by Ivy McAdams
“I have to gather us some wood for a fire before it gets completely dark, or we’ll freeze tonight.”
She makes no move to slip away from me. “Is it going to be cold tonight?”
“Every night,” I murmur, moving my thumb over her lower lip, moist from our kiss.
Her big blue eyes twinkle. “Then hurry back and keep me warm.”
It’s barely a whisper, but it stirs a new fire beneath my skin.
A flame of attraction that has me hesitating, wanting to wrap up in her again. But the sun has already fallen behind the ridge and cool air is blowing.
The fire must come first.
I give her a flirty growl and retreat. There’s a group of trees nearby and I stalk over to them in search of kindling and dry wood.
I’ve never gathered supplies so fast in my life.
Chapter 11
Xjhun
My hands shake as I pile the sticks in my firepit in record time. Once the first orange sparks are flickering, I cast my eyes over at Trinity. She watches me from the ground across the growing fire with a smile that has me instantly hard and aching for her.
I’m on my feet in an instant, moving around the pit to her side.
Her gaze jumps to the fire once, then back up at me. “So skilled with your hands.”
The way her eyes narrow just a fraction is enough to turn my blood to fire. I reach for her and before I can snag her arms, she stands for me. I pull her against my chest, my fingers flexing into her biceps as I breathe her in.
“You don’t know that half of it yet,” I murmur, relishing in the excited wave of energy pulsing from her body.
There’s a flash of intrigue in her eye as she wraps her arms around me, and I slide my hands down the warm skin of her back. So smooth, like the silkiest buttered hide on my fingers. I can smell her arousal as much as I can feel it, and my cock leaps to attention.
I kiss her. Hard. Even I, an experienced warrior of the proud Kutarian people, can no longer keep myself in check around her. She brings out every warm feeling I’ve ever had, and I want to give it back.
Her mouth is so hot and soft. I twist to reach more of it, wrapping my arms around her back with enough strength to lift her from the ground. She clings to me as I lower her into the grass, covering her body with mine as I search out her tongue.
I don’t know what’s so intoxicating about this woman, but I feel as if I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to get enough.
My hand slides to her hip, loosening the tie of her skirt. It releases surprisingly easy and sends a new jolt of arousal through me. Before I can reach for anything more, she’s pushing on me.
For a moment, I think she wants me to stop, but she simply rolls me to my back and runs a hand tauntingly down the length of my abdomen. The view from down on the ground is superb so I shut my mouth and smile up at her.
She leans over and presses her lips to the muscles just over my navel and my stomach does a flip. I fight off the shiver that tries to take over my body and run a hand over her soft black hair.
Then she lifts and gazes at me with those long eyelashes. "It's not just your cock that's fierce, is it?"
A lump of excitement lodges in my throat and my heart beats double time.
This time when she runs her hands down the center of my abs, she uses some of her fingernails. It tickles and bites in some places, enough to draw a moan from my chest.
Her hand slides down underneath the flap of my loincloth and she palms the bulge of leather beneath. My moan deepens.
“I knew you’d be ready for me,” she whispers as she tugs at the cloth.
“Are you kidding? You smell like a Beauty in Paradise flower. I can’t resist you,” I growl as I move a hand down to untie the leather around my waist to shuck the cloth off.
She’s faster than me though, digging in and throwing the garment aside. Her hands are on me in an instant. Like she has a hunger for me that she’s been unable to fulfill.
And I want to give it to her until she can’t walk away.
I expect her to move her fingers on me, stroking down the length of my cock until I can’t stand it, but she’s a surprising little woman. With a hint of a smile, she lowers her head and catches the tip in her lips. My body jerks as her hot mouth slides over me.
A low groan escapes me and I arch my back to give her more of my length.
Her lips hum over my aching flesh as she matches my sound, her energy blossoming with arousal that I could bathe in for eternity as her tongue swirls and pulls. Everything about her mouth is killing me and I will enjoy dying a proud warrior in the field with his woman. Nothing is more perfect than her reaching up for me, her fingers sliding through mine when she finds my hand, and the fiery pull in my groin as she works magic on my body.
It reacts enthusiastically, spurring leap after leap of pleasure through me. My free hand finds her shoulder to caress her skin. I wish I could wrap her in my arms, hold her close and rub my face on hers, but I dare not move her.
Not yet.
I’m so close already.
But this isn’t how I want to end. I want to feel the wet warmth of her pussy clenched around me. I want her to shudder against my cock as I drive her into an orgasm that she’ll never forget.
My fingers bury into her hair, clenching tight. “My moon,” I growl, easing her from my body.
When she doesn't let go right away, I'm afraid I won't survive her mouth. Her eyes move up to mine and for a moment I'm hypnotized. The orange firelight plays across her face and her beautiful lips wrapped around me. A deep rumbling sound echoes in my chest as the fire rages, spreading, catching like every inch of me is packed full with dry tinder. The muscles in my core and deep in my groin gather and squeeze tight.
When she lets me go, it’s all I can do not to flip her and plunge in.
