For a won­der, Egilka grunted ap­proval. “Govi and his clan are an ex­cel­lent choice. His psy­chi­atric work with Earther fe­males has helped many over­come their hor­ror of sex­ual re­la­tions.”

  I won­der if Jes­sica McIn­ness is re­pressed in her de­sires, Cla­jak thought, and he glanced where she stood in the shad­ows. He saw her gaze dart away. Ah, he’d caught her peek­ing. Was this per­haps the game Earth­ers re­ferred to as ‘play­ing hard to get’? Cla­jak grinned. He liked games. He loved the hunt, loved it as much as the cap­ture and con­quest. Tonight promised to be fun.

  “I hear the flesh of Earther women is both snug and yield­ing all at once. Oth­ers have said they’ve never felt any­thing so won­der­ful,” he con­fided to his clan­mates.

  Egilka sighed, the ex­pres­sion on his an­gu­lar face both ex­as­per­ated and re­signed. “You should leave her for what­ever clan claims her.”

  “I’m a free man un­til we clan Nar­pok. Be­sides, I’ve not had an Earther yet.”

  The other man snorted. “You’ve never bed­ded a Tra­goom ei­ther, but I don’t see you rac­ing to add one to your col­lec­tion.”

  Be­vau made a soft gag­ging sound. “Don’t men­tion Tra­gooms and sex in the same sen­tence. Even Cla­jak has his stan­dards.” His smile turned wicked as he looked to­wards Jes­sica. “No clan will mind if their Matara has had the plea­sure of the fu­ture em­per­ors’ at­ten­tions. They may even see it as a mark of dis­tinc­tion.”

  Cla­jak clapped his Nobek’s shoul­der with de­light. “You like her too? Shall we share or take turns?”

  “Since sex with­out mar­riage is a death penalty crime on Earth, she’s prob­a­bly still a vir­gin. My needs tend to be … pri­mal. I’ll let you break her in with your gen­tler hand and vast ex­pe­ri­ence.”

  Cla­jak knew bet­ter, but he couldn’t re­sist ask­ing, “What about you, Egilka?”

  His Imdiko clan­mate’s face dark­ened. Egilka’s an­swer was clipped, his tone fi­nal. “I have no in­ter­est in Earther fe­males, how­ever de­sir­able they may seem.”

  “At least you con­cede Jes­sica McIn­ness is de­sir­able.”

  Be­vau shook his head. “One does not come to Pla­sius to be celi­bate, Egilka.”

  A smile quirked the el­der Kalquo­rian’s lips. “I have no in­ten­tion of prac­tic­ing such a ridicu­lous idea, my Nobek. While Plasian fe­males can­not han­dle us in the tra­di­tional fash­ion of love­mak­ing, they have ea­ger mouths. They will serve me fine.”

  Be­vau looked to­wards Jes­sica again. “That’s a ter­ri­ble waste of a per­fectly de­li­cious Earther.”

  Egilka re­sponded with more of a growl than a voice. “You know how I feel about mix­ing our species. This con­ver­sa­tion is done.”

  Cla­jak and Be­vau ex­changed a look. Cla­jak sighed and Be­vau rolled his eyes. They de­spaired of ever con­vinc­ing their re­luc­tant clan­mate of Earther women’s worth to Kalquor. Even years of fail­ure couldn’t dis­suade Egilka from his work to re­store Kalquo­rian women’s fer­til­ity.

  Cla­jak re­turned his gaze to the lovely Jes­sica, who seemed in­tent on Michaela’s ev­ery move. He saw her fists tighten and her breath grow quicker as he looked at her. He knew from her re­ac­tion that she watched him from the cor­ners of her bright blue eyes. His know­ing grin re­turned. Her lips tight­ened in a thin line.

  Such a tem­per she had! He hoped she would be as fiery when he took her to bed tonight.

