Chapter 23 Dottie
I stood at the broken edge of the floor and stared down, down, down at the rubble below, regretting it immediately as a relentless rush of vertigo threatened to send me sprawling over the edge to my doom.
Ror’k had his arms wrapped around me instantly, enveloping me in a sense of safety.
I leaned back against him and closed my eyes, willing the dizziness to pass as he guided me back away from danger.
“This is a problem.” His voice sounded more tired than I’d ever heard it.
I took in the crazy-looking scene before me.
We were in one of the units on the third floor of the repurposed factory lofts, though it barely resembled a place meant for living anymore.
Furniture lay scattered around the room in uneven piles, and the couch was upside down.
Shattered glass glittered across the floor in uneven patches.
A toppled bookshelf leaned against a cracked support beam, and a trail of debris stretched from the kitchen to the far wall.
But all that was nothing compared to the gaping hole in the exterior wall with a Xarc’n shuttle wedged in it. The edges of the breach were jagged, torn inward as Ror’k’s shuttle had punched straight through the concrete.
The rear end of said shuttle was hanging out of the building, while the nose was firmly parked in some guy’s living room. It balanced there so precariously that I wondered how the storm had gotten it to stay in that position in the first place.
The worst part? The only way to get inside the shuttle was outside the building, and it was upside down.
But considering the damage the storm had done to the more flimsily built row of stores across the street, I’d consider it a win. At least it hadn’t been thrown too far. And still looked like a shuttle.
The same could not be said for the ice cream parlor.
The ceiling had come down onto the first floor, and the ice cream parlor was filled with plaster, beams, and rubble.
The upstairs apartment where we’d found the kittens had been completely torn off the rest of the building.
I hated to think about what would’ve happened if we hadn’t gotten Her Highness and her nuggets out of there.
We’d also had some problems getting out of the basement, and if Ror’k hadn’t been here, I’d still be stuck down there.
Maybe forever. While the basement itself had clearly been constructed to withstand the storm, probably to be used as a bomb shelter, as was common in buildings from that era, it wasn’t designed to prevent debris from sealing the door shut.
In the end, it had taken raw power as Ror’k used his inhuman strength to shove the pile of debris back enough to open the door. It was already late in the day. But even in the setting sun, I could see how pale he looked. His vibrant purple skin had dulled, and he looked so tired.
Luckily for us, getting up to the ship had ended up being the easy part.
The factory building hadn’t been in the direct path of the twister, and just being across the street had been enough to save it from much of the damage.
Everything inside was destroyed at first glance, but that was Tilly’s doing, not the storm, and we made our way upstairs easily.
But now we had to figure out how to actually get into the shuttle.
“I don’t think it’s safe to climb over to the door,” I said as the shuttle swayed slightly in the dying wind. “It looks like any weight on the end would send it crashing down.”
“You are right. I do not believe it would hold my weight.”
“It might hold mine, but I have the climbing ability of a clumsy panda.”
“I can lower you down from the roof if we find some cordage.”
I thought about it. “Okay, but what happens once I get down? Your shuttle’s not going to let me in, unless this is one of those supersmart sentient PIP models.”
Ror’k’s shoulders dropped. “It is not.” His stomach, which still hadn’t been filled yet, let out another loud complaint.
“Let’s go find the food Tilly left behind. And maybe a safe place to rest for the night. I’m exhausted even though I technically rested through part of the storm.” I reached down to pick up our basket full of cats, but Ror’k took it from me.
It had been a team effort trying to corral all the kittens back into the basket again. Her Highness seemed resigned to it now, but we should probably let them out before one of them inevitably soiled the basket.
Following the detailed instructions Alice had sent to Ror’k’s communicator, we found Tilly’s old apartment and the promised food and water exactly where they were supposed to be.
The windows to the place were now broken, so we took our goodies with us and eventually found a unit on the second floor that was still intact.
