“Thank you. This is my safe haven that I go to when the world gets too loud. It’s got everything I need. Sound proofing,” he pointed to the ceiling covered in moss. “fresh water,” his attention turned back to the stream, “blankets made from the softest pelts on Valo Prime.” He grabbed an interesting black and white fur blanket and drapped it over my shoulders. He was right. This was the softest fur I’d ever held before.
He stared at me for a moment before moving on, and I again got the sense he wanted my opinion on his set up here.
“What animal is this?”
“It’s a thrax. They’re herbivores that graze in the northlands, which is why their fur is so thick.”
“Oh, and this cave has amazing tunnels,” he added. “There are hundreds of them that lead into the mountain behind us. I’ve explored a lot of them, but it would take a lifetime to explore them all.”
He turned his attention back to me, and his tail nervously thumped the floor.
“And now you’re here, which makes it even better.”
Here we go. I bit back a sigh. You know what? I’mnot even going to say anything. If I call him out on his flirting, I’m just going to cry. So it’s best just to leave it alone for now.
“It’s a very nice cave. I can see why you consider it your safe haven.”
The tips of his ears turned blue, and he ran a hand through his hair. God damn it, why did he have to be so cute?
“Are you warm enough? Do you want me to start a fire?” Axon offered as he placed some fresh wood in the fire pit.
My damp clothes were starting to chill me to the bone. “A fire sounds nice. Do you have any extra clothes here? My wet clothes are freezing.”
“Uhh, yeah.” Axon looked pensive as he gazed around the room. “I should have some clothes around here somewhere.”
He searched through a set of storage baskets until he found what he was looking for.
“Sorry, I only have a shirt. No pants.”
I was a big girl, like six feet tall and plump, so usually I’d pass on an opportunity to wear a guys shirt. But Axon, even though he was one of the shortest sirrets in our dekes, he was still a few inches taller than me, and he had a broad chest. So I figured I might as well give it a try.
He handed me his shirt and some shoes and pointed to a cave I could use to change. My wet shoes squelched as I walked, reinforcing my desire to be warm and dry again.
I stripped off my wet clothes and took a deep breath before I pulled Axon’s shirt on over my head. As it draped down my body, I was pleased to see that it was long enough to come to my knees. It smelled like him too, which was comforting in a grounding kind of way. As if smelling him made my heart stop racing and reminded me that everything was going to be okay.
I carried my wet clothes back out to hang near the fire. Axon had already set up a clothesline made of webbing for me to drape my clothes over. He turned around as he heard me approaching and his eyes grew wide as he took in the sight of me.
Damn him. How could he shudder at my touch one second and the next, look at me as if I was the best thing in the world?
His tail furiously thumped the ground a few times before he grabbed it.
“I, uh, I set up a place for you to put your clothes to dry out.” He pointed to the clothesline I had spotted earlier.
“Thank you,” I said as I walked closer to the fire.
“Here, let me take those for you.” he held out his hands expectantly, and I gave him my bundle of wet clothes.
“I put a basket of nuts and dried fruit on that blanket for you. I figured you might be hungry, since it’s close to dinnertime.”
“Oh, okay,” I said as I sat down on the fur blanket. Things are going okay so far. I thought tomyself as I got comfortable and started in on my dinner.
Chapter 8
Axon
“Thank you for the food,” Ashley said as she munched on a dried berry. I tried not to stare at her bare thighs, fully exposed under her shirt,myshirt, that she was wearing. A sense of pride welled up in my chest seeing her wear something of mine, along with a strange possessiveness I haven’t felt before.
Her creamy skin was a stark contrast to the brown ramirie fur that she sat upon. Her fingers lazily played with the textured blanket, and I found I was jealous of it. I wanted to feel her fingers running through my hair, along my tail, over my chest.