* * *
Trinity
The sound that comes out of Xjhun just before he slides a hand behind my neck to pull me to him is exquisite, sending even more hot moisture between my legs.
Oh hell, he is so fucking sexy.
My lady parts are buzzing. They ache for him.
But I couldn’t resist tasting him.
His eyes are hooded and clouded when they lock on me. He rubs his nose on mine, and his voice comes out a breathy whisper.
“Your turn.”
Then he adjusts me to his side in the grass and gives me a wolfish grin.
My insides melt, pooling between my legs. So hot.
He kisses me with a wild abandon I can taste and feel like crashing waves in his energy. His tongue probes my mouth and moves with mine until I sigh against his lips. Down below, he runs a hand over my hip and between my legs. His fingers slide between my slick folds, teasing and touching until I squirm.
But he doesn’t intend to let me wiggle free.
His arm around me is strong, holding me near as he slips a finger inside me. A throaty sound of appreciation tickles up through me. I rock my hips into his hand.
I want more. All of him. The way he touches me and his energy sings to me. I’ll never get enough of him.
When his thumb presses against my clit, I gasp against his lips. He rumbles in response.
Oh my God. This man. My warrior.
The heat and gathered pressure in my abdomen builds and rushes at a rate that surprises me. His finger moves within me, touching that sweet spot inside that feels so damn good. It doesn’t hit quite like his ridges, but it still makes my hips jerk.
He kisses me deeper as he works my body, searching and thrusting with his finger, torturing with his thumb. Heat sizzles over my skin as an electric current of fire ripples through my body, seizing my muscles up tight. I cry out with release against his mouth as his fingers destroy me.
He slides his hand free from my body and gazes down at me with the hottest eyes I’ve ever seen.
“You are so beautiful when you let go,” he groans.
Then he lifts up and positions himself over me, slipping
his long, hot cock between my legs. I move my hips up to beg for more.
When that amazing ridged shaft sinks deep into my already quivering pussy, I am lost. My warrior takes me beyond any reality I’ve ever experienced. Heaven, stars, and galaxies far far away have nothing on where he pushes me.
My heart throbs as hard as any part of my body, and I want to tell him what he means to me. How he fills my soul just as well as he fills my body. I feel complete.
Before I can utter a word, however, he rocks me right into oblivion. My insides explode and plunge back down into the crashing waves of ecstasy, even harder this time with his ridges hitting all the right spots.
Just as I clench around him, Xjhun's body hardens and he roars his own breathtaking release. We cling to each other, drowning one another in the mind-shattering colors and sensations of two perfectly matched energies crashing together.
I’m so amazingly spent once my body cools down that I fall asleep cradled against his chest.
Chapter 12
Trinity
Something tickles along my hip and even in a deep, contented sleep, it makes me smile. We can’t keep our hands off each other even while unconscious, and the thought warms my heart.
I’ve never been so comfortable with someone in my life. Safe and open. I already can’t wait to roll over and wrap my arms around him again.
Though he’s beat me to it this time. The tickling sensation slides over my hip, leaving light scratches in my skin.
My eyes flutter open with a frown and I glance down my body.
A large beetle-looking insect with fan-like ears on its head and a long, thin tail curling along my skin sits on my hip. When we lock eyes, it opens its wide unhinged jaw with a hiss.
I scream and throw my hand at the buggy beast as I scramble off the ground. The back of my knuckles connect with its disgusting face and I snatch my hand back, but not before it knocks the thing cartwheeling into the grass.
I’m clear on the other side of the glowing embers where our fire had been before I chance a peek behind me. The weird-ass bug skitters across the ground and into the trees. Xjhun’s long naked body leaps for me, at my side in barely a breath.
“What happened?” he chokes. “Are you okay?”
“A damn bug the size of a house cat was sitting on me!”
A shudder courses through me as I try to shake the horrible image from my brain.
“It’s gone now,” he says with a reassuring hand on my back. “Just a grass flea.”
“A flea? As big as my head?”
I grimace, hugging my arms around myself. Tiny bugs on Earth are nasty. The pests around here are like Godzilla-sized.
“They likely won’t bother you. You’re too small.” He gives me a lopsided smile.
And since when am I too small for anything in this giant body?
“How is it possible to have flea that big? What do they―?”
I catch myself mid-sentence. What a stupid question. I know exactly what they eat.
There’s plenty of larger than life creatures here. Colossal dinosaurs and the big spindly aliens that tried to eat me before. They’re all big enough to get chomped on by giant fleas.
I gag at the thought.
"There's a lot of fucked-up stuff on this planet," I murmur.
Xjhun eases his way around me, sliding his hands down my arms to hook my elbows and pull me a step closer.
“There is beauty here. You have seen it.”
His eyes may be the most sincere I’ve ever seen them and it takes less than a heartbeat for them to draw me in.
“I know there is,” I whisper.
And I’m looking at the best of it.
Although the firefly dinosaurs and lovely trees come in a close second.
“Besides.” Xjhun lifts a hand to palm my face, his thumb running gently along my cheek. “Life shouldn’t be about the things on the outside. It’s all about what’s on the inside that makes life worth living.”