  * * * *

  Jes­sica was well into her solo dance, hav­ing sin­gled out all the clans for spe­cial at­ten­tion ex­cept Steel-Hair’s. She’d even made a point to be­guile sev­eral Plasians, who’d re­sponded by throw­ing them­selves into ar­dent love­mak­ing. The clans howled and cheered their ap­pre­ci­a­tion, the pun­gent aroma of cin­na­mon all but drown­ing out the musky scent­wood burn­ing in one cor­ner. Jes­sica knew from Is­rala that the sharp spicy scent be­longed to the Kalquo­ri­ans; it sig­naled arousal for the alien race. She was de­lighted to know the ef­fect she had on them.

  By this time all of the Plasians were hav­ing sex, over­come by de­sire. Is­rala crouched on all fours while one Earther male took her from be­hind and an­other plunged his des­per­ate flesh in her mouth. The other two lay ex­hausted nearby, but Jes­sica knew the Saucin was just get­ting started. No doubt she had more men on standby.

  Jes­sica’s skimpy panties were soaked from her own arousal. The move­ments and moans weav­ing through the shad­owed au­di­ence ex­cited her. Only one thing ru­ined the sen­sual fla­vor of the night.

  The steel-haired Kalquo­rian and his gor­geous hunk of a clan­mate had laughed at Jes­sica af­ter first in­sult­ing her by not re­act­ing at all. They had looked right at her, their whis­pers and grins telling her they found her danc­ing funny.

  Now she had to dance for them again. To avoid it, to con­tinue ig­nor­ing them would tell the pair they’d got­ten un­der her skin. It would tell them they’d made her feel stupid and awk­ward. She’d never give those ar­ro­gant alien bas­tards that kind of sat­is­fac­tion. The other clans liked her, so what did Steel-Hair and Gor­geous Hunk mat­ter any­way?

  She’d show them.

  Jes­sica moved back to the cen­ter of the room. Dance as if you’re fuck­ing them came Michaela’s ad­vice. She faced Steel-Hair’s clan, skew­er­ing them with her eyes. They re­turned her stare, Steel-Hair and Gor­geous Hunk smil­ing ex­pec­tantly. The third man watched too, but his ex­pres­sion was thun­der­ously dark. Maybe he thought his clan­mates were mean too. Jes­sica’s heart warmed at the pos­si­bil­ity of a sym­pa­thetic ally.

  As the mu­sic be­gan to thump harder, build­ing to­ward a faster rhythm, Jes­sica de­lib­er­ately tore a strip of cloth from her skirt, bar­ing a long, lithe leg. Kalquo­ri­ans on all sides roared ap­proval, and Steel-Hair and Gor­geous Hunk’s smiles grew. Their Imdiko’s eyes widened, and he licked his lips as his an­gry look faded.

  Hold­ing the ends of the fab­ric in her hands, Jes­sica ap­proached them, her ab­domen un­du­lat­ing as if to beckon the men closer. She was only an arm’s length away when she halted be­fore them. Let­ting go of one end of the scarf, she waved it so it slid across all three up­turned faces. With sat­is­fac­tion, she noted the tell­tale bulges of their crotches. Their cin­na­mon-y scent blan­keted the air around her.

  They want me, Jes­sica thought, and her con­fi­dence soared with the mu­sic. She left be­hind any pre­tense of re­straint. Her hips gy­rated around and around. Her soft fleshy breasts jig­gled in their beaded cups as she shim­mied. Her hair whipped about her shoul­ders when she tossed her head with aban­don.

  She thought of the three aliens sur­round­ing her, press­ing their hard, un­for­giv­ing bod­ies against hers, fight­ing to con­trol her as she strug­gled against their pos­ses­sion. Her dance be­came one of wild sav­agery as Jes­sica showed them she would not be con­tained. She had es­caped the cage of Earth’s re­pres­sion and she would not be cap­tured again.

  But she was one woman and so very small. The three aliens were beasts; strong and ruth­less mon­sters. Her dance re­flected a strug­gle against im­pos­si­ble odds, and even as her move­ments be­came in­creas­ingly fran­tic, Jes­sica showed signs of sur­ren­der. She wound the torn strip of skirt about her cuffed wrists as the strength of her imag­ined as­sailants over­whelmed her.

