“I’m also not getting into water that hot; I’d go into shock. We need to raise my core temperature a little more slowly.” Her words were landing in my brain as if everythingwere covered by a haze—the haze of mating lust. I should get out of this room, leave her to it, so I wouldn’t tempt myself even further. There was not a force on Serant that could make me move, though. Unless it was toward her, into her embrace. The spell she’d cast on me was simply too strong.
“There are other pools,” I said vaguely, and I gestured with a hand. Some of them had steam curling in white tendrils from their surface, but others did not. She looked where I pointed, her expression growing tight. Then she hobbled out from under the coil of my tail toward the next one in awkward steps.
I did not like that. Not only was it the first time since we’d met that she had stopped touching me, but it was obvious she was in pain. My sigils had only just begun to die out when I lunged forward and snatched her back into my arms. She yelped, her breasts jiggled, and spilled more from the pale pastel fabric that held them. She glared at me again, but she said nothing as I carried her from pool to pool and let her test the temperature until she found the right one.
Only then did I put her down, and, with a loop of my tail around her middle, held her upright. At her insistence, I begrudgingly turned around while she took off her ‘pants’ and waded into the water. I did not see why that would matter, as I was going to follow her in anyway—something she realized when I took off my pack, laid down my spear, and shrugged out of my tunic.
“No,” she said. “Geez, Khawla, you’ve got no chill, do you? Kissing on the first meeting, leaping into a bath with a girl minutes after. Is that’s normal for you guys? Do you bathe with all the Naga girls?” I still had my back to her, but I could easily picture the frown and the sharpness in her gaze. It made me smile, which was a surprise. I couldn’t recall the last time I’d smiled so freely. Not since Kusha’s death, but probably much longer before that. There hadn’t been much to smile about.
There was splashing and a sharp inhale, my tail hit the warm water where I still held her around the middle. I refused to let go, and thankfully, she did not protest that part. I waited until I was certain she had submerged herself to her neck before I turned to look, shocked by how desperate I was to see her pale skin, wet and bare. Pressing a fist to the slit for my cock, I urged the unruly member to stay hidden, and then I slid into the pool with her. She had already accused me of bathing with her; I might as well make that the truth.
“Am I your captive? Or are we friends? Do you know a Naga with white scales? He rescued my friend Nala.” Jolene’s voice was much calmer now that she was in the warm water, floating in its gentle heat. I slipped closer to her, watching her face as she tilted her head back and let herself drift. She had her eyes closed, and that told me that she already knew—deep down—that she could trust me.
“Allies, friends,” I said, not once forgetting that she’d already used her sharp tongue to call me “friend” when she didn’t mean it. “You can trust me.” That was, of course, exactly what someone untrustworthy would also say, so I held my breath and waited to see if she’d make a comment, fighting with my impulses not to seek out more of her body beneath the water. My tail around her waist was already such a temptation. Just a little slide, and I could touch the tempting curves of her breasts, or I could go low and seek out the heat between her thighs.
She was quiet, though, and I checked her face again to make sure she was all right. Had she fallen asleep or gone into shock like she’d warned about if the water was too hot? I reached out and found her wrist with my fingers, curling my thumb over the pulse there. It was steady, calm—though much faster than my own—but that was no surprise. She was, after all, much smaller than I was. She was prey, while I was all predator.
Her lashes fluttered, then lifted to look at me, a soft smile gracing her mouth—wholly unlike a Naga female. Her lips were pink again, and I wondered if their colorwasan indication of her inner temperature. She remained silent, but there was none of that sass or sharpness to her expression. She looked… happy.
I wanted to keep her that way. The urge to please her was a powerful one, so I found myself gruffly explaining more. “Yes, Artek is our shaman, he is the white Naga you saw rescue Nala. Nala lives with him and gave birth to her daughter, Erin. Then there are the humans at Haven, who came with the dragon before the winter started to try and rescue you. They only managed to free a few.”
This news seemed to interest her greatly. She jerked upright, eyes huge in her face, and demanded to know more. Too bad for her, my mind was occupied with other things. She’d risen above the water level, and her breasts emerged from her strange chest-covering. The thin fabric had gone completely translucent, and I was utterly transfixed by the sight of her dark nipples poking through. There was no holding back my eager cock then, it slipped from its pouch, spilling into the water. The scent of my arousal rose thickly in the air between us.
I knew then that there was no fighting this. I had to have her, keep her, pleasure her. There was simply no other option.
Chapter 7
Jolene
Dealing with my first native on my own was…well, the only way to really sum it up was “strange.” Strange, but also hot. Considering I’d been on the verge of catching a serious case of hypothermia—maybe even losing a few toes and fingers—that was a very odd combination. Khawla was nothing like what I expected: half gruff, silent warrior, and half eager-to-please and randy.
