Chapter 3: CULTURAL EXCHANGE

The two characters fenced on the deck of the sinking ship, the ocean spray raining down on them as their blades flashed, their steel clashing. In the background, the other boarders fired muskets, sending billowing smoke into the air as flashes of lightning illuminating the scene.

“They really did this with such primitive technology?” Val marveled, on the edge of her seat as one of the enemy ships fired a full broadside. The cannons thundered, shattering masts and splintering wood, shrapnel sending the actors flying.

“This is how Humans conquered their planet before spreading out into space,” Simon replied, taking a sip of his drink. “They called it the age of exploration,” he added with a dramatic wave of his hand. “They fought pirates, too, they colonized new continents. Didn’t you have sailing ships in Palaven’s early history?”

“Nothing like this,” she replied, “the oceans on Palaven are a fraction the size of those of Earth. Most of our conflicts took the form of marching across deserts and scrubland to assault enemy fortresses.”

“You want another drink, something else to eat?” Simon asked. Val shook her head, then wrapped her arm around his, leaning her head on his shoulder as she watched the climax of the movie.

“It’s getting late,” she murmured, “movie’s nearly over. I’ve had a good time tonight.”

“Yeah?” he asked, smiling down at her as she began to nuzzle his neck. “I wanted everything to go perfectly, I wanted tonight to feel special.”

“It already does,” she said. Her hand moved to his cheek, turning his face so that she could kiss him again. Her pace was more aggressive now, greedy, all of her prior restraint forgotten. She gripped the collar of his shirt, guiding him on top of her, encouraging him to press her into the padded backrest of the couch as they made out.

Was it finally time? Were they really going to take things to the next level? The anticipation had been boiling up inside of him all night like a geyser about to erupt, and now that the moment was here, he didn’t know what to do with himself. So many ideas had flashed through his head, he had made so many tentative plans, but his mind was so foggy now that he couldn’t remember any of it.

He was kneeling with one leg between her thighs, Val putting herself beneath him, releasing her tight hold on his collar to let her hands wander to the buttons on his shirt. Simon wanted to ask if they were doing this here, now, but he didn’t need to. The sensual nature of her kiss betrayed her desire for him, Val murmuring softly when she paused to let him take a breath before plunging her questing tongue back into his mouth. The doting strokes of her blue organ dripped with passion. She was holding nothing back now, her embrace taking on a lascivious quality.

When they broke off their kiss, he crawled his lips down to her neck, Val fumbling with his shirt as he began to mouthe at her scales. They were smoother than they had looked, made up of a fine mosaic that he could just barely feel on his tongue, surprisingly soft. It was only really distinguishable from Human skin thanks to the sparse patches where the scales were larger, almost like small protective plates in their own right.

Val’s fingers faltered, an appreciative shiver passing through her as he left a sucking kiss on her throat.

“Your lips are so soft,” she muttered, sounding surprised. Of course, Turians didn’t even have lips, they couldn’t kiss in the way that a Human could. They could perhaps extend their tongues past their beaks and lick, but it was a very different sensation.

She arched her spine towards him, her hips rising from the cushions involuntarily, her hand reaching up to grip his hair as though afraid that he might pull away. Simon had read that Turians had sensitive necks, but he hadn’t expected this strong of a reaction.

Encouraged, he moved lower, nibbling softly and leaving sucking kisses as he went. He reached her shoulder, having to practically lean inside the protective collar that her carapace formed to reach, a warble rising in Val’s throat that almost sounded like a purr.

“Bite me a little,” she whispered, “gently...”

He did as she asked, hearing her loose a sordid chuckle that tapered into a moan. She stopped herself, almost seeming embarrassed by her lapse in composure.

“Do you want me to stop?” he asked, breathing heavily as she released her hold on him.

“N-no, I want to go all the way,” she stammered, returning her hands to his shirt. Simon leaned down to distract her with a few brief kisses as she unbuttoned it, exposing his torso. His skin was already slick with sweat due to the heat in the room, as he had raised the thermostat to better suit Turians before Val’s arrival.

She slid her hands across his chest, feeling his pectoral muscles flex beneath his skin. Her fingers wandered down to his stomach, pressing down on him, testing his firmness. As someone with a fairly physically demanding job, Simon was in pretty good shape, and he wondered what she must make of him. He had no carapace, and his skin was devoid of scales, covered in tiny hairs that the reptilian Turians lacked.