  The mu­sic came to an abrupt crescendo as she fell to the floor be­fore the seated Kalquo­ri­ans. Her bound arms lay above her head, her legs folded be­neath her, her chest heav­ing as she looked up at Steel-Hair’s clan, her eyes soft with sub­mis­sion. She lay be­fore them van­quished, mak­ing an of­fer­ing of her­self.

  In the sec­onds it took for the spell of her fan­tasy to lift, Jes­sica saw the dark­ness of the Kalquo­ri­ans’ eyes and the flash of fangs be­hind their lips. Low-throated growls rum­bled from deep in their chests. They looked feral, and Jes­sica re­al­ized she may have gone too far.

  Too late, she tried to roll away. But as the other clans wildly ap­plauded her per­for­mance, Steel-Hair grabbed her. Faster than she could fathom, he draped her across his lap and his mouth cov­ered hers.

  His tongue in­vaded her mouth and swept her in the kiss, his lips hard enough against hers to bruise. Hot, burn­ing hands roamed over her body, ca­ress­ing her breasts, the bare flesh of her ab­domen, push­ing aside the skirt to stroke the in­sides of her thighs. All the while, Steel-Hair plun­dered the soft flesh of her mouth, his tongue tast­ing her thor­oughly.

  He re­leased her from the kiss, and Gor­geous Hunk’s mouth took his place. Jen­nifer moaned as the hands on her body grew more de­mand­ing. As Gor­geous Hunk sucked her tongue into the fur­nace of his mouth, Jes­sica felt her bra pushed up un­til her breasts spilled out. A wet mouth warmed one pink nip­pled mound as a strong hand kneaded the other.

  The fin­gers trac­ing del­i­cate cir­cles on her in­ner thighs moved up to slip in­side the edges of her panties. Feel­ing the man’s touch on her naked flesh, Jes­sica’s legs parted of their own ac­cord, invit­ing him to seek fur­ther. She cried out into Gor­geous Hunk’s mouth as ex­pe­ri­enced fin­gers ex­plored the wet folds of her soft­est flesh.

  Teeth gen­tly nipped at her breasts as the Kalquo­rian’s prob­ing touch found en­trance. Jes­sica’s hips bucked when a thick fin­ger in­vaded her body. She’d never dared to ex­plore her­self in such a way. Feel­ing some­thing in­side her un­tried sex was a rev­e­la­tion. It made her in­sides roil with molten fire. She gushed honey over the wel­come in­truder. Warm plea­sure ra­di­ated as the Kalquo­rian pumped his fin­ger in and out of her cen­ter. Her ab­domen tight­ened as heat built within her belly.

  Gor­geous Hunk’s kiss ended. He looked down at her, his breath com­ing hard and fast. His gaze trav­eled down her body, tak­ing in Steel-Hair suck­ling on her breasts and the third clan­mate, whose ex­pres­sion had trans­formed to naked lust, work­ing her ea­ger flesh with know­ing fin­gers.

  Gor­geous Hunk re­turned his gaze to Jes­sica’s face, and he smiled. It was a dan­ger­ous smile full of dark prom­ise, a sav­age Nobek’s smile. It re­minded Jes­sica of some­thing else; the grins and laugh­ter he’d ex­changed with Steel-Hair ear­lier.

  They’d laughed at her, and now they ex­pected her to fuck them.

  The ache in her womb grew to des­per­ate need. As much as she wanted ful­fill­ment at the sub­lime hands of the third Kalquo­rian, Jes­sica’s anger at the other two brought back her rea­son. Her wrists still tan­gled in the gold-trimmed length of skirt, she pushed Steel-Hair from her tin­gling breasts. Her nip­ples pointed up­ward as if des­per­ate to re­gain the vo­ra­cious mouth that had been de­vour­ing them. Ig­nor­ing the pleas of her body, she clamped her legs to­gether against the third Kalquo­rian and squirmed to es­cape the de­li­cious in­va­sion of her vagina.

