Hsing looked the female -his female- up and down. She was smaller than he remembered. But he had only seen her, in the flesh, once. She had been standing in the corner, her brown body had been naked. Gloriously naked.
Hsing had never seen a naked female before. He knew they were different, of course. He'd grown up around mothers; all older, mature women he'd known since he was a youngling. He knew that women had breasts, hips, and curvatures in between. He knew that they were soft and delicate.
Never had any of those women from his younghood made his loins ache. The sight of this woman -his woman- and her naked brown skin against the stark, white wall caused Hsing's mouth to water.
He hadn’t been able to take his eyes off the dark mounds of her chest. The globular orbs ended in black pearls that Hsing wanted to test with his tongue. His eyes had dipped to the curvature of her waist, on down to the dark triangle at the apex of her thighs. His loins, encased inside his petals, had throbbed.
Hsing had clenched his fists instead of reaching out and grabbing the woman then. He'd maintained his stance instead of throwing her down on the berth and sinking into her heat. Though every instinct within him told him that was the way to proceed, two things had stopped him. First, the fear in her eyes. And secondly, he’d heard Chen's voice telling him to stop.
"Stop!"
Back in the present, Hsing shook his head. He looked down at his feet. They'd advanced toward her. She'd backed into the same stark white corner as earlier. Her body was covered in cloth -mostly. Where it wasn’t, her brown skin shone bright against the pale interior.
Hsing's instinct was to pull her from the wall and test her brown skin with his blue hands. But again, he tasted the fear rolling off her shoulders and down to her trembling fingers. He lifted his foot to take a step back, but stalled.
They stared at each other. Hsing watched the undulation of her throat as she tried to swallow her fear. She looked tiny.
Had his mother been this puny? This helpless?
He remembered his mother as a strong, formidable creature he dared not cross. She was a kind woman with a generous and easy laugh, but she could make both her mates and her sons heel with a flick of her eyebrow.
"Where's Chen?"
Hsing narrowed his eyes at his new mate -Shanti was her name. "Chen is on duty." Hsing took another step toward her.
Shanti stepped back, her body flush against the walls, her fingers coiled. "I want you to tell him to come here. Now."
"Chen will be back later."
She sprang from the wall, her finger in his face. "The two of you think you will pass me around like a harem girl?" Her nostrils flared and her pupils dilated.
"That arouses you."
She jerked back. Her jaw tensed. She holstered her finger. Her lips parted, and she took a deep breath of courage, likely to cover her arousal. "No," her voice and bravery wavered. "It doesn't."
Hsing ignored her words. They were lies. Though her lips trembled, there was steel in her eyes. He tore his gaze from her puffed up chest, down past her narrow waist to her hips. They were wide hips. Good for breeding.
"Perhaps I am wrong about you. You may be stronger than you appear." He surveyed her. "Chen did fairly well. You are strong in body and spirit. But you are out of alignment." His gaze snapped back to hers. "You do not say what you mean."
"You don't know me."
"No, you do not know you. I see and hear you very clearly. You profess anger towards Chen, but you are eager to see him again. You aim animosity towards me, but my mere presence arouses you. You stare at my body. Your eyes have slipped down to peer at my loins more than once. You would like to mate with me."
"I would not! I want to go home."
"That is not possible. You belong to me now."
"I don't belong to anybody you big, blue ape."
Now her words matched what was in her mind though her logic didn't. Eloheem were millennia evolved past common hominoidea.
"Chen brought me here under false pretense,” she said.
"He was in a hurry. Chen was sent to abduct the first female he encountered."
Shanti jerked back. Those words ignited a low, grumbling vibration within her.
"You say you want to leave," Hsing said. “But you are agitated that you were not a pre-determined selection."
"Well, then." She set her shoulders back and tilted her head high. "You can just take me home and then grab the next woman you see."
Hsing shook his head. "That is not what you want."
"Then hear me clearly. I don't want you. I don't want Chen. I don't want to be here. I want to go home."
Her arms coiled around her person. Hsing wasn't adept at reading emotions like his brother, but he saw the thoughts flitting through her head. He saw an empty domicile. He saw Shanti alone, curled in a large, cushioned seat. He saw her out of doors surrounded by other humans, but none paid her attention. In fact, a few gave her disdainful looks.
Hsing didn't see a problem with that. He was never alone, not truly. He was intrinsically connected to his brother. He didn't know any other way to be.
He couldn't understand Shanti. The thought of being alone caused a visible, physical response in her. Yet she set her jaw with rejection at his advances.
Hsing shrugged. "Your feelings are of no interest to me. I cannot trust them if you cannot see them yourself, or admit to them honestly when you do."
"You think you can read my desires, like Chen? Because he was wrong."
"I do not read desires. Chen is the empath."
"And you're what? Psychic?"
"Desires come from the heart. I can read your mind. The words you speak do not match the thoughts in your head. But I need not read your mind to see that. Your body language is very clear. You want me sexually. I am tempted to have you right now."
"I said I don't want you." Her breathing pattern went quicker, another indication she was stimulated. "What are you going to do? Force me?"
Hsing was tempted. He wanted to take that defiant mouth of hers and shut it with his own. His pulse matched the beat of hers. He felt his own breathing change.
But then, Hsing smelled fear on the woman once more. He didn't like the scent. He took a step back. "I will not have to force you."
"So what? You're going to probe me?"
"Probe?"
Her jaw clenched. Before her teeth clamped down, her pink tongue peaked out of her mouth and licked her lips.
"I get the sense you would like that, Shanti." Hsing took a step closer, but she backed into the wall, looking cornered. "I see you will be an interesting, little diversion. When I have time. I have only come to introduce myself as I tried to do before. But at the time you were being probed by my brother."
Shanti looked away. Hsing felt the heat rise to her brown face.
"My name is Hsing-I." Hsing bowed formally to the woman. "I am your eternal partner. I lay my life in your hands."
He heard her breath catch. He straightened, glancing down at this woman -his woman.
"I look forward to probing you, Shanti."
Shanti's nostrils flared. "Not going to happen."
Hsing smiled as he turned to go.
"Wait," called Shanti. "You can't keep me locked in here."
"We do not lock doors on this ship," Hsing called over his shoulder before the door opened and he stepped out. The door shut firmly behind him.