“Your skin is like glass,” she murmured, moving past his navel as she made for the conspicuous bulge in his pants. Her fingertips brushed it, and he shuddered, a surprisingly powerful jolt of tingling pleasure rocking him.

Before she could undo his fly, he started on her own clothes, struggling to figure out how her odd suit opened. There was a kind of folded lapel that ran down the front, which concealed a zipper, Simon pulling it back. He ran the zipper down her torso until it reached her waist, Val beginning to shrug the jacket-like piece of clothing off as it opened like a clamshell.

Her upper body was enclosed within a carapace of downward-curving, overlapping plates that looked like a suit of organic armor, complete with plates that covered her shoulders. There was a raised collar around her neck and a ridge that ran down the middle of her chest, tapering off into a point as it neared where her navel would have been if she had one. It looked to have a similar texture to her face, slightly pocked like porous stone, but these were much thicker and heavier.

While he couldn’t pretend that her carapace was in any way attractive to him, the way that her narrow waist flared into her almost exaggeratedly wide hips drew his gaze immediately. Hourglass didn’t do her figure justice, it was so feminine, ensnaring his senses. This body had not evolved to be attractive to him, it was purely coincidental, but it made his growing erection strain against the fabric of his pants all the same.

Val noticed where he was looking, shifting her weight as she began to grin, the motion making her hips roll. There were muscles flexing beneath her skin, the individual scales catching the light to make them shine, shadow picking out the contours of her abs. Much like Simon, she was in good shape due to her demanding profession, the configuration of her body at once alien and familiar.

Simon slid down the couch until he was kneeling on the carpet in front of her, beginning to unzip her pants. These worked more like the Human equivalent, Val raising her legs to help him slide them off. The fabric snagged on the bony spurs that extended from her calves, the two of them struggling for a moment before discarding them on the floor. Now, she was only wearing a pair of white panties, their color contrasting sharply with the beige tone of her skin. There was already a wet patch, the sight making his heart leap.

Her thighs were dimpled with muscle, but they weren’t so firm that they didn’t yield when he parted them, his fingers delving into a layer of surprisingly soft fat. Her outer thighs and her shins had more armor plating, but they were wonderfully smooth on the inside, almost as though her anatomy was guiding his hands.

“Is this ... what you expected?” she asked hesitantly. Adorable, she was worried that he wasn’t attracted to her. His answer was a lingering kiss to her inner thigh that made her arch her back, a surprised grunt escaping her mouth, his tongue darting across her scales.

“I’m so turned on that I don’t know what to do with myself,” he muttered, and it was a genuine sentiment. He felt as though there was a kind of energy building up inside him, agitating him, begging for release. Simon wanted ... no, he ‘needed’ more, or he might explode like an overcharged battery.

Her claws dug into the couch cushions as he moved from her knee to her hip, pausing to plant an affectionate kiss every couple of inches, feeling her steely muscles tense up as he passed over them. He had an inexplicable, burning desire to kiss every scale on her body, Val gasping whenever she felt the flat of his tongue smear her skin with his saliva. When he neared her mound, he moved up to her belly, giving her a gentle bite on the hip that made her squirm.

“Is this how all Humans make love?” she asked breathlessly, gripping the edge of the couch as though trying to steady herself as she peered down at him with drooping eyelids.

“I’ve wanted to do this since the night we met,” he replied, his tongue nearing the hem of her underwear. “Watching you dance in that nightclub, lit only by the neon, it was ethereal. Like something out of a dream. It drove me crazy, being so attracted to you, but not knowing what to do about it. It was like being a horny kid again.”

He placed his mouth over her mound, exhaling warm air on it, the flat of his tongue pressing against the damp fabric. Val inhaled sharply, both hands taking a grip on his hair, her thighs brushing his cheeks as they snapped shut. He could feel the heat that her loins radiated, her sweet taste making his head spin, only the tiniest sliver of cotton separating them.

