I stared dully at the glass in my hand, trying to think, trying to come up with a plan. Tess had just picked up somebody else's drink, something with booze in it, and drank a bit, and she was starting to act... like she was getting hit hard by it. Just like Max had been when I 'encouraged' him to take a drink out of my flask, more than two years ago. It must be a half-alien thing. (Or something that's twice as bad with full aliens maybe.) We were in a Vegas hotel/casino, sitting about halfway back in a medium-sized auditorium listening to a twentyish black guy singing the blues.

Even the first step in a plan would be good. This was a bad situation... above all, I had to keep Tess from attracting too much attention, or letting anyone suspect that she was... was not of this world. Probably she wouldn't care too much about that, so that I'd have to care enough to make up for a lack of inhibition on her part. We... we needed to get out of our seats and out of the room. But without being too noticeable about that.

"Hey, that was nice!" Tess protested, reaching out towards the glass. Suddenly, step one of the plan popped into my head, blindingly obvious. Step one was to keep Tess from drinking any more than she already had. So I went with my first instincts... I drained the entire glass myself in one fairly long swallow. "Hey, no fair!"

I looked into her face, which was probably a mistake. Tess was somehow managing to do everything possible with her expression that would make me weak... the seductive, deadly pout of course, one and a half bedroom eyes and half a puppydog eye, (or something like that, adding up to two eyes anyway,) and at the same time she was managing to do something very cute with that little nose of hers... like half a wrinkle and half a wiggle.

"Hey, what about your drink, Kyle!" For a second I panicked, and then managed to remember that I hadn't been drinking anything hard right now, any more than Tess had been meaning to. She reached out, (giving me a good look down the scoop neck of the white top that she was wearing today... lord have mercy, what would it be like if she thought of aiming that cleavage at me on purpose?) completely ignoring the real glass of sprite, and took what was left of my coke out of the beverage holder on the other side of me. At the furthest extension of her leaning movement, the soft perkiness of her chest was brushing against my left thigh through several layers of clothing, and I inhaled automatically with the sensation.

Having retrieved my glass, she straightened up again, bringing it to her nose and inhaling in a way that I somehow found oddly sensual. "Nothing but cola," she announced in a breathy disappointed voice. "Who'd a thunk it?" Then her face brightened. "But I can get more sprite and whatever... we've got our fake IDs, right? It shouldn't be hard finding a damn bar in a Vegas hotel!"

Oh, boy. Even step one was going to be harder than it seemed. However, since she wanted to leave the auditorium now, and I wanted both of us out of the auditorium without anybody making a scene, it seemed (vaguely) best to go along for now. I would have to keep her away from the bars at some point. So we hurried out to the back exit, and into the hallway, which was nearly empty. Acting on pure instinct, (and possibly the white rum already hitting my system,) I took the lovely alien girl in my arms and kissed her. "Come on. You don't need anything more to drink, do you? How about we go back up to the room together?"

Tess smiled teasingly. "Ohh... I bet you want to see me modeling that lingerie, don't you?" I immediately had to gulp at the thought of that. "Hmm... okay, okay Kyle. We can go back upstairs and play alone together in the room... for a little while. I'll even promise not to drink anything out of the minibar." Wow, I hadn't even gotten that far - good thing that she... well, could I really depend on her to honor such a promise? "But you have to agree to come down again with me later, so that we can have more Vegas fun together!"

I thought about that for a second, but realized that I was unlikely to get a better deal out of Tess at the moment. "Alright, let's go." She squirmed out of my embrace, (which was kinduv a fun experience, and I'd probably have enjoyed it more if I hadn't been so worried,) and hurried off - not towards the elevators, but further down this hallway, away from the lobby. I didn't know where that led, and hurried after, wondering if Tess was already backing out on the deal. I'd halfway caught up when she pushed through a door and started up a flight of steps. Ohh... did she want to take the stairway instead of the elevator? Well, it's not like that would be so bad - we were only on the fourth floor, not the seventeenth or anything like that. Following Tess up the stairs also gave me a great view of her butt in motion, as it happened... which is plush and tight at the same time (or at least occupying a happy medium between those two descriptions,) and wrapped up in a pair of tight designer jeans that were just begging me to open them up. When we got to the fourth floor landing, Tess turned around, looked at me lurching up the final few stairs behind her, and giggled. "Is that a big stack of casino chips in your pants or are you just really happy that I was leading the way?"

"Pretty much happy," I admitted, and reached out to stretch one arm around her torso and tweak her bra strap affectionately. (That's something that Tess admitted she kind of likes back when we were dating last time, by the way.) "I can't wait until we're alone in that room together, you little tease. I might not even have enough patience for your little fashion show."

