Chapter 8 Burr’k
I regretted my words the moment they left my lips. I hadn’t realized how thoroughly soaked and shivering Holly was until she turned around. Her face was pale and her lips blue. Her fingertips were like ice cubes as she poked my chest.
I grabbed her hand, which was just as cold, and pulled her into my embrace.
“You are soaked,” I said. “I did not know. Let me warm you.”
“I don’t need your help!” She tried to pull away, but I kept her there. After a moment, she didn’t try to escape, probably because I was so much warmer than her.
But her jacket was still on, and it was wet and cold, and so were the rest of her garments. They needed to come off, so I started to strip her. First her jacket, then her feet and leg coverings.
“What are you—”
“You are chilled through. I need to warm you, and it is faster if there is skin-to-skin contact.”
“I don’t need—”
I pulled her close again to remind her how much warmer my body was compared to the air of the shuttle.
“Fine. You win. But only because I’m freezing.”
I continued peeling off the layers. I had no idea she wore so many.
But soon she was only in soft, useless chest armor and a thin strap that covered her sex.
The sight of her, even so bedraggled, was enough to send all my excess blood to my cock.
But my loincloth had to go too. It was just as wet as her outerwear.
I quickly turned her around and urged her into the sleeping nook, even as I whipped off my leathers and climbed in after her.
I kept her turned to face the wall so she would not see my arousal.
Xarc’n warriors were differently shaped than human males, and I wouldn’t know what to do if the sight of me frightened, or worse, disgusted her.
She was still shaking from the cold, so I did what I could, pressing my loudly rumbling chest to her back. Keeping my hips back, I let my legs warm hers too. I ran my hands over her chilled skin, hoping it was enough.
“Don’t you have any blankets?”
“No,” I said regretfully. The hunters at New Franklin had spoken of the virtues of things like pillows and blankets. But I’d scoffed at them, believing they’d gotten soft. Now I wished I had at least one or the other.
She sighed. “I guess you are pretty warm. At least you’re not grumpy and cold.”
“I do not wish to be either.”
“You sure fooled me.”
Was Jask’l right after all? Did I come across as grumpy?
It was true that it had gotten so much harder to see the better side of things since we lost the mothership.
I thought the others would take it worse.
But they all seemed to have accepted fate and facts.
They were hopeful that with the humans’ help, we’d be able to build a replacement. I wasn’t so sure.
I’d been feeling so lost since, like the only home I knew had been taken from me. And until my friend had volunteered me for this mission, I hadn’t had any direction. I’d felt so useless.
Okay, so maybe I was being grumpy. But I didn’t want to be. I wasn’t like this before.
“I know you think this is a dumb foraging run,” Holly said, as if reading my thoughts, “and I’m just another helpless female you have to babysit. But you can at least pretend you care.” Her voice was no longer shaky, and her body was already warming.
“You are right,” I admitted, “I had thought this a waste of time. At first, anyway. But now I see that it isn’t.”
“Really?”
“Your quest to bring hope back in the form of gifts for the younglings is a noble one. And you are not helpless. Or a chore.”
She was silent for a long moment. “Thank you. Hope is very important.”
Hope. Was that what had been missing from my life?
Holly snuggled back, wiggling her luscious hips. We both inhaled sharply when her ass bumped up against my cock. It was still half-hard despite our serious conversation, because of our constant contact and the fact that my hands were running over her body, memorizing her curves.
At the slightest touch, it roared back to life, thickening and lengthening instantly. Even without seeing it, she should be able to feel how different I was. How would she react?
Then my senses were flooded by her lust, and instead of pulling away, she wiggled again, pressing back against me. I groaned, my arms tightening across her body to keep her still.
“Holly,” I warned, my voice almost drowned out by the thunderous rumbling that ripped from my chest.
Krux. I wanted her so badly. Every second I held her, the line between need and control blurred. I was only supposed to be warming her, but now I was burning up instead.
She moved again, purposefully, her hips grinding back against mine. But when her hands reached up to caress my horns, any control I had disappeared.