“Did you fantasize about me?” she whispered, giggling when he nodded. She was so wet that her panties were sticking to her, the outline of a pair of puffy lips clearly visible. She pulled them aside, the fabric linked to her glistening, blue flesh by a strand of her excitement. Between a pair of scaly, beige-colored lips was a sliver of lavender, wet with a sheen of her juices that made it shine in the low light. Val flinched as he breathed on it, his nose hovering an inch away, his eyes following a bead of fluid as it rolled down her scales.

She parted her lips with her two fingers, exposing her folds, like pleated layers of blue velvet. It was oddly beautiful in a strange, alien way, reminding him of the petals of the alien flower that was sitting in the vase on the dining table. His mouth began to water with anticipation, his member straining against his pants as he drew closer.

Val held her breath, exhaling as his lips met hers, his tongue darting out to glance her vulva. She was putting out so much heat, swollen and needy, her smooth thighs brushing against his red cheeks as she squirmed. She tasted oddly sweet, it was like biting into a ripe fruit, her juices spilling down his chin as he began to mouthe and lick. His hands wandered beneath her legs, raising them as he buried his face between them, his writhing partner’s hands coming to rest on his head.

“Spirits...” she muttered, her flanging voice strained. Her muscles flexed beautifully beneath her skin as she rolled her wide hips, grinding against him, her grip on his hair tightening as he painted her burning flesh with his tongue. With their hard beaks, this was another thing that male Turians likely had trouble with.

Simon explored her folds, finding them more familiar than he had expected, similar to those of a Human woman in spite of their exotic color. They were so delicate, and Val was so sensitive, Simon delighting in the way that she bucked and writhed with his every doting glance. Her burning flesh had the texture of silk that had been soaked in honey, slippery and smooth, his tongue gliding between her puffy labia. He traced her folds, circling her twitching opening, feeling a ring of slick muscles grip its tip as he pushed it inside her. He dragged the flat of his tongue across her vulva, mouthing at her lips, his saliva blending with her syrupy emissions. He had to keep in mind that swallowing would be a bad idea, her bodily fluids were dextro.

Val stroked his hair all the while, beside herself as she squirmed on the couch, Simon pausing occasionally to kiss her thighs and stomach. He enjoyed the contrast between her slick, hot flesh, and her cool scales as he crawled his lips across them.

He began to draw teasing shapes on her vulva, his fingers sinking into the meat of her stout thighs for purchase as her back arched toward him, Val failing to stifle a pained whine. Encouraged, he took the opportunity to slip a hand between the couch cushion and her rear. She might not have breasts, but Val had an ass like a perfect peach, his fingers delving into her springy flesh.

She lurched as she felt him take a generous handful, but she didn’t complain, Simon filling his palm with one of her round cheeks. It was covered in the same smooth scales as her thighs, toned muscle like firm rubber lurking beneath a layer of irresistibly soft fat, his digits sinking up to the first joint. As he squeezed, her flesh spilled between his fingers like warm dough, her steely muscles tensing in response.

A hand on the back of his head encouraged him to keep licking, his tongue wandering higher, locating a firm bud. She flinched when he glanced it, Simon pausing his lapping to peer up at her.

“Sorry, did that hurt?” he asked.

“Fuck no,” she growled, “keep going!”

She reached down and splayed her loins, pulling back her satin folds, her engorged clitoris peeking out from beneath a hood of protective skin that was just as blue as the rest of her. He pursed his lips around it, his nose brushing against the glass-smooth scales of her mound, Val gritting her sharp teeth as a shudder passed through her. It was swollen with arousal, her pulse making it throb against his tongue.

He slowly circled it, Val breathing heavily as she peered down at him, her alien eyes seeming to lose their focus with his every lick. When he trapped it between his lip and his tongue, she loosed another stifled whine, the muscles in her thighs bulging as they pressed against his cheeks. He began to suck gently, darting his tongue across the engorged bud’s smooth surface, drawing it out from beneath its hood. The sensation drove her wild, it was something that she couldn’t have experienced before, not with a Turian partner’s rigid mouthparts.

“Don’t go out with a Human,” she muttered in a mocking tone, mimicking the voices of her friends. “They said this relationship couldn’t go anywhere, but you’re takin’ me places right now, Si.”

“Si?” he asked, pausing his licking to chuckle at the nickname.

