One night is all we have. We’ll be at the encampment tomorrow.
It will be better this way. One night. We won’t have long enough to get attached to one another… When a tear threatens to bloom, I blink it back, refusing to acknowledge it despite having more than enough reasons for it to be there.
Speckled light douses us in the day’s last golden hues. My eyes trail down his body, over the bulge along his front, and back up over his abdomen and chest. His tail shifts in the overgrowth around us, causing the plants to shuffle as it coils between me and the tree at my back. I wait for him to change his mind, to tell me this really is all a mistake, but he remains silent, his gaze intense with something I can’t place.
I swallow against the thickness in the air and look around, unsure of where in the forest he’s taken me.
“Are we safe here? We should go somewhere private,” I manage to say, fidgeting. “Somewhere we have room, and where we won’t be disturbed by the others, but still close by.”
“You will always be safe with me.” He stares down at me hard before shifting to my right and passing through the trees.
Waiting for his tail to unravel so I don’t trip, I follow after him. We don’t travel far before he stops in the middle of a small clearing behind a wall of trees and tangled branches. Little white flowers populate the ground over thick moss and clover. With a swipe of his tail, he clears the area of twigs and stones. Afterwards, he turns around and presses a finger to his lips and indicates for me to stay put as he slips into the shadows. A couple of minutes later, he returns. “We are alone. Does this suit?”
“Yes. And you’re sure the others will be fine?” I won’t be able to fully relax if I’m not sure they’re safe.
“I checked on them when I left just now. They are all asleep. I will hear if they rouse.”
Already the little light we have diminishes quickly as the stars begin to appear in the sky. Soon, I’ll only have moonlight to see by.
Krellix’s eyes bore into me. Feeling tensely awkward all of the sudden, nervous with how vulnerable intimacy makes me, I kneel and untie the laces of my boots. I focus on pulling the first one off, not wanting him to see my jitteriness. In the past, I would go out for drinks with my date before we got down to business, leaning on liquid courage to mask my self-consciousness. Here, I have none of that.
I’m bigger than most women, taller and curvier too. I used to work out daily between drills, praying that I’d be strong enough to face a Kett when the time came, uncaring if the extra muscle around my biceps was a turn-off. I never cared nor wanted to be feminine, seeing no purpose in it. I never planned to be contracted to someone for longer than a fling, knowing my career would one day send me straight to the front lines. I never wanted to risk having babies to leave behind.
Krellix watches me wordlessly, as unmoving as a predator waiting in ambush where he towers extra high above me, making my insides squirm. I shift my thick hair over my shoulder and tug my other boot off. Then I slip off my socks and hide them away. Feeling the moss beneath my feet, I wiggle my toes.
Standing to meet him head-on, my gaze moves to his middle. Still behind his slit, his cock remains hidden.
That’s a good thing right?He’s not fully ready to mate and that means he’ll be less possessive of me.
I think. It wouldn’t be good if he got possessive of me.
I may someday still end up on the frontlines battling the Ketts.
In a move I’m not prepared for, he clasps my head between his hands and lifts my face to his. “Are you absolutely certain about thissss, female?” His voice is strained and rough.
“Yes,” I huff. “Stop asking me.”
He narrows his eyes like he doesn’t believe me but slowly presses his lips to mine anyway.
Passion flares between us. Immediately swept up, I fist his hair and kiss him back. Bruising lips push into mine, withdrawing only to suck in a hot breath and to graze his teeth along my mouth. Pressing my body against his, I open up to pull him in, working his kiss into something deeper, softer.
He nips my lower lip and I gasp, not expecting that from him.
Grabbing a fistful of my hair in return, he draws my head to the side and drags his mouth over my cheek and down my neck. Clutching him so I don’t fall, I suck in my next gasp, holding back a hitch. Trying to regain some control, my fingers dig into him as I feel his tail push up the bottom of my shirt. Sliding his tailtip beneath, he curls it around my left breast as his right hand grabs my shirtsleeve and pulls it up and off my arm. Freeing me from my outer shirt and undertop in several swift moves while I untangle my rifle from my clothes, we work together on getting me naked.
Tossing my gun away, I reach around to help him unbutton the clasp of my pants, but he’s already shoving them down my legs. Half turning me, he grabs me around the front and pushes me over his arm to finish yanking them off. In a matter of seconds, he’s stripped me almost entirely, my panties now lost somewhere in the tossed bundle of my slacks. I’m naked from my bra down.
“Krellix,” I gasp, taken aback by his roughness.
I expected this from the other nagas, but not him.
“They were in the way,” he rumbles, referring to my discarded clothes.
The evening chill deepens and a cold breeze brushes across my flesh. My entire body erupts in goosebumps. Aware of him staring at my mostly naked backside, my skin flushes next. Withhis arm still wrapped around my front, he pulls me into him. Shoving his tail up and under my ass he rams his bulge against me from behind.
“Krellix!” I gasp his name again. I shuffle against him with an alarmed curse as he manhandles me like I weigh nothing. It’s easy to tell he’s eager. His eagerness makes me excited.
Shoving up and into my ass again, my legs spread as my feet stretch for purchase. “Julia,” he rumbles my name into my ear, yanking my hair away. “Do not make me wait for you. I need to know what it feels like being inside you.” With his free hand, he runs it down my front. “Wet, hot, slick.” He cups the front of my sex and squeezes, pushing his fingers over my labia and in between, rubbing his calloused fingerpads hard along me, his small claws grazing my sensitive flesh. “I have thought of thissss more times than I can count.”
