AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The more I tried to stop wondering about what his big, ridged cock felt like, the more I wanted to know. And it wasn’t guilt or sympathy behind my curiosity. If I had sex with him, it wouldn’t be a pity fuck or even to save his life. It would be to claim him as mine.
“We just ate a groundrunner,” he said. “Good eating but dangerous. A pack of them were stalking us. I killed one to discourage the rest.” He paused then, blinking at me, and I realized I was staring at him. “What is it?” he asked quietly.
“Everything,” I said. “It’s all just a lot to take in.” But that wasn’t it at all.
As we buried the fire and set back out onto the road, that little kernel of heat in my core just wouldn’t go away. He knew how to be respectful and not creepy or possessive, but without my even knowing him or him demanding my submission, he was ride or die for me.
When was the last time I’d had someone this into me or who’d left me almost wanting to be caught?
Why not try him?
The idea kept nagging at me as we rode, leaving me restless, horny, and distracted. But at least it kept me from thinking about never seeing home again.
Riding in the afternoon heat was harder. The dampness made the sweat drip from us while doing nothing to cool us down. I wondered how the hell anyone ever got used to this—a sauna during the day, damn near freezing at night.
“Is the weather like this year-round?” I asked. “I’m not used to these big temperature swings.”
“The moisture never goes away, and it does not grow cold enough for ice in this region. But we are in just the beginning of the fertile season, so it will grow warmer at night eventually.”
“And during the day?” Maybe the whole place would wither away in high summer, becoming a desert of dead plants and hungry monsters.
“Warm fog. Rain. Many thunderstorms. They come in from the seas.” He frowned slightly. “But I forget, you have not seen our world from orbit. Our seas are vaster than your own on Earth. At least that’s what I’ve read about your planet.”
I was about to ask him another question when a rustling in the bushes nearby caught my attention. I swung around to look that way, grabbing for one of my blasters just as Chaser changed direction a little, sending me sliding out of the saddle. Naxer caught me at once, two hands steadying me while the other reached for his own blasters.
“You heard that too,” he said, voice low.
“Yeah.” One of his hands gripped my shoulder, the other my hip. They were big and warm and slid over my skin where the torn collar of my borrowed shirt gaped. And despite my watchfulness and the briefness of the contact, I came away out of breath and with my nipples so tight they hurt.
My thoughts flashed to waking up in his arms and how comforting it had felt. I could have hidden completely in the circle of his arms, and I suddenly, keenly, wanted to feel that again.
Maybe it was the isolation together or his determination to play the part of the perfect mate, from wound-binding to cooking lunch. Or maybe it was the way his attention stayed on me, not smothering or creepy but always aware of me, always listening. Or maybe it was that the wilderness seemed ready to throw something else nasty at us, and my adrenaline was keying me up. I suspected a combination of all these things.
We reached a break in the trees where a small, wet meadow spread in the sunlight, purple-and-gold-striped grasses waving in the breeze. It was pretty, but my eyes narrowed as I saw dark, rounded shapes moving in the grassland toward us.
My body tensed, ready for battle.
If we survived whatever new hell was now rustling in the underbrush and all around us, I knew I wanted him. Maybe not forever, but definitely for right now.
We stood together, trying to track the sounds, knowing that whatever was doing this had already surrounded us. I watched the meadow, certain that most of our stalkers were coming from that side.
“Any ideas?” I asked.
Naxer drew another blaster and his long machete. “The groundrunners. I can smell them. They must have been part of a larger pack.”
My eyebrows shot up as I struggled to aim at one of the fleeting shapes. “They went for reinforcements?”
“It appears so.”
“Fabulous.” Groundrunners were interesting. Smart, hunted in packs, apparently evil, and tasty too. “At least we’ll get dinner out of it.”
He didn’t have time to do more than chuckle before the first of them broke cover and dashed at us. They were all about turkey-sized but a lot scarier with long, muscular necks and huge hooked beaks. They ran on their rear two legs, taloned wings flapping and their top sets of claws and gaping jaws reaching for us greedily.
I opened fire. I had shot men before. Carnivorous space turkeys were no goddamn problem.
Naxer stood like a wall on my other side as I shot down everything coming at us from the meadow. Every once in a while, one would dodge the blaster fire well enough to get in biting range, and Naxer would swing his blade at it with a grunt. On my side, Chaser snarled and lunged, shaking the bird until it hung like a limp rag and then dropping it.
“Where the hell did they all come from?” There had to be dozens of them, and more kept coming as we shot them down. The repetitive thuds of the blasters hurt my head. The air smelled of ozone, blood, and bird shit.
