The rest of the date was spent with silent affections; something changed between us when Eve admitted she loved me across time and space, and I responded with my own internal confession how much I loved Eve—but dared not speak it aloud yet, too scared of taking that final plunge—every bit the coward Zyno accused me of being. I was sure Eve knew—sensed my thoughts and felt my love for her. Ever since I had my realization Eve watched me with a slight pink blush on her perfect face.

  We finished the rest of the meal in relative silence, stealing glances at one another, then looking away quickly—like a couple silly teenagers. We held hands on the table, Eve lightly stroking my skin with her thumb, and there was an almost static sensation that rolled down my spine, energizing and invigorating me. It was such a simple touch, but it felt like there was some impossible energy that passed between us. If I didn’t know any better I’d have thought Eve drugged me somehow, but instead she intoxicated me with her touch and scent.

  We left the restaurant holding hands, with Eve’s hair tentacles draping around me possessively. In turn, I held her close, as though afraid she would fly away at any moment. We took another hover-cab back to the hotel, staring into each other’s eyes all the while. Eve’s eyes were those impossible glowing yellow orbs, so large on her face to give her this charming appearance of innocence, but beyond that there was a deep intelligence in her eyes, and so much feeling—such raw, human emotion.

  We made it back to our room as though we’d been gliding along an automatic walkway. We opened the door and stepped inside, and Eve just melded into my embrace, holding her arms around my back while her tentacles wrapped around my arms and shoulders. She pulled back to look in my eyes, that pink blush deep on her face, “You know you owe me that make-out session still.” She said in a sultry voice.

  I nodded dumbly, “Five minutes, right?”

  Eve rolled her eyes, “Surely we can go longer than that?”

  I pulled out my communicator and looked at the time; the last shuttle off Entana would be down within the hour. I hadn’t packed up my gear, I hadn’t even finished my reports, there was still quite a bit of work to do—

  Eve pushed me forward into the recliner, and she climbed onto my lap, straddling her legs on either side of mine, “There’s only one thing you need to do now…” She said so seductively, teasingly. She looked down at me with those half-lidded eyes—bedroom eyes as I’d never seen them before, a look enough to excite and arouse me.

  I shook my head, “Eve, we don’t have enough time.”

  Eve took a deep breath, leaning up in my lap so her large chest was right in front of my face, daunting in size and perfection—so perky and full, such delicious white skin I wanted to lick and kiss all over. She leaned forward just barely to press her cleavage against my chin, “I want you Adam, and I’ll take all the time in the world to have you.”

  I couldn’t respond, mesmerized by everything about her—how she looked, how she felt, how she smelled, how she sounded, and soon how she would taste.

  Not waiting for my answer, Eve leaned down, parted her lips, and kissed me—not as we ever had before, not a cute little goodnight kiss. No, Eve kissed me, hungrily and passionately—furiously. She pressed herself into me, and my hands instinctively grabbed for her, holding her back and feeling her outrageous curves. Eve let out a quick gasp, then giggled as she renewed our kiss. Eve’s tongue darted into my mouth freely now, exploring and twirling around my tongue—dancing with it, massaging it. Already, I felt lightheaded as I fell into her kiss. She tasted as sweet as she smelled, and I swear her saliva must’ve been laced with some drug—I was already addicted to it.

  I felt a few of Eve’s tentacles explore around me, feeling my chest and neck, pressing herself against me even further. Eve held one hand against my cheek to keep me in place, the other running through my hair. Suddenly, I felt Eve’s tongue explore deeper into my mouth, pressing against the back of my tongue and down my throat. It went deeper than I thought it should go, but Eve was careful to keep it low and prevented me from gagging on it. It was weird at first, but then I felt a strange kind of satisfaction—a pleasurable fullness in my mouth and throat. Then she started massaging my entire tongue and down my throat, back and forth, in and out, coiling and roiling in wildly strange and exotic movements.

  Slowly, Eve started rolling her hips around on me, grinding on my lap, gyrating in slow teasing circles. She was all over me now, her tentacles, her hands, her tongue and her hips, she was taking complete control over me—she was dominating me, she was overwhelming me.

  It was all a little too intense, and I suddenly had to pull back, pushing Eve away and off my lap. We were both wildly out of breath, and I couldn’t even talk for a few moments, just shaking my head slowly, coughing a few times after her tongue was pulled out of my throat.

  Frustrated, Eve crossed her arms in a huff and stomped her foot like a pouty kid, “Why? Why push me away? I know what you feel for me Adam—I know how much you want this!” She snapped, then turned and walked a few feet away.

  Finally able to breath, I wiped the drool from my mouth and chin, “It’s too much, you’re being too intense right now.”

  Eve turned back to glare at me, her eyes narrowed, “Obviously I’m intense; you’ve been a little tease for the last several cycles now and I’m just about ready to explode over here!”

  I took in a deep breath and let it out twice as slow, finally back in control with my brain and senses actually working together again, “I don’t want it to be like this, not right now anyways.”