"Oh, come on Kyle!" she said, her eyes wide with pretend horror... at least, I thought that she was partially pretending. "We have to do the fashion show! Come on, it won't take long." And as I sighed, she hurried out through the door into the hallway - and bumped into another pretty teenage girl. At first I thought, (as I followed Tess out,) that it was Liz, but though the resemblance was strong, this girl was a bit... well, her eyes were green, and there was something slightly different about her nose and chin. And the fact that she didn't recognize either of us was a clue, too. Tess looked back at me with that cocky grin, and leaned forward to kiss this girl on the lips.

For a second, the other girl seemed too stunned to react in any way. Then I think she kissed back briefly, but about four seconds in she pushed Tess away. Tess just cocked her head at the brunette in a sexy way, which made her shudder. "Sheesh!" And with that, the stranger turned and hurried past us. I smirked a little, thinking that she'd have a story to tell her parents or her friends (or both,) about the kind of weird things that could happen to you in Las Vegas.

While Tess was still sitting there smiling like she'd eaten a canary, (and was a cat, I guess,) I hurried past her, eager to get into the room before anyone noticed the incredibly hard bulge that felt like it was going to poke up past the waistband of my pants at any moment. (Or anyone else, if the brunette girl had happened to spot it with other things to distract her...) I had to admit that watching Tess kissing another girl, especially a girl who looked so much like Liz Parker, had only turned me on more. Hopefully, that was part of the reason that she'd done it.)

I was sitting on one of the beds in our room and looking at the door when Tess slunk in. "Okay, Kyle Valenti, now you have a choice," she said sexily. "I'm going to show off that white set of lingerie for you... you really don't have a choice about that - well, you can refuse to look, but I seriously doubt that would be a good move for someone in your position." I shook my head. "We can get to it right away... or I can do something first that I think will relieve your impatience. However... if I take care of you first... then you owe me three consequences that I get to determine later... things that I can order you to do, or order you to let me do."

I shook my head, not a refusal but just a gesture of trying to think. Tess was... actually, she was giving me a deliberate cleavage shot just like I had been wondering about in the auditorium. I tried to think about the important things that I couldn't let go of. "Consequences can't involve you drinking alcohol, or anything that's completely unsafe. Safety applying, in this case, to either physical harm, or giving away your powers to total strangers."

"Aww." Tess pouted... or maybe it was a moue, I can never remember the difference. "Spoilsport. But okay. I love that you won't let anything get in the way of looking after me." That sentence somehow seemed uncommonly sincere, even though she wasn't in a completely earnest frame of mind right now. "Maybe because to look after me, it means you get to look at me." She giggled. "Does that mean you agree?"

"Umm... not yet, give me a minute," I pleaded. It was like sitting on the horns of a dilemma... I wanted to come so bad right that minute, but Tess' devious mind might well have me regretting that I'd made the agreement to abide by her consequences. "Take care of me... how?"

"Hmm!" Tess considered the question brightly. "Let's see... take care of you... with my hands and fingers?" She stretched them out in front of her. They were very pretty fingers, but I had to admit that I wanted more. "Take care of you... with my feet and toes?" She kicked off her sandals... I had to admit that she had pretty toes, and that was a fetish that didn't entirely lack appeal to me. "Or... take care of you with my lips, and tongue - my mouth, and maybe a bit of my throat?" My eyes immediately locked onto her lips as she was speaking: lush, sensuous lips, and I probably couldn't help from nodding my head up and down. "Oooh, I think we have a winner! Yes, I'll take care of you with my lips. It's the first time I've tried, but I think I'll be able to get the 'job' done. Is that a deal-maker?"

I laughed, shaking my head. "Yes, Tess Harding, you have a deal. Three consequences."

"Great!" She gestured me up, and bent down even further, to unfasten the button on my pants and slide down the zipper. There was something very sensuous about letting her slowly undress me, sliding the clothes off the lower half of my body, and I only moved at her specific direction, which she only made when there was something that she couldn't pull or remove on her own. Fairly soon I had nothing on but my t-shirt, and then nothing at all, as she pulled that above my head and off my arms, letting her fingers trail slowly across the skin of my own chest. My tool was pointing straight up into the air, as I sat on the edge of the bed, and it looked like it was even longer than its usual nine inches. Tess blinked and shook a little the first time she looked at it, and then got down onto her knees to examine me more closely. I expected her to reach out with her hand to touch it, but apparently she interpreted our agreement as 'only her mouth.' As she reached those glossy red-pink lips closer and stuck out her tongue to lick my head, I was definitely in no mood to complain.