“Did you know the second floor used to be covered in booby traps?” I asked as we made our way through the hallways. “It was a Tilly specialty.”
Ror’k grunted. “Rayk’n wasn’t a hunter from my mothership, but I have spoken to him. His mate is very clever. Many humans are. You make good allies and friends.”
This unit wasn’t just intact. It was surprisingly clean, especially considering Tilly had once stormed through here and turned everything upside down on purpose.
It was easy to flip the chairs and tables back over.
Instead of placing their bed in the lofted area, whoever had lived here before had treated the entire place like one big bachelor pad, placing the huge king-size bed in the main room.
The first thing we did was kitten-proof the place.
Then I found a container and dumped the sad, dried-out remnants of the houseplants lining the window into it, hoping they’d take the hint and use it as a litter box.
Finally, I busted out the dog food we’d found earlier and served up a can along with a bowl of water.
The kittens were too young to eat solid food, but Her Highness went to town.
After a quick change of sheets from the chest at the foot of the bed, we were ready to rumble.
We pulled the coffee table over so we could sit and eat dinner on the bed. It wasn’t like we’d need to worry about washing the sheet after. I lined up our selection. It wasn’t bad, all things considered.
“Beef stew, chicken noodle, and mystery meat,” I said, looking over our buffet.
“Meat is good. I need something high in protein.”
“How good are you at dealing with excess sodium? There are a few cans of corned beef here. But we usually cook that with other foods since it’s so salty.”
“Hunter bodies are excellent at filtering out minerals we do not need.”
“Then it’s all yours.” I tossed him two cans. “There’s one more here, and a can of off-brand Spam.”
I decided on the beef stew, tracked down the can opener buried under a pile of utensils, and we dug into our very glamorous dinner in the glow of his communicator. With his shuttle only a few units up and over, we didn’t need to worry about battery life. Wasn’t proximal charging a wonderful thing?
Ror’k put away a shocking amount of food.
I watched him scrape the last bit from the last can, still amazed.
He’d started with the canned meat, finished all of them, then moved on to chicken noodle, leaving the final can of beef stew for me.
And when I told him one can was enough for me, he’d eaten that too.
My kidneys hurt just thinking about all the salt he’d just ingested, but he’d also chugged quite a bit of water.
“You weren’t kidding about needing fuel.”
“I burned through most of my reserves healing.”
He started to remove pieces of his armor, and my breath caught at the sight of his wounds. The gashes that had marred his skin had been replaced by red welts that looked angry, but sealed. They were smooth and a little shiny.
“Do they still hurt?” I asked.
“They do not hurt now. They were superficial.”
He tossed the final piece of armor into the pile next to his weapons, then stretched in only that dead-sexy loincloth.
A sea of muscles flexed in a slow ripple that had my belly fluttering with butterflies.
The slow roll of his shoulders, the ripple along his stomach…
even the red marks crisscrossing his body were not enough to distract from his utter perfection. I couldn’t tear my eyes away.
He came to sit back on the bed, and I reached out before I could second-guess myself.
My fingertips brushed over the fresh mark along his ribs.
It felt hot, reminding me of how warm he’d been back in that basement.
My fingers trailed off the mark and onto his chest. He was still warm here, but less so.
His chest started to vibrate under my hand in that low rumble that told me he was thinking of me and sexy thoughts together in one sentence. Like one of Pavlov’s dogs hearing the dinner bell, I heard the sound and my body immediately responded, thinking of how our bodies fit together so perfectly.
It seemed I’d already learned how to tell his purring apart. This was his sexy-time purr, and I found myself hauled into his lap.
“But you’re still healing!” I protested.
His voice dropped even deeper than usual. “Your weight is slight; it could not hurt me. And I like having you on top of me. I have replenished my calories enough to continue healing. Touching you will help me heal.”
“Oh, will it now? I’m pretty sure you made that up.”
“You have no proof.”
I chuckled. “No, I do not.”
