Femme Metal (Femme Metal, Book One)

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An Excerpt From: FEMME METAL

Copyright © NATHALIE GRAY, 2005.

All Rights Reserved, Ellora's Cave Publishing, Inc.

She let her gaze travel over the beautiful people dancing below her. Shiny bodies, some of them alien others human moved and shook, and undulated with the pounding rhythm.

A strange sensation prickled her skin, like someone was blowing on the nape of her neck.

Surreptitiously putting her hand on the stunner strapped inside her boot, she turned back to the mezzanine and scanned the crowd. Along the wall, leaning against the counter, stood a male Yithian. Her heart skipped a beat. He was tall, even for one of his species. His pale skin shone pearly blue. Hair down in a shiny cascade over his wide shoulders gleamed as liquid silk. He was stunning. And he was staring straight at her.

Some Yithians were reputed to have certain extrasensory abilities--some even said they were telepaths. The last time she'd seen one this close was during the war. Alex straightened on her stool, patting the stunner in her boot.

A sardonic grin played on the Yithian's thin lips. Had he seen her weapon?

Good. Don't mess with the lady.

Stunners were not allowed on the station, though most people ignored the rule. Still, she didn't want to have a few hundred credits stripped off her ID card paying some stupid fine. He'd seen it, that's all she wanted.

As he stared at her from across the mezzanine, Alex had the distinct impression he knew her somehow. Had he been in the war? No matter.

Again, the feeling someone was blowing on the nape of her neck created a pleasurable ripple across her skin. Sweat beaded under the latex suit. She uncrossed her legs. Shit, it wasn't sweat collecting high between her thighs.

Alex gasped. An image flashed in her mind. It went out like a spark but left a shadow of itself behind. The image had been of her and the Yithian male caught in a fiery embrace, both their heads thrown back in the throes of pleasure as he pounded his member into her.

"What the hell...?"

To her shock and excitement, he peeled his lean frame from the wall and made a straight line for her table. His head bobbed inches over the tallest there. He must have been, what, seven feet tall? Lights overhead gave his angular face a predatory appearance. The eyes without pupils or irises glimmered like those of animals in the darkness and narrowed to slits as he approached her table.

She'd fought against hordes of Yithians, stared them down when they spilled out of their too-fast hovercrafts. She'd shot them, bombed them, killed them. Had voted "Yes" in the referendum banning imports from Yith. Yet this lone Yithian male, advancing on her like a prowler sniffing its prey, sent chills of fear and exhilaration along her arms.

Alexandra Novona, for the first time in her life, sat rooted to the spot with panic.

His thin lips curled at the corners in a sardonic grin she'd come to quickly associate with him. One long hand reached up to rest on the shoulder of a human female as he passed behind her. The woman opened her mouth in a silent "O" and followed with hungry eyes as the Yithian continued his swath through the massed bodies. People seemed to melt away in front of him.

Her heartbeat thrumming madly in her ears, Alex turned toward him as he drew nearer. You don't scare me, she wanted to show to him. She sat up straighter. When he emerged from the crowd and bent slightly at the waist, Alex swore she could have slipped right out of the latex one-piece for all the sweat and happy juices slicking her. He was stunning!

His face hovered over hers when he leaned and put one long hand on the table. Those big gray pearls for eyes just welded her to the spot. "May I?"

She nodded, not trusting her throat to come up with anything other than a croak. The chair disappeared under his long jacket. He kept one hand on the table--the tight black glove shining like ink, while his other hand was hidden under the table.

Alex still had hers against the handle of her stunner, just in case the seven-foot hunk decided he wanted more than just to sit and chat. But as much as she tried to fight it, a yearning began to throb deep in her belly. It'd been a while since she'd tasted a man. And one looking like this, well...

The Yithian just sat there, staring intently at her, his thin mouth curving up at a corner in a shadow of a smile.

"So, what do you want?" she blurted out, not willing to let him see just how uneasy he'd made her.

That sneer again. She'd like to kick it off his face one day. He leaned forward and cocked his head. "You do not look intoxicated."

Well, it was a strange pick-up line if she ever heard one. When he saw her expression, he indicated the Slip Knots on the table. Of course, not many humans could drink those and still act as if their brain hadn't oozed out of their skull.

"I'm used to them by now." Yeah, make me sound like a drunk. Good going, Alex. Rich.

He nodded as if he understood what she'd meant, not what she'd actually said. Maybe he had those special abilities. Alex tried to keep her mind blank, but under the circumstances, all she could think about was how good he'd look naked on her bunk.

A sparkle of amusement flashed in the pearly orbs. "You are not dancing with your friends?"

Does it look like I'm dancing? is what she meant to say. Instead, what came out was "How about you?"

She could've cringed. Acting like a schoolgirl. Her crew would laugh.

"I am alone," he replied, the last word sounding heavy with meaning. Was he trying to pick her up? Somehow, she felt he'd meant "alone" in every sense of the word, not just as a pitiful come-on. She could relate well. Too well.

Then suddenly her surroundings changed, became muted, dimmed. Lights weren't as dazzling anymore, nor did the music stab at her brain. Only the Yithian in front of her stood out against a gray background. He leaned over a corner of the table and came right up against her cheek. His breath stirred strands of his silver hair, which grazed her face and produced a pleasurable ripple along her arm. Her temperature kicked up a notch in her latex suit.

A mental image flashed in Alex, depicting the stunning alien pressing hard against her as he kissed and caressed her face and neck. Alex felt herself become heavier in her chair, numb almost.

"What is your ship's launch code?" she heard him ask in a low voice near her ear.

She shook her head to clear it but couldn't. In fact, she wasn't sure she wanted to, despite the armada of warning flags coming up in her brain. Bells and whistles, too. But she couldn't tear her gaze from his face, her mind from the gutter.

Alex barely flinched when she felt under the table one of his hands snaking up along her thigh then inside where her legs met. His long fingers caressed her tight mons softly as he leaned in even closer and murmured something in Yithian. She wasn't sure she understood the words but she sure caught the meaning.

He wanted her. Here. Now.

So did she, but a tiny voice in her head was shouting for her to run, to kick him in his pretty face and run like the devil was after her. Maybe he was. And instead of a red-horned face, he'd changed it for blue.