Just One Look (H&H see each other for first time)
Here is a snippet from Paranormal Payload (Project Exorcism 1) by Mandy M. Roth
Captain Sevan Vasil glanced over at his brother and second in command, Jordan. "What?"
"Nothing," Jordan said, his lips pursed and his arms crossed.
It didn't take a genius to tell him his brother was pissed. "Spill it."
"I'm not so sure we should dock here. The planet is not marked on the map and you yourself heard that they are not in the business of giving leave to Commission vessels. And what was that about assuming full responsibility for docking and—"
"And…" Sevan interrupted, "we don't really have much of a choice here. Our fuel tank cracked somewhere back near Margaidia and unless you want to chance piloting a vessel with no fuel and limited life supports all the way home, I'd suggest you get real comfy with the idea of docking here. We'll never make it back to Earth unless we do and you know it."
"Captain, I did not mean to question your authority."
"Cut the shit, Jordan. Don't go all military on me. You and I go back too far for you to try to be stuffy now. I can still remember you in diapers."
"You're three minutes older than me. Of course you remember. You were there too, moron. If you want to start flexing your three-minute-older muscles, let's go…"
The main screen flickered and interrupted Jordan's little rant. Static covered it for a split second before a vision appeared that was so beautiful Sevan had to fight to breathe. Angelic didn't even begin to cover her. Instantly, his heart hammered.
It couldn't be. No. It wasn't possible. She wasn't real, was she?
Sevan couldn't think, couldn't move as he stared at her. The woman was identical to Lorelei. Overwhelmed by emotion, he sat there, breathing heavy and trying to stop the obvious hallucination before him.
The goddess on the screen looked up at him, her royal blue eyes wide, and then glanced down at the control panel before her. "Bugger! How the hell do you turn it on again? If I don't figure it out soon they'll end up stuck in orbit and I am not in the mood to fetch them. The last thing I want to do today is go and tow an arrogant, cocky, too-sure-of-himself man who thinks the universe should bend at his very command…errr… Commission officer's vessel in. I would rather wallow through pikineius dung than retrieve them."
Nice to know where we rank, Sevan thought, chuckling silently.
The hint of an old Earth British accent came through, reminding Sevan of home. They didn't spend nearly as much time among the Free World people on Earth as they'd like. No. Now their days were spent in the Commission, going where they demanded.
The woman before him narrowed her gaze on the control board before her. She was obviously oblivious to the fact the visual communicator was already working. The thought of telling her he could both see and hear her crossed his mind for a millisecond before he decided just to take in the show until she figured it out. Besides, his cock had joined in the spectacle now and its rather hard state demanded he remain still or risk ejaculating in his pants.
Not an option he wanted to take. Though it was hard to keep from yelling out the name Lorelei. The very idea that it wasn't her terrified him. If she were real and if she, too, shared the dreams, then she could be his mate.
Neither man said a word as the vixen before them leaned forward. Her long black hair fell into her face, looking so silky and smooth that Sevan could almost feel it. Bringing a toned arm up, she lifted it away. Her luscious lips pouted outward, as if she were in deep thought.
You're fucking killing me here. You're a hallucination, that's it.
Scolding his mind for placing the vision of his dream lover in place of the actual woman didn't seem to stop the hallucination. Watching the woman only served to make it worse. Sevan had always been a sucker for women who were animated, especially when it came to their lips. Just thinking about how full and lush hers looked made him picture his cock buried in her mouth as he held tightly to her silky hair. Flashes of the erotic dreams he'd been having for months flooded back to him. It was her face he'd seen beneath him as he sank into the paradise of her warm depths. But how could that be? Had their ship blown up after the fuel tank cracked? Was he dead now and left to dream of Lorelei forever?
If you've got to go, ending up envisioning her for the rest of eternity isn't so bad.
