David Solomon, Dave to his friends, looked at the time display on his smart phone. It was late. Work had gone over again, damned college interns he worked with slacked off, leaving him to do the bulk of the work. And then Mr. Prosser, his supervisor, bawled him out for going past schedule without permission. As a result, he stayed a full four hours after he was supposed to leave work for the evening. He raced to the sky-tram stop near the office, softly cursing his lack of a vehicle. He swore he would start setting aside some money so he could drive himself to the office instead of using public transportation.
He dashed up to the sky-tram stop, and found it deserted save for a lone figure sitting on a bench. Dave walked over to the information kiosk, which was a reinforced holo-projector set into the platform. As he approached the device, it projected a hologram of a perky woman wearing a blouse, skirt, and a business coat. She had an ever so slightly exaggerated hourglass figure. Her voluminous blonde hair was pulled back in a high ponytail. The name “Candy” was prominently displayed on a nametag fixed to her jacket. She smiled at him and waved as if they were good friends. Dave used this sky-tram stop so often that the AI that controlled the info kiosk recognized him and knew his name. Dave was no stranger to AI operated holo-women. They were used for interactive advertising and information kiosks, especially with public transportation, even his office used holo-women for their own public information kiosks.
“Hi, Dave,” she cooed, her voice slightly flirty, “you’re getting here awfully late!”
“Yeah,” Dave groaned, “work took too bloody long.”
“Oh,” Candy whimpered, “they shouldn’t make you work overtime!”
“Stupid skivers left me to do the bulk of the work,” Dave grumbled, “then Mr. Prosser bawled me out for not leaving work on schedule.”
“Well, tomorrow’s another day,” Candy encouraged, “maybe you’ll have a better day tomorrow.”
“Yeah,” Dave agreed, “so when’s the next train?”
Candy looked distant for an instant as her AI accessed the sky-tram schedule.
“About fifteen minutes,” she replied.
“Bloody hell,” Dave cursed, “I wanna go home!”
“Fifteen minutes isn’t that long,” Candy countered.
“It is when you’re absolutely knackered,” Dave groused, “I wanna go home, have a bite, and hit the sack!”
“Well,” Candy offered, “fifteen minutes will pass before you know it.”
“Yeah,” Dave grumbled.
Candy waved at him as he meandered toward the platform. He was bored already. He looked at the lone figure sitting on the bench. At first, he couldn’t tell who or what it was. However, after a moment, he began to suspect that the figure was a woman. However, it was hard to tell, what with the voluminous cloak and hood that concealed the bulk of the figure’s form.
“You don’t have to stare,” the figure said in a sultry yet annoyed female voice, “I’m as feminine as any female on this planet.”
“Uh, sorry,” Dave stammered, “I…uh…couldn’t tell if you were male or female under that cloak.”
“That’s the whole point,” the woman muttered, “you humans tend to stare at me as if I’m ugly or something!”
This struck Dave as odd. Wasn’t she human? She looked more or less human.
“Are…aren’t you human,” he haltingly asked.
“No,” the woman replied, “I’m from another planet. You’ll forgive me if I don’t tell you the name of my species or my home world.”
“Is it classified or something,” Dave asked, “is MI6 gonna come after me for talking to you or something?”
“First,” the woman said, “the names of my species and home world aren’t pronounceable in your language. Second, I don’t know this MI6 of which you speak.”
Dave moved closer to the bench. He could not see the woman’s face; the hood of her cloak effectively hid her visage through a combination of its depth and shadow. It was a simple enough concealment.
“Do you have a name,” Dave asked, “or is that unpronounceable too?”
“My name is Apheris,” the woman replied.
“That’s a pretty name,” Dave said.
“Thanks,” Apheris muttered.
They were silent for several minutes, Dave standing beside the bench, and Apheris sitting on the bench.
“You can sit beside me,” Apheris said, “I don’t bite…unless you want me to.”
“I’m sorry,” Dave said, “I don’t want to intrude.”
“Fifteen minutes will be a long wait if you’re standing up,” Apheris noted.
Dave sat down on the bench, trying not to get too close. He wasn’t sure how large an area this woman considered her personal space.
“So…uh…what brought you to Earth,” Dave asked.
“I’m a hyperspace engineer,” Apheris said, “we were invited to Earth by your government to help them to develop a hyperspace drive that would allow your spacecraft to travel beyond your star system. However, before we could really get the project off the proverbial ground, they appropriated the data we aliens brought with us, and dismissed us. Your government started to send us home…one by one. I was the last one, and they conveniently ran out of money. So, now I’m stuck on this mud ball.”
“So, what’re you doing,” Dave asked, “I mean, aren’t you trying to get home on your own?”
“I…um…I’m earning money,” Apheris haltingly replied, “I’m hoping to…save up enough to…um…leave this world and go home.”
“What exactly do you do to make money,” Dave asked.
“You’re better off not knowing,” Apheris warned, “it’s not legal. And if the authorities found out that you knew about it, you could be arrested as an accessory to a crime.”
“Are you an assassin or something,” Dave asked.
“I have sex, but also I…I swallow,” Apheris muttered evasively, “I really can’t say more than that.”
“Okay,” Dave replied, confused.
He didn’t think it unusual that she had turned to prostitution for money. It was that old yarn where a beautiful girl needed money, and so she took to turning cheap tricks to earn it.
“Well,” Dave said, “I hope you get enough money soon.”
“Yeah, I doubt that,” Apheris groaned, “everything is so expensive here.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” Dave agreed.
“I just wish I could make more money,” Apheris said, “so I could afford to pay my living expenses and have enough left over to save up to book passage on a ship home.”
Dave and Apheris fell silent at that moment, as if some unspoken end of conversation stimulus hit them. They were quiet for a long time. Dave looked around, making a conscious effort to not look at Apheris, who sat quietly, looking at her smart phone. After a while, the silence got to Dave.
“So,” Dave sighed, “are you…um…different looking?”
Apheris looked at Dave. He goggled at seeing her face. She looked at him. He studied the features of her face that were visible beneath the hood of her cloak. She not only looked human, she could easily put most ultra-supermodels to shame. She was absolutely beautiful, with flawless elfin features. Her eyes were maybe a tad too large, while her nose was a bit too small, and her lips at first seemed a little too thin, and her mouth too small. However, he noticed that as she turned her head to look at him, her mouth seemed to enlarge slightly, while her lips definitely got fuller. He looked at her face for maybe a bit too long.
“Satisfied,” Apheris testily asked.
“Yeah,” Dave breathed, “you’re beautiful.”
“I’ll just credit that to your reproductive instincts,” Apheris dismissed, “I’ve found you human males will become attracted to anything that looks vaguely female.”
“So, is the rest of your body the same,” Dave asked.
“I’ve got everything your human females have,” Apheris sighed.
“What about…you know…down there,” Dave asked, “is that the same?”
“Listen, bloke,” Apheris growled, “you’re asking some rather personal questions!”
“Hey, I’m sorry,” Dave said, “I…I was just curious.”
“Well, take your curiosity and sod off,” Apheris snarled.
“Look, I apologize,” Dave said, “I didn’t mean to offend.”
Before Apheris could reply another man approached them. He looked at Apheris and smiled.
“Hello, love,” he charmed, “I’ve heard you offer some…unique services.”
Apheris looked at Dave, thinking about how she hadn’t specified precisely what she did to earn money.
“Fifty pounds for sex,” Apheris explained, “one hundred pounds for the basics, thirty minutes, then you’re done!”
“What about full services,” the guy asked, absently getting her self-censorship.
“Five hundred,” she replied.
“That’s a little steep,” the man countered, “but I’m willing to pay for it.”
“Hey,” Dave barked, standing up and confronting the man, “you should feel honored that this beautiful woman is willing to offer her services! You should consider paying twice what she’s asking. She’s unlike any other woman in this world! If you can’t pay her what she’s worth, you should get the hell outta here and find floozie for what you want!”
“Oy mate,” the guy barked, “ain’t no other chicks that offer her kind of services! She does stuff human girls don’t, so piss off!”
“If she’s offering something human girls can’t do,” Dave persisted, “then you should have no problem paying twice what she’s asking!”
“What are you,” the guy demanded, “her pimp? You hustling me…”
“If you’re wanting full services,” Apheris interrupted, “would you be willing to pay eight hundred?”
“Seven fifty,” the man barked.
“Done,” Apheris agreed.
“Let’s go somewhere private,” the man growled, then rudely gestured toward Dave, “away from this tosser.”
“Come,” Apheris soothed, “there’s a motorway inn nearby.”
Apheris glared at Dave as she left with her client. And though she seemed angry, something in her bearing gave Dave the impression that she was glad to be getting more money from this client. She also seemed relieved that she would not have to see him again. Dave took out his smart phone and fiddled around with a mobile game until a sky-tram approached. He was glad when it pulled up to the platform. He got on, found a seat, and waited for it to reach the stop near his apartment.
It didn’t take long before he was home. He sighed as he entered his meager apartment. It was a modest, if small two bedroom flat with the usual kitchen/dining room/living room arrangement, with a shower between the bedrooms. He sighed again as he took off his coat and loosened his tie as he trudged to his bedroom to change into a t-shirt and loose jogging shorts. As he stepped out of his bedroom, he looked at the other bedroom, which had thus far remained unoccupied. He had been wondering what he could do with it. He had pondered turning it into a home office, but thought better of it, and thus he furnished it as a guest bedroom. However now that he thought about it, he could have offered it to Apheris. He made enough at his job that he could afford to let her live there without expecting money from her. However, he doubted he would ever see her again. Besides, even if he did, she probably wouldn’t want to have anything to do with him, given how much he had offended her. With another sigh, Dave stalked out to the kitchen, and snatched a beer from the fridge. As he sipped his beer, he took out his smart phone and ordered a pizza from Mama Joan’s Pizza Palace. After the pizza arrived, Dave took it and his beer, and sat down on the couch. He started on his first slice while he searched his streaming services for a sufficiently entertaining sporting event that would get Apheris off his mind. A few minutes and a couple of pizza slices later, he settled on the King of Iron Fist Tournament. Settling back on the couch, he ate his pizza and sipped his beer as he watched various martial artists fight each other for the tournament championship. He wiled his evening eating pizza, drinking beer, and watching sports. Eventually, his fatigue caught up with him. Thus, he tossed the remainder of his pizza in the fridge, dumped his beer can in the recycling, then trudged off to bed.
