Project X ✔ [O L D V E R S I O N] - Chapter 15: Chapter 15

Xander chuckled, placing his hands on Alexa's waist and steadied her over him. Only two couples had left the room after the intense physical exercises – and although he wanted to take them home as soon as his lips came into contact with hers, he didn't want to deprive her of the experience.
His fingers still tingled from the warmth that emanated from her skin. He could feel the small goose bumps that grew on her skin and it satisfied him to know that he was the cause of her arousal; it swelled his pride. He was capable of making her feel emotions – far more than he could ever think of.
Now that she sat atop him, he could hear her heart thudding quickly in her chest and her breathing going into sporadic shudders – but he didn't know why. When he was skimming his hands over her body, it was only obvious that she'd respond that way, but she was just sitting on him then. There shouldn't have been a reason for her heart to be beating so quickly.
He just couldn't tell that she was nervous as hell.
Her smooth legs were on either side of his waist and her hands were placed on her thighs as she waited nervously for Reyna's timer to go off. Her instructions were simple; return the favour to her partner, but she could use her hands and her mouth. She had to memorise his body.
Alexa bit her bottom lip, anticipation bubbling in her stomach like boiling water and she jumped at the sound of the timer going off. She took a deep breath, waiting for Xander to place his hands on either side of his body and got on her knees.
Her blonde hair fell around her head, cascading over her shoulders and lightly tickled Xander's shoulder. He relaxed against the mat, taking in slow deep breaths and calmly waited for Alexa to begin her exploration.
Slowly and meticulously, her hands began to roam over his chest. They trembled slightly, making him smile at her nervousness and she traced a small scar near the V-line of his hips. It was toned just like the rest of his body – and it was drool worthy.
Her soft fingers trailed upwards, following the lines of his abdomen and she traced every curvature of his abdominals. The scars and wilts of his skin seemed to paint out a map underneath her fingers. She surveyed them gently, carefully, making sure to linger long enough to remember the patterns.
If it were up to her, she'd do it for the rest of her life.
His skin was warm and the softer her touch got against his skin; Xander seemed to intake sharper breaths. Alexa lowered her weight on his lower abdomen, sitting right above his pelvis and subconsciously grinded against him.
A low guttural sound developed deep in his throat, startling her at the feral sound, but she smiled and pressed a soft kiss to the side of his stomach. Her lips came into contact with a scar and she paid extra attention to it, making sure that her lips learned the beautiful imperfections.
Alexa trailed a path of soft, lingering kisses up his body, swiping her tongue over his nipples quickly. Xander grunted at the sensual sensation and clenched his fists tightly against his sides, trying not to break the rules by tightening his hold on her smooth hair.
She grinned deviously, lightly nibbling on his jaw and skimmed her hands over his broad shoulders. She followed the arc of his shoulders, lowering her searching lips down his neck until they reached his collarbone.
Xander breathed in deeply, staring up at the ceiling with a glare as he tried to contain the lust that grew within him. He was usually in control of any emotion he'd feel; this was one of the very few times he'd be powerless, but it was the first time that a woman was to blame.
Her hair tickled his skin, adding a strange sense of sensuality as she placed her thighs around his abdomen and brushed her lips against his jawline, following it all the way until she reached his earlobe.
Alexa breathed quietly near his ear, making him tense under her as she gently bit his earlobe. Her pelvis rubbed against his abdomen subconsciously and she finally pressed his lips against his.
Xander kissed her fervidly, as if the mere touch of their lips was tearing him apart; he needed more than just a mocking tease. A loud growl rumbled in his chest as Alexa nibbled his bottom lip into her mouth and she laughed against the lock of their lips.
His hands trembled on either side of him and he quivered as the domineering side of him ordered him to pin her to the mat and show her that every cause had an effect. In that case the effect could not go unpunished.
He wanted to rip the blindfold of his face to be able to stare into her eyes. Her eyes would be able to let him know where they stood; he could read them easily, but since they were covered he felt disadvantaged and discontent with the situation.
