Page 15 of Hunter’s Harvest

“We will find your friends, and we will get you home.” The promise came out rougher than I intended. I dropped my nose against her hair, inhaling her addictive scent.

In the process, I brushed her arm, and was reminded that she was colder than she should be.

“You are cold. Let me warm you.”

I pulled her into my lap and tightened my arms around her. She was perfect there, and instead of pushing away, she melted against my body. Her body temperature was so much lower than I thought. I really should have paid more attention.

The metal of the shuttle and the lack of a fourth wall didn’t help, and while the tarps provided some protection against the wind, it did little to block the chill seeping in from the outside. She shivered next to me.

She looked up at me, and despite her soft voice, there was fire in her eyes. “Thank you, Var’n.”

“You are hungry. I will feed you.” I adjusted her so she was sitting sideways still inside the cocoon of my body, but so I could see her face. I speared a piece of the protein bar with an extended claw and held it in front of her lips.

“Ikandoitmuself,” she huffed.

I didn’t need a translator to understand that. I ignored her, pressing the morsel to her lips. She hesitated for a second more before sighing in defeat and parting her lips and letting me feed her. Her soft, pink lips brushed against my fingertips, sending a jolt of heat right to my groin.

I watched her mouth move as she chewed, my eyes never leaving hers. Something between us blossomed, something hot and needy, and a new scent came to join her natural one. Was this arousal?

I held my breath as I fed her more of the food bar, barely daring to breathe lest my control slip and I scared her away.

But she wasn’t like the other females I’d met before. She wasn’t terrified of Xarc’n warriors. Nellie was used to us. She wasn’t scared by my rumbling chest, the sound of which was now filling the shuttle.

But most importantly of all, she was mine. I knew it in my heart.

She reached for the flask of water attached to my belt, and I froze, hyperaware of how close we were and how intimate the moment had become. I couldn’t look away from her lips as they wrapped around the mouth of the flask. Need roared to life within me.

Instead of offering the next bite, I closed the gap between us, covering her mouth the way she did to me before.

She stiffened for a moment in surprise, then her fingers reached for me, tangling into my hair and pulling me closer. She sighed into the kiss, her lips soft and sweet. I swept my tongue in, claiming her.

The food bar was quickly abandoned. All that mattered was our mouths and tongues and how they tangled together. She melted against me, and when she moaned desperately into my mouth, I knew I was lost.

Chapter 7: Nellie

I was kissing a Xarc’n warrior. Again!

A tiny part of my brain screamed for me to push him away, that two kisses that close together was feeling dangerous similar to relationship material. And plus, we were still stranded in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by NEM and who knew what other kinds of danger, and here we were making out like teenagers in the back of a car instead of staying alert. But when his mouth moved against mine, so hot, demanding, and possessive, all coherent thought dissolved and I could do nothing else but kiss him back.

My body was so cold and he was so warm, and it felt like I could absorb it all right through the kiss. He tasted good too, musky and salty, and something wild. It made my head spin. It was hard to believe that kissing wasn’t a Xarc’n warrior thing, because he was doing it so well, like he’d been practicing his whole life.

He slid his hands down my back, dragging me against him. And I felt the unmistakable and very insistent hardness of his arousal against my thigh.

I was immediately reminded of the fact that Xarc’n warriors were not built like human men. At all. And I had confirmation, right here.

There were the rumors and the jokes, yes. I’d heard all about how they looked kind of like sex toys—you know the ones with the graduated beads that get bigger and bigger. Except, instead of round ball-like sections, each part was cone-shaped.

Now I was feeling it for myself. Instead of a shaft with a head, there were three distinct bumps, like three heads, one after another, each one thicker than the last. There were ridges too, along the thickest part of each section. That must be what I was feeling, right through the leather of his loincloth.

I pressed against it tentatively to make sure I was feeling it right.

It earned me a well-deserved snarl as Var’n released my lips.

I slid my hands between our bodies, hesitating only for a moment before brushing my fingers over the front of his loincloth. His body jerked under my touch, and I felt those ridges again, even more pronounced now.

“What are you—” His golden eyes darkened a shade.

“I’m just curious.”