Days passed, and Apheris slowly faded from his conscious memory. He worked, he went out drinking, attended a rock concert, and even went to see his young nephew play a peewee football game at his school. He had all but forgotten about the strange alien girl when he saw her again. It had been one of the days when he had to work the afternoon shift at his job. Seeing that his food supplies were low, he had gone to the grocery store. He was pushing a shopping trolley around the supermarket when a woman came round a corner. Without warning she bumped her shopping trolley into his. He was annoyed at first, until he realized that it was Apheris. She was now wearing a long coat, and had a filmy scarf wrapped around her head and neck, but it was her.
“I’m terribly sorry,” she stammered in flustered agitation, “I wasn’t…”
She looked at Dave and realized that she had met him before. Her flustered mood faded as recognition set in.
“You…you’re that bloke from the sky-tram depot,” she cried.
“And you’re Apheris,” Dave countered, “the lovely lady from…shall we say…out of town?”
“Hey, I wanted to thank you for what you did,” she said, “you earned me some extra money. Thank you very much.”
She stepped over to him, took his face in her hands, then gave him a brief peck of a kiss on the forehead. She then stepped back a pace with a demure smile on her face.
“That’s how women from my homeland show their appreciation to someone who’s done something nice for us,” she said.
“Funny, girls from my homeland sometimes show their appreciation the same way,” Dave noted.
  As she returned to her shopping trolley, Dave noticed that she had a prominent bulge in her belly. She looked like she was ready to pop out a baby at any moment. Yet he could have sworn she wasn’t pregnant when he first met her.
“Pardon me for asking,” he said, “are you having a baby?”
Apheris touched her belly, then looked nervous. She stepped over to him, then looked around to see if anyone was watching or listening. She then leaned in.
“I’m not pregnant,” she whispered, “I’m digesting that bloke from the night we met.”
“You…you ate him,” Dave gasped, managing to keep his voice quiet.
“My species can swallow people whole and alive,” Apheris breathed.
“And that bloke paid you a lot of quid to eat and digest him,” Dave asked.
“Yes,” Apheris said, “I…I told you it wasn’t legal.”
“Don’t worry, Apheris,” Dave assured, “I shan’t tell anyone. If someone asks, I’ll just tell them you’re pregnant.”
“Thanks,” Apheris said, blushing prettily.
“Hey, why don’t you shop with me,” Dave offered, “I can help you save a bit of money. My mum taught me how to find good bargains.”
“I’d appreciate that,” Apheris replied, “things are so expensive here.”
“Yeah,” Dave admitted, “but you can get the most for your money if you know how to shop.”
“I’m afraid I don’t really know how to do that,” Apheris confessed.
“Stick with me,” Dave said, “I’ll help you out.”
They strolled through the supermarket, chatting as they shopped. And while Dave steadily filled his trolley, he noticed that Apheris had little more than a dozen items in hers.
“You don’t seem to be buying much,” he mused.
Apheris looked at the contents of her trolley, absently stroking her swollen middle, which made a quiet yet audible sloshing sound as she walked.
“Given that I’m…well, given my condition,” she haltingly explained, “I don’t need to eat. I won’t need to eat for a few days. That guy wasn’t the only client I provided services for,” she stroked her belly with more emphasis, “I’ve been quite busy over the past few days. I won’t need to eat for at least another week,” she looked at him, a certain sparkle in her eye, “I’ve had a few eager clients,” then her face went serious, “besides, I can’t buy much. I’m saving up money to go home.”
They shopped in silence for a bit. Dave looked at her meager pickings and thought about her ultimate goal.
“May I ask you a question,” he asked.
“Only if I can ask YOU a question in return,” she retorted.
“Fair enough,” he said, “ladies first.”
“I told you my name,” Apheris said, “but I never learned yours.”
“I’m David Solomon,” Dave said, “but you can call me Dave, all my friends do.”
“So, you consider me a friend,” she asked.
“I would certainly like to,” Dave offered, “I get the impression you could use a friend.”
“I could,” she sniffled, “it’d make my exile a bit more endurable.”
“Well, let us consider our friendship officially started,” Dave decreed.
“Thanks,” Apheris said, again blushing, “what’s your question?”
“Where do you live,” he asked.
“In a block of flats called Valley of Peace,” she replied.
“Bloody hell,” Dave balked, “that place is an overpriced rubbish bin. It’s not worth what you’re paying.”
“But where else am I to live,” Apheris snapped, “I can’t afford a better residence.”
Dave turned to look at her, trying his best to look into her eyes, rather than at her bulging belly.
“I’m living alone in a two bedroom flat in a clean and secure part of the city,” Dave said, “I’d be willing to let you live there rent free.”
“What’s the catch,” Apheris asked, eyeing him suspiciously, “is this one of those human things? I live with you free of rent if I make myself available for free sex?”
“Absolutely not,” Dave indignantly barked, “I know how much you want to get back home, and I know how expensive it is to live around here. I’m just offering you free room and board, so you can save up the money you need as soon as possible.”
“I’m not sure,” Apheris said, “I’ve been warned that human men are preoccupied with sexual intercourse.”
“I swear I would never do anything to you or with you without your permission,” Dave said, “when it comes to anything sexual, no means no.”
“Well, that’s surprisingly reassuring,” Apheris said, “I’ll consider it.”
They continued shopping, once again chatting about this and that. And while Dave steadily filled his trolley, Apheris kept herself restricted to meager pickings. Eventually, their shopping expedition came to an end. They made their way to the cashier. Dave gallantly let Apheris go first. Apheris looked down as the cashier rang up her purchases. Dave watched this, then made a decision.
“Hey,” he called to the cashier, “put her purchases on my bill.”
“Are you sure,” the cashier asked.
“I certainly am,” Dave replied.
“You don’t meet nice blokes like him too often,” the cashier commented to Apheris.
“I…I know,” Apheris muttered, “I think he’s really nice.”
“Ducky,” the cashier gushed, “if he’s your boyfriend, you should hold onto him. He’s a prize catch.”
“I think I will,” Apheris said, not wanting to admit that she and Dave were not in a relationship.
Apheris stood aside with her grocery bags as she watched the cashier ring up Dave’s purchases. Dave glanced at her as he waited, earning a shy smile from her. Before she knew it, he had paid for their groceries and was walking her out of the grocery store. She started for the nearby sky-tram stop, but Dave instead guided her to the much closer robo-taxi stand. There he hailed a cab, which promptly arrived with machine-like efficiency. They piled their purchase in the robo-taxi’s cargo compartment, then got in. After Dave instructed the cab’s robot driver to charge the entire fare to him, Apheris gave the driver her address. The drive to her apartment building was brief and quiet. When Dave saw the building where she lived, it confirmed his suspicions. The building was a large, functionally designed block of flats that were little better than cubicles, only a stop above living in one of those pod hotels where your rent bought you a bed, a storage compartment, and a television. He took a business card out of his pocket and jotted his home address on the back.
“Think about my offer,” he said as he passed the card to her.
Apheris took the card as if it were the most precious thing she had ever been offered. She clutched it to her breast as she smiled at him.
“I will,” she cooed, smiling.
She got out, then fetched her few purchases from the cab’s cargo compartment. Gracing Dave with a final look and a smile, she dashed into the building. Dave sighed as he muttered his address to the driver, then settled back to wait for the robo-taxi to take him to his flat.
Upon arriving home, Dave hauled his groceries into his flat, and proceeded to put everything away. He hadn’t been at it long when his door chime sounded.
“Now who could that be,” he muttered, setting a case of beer on the counter.
He stalked to the door and opened it. He was shocked to find Apheris standing there, her grocery bags in one hand, and a large duffle in the other. She sheepishly smiled at him.
“I…I couldn’t wait,” she murmured, “I decided to take you up on your offer for free room and board, so I packed up my stuff, and hired a robo-taxi to bring me here.”
“Well, come in, come in,” Dave said as he took her grocery bags and set them in the kitchen.
Apheris was nervous as she stepped into the flat, looking a bit dazzled at the sight of it. Dave wasn’t surprised, given that she had been living in a small apartment that wasn’t much bigger than a prison cell. In fact, he knew that the modular room units that were used for those cubicle apartment blocks were the same modular room units that were once used for prisons, before the punitive system switched over to cryogenic prisons.
“This way,” he said, gesturing toward the bedrooms.
Apheris silently followed him to the extra bedroom. She was amazed that it was larger than the entire flat she had previously lived in. Plus, she got a comfortable bed, a closet and a dresser, a desk with a computer terminal, and even her own television on the wall where she could watch it in bed. Dave took her duffle and set it on the bed.
“This is your room,” he said, “as I promised, you get this room and food free of charge.”
“Thank you very much, Dave,” Apheris said, then she again took his face in her hands, and gave him a peck of a kiss on the forehead.
“Well,” Dave said, “since you’re living here now, why don’t you make yourself comfortable.”
“Thanks,” she said.
Dave noticed that as she began to unpack her few belongings, she did not remove the scarf wrapped round her head and neck. Shrugging, he returned to the kitchen to finish putting their groceries away. It was some time later that he was done and sitting on the couch with a drink and a pizza, watching football as he bided his time till he had to get ready for work. Presently, Apheris came out of her room. She was still wrapped up in her scarf and long coat. However, she sat on the couch and relaxed.
“Thank you so much for this, Dave,” she gushed, “I feel so comfortable in that room. It’s better than the prison cell of a flat I was living in before.”
“Glad to help,” Dave said.
