Chapter 5 Dottie
Kiera stepped out of the back office the moment I stepped into the library, bag in hand, looking like she was ready to leave for the day. It was just past closing time for the library on a weekend, and Max had left already.
Kiera did a double take when she realized it was me and not her hunter, Bael’k, here to pick her up. I hurried past her and slipped into the office she just vacated, heading right to the front and ducking behind the presentation podium.
“What’s going—”
I made a zip-it motion over my lips, and Kiera caught on immediately. She turned toward the front library doors just as I heard them swinging open again. I ducked down low, hoping the narrow podium covered me completely.
I felt rather than saw Ror’k walk in. I held my breath, my pulse pounding in my ears.
“Hi, Ror’k. What are you doing here?”
There was no answer.
“Well, everyone went home about an hour ago,” Kiera continued. “Library’s actually closed. I’m just waiting for Bael’k to pick me up. Why don’t you come back tomorrow?”
There was a long moment of intense silence before I heard the door click shut. Seconds later, Kiera slid the deadbolt closed. I’d gotten away scot-free, for now. But Kiera was in the meeting room and was narrowing her eyes at me.
“Okay, Dottie. Spill the tea.” She put her hands on her hips in that way that said I had no choice but to talk.
I tried to get out of it anyway. “There’s nothing to spill.”
It didn’t work.
“Really?” She raised her brow. “So should I go let Ror’k know you’re in here?”
“No!” The word came out as a whisper-scream, and I glanced over at the door, hoping it hadn’t been loud enough for the hunter’s insanely good hearing to catch.
“So talk.”
Damn it! I had to let her know what happened.
“Ugh! Fine. You know that extra-strong batch of booze that went out?”
The strength of that hooch was, by now, known settlement-wide. Many bad decisions had been made because of it, including a few people who got blackout drunk. It had since been diluted. A lot.
“You mean the blackout batch?”
I nodded. I’d say I was rather lucky that I remembered most of what had happened… I think. “I might’ve drunk too much of it at the knitting bee last week, and I might’ve totally stumbled into Ror’k on the way home.”
“And?” She motioned me to continue.
I blew out a breath. “I might’ve kissed him?”
“You what?”
“Shhhh!” I put a hand up, placatingly, hoping her exclamation hadn’t alerted the hunter outside. “Might have. Because I actually don’t remember what happened. But Ror’k’s been showing up since.”
I knew for a fact that I’d kissed him, but I wasn’t sure what else I’d done. I had some pretty intense dreams that night, and I wasn’t sure what was real and what wasn’t. But the kiss was real, because a part of my brain told me I knew exactly what he tasted like.
“Well, have you talked to him?” It was just like her to ask the most logical question.
“No. He just stands there and watches me.” I thought of that morning after and the way he’d looked at me.
That was the moment I’d realized that something really did happen between us.
My body had reacted immediately, the same way it had today in the cafeteria; his look had me thinking of all the dirty things I shouldn’t be thinking of, like climbing him like a tree and seeing where else we could take that kiss.
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
There was a knock at the door, and I ducked back behind the podium.
“Coward,” Kiera mouthed before going to check the door.
It was her hunter here to pick her up. I poked my head back out and was glad Bael’k didn’t ask why I was hiding.
“We’ll talk online,” Kiera said, letting me know I wasn’t off the hook yet.
Then she locked up, and I was left alone in the library. I was suddenly glad we’d turned the window next to the door into a display case. All Ror’k would see if he tried to sneak a peek would be this month’s children’s books and survival manual picks.
I wasn’t trapped in here either. One of the rules put in place early on in New Franklin was that all public places must have at least two exits.
One only had to be trapped in a room with deadly space bugs once with no way out because they were blocking the door to realize why that was such an important thing.
The library had several more exits. There were two back doors, each with a sign reading “Emergency exit alarm will sound when opened.” Both of them led out to a hallway shared with the computer labs and the weight room.
There was also the heavy-duty metal door that led outside.
All the options were locked from the outside but easily accessible from inside the library.
And plus, I knew how to disable the alarm so it didn’t ring at all.
I glanced out the nearest barred window.
All first-floor windows in the settlement were either barred or reinforced with polyacrylic panels.
Just because the nest in the middle of the old town of Franklin was gone didn’t mean we didn’t get the occasional centicreep or flyer group showing up from neighboring nests.
The sun was already setting, and the warm orange glow greeted me. If I hurried, I might still catch Kevin at the garage. I hadn’t forgotten my original mission to retrieve our only copy of Nuts, Bolts, and Caffeine: A Mechanic’s Guide to Keeping It Together.
Since I knew my purple stalker was recently outside the main library door, I decided now was as good a time as I needed to make my big escape. I went to the back door, the one leading outside. I would have to go out of the building and loop around to get to the garage, but it was my best option.
I temporarily turned the alarm off, set it to re-engage once the door closed again, and stepped outside.
Few settlers actually saw this side of the building, though I knew it was on the guards’ patrols.
The guards who had protected our settlement from daily scourge attacks now mostly dealt with domestic issues, like the one I’d gotten myself stuck in earlier.
Normally, I’d stay around and give a record of what happened, but today I’d taken the only opportunity I’d gotten and hightailed it out of there while I could.
