Cushions were provided for sitting, as well as a table, a low couch, and a few chairs. The bed was on a knee-high platform and was piled with fluffy bedding, the duvet colorful and warm. There was also a bathing system piped into the building with both warm and cold water. For what seemed like a primitive village at first glance, it was far more comfortable than one might have expected. Shalia guessed that while they seemed to eschew technology openly, the Oraku people still utilized it behind the scenes.
She had just settled down on her couch when there was a knock on her door.
“Come in.”
The formerly shirtless man she’d seen sent off to do Rohanna’s bidding opened the door and stood in the doorway a moment, tall, imposing, and, she noted, now wearing a light tunic, albeitone that barely covered his impressive physique. A cocksure womanizer, this one, Rohanna had noted, but there was an odd, hurt look in his eye. Whatever had gone down with his supposed mate had taken him down a peg or two, it seemed.
“May I enter?” he asked.
“I said come in. No need to ask twice.”
“I merely wished to be certain of your consent,” he replied with a lingering hint of hesitation.
There really was an oddness to him. He was clearly checking her out—there was no way the man could conceal his glances, no matter how quick and covert they might have been. But he was also holding back, almost like a dog who’d been hit with a rolled-up newspaper might shy away from a person’s hand until it got to know them better. Whatever had happened to him, it had made an impression.
He carried a pair of bottles in his hands. “The Flummix lotion,” he said, placing it on her table.
“Thanks. What was your name, again?”
“Zepharos.”
“Right. I’m Shalia.”
“Yes, I heard.”
“So, this stuff helps with sunburn?”
“I have never suffered a burning from the sun, but that is its purpose, and it is supposed to work wonders for those in need of it.”
“Great. My skin’s itching like hell,” she said, pouring a dollop onto her hand and rubbing it on her arm. “Oh, that feels fantastic. It already knocked the discomfort down by like fifty percent.”
“A good sign, but it will take time to properly heal your skin. The pain is just the symptom of the problem.”
Shalia spread the lotion on her other arm and immediately felt the soothing effect set in. She quickly began applying it to her neck and shoulders as well, those areas having taken the most abuse from the sun even through her thin shirt.
“Hey, would you mind doing my back?” she asked.
She noticed the clear outline of his cock twitch in his trousers in spite of himself. “I-I really do not know if?—”
“Come on, it’ll just take a minute,” she cut him off, turning her back and pulling off her top, then laying face-down on her couch. “Please. I can’t reach it. You’d really be helping me out.”
Zepharos’s mind may have been saying one thing, but his body was saying quite another. She could see him growing harder as he looked at her exposed skin. Still, he held back. Rohanna clearly had quite a firm grip on running things around here and Shalia felt utterly safe in the Oraku village. And as the older woman had given Zepharos instructions to bring the lotion to their guest, she knew he would treat her with the utmost respect, regardless of his reputation.
This was new for her. She didn’t normally toy with men like this, but since being taken captive by the Dohrags and subjected to their testosterone-fueled dominating ways, she had bounced back hard the other way, relishing her freedom and the allure she held to the men she encountered. She was a human. Something they hadn’t seen before. Yes, they were all a novelty to her, but she was so much more to them. And while she had enjoyed her tryst with Kuxx, that had been a mutual thing. A rejoicing in regained freedom by two consenting former prisoners.
This? She was just casually flexing that newfound power.
“Come here,” she said, sitting up and taking his hand, pulling him closer, exposing what she knew was a nice view of side-boob in the process. All men reacted the same to that sort of thing, and this one was no different.
He stepped forward, his cock jumping slightly behind the fabric. “I-I will help as best I can.”
“Excellent. I really appreciate it.” She lay down flat, resting her head turned to the side on a soft pillow. She was staring right at his crotch.
The alien poured lotion in his hands and rubbed them together, warming it a bit, then gently began applying it to her upper back and shoulders.
“Oh, yeah. That’s the stuff,” she said, groaning slightly.
“That is not too hard?”
