Alien Romance: Caged By The Alien: Scifi Alien Abduction Romance (Alien Romance, Alien Invasion Romance, BBW) (Celestial Mates Book 4) by Marla Therron

misbehaving?"
    "The winged males indulge in romance," Tau confirmed, "Their lovemaking is only fatal when performed with the Queen. And we see pairs and small bonded groups form among the workers and drones as well that may, ah, stimulate each other, if conditions are right."
    "What about you?" Penny asked, knowing it was a bit risqué but curious anyway, "Can you...?"
    He looked away and she saw that shade of embarrassment on his face for the first time.
    "I can," he answered, "I have been sterilized, as a drone, to prevent my taking part in any nuptial flight, but I am intact. But I have never. I am disgusting in the eyes of the winged males. None would have me. And to be with a worker or drone when my voice can command them... It would be wrong."
    Penny nodded, understanding.
    "I don't know if it means much," Penny said, "I don't know how humans look to you. But by my standards, you're far from disgusting. You're quite attractive actually. Not like those waifish, bug eyed creeps in the cathedral."
    Tau laughed, and she saw he was still embarrassed.
    "Their eyes are the same as mine, you know," he said, "The larger lenses are a kind of jewelry. Larger eyes that look like the Queen's are in fashion right now."
    "I still prefer you," Penny smiled, amused by his avoidance, "I think a lot of humans would."
    He was still holding her hand, and he ran his thumb over the back of her fingers gently.
    "To answer your question," he said, "I think humans are quite beautiful. You especially."
    Penny felt her heart skip a beat and she looked away, blushing, wondering why it affected her so much to hear him say that. She opened her mouth, not sure what she was about to ask, when the chime sounded and the lights dimmed. Tau's hand slipped from hers.
    "Good night, Penny Allyn," he said as he moved to his bed.
    "Good night, Aiten Tau," she replied, and saw him smile before he put out the light entirely.
    Penny laid in the pillows of her cage for a long while, thoughts a jumble. There were only four more of this planet's days before she would be executed. So why was her heart racing for an entirely different reason?

Chapter Ten
     
    Life in the cage was surreal in a way. She saw everything. She watched Tau wake and dress and eat in the morning and everything he did at night as well, from cleaning his armor to playing with one of the strange, colorful sliding puzzles that seemed to be a primary form of entertainment here.
    He gave her one along with the books he retrieved from her team to keep her occupied while he was gone, but she couldn't figure it to save her life. She just didn't think the same way he did.
    She sat in her cage at the center of his life and watched him living, unable to touch it or take part except in the most limited of ways. They talked always, and she could hold his hand through the bars, but she couldn't really affect his life. She was at the center of almost everything he did now, and removed from him at the same time.
    There was a disorienting sense of dehumanization to it sometimes. She felt like a weird art piece. An object or a pet. A dog in a kennel. She wondered somewhat anxiously if that was how he saw her.
    When he'd said she was beautiful, did he only mean it in the way she might say the same thing of a cocker spaniel? The thought hurt her more than she expected it to, but she didn't dare ask.
    Time was whittled away a little more every day, and every day she felt both closer to him and more distant, the bars of her cage a gulf between them, and she wondered why she couldn't focus on her swiftly approaching death instead. It still seemed so unreal and impossible. Maybe she was just certain that he would keep his promise to her and find a way for them to survive this. She only seemed to think about how little time she had left when she lay down to sleep.
    Only three days left, only two...
    Tau returned late the night before the trial. He'd been gone the entire 48 hour day, having left before the morning