to his hard, warm body was intoxicating. Her skin cried out with joy at touching him. Her breasts savored being pressed against his chest. Her arms clutched him fiercely, wanting, oh, did they want.

  He broke the kiss and rested his forehead against hers, panting. She controlled her instinctive sound of protest. "You'll be mine," he declared, and there was a triumphant ring in his voice. He pulled away from her slowly, like a caress. "I have to go. I wanted to steal some time with you, and some kisses, of course." His smile was devilish.

  "I'm glad you came." Her voice sounded breathless.

  He cleared his throat. "You're going to be at the reception tonight?" It wasn't really a question.

  "Of course. Most of my team is going."

  "There will be dancing. You'll dance with me." Another statement.

  "I'm supposed to dance with several of the council members and other important people."

  He cocked his head and gave her a sardonic look. "Not more important than me."

  "No, of course not. But I need to mingle a little. Harrier said the council members were curious about us."

  "They are. But you'll dance many times with me."

  "I look forward to it." A shiver ran
through her at the thought of being in his arms again tonight.

  He kissed her again, and then let her go. "Tonight," he promised. His eyes sizzled with heat.

  "Tonight," she replied. She heard the yearning in her voice.

  He turned and his long black cape swirled out around him. It trailed him out the door of her office like a tail would follow a proud lion.

  She sighed. The passionate fog he engendered faded with his lack of proximity. Only his musky scent lingered in the room and clung to her body. She could still taste his kiss on her lips and she touched them with her fingers. His lips were magic.

  "I see the heir was here again, Sheleigh," her human colleague, Dr. Marne Vorndran, sneered from the doorway of her office.

  She snatched her fingers away from her lips and straightened in her chair. Had Marne seen Kleet arrive and followed him to Sheleigh's office, and then waited until Kleet left to confront her? Her cheeks burned at what Marne might have witnessed. She tried to brazen it out. "What do you want, Marne?"

  He wore his wavy black hair a little too long and his trousers a little too tight. He would have been handsome except for the way his right lip and nostril pulled up as he sneered. It made one side of his face look like it had melted upwards.

  "What I want won't be offered to me. It seems you want it kinky ... well, kinkier than I can be. Kryszan's not even human, Sheleigh. Are you making a detailed study of his alien genitalia?"

  "You're foul."

  "Me? I'm not the one doing it with an alien."

  "This is his planet. We're the aliens here. And may I remind you it's with their reluctant agreement. They're sentient beings, not animals."

  He waved that away with a manicured hand. "The Averans aren't even as advanced as humans are. They're sub-human."

  "You know they're not human at all. They're unclassified humanoids, like many of the species in USP." Alarm rang through her that Marne might be a closet xenophobe. She'd thought him angry because she'd rebuffed his advances on the trip from Earth, but what if it was more than that? She had to tread carefully. He'd had a spotless reputation before he came on this mission. But if he hated or feared aliens, he could endanger this initial mission to Avera and Unified Sentient Planets (USP) would never be allowed back. The chance to learn about them would be forever lost. She'd never learn why they were afraid.

  "Maybe it's a power trip for you," he continued. "He's the heir to a planet, after all. Maybe you think he'll marry you and you'll help rule Avera one day."

  She shot to her feet. "Kleet's a decent man, which is more than I can say about you."

  "Hit a sensitive spot, did I?" His cold eyes gleamed.

  A young woman with cornrows in her hair appeared in the doorway behind Marne. Her skin was the color of heavily creamed coffee. "Excuse me, Dr. Vorndran." She pushed past him. "Dr. O'Brien, Dr. Barazi wants to see you."

  All thoughts of her colleague fled from her mind as she stared at their assistant. "Did he say what it was about, Deveria?" The head of their mission rarely asked to see her. He was content to receive updates at their weekly staff meetings.

  "No, doctor, but he'd like to see you now."

  Sheleigh moved around her desk and tried to pass Marne.

  "I bet he disapproves of your affair, too. By the way, your shirt's unbuttoned." He gave his parting comments and turned on his heel. He strode stiffly to his office two doors down.

  She shot daggers into his retreating back, wishing one of her thoughts could take physical form and sink deeply into his flesh. He had been spying on her! He must want revenge for her rebuff. She buttoned her shirt quickly, gently cursing Kleet for not being more discreet. She turned to see Deveria waiting expectantly.

  "I saw that dishy heir leaving here. He's yummy. You're dating him?"

  "No, I'm not dating him." She and Kleet had never had a date. They managed to get physical well enough in her office or his, or on her field observations.

  "Really?" Deveria's gaze dropped to the newly buttoned shirt and back up. "I wouldn't mind a little inter-species relationship myself. There's a young man in the next canyon I'd like to get to know a lot better."

  "Just be careful, Deveria."

  Her assistant gave her a sharp look and stalked away. It was then that Sheleigh realized she wasn't following her own advice and Deveria knew it. Who was she to advise caution to a passionate young woman like Deveria? Sheleigh was too used to thinking like a virgin. Now she was a hypocrite. She hurried to her superior's office.