Ror’k moved to the center of the bed, pulling me along. He settled me into his lap with my back against him, and his hands started moving over my body, his hands sliding under my top to trace over my skin.
“You are so soft.”
“You mean I am too soft.” I knew I wasn’t as firm and perky as I once was. I’d long come to terms with the fact that my body had changed.
“No. You are perfect.”
And if I had any doubt of his honesty, the cock growing under my ass was enough to dispel it. I wiggled my hips experimentally and he groaned. The sound was so hot it had wetness rushing down to my core.
Then he was moving us back again.
“Lift your arms.”
I did, and he grasped the hem of my top and peeled it off my body.
The comfy sports bra I wore—because who had time to deal with underwires—came off next.
He pulled me back against him, and I reached up over my head to slide my fingers through the wiry strands of his hair.
I twisted my body just enough to look at him.
He had a look of concentration, and the tips of his fangs poked out to dent his bottom lip. It was hot as sin, and I suddenly had the urge to kiss him. I pulled him down, but our positions meant I only managed to kiss the corner of his lips until he shifted and crushed his mouth to mine.
The cock under my ass was so hard now, it felt like it could lift me up off the bed. I could feel his distinct sections bulging under me. Impatient for more of him, I broke the kiss and rocked my hips. It earned me a low growl.
“I want to fuck you, Dottie.” The words were so raw and honest. They made my heart pound.
“I want you too.”
Ror’k growled again and pushed me forward onto my hands and knees on the soft bed. He grabbed several of the pillows and shoved them under my body. I loved that he was even now thinking about my comfort.
His body was so big and warm. Powerful too, and I felt tiny in the sexiest possible way.
His cock jutted out, hot and heavy against my back.
I was hyper aware of it as he curled around me, the thick length trapped between us.
He nuzzled the top of my head, then moved down to nip at my ears.
It sent a frisson of lust tickling down my spine.
The sensation was compounded by the slow drag of his sharp fangs down the back of my neck.
I couldn’t stop a needy, breathy sound that escaped my lips. Neither could I stop myself from shoving back at him and at the cock pressed between our bodies.
“Dottie.”
His weight shifted, and his warmth disappeared for a moment before strong hands gripped the waistband of my pants and pulled them over my ass, followed by shoving them down my thighs.
The fan of his hot breath against the back of my legs was my only warning when he licked me from my clit to my opening.
There was a hum of appreciation, then he plunged his thick tongue into me.
I keened at the erotic sensation and arched my back as pleasure tore through me. I shoved back with my hips, grinding my pussy on his face. His ever-present purring increased, and it was like someone had turned on the vibrations. I was so close when he pulled away.
I whined with disappointment, but he was already getting into place and lining us up.
“I cannot wait any longer. I need you now.”
One of his hands slid up my spine as he steadied himself. I felt the thick head of his cock nudging at my entrance and stilled.
God, I’d forgotten how big it was. But I was already panting and aching for him, and we couldn’t stop now. He dragged the tip through my folds, and I pushed back against him impatiently.
“Slow. There is no rush.”
“No rush?” I asked incredulously. “If I don’t have you in me right now, I’m going to die.” I shoved back a little harder.
He chuckled, but he held my hips in place. “Is that so?”
“Yes! Please, Ror’k.”
All I got was a growl as he pressed into me.
My eyes went wide as I felt each of his ridges enter me.
It felt like I’d taken on more than I could handle.
When he was fully impaled inside me, he only stilled for a second before he started to move.
My pussy gripped onto him, and he had to fight for movement.
“Krux! This looks so fucking good,” he said.
I imagined what he saw, and just the thought of his thick, hard cock spearing into me, my pussy stretching over each thick bulge, was enough to have me clawing at the mattress.
The hand on my back reached around and slid down my body, slipping between my thighs. Deft fingers fondled my clit, swirling and strumming. Too overwhelmed with sensations, I exploded around him. I choked on my own breath. I was a quivering mess, and my pussy throbbed as my climax barreled into me.