If Tess was telling the truth about never having given a guy a blow-job before... well, she was undeniably very talented at it. Whether this was natural beginner's luck, practice on simulated objects, or some kind of freaky alien thing I wasn't sure, but... as the waves of pleasure kept coming at me, I focused as hard as I could on appreciating every single aspect of the moment, instead of simply closing my eyes, laying back, and drowning in the feelings that her mouth and her throat were creating in my wang. The soft moans that we were both making came together in an unusual symphony, (though hers were a bit muffled considering that her usual airways were partially obstructed,) and the sound effects of what she was doing directly added another level to that music - every lick and every suck an unusual note... okay, I'll drop that analogy now. Sorry. She was trying to stare up at me with those bright shining blue eyes as often as she could, and her hair was constantly falling onto the sensitive skin of my hips and my lap area. It felt so soft and silky. Then there was her chest, which was resting lightly on my thighs, moving and shifting slightly as she drew back to work her magic lips around my head, or pushed forward to swallow up more of my length, working me towards the opening to her throat...

"Hgglgh!" With a gagging sound, Tess quickly pulled back, and when she looked up at me again, the expression in her gorgeous eyes and her sweet face was no longer cocky and proud but upset, disappointed, and more than a little embarrassed. I just smiled, reaching out to caress her shoulder understandingly.

"Come on, it's okay," I assured her. "Deep throating... um, I mean, I've never done it myself obviously..." Little shudder - why had I had to put it that way? "But it... from everything I've heard and read, it's not nearly as easy as it might look. There's a gag reflex... a deep seated instinct to clear the throat when something is obstructing it. Learning to relax and get past the gag reflex is hard... and I'm not sure if I'll be any help."

"Oh," Tess said, looking if anything more crestfallen that she couldn't do this thing for me.

"But come on," I insisted, "I don't need a deep throat. You were doing amazing - completely unbelievable." Tess cocked her head at me, the pleasure from the compliment starting to eat away at her more negative feelings. "Just go back to doing what you were doing, and don't worry about trying to take me in any further than you're ready for."

"Are... are you sure?" she asked. "I... I mean, you're so big, and I can only..."

I tried not to puff up in pride too much. "Don't worry too much about that." I thought about suggesting that she could use her hands on the rest of my shaft, but decided that she might take it the wrong way, considering her interpretation of our deal. "Most of the pleasure centers are concentrated up in the head, anyway. And if I can suggest one thing that shouldn't be too hard to try..."

"Um, yeah?"

"Hum while you're doing it." She looked doubtfully. "Really. There's something about the sound vibrations travelling up your mouth and onto my... my organ. I've never actually gotten a hummer, but, well, word in the locker room is that it's incredible."

"Alright, one hummer coming up!" Tess declared, and dove back onto my dick, almost literally. She was making a bigger production out of it than before, as if to make up for her perceived failing, licking wetly and then sucking hard, humming as much as she could, wrapping her mouth around the top of my tool as tightly as she could, her cheeks dimpling from the negative pressure so much that she looked almost silly that way. But it was still amazingly sexy, and I really didn't last long before erupting into an explosion of come, all of which disappeared so quickly that it almost seemed like Tess was inhaling it, sucking it away like a Hoover, instead of simply swallowing it. (I assume that she didn't actually inhale any because she didn't cough or have trouble breathing, but you never know entirely about half-alien physiology.) Then she stood up, a hand reaching up to check that her hair was okay, and shot out a brilliantly sexy smile at me. "Okay, now it's time?"

"Yeah, sounds great," I enthused, sliding back onto the bed in anticipation of really enjoying the show. Being an eighteen-year old boy, I'd like to be able to tell you that I was still as hard and stiff as I was when we got up to the room, but that actually wasn't quite true. My tower had definitely lost its peak and definition after coming in her mouth, though it hadn't quite gone soft and limp completely, (probably the circumstances and anticipation of what to come had something to do with that,) and was already starting to rebound towards half-mast. "Do, do you want to go into the bathroom to change and make a big entrance?" I prompted.

"No - no need." Tess giggled. "I'm wearing the white outfit right now." It took a second for that to penetrate, and she said the answer a half second after I had already realized it. "Underneath. Do you think I could be a natural at strip tease, Kyle?"

"Umm..." I had to suck in a long breath before answering. "Would not surprise me in the least." I'd never seen Tess in a situation exactly like this, obviously, but she does tend to move sexily even in the most innocent of circumstances, (or, once again, is that just me? my feelings coloring what I see?) and... Alright, I'll admit it. Back when she first moved into our house, I snuck a few good peeks at Tess Harding undressing. Definitely equal or better than anything I've ever seen in a nudie bar or on the net. But those times, she hadn't been aware of having an audience, had she?