  "Dr. Barazi, you wanted to see me?"

  "Come in and close the door." He gestured her inside his small, cramped office.

  She did as she was bid, swallowing nervously when she turned to close the door. A closed-door meeting did not bode well. She sat in the chair in front of his desk.

  Dr. Barazi's short black hair was perfectly combed, not a hair out of place. The round collar of his tunic buttoned at his throat. The light color made his swarthy complexion even darker. "Are you ready for the reception tonight?"

  His first question wasn't what she'd expected. "Yes, I'm looking forward to it."

  "You know how important it is for us to make a good impression on the council and the ruler of this planet. After all, we're here by their grudging permission."

  "I know." Unified Sentient Planets had begged the Averans to allow one tiny scientific group on the planet.

  "Sheleigh, I'm concerned." He dropped his dark eyes and straightened his orderly desk with short blunt fingers. Then he looked up again. "I'm not sure that your making a play for the ruler's son is the impression we want to make."

  She felt her face flame and cursed her redheaded complexion. "I've made no play for Kleet."

  "He visits you regularly. I'm told he was just here. Why does he come to you and not to the head of the mission, as is proper?"

  "I've done nothing inappropriate, Dr. Barazi. I assure you."

  Dr. Barazi was an astute scientist and she sat under his scrutiny now. "The heir pursues you?" he guessed. She nodded and he sighed. "This complicates things. I could go to his father ... no, that wouldn't work."

  He sprang from his chair and paced the small confines of his office, radiating nervous energy. Sheleigh felt like she was caged with a wild animal. She didn't know what to say to calm him or what she could safely admit.

  "The mission is in jeopardy," he groaned. He stopped suddenly and pointed a thick finger at her. "We'll send you home. We'll claim that you're sick or something."

  She shot to her feet as though rocket propelled. "No!" Being sent home in ignominy would mean sure death for her career. No future mission head would ever accept her. She would be blacklisted as an unacceptable risk. The closest she would ever get to anthropology or sociology again would be to teach them to future xenos. No!

  She had to admit her feelings to save herself. "Kleet's advances aren't unwelcome."

  Dr. Barazi froze, his black brows drawn together, studying her face. Her cheeks were warm with her infernal blush. "Is that the truth? You're not just sacrificing yourself for the mission?"

  "No!" she exclaimed, disgusted by that thought. "The attraction is mutual."

  "I see. There won't be any ... repercussions if his attraction ends? To the mission, I mean."

  What else could he have been referring to? "No repercussions." The way she had it figured, any attraction between them would die a natural death once Kleet satisfied his lust for her and moved on. That's all there was between them. He was a prince, so there wasn't any future between the heir to Avera and a xenosociologist/anthropologist from Earth. She wasn't Cinderella and this wasn't a fairytale.

  Chapter Two

  Or was it a fairytale? Sheleigh stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror, her mouth shaped in an "o" of surprise. Who was this almost pretty woman with a complexion like peaches and cream? Where had the gawky, too-thin girl with the blemished face gone? When had the skeletal face and body filled out? When had her carroty hair mellowed into this luscious mel
on color? She touched her cheek with a disbelieving hand. This reflection wasn't a result of how Kleet made her feel. Somewhere and sometime while she'd been studying other civilizations, she'd become a woman with more than passable good looks. Was how she looked now the reason behind first Marne's and now Kleet's attraction to her, when men hadn't given her a second look before? It was something to consider.

  She turned her attention to her clothing next. She wore her second best outfit, the gold silk tunic and trouser set. The rich color went well with her orange-red hair. She'd confined most of her vexing curls on top of her head in a gold clip and pulled down a few ringlets to soften the look. On her feet was the one pair of strappy dress shoes that fit in her luggage. They were lightweight, like the silk outfit, and took up little room, two musts for space travel.

  Satisfied with her appearance for the reception, she rode the hydrolift up to the roof of their borrowed apartment complex to meet the others of her group. Water power made it move much faster and more fluidly than any elevator she'd used on Earth. There were no Averans living here while the human mission resided within, so they had the complex to themselves. That seemed odd to her, but Dr. Barazi said it was probably for the best since Averans were nervous about being close to other species.

  Except for Kleet. Kleet had been stiffly formal when she met him the day the mission landed two and a half months ago. He'd been sent by his father to assess her group and he'd made it a point to speak with each member. He hadn't seemed nervous about strangers at all. On that day, he hadn't even singled her out for personal attention. It wasn't until two weeks later that he'd approached her about being her lover. She'd been shocked and startled, and then she explained her chastity. But instead of deterring him, her status seemed to encourage him. No, he hadn't been wary of other species at all. He wanted to get as close as possible ... to her.

  Averans who'd met the humans more than once were outwardly friendly, but they still suffered from a strange reticence. Anomalies like that existed in this society and Kleet's attentions didn't help her concentrate on what was odd about this planet's inhabitants.