Ar'Tok - Alana Khan Page 0,2
debate in my mind. I want to tell him things I’ve never said, but I’m afraid to speak them out loud.
The way I imagine him, in his Federation uniform, reminds me we’ll never meet. I can say what I want. Even if I scandalize him, I’ll never have to see the shocked look on his face.
“I . . . read books—not just books like the Philosophy of the Xantian Race. I read romance novels. I’ve found some very . . . compelling ones from planet Virago. There are things I imagine from the book, things I picture us doing, that put a smile on my face.”
He’s silent for so long I wonder if he’s terminated our comm. But I hear him breathing through the connection from millions of miles away. He has to know what I’m alluding to. Is this disgusting to a Federation Comms Officer?
“We read to each other all the time.” He pauses as if he’s choosing his words carefully. “Why don’t you read me your favorite passages?” Ar’Tok’s voice is quieter, deeper, like he’s murmuring right into my ear.
“You want to hear me read that type of book?” my voice has morphed into a high, embarrassed squeak.
“I’m going to close my eyes and picture a pretty humanoid with beige skin and brown eyes and brown hair that’s pulled into a tail. At first, I’m going to listen to your book, and then I’m going to imagine you’re the female in the book. Unless you tell me that would offend you.”
Gods! He knows exactly what type of book I’m talking about, and he wants to picture me as the heroine. My face heats in embarrassment even as I feel quivering between my legs. We’re really going to do this!
“And you, Ar’Tok?” I blurt. “How should I imagine you?” I’m flirting! I didn’t know I could do this.
“Picture a Simkin male, Star. Performing all the actions you’re going to describe.”
My mouth is so dry I need a long pull on my water. I take a fortifying breath as I cue up my favorite book on the computer station in front of me.
“You’re alone on your bridge right now?” I ask. “It’s just you and me?”
“Yes. I’m alone and waiting to hear your favorite part of your favorite book.”
I pull up the passage I’ve bookmarked, the one I’ve read almost daily since Ar’Tok and I accidentally discovered each other on comms late one night. The one I’ve acted out in my imagination with him a hundred times, not just when I’m reading, but when I’m picking vegetables in the hydroponic garden, or re-wiring the orbital tracking device, or when I’m using the food synthesizer to make dinner.
“It’s forbidden to have friendships between males and females on this planet,” I explain, “but the heroine, Avaleigh, and the hero, Ka'Ron, have developed one. They sneak to the barn one evening and are alone for the first time.
“Ka’Ron looks at me as if I’m not wearing any clothes, as if he’s seeing me naked,” I read, my voice husky from embarrassment. “That searing look, as if he can’t wait to touch me, heats my skin. Then his gaze is on my lips, his arms surround me, and he dips his head, lowering his mouth toward mine so slowly I feel impatient.”
I wait, trying to read his mind. Maybe he’ll say something to stop me from making more of a fool of myself, but the comm is silent on his end.
“Should I keep reading?”
“I’m doing just what I said, Star. I’m picturing you as Avaleigh, imagining you naked just as Ka'Ron is doing,” his voice is so deep and rough he barely sounds like Ar’Tok.
A zing of excitement arrows through me as I realize it’s pictures of me in his head that are having this effect on him. I like it.
“His kiss is tender as he brushes softly against my mouth, then his tongue slips out to taste me. I open myself to him and revel in the feeling of him spearing into me. He moans, telling me with that deep, hungry sound just how long he’s waited to be inside me, to enter me, to breach me.”
I clench my legs to stem the tide of arousal rolling through my body. I’ve read this passage a hundred times, but knowing Ar’Tok is listening, knowing he’s imagining doing these things to me, is making me burn in a way I’ve never felt before.
“The tips of my breasts have become hard points as they brush against