There was something about the way her green eyes sparkled with vivaciousness that made him crave her companionship. They seemed to glow with mischief and it added a strange sense of mystery since they were a nice contrast to her overall innocent look.
Alexa moaned in surprise as she tried to pull away from him, but Xander raised his head off the mat and bit her bottom lip softly to keep her in the same position. She grinned against his lips, but truckled to his desire.
"Chaspo repta," he whispered; the tone of his voice came out so low with lust that it was almost unrecognisable.
The incessant sound of the bell shattered any sexual images that entered her mind and she groaned, sitting above his pelvis again.
Reyna smirked, shaking her head at the groans coming from the women and the sighs of relief from the men. It seemed that they had been holding their breath the entire 15 minutes, to keep themselves sane. "You may take your blindfolds off."
Alexa quickly undid hers and bit her bottom lip as Xander raised his head off the mat to take his off. "That was fun," she mumbled, making him glare at her.
"I beg to differ."'
"What?" She laughed, innocently batting her eyelashes. "You didn't like what I was doing?"
"That is the problem," he huffed, relaxing against the mat again as he looked up at the white ceiling, "I think I liked it a little too much."
Her cheeks turned a dark pink, but her smile widened and she leaned down to press a soft kiss to his lips. "Payback's a bitch, right?"
He narrowed his eyes, turning his head to look at Reyna and Alexa grinned triumphantly.
"Welcome back," Reyna chuckled, looking at a couple that appeared into the room just as she rang the bell, "I hope you...depressurised yourselves."
The girl nodded, smirking and tightened her hold on her partner's arm. He seemed equally smug and it made Alexa somewhat jealous. Whatever they had done [obviously sex - or like Reyna liked to put it "depressurised themselves"] was great, otherwise they wouldn't look so content.
She wanted to smile smugly because she would be able to depressurise herself with Xander, but she was afraid that it was too soon to bring the topic up and she didn't know if it would make him uncomfortable.
He did say he liked it a little too much...
"The purpose of these exercises was not to trust your partner," Reyna began motioning with her hands for them to stand, "but to trust your instincts. The Xrionian men already do so because it is in our nature, but you guys doubt your abilities too much. Nonetheless, you were only able to look at your partner for a couple of seconds, the blindfolds will go back on and we will do a second exercise."
"Is it as fun as the first?" A girl with bright blonde hair asked, looking at her partner as if he were a piece of meat. Alexa sighed, shaking her head but laughed.
"Not exactly," Reyna pursed her lips, "you will be trusting your instinct and use the previous exercise to determine who your partner is. Essentially, you will be blindfolded and you will only touch their faces. I know most of you have built a bond and the thought of someone else touching your partner is irritating, but only their faces will be up for bait."
Beside her, Xander tensed his shoulders and she frowned. She didn't like the idea of other girls touching him – not even if it was his sculpted face. He was hers. Kind of. Maybe? Sort of...
"Just their faces, correct?" Xander spoke, his voice sounding stressed with annoyance.
Reyna laughed, her holographic image flickering a bit and she nodded. "Yes, Lieutenant Xander; only their faces. I will be watching to make sure. I would like each of you to stand on this line and face your partner. The women will be to my right side of the line and the men on the opposite side, alright?"
They nodded and walked up to the white line Reyna pointed to. Xander looked up at Alexa and she smiled nervously. He returned it; seeming more confident than she was. "Now I want each of you to put the blindfold back on."
She sighed, pursing her lips in distaste and tied the blindfold behind her head. Xander followed suit and crossed his arms over his chest as he waited for further instructions.
Reyna began to push the men around until there was about three feet of space between each of them and made sure to arrange them in a way that would be harder for the women to identify their respective partner.
Alexa bit her bottom lip again, twisting her fingers in her hands nervously and held her hands behind her back as she waited for Reyna to say something. The hologram walked past her and stood next to the fifth girl in line.