“I suppose you’ve earned the right to ask me a few personal questions,” she offered, “is there anything you’d like to know about me or my species?”
“Honestly, I’d like to know more about the services you offer,” Dave said, “I mean if you’re gonna live here, I figure I might as well know what you’re doing.”
“Put simply, I put people in my belly one way or another,” she explained, she touched her belly, which was much smaller than it had been earlier, “obviously, I can devour people whole and alive. I have a two chamber stomach. One is purely for containment. I can store anything in there and it won’t be harmed. For £100, I’ll swallow a client for thirty minutes, then spit them back out.”
“That’s the basic services you were talking about,” Dave said.
“Yes,” she said, “an hour in my storage stomach costs £200. I charge £300 to swallow someone into my digestive stomach and hold them there for ten minutes. And I charge £500 to swallow and digest someone. I can also suck someone up into my womb, and I charge them £500 to carry them around in my belly for a month, but that’s not as popular as me swallowing people.”
“Do you ever get anyone attempting to back out of being digested,” Dave asked.
“I always warn my clients that if they’re paying me to digest that once they’re in my stomach, there’s no coming back,” Apheris said.
“As petite as you are,” Dave mused, “it seems kinda hard to believe that you can swallow people whole. But your swollen belly was proof enough for me.”
Apheris studied him at hearing this. Her species had an innate attention to detail. She had noticed Dave sneaking peeks at her belly. She got the impression that he wasn’t trying to be invasive, nor was he intending to offend her. She got the impression that he had some sort of interest in her belly. She thought about the esoteric eccentricities that humans often exhibited in their behavior, and often concealed from others out of embarrassment, shame, or fear of persecution. She felt that Dave might have a peculiar interest in women with a swollen belly. She pondered this and reasoned that his closeted interest wasn’t in women who were obese, but rather women who were or at least looked pregnant. She trusted her instincts, and what she observed was close to the truth, when her own emotions didn’t get in the way. If she was right about what she observed about him, then she was uniquely qualified to cater to his peculiar interests. With this in mind, she decided to act on it.
“I could give you a demonstration of my abilities,” Apheris offered, “I could do so without harming you.”
Dave looked at her with equal and opposite conflicts warring with each other on his face. Apheris smiled as she realized that her observations of him were correct. She could tell that he was truly interested in women who were pregnant, or at least looked pregnant. She wanted to do something for him to pay back his kindness. Unfortunately, she could see the doubt, and moral fortitude winning out over his eccentricities.
“I’m afraid I shall have to decline,” he said, embarrassment clearly visible on his face, “perhaps some other time.”
She sighed, allowing him to see her disappointment. She met so few humans who were interested in her unique abilities, and among those few, most were only interested in making the quintessential one-way trip into her stomach. She suspected Dave might be an observer, not a participant. She was certain he would want to see her doing her thing. It was only a matter of time.
“Okay,” she said, “I’m going out,” she patted her belly, “maybe I’ll find a few clients to fill me up.”
“Aren’t you worried you’ll get fat,” Dave asked.
“Not possible with my species,” Apheris replied, “we can eat more than our bodyweight in food, and we have an innate ability to adjust our metabolism to ensure that every iota of food we eat is fully metabolized. I could put on fat if I wanted to, but it has not been a necessity here on your planet. Between your food and the people I’ve been paid to eat, I’ve not had to put on fat for lack of food. It’s an old ability from a time before my species learned such things as agriculture and ranching.”
“Well, that’s something both our species have in common,” Dave said, “though we humans can’t actually control our metabolism. We’ve just gotta exercise some self-discipline in order to keep from getting fat.”
“Well, I’m going to go out and make money,” Apheris said.
“Here,” Dave said.
He passed her an electronic key.
“Since you live here now,” Dave said, “you’re gonna need this to get back in the flat.”
Apheris smiled as she tucked the key away.
“See you later,” she said.
With that, she left. Dave looked at the time display on his smart phone, then realized that it was time for him to get ready for work. He made his way to his bedroom, changed into a suit, then left.
“Hey Dave! What’s with you?!”
Dave started at the sharp bark of his supervisor. Shaking his head, he looked around, and realized that he was sitting at his desk, and had been staring at the monitor for ten minutes. He looked at Mr. Prosser, the revoltingly self-important oaf that was his supervisor. Mister Prosser glared down at him, fingering his mustache.
“Sorry, sir,” Dave stammered, “I’m a bit distracted.”
“Well, whoever she is,” Mr. Prosser growled, “daydream about her on your own time. I need the paperwork done on the Stephenson account done and on my desk within the hour.”
“Yes sir,” Dave cried, frantically getting back to work.
“Who is she anyway,” Mr. Prosser asked, uncharacteristically friendly.
“Who is who,” Dave asked, managing to remain focused on his desk computer.
“The girl you’re thinking about,” Mr. Prosser insisted, “it’s obviously a girl. I’ve seen this kind of daydreaming before.”
“Oh,” Dave evaded, “a pretty girl I met recently. She’s nice.”
“Girlfriend,” Prosser asked conspiratorially.
“No sir,” Dave replied.
“WHAT,” Prosser howled in outrage, “you met a girl that’s got you daydreaming at work, and you’re not even dating her yet?!”
“We just me, sir,” Dave replied, fixing Prosser with a stare.
“Kid,” Prosser sighed, suffering fools gladly, “you need to get out there, on your own time, and claim her! If you don’t, some other stud will get her, and you’ll never know if she’s the one!”
“The One,” Dave asked.
“Your soul mate,” Prosser persisted, “your Miss Right, the one that you’re meant to spend your life with! You’ve gotta go to her and make her yours.”
“She’s not the kind of girl to be possessed,” Dave said, “she’s the kind of girl…”
“I mean get out there and earn her love,” Prosser said, “Miss Right is NEVER a soulless object to be taken and possessed. You’ve gotta earn her love, and she’s gotta earn yours. If you manage that, you’ll get a woman who is eternally loyal to you, and you’ll find you never want any other lover than her. Other women will be out there, but the only woman you’ll want is her.”
Mister Prosser smiled as he looked off into space, clearly thinking of a special woman in his life.
“It’s like when I was courting Betty, my wife,” he mused, “I talked to her, spent time with her, took her on outings, wined and dined her until one day, she confessed that she was in love with me. That’s when the real challenge began. We dated and fell ever deeper in love with each other. Suddenly, one day I realized it was not enough for me to just have her as my girlfriend. I had to make our relationship more permanent. So, I bought a ring, took her to dinner at the fanciest restaurant I could afford, and proposed marriage. And now, we’ve been married for twenty years, and have four wonderful children.”
“I’ll think about it, sir,” Dave evaded, “but with all due respect, I should really focus on the Stephenson account, else I’ll not have the paperwork on your desk within the hour. I should hate it if you have to come back to my cubical to shout at me, sir.”
“Good man,” Prosser praised, “keep up the good work, and you’ll go far in this company.”
Prosser meandered away, looking over the other cubical workers. Dave waited till he was well away before breathing a sigh of relief. He was not sure which was worse, Mr. Prosser being hateful and mean or Mr. Prosser giving good advice. Still, the office supervisor was right, Dave needed to keep his mind on his work, and was not going to get anything done if he kept daydreaming about Apheris. With a longing sigh, he started working.
“Is she really that great?”
Dave looked at Cindy, the girl who worked in the cubical next to his. Cindy was a raven haired beauty who always looked smashingly lovely. She always wore an impeccably clean office coat, blouse, knee skirt, and pumps. Her black hair was always neatly plaited in a dazzling French braid. She was the light that brought Dave out of Prosser’s darkness. Dave would have tried dating Cindy, had even asked her out once. However, Cindy told him that as much as she valued her friendship with him, she was a lesbian, and was quite happily married. Dave had been disappointed but was glad that Cindy was willing to be friends. Dave liked her, and she was good source of advice that was actually helpful.
“She’s really nice,” Dave said, “she’s…a foreigner. She came here for a job, but that fell through. Now she’s stuck here, trying to save up enough quid to buy a ticket home.”
“Are you helping her in any way,” Cindy asked.
“Don’t tell anyone,” Dave whispered, “I let her have the extra bedroom in my flat, free of charge.”
“Well, look at you,” Cindy praised, “helping out a struggling foreign girl. I’m going to laugh if she ends up staying in this country because she’s fallen madly in love with you…especially if she ends up becoming your wife.”
“I dunno about that,” Dave countered, “I’ll be glad to help her get home.”
“And what if she turns out to be your soul mate,” Cindy countered.
“I’ll deal with that when and if it happens,” Dave noted.
“Trust me, Dave,” Cindy insisted, “she’s not going home. She’ll end up falling in love with you. In fact, I think she’ll end up becoming your wife. Yes, she’s going to become your wife, and that extra bedroom of yours is going to end up becoming a nursery for your first baby with her. However, you’re going to end up moving out of that flat, because she’ll quickly end up getting pregnant with Baby #2 within a year of birthing the first baby. And…”
“Cindy-love,” Dave interrupted with a sigh, “much as I love your frighteningly accurate predictions, we’ve both got work to do.”
“Right, we don’t want Prosser to come back,” Cindy admitted.
With that, they fell silent, both turning back to their work. Dave finished the paperwork on the Stephenson account and had it on Prosser’s desk in the required time. Prosser praised him, then tasked him with delivering some packets of forms and folders of accounts to other departments in the office.
The afternoon shift ground on, though Dave wondered, as he often did, why this particular office had a second shift. Of course, he had been told it was because they often dealt with clients in other countries, and thus odd shifts were a necessary evil. As he worked that afternoon shift, Dave thought about Cindy. His office friend was notorious for her “psychic predictions”. When Louise, another girl who worked in their department, started dating an upper executive, Cindy predicted that Louise would get pregnant, then resign so she could marry her boyfriend. To everyone’s shock and amazement, Louise announced that she was pregnant and was resigning so she could marry her lover. Now, she was the pampered wife of a high executive in the company, living in the lap of luxury, and was about to pop out their third baby. Dave didn’t want Apheris to give up on going back to her home planet because she had fallen in love with him. He reminded himself that she was going to save up enough money to go home, and that was it.