Tess stepped back two paces, and then began with those tight jeans, opening up the button fly, and swiveling her ass around and around a few times before beginning to slowly push the denim down her hips. I shook my head in sheer wonder as something that looked like an incredibly tight, incredibly short, pair of white hot pants became visible underneath. The garment was covering up more skin than usual cotton underwear would, yet somehow it seemed more exciting and enticing. I can't really explain that. More and more lightly tanned, smooth and caressable thigh was revealed inch by inch, (how had Tess gotten a tan in the middle of the winter, and why hadn't I known anything about it? Had she just went to the tanning clinic downtown or snuck off somewhere to actually bathe in the wintry desert sun? Or was that another thing that could be done with just the wave of an alien hand?) And then Tess bent down, giving out another cleavage shot as she pulled the denim away from first one thigh, then the other, and tossed it across the room to land next to the wall, beneath the closed window. She smiled as she turned back to me, showing off her legs, which might not be incredibly long, but they were in perfect proportion for her petite frame, and beautifully shaped. Giggling, she did a kick into the air, lifting her bare foot a little above waist high. "Come on, Kyle, you're not saying anything!" she teased. "How am I doing so far?"

"Great teasing," I assured her, thinking that it was true on more than one level. "When are you going to get to the top?"

Tess made a little sheeshing sound through her toothy smile, and I suddenly realized that she was going to draw it out even longer because I had asked. Not that I really minded about that. My right hand had crept down to my crotch, and after a moment's shock I deliberately started stroking myself harder as I enjoyed the show, wondering what Tess' response would be if she realized what I was doing. Part of me was a little worried that she might get offended and call an immediate halt to the entire proceedings, but that really didn't seem too likely. For one thing, she'd promised to deliver a fashion show no matter what happened, and keeping promises was something that Tess was always very big on.

For the first little while, though, she didn't have a good chance to notice, because she wasn't really looking at me. Tess bent down so that her head was nearly upside down, shaking her head out, and then she turned her back to me, wiggling her butt yet again, and strutted back and forth to let me see her body in profile. When she did turn to stare at me again, I think she was momentarily startled to see me massaging my own thing, but then smiled a little bit, realizing that it spoke volumes for how much I was enjoying the show. She bent low, giving me a v-neck peek at the goodies again, teasingly undid one button, and worked the hem up so that a few more inches of midriff above the waist were visible. Her shirt was of the type that didn't unbutton all the way - undoing the buttons would make it a bit easier to pull it off over her head, but that was still basically the only way to take it off without doing something unusual to reshape the garment. I certainly didn't mind... in fact, I was looking forward to the moment when she pulled it off completely, and her blonde hair fell back into place. But first, apparently, Tess felt it necessary to stroke her hands over her own chest, and pinch her nipples through two layers of clothing. (I wasn't really in a mood to argue with her.)

Finally the self-fondling stage was done, and she pulled the shirt away. I appreciated the hair-tousled moment, and then my gaze dropped to study the other piece of white lingerie... some kind of a see-through, lacy bustier, which definitely looked sexy as hell, if more than a bit unusual. (She wasn't exactly your most usual girl.) Tess spun around slowly to let me see her from every side, and then climbed up onto the bed, the mane of golden hair falling around her face making her look, for a second, a bit like a stalking lioness on all fours... a damn sexy kind of cat. Somehow there was a piece of jewelry dangling in front of her cleavage that hadn't been there before... a golden chain with a metallic pendant that I couldn't make out immediately. She continued to crawl up until her head was next to mine, her body amazingly seductive and alluring in motion, covered only by those thin scraps of white cloth. Tess claimed my head with both of her hands and kissed me with a fire that I hadn't quite expected. The next thing I knew, we were lying next to each other on the bed, her pose relaxed. "So, does this mean that the fashion show is over?" I asked.

"Hmm... I guess so," she said, beaming. "The striptease might not be, depending on if you want to see the full... umm, the full - I actually can't think of anything to finish that with."

"Then don't say anything," I grinned, "and allow me." I hooked a finger into the waist of Tess' short-shorts, then another, and started to slowly draw them down. I feel very strongly about oral sex reciprocity... Tess had done a great job on me, and I was going to return the favor, as a matter of principle if nothing else. (I was also looking forward to it as a fun experience.) Her hidden treasures revealed were a sight to behold, and I could hardly wait enough to get the underwear completely off her legs before diving in, starting by licking the soft, sensitive skin on her upper thighs as a way of setting the mood, and then getting right to business. Tess stretched out on the bed, waving her arms a bit at the sensations I was able to deliver to her, and I took my time more than Tess did, (well, not like she could really have dragged it out much with me being as keyed up as I was,) - it was maybe twenty-two minutes before I brought her all the way to climax, and then I was able to keep her there, or nearly, for about two and a half more. It actually surprised me - I know I've got moves, but Tess is really something else - more, umm, more responsive than any girl I've ever been with before. Or maybe it was something about the chemistry between the two of us?