"What is your name?"
"Leila," The girl replied, chewing on the inside of her cheek nervously.
"Alright, Leila," Reyna grabbed her hand and walked her towards the first man, "you can start here. After the first man there are nine more and out of the ten you have to choose who your partner is."
Leila nodded and took a deep breath before placing her hands on the Xrionian's face. He stood with his hands behind his back and a stoic look on his face as she began to squeeze his cheekbones.
After a couple of minutes, she told Reyna that it wasn't "Wren" and they moved on to the next guy. After she reached the tenth man, Leila sighed and quietly said, "I think Wren's number seven."
Reyna chuckled at her uncertainty and turned to the men. "Wren, are you number seven?"
"Yes," He grinned.
Leila breathed out in relief and pumped her fist in the air. Reyna grinned and said, "You may take your blindfold off if you wish." She walked back towards the second woman and said, "What is your name?"
"Jess," The brunette replied, tucking back her long curly hair.
"Alright, Jess, do you need me to repeat any of the rules?"
She shook her head and Reyna guided her to the first man. Coincidentally the first guy in line was her partner and she recognised him as soon as she touched his cheekbones; she must've paid extra attention during the exercise.
The rest of the women went until it was Alexa's turn. She gulped nervously and held her hands out in front of her as she walked towards the second man. After Reyna shuffled them around for the eleventh time, they felt relaxed. All of the women so far had gotten their partners correct and Alexa had the type of luck that would make her choose the wrong one.
That would be a lovely conversation topic to have with Xander over lunch.
She stood on her tiptoes, placing his cheeks in between her hands and leaned closer to his lips.
"What are you doing?" Reyna frowned.
"I'm going to kiss him," she blurted out.
He tensed under her touch and she bit her bottom lip nervously. Reyna shook her head as the other women began to demonstrate their discontent and said, "You cannot kiss them, Ms. Dominick."
"I don't want to, but that's what I did with Xander...we kind of kissed most of the time..."
"It was not in one of the rules," Reyna laughed at her red cheeks.
"Fine," She pouted, "can I touch his lips?"
Reyna turned to the other women who shrugged and nodded. "You can."
Alexa breathed out shakily, poking the guy's lip and frowned. They were too rough to be Xander's – she quickly shook her head and walked towards the next guy. His were too small. She had two options left or she would have to start again and probably choose the wrong guy.
Her heart sped up in her chest and she groaned as she stood in front of the other guy. His lips were soft and they felt familiar, but she wasn't entirely sure because the first guy had firm smooth lips but he was shorter than Xander; she knew for a fact that it wasn't him.
But the guy she was currently assaulting his lips, could be a possible option.
Alexa lowered her hand down to his jaw, knowing that Xander had a little scar on the underside of his chin that resembled a horizontal line. She bit her bottom lip, searching for the little scar and slowly continued pressing her fingertips against his skin.
Her index finger reached a little dent and she gulped, hoping with all her might that she wouldn't be wrong. "I think this is Xander."
"Are you sure?" Reyna grinned.
"Don't do that," Alexa groaned, "don't make me question myself; I'm already nervous. Just...if I get this wrong, I'm sorry, Xander. Don't kill me."
"I am not going to kill you," he chuckled, wrapping his arms around her waist and kissed her forehead.
She frowned. "So, I got it right?" She poked his shoulder, "You're Xander?"
"I am," He laughed, pulling her closer to him and lowered his voice so she was the only human that could hear, "but if you would have kissed another man, I would have kicked you out of my house."
~*~
After the second embarrassing exercise, Reyna instructed them that the final step would be relaxation, which basically consisted of the partners giving each other 30-minute body massages and listening to soothing background music.
Xander's hands were so magical that Alexa almost drifted to sleep, but as soon as she began to doze off, the timer rang and it was his turn to receive the massage. Overall the experience was fun. She memorised most of Xander's scars and it had been the most intimate they had ever been.
