Page 26 of 80% Beef 20%
The muscle in my leg began to seize again. JayJay’s thumb massaged it. His familiarity with my body sent a shiver up my spine. When his pace picked up, I barely jostled in his strong arms. I inhaled his earthy musk and closed my tired eyes while nuzzling into his chest, blocking out images of toothy worms eating through volcanic rock.
“They can’t eat through rock, can they?”
His deep rumble turned to a purr. “No, we’re safe.”
My eyelids grew heavy. Before sleep took me, a bushy gray tail flashed over JayJay’s shoulder. How strange.
I woke up in a dark and cozy heaven. Well, if heaven included muscle aches and bone-deep weariness. My nose was filled with a divine scent. But above everything else, a sense of safety oozed from every cell of my body, keeping me relaxed and content. Something I’d been missing.
As I roused further, I noticed the large arm encircling me. JayJay’s boulder of a shoulder pillowed his smooth head, his forehead ridge soft in his sleep, and the deep resonance of his snores reminded me of a bear in hibernation. To awake entangled with a man was a new sensation. Past boyfriends had called me too independent, and the wide stretch of sheet between us in the mornings seemed to confirm that. But JayJay’s closeness soothed me and surprised me in equal measure.
Wrapped around my back, and resting in the crook of my hip, JayJay’s arm enveloped me, one large palm spread across myentire abdomen. The cuts and scrapes along his wide fingers were almost healed, and I couldn’t stop the fingertip that traced over his rounded knuckle down to his exposed forearm. No stubble, no hair, just vast, endless smooth JayJay. His other slab of an arm rested on his bent legs, where they hugged me to his chest.
His velvety gray skin still surprised me. When we’d first met, I’d compared JayJay to a man in elephant’s skin. How wrong I’d been. Far from loose and wrinkled, it matched the softness of the rabbit skin I’d designed my last warrior costume from.
Already, I was sketching designs in my head for the wardrobe I would outfit him with. One that would do his immense frame justice. The clothes he wore now were nothing more than rags. When I finished with him, his outside would match the inside—a true warrior.
His snores quieted, and his eyelids flickered open, a forest of green I could walk through forever.
“Morning.” The deep bass rolled through me like thunder. A velvety palm kneaded my belly, the same way his thumb massaged the tight muscles in my legs. My eyes locked on his puffy lips and drank in the soft expression on his face.
“King Kong, who taught you how to kiss?” My fingertip moved from his forearm to trace his juicy lips.
His chest expanded on a long inhale before his eyes darted away. “Rock Dwellers don’t kiss.” Gruff and loud, his volume didn’t bother me, but his embarrassment did.
When his gaze returned, I bit my lower lip, letting it slowly escape, then dragged my tongue over my front teeth. He hummed, then it mellowed to a purr and his pupils dilated, turning them into a jungle at night. He continued to knead my stomach and hip with just the right pressure. If my muscles relaxed any further, I’d be liquid.
“Clearly.” With a gentle touch, I grasped his chin and turned his face toward mine. For a species that didn’t kiss, he showed an awful lot of interest in my mouth.
“Geo likes to be kissed.” His raspy voice washed over me. Each achy muscle relaxed even further as he kept up the mind-bogglingly slow knead.
“Does he?” How a giant could come off so innocently cute charmed me.
A slight tremble built up in his arms and traveled down to his hands, but his gaze remained locked on my lips. “I’ve seen Makir kiss him.”
Honestly, who hasn’t? Those two are about as discreet as my breath after a tuna and onion sandwich.
“Hmmm…. you like to watch?”
JayJay’s fingers drummed against his thigh. “Watch what?”
I brushed my hand up his trembling arm and mouthed the word, ‘kissing.’ I didn’t think he knew what his slow nod agreed to.
“You strike me as more of a man of action?” My words lingered in the humid air. Though masked in charcoal shadows, experience told me his excellent vision had no problem reading my lips. The tremble in his arm turned into a tremor as he held himself back, but it became clearer by the moment that his instincts were winning the battle against his self-control.
When I placed my hands behind his ears and pulled his face toward mine, I met zero resistance. His low, resonant purr sent vibrations all the way to my toes.
Finally, my lips grazed his while his dark-eyed gaze held me captive.
The puffiness had deceived me. Instead of the soft pillows I’d been expecting, my lips met firm plums. “I like to kiss with my eyes open, too.”
When he sucked in a shallow breath, I dipped my tongue in. The pointed tip coaxed his into the dance. Languid and slow, our tongues came together and parted again, only to suck on a lip, trace over teeth or press feather-soft against each other. Never had I been matched so perfectly in a kiss. My blood hummed, hot as the river of magma that warmed the cave.
My hand slid along his side to his stomach and—
JayJay’s wristport pinged with an alarm, shattering our temporary oasis. Within seconds, his emotionless lead guard mask returned as he scooted away from me. Licking his firm plum lips, he began stowing the gear back in our bags. Mushrooms and tinga filled every available space.
Desire swirled like a heady mist in the air, and I shuddered at his retreat. So much for friendship. That kiss had stoked an inferno in me.