  Eve was almost grinding her teeth, “You’re hard, I’m drenched—why the fuck can’t we fuck?”

  I stood up and paced away towards the balcony, opening the door wall to let in some cool air to calm my body down, “I don’t want to just give in to the heat of the moment; we need to really think this through before we submit to each other.”

  Eve let out a trilling little scream, “Adam! I know how much you love me—I feel it now. I love you all the same—more than you could ever know! I adore you—I’m obsessed with you! Why can’t we just be together already?”

  I turned back to her, fixing her with a hard stare, “Because there’s still so many reasons we shouldn’t be together! Of course I love you, and I know you love me, but life isn’t so simple we can just be together.”

  “Then what, what all do you need to be with me? Tell me and I will do it—I will rearrange the cosmos to be with you.”

  I strode forward, and Eve backed up with me until I had her pressed against the wall, “There’s a part of me that’s still scared of you, Eve. Remember your original plan, wanting to give me a sense of control over you to keep us equals?” I shook my head, “In the weirdest concession ever, I actually understand your reasoning now.” I waved back to the recliner, “You were all over me to the point I felt like I was being consumed by you, and it doesn’t matter how much I love you, that was fucking terrifying!”

  The anger and frustration on Eve’s face drained away immediately, and she looked like she was about to cry, “Oh Adam, I’m sorry, so so sorry, I had no idea it was that intense.” She leaned forward and pressed her head into my chest, “Fuck, I didn’t even think about it like that. Shit, I’m such an idiot.”

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  I let out a weary sigh and wrapped my arms around her, “Eve, I really do trust you—honest I do, and I know you would never hurt me. But there’s some small part of me that feels like a prey animal that’s in a relationship with an apex predator. I can’t help it, but there’s some instinctive part of me that…wants to flee from you.”

  Eve wrapped her arms around me too, “Adam, I understand, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to get so carried away.”

  I tilted her chin up so she could look at me, “Evie, it’s okay, we will be together, I will submit to you. But our first time needs to be careful, needs to be calmer.” I smirked, “I think I need to be in control that first time, help give me that sense of dominance you were talking about.”

  Finally, Eve smiled too, then looked off towards the bed, “We could still do that now you know—have your way with me anyway you want.”

  I chuckled and shook my head, “No, we really don’t have the time Eve.” I gestured to the display on my communicator, “The last shuttle off Entana drops down in like 40 minutes.”

  Eve quirked up an eyebrow, “You need more than 40 minutes, mister marathon man?”

  I laughed again and rolled my eyes, “I’ll be lucky if I don’t bust the moment I get my dick inside you.” Eve giggled at that, “But honestly I do want to take our time, get comfortable, explore each other, and go over and over and over again—all night, I’ll be your marathon man.” I confirmed.

  Plus, I wanted to see how the new safety protocols played out. It wasn’t like I would deny Eve if mission command tried to separate us or anything, more like I would escape with Eve and leave The Radiance if they tried to prevent us from being together. But there was no reason to tell Eve that now; we were set to debrief once we got back on The Radiance anyway.

  Eve sighed, then nuzzled her head into my chest again, “Okay, I understand. And honestly it would be nice for our first time to be in our own quarters on The Radiance.” She looked up with an accusing glare, “But don’t think I’ll be fine to wait much longer. Three standard Imperial days, then I take matters into my own hands.”

  I laughed at that, “What, you’ll just drive me to the ground and take me by force at that point?” I joked.

  But there was a look in Eve’s eyes, it was playful yet surprisingly vicious, and honestly I wasn’t sure if she wouldn’t take me by force if I took too long.

  ***

  We collected a few other members from our party on our way out of the hotel. Zyno, Agent Uinda and Westler the marine were just finishing up at the bar, and showing himself my best friend once more, Zyno got a case with 12 bottles of that pink candy liquor for us to take back to The Radiance. The three of them had all gotten surprisingly drunk while celebrating the mission’s success; apparently they had their own adventures the rest of the day, bar hopping all over Tentalltera, finishing up where we all started. Inebriated as he was, Zyno had no problems boldly asking what all happened between Eve and I on our date, which I responded by punching him in the arm—another reaction that surprised him, Zyno was coming to learn humans were quite physical. Uinda and Westler didn’t care though, in fact Uinda—also wildly inebriated—said she thought Eve and I were really cute together. Westler on the other hand came from one of those races that didn’t couple like regular people—no romance with their hives spawning eggs and all that, but he did approve of Eve’s combat skills and how easily she dispatched Gamma-17, saying she would be a worthy mate to anyone who could claim her.

  Not at all wanting to continue the private conversation of my dating life with the random drunks, I hurried our group along to get onto the monorail train so we could return to the industrial park for the pickup.

  Back in her fleshy latex-princess gown, Eve let out a content sigh and rested her head on my shoulder as the train started off with a gentle hum.

  “Something on your mind, sweet-thing?” I asked her.

  Eve gave my hand a squeeze as her hair tentacles wrapped around my arm and shoulder, “I dunno, just thinking this turned out to be a fun life after all.”