She hoped that it wouldn't be the last and that they would certainly take it further than just teasing each other.
The thought of getting physical with Xander made her giddy but nervous. She wanted to have sexual intercourse with him, but she wasn't sure she was ready for kids. That was her purpose there – not to just have mind-blowing sex.
It tore her apart to think that maybe his actions towards her would stop once she gave in to him. She didn't want him to simply stop treating her nicely because she fulfilled her "purpose." Although he had stated plenty of times that he would care of her when she'd have his child.
But saying and doing something were two entirely different things.
For all she knew, he could've been trying to butter her up so that after she became pregnant he could show her his true colours. And that terrified her.
She was becoming attached to him faster than anyone else she had ever met. She just needed reassurance that allowing them to become sexually active wouldn't damage the nice-whatever they had.
Alexa sighed, glancing at Xander as he spoke to the general through a computer image that resembled a fancier and more high-tech version of Skype. He seemed nicer and more relaxed around her than when she had first gotten there; for obvious reasons, but that was different.
After she apologised things were still strange for both of them, but now it felt like they had known each other for their entire life and it frightened the sane side of her. She didn't want to fall for him and be rejected; her heart had gone through enough after Seth.
What she needed was stability and reassurance; Xander could give her that, but she didn't know if he would.
She tucked her legs under her, snuggling closer to the white couch and kept admiring him. The more she looked at him, the more she liked what she saw. He was so beautiful it sometimes hurt to watch, but she was willing to feel a little pain in order to ogle him.
His grin was one of her favourite things. It was so contagious and relaxed; it brightened up his face along with his hypnotising blue eyes. They resembled a mixture of the clear water of the ocean but with speckles of grey scattered around his eye.
Not even the greatest artists of time could capture his beauty - but then again she was biased. She was in total awe of him, not only for his physical attributes but for the way he treated her.
Even when she had been a horrible brat, he patiently waited for her to finally stop. Of course she didn't until the incident, but even then, he gave her another chance. If it had been anyone else, they would've kicked her out the door the minute she raised her voice.
But not him.
He was obviously otherworldly. Inhumanly intelligent, inhumanly sweet, inhumanly understanding, inhumanly beautiful, inhumanly caring; he was inhuman. And she loved it all.
Her gaze became teary at the terrifying realisation and she bit her bottom lip hard enough to draw blood. Her heart skipped a beat in her chest and butterflies began to soar in her stomach. She wasn't in love with Xander, it was too soon to tell, but she cared for him more than a friend.
She wouldn't mind spending the rest of her life with him.
"Hey," Xander walked towards the couch and sat down, "sorry. The General just wanted to go over some rules with the Lieutenants that were training the women."
"It's okay," she croaked, blinking away her tears and smiled at him.
He frowned, cradling her cheek in his hand and whispered, "Is something the matter?"
"No," she sniffled, "I just...thank you."
"For?"
Alexa shrugged and turned the TV off before turning to look at him and grabbed his hand to place it against her cheek again. She leaned her head on his shoulder and whispered, "For putting up with me. I know I wasn't the best partner in the beginning and I will still have my downfalls, but the fact that you're still here with me means a lot. I mean, yeah it might be because of the reason why I'm here, but still...you haven't kicked me to the curb yet."
He glanced down at her, even though she couldn't see and he said, "Do you believe that the only reason why I am putting up with you, as you so tactfully put it, is because of the need of lineage?"
"I mean...why else? I'm not exactly the best person in the world, you know."
"Neither am I," he deadpanned.
Alexa snorted. "Yeah, okay, try to tell that to any girl who has fantasised about book characters. You're practically a make-believe person to me – and not because you're an alien. You're sweet, compassionate, sexy as hell and every time I see you, I don't know if I want to jump your bones or stare at you in awe."