The gorgeous woman punched the controls a few more times before rising slightly from her seat. Wearing a tiny black top that came to just above her navel, she was a vision of beauty. His eyes widened as it pulled up to just under her ample breasts. His cock dug painfully into the top of his pants. It would tunnel through the material soon and demand attention from her. Having her with him in bed was the only way he was used to dreaming of her and while this little tit for tat was amusing, he wanted her pussy milking him as he came in her.
Sevan heard Jordan draw in a deep breath and knew that the vision of beauty on the screen was having the same effect on him. A surge of jealousy went through him. Glaring over at his brother, he dared him to have a sexual thought about his woman.
My woman? Great, now I've laid claim to a fantasy woman—again. Next I'll be pulling up various versions of my own harem.
As horny as he was, he'd most likely pop anything inflatable, and the holograms, while stimulating, couldn't take the place of a real woman, so he pushed the thought from his mind. Shifting in his seat, Sevan tried his best to distribute the mass between his legs. If he continued to stare at her, his cock would be hard for a week. No amount of jerking off would ease the pain she would no doubt bring him. As if it wasn't bad enough that he already woke each morning to find his dick so hard he could hammer a steel panel into a wall without further aid, now he would be forced to live out his death staring at her from afar.
She looked so real. Never before had anyone been in his dreams other than the woman on the screen before him. Always ready for him, she appeared to him out of nowhere and with one look each knew what the other wanted. He'd fucked her so many ways that he felt himself blush. He wasn't shy but he wasn't prone to dropping to his knees and licking the sweet pussy of a gorgeous woman who suddenly appeared to him either. He'd done things with Lorelei that he'd never dreamed of doing in real life and she sparked things in him that no one else did. The worst part of it all was that he'd actually fallen in love with her—a dream, a figment of his overactive imagination, a vision that now appeared before him in what he hoped was waking hours. And he hoped beyond hope that she truly was the mate he sought.
"Blasted thing doesn't work. If that li'l Bagardo demon that claimed he fixed this pulled a fast one on me, I'll pull his purple head off and shove it up his lime green…" Jerking her hand away from the control panel in front of her, she winced as a blue spark shot out at her catching her upper arm and burning it instantly.
No, baby, don't ever cross those wires.
Sevan went eerily still. He'd never worried over a woman before. Well, no woman who wasn't related to him or a member of his crew. His cousin had accompanied them on their journey and he worried like hell every time she left the ship.
It shocked him how real and how human the woman on the screen appeared to be. One, if she was real then some deep shit was going on. Dreaming of a woman galaxies away had to have some sort of cosmic ramifications. Mating with her only intensified that. For two, all planets with human or human-like life forms had been mapped out by the Commission ages ago, at least in this quadrant. His luck, she was projecting an image that they'd feel comfortable with long enough to lure them in and then he'd find out that she was really an alien with six heads. That had to be it. She was picking his brain and came up with Lorelei's likeness.
Ah, I hope not.
She tried again to fix the panel. Another blue spark shot out and caught her creamy cheek. Hissing, she grabbed hold of it and winced. Sevan stood fast, reaching for her as if he could really touch her through the viewing screen.
Glancing down, he found Jordan staring at him with an odd expression on his face. Wisely, his brother didn't comment on his concern for the beautiful creature before them. She reached out to try to touch the panel again but pulled away at the last second, allowing Sevan to exhale.
"Christian, can you get this thing to work? I can't seem to get it to respond to any of my commands. I swear it bit me twice already and if it does it again I will shoot it and then recycle its parts into a waste receptacle. The damn thing has a mind of its own and I'm frankly tired of dealing with it. I hate technology and it hates me. It's a rather mutual agreement that is best not tampered with."
"Promise you won't bite me if I get close enough to fix it. Though there are certain places you could nibble if the urge should strike," a very male voice said from off screen.
