Synnr's Hope - Kate Rudolph Page 0,36

to go to another person’s pre-wedding party? The events were bad enough when it was her own family. A stranger? That was a recipe for boredom or disaster. Maybe both.

She left Solan with a weak farewell and took a transport home. She wasn’t going to let a minor disappoint ruin her day. Her stomach growled and she realized it was later than she’d thought, the bright sun still throwing off her conception of time. She got off the transport in a random district and followed her nose until she found a restaurant that appealed. One bowl of steaming hot soup and noodles later, her stomach was satisfied, and she continued on her way back to Crowze’s estate.

She greeted Zac, who was in the sitting room, and waved hi to Joel and Julie. If she spent many more nights all alone in her room, she was going to get a reputation for being anti-social, but her energy was starting to crash and she was ready for bed.

Almost ready.

She still couldn’t get over seeing Solan naked.

His cock was unlike anything she’d ever seen and she wanted to touch it. She wanted to see what that tongue thing would do when he was hard and aching for release. She wanted to take him in her mouth and feel the power that came from owning someone else’s pleasure.

Was it Solan? Or was she just horny?

She didn’t know which was the better answer. Generic horniness was probably better for her sanity. But when she closed her eyes she didn’t imagine any other alien.

Could it be that she just hadn’t seen any other alien? The thought knocked around Lena’s head. Maybe what felt like attraction to Solan was just a fascination with the aliens of her new home. It had to be possible, right? But how could she test the theory? No doubt there were clubs where the desperate and lonely could go to find a partner for the night, but she wasn’t into one night stands. And she didn’t need to fuck a guy to know if she was attracted or not.

Porn.

Did aliens have porn?

She reached for the tablet sitting on her bedside table. It was a wonder of technology that made her old Motorola Razr phone look like a piece of garbage. Emily and Luci had both been more familiar with the concept, saying the tablets were a lot like “iPads”, but Lena was still impressed.

She’d been using the tablet to practice her reading, and between the built-in voice commands and the holographic keyboard she could successfully search for just about anything. Dare she look for porn?

With the device resting on her knees as she lay in her bed, her fingers hovered over the keyboard. It would be so simple to make the search. No one had to know. And she was a full grown adult, she could look up dirty pictures if she wanted to.

Determination flowing through her veins, Lena called up the program to help her search. “Pornography” gave her results for scholarly papers. “Penis” led to medical articles. So did “sex.”

“Just show me people fucking,” she muttered in frustration.

The tablet beeped and the screen went black before coming back up with a dozen videos of Zulir in various states of undress. Lena stared at her options for several seconds before glancing back at the door. Had she locked it? If she got into this she didn’t want anyone bursting in and finding her in a compromising position.

She set the tablet down and checked. Yes, the door was locked, and she pressed her ear against it to make sure she couldn’t hear anyone outside, not that she planned to make a lot of noise. But she could never be too careful.

When she settled back into bed the videos were still waiting for her. One thumbnail caught her eye, a Zulir man with long braided hair and tattoos down one arm that looked a little like Solan’s. He had his arms on a naked human woman’s shoulders. She hadn’t realized there would be porn with Zulir/human pairings. Part of her wanted to look away; it was a bit too close to home with a guy who looked almost like Solan if she squinted.

But her finger had a mind of its own and she clicked on the video.

Enable holographic playback? the tablet asked in a tinny voice.

Lena almost threw the tablet across the room. “No!” she said in a harsh whisper, looking for a way to get rid of the option. Apparently the voice