This was different. More intense than she’d ever imagined, as if she could feel a hint of his sensations as well as her own as they rode wave after wave of orgasmic bliss until they simply couldn’t anymore.
Maria slumped over, her body a wet noodle of delight. She felt strong hands grab her fast and hard.
“What?” she mumbled, her senses still fuzzy.
She opened her eyes and realized Zepharos had caught her before she accidentally rolled off the hammock. She chuckled and kissed his neck.
“I guess we’ll need to work a bit more on how to do it in a hammock.”
He kissed the top of her head, holding her close. “I will gladly partake in your experiments as many times as you desire.”
“I desire a lot.”
“As do I.”
“I know,” she said, happy and safe in his arms.
Her runes were positively buzzing, her entire body awash in sensation. It was as if this epic orgasm had flipped a switch, and somehow all of them were fully functional in an instant. The sensation was almost overwhelming. Whatever that enhancing water they had both imbibed had done to her, she was very much enjoying the results.
Had she had her wits about her, she might have noticed the faint glow emanating from the rune on her chest. Her Infala, completed, healed, and, apparently, awakening.
And as she lay there in Zepharos’s arms, he too felt a twinge in his own Infala. Just a hint, the slightest sensation, but perhaps his Infala, so recently hurt and left cold, had not gone silent after all.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The morning started with a bang. Or rather a thud as Maria finally managed to roll out of the hammock. Even half-asleep, Zepharos had nearly caught her, but her arm slipped from his hand as she fell, resulting in her tumbling the remaining distance to the ground.
Fortunately, the forest floor was soft and loamy. Also, his efforts had slowed her fall considerably. As a result, Maria merely got the wind knocked out of her, and only for a moment at that. Zepharos, however, leapt from the hammock to the ground, ready to administer whatever aid was needed.
“I’m okay,” she croaked, painfully sucking in a breath. “Just give me a minute.”
“I should have put up more lines along the sides. Stupid, Zepharos. Stupid, stupid, stu?—”
“Stop beating yourself up. Accidents happen, and we were both far too tired after we finished to be bothered running safety ropes.”
“Still, you are my responsibility.”
“And I’m not a child,” she said, climbing to her feet and brushing herself off.
The two Llamalians pushed their way through the bushes where they’d been grazing and came trotting over to see what the commotion was, sniffing and licking the fallen woman. It seemed even the animals were making sure she was okay.
“Thanks, guys, but I’m fine,’ she said, scratching their heads. “They really do like people, don’t they?”
“They do. The beast of burden aspect is only part of their purpose. Most of the time they are more like pets than anything else. We rarely need them for anything more than a little help in the fields. This is an adventure for them as well.”
She chuckled, rolling her neck and making sure she hadn’t hurt anything now that the adrenaline was wearing off and she could better feel her body.
Nope. All good, she was glad to find. And with her new runes waking up, even the little aches she would have normally felt from the impact seemed to be diminished.I could get used to this, she mused, her mind flashing back to the mind-blowing orgasms of the night before.I could definitely get used to this.
They had a relaxing breakfast then packed up their gear and led the animals on a path that kept them in the trees for a long time.
“Better to help us avoid visual trackers,” Zepharos noted. “We’ll be hitting some open areas soon, but when we do, we’ll stick to the tall grass areas. It’ll help us avoid being seen in daylight when our body heat won’t give us away. We’re still in the periphery of the mineral-rich terrain, so that will help as well, and to most scans we should look like any of the other larger animals and predators, but we’ll need to be in the trees at night for proper cover.”
“Wait a minute.Predators?”
“Don’t worry. They mostly come at night.”
“Mostly?”