Dave sighed when he trudged into his apartment that evening. He had just got home and was eager to relax and get something to eat. However, soon as he came in, he heard the shower running. He knew it was Apheris. She must have come home. Dave wondered if she was successful in finding new clients. That brought an irresistible curiosity to his mind. He considered sneaking into the bathroom and taking a peek at her while she showered. He was dying to know what her body looked like. He had thus far only seen her bundled up in baggy clothes, flowing cloaks, and long coats. With a sigh, he stepped into his room and got out of his office clothes, changing into a t-shirt and jogging pants. Stepping out of his room, he still heard the shower going, now accompanied by the sound of her singing a soft tune in an alien language, presumably her native tongue. Shrugging, Dave dismissed his curiosity and went to the kitchen to find something to eat. He was surprised to find a note on the counter.
 
“Dave,
 I prepared food for your evening meal. Don’t worry, I know all about making human food. My people eat pretty much the same kinds of stuff. You’ll find it in the cold storage unit.
Apheris”
 
 Dave opened the refrigerator and found a covered bowl and a bottle of beer in front. They were clearly left there for him. He took the bowl, uncovered it, and found that it was a simple dish of tuna fish and egg noodles in a light mushroom sauce. He took the bowl and beer and sat down on the couch to watch TV. After a bit of channel browsing, he found a sports program that caught his eye. It was a peculiar fantasy sport called Kaiju Wrestling. Kaiju was a Japanese word referring to giant monsters. Kaiju Wrestling was basically giant monsters fighting each other, but presented like professional wrestling, with a cityscape instead of a wrestling ring. Dave had heard of this but had never seen it. He knew that the monsters and the city they were battling in were created through special effects, but their movements were being performed by stunt men on a motion capture stage, with foam boxes in place of buildings. Dave settled back to watch Kaiju Wrestling while he ate his dinner.
 Presently, he heard the shower turn off. He looked at the bathroom and saw her step out. She was clearly naked, though she was wrapped in a large towel. It was prominently bulged in the front, testifying to the success of her endeavors that afternoon. Seeing him, she dashed out to him, carefully holding the towel around her.
 “Oh good,” she cried, “you got your meal. Do you like it? It was the best I could make with what you…I mean we’ve got on hand.”
 “It’s great,” Dave praised, “I like it. Would you like me to fix you something? I’m a pretty fair cook myself.”
 “Oh no,” Apheris groaned, then she patted her belly, “I’m full. Got a rather large man in my stomach. He paid me to digest him.”
 She regarded her swollen middle for a few moments.
 “I don’t think I’ll need to eat for at least a week,” she said, then daintily hiccupped.
 Then her belly let out a huge gurgle.
 “In fact,” she groaned, “I think I’ll go lie down and sleep him off. I think he gave me a bit of indigestion.”
 “Hey,” Dave said, “you’re showing me your head uncovered.”
 “Do you like what you see,” she asked.
 Dave studied her as she smiled at him. His eyes were immediately drawn to her lovely elfin face. She had cream colored skin that had an almost misty gray hue to it. Her eyes were large and almost almond shaped. Her mouth seemed a bit too small and her lips too thin. But like before, her mouth seemed to enlarge, and her lips got filled out until they were full and kissable. However, now that her head and shoulders were uncovered, he could see that she had long hair that was an odd metallic bronze color. She blushed a little too pink as she brushed a lock of her shining hair behind an ear, revealing that her ears were pointed. Overall, she looked like an elf. He looked at her large, almost almond eyes, and was mesmerized by their size and their almost luminous lavender color. He could almost have sworn her eyes were softly glowing. She smiled at how he stared at her.
 “I’m off to bed, Dave,” she said, patting her belly, “I’m gonna sleep this bloke off.”
 With that she trudged back to her room. Though she stopped to offer him a friendly smirk before stepping into her room. Dave sat, lost in the wonder of her exotic face. She was stunningly beautiful. It was like she was an elf that had stepped out of a fantasy story to walk round the real world. He wondered if she was not so much an alien as an extradimensional being. He ate his food and drank his beer in a daze, his mind filled with images of her. He couldn’t stop thinking of her. It was almost as if she had invaded his mind and taken up residence there. And somehow, in that moment, he felt her lying down in bed, then sighing as she closed her eyes to sleep. He heard in his mind, her groan as she felt a slight indigestion over the size of the client in her belly. Somehow, he knew she was rubbing her belly and moaning as she tried to consciously force her body to end the stomachache she felt. Sensing this, Dave seemed to know that she was feeling like the guy she ate might have been a tad too large for her stomach. Suddenly, Dave shook his head, finally managing to get Apheris daydreams out of his mind. He found that he had finished his food and his beer. He took them to the kitchen. He tossed the beer bottle into the recycling, then washed up the crockery and silverware then went to bed. Though, soon as he got in bed and fell asleep, his dreams were dominated by images of Apheris and her flawless elf-like face.
 Dave was off the next day, and so he slept in. The morning sun shined into the bedroom as he woke to the scent of delicious food. He yawned as he got out of bed and stretched. He pulled on a pair of shorts and a tank top and stepped out of his room. His ears were greeted by the sound of sizzling food. He walked out to the kitchen and saw Apheris hard at work cooking. She was wearing a nightgown that was basically an overly large t-shirt. In fact, the neck of her nightgown was wide, and hung off her left shoulder. He watched her as she moved about the kitchen. She still had quite the swollen belly, which bulged out the front of her nightgown. He noticed that she touched her belly now and again as she puttered about the kitchen. He also caught a curious sloshing sound coming from her belly as she moved. She was obviously only making food for him, proving that she was right in telling him that she would not need to eat for a while. Her swollen belly made her look like she was pregnant with triplets and might pop them out at any moment. She saw him and smiled.
 “Good morning, Dave,” she cooed, “you humans do sleep for a long time.”
 “Eight hours is the recommended amount of sleep,” Dave said, “but we can usually get by with six hours.”
 “Whoa,” she gasped, “six hours?! Three hours is more than enough for my people…usually. Though if we’re sleeping off a huge meal, we might sleep as long as five,” she touched her bulge, “or in the case of this meal, seven hours. Gods, I hate sleeping that long. I feel like…what do your people call it…a zombie! In fact, this guy has me so filled up that I still feel sluggish! I’d almost swear that I’m pregnant.”
 “Are you pregnant,” Dave asked.
 “No,” Apheris said, “I mean, I had sex with the guy that’s stewing away in my belly, but it takes more than casual sex to get women of my species pregnant.”
 “What does it take,” Dave asked.
 “Nothing absurdly elaborate,” Apheris said, “we have to be in love. Does that sound strange?”
 “Yes and no,” Dave admitted, “I’m curious to learn why you have to be in love to get pregnant.”
 “It’s a peculiarity of my people,” Apheris explained, absently stroking her gurgling middle, “you see when a woman truly falls in love with a man, she forms a psychic bond with him. It takes time for this bond to form…sometimes days, sometimes months or years, and sometimes only a few hours. However, once that bond is fully formed, it can never be broken, because they are mated for life. It is only then that she can get pregnant.”
 “So, you could have sex with a human and not get pregnant because you’re not in love,” Dave mused, “what about sexually transmitted diseases?”
 “Oh, those aren’t a problem for me,” Apheris said, “I’ve got an active immune system. In fact, if you had such a disease and you had sex with me, not only will I not catch the ailment, but my immune system would send what you would call ‘white blood cells’ into your body to kill the disease. Sex with me would actually cure you of it and pretty much any other ills you might be suffering. In fact, sometimes humans pay me for sex specifically for that.”
 “Good to know,” Dave mused, “so, how are you doing as far as saving money for your trip home?”
 “Got well paid last night,” Apheris said, she smiled down at her belly, “I convinced this guy to pay me a thousand pounds. He agreed because he wasn’t going to need it anymore.”
 “So, what’s for breakfast,” Dave asked.
 “I am cooking you bacon and eggs, toast with marmalade, and sauteed mushrooms,” Apheris said, “I got the impression that this might be a good morning meal for you.”
 “How did you know that,” Dave asked.
 “Oh, I dunno,” Apheris countered nonchalantly, “just a feeling I guess,” she smiled prettily, “maybe I’m forming a psychic bond with you.”
 She stepped over to him.
 “You had best be careful,” she playfully warned, “or you might end up with an alien wife.”
 “You wouldn’t give up on going home to stay here with me,” Dave gasped.
 “I truly want to go home,” Apheris sighed, then she smiled, “but I’d stay on this world if I fell in love with a really great guy.”
 “Or girl,” Dave added.
 “No, it’s gotta be a guy,” Apheris said, “I’m not attracted to girls like that. By the way, my people don’t make a big deal of sexual orientation. We see it as a preference, like preferring skirts over pants or liking football more than cricket.”
 “So being gay or being a lesbian is no big deal for your species,” Dave asked.
 “Of course not,” Apheris said, “I honestly don’t understand why you humans have to make it so absurdly important. It’s just a simple matter of personal preference. I like a lover with a penis, not a vulva. That’s how it works for me. I’d never form a love bond with a girl, because though she might be my friend, and I might actually love her, she just would not be attractive to me in that way.”
 “I’d love it if my species would see it that way,” Dave said.
 “You’re a young species,” Apheris assured, “you’ve got a lot of maturing left to do. You’ll learn.”
 “Thanks,” Dave said.
 Apheris groaned as her stomach let out a particularly loud rumble.
 “Everything okay,” Dave asked.
 “I’m not especially fond of big meals like this,” Apheris whimpered, “devouring people who are too big for my stomach always give me indigestion. But he paid me a thousand pounds to digest him, and now it’s too late to let him out, so I have to suffer through the tummy aches.”
 “Maybe you should go lie down,” Dave suggested.
 “I think I will,” Apheris muttered, sounding nauseous.
