Page 12 of Crash Landed: The Daranthiki

Despite his best efforts to maintain a proper amount of space between their bodies, she did not sufficiently respect the invisible boundaries between them. For hours her body had gradually slid back toward him despite his efforts to keep himself pressed firmly against the back of the escape-pod and it was doing things to his body that he was having increasing difficulty ignoring. Especially now. At some point she had slumped with exhaustion, and now she was lying against him, her brown hair brushing against his cheek and nose. It wasn’t as soft as that of Daranthiki, but the texture possessed a sleekness that he could not resist brushing his cheek against.

He should feel repulsed. She was crusted with blood in various stages of drying, but it was not disgust that was making his insides twist. Her bottom fit too perfectly between his thighs, and her small frame was tucked against him in a way that accentuated a suggestion of how well they might fit together despite the disparity between their sizes. Perhaps it was her scent that was doing it to him. Although scents of decayed matter and blood clung heavily to her, beneath it all, there was a light fragrance that captured his attention at inopportune times, teasing him as it played on his long-slumbering needs and desires.

Zil shifted her weight in a desperate bid for relief, only for Daisy’s bottom to slide at a more perfect angle to nestle against his crotch. His breath exploded from him, but he barely dared to breathe out of fear of startling her awake while in such a precarious position. He debated how he might wake her when suddenly her bottom rubbed in a slow grind against his thickening cock as she rolled to her side and curled up against him.

He froze though every bit of heat was drawing downward to that apex. Lust burned hot in his belly and was slowly growing despite his attempt to control it. Unfortunately, there was no way to get away from it. All he could do was remain as still as possible and try to ignore it as the stars seemed to remain unmoving and unchanging despite their current speed. If not for the star-chart marking their progress, he might have been convinced that they were merely drifting. The recalibrations did not last long. The map readjusted, locking onto a new planet. Planetary designation: Habtal.

Fifteen hours. Daisy, freshly awakened from cryostasis, would likely sleep throughout those hours as her body succumbed to its need for real rest. Zil would not be that fortunate. His kind required less sleep on average, and a legionnaire required even less than that.

He groaned as his head fell back against the headrest. He winced at the pain that promptly shot through his head in response. Another inferior adjustment in the pod’s design. He took note of it with the intention of lodging a complaint in the future with the Earth-based manufacturer. It was not anywhere near sufficiently padded. It was nothing more than thinly padded material stretched over metal.

In fact, every part of the seat felt uncustomarily hard and resistant beneath his big frame. He did not know which was worse: the risk of back pain or the rapidly growing pleasure that gathered at every connection point between himself and the female. Sighing, he attempted to shift his weight a little to make himself comfortable without causing any unnecessary friction between their bodies. It was nearly impossible. Even the most minor shift sent a surge of heat to his cock. As a cybernetic legionnaire, he was conditioned to withstand long sessions of torture—but never like this. He was molded by pain, not the agonizing build of pleasure unsated and unreleased.

The hours passed slowly as he focused on his breathing and willed himself to ignore the experiences of his flesh. His body and mind did not heed his commands. He was weak. This small, fragile female had momentarily made him weak.

Zil gritted his teeth. Despite his natural armor, his skin felt over-sensitized and hot, so that every shift of her body in her sleep sent tiny fissures of awareness through him. He closed his eyes in an attempt to focus on blocking it out, but that too failed. It persisted in growing until it was a background sensory haze that completely enveloped him. He breathed it in, his body thrumming with a steady pulse of desire. He almost failed to recognize the quiet growling groan that tripped to the same rhythm. He was not even aware that he was making any sound at all. It was all part of the current state of being.

He dwelled there in the heart of it, consumed by his primitive desire, his arms unwittingly tightening around the female nestled against him, until at last his consciousness surrendered to slumber.