“You want two syllables out of me in this state?” she scoffed, “you’re lucky I’m not just grunting. Don’t stop, damn it, this is fuckin’ great...”

She leaned back, letting herself sink into the couch as he resumed his adoring licking, her hips shifting subtly from side to side as he delved between her thighs once again. He lashed at her clitoris, dragging his tongue across her dripping vulva, his hands wandering where they pleased. For more than two weeks he had kept his paws off her, wanting to explore her curves, but being unable to. He was making up for lost time now, reveling in the way that her muscles moved like liquid metal beneath her skin, in the way that his fingers sank into her fat. She had the physique of a dancer or a gymnast, strong and sinewy, yet soft and graceful.

He brought a hand to her loins as he kept her bud locked between his lips, stroking her warm flesh with his fingertips, wetting them with the slimy juices that clung to it. After probing for her opening for a moment, he found it, a ring of muscle sealing around his finger as he pushed it inside her. Immediately, bumpy, pillowy walls of flesh pressed down on his digit as the muscles beyond their slippery bounds clenched. She let slip a moan, her insides rippling, massaging him waves as though trying to suck him deeper.

She was so tight, her insides clamping down on him like a fist, spasming each time that his tongue grazed her clitoris. He could feel the texture of her velutinous passage, bumpy and uneven, covered in wrinkles and fleshy nodules that raked across his skin. Everything was drenched in her viscous excitement, making her loins glide effortlessly along his finger, globs of it leaking past his knuckle.

He paused, his member throbbing as he imagined thrusting it inside her, feeling those maddening bumps slide across his glans.

“Something wrong?” Val asked breathlessly from somewhere above him. “Why’d you stop licking?”

“I was just ... kind of amazed,” he replied.

“Am I that different from a Human?”

“Oh yeah,” he chuckled, “in a good way.”

He began to move his digit inside her, the combination of this new sensation and his licking sending a shiver through Val’s taut body. She was wound up like a spring, he could feel the tension coming off her, the nervous energy.

“That’s it,” she mumbled, slurring her words now as she sank her claws into the cushions to either side of her. She began to rock, unable to help herself, thrusting against his finger. “Deeper, yeah ... like that. Oh, spirits ... move your finger upwards like-”

He did as she asked, curling his digit inside her, pressing it against the roof of her tunnel. She bucked, her claws tearing the fabric, her thighs squeezing his head as her butt rose from the couch for a moment. She was incredibly sensitive there, was that her G-spot?

“If I’d known you’d be this much fun, I would have jumped your bones the first night we met,” she chuckled as she slowly sank back down to the couch. “Er, you’re remembering not to swallow ... anything, right? I’m kinda...”

“Wet?” he suggested, wiping a dangling strand of her juices from his chin with the back of his hand.

“Yeah, well ... it’s your fault,” she chuckled. “Now that you know how to push all my buttons, stop talking and start putting that tongue to better use. I’m close, I wanna cum...”

He brought his mouth back to her swollen lips, stroking her seizing passage with his finger as he began to lap and kiss. He doted on her, pleasing her the only thing that mattered to him in that moment, feeling her throb around his buried digit. He crawled his lips across her burning vulva, tracing the silky contours of her loins with the tip of his tongue, drawing on her clitoris as he teased it with quick flurries. She was practically fucking his hand now, losing herself in the pleasure, her head lolling as her rhythmic movements made the couch creak.

“Mmf, keep going,” she warbled in her strange, flanging voice. “Don’t stop, Si, fuck. Don’t you dare stop!”

The contractions of her muscles came faster and faster, her thighs beginning to tremble against his cheeks, her labored breathing morphing into gasping. Her ample rear rose from the couch, Simon clinging to her as he struggled to keep his lips sealed around her bud, her warm fluids seeping down his chin.

She loosed a yelp that tapered into a sultry moan, her legs crossing behind his head, her hands taking a grip on his hair as her body began to quake. Like someone had just touched her with a live wire, she jumped and trembled, doubling over above him. Simon kept up his stroking, easing out every last spasm of pleasure that he could, her sopping tunnel kneading him so hard that it was almost painful.