 “I’ll take over cooking my breakfast,” Dave said, “go back to bed.”
 “Thanks,” Apheris murmured.
 He watched her as she returned to her room. And after she disappeared behind her door, Dave heard her in his mind as she lay down, sighing as she felt her stomach settle a bit. Just before this mind image faded, he caught her thinking how nice he is, and how well he treats her. He shook his head, clearing the thought from his mind. He finished cooking his breakfast, picking up with Apheris left off. When his breakfast was done, he took it and a cup of coffee to the breakfast bar that marked the boundary between the kitchen and the living room. While he ate his breakfast, images of Apheris flashed in his mind. They were repeated images of her sleeping. He relaxed and let the images enter and leave his mind, enjoying the impromptu mental slide show. Sensations accompanied them. He sensed her indigestion at first, but that seemed to go away after a while. He didn’t feel the indigestion himself, but rather was aware that she was feeling it. As he ate, he began to realize that he could simply dismiss the images and sensations in his mind. It made him wonder if his alien roommate actually was beginning to form this love bond that she had told him about, and whether it would affect her desire to go back to her home world. Dave admitted to himself that he would not mind if she decided to stay on Earth. Though he had only known her for a short time, he was already starting to enjoy her company. He decided to wait and see what would happen.
 Apheris emerged from her room sometime later, looking groggy, but certainly over her indigestion. Dave looked and saw that her belly was a bit more rounded, and a trifle smaller. He could tell that she had certainly overcome her stomachache. She was wearing a flowing dress and a long coat.
 “I’d like to go out for a while,” she said, “would it be acceptable for us to go on an outing together?”
 “Sure,” Dave said, “I’ve got to run a few errands today.”
 Apheris looked at her belly.
 “What about this,” she asked, stroking her bloated middle.
 “Most people will think you’re pregnant,” Dave said, “I say just let them think that.”
 “Okay,” Apheris said, “let’s go.”
 “In a minute,” Dave said, “I’ve got to dress.”
 He dashed back to his bedroom. He came back a few minutes later dressed in a t-shirt, jeans, and a jacket.
 “Now we can go,” he said.
 With that, Dave and Apheris left. As they went through their day, Apheris noticed that Dave was right. Most people hardly noticed them, and those that did clearly assumed that they were a couple expecting a baby. Apheris even overheard a few comments on how cute a couple they were, or musing on how far along she was or whether she was going to have a boy or a girl. It almost made her wish that she truly was pregnant with Dave’s baby. Dave’s errands were rather mundane. He had paid his utilities, he bought and then shipped a birthday present for his sister who lived in another city, and renewed his sky tram pass card, which meant he could ride the sky tram without buying a one-time pass every time. To her surprise, after he finished his errands, he took her to the local aquarium. She was fascinated by the aquatic zoo. The main feature was a transparent tunnel that ran along the floor of the aquarium’s massive main tank. Apheris looked with childlike fascination as sharks and fish and eels and other aquatic animals swam or scuttled around over and around her. After the aquarium, he took her for a walk in the park. They went for a leisurely stroll, again catching the attention from few of the park patrons, with those that did notice them simply thinking that Apheris was pregnant. A few commented on how she was bundled up and had her head covered. However, these people noticed her light complexion and assumed that she was sensitive to sunlight and had to keep covered or else she would suffer a bad sunburn. Dave noticed this and made a mental note to look into developing some sort of holographic disguise so she would not have to hide her appearance. Before long, it was getting on toward evening, and thus they returned to their apartment. Apheris was quite happy. Dave had shown her a good time. She regretted that her stomach was still too full to allow her to eat. She felt bad when they had stopped for lunch, and she had to refuse food, though Dave told people that she had hyperemesis and thus could not eat without vomiting her food back up. It was a believable explanation. She was glad to get back to their apartment. She had a lot of thinking to do. Dave was nice, and she was starting to like him…a lot. Dave ordered a personal pizza from Mama Joan’s Pizza Palace. When it arrived, he sat in the living room watching a movie. Apheris chose to sit and watch it with him, though she took the time to remove her coat, and uncover her head. He had earned the right to see that much of her. Dave looked at her baggy, yet lovely house dress, and smiled at her. He was glad that she was letting him see a little more of her.
 Days passed, with Dave and Apheris getting comfortable with each other’s company. At first Apheris wore voluminous clothing that concealed her figure, though she let him see her head and hair. However, as days turned into weeks, Dave began to see a change in how Apheris would dress. It began with her wearing formfitting shirts and blouses, revealing that she had full and perky breasts that looked the same as a human woman’s breasts. Her waist was nicely narrow when she didn’t have someone in her stomach. And he could tell that she had generous hips, despite the fact that she still wore flowing skirts. However, in time even these flowing skirts gave way to more revealing attire. One day, Dave came home from working the afternoon shift at the office and found Apheris cooking dinner. Her recent clients had paid her for sex only, so her stomach was essentially empty, thus she was cooking a meal for two. Dave had noticed that she was wearing little but a tank top and a pair of panties. However, it wasn’t her surprisingly revealing outfit that caught his eye. She had a tail extending from the base of her spine. He had seen her buy panties before, and she had explained that she had to modify them to make them fit, because they weren’t made to fit women of her species, but she had never explained why. Now he saw the reason. Her tail was an extension of her spinal column that began just above her posterior, and when it was at rest her tail would settle in the crevice between her buttocks. He could see why she had worn such long skirts and coats. She felt she had to hide her tail. However, he knew ways to let her keep it visible and explain it away to people. The most obvious was that she had wanted a tail, and had a cybernetic tail implanted. Of course, elective cosmetic surgery could explain her ears as well, and maybe her eye color. Cybernetic eyes were quite common, and people would sometimes have abnormal eye colors implanted. Some had nano-screens installed on the outer layer of their cyber-eyes so they could change the appearance of their eyes every day. Dave watched in absolute fascination as Apheris used her prehensile tail to retrieve a cooking utensil from the counter behind her, then deposit it in her hand.
 “I never knew you had a tail,” he blurted.
 Apheris looked first at her tail, then at him, and giggled.
 “I trust you,” she said, “so, I figured it’s time you got to see my most unusual feature.”
 “Now I know why you always had to modify your panties,” Dave said.
 “Of course,” Apheris said, “you humans don’t make panties for girls with tails,” she looked at her breasts, “fortunately, my breasts are the same as those of human women, so buying bras is no trouble, though I don’t understand why you humans won’t let a girl go topless.”
 “It’s a cultural thing,” Dave said, “we’ve got an aversion to nudity.”
 “Peculiar,” Apheris said, “my people don’t have any problem with a girl being topless, though we do prefer that she keep her…well…her flower covered. That’s for her lover alone to see.”
 “I see,” Dave said.
 Dave watched her stirring dough in a mixing bowl.
 “What’re you making,” he asked.
 “I’ve noticed how you like pizza,” Apheris said, “and since I love to cook, I thought I’d have a go at baking one.”
 “May I help,” Dave asked, “I used to help my mum make pizza when I was a lad.”
 “Please,” Apheris said, “maybe you can make sure I don’t mess it up.”
 Dave stepped into the kitchen and began helping her make pizza for their dinner that night. If not for the tail, the pointed ears, her unusually large eyes, and shape changing mouth, he would easily forget that she’s an alien. While they cooked pizza, he realized how much she had changed toward him. At first, she was rather formal with him. However, as the clothes she had let him see her wearing became more revealing, her attitude toward him became more familiar and warm. She smiled more, she touched him now and then. They had even held hands once during another walk in the park. At one point while they cooked pizza, Apheris kissed him on the cheek. And once or twice, Dave felt her caress his lower leg with her tail. When they finished baking their pizza, they sat down in the living room and shared it while watching a comedy movie.
 It was during those early days of living together that Mr. Prosser, Dave’s supervisor, had been promoted to a higher executive position, which left his supervisory position open. Prosser named Dave as his replacement, and thus Dave earned a promotion at work, which meant he could set his own hours. He also had more money to play with. Apheris was becoming more affectionate with him. She continued going out to earn money. Dave came to learn that most of her clients paid her for various kinds of the sort of services offered by a traditional prostitute. Dave didn’t mind this, because he knew her immune system would actively destroy any diseases that might threaten her and would do this so well that she would actually clean up any infected people she had sex with. He also knew that she could not get pregnant by any of the men she had sex with. He came to learn that in the absence of the love bond she had told him about, her body would absorb semen and destroy sperm, making it impossible for any random guy to get her pregnant. As time passed, and Apheris entertained her various clients, Dave noticed that she was growing more affectionate with him. She had taken to hugging him as often as she could. She always hugged him when he left for work and was waiting for him when he came home so she could hug him again. And then hugs began to be accompanied by little loving kisses, pecks on the cheek, and then pecks on the lips. And then the little dainty pecking kisses became full kisses.
 One evening, Dave came home from work. He had had to supervise the afternoon shift as his department had been working on a major account for a foreign client. When he got home, Apheris was waiting for him. She put her arms around him and gave him a deep, passionate kiss. He absently shut the door as she began to make out with him. He did not resist her, which encouraged her to keep going. She took his hands and put them on her chest, leading him in a slow fondle of her ponderous breasts. She moaned into their kiss as he delightfully stimulated her breasts. She guided his hands down her front, and as she did, Dave noticed the slight bulge in her middle, testifying to the fact that she was still digesting a client that she had devoured a few days ago. She did not stop his hands on her slight belly bulge. Instead, she guided his hands to her hips and over her shapely buttocks, while she began teasing his manhood with the tip of her tail. As they made out and fondled each other, Apheris began maneuvering them toward the couch. Dave was too engrossed in making out her and fondling her to really notice. It wasn’t until she sat him down on the couch, then straddled him, pinning his shoulders to the couch that he noticed what she had been doing.
 “I’ve resisted too long, Dave,” she gasped, “I can’t take it anymore. Would you like a personal demonstration of what I make other guys pay for?”