  I quirked up an eyebrow, “You mean the mission to hunt the other Predazoans?”

  Eve nodded, “Yeah, it’s exciting getting to travel all over the Empire, visiting different planets and meeting new people, making new friends.” She looked up into my eyes, “I can see why you agreed to join on.”

  “You think it was all part of wanting to go on some wild adventures?”

  Eve cocked her head to the side, “That wasn’t the reason?”

  I half-shrugged, “Maybe a small part of it.” I smiled, “But if you think that’s all, maybe you aren’t some hyper-advance alien supercomputer-brain after all.”

  Eve looked more confused, “What other reason could you have?”

  I leaned down to kiss the top of her head, “It was always for you, Evie. To stay with you, and to protect you. Before everything changed for us, I still knew you were the most important person in my life, and I knew I never wanted to be separated from you, even way back when—even back on earth, I was always willing to fight and die for you. I don’t know if it was a different kind of love back then, or maybe I was always meant to be in love with you too and I just didn’t know it yet. Hell, maybe somehow our hearts called out to each other while you were in void space, I just didn’t have the brainpower to process what all happened. Instead, maybe instinct made me make the dumbest, least rational choice by taking the little alien away and keeping her hidden in my room in a terrarium, defying the government and the Empire and everything else that tried to get between us.” I reasoned.

  Eve was silent as I spoke, and slowly her perfect pouty lips formed a smile, “You know what I love most about you? How much you can surprise me still; regardless what kind of Predazoan mind I have, forgetting my extra-sense, you can still do or say things I don’t think I could ever anticipate.” She leaned up and gave me a quick kiss, “I love you Adam.”

  I quirked up an eyebrow, “You don’t think it’s dumb I want to protect you—the all-powerful, immortal Predazoan Outsider god?”

  Eve shook her head, “No darling, I do need your protection. Not every threat in the world will be some grand fight. You protect me from isolation and loneliness, from sadness and stagnation, you protect me from the Empire and the researchers. You even protect me from myself.”

  “Yourself?”

  Eve nodded, “Yes, you keep me focused on what’s important, you remind me of the value of life.” She smiled, “You keep me human.”

  The train arrived at the last stop just outside the capital, and we made the quick journey back to the industrial park. We met up with the other stragglers waiting on the last shuttle, and I saw an excited Tillia in the mix. She waved over happily and trotted after us, clearly a little drunk herself, giving Eve and I both a classic, bubbly kind of hug.

  “Mission accomplished!” She slurred, jumping up and pumping her first.

  “I see someone’s been having fun celebrating.” I smirked.

  Tillia smiled brightly, then bowed towards Eve, “All thanks to our very own Eve.” She straightened herself up, “Reports are already running wild how absolutely vital Eve is to our mission. There’s talks of reevaluating her safety protocols.”

  My eyebrows shot up, “Wait, good news?”

  Tillia nodded enthusiastically, “Oh definitely. I mean yeah there’s some pushback on the military side of things—no surprise there. But the research team could not be more pleased with her performance.” She leaned forward and grabbed Eve’s arm playfully, “I hear you might be getting a promotion.”

  Eve smiled at that, “Considering I’m classified as a dangerous asset and not even a real crewmember, I’d be curious how they would quantify that promotion.”

  I snapped my fingers as I made the connection, “Hey, I did submit that request to have you commissioned as a regular employee.” I turned to Eve, “Maybe they’ll actually do it after all.”

  Eve smile brilliantly, “Then I can finally take you out and treat you for a change.”

  Just a hundred feet overhead, we saw a shimmer in the night sky, and a moment later the stealthy shuttle landed down in the middle of the industrial park. Little labor bots popped out quickly to help everyone with their luggage as we made our way towards the shuttle. I buckled in next to Eve with Zyno beside me, and looking around at our crew now, I couldn’t help but laugh.

  “What’s so funny?” Eve asked, a smile dancing on her lips.

  I shrugged, “I dunno, we completed the mission pretty quickly, but it seems crazy to think how much has changed.” I clapped a hand on Zyno’s shoulder, “I got my best bud right here.”

  “Damn right.” He nodded along.

  “We killed one of the escaped Predazoans, and then obviously…” I gestured towards Eve.

  Her smile was playful, her eyes dancing with amusement, “How much has changed between us in just a few short cycles?”

  I laughed at that, “Remember how we were back on The Radiance together? Fighting against each other with every ounce of stubbornness we possessed?”

  Eve rolled her eyes, “Oh come on, I wasn’t fighting you, I was trying to charm and seduce you, remember?”

  I rolled my eyes too, “Well, I guess that much hasn’t changed after all.” I said, and Eve giggled in response.

  The pilot made his last safety checks before closing up the shuttle doors. Smooth as always, we lifted off and left the atmosphere, swinging around behind Entana’s moon once again. I looked out the small viewport to watch our approach back to The Radiance.

  Over the comms, the pilot keyed up as the outer bay doors opened to admit us into The Radiance once more, “Alright folks; mission accomplished, welcome home.”

  Volume 2 End