ONE UNITED UNDER FIRE

YAI ASCENI

"Agent Asceni, this is Smith. Report in," a voice spoke in her ear.

Yai moaned into Aloe's mouth as his hands slid down her sides to her hips. He eased her against the wall and kissed her harder. She was alarmed by the ridge of his erection pressing boldly against her stomach. Yai gasped and put her hands to his chest. She meant to push him away; she somehow pulled him closer.

"Agent Asceni?" Commander Smith repeated. "Why can't we open the doors to the interior presidential suite? My passcode won't work. I know you have something to do with this. You've been snooping around places you have no clearance to be, and this ends today. Open this door!"

Yai mentally unlocked the suite to tamp down on suspicions. She had put the lock in place when Aloe approached her, and she had hacked the video feed to loop the president at his desk so that anyone watching would think they were having an innocent conversation.

"If I don't answer her," Yai whispered, "she'll put the White House on lockdown. It's a breach of protocol for any member of PPD to be out of touch while on the job."

"I don't care," he breathed.

"No, you have to care!"

"Yai, please! Let the weight of the world be on someone else's shoulders."

"No one else is as capable."

The double-entendre did not escape her. His mouth danced over her chin, and he nipped at the side of her neck. Yai whimpered at the ache throbbing between her legs as the president kissed a scorching trail to her breasts. Aloe deftly unfastened her blouse, and her voluptuous boobs spilled into his hands. With a tortured groan, he buried his face between her breasts.

His hand snaked to her pussy, and he dove a finger past her panties to touch her intimately. The shock of pleasure made her quake, but she had to regain control. But it was so difficult to regain control when his every touch made it dance further and further out of her reach. Yai let her head fall back and clutched a fistful of his hair as his mouth closed over a nipple. Shards of ecstasy pierced her body like shrapnel.

"Mr. President," she gasped.

With every tug of his mouth on her breast, a line of pleasure tightened from her nipple to her womanhood. Aloe cupped her ass and lifted her against the wall, and she writhed against him. Her pencil skirt rode up her hips, and her panties dampened with lust. She smelled herself—sweet and ripe for his taking. His rigid shaft speared against her slick, wet pussy. Her legs went around him instinctively. Yai panted into his mouth.

"Mr. President..."

"For four years, I've resisted you. I can't do that anymore. My chance to step down is right there in front of me. I'm taking it. I'm ready to be like the masses. I'm ready to be selfish and get what I want for a change. And I want you. Oh, God—you don't know how badly I want you!"

He fumbled with the clasp of his pants. Her eyes widened as his erection sprang free, hard as steel with satiny skin stretched taut. Yai bit her bottom lip as craving diluted her ability to think clearly. This is illegal, she reminded herself. No matter how badly she wanted him, too. His throbbing cock rammed against the barrier of her underwear. Yai clenched her eyes shut even as her body screamed to open for him.

"The world is counting on you, sir."

"Yai, I'd give it all up for you. Just say the words."

"Mr. President, you've invented a relationship that does not exist. Be rational!"

Her cold assessment made him flinch. Aloe Hill backed away from her and covered himself. Within seconds, he readjusted his clothes. The look on his face spoke of intense shame for his unseemly behavior. Yai felt like scum for making him second-guess something they clearly both wanted. The ground was safely beneath her feet again, and she dragged her skirt to its rightful position. But that did not stop the desire pounding in her veins.

"I'm sorry," he apologized sheepishly. "I'm sorry. I'm making a fool of myself. Pawing all over you like—I don't know what got into me. You know I wouldn't normally..."

"It's okay," she murmured. Yai brushed his wrist and discreetly injected an anxiolytic from her watch. Her heart still thundered in her chest. She decided to dose herself, as well. She had never known desire. But, if this was it, she understood why sex was discouraged. This human was willing to walk away from the most powerful position on earth for a chance to be with her.

There was a knock at the door. Yai knew it was the head of the Presidential Protection Division, Paris Smith. She headed over to let her in. "I'm afraid I'll miss the chance," Aloe murmured behind her. Yai hesitated. "Who knows what tomorrow will bring, right? Another crisis. The end of the world. That's the way things are trending."

You have no idea, she thought. In forty-eight hours when Yai sent her final report to the Intergalactic Military, earth's fate would be sealed: Demolition or overthrow?

"I wish we could pretend for a handful of hours that you're just a beautiful girl and I'm a nobody trying to get to know you."

She glanced over her shoulder at him. "There are a lot of people counting on you to be exactly who you are right now, sir. They need you."

Yai would suggest overthrow. With President Aloe Hill at the helm, humans could be rehabilitated. Of course, social engineering would keep the planet under construction for at least a century before they were trusted to govern again. But she could keep him alive.

Paris Smith tried one last time to reach out to her. "I'm looking at the two of you on the video monitor. If you don't open this door, Asceni, I'm going to blow it down. You know I don't trust you, and this is definitely not making the case for why I should."

Yai looked at Aloe. Smith's threats were only in her ear, and he had no idea the head of the PPD was planning to break in. "A handful of hours?" Yai whispered.

"I know. I'm being irrational." Aloe smiled and shrugged with regret.

She hated to see the look of defeat on his face. She pictured how hard it had to be for a guy like him—genius or not—to constantly solve the unsolvable. He deserved what he was asking for...a handful of hours to be nobody special. If she was honest with herself, she wanted that, too. She faced the same risks, the same weight of the world. Well, worlds, Yai thought. There was an entire galaxy counting on her to restore order on this backwards planet that clung to emotional gratification over reason.

Admittedly, she was allowing herself to fall prey to same bad behavior. Was it worth it? Yai impulsively grabbed Aloe's hand and prepared to break the rules again. Everything she was about to do was irrational. And treasonous. 

*Video Credit: "Outlaws" by Alessia Cara