 Dave looked at her, breathless from making out. An embarrassed silence fell over him, he was so lost in the feel of her mound touching his manhood that answering her question was unthinkable. She leaned down toward him.
 “I’ll take that as a yes,” she breathed, then she kissed him.
 Apheris then got off him long enough to remove the maternity sundress she had been wearing. Dave had convinced her to wear maternity clothes when she had a client in her belly, because it would make people think she was pregnant. She slipped the straps of her dress off her shoulders, allowing the flowy garment to fall to the floor. As she did this, Dave frantically unfastened his belt and his pants, pulling them off as if they were suddenly soaked in acid. Apheris giggled seductively as she helped him take off his pants and boxer shorts. She unbuttoned his shirt and then relieved him of it. She then stood in front of him and impressed him by using her tail to remove her panties. She smirked as her tail held her panties where he could see them, before tossing them away with a quick whip of her tail tip. She ran a hand down her front, and Dave watched this, his eyes traveling down her body to her crotch. He was relieved that her mons appeared to be as normal as any other woman he had seen. She smiled at the sight of his rock hard erection. She got on the couch, straddling him as she guided his erection into her vagina which he noticed oozed with more natural lubrication than any human woman he had made love to in the past. He groaned as she slipped his shaft inside her womanhood, which was similar to a human woman’s vagina, though a trifle more rounded. She moaned as she sank down on him, taking the full length of his member inside her. She groaned as she flexed her hips, grinding her crotch with his, and reveling in the pleasure of his manhood buried deep in her cleft. As she made love to him, her tail slipped over his body, trailing a thin, clear gel over his skin. It wasn’t sticky and evaporated almost immediately, however any place her tail deposited the stuff tingled, which amplified his arousal and by extension his sexual pleasure. He groaned, thrusting in time with her flexing hips, making love to her as much as she made love to him. He was rewarded for this by the sight of her throwing her head back and moaning, her tail fondling his skin more eagerly and vigorously. He gasped when her tail trailed along the crevice of his buttocks but did not probe between them. He noticed that as she built toward a climax, her vaginal walls squeezed his manhood with quite a surprising amount of strength. He grunted at his own orgasm building deep in his core. Their climaxes seemed to be totally in sync. The closer he got to ejaculating, the more she moaned as if she were about to cum. He gasped when he climaxed. She moaned as he ejaculated inside her. He groaned as her vaginal walls milked his cock with such strength, he began to worry that her nethers might actually rip his manhood off. She was definitely holding him inside her as he pumped her full of his potent seed. After a moment or two, her vagina seemed to figure out precisely how to hold him. The pain eased off, though her womanhood held his erection firmly inside her as she milked him for every drop of semen he had to offer, which turned out to be far more than he was actually capable of producing, making him later wonder if the gel from her tail did something to make him produce more semen than normal. Soon, his climax faded. Her vaginal walls released his softening manhood. As she got off him, he, dazed as he was, looked at her crotch, noticing that her labia seemed to close tightly, like a woman’s mouth, as if her womanhood was trying to keep his semen inside her. She looked at him, panting as she recovered from her own orgasm.
 “That was fantastic,” she gasped, “I was glad to have sex for fun instead of doing it solely to make money.”
 She leaned down and kissed him fully on the lips. He was dazed and could barely move, though he watched as she picked up her panties with her tail, putting them on as she made her way to her room.
 “I love you,” he heard her say before the sound of her bedroom door closing.
 Dave never knew how long he lay on the couch, unable to move for how dazed he was. Slowly, he felt his strength come back to him. He got to his unsteady feet, then staggered to his room, trying his best to stay on his feet. Upon reaching his room, he managed to clamber into his bed, flopping down when his head found the pillow. He was barely asleep when he heard the door open and then close. He opened his eyes and saw Apheris sit down on the side of the bed. She said nothing as she caressed his face, a look of love and longing crossing her visage. She silently made a decision, then lay down on the bed, maneuvering against him, so that he was spooning her. She seized his hand and placed his palm on her slight belly bulge. She breathed a deep, contented sigh. And as she did this, Dave felt himself relaxing, as if she had synced their minds, and in relaxing herself, she was causing him to relax as well. He found himself falling asleep with her. He certainly found it strangely soothing to feel her slight form against him, his arms around her. Just before sleep took him, he realized that he would never be able to sleep without her in bed with him. Part of him felt that he couldn’t let her return to her home world, and if she did, that he could go with her, or else that she would give up on going home, staying on Earth with him. Either way, he wanted to stay with her forever.
 From that day, Dave found that his relationship with Apheris had changed. She started spending more time with him. On those occasions when she was not digesting a client, she went out of her way to take her meals with him. And yet, she continued to go out to earn money by providing her unique services to her clients. And yet, for all the money she earned, she spoke less about going back to her home world. However, that is not to say she gave up on leaving Earth. Rather, she felt a trifle reluctant to leave Dave. In the evenings, during those quiet moments when they lay together in bed before going to sleep, or while they basked in the afterglow of making love, Apheris would talk about her home world, the sites she missed, and the people she longed to see. Dave could never tell whether she was trying to sell him on the idea of going with her or telling him of things she might never see again. There was never really any certainty which she meant one way or the other. There was only the pervasive feeling of her presence. He always felt her somewhere, even when she wasn’t home. It wasn’t always strong enough for him to walk straight to her location, but rather a sense of nearness even if it was little more than mind to mind. Though there were times when he sensed her frustrations and distresses.
 For example, one day they had gone on an outing to the shopping mall. Apheris clung to Dave’s arm as they walked together, sometimes resting her head on his shoulder. She smiled and beamed at the comments on how great she and Dave looked together, especially now that they actually were a couple. She was digesting a recent client, so she was sporting a prominent belly bulge, causing her to wear one of her maternity dresses. They approached an electronics boutique.
 “Dave, my sweet,” Apheris cooed, “would you mind if I went to Bun in the Oven? I’d like to peruse the maternity dresses.”
 “Sure,” Dave replied, “I’ll be in here.”
 “Okay,” Apheris chirruped, then she kissed him and walked toward the Bun in the Oven, a prominent maternity emporium further down the mall from the electronics boutique. Bun in the Oven was quite large and catered to a wide variety of fashion trends with regard to pregnancy and post-pregnancy. As Apheris often went out while sporting a swollen belly, Dave had convinced her to wear maternity clothes to fool people into thinking that she was an expecting mother. Apheris was lost in the delight of browsing the clothes. She smiled to herself, thinking that one thing women of her species had in common with human women was that they loved to shop for clothes. She made her way to a rack that typically held a particular dress she had her eye on. It was a strapless dress with a high empress waistline and a flowing skirt that hugged the belly of the holographic mannequin she had seen it wearing. Apheris looked shocked to find the rack empty. Distressed, Apheris crossed to the nearby clerk behind the cashier’s counter.
 “Excuse me,” she said, “I’m looking for a maternity dress, the blue one with the strapless bodice trimmed in lace and the full skirt with an empress waistline.”
 “I’ll have to check in the back,” the clerk said, “let me have a moment.”
 Apheris sighed as the clerk stepped into the stockroom. Meanwhile, Dave was browsing through various home holographic entertainment systems. He was considering a home holo-environment simulator that had recently been released to the public. It was the latest in home gaming systems and had replaced virtual reality and hyper reality game systems. It was while he was looking over a small holo-environment simulator that he felt a strong sense of frustration from Apheris. Thinking she was in trouble, Dave dashed down to Bun in the Oven, and found her standing near a rack of maternity frocks, fuming.
 “What’s wrong,” Dave asked, putting a supportive arm around his girlfriend.
 “They don’t have a maternity dress I want,” Apheris whined, “the blue one with the strapless bodice trimmed in lace and the full skirt with an empress waistline. I had so wanted to buy it. But they said it’s out of stock, and I’d have to order it, and have it delivered.”
 “That’s not a problem,” Dave said.
 “But I had so wanted to surprise you,” Apheris said, “I’d look so beautiful wearing it.”
 “Love,” Dave soothed, “order the dress, have it delivered, then surprise me by showing it off to me when you get it.”
 “Okay,” Apheris relented, “I’ll do that.”
 She marched up to the clerk and spoke to her. Dave watched as Apheris stroked her belly while talking to the clerk, who smiled, clearly thinking Apheris was an expectant mother. After a few minutes, Apheris returned to Dave, smiling.
 “It’s been ordered,” she beamed, “I should get it in a couple of days.”
 “That’s good,” Dave said, “let’s go.”
 Dave put an arm around Apheris as they left Bun in the Oven, and returned to the electronics boutique. After ordering a holo-environment simulator for their flat, Dave took Apheris to the food court. In the time Apheris had been with Dave, she had trained herself to eat a little food while she was digesting a client, but only to avoid suspicions. Thus, while Dave ate a large slice of pizza, Apheris nibbled on a small cup of popcorn chicken.
 “Love,” Dave said, “I sensed your frustration over that dress. Why was that?”
 Apheris smiled at this, nibbling a bit of chicken.
 “Maybe we’re developing a love bond,” she cooed, then she touched her middle, “who knows, maybe one day, I’ll have a big belly because our baby is growing inside me.”
 “I’d like that,” Dave said.
As the days passed, Dave began to realize that their potential love bond was only growing stronger. And because of their growing bond, Dave began looking into ways to hide her alien appearance using technology so that she needn’t go out all the time bundled up like she was prone to sun poisoning. His company was one of those that was researching alien concealment tech for the government. He knew of a promising prototype device that would conceal aliens using a hologram, though this was far from ready for even testing. Dave never knew when he started calling her his girlfriend. He only knew that he now saw her as his girlfriend, and it thrilled him to hear her refer to him as her boyfriend, though sometimes she would call him her fiancé, and on rare occasions she would even slip and call him her life mate. “Life mate” made Dave wonder if she was truly considering making their relationship permanent. He knew from what he had learned of her people that if they were truly forming the sort of telepathic love bond that she said women of her species needed in order to get pregnant, it meant that there would inevitably come a day when they would want to get married. This would be as imperative and irresistible as having to eat when starving or having to sleep when exhausted. They would want to get married no matter what. He both anticipated and feared that day, because it would mean that either Apheris would choose to stay on Earth or beg him to go with her to her home world. Either way, one of them would never see their home planet again.
