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“I’m the only male for you.”Gentle hands guided my hips as he whispered in my ear, rocking me back and forth in tiny increments.
My fingernails dug into his triceps as his careful thrusts worked me over until every nerve lit up.“You’re the one.”I groaned as he spent inside me, sending me over the edge.
JayJay pulled me into the cradle of his arms, settled into the blanket, and tucked my chin against his chest. One of his calloused fingers brushed under my eye, and his low voice whispered over the deep purr in his chest,“I don’t want to see any shadows here tomorrow.”Moments later, he’d fallen asleep.
“You know what’s weird, though?” Saluda cursed as he dropped a stitch and tried to recover it. “That Rock Dweller, Devile, he was looking at Protector intensely. Like, really intensely.”
Snapping out of my daydream at the mention of JayJay, I tuned in to the surrounding conversation. Though my body throbbed with need and I would’ve jumped at the chance to get naked with JayJay again, all my nerves were heightened with fear.
Smoke trailed from Efred’s nose. “Of course he was. He has a total hard-on for Protector JayJay. That’s the lying bastard who sent him here.”
Hill’s freckles matched the lunal’s copper in the brighter light. “It’s more than that, though. Saluda’s right. Something else is going on.”
The points of D’unter’s teeth ground over each other like saws. “And kicking us out just because I asked to see the bloodroot fungus… What the blant was that about?”
Shaheel’s splinted wing jerked.
I need to make sure JayJay’s okay.
“I’m going to make a few deliveries.” Crouching, I lifted the boxer-style helmet I’d made for D’Argon that matched his brother, D’Rasma’s. Next, I pulled out Hill’s tailored pants and a shirt I’d completed for Sisip. Handing Hill his pants, I asked, “Can you just pop these supplies back in front of JayJay’s door when you’re finished?”
He nodded. “Best stay away from Devile, right, Ginger?”
“Yep.” I had no interest in Devile besides punching him in the nose.
Before I left, I snapped a picture of my friends to admire later. Smiling as I walked, I contemplated the universal power of a knitting circle. But concern over JayJay soon took over, and I raced through the tunnel clutching the bundle of clothes, thanking whoever had thought to hang lights. I owed them big time.
I hoped the flimsy excuse of a clothing delivery would be enough to get me close to Sisip, who must be near JayJay. I had to see with my own two eyes that he was okay.
Voices grew louder as I approached the volcano’s entrance. Fresh, cool air filled my lungs, and I stumbled as my eyes adjusted to the brighter light. The lift tube opened as I rushed by, and Geo heaved an enormous, ornate chair out of it. A Boola I didn’t know followed with an identical version. Both men were huffing.
“Are we expecting royalty?” I paused, leaning into my best friend and giving him a one-armed hug.
Geo squeezed me back, but his shoulders remained rigid. “Don’t be giving the mayor any more grand ideas. He’d love to remake his silly statue all over again with a crown on his head.”
“Then I’d have to sneak in and paint a mustache over his lips in the middle of the night.” I laughed. My lungs expanded without their usual constraints, and though worry for JayJay slithered under my skin, I felt strong enough to take on the world. Geo grumbled while he dragged the heavy chair toward the alcove off command central, where I presumed Sisip held council with Yurst.
“Can you believe the waste of time and resources? Sending us to town for a couple of chairs. It’s ludicrous.” Geo rubbed his hand over his beard, his soft belly stretching his overalls as he blew out a breath. He continued muttering something about being up half the night to fit a door to a ‘conference room’ while we walked.
When we reached the alcove, the Boola enforcer knocked with so much strength the hinges rattled. Sisip opened the door. Behind her, a long table covered in a navy cloth stood, heaped with bowls of fruit, graneth puffs, mantu meat and cups of the sludge Ternians liked to pass off for coffee.
Around it sat JayJay, his forehead ridge buried so deep in his head it might never come out. I took in his stiff posture—his ribs must have been killing him. D’irk fiddled with a heap of shredded paper in front of him, and Yurst fawned over the stranger beside him—the smallest Rock Dweller I’d ever seen.
JayJay’s eyes connected with mine, and he bolted upward, coming to my side as if driven by instinct. He didn’t limp. Strong and beautiful, his oil slick-tinted skin shone in the natural light beaming through a small opening overhead. In his deep plum leather pants and sleeveless tunic, his bulging arm muscles glistened under the copper chain mail. I swallowed the lump in my throat and squeezed my thighs together as arousal washed through me. With a wolfish stride, he stopped a hairsbreadth from me. Holy hotness.
“Is everything all right?” Though the deep rumble of his voice turned heads, it didn’t startle me. Where I’d once jumped at his boom, now the deep bass warmed me like a caress. A smile lit up his eyes.
My palm, without thought, landed on his chest. The steady thrum of his heart reverberated through my arm, and his forehead ridge started to unfurrow. “Yeah, everything’s fine. I finished Sisip’s shirt, so I thought I’d bring it by.” I held up the leather shirt with one limp wrist. I brought a shirt. OMG, can I get any more ridiculous?
Sisip turned off the projection floating over the table and straightened her long whiskers. “Thank you, Ginger.” Her neck stretched from one side to the other. “Perfect timing. I believe everyone could use a break—”
“Ah, the chairs!” Yurst interrupted her. He scuttled out of a perfectly fine chair and waved Geo and the Boola enforcer in. “Much more appropriate for our esteemed guest. Yet again, I apologize for these deplorable conditions.” The mayor waved histawny hand over the transformed space. “I presumed we’d be arriving at a fully equipped command station.”
What Geo had accomplished overnight was incredible. Besides the door and long table, Geo had smoothed a portion of the volcano’s wall. A white screen mounted within played footage of the hellsna smashing through Yurstille’s market.
Sisip rolled her eyes as she passed Yurst and paused beside me. “I’ll come by and try it on later.”
A scowling Geo marched out of the alcove, the enforcer I didn’t recognize on his heels.