  “I’m not done danc­ing,” she an­nounced in Plasian, her voice cold.

  Three sets of eye­brows shot up at her dec­la­ra­tion. “Ex­cuse me?” Steel-Hair said in the same liq­uid lan­guage, his tone dis­be­liev­ing.

  Jes­sica fought off a shiver at the rich, honey-smooth voice. “I have an­other dance to per­form,” she said, her own voice not quite as firm this time.

  “In­deed you do,” Gor­geous Hunk agreed, his voice a deep bass rum­ble. His big hand reached to cover one of Jes­sica’s breasts. He gave it an ap­pre­cia­tive squeeze. “You will dance for us in our bed.”

  His cocky self-as­sured­ness only made Jes­sica mad­der. She shoved his hand away and tugged her bra down to cover her­self. The men seemed too star­tled by her sud­den re­bel­lion to stop her. She took the op­por­tu­nity to un­tan­gle her­self from them, mov­ing to stand just out of reach.

  “I’m not in­ter­ested in your clan,” Jes­sica hissed so no one else could hear. With­out wait­ing for a re­ac­tion, she spun on her heel and marched to­ward where Michaela waited in the shad­ows. Wild ap­plause from the other clans fol­lowed her.

  “You will be.” She heard the threat in Steel-Hair’s hon­eyed voice, and her skin erupted in goose­flesh.

  “Holy shit,” Michaela whis­pered as Jes­sica reached her side. Her eyes were wide as she stared at Jes­sica.

  Think­ing how far she’d strayed from Michaela’s pre­cise chore­og­ra­phy in the at­tempt to se­duce Steel-Hair’s clan, Jes­sica blanched. “I’m sorry.”

  “Are you kid­ding? Your danc­ing was bril­liant! You fi­nally dis­cov­ered the pas­sion of it.” Seven years her ju­nior, the cheru­bic Michaela still man­aged to look like a proud par­ent. “I thought that clan was go­ing to fuck you right then and there. You got them re­ally horny.”

  Jes­sica’s smile was bit­ter as she thought about her vic­tory over the Kalquo­ri­ans. “That will teach them to laugh.”

  Michaela’s de­light faded as she ut­tered a con­fused “What?”

  The mu­sic started again be­fore Jes­sica could an­swer, and they ran into the cen­ter of the room in a swirl of silk.

  * * * *

  “What was that all about?” Be­vau whis­pered.

  They watched Jes­sica join her friend in the shad­ows across the room. Cla­jak’s erec­tion was al­most painful in its in­ten­sity, and it fu­eled a spark of anger. How dare the lit­tle wisp of Earther tease him that way!

  Glow­er­ing, Cla­jak snarled, “I don’t know, but Jes­sica McIn­ness will give her­self to me tonight.” Tak­ing a deep breath to steady him­self, he turned to his Imdiko. “You seem to have changed your mind about Earth­ers, Egilka.”

  Egilka sucked on the fin­ger he’d used on the sweet flesh of the woman so re­cently in their pos­ses­sion. The Imdiko wouldn’t meet Cla­jak’s gaze. In­stead, his eyes rested on some­thing be­hind the Dramok prince. Turn­ing in that di­rec­tion, Cla­jak saw a Plasian cou­ple rut­ting. The male knelt be­tween the fe­male’s thighs, work­ing his thin pe­nis in and out of her warmth. Her but­tocks propped up on piled cush­ions, the bronze-skinned woman’s head and shoul­ders rested on the floor.

  Her eyes were on Egilka. She stared at his ob­vi­ous erec­tion. Her olive mane of hair waved as if to beckon the mas­sive Kalquo­rian to her. She smiled and licked her lips in in­vi­ta­tion. Af­ter a mo­ment, Egilka grinned and he loos­ened his pants clo­sure.

  He told Cla­jak, “As ap­pe­tiz­ing as the lit­tle dancer is, she’s still an Earther. My needs are eas­ily sated by those who won’t pol­lute our race. But since you in­sist on pur­su­ing Jes­sica McIn­ness, you’ll be ex­cited to know she is in­deed a vir­gin.”