Maybe he didn’t think I’d seen it, but I knew all he had eyes for were my boobs. I should have felt threatened; I was alone with an unknown male of an unknown species. All I felt was flattered, and a little turned on myself. Now that I’d concluded I was going to be able to keep all my toes, the sense of urgency had also left me. For now, I could just float here and listen to his low voice as he answered my questions. He was perhaps a bit gruff and a whole lot about invading my space, but he was telling me what I wanted to know.
Then he dropped that bomb, how there were more humans here than just Nala, and that theyhadrescued some of us from the shipwreck three months ago. I was pleasantly warm and floating on the admiration for my body that he obviously could not hide, but that sharpened me back into the present. “Hang on, wait. Do you know if there was a girl named Jasmine with those they rescued? Please, I have to know!”
I hadn’t even realized I’d stood up and exposed myself to his heated gaze. Water had splashed into my face, along my hot cheeks, and dribbled across my lips. There was a sweet-and-salty taste on my tongue now, like caramelized popcorn.
He was just hovering there, next to me, blatantly staring. His one amethyst eye glowed with heat, the rest of his handsome face all stark lines beneath the pretty but somehow non-reflective scales. He did not reflect the light; he did not shimmer from the water droplets clinging to him, either. Yet, if you looked closely, he was made up of many colors, blue and purple, but even hints of green and pink along the edges of his scales.
“Khawla? Do you know if Jasmine is there? Can you take me to her?” I prodded him, but he still didn’t answer. He just stared. I lowered my eyes, discovered just how transparent my bra had gone in the water, and raised my arms to cover myself. He growled then—an honest-to-God growl that rattled through the air and trembled into my body through the section of tail he still had looped around my middle.
A shiver of unease shot down my spine, while heat also sparked between my legs. Oh boy, I sure knew how to pick them, didn’t I? First, that kiss, which, admittedly, I wasn’t all that mad about. Now this obsession with my breasts… Had he never seen a naked lady before? Or were Naga females completely flat-chested?
He pulled me toward him with that loop of his tail, as if he had every right to do so. My body tingled even more, my folds slicker than just from the water, my core aching andhot. He pulled until he could grasp my wrists with his hands and tugged until my breasts were once again exposed. Cooler air whispered across the wet fabric clinging to my skin, and my nipples hardened to sharp peaks. That made him hiss again, followed by a deep, low groan that sounded just like a man deep in the throes of passion.
My gaze dropped to the waterline, following the marvelously sculpted planes of his chest. Beautiful pecs, a six-pack to die for, and then—right there below the water—a long, deeply purple cock. He was hard as stone and so close I could touch him if I reached out. I couldn’t believe how difficult it was to keep my hands to myself. I definitely couldn’t believe that this was happening right now. It was like a weird fever dream, a lusty one.
“Jolene,” he growled, and I wasn’t sure if it was meant as a warning or a seduction. I just knew that he used his tail and the grip on my wrists to pull me even closer, our bodies gliding together. His hard cock slipped against my bare belly, sending a thrill through my system. My breasts were crushed against his chest, and his head lowered. Then he was kissing me—this was nothing like the kiss back in the snowy forest. That one had been hot; this one was downright volcanic.
I should be asking him questions, finding out about Jasmine, demanding he take me to her. My focus definitely should be on finding a way to rescue my girls on the ship, and the other humans. He told me I was not his mate, but he definitely had mating on his mind. Now it was in my head too. I clung to his shoulders, my left hand tangling in his long black braid. Just a little longer, another taste, what was the harm in that?
Our bodies dipped and turned in the water until we were both floating. He kept me pressed close to him, so tightly that I felt every ridge and bump of his thick length pressing into my soft belly. Then it writhed, the tip did. I gasped, not expecting that weird, undulating motion. It was almost as if the head had split in two.
“I’m sorry,” he husked against my lips. “My lack of control is shameful. You are just so pretty…” Well, what was I going to say to that? Pretty? I couldn’t recall the last time any man had called me pretty. Competent, bossy, opinionated, definitely sassy, but not pretty. He made me feel like that, though, beautiful. There was nothing but honesty in that single, piercing eye.
“Oh,” I managed, my body tingling in all the right places. Surely those in stasis could wait another hour before I mounted their rescue. They were asleep anyway; they wouldn’t know the difference. “I’m not feeling very in control either. I guess that makes us even?” Then I tipped my chin up and kissed him again, ready to forget all about the chaos my life was in for a minute. Ready to throw caution to the wind and have crazy, hot sex with a complete stranger—and an alien to boot.
My body was so hot now that the icy cold from before felt like a distant memory. My pulse pounded between my legs, reminding me that I was alive and that I had needs, too. The slickness of his precum clung to my belly, reaching high up to the underslopes of my breasts. He was that big—dauntingly so—but I hardly cared. “Khawla,” I found myself moaning shamelessly, as the scent of salt and sweetness swirled in the air between us. It was on my lips too, as if it had permeated the water we were in, stoking the flames and then some.