I kind of collapsed a bit after it was over, and all was still for a little while, and then I could feel Tess get up off the bed and very faintly hear the sound of her bare feet padding on the carpet. When I looked up, she had opened up the minibar and had poured a dizzying variety of different little bottles into one of the hotel room glasses... was that a long island ice tea? Oh, boy. The amount of alcohol in that one little glass...

"I... you know that I can't allow you to drink that," I said, trying to keep my voice low and steady. Heck, it could seriously kill her! "Not even if you use a consequence on it."

"Well, of course not," she said, smiling. She was still wearing the white bustier and nothing else, and oddly it occurred to me that I desperately wanted to see her breasts free of that thin covering. "That's not the point. The consequence... is that you have to drink it!" She giggled, adding another shot to the glass, and presented it to me.

"Oh, boy," I muttered under my breath. I'd forgotten to include a clause to take care of that... or maybe I hadn't thought of it. If Tess could get me drunk... well, I wasn't sure what would happen next, but it would almost certainly be troubling. On the other hand, I had promised, and if I even tried to back out, Tess would get upset and probably would find some other way to make mischief. "Is... is that a long Island?"

"Actually, I think it's a Texas tea," Tess answered. "That's got bourbon whiskey in it."

Oh, boy. But I grabbed the glass and drained nearly half of it in one swallow before she thought of something even worse. Tess grinned to herself and bent down into the mini-bar again, grabbing a chocolate bar... something full of nuts, which I couldn't help thinking was a good idea... it'd help her keep her energy up. (Hmm... eating - would getting Tess to eat something more substantial lessen the effects of the alcohol? Then again, she hadn't been acting tremendously drunk ever since we got up here... or maybe it was just hard to notice whether she was acting unusual in this kind of circumstance.) I drank another swallow, and then, just as she was finishing the candy bar and not expecting it, I snuck up behind her and tried to pull that bustier up off her chest. That didn't work especially well, mostly because her initial reaction to the surprise was to lock her arms down and cross them, but I tickled the back of her upper arms and her tummy, (two places where Tess is very ticklish,) and managed to get the stretchy white material pulled entirely off one arm, so that the rest was hanging oddly around her neck and shoulder, so it definitely didn't cover much.

When she finally complained, it wasn't specifically about tickling her or trying to strip her completely naked, which I found interesting. "Hey, you were supposed to finish the glass!"

"Yeah," I agreed. "But you didn't say when I had to finish it, or what I could do first." I tickled her again, and then let my fingers pass softly over her exposed breasts, brushing the pale and smooth skin and teasing her rosy buds. This was the first time since those first guilty peeks so long ago that I had seen Tess' chest completely uncovered, and in an odd way I was feeling disappointed that I wasn't completely sober to appreciate the magnificent sight properly. She wasn't huge, of course, but her breasts were bigger than they generally looked when she covered them up entirely, and I hadn't remembered, or expected, the perky firmness with just a hint of soft fondle-a-bility, or the way their rounded perfection took my breath away.

"Finish it, Kyle," she suggested in a low voice. "Just so that I don't keep getting distracted reminding myself that you still have to do that. Then we can really get back into the fun - on a bed for preference. Or maybe even both beds!"

"Ahh... a good suggestion or two," I admitted. What with the surprise stripping and tickling, both of us were nearly lying on the carpet, some of Tess' weight pressing on my legs, and it wasn't exactly the most comfy of positions. I drained the Texas tea in two more mouthfuls, (damn strong stuff, but I think I like it!) and Tess concentrated on the two queen sized beds, slamming them together with her mind and creating a single huge romantic playground for us to romp upon. Which we lost no time in doing... I fooled around with her boobs for quite a long time, and then she said it was her turn and ran her talented hands over nearly every part of my body, not getting to the pecker until last, and then changing the focus of her touches, giving me a long-drawn out hand job that I think took nearly an hour. (I was starting to feel a little fuzzy from the tea at this point.) A good idea is a good idea, so I returned the favor that way too, running my fingers (and tongue) all over her body, and then trying to see how much directly sexual pleasure I could give her with them. As we hugged each other, both feeling deliriously happy afterwards, a question suddenly popped into my head. "You know, we've kinduv done everything... or a lot of the basics, actually, except for, umm..."

"Fucking the old fashioned way?" Tess suggested with a giggle.

I sighed. "Having sex full-contact, yeah." I hesitated, not sure how to put the next part. "Is... is there a reason that you, umm..."