“Unless the things on the outside want to eat you,” I murmur.
A smile spreads over his face and he pulls me in to press a kiss to my forehead.
“I won’t let anything eat you, my moon. Nothing besides me anyway.”
I open my mouth to look at him with a surprised, though amused, expression. When I make to jab his ribs, he dodges and laughs.
His arms around me tighten and he lifts my feet from the ground. I squeal and kick about in a fit of giggles, trying to get free. Even though I love being in his arms. It’s safe. Exciting. Intoxicating.
Perfect.
He wrangles me back over to the trampled spot in the grass where we slept. He leans as if he’ll deposit me on the ground, but I wiggle to the side enough to hook one of my feet behind his leg and pull it out from under him. We both go down like rocks in a mix of limbs and laughter.
His chest still rumbles in amusement when he pulls me to him and wraps me against his body. Playing Xjhun’s little spoon is the best feeling in the world.
Or universe, actually. Now that I know that’s a thing.
No matter where, I know one thing’s for sure.
I'm falling in love with him.
Even as the thought moves through my brain, my muscles flinch.
Did I just go there?
In love with an alien on another planet? Really?
I couldn’t even make it work with a dude from Earth that’s the same species as me. What the hell am I thinking?
Even while Xjhun’s arms are locked tight around me, warming me in the best way, my insides are starting to feel a little icy.
I’ve done this whole in love thing before. It ended in the most awful way. I was crushed. Depressed. Two years later and I can still hear Andrew’s voice. His dry, dismissive words when he declared we were no longer working out as a couple.
Or at least I could hear it. It’s a little muted now. The words are more in my voice than his. I may not recall his exact wording anymore.
But, either way, he did it. He fucking ended it out of the blue.
Even though we’d been living together for a year. I’d celebrated the holidays at his parents’ house. Everything was fine. Normal.
And then it wasn’t.
How long will Xjhun keep me around before things turn upside down?
A month? A year?
He says his people mate for life, but how long do they court? Andrew and I dated for years and I always thought he’d propose. But the day never came.
I nibble at my bottom lip as I pull Xjhun’s arm tighter under my chin. Drawing in a long breath, I try to calm the tremble in my heart.
A trickle of anxiety spreads through my chest, because if something happens to Xjhun and me, then it won't just be my heart that's in danger. I'll be stuck on this planet forever, with only Xjhun look-alikes and fake Kutarian human women to keep me company. Isolated from any other possibilities in life.
If I don’t get back into my human body, I could be stuck here and miserable until I die.
* * *
A long, low cry wakes me in the morning. It’s a continuous droning, somewhere in the far distance.
I frown as I sit up, squinting against the mid-morning sun that’s already crested the mountain tops. I expected to wake at dawn. What happened?
And what is that horrible noise?
It’s an awful inorganic wail, something not from around here. It doesn’t belong, and it’s hurting my head.
I pinch my fingers into the bridge of my nose to alleviate some of the tension.
The realization hits me in one stuttering breath.
It doesn’t belong because it’s not from around here. It’s man-made.
An alarm at the NASA base is blaring. We're miles away but I can still hear it screaming into the air with a wild abandon.
Welcome to waking up to god-awful car alarms, Xion V.
But if there’s an alarm going off on base, that means something is happening there. Something’s been triggered. Could there be other
people there?
I jump to my feet with adrenaline pumping. I have to get back.
There’s still at least four days of oxygen left in the biodome. I can go back out for supplies again. But I can’t miss whoever might be there.
I spin around to tell Xjhun that we have to move, only to find him missing.
Another adrenaline spike hits me as my heart drops into my stomach.
Where’s he gone?
I turn in a circle, looking in all directions of the field, but he’s nowhere in sight.
My hand presses to the hammering pulse in my chest as I slow to a stop.
He’s left me.
My lungs turn to ice as one of my worst fears comes back to life.
The alarm in the distance doesn’t help my fluttering nerves.
Now I do feel like I’m back on Earth. Sirens blaring and a sudden violent need to have my loved ones close to me. To feel whole.
But Xjhun’s become an integral part of me. And he’s not there.
In the utter confusion in my head, I push forward to the only truth I know right now.
The alarm.
So I throw my makeshift clothes back on and I run.
I don’t have to know what direction I’m moving in all that well to get there. I can hear the alarm through the trees and across the plains. I just point my feet in that direction.
I run for what feels like a couple miles before I duck into a small purple tree grove to catch my breath. I’m panting enough that it’s difficult to hear the alarm anymore. As I slow down and lean a hand against a tree, however, I realize it isn’t my breath that’s covered up the sound of the alarm.
It’s stopped.
“No, no,” I mutter, eyes widening. “Don’t go away.”
But there’s nothing.
Just a soft breeze and the subtle shift of leaves in the trees. And an odd smell.
I’ve just turned my head when I catch movement. My imagination runs wild with panic as I leap away.
What's there isn't much better than my nightmare.
Desian peers around the trunk of a small tree. He blades his huge body behind it as if I can’t see him back there.