Page 122 of The Hunter

Sophia chuckled. “I’m glad I brought the water.”

“Seriously, thank you,” Lacey breathed as she set the empty cup down.

“There’s food out there too, if you’re hungry.”

“I am, but I…I still need a moment.”

“I get it.”

Lacey gestured to the spare cushions on the floor that she and Telok hadn’t slept on. “Want to sit?”

“Sure!”

They lowered themselves onto the cushions, Lacey taking it a little slower and more delicately due to the delicious aches in her body and the soreness of her sex.

Sophia glanced toward the entrance. “I actually wasn’t the only one wanting to check up on you.”

Lacey arched a brow. “Who else?”

“Cole,” Sophia said with a smile. “He was trying to play it off, but he was worried about your mental state. When he saw that you weren’t with Telok, he asked if I could come check on you. He said he would have himself, but he didn’t want to make you uncomfortable after, well…you know.”

Heat flooded Lacey’s face and chest, but she was touched to know that Cole had been so thoughtful. “He can be a bit irritating sometimes, but he’s a good guy.”

Sophia looked down at her lap, where her fingers picked at the hem of her dress. “I like him. Like, really, really like him. After all this time, I never thought I’d see another human being again, then you guys suddenly showed up. And when I saw him… It was like butterflies spreading through my whole body.”

Lacey smiled. “Cole’s a pretty good-looking guy.”

“Good looking?” Sophia scoffed playfully as she brought her gaze back up to Lacey. “That man is fucking fine. He also has magic fingers and a god-like tongue. God, the orgasms he gave me last night…”

Scrunching her face, Lacey poked a finger at the other woman. “That is way too much information.”

Sophia laughed. “Sorry. I went from being celibate for years to having one of the best nights of my life last night… It’s just nice being able to talk to someone like this again, you know?”

Whatever tension and anxiety had taken root in Lacey bled away. Sophia was treating Lacey as though they’d been friends for years. Since the moment the woman had arrived, there’d been no judgment in her eyes, no mockery, no disgust. She was simply a person desperate to make a connection with someone who’d shared her experiences, someone who would understand the references if she mentioned Earth things. Someone who’d also awoken on an unfamiliar planet inhabited by aliens.

Though Lacey had been justified in her embarrassment, she shouldn’t have allowed herself to spiral. Shouldn’t have let her insecurities and shitty self-perception entrap her.

And Telok… The way he looked at her and touched her…

He makes me feel beautiful.

Things were different here. The world was different, the people were different.

Even Lacey was different.

She was a better version of herself here. Happier, freer than she’d ever been. The people who had hurt her were long dead, their voices forever silenced. She didn’t need to care about what anyone else thought of her. She’d gone through hell on Earth, had survived a ship crash, survived the Tangle, and survived a deadly vrix queen.

Now she’d survived a beastie attack while a knotted cock tickled her cervix with feathery tendrils.

I’m a God damn badass.

“It’s okay,” Lacey replied with a smile, trying to keep herself from laughing at her own thoughts. “I don’t mind. It was just way more than I needed to know about Cole.”

“I understand,” Sophia chuckled. “I promise to keep the raunchy details about him to myself.”

“Much obliged. So, without getting too detailed…what did the two of you do last night?”

“Talked mainly. Got to know each other a little more. I love how driven and passionate he is, and how much he makes me laugh. He’s just so funny. We, uh, didn’t have intercourse, but we did other things. Anyway, sometime while I slept, he whittled me this adorable little larkhet. I woke up in his arms this morning, and he was so shy when he gave it to me.”