Her last coherent thought, even as he lapped at her clit and licked her arousal away, was that she could get used to mornings like that.
* * *
Much,much later, Jaxor fed her something calledobiraxi.Her body was still humming from the two orgasms he’d pulled from her, but she was decidedly less cold. When he looked at her, her mind felt a little muddled, but she tried to focus as he demonstrated how to cut the dark grey skin of what she assumed was a type of fruit, based on how he’d described it to her.
Erin was distracted because Jaxor hadn’t orgasmed with her. When she’d reached for his cock, straining from the waistband of the loose pants he was wearing that morning, wanting to return the favor, he’d taken her hand and pressed his lips to it instead. Then he asked her if she was hungry.
“You did not enjoy thekekevirmeat,” he said softly, sitting close enough that their thighs were pressed together and all Erin had to do was look over and see the head of his cock pushing up.
She bit her lip, raking a hand through her clean hair.
“Was it that obvious?” she asked, a little embarrassed he’d noticed. She didn’t want to seem ungrateful for the food.
He’d fed herkekevirthe night he’d ‘culled’ them. It seemed like so long ago, but it had only been a handful of days since then. The meat had a gamey flavor. It was hard to chew, though Jaxor had seemingly had no issue with his sharper teeth.
“Do humans not eat a lot of meat?” he asked, handing her a section of the grey fruit that didn’t look particularly appetizing. The flesh looked soft and mushy and there were little white seeds dotted throughout.
“I eat meat,” she told him. “But our meat tastes a little different. I like the jerky you gave me before.”
He licked his fingers when she plucked the fruit from them, cleaning the juices away, and her breath hitched at the sight, remembering him doing much the same last night, though it had beenherfingers he’d licked andherjuices.
It seemed she had a one-track mind lately.
Forcing herself to look away, she popped the piece of fruit onto her tongue. Delicious flavor burst in her mouth. Despite the strange texture, it was heavenly. It had the sweetness of a pineapple, the tang of an orange, and something indescribable, something that was completely alien to her, and something she knew she would never find on Earth.
“Good?” he asked, his lips quirking when he saw her expression. Her eyes were wide with pleasure when she met his gaze. There was a soft look on his face, one of affection, she realized.
“Verygood,” she told him, smiling once she swallowed. “Can I have more?”
“Tev,” he murmured. “I have three here. I will get more for you later today. They grow nearer to theLopitaxSea.”
A sea was near there?
“Can I come?” she asked, wanting to see it. She lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, but hardly had time to go to the beach. Even though the beaches there tended to be dreary and cold, she still loved the smell of the saltwater and loved watching the waves and hearing the hiss of them as they slid over the sandy shore.
He darted a curious gaze over to her. “You wish to?”
“Yes,” she said, wondering if they would use the hovercraft to fly there and feeling strangely guilty for the thought. So much so that she had to look down at her sticky fingers resting in her lap.
He inclined his head. “Thentev, I will take you.”
He handed her another section of the cut fruit and after she devoured the whole thing, he watched patiently as she cut the next one for herself, piercing the hard, shell-like skin, revealing the contents beneath.
After they both finished the last of theobiraxi,they started for the hovercraft. Erin found herself still studying the way his fingers traced over the silver pad, starting up the quiet hum of whatever powered it, though she had already memorized the gesture. Though she was standing near him at the console, keeping the furs he’d given her around her shoulders, she still watched and studied. Though they had been intimate, though they had shared things with one another last night in the quiet of the hot springs, Erin still catalogued every movement he made as he piloted the hovercraft.
“What is wrong?” he asked over the gentle whistling of the wind. They weren’t flying fast through the fog bank over his base. It was a slow, gentle pace.
She stepped closer to him, further away from the side of the hovercraft. She hoped he hadn’t noticed her interest in the controls. Instead, she said, “I’m afraid of heights, remember?”
“Ah,” he murmured, tucking her close to his side, his arm bracketing around her, and Erin’s eyes slid away from the controls, a feeling of warmth taking the place of guilt. “I had been wondering.”
“About what?”
“The first night I brought you here,” he mentioned. “You were angry with me when I descended into the tunnel. Now I know that it frightened you. I descended too quickly and you thought we were falling.”
Erin tilted her head back to look at him. Their position was similar to the one they’d had in the sandcraft after he’d taken them from the Golden City. After her and Crystal’s first escape attempt, he’d forced her to stay in front of him so she wouldn’t make trouble, so she couldn’t escape. It just now occurred to her that he’d let Crystal stay at the back of the sandcraft. He’d only wantedherclose.
“Yes,” she said, a little embarrassed thinking about her overreaction that night. Truthfully, her overreaction stemmed from an outpouring of frustration, of the events leading up to that moment, but she kept those quiet. “I wasn’t prepared.”
