Worlds Apart

She sank her teeth into his shoulder, breaking the skin. It hurt, but Jamie was too out of it to care, the dull sting of her bite quickly drowned out by the waves of pleasure. Her tongue left her mouth to lap at the red mark she had left in his skin, sampling the small trickle of crimson. Its taste seemed to invigorate her, and she rose up to a sitting position, making teasing loops with her hips that left him dazed.

Those green eyes roamed down his torso, Liz wetting her lips, watching his shining body writhe between her thighs. Jamie lurched as he felt her curved claws prick his chest, Liz dragging them from his collar to his navel, applying just enough pressure to leave red welts in their wake. It stung, but the sensation made him more aware, somehow more sensitive. The fleshy pads on the ends of her fingers stroked his belly, tracing the contours of his abs, Liz resting a hand on his stomach as she enjoyed the way that they flexed in time with her thrusting.

As a new wave of lust overcame her, she upped the pace, beginning to bounce in his lap. She lay a furry hand on his chest to stabilize herself, sliding up his shaft, then letting gravity carry her back down again. Jamie could hear the slap of their bodies connecting, this new, more aggressive tempo quickly pushing them both closer to their limits. Sweat dripped from her shining skin, her panting punctuated by sultry gasps and moans.

Liz cupped one of her wobbling breasts in her hand, beginning to knead it, rolling her firm nipple between the fleshy pads of her fingers. Jamie reached up and batted her hand away, taking its place, delving his digits into the yielding globe as Liz uttered a bestial groan in response. He rose to a sitting position, bringing one of her boobs to his mouth, sucking her nipple between his lips.

"Fuck, Jamie," Liz groaned. For a fleeting moment, he worried that he might have been too rough, but the way that she pushed out her chest to encourage his groping assuaged his concerns. He kept up his kneading, teasing her sensitive breast tissue with his fingertips, feeling her doughy flesh fill his palm. It was like shaping wet clay, Jamie struggling to keep hold of her damp, slippery skin. Her sweat made her lithe body glisten in the low light, as though she had just climbed out of a swimming pool, her every motion making the droplets that misted her dusky skin sparkle.

He snorted like a bull as a powerful desire overtook in him. He wanted to taste every inch of her body, to know her inside and out in the ways that only a lover could. She cradled his head in her furry hand as he mouthed and sucked, trapping her nipple between his teeth, circling it with his tongue. He could taste the salt of her sudor, the sweet scent of her exertion filling his nose, something about it tickling the back of his brain.

They found a punishing rhythm together, Jamie pushing up to meet her downward thrusts, their gleaming bodies crashing together. The heat of it was maddening, the friction, their muscles burning with the effort. They clung to each other, entwined in a frantic embrace as they drove one another closer and closer to the edge, pausing their kissing only to take gasping breaths. Liz raked his broad back with her sharp claws, gripping him as though he might wish to escape, finding purchase on his slippery skin where dull human fingers could not.

Some of Jamie's friends had talked about sex before, describing how good it felt between bouts of adolescent grandstanding, but nothing could have prepared him for this. He felt like his nerves were extending beyond the boundary of his skin, his body melting into Liz's, his conscious mind taking a back seat to his primal impulses.

Liz's burning loins contracted around him, the slippery muscles massaging the length of his member inside her as though their very purpose was to ensnare him. He was like a fly caught in a trap, drowning in her sweet nectar. She pushed her face into the nape of his neck as though trying to bury it, nuzzling against his skin, the strands of her damp hair sticking to him.

"I can't hang on," she whined, Jamie feeling her warm breath as her lips brushed his ear. He jerked as she sank her claws deeper into his back, hugging him tightly, possessively. "I can't stand this pressure inside me, I need...I have to..."

She trailed off as she anchored herself to his neck with her teeth, tears welling in her eyes as emotion overcame her. He winced, but the pleasure of their intense coupling was so overwhelming that he couldn't bring himself to push her away.

What had she said earlier? Was it really okay to do this without a condom? Surely different species couldn't reproduce? It wasn't as if they could take a time out right now, regardless.

