“None. You would be the only human in House Zu.”

“I have a difficult time believing this,” I say. My body is incredibly hot now despite the lukewarm water. “Have you given me some kind of drug to make me more susceptible to believing this? Or is this part of the game to get me naked for views and mess with my mind? Do you get extra points for this?”

“Georgiana, I would never share the image of your naked body with other human males to degrade you or make money. I have more money than the combined population of Earth a million times over. Listen and believe me when I tell you, this is not a game. This is all very real. And you need to make a decision. Will you marry me and take the binding tattoos?”

Axl sounds genuinely annoyed with me, but maybe this is part of the game, to see if I’ll break. That would make sense. All of that money, they aren’t just going to give it to me without really testing me. But the real question is how far will I go? Will I get a tattoo for that kind of money? Will I have sex with him that will probably be filmed, especially since I admitted I was a virgin? Is that worth the money to pay off my debts? I could always deny it was me if someone saw it online and if they did I could always say it was a deep fake. No one who knows me would actually believe I’d agree to a sex tape. No, I don’t think I could go that far. A tattoo though. I can do that.

“I’ll get the tattoo. But as my husband you better adore me and tell me you love me every day. I don’t want to be with a man who I love more than he loves me.”

Axl hesitates before replying, “Let me tell you today then, I love you.” Then, without warning he kisses me on the lips, then my neck, my décolletage, and then kisses my arms covering my breasts. He kisses my hands. “May I?”

My attraction for him outweighs my embarrassment and I allow him to put hands at my side. We make eye contact and the way he looks at me makes all my concerns in the world fade away. No man has ever looked at me like this. After holding eye contact for a few seconds with the water flowing over us, he puts his mouth on my right breast. I let out a little moan as his tongue gently circles my nipple. No man has ever had his mouth there. I don’t know what to do with my hands while he’s bringing me so much pleasure, so I keep them at my sides. And then a thought occurs to me, Is this being filmed?

Axl must have felt me tense because he stops and looks up at me, “Your privacy is safe with me. Now, do I have your permission to kiss the rest of your body?”

Do you need my permission? “You’re sure this isn’t being filmed?”

“I give you my word. No one would record or watch this without severe legal repercussions.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means I would kill them myself.”

“Kiss away then.”

His hot mouth returns to my left nipple and I feel like I would do anything for Axl as long as he keeps his mouth there. I almost put my hands on his head to keep him at the level of my breasts. But I’m curious to see where he will go without any direction from me. Kissing my stomach and then between my legs. I jump and almost lose my balance on the wet stones with his touch in places I have never been touched before. But Axl quickly stabilizes me with his hands on my backside urging vulva against his mouth. His tongue gently strokes me and my body and mind are in a state of flux.

But Axl knows what to do. He’s using his tongue to bring about as exquisite tingling that’s spreading quickly throughout my body. I feel a deep erotic need now; one I never knew was possible. I push myself against him. I don’t know if this is right, but instinctually it’s what I want to do, rub myself against his hungry mouth.

He holds me tighter against his face and urges me to move my hips even more, “That’s it, back and forth, do what feels good,” he says in a deep voice. I obey him and it’s not long before I don’t care about anything anymore except this. I don’t care if this is a game, if someone is filming me, or if he really is an alien. I only want one thing. I want his mouth to never stop licking me. I move my hips against his face like that’s the only thing in the world that will keep it spinning. And then finally I feel a great and overwhelming sensation flood my senses followed by muscle contractions. I want to pull away from Axl. “It’s too much,” I barely can make out the words. But it doesn’t matter, he doesn’t pull away. He continues to hold me to him as I shake with pleasure. Wave after wave of it.

“Let it course through you. Let it take you away, that’s how it’s supposed to be,” he says, holding me and caressing me through the orgasmic aftershocks.

When I’m myself again. I feel embarrassed. I don’t know what to say. Axl is kissing his way back up to my lips and I don’t know what I should do. I think I should reciprocate. So I move closer and tentatively touch his penis. It’s large and floppy in my hands. I know enough about sex to know this shouldn’t be the case if he likes me. It’s never that way in any of the romance novels I’ve read.

I begin to get on my knees, but he stops me.

“No. We don’t do that in the Empire.”

“But,” I protest.

“You’re my wife. I’ll always make sure you are satisfied sexually, emotionally, and physically.”

“But..” He silences me with a kiss. I taste myself on his tongue and wonder if I’m going to have sex now with this man, who may or may not be an alien with grey paint, and I may or may not be being filmed.

11

Axl

Georgiana’s skin is so soft and warm. I have no idea how I am going to keep myself from her. But I have to be convinced she knows the truth before we have sex. Otherwise I will always carry the guilt that I was with her under false pretenses. At the same time, I have to prepare her for public sex. Binding tattoos are rarely exchanged privately. And this whole situation is made even more difficult as I’ve never been anyone’s first and I don’t know enough about human culture to know how she views this. I only briefly looked through the Alliance Force’s database on the subject which basically said that in most human cultures women never have sex before marriage and then only with their husbands. In some ways, this reassures me that the idea of being married and only having sex with me for the rest of her life is a normal thing. But she must know what she is agreeing to. I can’t have her make such a tremendous commitment without understanding what she’s potentially giving away.

But I want her. At first I thought I only needed her to get back to the Empire and this would be a simple business arrangement, over in a few weeks at the most. However, if I only have a few weeks left until my 50th birthday, and if I am going to marry, why not marry Georgiana? She’s clever, witty, and beautiful. She is human, which is her only fault, but no doubt she will think the same about me when she really believes the truth, that I am not from Earth. She’s too intelligent to agree to marriage with an alien lightly.

So I must continue to try to convince her of the truth while I also get her accustomed to my touch. And all of this must be accomplished in one night. One night to do all of this without jeopardizing our relationship and at the same time setting a good foundation for our future. It seems like an impossible task, but one that I must undertake.

In the worst case scenario, if she still doesn’t believe me that this is not a game, in the final hour, I’ll have to tell the truth to the Alliance Force. Georgiana’s memory will be erased when their doctor returns and she’ll be sent back to Earth completely oblivious to me and everything that has happened. For me, I may be punished by the High Council if I’m returned to the Empire for justice. But if the Alliance Force decides to punish me rather than sending me back to the Empire, I may even be given the death penalty for killing another Alliance man on the word of a woman, even if she was the Empress. I know that Fox and the Alliance Force hold the right to serve justice as they see fit in this area of the galaxy and there’s a fair chance they would execute me for flaunting their laws. Fox may even see it as a personal affront.

I remind myself, One thing at a time. And at the moment, I’m with Georgiana and my mind should only be on her. On us. Our physical bodies. Our shared desire for one another. To touch each other in every conceivable way. I push all the likely consequences of my actions from my mind. I concentrate on the much sweeter task before me now. Her small tongue in my mouth, her dainty hands on my body, her hips pushing against me seductively. I stop myself from thinking about how tight her vagina will be given she’s petite and never had sex before. I pull away from the kiss, still keeping a hand on either side of her face. “Do you believe me now? I am an alien. Was my tongue real enough?” I know my tongue has more texture than a human tongue.