 One day, when Dave had to work first shift at the office, Apheris left their apartment at the same time. She said she was hunting for a suitable client. He went to work without concern for her. She had gone out early before, and it did not worry him in the slightest. He went to work, confident that everything would be okay. At the office, Cindy approached him.
 “Hey boss,” she said.
 “What’s up, Cindy,” Dave said.
 “Hey, you and that pretty girl of yours seem to be getting close,” Cindy said, “I think I’m hearing wedding bells.”
 “Oh, do be quiet,” Dave retorted, “she’s still saving up for a ticket home.”
 “I dunno, Dave,” Cindy insisted, “I have a feeling she’s putting down roots. She just might take her savings and invest it in something else…like a wedding gown.”
 “But she wants to go home,” Dave stated.
 “Dave, trust me,” Cindy countered, “a woman is entitled to change her mind. I’m telling you; she’s putting down roots, and she’s going to be your wife.”
 “Be that as it may,” Dave said, “shouldn’t you be working on the Yamamoto account?”
 “Been working on it from the moment I came in this morning, boss,” Cindy said, “I just wanted to tell you my latest predictions about you and your wife…I mean, your girlfriend.”
 Cindy smirked, then walked away loudly humming Felix Mendelssohn’s Wedding March. Dave shook his head and stepped into his office, though he was still not quite used to it belonging to him, despite “David Solomon” stenciled on the door. As he went about his workday, Dave thought about Apheris. He sensed her now and again, though it was mostly flashes of emotions: frustration, hope, eagerness, and frequent feelings of love directed toward him. He wasn’t sure if she was just feeling love because she was thinking about him, or if she was somehow sending feelings of love his way because she was aware that he could sense her feelings. He went through his day, occasionally thinking about her, and making an effort to think “I love you” to her, just in case she could sense his feelings too. When he went to lunch, Cindy insisted on joining him, and all through lunch she teased him about how many children he and his girlfriend were going to have and what they were going to name them. Before long, it was the end of the workday.
 Dave entered the apartment and expected to see Apheris there. She wasn’t at the door waiting for him when he came in. He stepped into the kitchen, thinking she was cooking. She came to love cooking Earth food and had entirely taken over the responsibility of preparing their meals. Dave walked back to their bedroom. Apheris had stopped using the second bedroom, as she had taken to sleeping with Dave at night, had even moved her things into his room. Thus, the second bedroom was once again a guest room, though Apheris occasionally commented on how it might look as a nursery. He stepped into their bedroom and found no sign of Apheris. He looked in the bathroom. They had gotten so used to each other’s company that Apheris had no problem with him seeing her using the toilet. Dave thought it quaint that women of her species essentially went to the bathroom the same as human women, which was understandable since she explained that her anatomy down there was basically the same as a human, even though precise shapes where marginally different. Seeing the bathroom clean and empty of people, Dave tried looking out on their apartment’s terrace. Apheris hardly ever went out there, but she wasn’t anywhere else in the apartment, so if she was home, she had to be out there. The terrace was a large balcony with an outdoor table, a gas grill, and a jacuzzi that Dave had just bought and had yet to use due to rain. Stepping out onto the terrace, Dave saw no sign of Apheris.
 “She must still be out,” he said to himself.
 Dave went back inside and took a shower. As he showered, he reached out with his mind to try and get a sense of Apheris. He sensed she was eager, and it gave him the impression that she might have found a client. He relaxed a bit as he showered, thinking she might entertain or unbirth or even devour the potential client and then come home. So, he showered, all the while expecting Apheris to get in the shower with him. Lately, whenever she came home from entertaining clients, she was thoroughly aroused, and would not be deterred from having sex with him…not that he complained about that. After all, he enjoyed having a stunningly beautiful girlfriend with an insatiable libido. He drew out his shower for as long as he could in all practicality. However, after he had washed everything iota of his body, shaved his face, and washed and rinsed his hair, he felt he could not draw his shower out any longer. He got out, dried, and dressed. A subtle apprehension crept into his heart as he trudged out to the kitchen to decide on what to eat for dinner. He immediately balked at the thought of cooking. It wasn’t as fun or enjoyable without Apheris there. Though she had entirely taken over the task of preparing their meals, Dave often helped her. Lately, their valiant attempts at cooking were frequently interrupted by impromptu make out sessions, which quite often resulted in spontaneous sexual interludes. It didn’t help that Apheris playfully flirted with Dave while he spent as much time kissing and caressing her as they both did trying to prepare their meals. As Dave stood in the kitchen, at a loss for what to do without his girlfriend to serve as inspiration, encouragement, distraction, and object of romantic and sexual interest. He heaved a heavy sigh as he stalked out to the couch. Flopping down, he turned the television on and began browsing the streaming services. He ultimately settled on another episode of Kaiju Wrestling. As Dave watched a giant gorilla fight a kaiju-sized military robot, he took out his smart phone and looked through the delivery restaurants for something that appealed to him as a dinner. He settled on Moon Flower Takeaway, a Chinese bistro that he and Apheris became quite fond of and offered delivery. He ordered just enough for himself. He had come to know Apheris well enough that when she got home, she could easily have someone digesting away in her belly, and thus would probably not eat anything. He placed his order, then grabbed a beer from the kitchen. Ten minutes later, he was sitting on the couch, eating a modest dinner of fried rice, lo mein noodles, and shrimp egg rolls. He ate his dinner with a steadily growing anxiety. Apheris had thus far been gone since early morning. She had been away longer than she ever had before. After he finished his dinner, threw away the takeaway boxes, and recycled his beer bottle, Dave sat down on the couch to wait for Apheris. Wanting to get his mind off his absent girlfriend, he relaxed to watch Kaiju Wrestling. To divert his mind from his worries, he went and got another beer. As he tried to enjoy watching imaginary monsters beat the daylights out of each other, he could not banish the apprehension from his heart. He tried to reach out with his mind, using their love bond to sense how she was, but she had warned him that his feelings could cloud his perceptions through their bond. So, he got up and paced. He frequently opened the entry door and looked around to see if he could spot Apheris coming. He checked his emails for anything pressing at work. He surfed the internet for any kind of distraction. Eventually he sat down on the couch and made himself watch television until she came home. After a while, he laid his head back and fell asleep, having exhausted himself with worry.
 Dave woke with a start. He didn’t know what woke him up. Looking around, he found the room dark. The apartment’s main computer had sensed him asleep and had cut off the lights and the television. He shook his head and sat up. He picked up his phone from where he had dropped it on the couch as he fell asleep. Checking its time display, he saw that it was nearly midnight. He freaked out at this. It was the middle of the night and Apheris was not back yet. That was when he decided that enough was enough. He called up his contact list and was about to ring the police when he heard the door’s locks disengage. He sprang up from the couch and dashed to the door in time to see it open and Apheris enter…with another girl in tow. Dave caught the sharp chemical odor of liquor on them. In becoming intimate with Apheris, Dave found that her species could get drunk off alcohol, though they had a significantly higher tolerance for it. The amount of booze that was necessary to get Apheris thoroughly sozzled was enough to make a human die of alcohol poisoning twice over. However, she was at least buzzed. The girl with her was clearly so thoroughly plastered that Apheris had to help her walk. Apheris was wearing a light dress with a flowing skirt, though she wore her hooded cloak over this, concealing her more alien features as usual. The girl with her was a dainty young woman in her twenties. Her long blonde hair trailed down her back. Her strapless red minidress struggled to contain her ample breasts, her nicely rounded posterior, and her belly, which was hugely swollen with pregnancy. Apheris looked at Dave and blushed in embarrassment.
 “Sorry, love,” she apologized, “I’m coming home awfully late.”
 “No worries,” Dave replied, then he gestured at her companion with his chin, “how d’you explain her?”
 “This is Cynthia,” Apheris said, “and she’s my client. She’s paid me two thousand pounds to be devoured and digested. And since she’s bought the full package, I thought maybe you’d like to watch me work.”
 Dave quietly admitted he’d love to see his girlfriend swallow someone else. Cynthia was so thoroughly intoxicated that she could not have cared less about a man watching what was about to happen to her. As the woman wavered on her unsteady legs, Dave noticed how her perky breasts bobbled about, always in danger of spilling out of her bodice.
 “So, what’s your story,” he asked the girl, “why do you want to be eaten? Aren’t you eager to give birth to your baby?”
 Cynthia glowered in Dave’s general direction. She was quite thoroughly intoxicated. Dave marveled that she was able to focus on him at all.
 “Listen, bloke,” Cynthia slurred, her breath reeking of whiskey, “some bloody arsehole knocked me up, then buggered off leaving me with two babies in my belly! I don’t want to be a mum, and I ain’t gonna look after that tosser’s brats! I ain’t gonna get an abortion, and my mum and dad already disowned me, so getting ate by this girl is the only way to sort it all out!”
 Before Dave could say anything in response to Cynthia’s brief explanation of her situation, she had turned and begun kissing Apheris. Dave watched in stunned fascination as his girlfriend made out with another woman. Apheris began maneuvering Cynthia toward the couch. Dave marveled at how easily Apheris used her tail to pull Cynthia’s dress off. She threw Cynthia’s dress with a deft whip of her tail tip. At the same time, Apheris removed her cloak with one hand, then unfastened her own dress. Meanwhile, Cynthia began working at her panties, trying to get them off without breaking the kiss. Apheris aided her by slipping the tip of her tail under the crotch of Cynthia’s panties, then pulling them down. Cynthia kicked her panties off her ankle, while Apheris removed her own panties with her tail and unfastened her bra. Dave’s eyes went wide when he heard a loud rumble come from Apheris’ stomach. As the girls worked their way toward the couch, Apheris began rubbing her tail all over Cynthia’s body, leaving behind a thin film of a viscous oil with a strong floral scent. In moments Cynthia’s body was glistening with the stuff. As Apheris oiled Cynthia’s body with her tail, she occasionally slipped her tail into Cynthia’s womanhood, using the prehensile appendage as a sort of makeshift dildo.
