Page 6 of Topping Off the Alien

He’s… enormous. There’s no other way to put it.

I haven’t seen that many dicks in real life, but I’ve watched porn, and I know what the industry considers a selling point. Solverian in a completely calm state is packing something that would make all of them retire.

“Thank you,” Solverian says behind me. “That’ll be enough.”

I shake my head. “I can’t leave you like this. You’ll crack your head on the fancy rock and drown in your own bathtub, and then your crew will throw me out an airlock. Let me help you in.”

“You don’t need to.”

“Get in the tub, Your Highness.“

I turn back to him with my eyes fixed firmly on his face and take his arm again, the current between us jumping. Together we get him down into the water, and he lowers himself with a breath that shudders out of him as the heat closes over his chest.

The effort has sloshed water all over me. My clothes were already half-soaked from the dampness of the forest, and now they’re done for, my shirt plastered to one shoulder and my jeans with dark blotches to the knee.

Solverian leans his head back against the stone rim. His eyes are half closed, but they track me when I straighten up.

“You can go,” he says again, quietly, but there’s no push in it this time.

“I’ll go when I’m sure you’re okay.”

“That could be some time.”

“Then it’ll be some time.”

He’s quiet for a moment, the water moving around him, and the constellation on his chest pulses underneath the surface.

“Do you want to join me here while you decide?”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“I give you my word I’ll make no advances. I understood your answer, Weston. I won’t ask again.”

Every sensible part of my brain tells me to say no. On the other side: the cold seeping through my wet clothes and the steam rising off the water.

“Fine,” I say. “For the warmth. That’s it.”

“That is all I am offering.”

I pull the stupid glow stick off my neck, toss it, and start stripping. Shirt first, then my belt, then my shoes, socks, and the jeans, which fight me the whole way down. I keep my boxer briefs on and stand there, declining to scrutinize any of my recent choices.

Solverian has moved to the far side of the tub. I lower myself in and groan out loud, because the water is perfect, hot all the way through, and the ache in my shoulders starts to let go before I’ve even settled. I get myself arranged against the stone with a solid arm’s length of water between us.

“Better?” he asks.

“Yeah, thanks.” I lean my head back against the rim.

The ceiling above the tub is dark and set with small lights. I don’t think about the zing, or the way he said you’re my type, or the fact that I’m in a hot tub with a naked guy who claims he’s an alien, and that none of it is freaking me out the way it should.

The water laps at both of us. His breathing evens out by slow degrees. And I just stay.

3

Solverian

“You said you’ve been living on rations.” Weston watches me over the water, his knees drawn up, steam curling between us. “Rations of what?”

I consider deflecting, because I shouldn’t be telling him anything true about myself beyond what’s absolutely required. But he’s patient and unbothered by everything he’s already seen tonight. Evasion would be an insult I don’t want to offer him.