  His dark eyes riv­eted on the Plasian girl, Egilka crawled over to her. She reached ea­ger hands to his crotch to help free him from his trousers. Long, deft fin­gers tugged Egilka’s two penises, shin­ing from their own lu­bri­ca­tion, to her wicked tongue. He growled as she first laved the smaller or­gan meant for anal stim­u­la­tion, then the larger one. Nei­ther would have fit in her sex­ual ori­fice, but Plasians had a long his­tory of en­joy­ing what Kalquo­ri­ans had to of­fer just the same.

  Be­tween her legs, the Plasian male tensed and cried out. The ten­dons in his long, wil­lowy body stood out as he spent him­self. Even as her own lower body spasmed in kind, the fe­male didn’t miss a beat in her at­ten­tion to Egilka. She moaned be­tween licks and sucks on the Kalquo­rian’s rigid cocks.

  Her Plasian part­ner dis­en­gaged to fall smil­ing onto wait­ing cush­ions. An­other Plasian male took his place, his reed-thin pe­nis slip­ping into the wait­ing flesh. His move­ments were slow and lan­guorous as he watched him­self use the will­ing fe­male.

  Be­vau licked his lips as he looked at the ac­tion, but his mind wasn’t just on watch­ing the com­pli­ant Plasian get fucked. “So much for our at­tempts at royal deco­rum. I guess we wrecked that with the dancer though.” He glared at Cla­jak. “Don’t you dare make Egilka stop. Con­sid­er­ing the news we got to­day, he de­serves a lit­tle plea­sure. He’s go­ing to be dev­as­tated when you tell him his new or­ders.”

  Cla­jak shrugged. “He should have given up try­ing to fix our fe­males’ in­fer­til­ity long ago. The mo­ment we knew the virus had al­tered not just the chro­mo­somes but also our DNA, it was a lost cause.”

  The Plasian girl’s tongue whipped Egilka’s or­gans in a frenzy. She cer­tainly was tal­ented, Cla­jak thought. If he hadn’t been de­ter­mined to pun­ish Jes­sica for her teas­ing, he would have en­joyed a turn with the gifted Plasian.

  “Don’t worry about Egilka,” he con­tin­ued, hear­ing the strain in his own voice. “We’ll help him get over the dis­ap­point­ment. His sense of logic and duty will see him through.”

  “There’s never been any doubt about his ad­her­ence to his du­ties,” Be­vau agreed.

  Cla­jak’s lips tight­ened at the in­sin­u­a­tion. To re­tort would only in­vite an­other de­bate on his ten­dency to ig­nore obli­ga­tions. He re­fused to waste this night on un­wanted re­spon­si­bil­i­ties his clan and fa­thers would foist on him.

  Egilka strad­dled the Plasian girl’s face, and she opened her mouth wide to take him in. She held his smaller pe­nis in one hand. She pumped it hard while keep­ing it from stab­bing against her throat as he fucked her mouth with the larger one. She kept her head tilted back so he could slide the en­tire length of his mas­sive cock in her mouth and down her throat. Cla­jak added the de­light­ful scene to the list of things he wanted to do to Jes­sica. Her first ex­pe­ri­ence with a man would be epic, he promised him­self.

  As if think­ing of Jes­sica sum­moned her, the mu­sic be­gan again, sig­nal­ing the fi­nal dance. Cla­jak and Be­vau turned from the view of Egilka driv­ing his groin against the Plasian’s face to watch Jes­sica and Michaela dash to the spot­lighted cen­ter of the room. They faced each other, nearly touch­ing breast to breast, their ex­pres­sions fierce. They be­gan danc­ing, their move­ments a sim­u­lated strug­gle against one an­other, as if fight­ing for supremacy. Per­spi­ra­tion made their silken flesh gleam, and Cla­jak thought of how soft Jes­sica had been in his arms, of the musky scent that ex­uded from her pores. He tasted again the sweet mounds of her breasts fill­ing his mouth, her nip­ples hard peb­bles against his tongue.