 Apheris managed to turn round as they reached the couch, so that she was seated on it. Cynthia continued kissing, oblivious to what was about to happen to her. At that moment, Dave heard a soft pop as Apheris unhinged her jaw. He watched in amazement as she stretched her mouth around Cynthia’s head. Cynthia moaned as her head entered Apheris’ mouth. Apheris swallowed Cynthia’s head with ease, drawing her shoulders into her mouth. Dave goggled at them as Apheris easily stretched her mouth around Cynthia’s respectable breasts and swallowed. He heard a muffled shriek of pleasure from inside Apheris, somewhere between her own breasts and her belly, which was beginning to bulge out as Cynthia’s head was deposited in her predator’s stomach. Dave watched as Apheris easily worked her extended mouth around the huge roundness of Cynthia’s gravid middle. Apheris was clearly driven by her hunger. Cynthia’s baby bump bulged Apheris’ neck out as her hips entered Apheris’ mouth and were gulped down. Apheris groaned as she slurped Cynthia’s legs down, rubbing her middle as her belly expanded to accept her prey. She whimpered in delight as Cynthia made the final plunge down her throat, steadily being packed into her stomach. Dave watched in fascination as he clearly saw Cynthia curling around her own belly inside Apheris’ stomach. Apheris licked her lips as she stroked her swollen bulge. She moaned at the gurgling within her as her stomach started processing her prey. She looked hungrily at Dave, though this was a different kind of hunger. Dave took a few tentative steps over to her. He placed a hand on her belly, feeling Cynthia wriggling within.
 “How long will she be in there,” Dave asked.
 “The way I’m feeling right now,” Apheris said, “I’ll probably have her fully digested in an hour. However, I could have her digested faster if you help me.”
 “How…how could I help you digest her faster,” Dave asked.
 “You see, love,” Apheris explained, “if a woman of my species has begun forming a love bond, she can digest her prey faster if she mates with her lover. We think it’s an adaptation to make procreation easier. All I care about is making love with you.”
 Apheris seized Dave, whipping off his shirt, then jerking down his jogging pants and boxer shorts, leaving him naked. She pulled him to her, shifting herself on the couch to present her vulva to him, which glistened as her natural lubrication oozed out from between her labia. She took hold of his manhood, guiding its hardness into her dripping vagina. She whimpered in delight as she felt his stiff shaft sliding into her. She tickled the length of his spine with the tip of her tail, leaving a film of stimulating oil on his skin. She moaned as he made love to her, his erection pistoning in and out of her. As they copulated, Dave noted the sound of liquid sloshing around inside her stomach, accompanied by gurgling and groaning. He fancied he could feel Cynthia’s body softening inside, losing shape as Apheris’ digestion ramped up. Apheris groaned, making a conscious effort to restrain the strength of her vaginal muscles. She had been aware that her womanhood was actually a trifle too strong to make love with a human, but as they spent time together and she got more practice having sex with him, she learned how to vary the strength of the orgasmic contractions of her vaginal walls, so that she no longer made him feel like her pussy was going to rip his dick off. She panted as she quickly climaxed. It was a sign that she was definitely forming a love bond. That he could so quickly drive her to an orgasm was an indication that they were forming a love bond and that it was biologically syncing their bodies, so that she instinctively responded to him, her vaginal walls squeezing his erection with just the right amount of strength, her body responding to him making love to her with increased sensitivity so that she orgasmed easily. She moaned as she felt ever greater feelings of passionate pleasure burning through her nerves on top of the contentment she felt at having a full stomach that was actively digesting her prey. Dave groaned as he too felt more pleasure coursing through his body. It drove him to thrust into her with more strength and vigor. He groaned as he felt an orgasm building within his manhood. He was only dimly aware of the fact that Apheris’ belly was starting to visibly shrink. Cynthia had long since stopped moving inside Apheris’ stomach. Had Dave been more lucid, and not lost in the pleasure of making love to his woman, he would have realized that the more he mated with her, the more powerfully she digested her prey. He grunted, now thrusting with the force of a piledriver and the speed of a car piston. Apheris screamed in pleasure as he was now giving her a constant, steady orgasm. Suddenly, Dave gasped, jamming his erection fully inside Apheris. She howled in triumph as she felt his manhood pumping her full of his potent seed. And as he filled her with semen, her belly gurgled loudly as her digestion seemed to climax in time with her orgasm. Dave groaned as he pumped more ejaculate into Apheris than he would have ever done with a human girl. Apheris would later explain to him that it was because they were telepathically and biologically linked, and thus he had gained the ability to ejaculate a volume of semen that was more in keeping with men of Apheris’ species, while Apheris was able to respond to Dave’s love making more like that of a human woman. And then there were their minds. Dave and Apheris now felt a full and complete mind link to each other. Dave almost felt like he could speak to her in his mind. And in the instant he thought this, Apheris telepathically responded to this by projecting an image into his mind of her kissing him. Dave began to realize that he would never have to worry about her if she ever stayed out from home late again, because she would be able to think a message to him about what was going on, and no amount of alcohol would fuzz this link. As their orgasms faded, and the afterglow of good sex set in, Dave and Apheris shifted their positions on the couch so that they were spooning together. Exhaustion overtook them, and they began to drift off. As Dave began to nod, he rubbed a hand over Apheris’ belly. He noted, despite sleep fogging his thinking, that her belly had greatly shrunk, and was quite soft, though her middle was still quite swollen.
 Apheris awoke sometime later and felt his manly form still spooning her from behind. She had been told that human men would often get an erection while they were asleep, and she now had rigid evidence of that phenomenon pressed against the crevice between the base of her tail and her left buttock. She smiled as she slipped her tail between them, caressing his shaft, careful not to make him ejaculate. She felt the soft, pulsating breeze of his breath on her neck, subtly stirring her hair. He mumbled something in his sleep, then absently kissed the pointed tip of her ear as he shifted back into a deeper sleep. Apheris smiled at the feeling of him, both physically and telepathically, against her. She had not told him that women of her species were sensitive to energy fields. It was simply something her people took for granted. As she enjoyed the simple pleasure of spooning with him, she could feel life energy stirring inside her. She had devoured a pregnant woman, who was carrying two unborn babies. Her people believed that digesting a pregnant woman would not end the lives of the unborn baby or babies she carried. Apheris was certain that the life energy she felt stirring inside her was the vital essence of Cynthia’s unborn babies leaving the mostly digested remains of their mother, and moving into Apheris’ womb, where they would lay dormant until Apheris and Dave conceived them. Apheris was not in a hurry to become a mother. In fact, she had not planned on ever getting married or having children. It was one reason she had chosen to take the engineering job on Earth. Her people had thought that they were biologically incompatible with humans. That meant that even if she had sex with a thousand human men, she would never get pregnant. Of course, if that had actually been true, then Apheris would never have fallen in love with Dave, and she certainly would never have formed a love bond with him. And yet, now she lay together with Dave on his couch, long lost in the pleasant afterglow of sex, and reveling in the simple pleasure of spooning with him on the couch. She eased herself out of his arms, taking care not to wake him. She padded into their bedroom and got a pillow and a blanket. She returned to the couch, easing the pillow under Dave’s head, then spread the blanket over him. She then lay back onto the couch, snuggling under the blanket, back into a spooning position with him. She took his hand and placed it on her belly, which was now softly gurgling and bubbling and sloshing as her stomach processed the mushy remains of Cynthia. She could definitely feel the life essence of Cynthia’s babies inside her own womb, dormant and waiting for her to conceive them as her own children. The feel of their energy inside her, and the strong love bond that she now shared with Dave changed her mind about motherhood. Now she fervently desired to become a mother and could not wait to have Dave’s babies growing inside her. Then Apheris thought about her longstanding desire to go back to her home world. She thought about her family back on that distant planet, and how they missed her. She thought about Dave and the love bond she felt with him. She realized that she no longer wanted to leave Earth. She had formed a love bond with Dave, and that made her want to stay with him always. It made her want to enter into a matrimonial bond with him, which would deepen their nascent love bond, making it unbreakable. It made her want him to impregnate her, so that she could give him the gift of children, which her people saw as clinching proof that two people were meant to be together. Of course, in the short time that Apheris and Dave had been together, she had learned that Dave’s company had become one of the contractors that worked with the government to develop advanced technology. Among the things he had told her about was tech that would allow her to freely move about Earth and hide her alien features without resorting to hoods and scarves, though her tail would always require the use of long skirts, or at least plausible explanations, such as radical body sculpting and cybernetics. Apheris toyed with the idea of simply telling people that her ears were the result of cosmetic surgery, and her tail was a cybernetic implant. She had seen other people with such additional appendages. In fact, she had met one woman recently who had undergone body sculpting and genetic splicing to give herself cat ears and a cat tail, so Apheris felt people just might believe her when she told them that she had had her ears sculpted to look like pointed elf ears and she had had a tail added to her body. And this would probably work for her, so long as she kept her more alien abilities secret. What’s more, Dave had told her that his company was working with the government to develop superluminal communications devices that would allow Earth to talk to Apheris’ home world. With any luck, he had told her, she might be able to communicate with her family. Dave even hinted that regular travel between the two worlds might be possible. Apheris wasn’t certain about this. The government had screwed her over when they had initially hired her to help them develop a hyperspace drive. Dave had told her that he had found out the government had developed a hyperspace drive and was traveling to Apheris’ home world to begin trade negotiations. Apheris thought about this and decided that she didn’t care. She could no longer deny her love for Dave, and she was certain that he was her life mate. She finally admitted to herself that she no longer wanted to go home. She decided that wherever she was, if she was with Dave, she was home.