Tess sighed and turned over onto her side, facing me. (As amazing a view as any other pose that I'd ever seen her in, but somehow this didn't feel like a moment for getting lost in the scenery.) "Well, I've heard some about what real alien sex is like." She giggled. "And, no offense, but I'm not sure if... if you're ready for it." Pause. "Or maybe I should say if we're ready for it."

I blinked. "Okay, first off... heard from whom?"

"Michael... and Isabel."

I'm not sure why this next bit popped into my head. Maybe I can blame my old friend Al Cohol. "Michael nailed Isabel?"

Tess' eyes grew wide, and then she slapped me hard on the shoulder (which made her tits shake and shudder.) "No, moron! With the ones they're actually with... Michael and Maria, Isabel and Alex. Remember?"

"Oh, uh, yeah." I tried to shrug, but somehow with the way I was still lying half on my stomach it didn't quite work. To be honest, my mind was racing a little with shock that Alex Whitman was actually getting laid... and with the stunningly beautiful Isabel. Michael and Maria didn't surprise me - they'd always been passionate souls. But - "Okay, so what exactly is it that they're ready for and I'm not?"

"Calm your macho self down, Buddha boy," Tess teased me. "I wasn't meaning that you're not physically in shape enough, or not skilled enough a lov-ah, or anything like that." She took a breath. "But, well... when one of us is in the mix, apparently sex becomes a deeper and more... emotionally intense experience than normal for humans. Of course, none of them are exactly sure about that, since there's no real basis for comparison yet." She smirked. "I guess you might be the first to have experienced both sides... if and when we do."

I jumped slightly. "Actually... well, I'm not that experienced or anything."

She grinned. "Okay, since you bring it up... how many girls have you had sex with?"

"Umm... two."

She blinked. "Liz and... Vicky Delaney."

What the heck... it was time to have done with the whole stinkin' lie. "Not Liz."

"But..." Tess cocked her head, thinking about that. "Oh. Very interesting. A farce played for Max's benefit?"

"Think so. Liz didn't really explain - she just asked me for a favor and I went along with it."

"Alright. So... who was number two, or was Vicky number two, chronologically?"

I nodded. "Yeah, she was. Number one was... well, she was a long time ago. Sara Wilson. Very cute, and I liked her a lot, but... well, I don't really feel like getting into the whole story, especially since I'm not sure you've completely answered my question, about alien sex. Something about emotionally intense?"

Tess shook her head. "Umm... I thought it was done. Long story short, casual sex may be impossible for hybrids... or with hybrids." She sighed. "Isabel said that she was glad that she had never done it with anybody but Alex. He's her one and only, I'm sure of it. So... so I don't want to unless I'm just as sure for me... you get it?"

"Actually, yeah, that makes a lot of sense," I admitted, sighing with disappointment. "Though I definitely have to admit that I'd love to with you."

She smiled wanly again. "Okay, I think it's time to get dressed again and head back downstairs."

I grinned at her. "Is that your second consequence?"

"Nah, I'm not going to waste a consequence, because you already promised to come back down with me later, and it's later already!"

I thought about trying to argue with that logic, but it would be an uphill climb with both of us more than a little under the influence, and I decided that I didn't care. "Okay... but I think I'd like to take a quick hot shower before getting dressed. Yourself?"

"I'd love to shower with you," she giggled, and that wasn't what I had in mind... but hey, who was I to deny a hot blond love kitten who wanted to get hot and steamy with my own self? Actually, aside from some kissing, and an awful lot of scrubbing each other, nothing too hot happened in the shower, and I got well air-dried by the electric fire, and put on a big baggy yellow t-shirt and loose fit jeans. Tess seemed to have a different idea for her wardrobe this time out.

She got dressed in the bathroom, so that I didn't see her preparing or even what clothes she had picked until she made a grand entrance. Lady in red, again, with a vengeance. She was wearing a red dress... short of skirt, tight all over, and a neckline that allowed a peek of cleavage and a trace of boob slope to be seen. All that appeared to be holding it up was two thin red straps, and the determination with which the fabric was hugging her curves. (Lucky fabric!) She wore red leather heels too, maybe three inches high, and her hair was down, straightened, and swept back somehow so that the lower halves of her ears, and the ruby earrings that glinted upon them, could clearly be seen. She was wearing a little more jewelry too - a gold charm bracelet on her wrist, a few rings. No necklace, but that reminded me of something.

"The pendant you had on earlier... it seemed to appear and disappear out of nowhere. What was the deal?"

