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“Holy shit,” she cried. “Keep going, JayJay.” She slapped my shoulder and began to ride me again. “Does it feel good for you, too?” She lifted her glassy eyes to mine.
I placed my fist at the base of my coil as she’d done and drove up into her. “If I never left this place again, I would die a happy male.”
Her smile almost undid me, but then she bent, took my nipple in her mouth and bit down. I bellowed, clutching her bottom as my arms trembled. My seed flooded her female hold as I sank deeper into the blanket, cradling her on top of me.
My rumba quieted to a contented purr as I circled a thumb over the dip in her back. “Best moment of my life, cherished female.”
“Me too,” Ginger whispered into the ear she was nuzzling.
Time seemed to stand still as the weight of her body turned liquid above me. Our small cave was bathed in the mixture of our scents, and never had anything smelled so right.
Smiling, Ginger lay on a blanket beneath a linnea tree in full bloom, the deep purple leaves ripe and heavy, oozing their intoxicating scent. The pride on her face filled me with confidence. Enough to fight off an entire planet of hellsna single-handedly.
A loud knock yanked me from the middle of the dream, and I jerked awake.
Hill’s steady voice filtered through the door. “Sisip needs you at the command center.”
Smoothly dislodging Ginger’s head from where it lay on my chest, I crept to the door and cracked it open a sliver before Hill could wake her.
“On my way,” I whispered to Hill. Not fully Boola, the freckles dotting his deep brown skin stood out in the low light. He tipped his chin and jogged toward the tunnel that led to the command center.
Fighting giant worms with sharp teeth was the last thing I wanted to do. With care, I slid the door shut and inhaled our aroma. An itch prickled the surface of my skin. Our mating… The way we’d moved together had been beyond anything I’d dared to dream. I wanted to have her melt for me over and over again. Now that she’d given herself to me, I’d do anything within my power to keep her for as long as she was willing.
In silence, I slipped into my ragged clothes. The rhythmic rise and fall of Ginger’s chest held all my attention. Curled naked on her side, one ripe breast rested on her arm like an offering. Flashes of our mating came to me. Her sweet musk, the soft texture of the white fuzz covering her skin, the ring of tiny bumps around her nipples that hardened beneath my tongue, the clench of her body and its surprising ability to take my coil.
To experience that with a female, even if she’d chosen me out of desperation, was a gift. Rock Dwellers mated for life. Like a blindfold had been removed and I was seeing for the first time,I now knew why. A compulsion to never leave Ginger’s side hummed inside me as if I’d been tuned to her. But she would never be mine.
How am I going to keep doing this and remain sane?
When she stretched out her arm, the sheet of silvery hair shifted, exposing her face. The dark moons under her eyes had already started to fade and fill with new life. I swallowed hard.
Whatever it takes, I’ll do it.
Crisp morning air filled my lungs and cleared my head. With fresh awareness, doubt began to seep in. I nodded to a handful of enforcers loaded with supplies and walked into the bustling command center.
Ginger couldn’t be my life companion. She wasn’t even the same species. Never, in recorded history, had a Rock Dweller and a human mated, but Dr. Ten seemed to have reason to believe we were compatible.
I stretched my neck back and forth, fighting the anger brewing under my skin at being pulled away from Ginger.
“Protector JayJay, you’re looking fierce today.” Saluda scratched at the scaly nubs on his back where wings would soon grow.
Efred eyed me up and down, one purple-scaled arm tucked tight to his side, no longer in a sling. “Protector JayJay, did you get bigger overnight?”
My forehead ridge furrowed at their strange comments, but I smiled weakly, then pressed on through the darting bodies, dodging hot javae as it sloshed from containers held by bleary-eyed enforcers. Sisip likely wanted to tell me Efred would be returning to active duty.
I ignored the onslaught of stupid comments about my appearance. Sisip’s distinctive tawny ears twitched above the crowd, guiding my way. Her eyes widened over the container of thick black sludge she sipped from as I approached.
Sisip’s split-lipped mouth twitched as if holding back a smile. “Are you glowing?”
Blant! My jaw clenched. What was with the ridiculous questions?
I shifted back and forth, tapping a rat-a-tat-tat on my thigh. “I think you need more sleep, Lead Enforcer.”
“Who doesn’t?” Real-time enforcer locations blinked red, green and yellow on the terrain grid projection that shot up from the bowl in the floor. “Thank you for coming. I know D’irk declared you off duty.”
I lifted my chin.
“Early this morning, hellsna razed two dwellings.” Sisip’s squared-off claw pointed to a stretch of land near the rocky outcrop. “The deaths of two Nacers have been confirmed.”