Sevan's blood ran cold as the beast within threatened to surface. It would control his temper or rather, leave him uncontrollable. He had no right to feel the pang of jealously that now rode him, but he did. He watched as a large arm appeared first, followed closely by a handsome man who looked to be in his mid-thirties. Tattoos covered the man's arms. And upon closer inspection, Sevan saw that the woman had similar markings on her arms as well, although hers were a degree lighter than the male's. In his dreams, Lorelei didn't have any sort of markings on her.
Maybe she just looks a lot like Lorelei—a hell of a lot like her.
The man near her looked as though he'd won the Strong Man of the Galaxy contest several years running. Sevan was not a small man by any standard, but he wasn't quite the barbarian who stood by the tiny woman now.
Christian moved his body around the woman's and let his eyes linger over her cleavage longer than Sevan could stand. His jaw tightened and he felt Jordan's hand on his shoulder.
"Easy now, brother. We've only come to fix the ship."
"Here you go. Just push this button here." The man put his mouth to the woman's ear, whispering something only she could hear. Her cheeks flushed and her body tensed. "Follow that procedure and you'll be up and running in no time. Not that you need any help in the getting things up category."
"Thank you, Christian," she said, shifting in her seat. She glanced up at the screen and apparently was able to see them now as well because she froze. "No." Her tongue darted out and over her bottom lip. That simple act sent chills of pleasure throughout Sevan's body.
"By gods, she's even more beautiful in person."
Her brow creased as her cheeks flushed. Jordan cleared his throat and Sevan realized that he'd not only said that out loud, but she'd heard every word of it. It was his turn to blush.
"Control tower, this is Alpha Brig Three, requesting permission to dock," Jordan said, laughing slightly.
"Perm…permission granted." Her blue gaze locked on his. She seemed to study him, tipping her head slightly and narrowing her eyes. Something clicked and she shook her head as she hit another button and backed away from her seat. "Navigation will now be controlled by our tower. Please refrain from attempting to override this or irreparable damage to your vessel will occur. We will meet you in the loading area momentarily."
Stunned by her rather cold tone, Sevan stared mindlessly at her. She went to cut transmission and Sevan leaned forward fast, not wanting lose sight of her. "Wait. What policy do you have on outsiders?" It was best to know if they regarded them as hostile or not right off the bat. Not that it mattered what she thought, his dick already thought of her as the only place it wanted to reside, and there was no overriding that.
She gave a tiny smile that tugged at his heartstrings before answering. "I think you will find that we're friendly enough. We'll see to it that you're taken care of during your time here today. Come suns set we will not tolerate any excuse causing you to stay on our planet. I take it from the lack of my need for a translator that you speak Earth-English, as do we. That's always comforting. It's rare that any passersby speak our language. Our atmosphere is rich in oxygen so respirators will not be necessary. Our digestive systems are identical to yours so you will find our food adequate to sustain you. All of this leads me to believe that your visit will be most enjoyable." A sad look passed over her beautiful features and Sevan wanted to kiss it away. "Be sure to remain armed though. We are willing to allow you to do so in good trust. We shall not harm you and we expect the same in return."
She cut transmission before he had a chance to ask why he and his men should remain armed. That was an odd request. Most planets they stopped at required them to check their weapons and deactivate any of the Brig's defenses.
"That's interesting," Jordan said, reading Sevan's mind.
"You heard the lady." Sevan pushed the button for the intercom that ran throughout the ship and looked at Jordan. "This is the Captain. We're docking now. Be sure to leave your weapons on and maintain a state of readiness. Travel in groups of two and do not engage without my permission. Anyone who disobeys this command will not have to worry about a court-martial. They won't be alive to stand before the committee."
Be sure to check out the following authors who are also participating in Saturday Snippets!
Megan Hart:Read in bed!
Rhian Cahill
Jody Wallace
Eliza Gayle
Lissa Matthews
Mandy M Roth
Mari Carr
McKenna Jeffries
Myla Jackson
Taige Crenshaw
Delilah Devlin
HelenKay Dimon
Lauren Dane
Leah Braemel
Shelli Stevens
Shiloh Walker
TJ Michaels
Zoë Archer
