And Kim just stares. And stares.
I can feel myself getting harder under her scrutiny. My purring intensifies. “What are you going to do with me, little human?” I ask, my voice husky. The way she’s staring at my cock isn’t horror. It’s something else, something very good.
Curiosity. Astonishment. Shock. I think of my mating partners in the past, how pleased they were with me. Perhaps now Kim is re-thinking that this is a mistake. Now that she has seen everything I can give her, perhaps she has decided that Bethiah made a good choice after all. I arch my hips again, pumping at the air, the flowers making this seem like a really, really good idea.
She blinks. Twice. Then, abruptly, she speeds away, crossing the room. “I have to talk to Bethiah. This is such a mistake.”
I sigh with disappointment. Now I’m even more uncomfortable than before.
\
8
KIM
This is turning into a big, big problem. Really big. The size of my lower arm big. I try not to stare at his crotch too much. It’s just…big.
I need to talk to Bethiah. To tell her that she sent me a big horny neighbor instead of a cuddly husband. This isn’t how my plan was supposed to work. I try to call the contact number I have for the bounty hunter, but there’s no answer. I call again. And again. Still nothing. I get the sinking feeling that she’s done with me now that she’s delivered on her job. Except…she’s done it all wrong.
This is a disaster. I look over at the praxiian, and he’s watching me with hooded eyes, that enormous cock pressed against his pants. The damn thing’s so big it needs its own zip code and I can’t stop staring at it.
I mean, really now. Something that big is just obscene. Why on earth is he hard? Does he like being tied up? Or is he just hard because he’s my perverted neighbor and he finally made his way into my living room? Or are praxiians just perverts entirely and this is just how he is?
Either way, it’s very difficult to concentrate when something like that is staring me in the face. Literally.
“You can’t stay here,” I finally say when our eyes meet, because I feel like I have to say something.
“Then free me.” He jerks at the stun-cuffs.
“What? No! I can’t do that.”
He sighs. “I will not hurt you.”
“No, you just want to bang me and steal my land! You can’t hide what your intentions are. You sure can’t hide that.” I gesture at his trouser-monster.
“It will go down if you stop looking at it.” He pauses and then mutters, “Maybe.”
“Maybe?” I laugh hysterically. “Maybe?!”
He just shrugs and gives me a penetrating look. “Why am I here, Kim? Why did a kidnapper bring me to you?”
Wait, how does he know my name? I sputter. Has he been spying on me even more than I thought? “That’s—that’s not important!”
“What are you going to do with me?” His hips jerk again.
“Not that!” I can feel my face heat.
“Are you going to turn me over to the authorities?” He eyes me with a catlike gaze. “Because if you do, I will tell them you kidnapped me.”
I gasp in outrage and storm from the room. I shut the door to my bedroom and lean against it, panting. What the hell am I supposed to do now? He’s right—if I take him to the authorities, they’ll know what I was up to. Bethiah won’t answer my calls, and I can’t just let him go. He knows where I live, seeing as how he lives in the next valley over.
Oh my god.
Am I going to have to get rid of him? I press my hands to my temples, trying to think. My thoughts are so frantic that it’s impossible. Am I going to have to murder just to shut him up? This is a nightmare.
I try to call Bethiah again.
And again. Still nothing.
This is pure disaster. It’s too quiet in my living area, and I press my ear to the door, trying to hear my “guest.” He’s silent, so I open the door a crack.
He’s still in the chair, arms cuffed behind him, and his tail flicks at the sight of me. “Why are you kidnapping people?”
“Me?” I sputter. “I’m not! Don’t be ridiculous.”
He jerks at the cuffs. “Then let me go.”
“No.” I study his big body. In addition to his gargantuan junk, he’s got huge thighs and enormous muscular arms. This is the absolute opposite of safe, and I’m not sure what Bethiah was thinking. “I’m afraid I might have to kill you.”
He stiffens for a moment, and then a soft, wheezing sound escapes him, almost like a kittenish sneeze. It takes me a moment to realize that this is the praxiian version of laughing. He’s laughing at me.
Well now I really want to kill him. “What’s so fucking funny?”
“You can’t kill me. You can’t even look me in the eye right now. You keep staring at my cock.”
“That’s because it’s staring right back!”
He just laughs harder. “So now you want to kill me? What, so I don’t tell on you? Are you a flesh peddler, little human? Is that what’s going on here?”
Indignant, I straighten. “Of course not.”
“Then what are you trying to hide?”
“Nothing! I’m not hiding anything.” I hesitate. “I’d only kill you because I have to. It’s not that I want to kill you—though I’m mightily tempted right now,” I grumble. “It’s because if it’s a choice between you and me, I pick me.”
That makes him stop laughing. He grows silent, and the look on his face is thoughtful. “So you’d kill me.”
“If I have to.” Just the thought makes me queasy.
“How would you do it?”
“I don’t know! I’d have to think it through! Don’t pressure me!” But I’m already thinking about it. I don’t think I can carve him up…or starve him. Poison?
“You know…” He leans back in the chair, his body entirely too big for it. He looks obscenely large, and when his hips arch again, I suck in a breath. His movements are positively, alarmingly distracting. “You don’t have to kill me to buy my silence. You can buy it another way.”
Oh. I consider this for a moment, pacing. I don’t want to empty what little is left in my savings, but I also don’t want to kill a man. I know he’s a trespasser and he’s been sending me threats, but the thought of chopping him into tiny pieces and tossing him into the compost heap makes something inside me die. “Blackmail? Fine. How much do you want?”
“I’m not interested in credits.” His eyes gleam. “I’ll let you earn my silence between the sheets.”
9
NASSAKTH
I don’t know why I suggest that. It has to be the flowers making my mind turn to sludge. There’s no way that Kim will ever take me up on the offer…but I throw it out there anyway. As an ex-gladiator, I’ve learned that you have to make big moves sometimes. You have to surprise your opponent and keep them guessing.
And I’ve definitely done that to this sweet little human.