The walls of her warm, slick tunnel were milking him with intent now, running up and down his shaft like fingers clad in damp satin as she quivered and flexed. She was slamming down on him with such ferocity that his hips were starting to go numb, each desperate thrust sending a surge of tingling pleasure shooting up his spine, like pulses of light through an optical cable.

He remembered how she had reacted when he had licked her clitoris, and he wet his thumb with his tongue, reaching between her legs as she ground against his shaft. He found the firm protrusion, pressing his digit against it, feeling her shudder in his arms. She tightened around his member, a primal grunt escaping her lips as they locked against his shoulder, her pace becoming erratic. She loosed another carnal moan as she drove him as deep as he could reach, Jamie bottoming out inside her, feeling her lithe frame convulse.

"Did that hurt?" Jamie asked, watching her shiver. He slowed his thrusting a little, Liz hanging her head, her damp hair tickling his chest.

"No, don't slow down!" she snarled. "Keep hitting me like that, right there..."

She sounded almost angry, growling into his ear as he rubbed her mound with his thumb. He lifted his rump from the sodden sheets to meet another of her thrusts, and she took his member up to the hilt, slamming his glans into her weak spot.

"Oh f-" Liz's curse caught in her throat as Jamie gripped her hips in his hands, using the leverage to pull her down onto his throbbing shaft, a rolling shudder passing through her body as he impaled her. "God Jamie...right there, right there!"

"Are you close?" he demanded, gritting his teeth. He couldn't keep this up, there was an urgent pressure welling in his loins, a building ecstasy that he couldn't contain for much longer. The two were locked in a ruthless feedback loop, climbing towards an inevitable peak, every thrust sending them spiraling ever higher.

"Mhmm," she moaned, nodding her head as she drove him into the creaking mattress. "I'm gonna...oh God..."

He had expected her to cry out, but instead, her climax was preceded by a soft mewl that made his heart skip a beat. Her squirming body locked up, Liz wrapping her arms and her prehensile tail around him, clinging to him as a burst of unbearable pleasure rocked her. Her eyes squeezed shut, her breath catching in her throat, her thighs clamping down on him with surprising strength. She was shivering in his arms as though she had just crawled out of a frozen lake, yet her wet skin was feverish to the touch, her face and chest flushed a shade of blushing crimson.

The velvet walls of her passage undulated around his shaft, every jolt of pleasure that ravaged her beleaguered body joined by a powerful contraction, like a fist was reaching through the barrier of her damp flesh to wring him. It quickly pushed Jamie over the edge, and he soon joined her in her ecstasy, another of her wracking tremors forcing a thick rope of his emission from him. His member flexed and throbbed in her reaches, each spasm driving fresh whimpers from Liz's pursed lips.

Now, it was his turn to dig his nails into her back, his mind going blank as he shot thick spurts of his ejaculate into her beckoning tunnel. Her mouth opened in a silent cry as she felt the warmth of his seed flood her, Jamie lifting her from the bed with each thrust, the pitiless stroking of her muscles easing more out of him. It never seemed to end, every squeeze of her rippling passage provoking another dizzying wave of pleasure.

They remained that way for what felt like minutes, questing hands wandering across skin drenched in their shared sweat, the sound of panting breath filling the tiny bedroom. Liz's eyelids were fluttering, her pupils rolling back into her head as seemingly endless jolts of seething pleasure short-circuited her nervous system. They continued to move together, unable to help themselves as their bodies tried in vain to copulate, their minds completely lost in their haze of lust and afterglow. When the intensity finally began to subside, his exhausted partner collapsed on top of him, Jamie keeping his arms wrapped tightly around her waist as he held her close.

As if awakening from a dream, Liz finally focused her eyes on Jamie, peering up at him as she lay her head on his chest. Her cheeks were beet-red, her sweat gluing her golden hair to her forehead, her lips curled into a satisfied smile. He pumped one final, thick glob of his emission into her, bucking reflexively to force it deeper. She shivered, sighing as an aftershock rippled through her, utterly spent. She laughed suddenly, an exhausted, post-coital giggle that he couldn't help but smile at.

"My parents would be 'so' mad if they knew what we were doing," she chuckled, a contented purr escaping her lips as Jamie ran his hand down her spine. "Sorry I bit you," she added, kissing his neck near the red indents where her teeth had broken his skin. "I don't know what came over me."