I wondered whether Marco and his friends would get a second chance to stay in the settlement. Technically, they did do their share of the work and were actually quite pleasant to be around when they weren’t drunk and causing trouble. They’d even earned a working cell phone, which meant a lot.
And Evan was a decent sort too. I didn’t think he would actually steal anything, but Marco really believed that someone had taken his bag. And theft was a big no-no in a settlement like New Franklin.
I peered around the side of the building and, seeing not a single shade of purple or mauve, I quickly ran across the thin strip of parking lot.
Part of it had been turned into a narrow garden bed—we grew food wherever we could—and made my way toward the garage.
I found Kevin just as he was locking up.
His face fell the moment he saw who was visiting. “We really need the book for a few more days,” he said preemptively. “I know it looks like a humorous book on the outside, but it’s full of great hacks and tidbits.”
“We know that. That’s why we need it back so that Kiera can digitize it. Then you can have your own digital copy. Doesn’t the garage have its own laptops and tablets?”
We weren’t able to convert enough Earth devices to work on the Xarc’n networks for everyone to have their own, but most of the larger departments had access to at least one or two.
“Yeah, we have three actually.”
“Perfect. Once we digitize it, you can have a copy on hand all the time. How’s that sound?”
Kev’s face lit up. “Yes, that would be amazing.”
“Great! So let’s get that copy into Kiera’s hands, and I’ll have her move it to the front of the list.”
That seemed to appease him, and soon I was walking back to the community center, my target acquired.
I went back the way I came, behind the buildings.
I’d just gotten back inside the community center through an often-unused back door when I turned the corner, book still in hand, and found myself face-to-face with a certain surly-looking hunter who was clearly done with the merry chase I sent him on.
“Got you.” Big, burly arms wrapped around me. “You have eluded me long enough, female. My research into your culture tells me you are playing hard to get. I do not understand this game, but I have chased you and caught you, proving that I am the superior hunter. “
He thought I was playing hard to get?
Oops.
That hadn’t been the original intention, but I wasn’t going to tell him that I was actually trying to avoid an awkward situation.
At first, anyway. But by now, I wasn’t even sure why I was trying to avoid him; it was just thrilling being pursued when I knew it was one hundred percent safe.
Now that I was in his arms, it didn’t feel that awkward at all.
“I don’t usually drunk-kiss random strangers,” I blurted out.
“Just me?”
“Pretty much.”
“Good. Now that I have caught you, what is my prize? Playing hard to get means it is a game, and games have prizes.”
Games didn’t always have prizes, but instead of saying that, I asked, “What do you want?” My voice was so low and sultry, I didn’t even recognize it.
“Another kiss.” As if on cue, he started to purr.
A Xarc’n warrior was purring! For me! Hunters purred for young, biologically and intimately compatible females. I was far from young; I was post-menopausal. Trust me, going through menopause during an active bugpocalypse was something else.
Before it happened, I worried that I’d lose my libido completely.
But then I was so focused on staying alive and turning my menopausal rage on the bugs—hacking the buggers to bits with an ax was strangely therapeutic—that I’d forgotten all about my original worries.
Now I saw that I didn’t need to worry at all; my libido was alive and well.
More than well… it was kicking and hungry.
Voices came from around the corner, and I froze. Just because the hallway was rarely used didn’t mean we had privacy. I scanned the doors, looking for a better place to talk or whatever, and spied the storage room for our extra equipment. I quickly pulled Ror’k inside.
We were greeted by a wall of chairs. They were the heavy-duty industrial kind made of metal and cheap pleather, and we’d stacked them as high as we could reach just so they’d all fit in the room. The neatly stored chairs were a huge contrast to the pile of gym and crash mats dumped next to them.
The door behind us closed, plunging the room into darkness. I felt around for the light switch, but Ror’k was already pulling me farther into the room. He had no problem navigating in the dark.
Outside the door voices drew closer, and my heart raced in my chest as Ror’k led me through the puzzle of haphazardly stacked mats.
I felt like a teenager all over again, excited, literally fumbling around in the dark.
The need for connection was drowning out all the reasons why this was a horrible idea.
Ror’k was still purring, and I followed the sound, my hand so warm in his.
Then he was pulling me into his arms and urging me to sit.
I found myself sideways on his lap. His breath brushed my cheek, making heat curl in my belly.
Suddenly, it didn’t matter where we were; his presence filled every inch of the cramped space.
My hands rose to his chest, my fingers splaying over hot, firm muscles. He felt just as sexy as he had that night. Rough fingers tilted my chin, firmly but reverently. A soft growl was my only warning before his mouth found mine and he claimed his prize.
And this time he was the one leading as our lips and tongues danced and dueled.
Every long drag of his lips across mine was hungry and claiming.
My arms slid around his thick, tree trunk-like neck, pulling him closer as the warmth and vibrations of his chest spread through me.
His hand slid to the small of my back, holding me firmly to him.
Under my ass, Ror’k’s cock grew hard and obvious. The thought that I was making this proud and strong hunter react sent an electric thrill through me. A soft sound escaped me and it was answered by a low, satisfied growl.
My hands moved up to his majestic horns. I knew those were erogenous zones with the right type of touch. The moment I touched him his hips bucked and he groaned, the sound tortured.
I decided right then and there that experiencing it in real life was most definitely better than reading about it in books.