He narrowed his eyes, shaking his head and said, "Alexa, I am always reprimanding your men for treating your women so sexually, but you women do something similar. You make up a fantasy man in your head expecting him to have all of the qualities and when a guy that fits most of them comes your way, you ignore them because they do not look like the fantasy man in your head."
"I got mine," she muttered, feeling her cheeks turning bright red.
Xander chuckled and kissed the side of her head. "I am not saying that having a preferred type of physical trait is a bad thing, but sometimes some of your people take it to the extreme. One of our scientists was studying your people and he noted that it would be easy for the women to come with us because humans focused mostly on looks. It was not the case for us, but it was something that was bothering me."
"You think I only like you because of your looks?"
"I sure hope not," he sighed.
Alexa rolled her eyes, but tightened her hold around his bicep. "You being hot as hell is a plus, Xander. Your personality is freaking amazing to me. Seth is nothing compared to you, but I was in love with him. He wasn't the most attractive man on Earth, but I wanted to spend my life with him. Not everyone focuses on looks."
"I know," he kissed the top of her head, "I was just saying that if your people are going to fantasise over fictional characters, they should not make it harder for a person who is pursuing them if they do not look like that. They should have a balance of personality and looks."
She was quiet for a little bit and then whispered, "So why do you...like me?"
"Pardon?" He frowned.
"I mean; you say that liking someone should be a balance of it all. My personality is uglier than a deformed toe and I'm not exactly the prettiest one around. I'm not saying I'm ugly, because I'm not...but compared to Corah...I'm blegh."
"Compared to Corah?" Xander put a bit of distance between them so that he could stare into her eyes. "Alexa, compared to Corah nothing. You two are entirely different and if I were to compare you it would be an imbecile-move of my part. You are the most beautiful human I have seen. Yeah, you are stubborn and hard-headed and sometimes I wondered why in the world we were partnered up, but I thank any deity out there for your mistake."
"My mistake?" She raised her eyebrows.
"Filling out the survey?" Oh. She nodded. "If it were not for that, I would not have met you. Your personality at first was insufferable, but you changed and showed me, what I hope are, your true colours. I will not say I am in love with you because our perception of love is different. But I will tell you this, if I could go back in time and change meeting you; I would not. Ever since you came into my life, I see things differently. I do not think I will be able to live my life without you present and doing the little things that I have grown so used to."
"To be honest," she whispered, "I don't know what I feel for you; it's weird. I just know that I wouldn't mind spending the rest of my life with you. At all. I get butterflies when I see you and your smile makes me feel like a teenager in high school who talks to her crush for the first time, but to say I love you would be..." she sighed, "I just think it would be too soon."
Xander smiled at her and nodded, entwining their fingers together. "I just want you to know that whatever you were fearing when I was speaking to the General will not hurt you. As long as I am by your side, I will protect you with my life."
"I forgot you could pick up on my emotions," she muttered. Alexa cleared her throat and said, "I was just thinking about the six months. I've been here for five months and the sixth one is going to come sooner than I thought. My fear was...I didn't want you to change with me after I fulfilled my purpose or whatever. Like...after I got pregnant, I don't want you to change with me."
"Alexandra," he spoke softly and the way her name rolled of his tongue was sweeter than honey, "you have the option of the insemination or being sexually active with me. You do not need to fear me changing with you at all because I genuinely care for you," he lowered his voice, "sometimes I think I do more than I should."
"Ugh!" She groaned, "When you say things like that my emotions go all over the place and I want to cry and laugh and scream. You make me feel like a freaking teenager and I hate it, but I love it all at the same time. No matter how many times I freak out and act like a bitch, I will always care for you more than I should."
He grinned, pulling her into his chest for a warm hug and said, "I am glad we are in the same page."
She nodded, accommodating herself so that she was on his lap and whispered, "I don't want to have the sperm insemination."
Xander frowned. "I have no control over-"
Alexa interrupted him with a kiss. He continued frowning at her, but his face was more relaxed. She smiled at him, caressing his cheek with the palm of her hand and whispered, "I want us to make the baby."