“Aker’iz is sleeping,” Dorie points out. “How about walk on the beach while we wait?”
I stand up. “Good idea. I will put her inside.”
I lift the remarkably heavy pack that contains Aker’iz, noticing that it’s really too small for her now. When I put her inside the ship, the light comes on.
“Oh,” Dorie exclaims, sticking her head in. “It really likes her.”
“Everyone does,” I agree. “Even your griket.”
“Otis will watch her,” Dorie says as she gathers a big sheet of soft skin and puts it around her shoulders. “He will let no one pass.”
Indeed, the griket lies down next to the ship, but I close the hatch before we slowly walk towards the beach.
Dorie grabs my hand and places it around her waist. “This is nice.”
It is indeed a very fine evening. My crotch swells in expectation, and I really like holding Dorie like this, resting one hand on her hip and feeling it roll with each short step.
There’s a pleasant breeze coming from the ocean, and the waves roll calmly onto the beach.
I spot the two dead krolts, like dark spots in the sand. “Wait here.”
Dorie watches from a distance as I drag both the krolts along the beach and into the jungle, where they will keep other krolts away.
I walk back to the ocean and scrub the smell off my hands.
Dorie scans the skies, then rams her spear into the sand and quickly slides her garment off.
The breath catches in my throat. Even in this darkness, I see all the parts of her that make her so alluring.
She walks to where the waves sink into the sand and wiggles her toes. “The ocean Big might not come this close.”
18
- Theodora-
The experience with that damn tentacle monster and those krolts shook me so badly that I broke down in the saucer when it all went dark.
Kenz’ox dealt with my craziness with his usual calm acceptance, and something thawed in me—something that had bored its claws into me like that drok did with Kenz’ox let go.
This is not a great place. I still want to get home. But maybe it doesn’t have to be as nightmarish as I feared.
“It might not,” Kenz’ox rumbles. “It’s hard to see. But I think we’ve taken all the baths we need today. And we have showed all the Bigs that this beach isours.”
I tug at his loincloth, wanting it gone. “We should show them again. And again.” I fight the urge to run back to the saucer after today’s experiences. But that happened a quarter mile over there, not right here. And I also have an urge to defy this fuckingplanet—right here, where only today it tried to kill me and failed. I want to rub its face in its failure.
I spread the leather sheet where the sand is dry. It won’t give perfect protection against the grains, but some is better than none.
Kenz’ox watches me with those intense blue eyes, the fading light of sunset painting his striped skin in warm oranges and deep shadows. The waves crash softly behind him, a steady rhythm that matches the pounding in my chest. He steps closer, and I reach for his sword belt first, fingers fumbling with it until it loosens, and the whole thing—sword, scabbard, and all—thuds onto the sand beside us. Then the loincloth. I tug it free, letting the leather fall away, and there he is, fully bare and magnificent in the twilight.
His cock rises thick and heavy between us, that deep bronze shaft shimmering faintly, darkening toward the flared head, the flexible plates along the ridge already starting to firm. Below, the smaller one pulses eagerly, slick and ready. My breath catches at the sight of him, this alien warrior who’s become the center of my life on this deadly world.
He growls low, a sound that vibrates through me, and pulls me against him. His hands are rough from a hard life, but they feel smooth and warm as they slide up my thighs, bunching the dinosaur-skin dress higher until it’s around my waist. I help him yank it over my head, tossing it aside, and then we’re skin to skin—his heat against my cooler flesh, the salt from the sea air clinging to us both.
“Dorie,” he murmurs, my name a rumble in his chest as he lowers me onto the sheet. The sand shifts beneath it, warm from the day’s sun, and I arch up to meet him, wrapping my legsaround his hips. His mouth claims mine in a kiss fiercer than any we’ve shared before—tongue delving deep, tasting of smoke and wildness, like he’s pouring everything he feels into it.
I feel it too, this shift inside me. It’s not just need anymore, not just survival or distraction from the horrors of Xren. It’shim. This caveman alien who fought beside me today, who held me when I broke: I love him. I knew it already, but the certainty hits like a wave crashing over me, pulling me under, and I kiss him harder. My nails dig into his broad back.
He breaks the kiss to trail his lips down my neck, beard caressing me, nipping at the sensitive spot that makes me gasp. His hand cups my breast, thumb circling my nipple until it peaks hard and aching, and I moan into the evening air. The waves roll in louder now, as if the ocean itself is urging us on.