"What pendant, Kyle? What do you mean?" Tess kept up the confused look for about ten seconds before giggles began to erupt from deep within her, (which might have been none too comfortable in that dress.) Stepping towards the counter top and reaching out, her hand came back with a little length of metallic chain dangling from it. "No big mystery - I put it on this morning and then got annoyed at it dangling in front of my boobs and drawing strangers' attention to them, so I kind of tucked it up onto my shoulder under the white top. Of course, anyone who looked would still have been able to see some of the chain going across my neck, a bit like a choker. It fell out again when I took the top off, obviously... that was when you saw it, right?" I nodded. "And before I started mixing your drink I took it off and put it down."

"Alright," I said. "What's the design on it?"

"Oh, something that we found in that underground launch silo in Colorado, last fall." She passed the pendant over to me, and I saw that the shape molded in relief against a five-sided background was a relatively harmonious bundle of squiggles, with a kind of puffy-cloud form in the bottom left. "We still don't understand a lot of the Antarian symbology, but as nearly as Max and I can tell, this one is about following your heart to destiny."

For a second the reference to Max Evans and destiny stung, but I let that go and smiled. Tess had told me that she wasn't holding onto what she felt for Max anymore, which suggested that following her heart might mean going my way. "Cool," I decided. "You don't have to wear it downstairs if you dislike the attention from strangers, but I like it," I told her meaningfully. Tess thought about that, went to her suitcase to get a red purse, and dropped the pendant, along with a few other things, into it.

"Alright, we ready to hit the blackjack tables now?"

Hmm. "I guess so," I said, heading for the door and holding it open for her. "But... well, why blackjack?"

She looked both ways in the hotel hallway before answering me in a whisper. "Because I can't cheat at it... or at least, I haven't thought of a way that doesn't seem too risky. Roulette and craps don't seem to have much excitement because of that factor."

I smiled... score one for the appeal of risk in gambling. "You, hmm... you could try to change the pattern on the dealer's down card, and make him bust."

"Yeah, I guess so. But that kind of detail work is really hard to do, sight unseen. I'm not sure if I could even adjust a playing card that I was looking at well enough to fool someone else."

"Max did it once," I said conversationally, leading the way down to the stairs again. It would be a nice exercise getting down, and we'd have a batter chance to talk in privacy than waiting for an elevator.

"Really? Max?" Tess shook her head in disbelief, throwing hair this way and that, and one thick lock of blonde silk fell down in front of her left shoulder, reaching down to within a few inches of her bosom. "I... somehow I found that very hard to believe."

"Well, I heard it third-hand, I guess, but I'm pretty sure it happened," I insisted. "He adjusted his hand to lose."

"Okay, then now I believe it," Tess laughed. "Who was the intermediary - Liz?"

"Yep," I nodded. "On the father-child camping weekend, several months before you came to Roswell. He got into a poker game with his father, Alex's, and Liz's. Came down to him and Liz's dad, and he let Mister Parker win. Doesn't that say it all?"

"I guess." Tess sighed. "Okay, hmm... any idea how much I should be betting to start with? I don't want to risk losing too much."

"Yeah," I agreed, nodding. "But as long as we have a little seed money, you can win it back with something else." Tess thought about that, and nodded back.

We ended up playing at a thousand-dollar limit table, losing a little bit more than usual but not too badly. I had fun with varying my bet size, making it look a bit, superficially, as if I were counting cards, but not actually tracking the count in the slightest, wondering if the pit boss would try to throw me away from the table. And it occurred to me that the rigidity of blackjack, compared to the other games of chance about, was something that Tess could possibly take advantage of, if she tried hard enough. If she could sense the hormones in my blood, she could probably detect what cards were next in the shoe, and adjust her strategy accordingly. Then again, even though Tess wasn't acting too outrageous just now, she probably still had some alcohol in her system, and it probably wasn't a good idea to suggest that she do anything with her powers right now. Just in case.

After losing about fifteen thousand, Tess decided that she had had enough of blackjack, and we went out to grab a bite to eat again... eating at a trendy little restaurant off the lobby - she had a grilled fillet of chicken and fettuccini in a spicy tomato sauce, and I had home fries and a roast beef sandwich that came with a little glass bowl of beef stock that you could dunk a little bit of the sandwich into at a time. Really very tasty.

"How's your fettuccini?" I asked Tess. "Haven't quite managed to drop pasta down into your cleavage yet I notice."

"Oh, is that what you were noticing?" she shot back, and I tried to shake off an encroaching flush of redness. "Actually, the pasta is great, and the chicken absolutely fuckin' delicious, but I kind of wish that I hadn't worn such a short dress." She shifted around a little on her chair as if she couldn't find a comfortable position, which was probably the case. I nodded with as much sympathy as I could muster up.

"So, what's next?" I asked.