Again and again, he felt her alien body tense, the Turian inhaling sharply before loosing a drawn-out, satisfied sigh. Every wave of her orgasm made her toned muscles flex, dimpling her thighs, and making her abs rise from beneath her flush scales. Her waist was mesmerizing. She was moving like a bellydancer, twisting and writhing in ways that almost seemed designed to accentuate her figure. Reptiles didn’t sweat, but the way that her scales reflected the dim light of the apartment made her seem to glisten, as though her skin was misted with water.

Gradually, she began to come down, relaxing back into the cushions and releasing her tight hold on him. She shivered again as he pulled his finger out of her, provoking an aftershock, his skin glazed in a thick sheen of her juices. He kissed her thigh, now stained with her fluids, a string of it linking his lips to her scales. As he drew back, she began to giggle in a distinctly sordid way, batting her lashes at him. He had never seen her so ... happy before, unrestrained, like she was drunk on her euphoria.

“I can’t believe I put this off for so long,” she purred, a hand sneaking between her legs to ease out one last throb of pleasure. “Now that I’ve started, I don’t think I’m going to be able to stop.”

“What happened to that Turian stoicism?” Simon chuckled, Val reaching down to grip his chin between her thumb and forefinger. She guided him up onto the couch, bringing him close, pausing as she prepared to kiss him.

“Like I said, we’re allowed to have our ... vices, and I think you just became mine.”

They embraced, slow and placating, every gentle stroke of Val’s tongue overflowing with desire for him. She was in that wonderful state of bliss that follows a powerful climax, still unsteady, basking in her afterglow.

Simon slowly sank into the couch beside her, the room lit only by the standby symbol on the monitor, the movie long forgotten. After cuddling for a few minutes, he felt Val’s fingers brush the bulge in his pants, the sensation jolting him to alertness.

“What are you smuggling down there?” she cooed, giving it a gentle squeeze. “Do you have a permit to carry a weapon on the Citadel?”

“I’ve secretly been a Spectre all this time,” he replied as she slid down onto the carpet in front of him, her clawed fingers slowly dragging down the zipper.

“I’m going to have to check you for contraband,” she said, her voice cracking as she laughed at her own joke. Simon joined her, his chuckling tapering off as she opened his fly to expose his shorts. She hooked her fingers around the elastic waistband, her claws grazing his skin, and pulled them down. Her eyes widened as his member bounced free, standing erect in front of her face, pulsing softly in time with the beating of his heart. She reached out and stroked it, Simon’s eyelids fluttering.

“Weird,” she muttered, her emerald eyes playing over it. “Good weird,” she added hastily, glancing up at him. “Ours aren’t covered in skin like this, and they’re more ... pointy.”

“Didn’t you look it up on the extranet?” he asked. “That’s what I did.”

“Well, yeah ... but seeing it in person is different,” she replied, seeming transfixed. She reached out and gave him a gentle prod with her finger, his erection flexing in response. “The tip is sensitive, right?” She took a firmer grip on his shaft, gently peeling back his foreskin to reveal his pink glans. “This looks more familiar.”

She drew closer, Simon feeling a pang of apprehension. She wanted to return the favor, that was obvious, but her mouth was all rigid mandibles and sharp teeth.

“Hang on a sec,” he mumbled, “is this going to ... be alright?”

“Don’t worry, I won’t nick you,” she replied with a toothy grin that was less than reassuring. She extended a few inches of her tapered, lavender tongue, slightly longer than a Human’s would have been. As she curled it, she felt his member throb in her hand, giving him a sly glance. “Trust me?”

He nodded, and she guided his member closer, her tongue glancing the tip like she was tasting a lollipop. Now it was Simon’s turn to shiver, pleasure shooting through him like an electric current as her smooth, damp flesh began to circle his head. She was painting his tender flesh with all the care and attention of an artist’s brush, coating every inch of it with her warm, slippery saliva. She slipped her tongue beneath his foreskin, Simon having to stop himself from bucking as the sensation rocked him.

“See?” she chuckled, “I know what I’m doing...”

He began to relax somewhat as she lapped at his glans, every gentle stroke making his head spin. He was so painfully aware of her tongue, it was all that his mind could focus on her, her passionate licking scattering his thoughts to the wind. It was different from what a Human partner would have done. With her alien mouthparts, she couldn’t suck or kiss, she couldn’t purse her lips around his glans. She was using only her tongue, her skilled organ exploring every contour of his anatomy. It was so warm and smooth, her bubbling saliva leaking down his shaft, her flesh like satin as it raked across his head.

