The Flare

Confusion and Cake

Jake threw his wrench against the generator. The damn couplings wouldn't cooperate! 

Speaking of not cooperating, Jake should put his libido on that list. It'd only been ten hours since his encounter with Salona and all he could think about was the feel of her silky thighs and being deep inside her. Just thinking about her got him all hot and bothered. The sensation was a new one. He'd never had trouble blocking a woman from his mind before.

"Control yourself!" He growled, speaking to the growing erection in his pants. You are a f*****g astronaut! You are not a 16-year-old wet behind the ear’s i***t!

She'd been so eager and ready, begging him to make love to her, dying the small death in his arms. She’d trusted him with such abandon to keep her safe when they fell over the edge together. Rarely did a woman trust him to keep them safe. Probably because they never really were safe…he always hurt them in the end. Either by his inability to actually give a damn about them or by the circumstances of their affair.

But now the idea of all that love mumbo-jumbo didn't sound like so much bullshit. The one woman thing was sounding appealing. Correction, not any one woman…Salona. 

Jake ran his hand over his face, trying to wake himself up. Here he was obsessing like a lovesick puppy and she was probably off doing whatever project she had to oversee, not giving a thought TO him. And it pissed him off. He just wanted to see her face, reassure himself she was thinking of him is much as he thought of her.

After making love he’d been so nervous by the feelings she brought out in him, he went and f****d it up, insisting they satisfied their ‘urges’ and could now get past their physical attraction. How ironic. Orbiting an asteroid doesn’t scare him in the least. But develop an attraction to an exotic alien and the feelings he had when around her terrified him.

“What are you doing to me?” He cursed, unable to keep his mind from racing toward thoughts of her.

Speak of the devil and she shall appear.

Salona chose that moment to walk into the hangar bay, hair tousled around her soft heart shaped face. It must have been causal day on Naron because his little alien wasn’t wearing her standard, cover-every-inch-of-the body, uniform. A pair of loose shorts swished around her thighs; a white shirt clung to her gently rounded belly. She looked like she just fell out of the dryer. And yet simply the sight of her inflamed him.

I am not a s*x maniac! Jake kept repeating to himself, praying the mantra would keep him from pulling Salona into his arms and forgetting everything around them. Think of your career, dammit!  It's a hell of a lot more important than your d**k!

"Hello, Jake," Her voice sounded like warm honey.

"Salona," Jake choked. "Come to help me fix these damn couplings?"  She definitely did not look ready for manual labor. Well manual labor maybe, but not the kind capable of salvaging his career.

Salona bent over, examining the couplings. Her breasts looked ready to burst from her top; the shorts clung even tighter to her curves, leaving nothing to the imagination. Jake quickly forgot anything intelligent he intended to say.

"I have to speak to you," She purred, coming to stand not six inches from his face. Just long enough to...

"Uhm," Jake choked, "Listen, we already discussed this…thing. We need to just pretend it never happened. It’s for the best."

Salona listened, trailing one finger down his arm, glancing at him from beneath her lashes.

Jake stood there, staring at her dumbfounded. She was hitting on him. He had to blink, not sure he believed what he was seeing. In the mess hall she had demanded s*x openly, no coyness involved. Now she was acting more…. human.

After their encounter he’d been embarrassed. Who knew what Naronian customs were with regard to one night stands? Backing away and declaring a celibacy truce had been instinct. He hated himself for giving into his urges and he was even angrier he'd not taken more care with her. Their first time on a goddamned kitchen table. She deserved better than that.

He needed to put a stop to this before he lost control again.

"Salona..." Jake grasped her arms, holding her away from him. "This can't continue."

Salona's face fell with a look of disappointment and... Was that fear? After the rough way he handled her, he shouldn’t be surprised but he expected her to be relieved, not afraid.

"You no longer desire me," she said, lips quivering.

Jake choked back self-deprecating laughter. If only she knew.

"If only that were the case,” he laughed. “My life would be a piece of cake."

"Well, your lack of desire does not turn my life into baked goods!" She stomped her foot.

"Baked goods?" A slim eyebrow rose in question.

"Cake will not solve this problem!" Salona screeched out, her voice quaking, tears welling up.

Jake was as good with crying women as he was with knitting. That was, not at all.

"Salona, if I keep letting my d**k do the directing, my career is in jeopardy. I need to stop thinking with my little brain and use the big one." There, he thought. She should be able to understand that.

Salona's eyes widened as big as flashlights. "Humans have two brains?"  The thought amazed her but didn’t seem to distract her from her focus.

"You cannot turn away from this, Jake!" She demanded, her voice trembling.

The Jake and her voice sobered him. "Salona, what's going on?  There something you're not telling me." He was getting a feeling in the pit of his stomach--this wasn't the typical female scorned scenario.

"What does it matter?"  Salona screamed, pushing her hands against his chest, catching him by surprise, knocking him to the floor. "It's all your fault!  All your fault!"

Before Jake could get back on his feet, Salona was gone.

What the hell just happened?  Jake re-wound the encounter in his mind, looking for any holes he missed.

It’d only been 10 hours since they made love--no!  Had s*x! Most women got agitated with him after a week or two. That's if he was avoiding them, which admittedly he was doing with Salona, if only for his sanity.

Then again, she was Naronian. Was this some sort of cultural aberration?

Jake shuffled around the hanger bay, knocking things around. Despite his best intentions, he couldn't keep the image of Salona's soft, rounded body out of his mind. If she kept wearing skimpy outfits like that he wasn't going to last very long.