"Umm... dessert!" Tess decided. She flagged down and got a waiter to bring us a dessert menu. She ordered the biggest fudge and whipped cream sundae they had, while I tried a French crepe, and we each ended up eating about a third of the other's. Finally the sinful eating was done, the bill was paid off in full, and the subject returned to discussing Sin city activities.

"We've actually got to check out the video arcade," Tess decided. "I know... last time I only went there because I had no other choices, but it was really pretty cool... or would have been if I'd had someone as cool as you to enjoy it with. Okay?"

How could I resist that pretty face? "Okay, sure, I'm up for that," I agreed. Video games were never really a bad thing, and a fancy place like this would probably have some kick-ass ones, like a partial slice out of one of that premium arcade I went to last summer in Albuquerque. Tess led the way, except that she didn't really know the way to the arcade in this hotel, so we both got well and truly lost before I finally asked a bellboy, who got us right back on track. We stepped in, loaded up with some quarters, and surveyed what was available.

"Oooh, cool, they've got the X-man," Tess said, pointing.

I couldn't spot it. "What, X-men versus street fighter?"

"No!" Tess turned to glare at me. "Come on, you know what I think of one-on-one duel games. That's not my idea of entertainment. It's the station over there, with six different player controls."

"Ohh... the one where the next to last big boss is mystique impersonating magneto?" I sighed. "Played that one so much in junior high that I think I'm still bored with it."

Tess pouted at me, but I stood reasonably firm. "Maybe it's actually a sequel," she said without terribly much conviction.

"Oh, hey!" I exclaimed in my own turn. "Star wars immersion capsules! Those are pretty decent."

Tess quirked her face. "Yeah, but they're single player. I wanted to do something together."

"Okay, a compromise then. We do the star wars together, at least through the death star sequence, and then play X men."

"Okay, I guess." So we sat down in two of the little star wars capsules, which were set up so that there were generic controls in front of you between your legs... (Well, generic in that they had to control three different vehicles in the game, not generic as in being similar to a lot of other video games,) and a quarter slot, and screens all around - mostly a one-sixty degree panorama to the front, and just a few 'windows' to the side and behind. The game began, and suddenly I was in Luke Skywalker's x-wing fighter zooming through space, approaching the imperial fleet and the Death Star.

My hand-eye co-ordination was generally very good, (though I wasn't at my best right now, on account of alcohol,) and I still remembered some of the strategy and tactical tricks from the last time I had a chance to play this game, and I did pretty well at shooting Tie fighters out of the ether and flying through the complicated maneuvers. From what I could see of Tess' capsule, it was obvious that she was having a harder time, needing to feed more and more quarters into the beast just to remain alive. I tried to shout out helpful hints, but I couldn't really see which stages she was up against, and she didn't seem to want my assistance, so I gave that up and focused on my own battles. Soon I was into the final run through the Death star trench, with Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon covering me from enemy fire, and the final countdown for the Proton torpedo shot began.

Unfortunately, I was a little nervous and shot too early. Damn the force, anyway. So I survived, but the Death star remained. Mission failed. I waited through the introductory scenes to the 'Empire strikes back' mission, not pressing the button to skip ahead, so that Tess could catch up. I knew that I'd hear what happened when she finished her own run, and I wasn't wrong... just as I started with my hover-scooter on Ice Planet Hoth, trying to figure out where the giant Imperial walkers were, Tess cried out "Whoo-hoo! Take that, Death star!"

"What... you actually got it?" I asked, upset. It was a pretty difficult shot to make... perfect timing and aim required, no second chances.

"Yep, okay. I'll feed a few more quarters in, but not many, I'm warning you." Sure enough, after a few minutes of the second mission, Tess climbed out of her capsule, and I did a crazy kamikaze blitz at one of the walkers to kill myself. Then we played the X-men game - it was the same one I remembered, but I had fun. Tess let me be Wolverine, and she played Storm, and the two of us made a really decent team, wiping out sentinel androids, lizard-people, and all the other weird bad'uns in the game. A few other teenagers joined in half-way through, though some of them dropped out after putting a few dollars in, and we even made it all the way to the end and defeated Magneto, though I'm too embarrassed to tell you how many quarters that took.

"Okay," Tess said, wrapping herself around my arm as we walked away and whispering into my arm. "I've decided on your second consequence."

"What? Oh." I'd almost managed to forget about those. "What's it going to be, then?"

"Streak across the lobby in only your underpants," she breathed, and giggled.

Big sigh. I wasn't quite sure whether the underpants were better than nothing, or if they'd just make me seem pitiful and kinduv lame. "Okay, well, I guess I have no choice."

"None at all," Tess breathed so softly I could hardly hear her, an odd grin on her face.