She began to move down, tracing one of his veins with the tip of her tongue, keeping a grip on the base of his member. His skin was slick with her drool now, making it shine in the light of the monitor, her fingers sliding in it as she began to stroke him. Her velvet tongue found his balls, Simon leaning back into the couch, gritting his teeth as she licked.

“It’s so warm,” she muttered, letting his member rest against her painted cheek. “I can feel it beating...”

She began to slide her fingers over his glans, pressing it into her palm, massaging him as her tongue wandered across his balls. The texture of her fine scales surprised him, as smooth as glass in their own right, but subtly textured when taken together. Her touch was so soft, nothing like he would have imagined.

“How am I doing?” she asked, Simon struggling to formulate a coherent reply.

“Great...”

“Good,” she chuckled, dragging the flat of her tongue back up his length. She began to pump faster now, using her spit as a lubricant, lapping rhythmically at the tip of his erection. She found the sensitive zone just beneath it, Simon lurching as she began to tease it with the tapered tip of her organ, every stroke of her fist sending a wave of pleasure washing over him.

She brought up her other hand, cradling his balls in her soft palm as she stroked his shaft, Simon’s stifled groan only encouraging her.

“You’re so good with your hands,” he muttered, flinching as she swirled her tongue around his tip.

“What, you think I need five fingers to make you squirm?” she purred as she gave him a squeeze. “We Turians do just fine with three.”

She wrapped both hands around his wet shaft, twisting them in different directions, alternating her squeezing to keep him on edge. She was like a damned masseuse. Maybe not having lips was a good thing, the Turians had to get creative.

He considered stopping her as she brought his glans towards her beak, but she had asked him to trust her, and that was what he intended to do. She opened her jaws, revealing two rows of sharp teeth that ran down either side of her mouth. She had no front teeth, Turians must use their beaks in lieu of incisors and canines, they certainly seemed sharp enough.

He shivered as he felt his glans slide against her slimy palate, her tongue coiling around his shaft as she guided him deeper, keeping him clear of her fangs. He watched as more and more of his length vanished into her mouth, biting his lip as seething pleasure overrode his fear of pinching and snagging. Her warm cheeks pressed around his member like a pair of silken pillows, her tongue writhing around his glans, as though it was trying to find a comfortable place to rest. Val continued to take him deeper until there was only an inch left, his eyes rolling back into his head as he felt his tender tip press against the back of her throat.

Val rested her hands on his thighs as she swallowed around him, the muscles in the depths of her gullet stroking him with all the dexterity of a hand. It was so tight and wet, her saliva acting as a lubricant, soaking his skin in a bubbling layer of warm slime. He covered his face with his hands, trying to endure the intense sensation as Val peered up at him, a smile in her eyes.

Her wriggling tongue cradled his shaft from beneath, undulating, stroking the underside of his glans where she knew that he was most sensitive. With a start, he realized that he had to hold out. If he came in her mouth, he might poison her.

She began to slide him in and out of her throat, her sluggish pace keeping him in edge, her eyelashes batting each time she felt him flex. If Turians had a gag reflex, then she was doing a remarkable job of suppressing it. Beads of her saliva dripped down his length, her pace growing faster, more ravenous. As his breathing began to grow ragged, she pulled back, letting him slide out of her mouth along with a thick rope of her drool that broke to fall to the carpet below. She wiped her mouth on the back of her hand, peering up at him excitedly.

“Are you close?” she asked gleefully, “does it feel good?”

“It feels amazing,” he sighed, enraptured as she began to pump her fist again.

“C-Sec can do delicate work too, y’know,” she joked. “We don’t just rough people up.”

Val giggled as his hips began to rise from the cushions, Simon thrusting into her hand. She held still, letting him rut into her fist, his skin sliding against her slimy scales.

“You’re close, right?” she said. “I can feel you swelling.”

Val rose to her feet, looming over him as he sank back into the couch, keeping one of her scaly hands wrapped around his shaft as the other gripped the backrest behind him. She leaned closer, pressing her forehead against his. It was the same gesture that she had demonstrated earlier, a Turian show of affection.