Page 72 of Across The Stars
“What, so it puts you in heat or something?” I was halfway joking, but Vahko didn’t laugh. “Wait, really?”
“Valerians don’t have hormonal cycles like humans do. When we come in contact with someone our body finds appropriate, it initiates a reaction as if we did, though.”
“And that’s what happened between us? A surge? So, we’re just really attracted to each other because of some weird, genetic thing?”
I was a little put off by that. There I was thinking that maybe Vahko just wanted me for being me, a very ordinary human. Come to find out it was some stupid bodily thing barely different than some meathead of a guy wanting to bone a girl for a night and then disappear. I bit my lip, feeling insecure suddenly.
“Stop,” Vahko whispered.
Looking up, I saw his eyes settled on my mouth and a flurry of electrical shocks moved right through me.
“What?” I asked.
His eyes flitted up to meet mine and I watched his chest rise and fall with a long, deep breath.
“When you do that…” he paused, swallowing.
I decided to be the one to say it.
“Look, if we know it’s just a bodily thing, we can ignore it, right? I mean, I don’t want to get pregnant,” I laughed, somewhat seriously. “Could I get pregnant? After what happened yesterday?”
Worry laced through my tone and I watched Vahko, hoping he’d say something to ease my nerves.
“I don’t know,” he said. He cleared his throat and turned his gaze to the ground for a moment as if to break some trance. “I’ve been ordered to stay planet side while we figure out what’s going on. The Nexus won’t come to get you until we’re sure the gek are not in the quadrant.”
“How long will that be?”
“I don’t know. The council wants me to volunteer for studies seeing as I’m the first valerian to surge naturally in a very long time. And the fact that it was with a human adds to the questions.”
“So no one has ever felt like this with a human? That’s… that doesn’t make sense, right? Maybe our bodies are just, I don’t know, broken?”
He looked me right in the eyes as if about to break some bad news to me. “You’re reacting the same way. Those odds are slim. It’s my understanding that humans don’t experience surges.”
He was right. Even then I wanted to press my body against his. I’d had sexual urges with men on Earth, but they were easily forgotten. With Vahko, it was different. I hungered for him like a heroin addict hungered for another jab. He was a drug and it was driving me crazy being five feet away when I wanted him near me. No… I wanted him to touch me. I wanted him inside me, his lips on mine.
My cheeks were hot again and so were other things. I turned around, shaking my head.
“This is ridiculous,” I muttered to myself. “Why would our bodies want each other when we’re not even the same species?”
“We’re closer than you think. 99% of our DNA matches.”
“Yeah,” I rubbed my forehead. “I know about that. But chimpanzees share a majority of our DNA too and I’ve never had the hots for a monkey. I’m just finding it hard to wrap my head around. Obviously, we’re similar or I imagine you’d look like some freak with tentacles and instead you’re a sexy, tall specimen that changes colors like a damn cuttlefish and somehow, I find that incredibly arousing.”
Spinning around again, I was met by his intense stare looking at me like some predatory animal that hadn’t eaten in days. If I ran, I imagined he’d be right on my heels.
Shit, why did that image make me so hot and bothered?
“And you’re a dull-beige, fragile female who artificially colors her hair,” he said, stepping closer to me until we were nearly touching. “With eyes the color of tamiri gems.”
“What are those?” I asked, entranced.
“Gems so full of color, we use them to tint light at festivals and celebrations.”
“My eyes? They’re just hazel. Practically brown. My boss wouldn’t get off my ass about changing the color when—”
“Don’t.” He slowly shook his head, his stare deepening. “We see more colors than you do and I can tell you that your eyes are home to dozens of shades. Beautiful shades. You are stunning, Innifer. You urge me to the brink of my sanity.” His gaze went to my lips again and he lowered his voice to nothing but a whisper. “And you bite her lip in this way that completely undoes me.”
“It undoes you?” I muttered.