Chapter 10

Daisy was very comfortable. Far more comfortable than she was the last time she woke. And she was mercifully warm. It was for that reason alone that she was reluctant to wake. She just wanted to stay right where she was, wrapped in warmth. She might have too if not for the annoying rhythmic ping that invaded her sleep. It dragged her out little by little and then hit her with a loud blast of an alarm that made her bolt upright, her eyes wide and unfocused as she groggily tried to pinpoint the cause of the disruption.

The illuminated star-chart projected on the display flashed angrily red with every siren, and she shifted forward, her elbows colliding with flesh as she hoisted herself forward. She ignored the grunt of pain that came from her companion when the side of her hip jostled a sensitive area. She frowned faintly, embarrassed and confused as to their proximity. Normally, she would apologize for invading his personal space and for the bodily abuse, but a louder alarm caught her attention as the viewscreen in front of them lit up as well. Tongue glued to the roof of her mouth, she stared at the planet-surface filling the viewscreen in front of her, actually seeing it for the first time.

“Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck,” she whispered, and she abruptly turned, inadvertently jabbing her knee high against the inside of his thigh.

The Daranthiki’s large hand encompassed her thigh, the heat of it momentarily distracting her. She blinked down at it for a moment before lifting her gaze to the large male’s disgruntled face as he stared down at her like someone who desperately wanted to kill an annoying insect bothering them.

“What are you—” he growled, but Daisy didn’t give him a chance to finish his question.

She jabbed a finger at the screen, her eyes wide as she met his gaze fearfully. “Scary as you are at this moment, can it. We have a big fucking problem.”

The male frowned at her, half-puzzled and half-annoyed, but his gaze focused first on the viewscreen and then on the star-chart with growing concern. Baring his sharp teeth, his hands closed around her waist and plucked her up as easily as a rag doll and moved her forward so that he could lean in and get a better look at the readings on the panel.

“How did this happen? Even with the recalibrations, we have exhausted our oxygen supply and most of our fuel.” He gave her an accusative stare, but she scowled as she lifted her hands in frustration.

“Don’t ask me. You were the one who arranged cuddle time while I was sleeping instead of paying attention to our safety. Isn’t this what I am paying you for?” she demanded.

“I did not arrange ‘cuddle time,’” he snapped. “You plastered yourself against me, making it impossible to move. Naturally, with you giving off the warmth of a fur-bearing vilpin in heat, I was coaxed to sleep. This should not have happened. The AI had completely recalibrated our trajectory to compensate for human construction practices long before I found my rest.”

“Okay, that’s fair,” she mumbled as she squinted at the panel and studied it. It was crusted with filth that she hadn’t even initially noticed. Like everything about the ship, it looked run-down and likely hadn’t seen the inside of a maintenance hangar in years. She sighed. “Given the questionable condition of the ship, my guess would be that they never bothered with even the most basic maintenance on this thing. With our luck, we’ve probably been leaking oxygen and fuel into space for a while now while we were sleeping.”

Zil studied the instruments for a long moment as his hand moved over the surface of the control panel—not really doing anything as far as she could tell except that she could see bits of data moving over his glowing eyes until he finally closed them and settled back against the seat before looking at her again. When he opened his eyes, they were clear and normal again as he regarded her.

“You are right. When we left the ship, the pod had recorded minor equipment malfunctions. They did not appear to be pressing, and we were not in a position to be selective,” he reminded her. “But it seems that a component has now broken off, puncturing the containment area for the fuel and oxygen. It also crippled our auto-landing drive.”

Daisy paled. “What the fuck does that mean?”

His mouth pulled into a grim line. “It means that I am going to have to bring us in manually. And I will need to do so quickly while we still have the resources necessary to get us there.”

A cold weight settled in her gut as she studied him. “Can you do it?” she whispered.

“I have done so... in simulation,” he admitted. Her confidence withered. “I only crashed a third of the time,” he added.

“We’re going to die.”

“We are not,” Zil replied stiffly. “I am uplinked to the pod to maximize my fine control over it. It is just a matter of getting the descent right—”