"It's alright," Jamie replied sheepishly, "I kind of liked it."

"When are your parents due back?" Liz asked, a flicker of worry crossing her face. "Can we...stay like this? I want to spend the night with you."

"Nobody will be home until late in the morning, at least," he replied confidently. "Mom is working the night shift down at the hospital, and Dad won't be back until the weekend."

Jamie rolled over onto his side, pulling Liz with him, the two of them cuddling on the sullied bed sheets. He slowly pulled out of her, and they both gazed down at the mess they had created together, a sordid blend of their fluids leaking from her flushed lips to pool on her thigh.

"I can feel it inside me," Liz giggled, rubbing her mound gently with a padded finger. "I know that we can't...y'know," she added, trailing off as the thought made her blush. "Different species can't reproduce, but it still feels...right. Does that make any sense?"

She cooed happily as Jamie gave his reply in the form of a placating kiss, their tongues intertwining, the warmth of their afterglow still lingering long after they were spent. He reached down to pull a blanket over their naked bodies, the two lovers wriggling closer together, their shared heat pooling beneath the sheets. They were drenched in sweat, and other, more sordid fluids, but neither one of them cared.

"Liz," Jamie began. "Tomorrow, when you have to-"

She pressed a furry finger against his lips.

"Shush, don't spoil it," she whispered. "Right now, all that matters is you and me. Tomorrow won't come, it can't. I won't let it."

Tears welled in her green eyes, and Jamie wiped them away, pressing closer to embrace her again. She clung to him desperately, this kiss more passionate, more urgent than the last. When they broke off, Liz nestled her face in the nape of his neck, clinging to him as though she never intended to let him go.

"Let me sleep like this," she breathed. Her voice was low and soft, but Jamie could hear a waver in her tone, and it made his heart ache. He wanted to find the right words to comfort her, but she had asked him to pretend that this night would last forever, as though the sun would somehow be prevented from rising through the sheer force of their will.

"I'm so glad I finally got to have you, Jamie."

After a few minutes of silence, her breathing became more regular, Jamie realizing that she had fallen asleep in his arms. His mind quickly began to wander to thoughts of what would happen the next morning, but he fought them back, taking a leaf out of her book. Don't think about it, just enjoy this while you can...

Before long, he had joined her.

***

Jamie awoke to bright sunlight pouring in through the window. He sat up on his bed, shielding his eyes against the glare as he blinked groggily. The sheets were sticking to him, he was covered in stale sweat, along with other fluids. Both his own, and Liz's...

Where was Liz? His heart began to beat faster as he looked around the room, but he couldn't see her. She wasn't in bed, had she gone to the bathroom to wash up? He slid off the mattress, pulling on a pair of jeans. There would be plenty of time to shower later. Right now, he wanted to say his goodbyes to Liz before she...no, he didn't even want to think about it.

As he made for the door, he noticed a sheet of paper taped to the panel. A pit formed in his stomach as he recognized Liz's immaculate handwriting, reaching up to tear it down, his eyes scanning the looping text.

'Dearest Jamie,

Last night was the most magical night of my life. I'm sorry that I couldn't bring myself to say goodbye to you in person. I'm not strong enough, it hurts too much. I hope you can forgive me for running away. By the time you read this, I will probably be on my way to the spaceport with my parents. I've loved you since I was a little girl, and I always will. I'm so sorry that you had to fall in love with me, of all people, and I'm sorry that I put you through all of this. I'm sorry that I never told you how I felt about you sooner, we might have had more time together.

I'll always love you, Jamie, and if there's a way to get back to you, I will find it.

Forever yours, Lizka.'

The ink was blotchy here and there, she must have been crying. Jamie felt his own eyes start to moisten, his chest tightening as stinging tears began to roll down his cheeks.

"Idiot," he muttered to himself, his fingers tightening around the paper. "You didn't even stay long enough for me to tell you what an idiot you are."
He wanted to hold her, to tell her how stupid she was to apologize. He wanted to tell her that he had loved every moment that he had spent with her, that he woke up each morning with a spring in his step because he knew that he would get to see Liz. He wouldn't trade those years away to lessen the pain that he felt right now, not a chance.

Jamie sank to his knees and wept.

CHAPTER 4: WORLDS APART

'It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.'

That was the line that Jamie's father had fed him, followed by a lecture about how he shouldn't mope and how he needed to come out of his room because he was missing practice. Everyone treated their relationship like puppy love, a phase that Jamie would grow out of, as though the connection that he and Liz had shared hadn't been genuine. It made him bitter and angry on top of being heartbroken by Liz's absence. He had rushed to her house as soon as he had composed himself enough to wash and dress, but had found the building empty. She really had gone, off to a planet that was over seventy light-years away for an indeterminate period of time, maybe forever.

Her absence had left a hole in his life that could not be filled. He had other friends, but none in whom he could confide in the way that he had with Liz. She was his best friend, nobody knew him better than she did, and there was simply no replacing that kind of closeness. Whenever he was upset, he found comfort in her company, but she was no longer there.

As the days turned to weeks, her absence did not grow any easier to bear. Still, he held out a faint hope that she might find a way to get in contact. If she still had her phone, there would be no way to reach it, as there was no coverage off-planet. Any messages that were sent had to be transmitted through conventional means, by laser or radio, which would be subject to light-speed delay.

Jamie had paid enough attention in physics class to understand the basics of how FTL travel worked. Jump-capable ships could bypass the speed of light by leapfrogging between dimensions, covering dozens of light-years in a single bound, then coasting while their drive recharged. If they were twenty light-years away, and they sent a transmission via tight-beam laser, it would take a minimum of twenty years to arrive at its destination. Taking a trip on a jump liner wasn't like taking a flight to Hawaii for a vacation, either. A journey from Earth to Borealis was seventy-five light-years, and it could take months depending on the speed of the ship. Liz probably hadn't even arrived yet.

In order for different colonies and planets to stay in contact, they employed quantum communications, entangled satellites that could only transmit short bursts of data. Civilian messages could sit in the buffer for enormous lengths of time while higher-priority transmissions were bumped up the queue, so there was no telling when he might hear from Liz, assuming that Borealis was even equipped with such a satellite. Any message that he sent her would be similarly delayed, but it wasn't like he had her new address anyway. He had her email, but that server was located on Earth, and she would have to wait in the queue for both buffers before she could access it.

Freighters often carried mail between planets as part of their cargo, as long as the sender didn't mind their message taking six months to arrive, but he had no idea where Liz was going.

He considered running away, booking passage to the planet on a freighter, but the idea was both absurd and financially impossible. Even if he sold everything that he owned, he wouldn't make a fraction of the money required to afford such a journey, and it wasn't like he could hitchhike his way there. He was as muddy as they came, he had no idea about space travel, he knew nothing of alien planets. All that he could do was wait and hope...

***

"How long are you going to keep this up, Jamie?" his mother asked. She was leaning on the counter in their tiny kitchen, glaring at him as he sat at the table nearby. He glanced over at her, shoveling another spoonful of cereal into his mouth pointedly. She tossed aside the dishcloth that she had been holding, throwing up her hands in exasperation.

"Your grades have tanked," she continued, Jamie staring into his bowl as his mother lectured him. "At this rate, you'll have to repeat the year if you want to stand any chance of graduating. You're throwing away your future, and for what? Sulking over a...a childhood fling?" she added with a shake of her head. "When I was your age, I got dumped by my boyfriend, and do you know what I did? I carried on. I didn't mope around for months because-"

Jamie tuned her out, eating another mouthful of cereal as her voice droned in the background. His parents had been sympathetic at first. They knew that he and Liz had been close, but they were becoming frustrated with him as more time passed. Most of his friends had reacted the same way, offering empty platitudes in an attempt to comfort him, then responding with anger when he didn't suddenly perk up. They only seemed to care about his mood to the extent that it inconvenienced them. He found it impossible to focus on his schoolwork, and his academic performance had suffered as a result. It was so hard to find the motivation to do much of anything. Every day, he was reminded of Liz's absence. The diner that he had to pass on his way to and from school, the picnic table beneath their favorite tree on the college campus, the steps where he had always waited for her after her classes. He couldn't avoid being reminded of her constantly, but somehow, everyone just expected him to forget.