Chapter 13
Sex was amazing, despite Inkiri’s barb, but at the same time, my ass was sore.
I didn’t feel too bad, though it was noticeable.
No part of me was untouched anymore, and my body had taken note, marking the occasion with this soreness.
Well, my mouth was mostly untouched. I wasn’t going to take that monster cock and its barbs into my mouth, though; a bit of sweet pain was one thing, a bloody tongue another.
Inkiri was syrupy sweet with me afterward, going so far as to wrap me in a big, fluffy towel and almost beg me to let him pick me up. Which I agreed to. I told myself it was because I didn’t want to walk down that hallway and through the armory with bare feet.
Back in the bedroom we’d already shared, I changed into a fresh set of clothes.
I didn’t own much clothing, just two pairs of pants and a couple of T-shirts, along with some underwear.
I picked the pants I’d washed in a house I’d stayed in for a few nights and a cute tee with a smiling cartoon cupcake on the front.
Inkiri watched me get changed in all his naked glory. When I sat on his mattress pile to pull on yet another pair of the cute cat socks, I most definitely felt what we’d done and grimaced. Sitting down after you’d taken a barbed monster cock was bound to leave some soreness behind.
Inkiri clicked and came over. He whisked the socks out of my fingers and knelt in front of me.
“Back home, we call it pleasure pain.” He put the socks on me, extremely carefully, as if he thought I’d break. “It’ll fade soon enough. But if you feel too uncomfortable, Fellisse will be happy to give you something to soothe it.”
I turned millet bean red. I had not been prepared for that sort of discussion. Laying bare my virgin status had been bad enough. Talking about what it required to finally get that status changed wasn’t better. Didn’t people normally ignore that kind of thing?
I tucked a strand of hair back behind my left ear. “I’m fine. But seriously, who has fucking barbs in their penis?”
Inkiri had the audacity to chuckle. “All hangu-naga.”
“Gosh, you’re a weird species, the lot of you.” He looked up at me as if he were wondering how serious I was about that. “But the tongue is definitely nice,” I added quickly.
He held my gaze, which made my toes curl.
In response, he ran his thumb over my instep, gentle but firm.
Something odd happened in that moment, with him kneeling there while we stared at one another.
My heart seemed to speed up, and a fuzzy warmth settled in my belly.
I’d only known Inkiri for a day, but it didn’t feel like it at all.
It was like there’d been a place at my side for forever, and it had been empty until he was finally there. It was the oddest thing.
Inkiri’s nostrils flared. “Rory. You will tell me when you don’t understand something we do or say, or when you want something from me that I don’t know to do for you, yes?
Earth has always interested me, and I’ve studied it more than most. But this is still my first time coming here, and Donna was the first human I got to have a conversation with.
I’m scared I might mistreat you out of ignorance. ”
I snorted. “I’ve got to meet this Donna person.”
I reached up to cup his cheek, the move feeling natural and so very right. His skin was warm under my palm, and he smiled.
“You will. She’s a biologist, and she said she wants to live a quiet life, grow her own food. I suppose we could stop by her place on our way back from the Stone.” He paused, then cupped my knees with his hands. “That aside, will you promise?”
Voice my needs. It shouldn’t be too hard, should it? And yet, the one good thing about the last two years had been all the time that had opened up on my calendar for introspection. I’d done more of that than was strictly comfortable.
I had a general idea that I’d always had trouble telling people what I wanted.
Ever since I was little, the au pair du jour had been the one to take care of my needs, or whoever had been doing the parenting while my parents were off doing their own thing.
I’d quickly found that every au pair would pay me more attention if I was nice and made no trouble, so when I was sad about only being cast as a tree, I’d cried about it by myself.
That way, I’d been able to pretend I was just happy to be in the play when I told the au pair, and she’d told me how proud she was of me.
While all of that had been the kind of thing that would’ve cost some good money to realize with the help of a therapist pre-apocalypse, it didn’t help me here. Knowing something about yourself doesn’t mean you can fix it.
But Inkiri seemed to really want to know. Maybe I had to figure out how to communicate meaningfully with him in order to keep him happy. My parents mostly communicated via email, which seemed to work for them. I didn’t see that as a viable way forward for me and him.
“Uhm, I’ll try, okay? It’s the best you’re going to get.”
Inkiri tilted his head and clicked a few times. “All right, sweet thing.” He smiled. “I like a challenge, and your happiness seems a worthy one.”
Oh, this guy. So sappy, yet so horned and fierce looking. He could’ve passed for a barbarian who’d be content with dragging me off to a cave, but no, I was getting…this. Someone who helped me put on my socks and took long, soothing baths with me. My cheeks flamed red.
“Cool.”
He grunted. “You should rest here. Or downstairs. Fellisse, Vergis, and I need to prepare to leave.”
I didn’t like the idea of leaving. I’d only just gotten here, and I liked the place.
The religious compound had set off my alarm bells early on, but I’d been so tired and scared, plus that monster eating a person outside a pub had happened the same day I’d met the crazies.
I’d hoped for the best. I’d hoped for an effing break.
Now that it looked like I was actually getting my break, I didn’t want it to end so soon.
Inkiri turned his head so he could press a soft kiss to my wrist, then he stood, unfolding that gorgeous, yummy body.
“Maybe Donna has a point about a quiet life.” I scratched my head as I watched Inkiri get dressed. Noticeably in a shirt that buttoned up at the side so he didn’t have to pull it on over his head.
“You want a quiet life?” He pulled on pants. This clothing was also black, and while the shirt had ornate buttons, the pants came with a wrap-around tie. He finished all of it with a thin sash, then a belt on top of that. “You want, what’s that word…homesteading?”
“Uh, no. That doesn’t sound right. I just want something uneventful, you know?” I stood and went to my backpack to grab my phone and charging cable, although it still had about a day’s worth of battery life.
I turned the device on and went to my messages. My aunt had sent me a pic of her latest cocktail creation, and she’d called it Apocalypse Knockout No. 57. I wasn’t sure whether I should find that sad or hilarious.
“I think I have an idea of what you mean.” Inkiri walked up behind me.
He hugged me, his hands coming to rest on my belly. It made heat flare inside of me, this simple gesture. I’d dreamed about being that close to someone. I’d envied this easy intimacy in others like I’d envied any bit of unselfconscious PDA.
I didn’t need to be envious anymore. I didn’t want to gush about it to the blue monster group, but the urge to share it all over social media, even if that was a quiet place these days, was strong. I would do it, even if no one ever saw my new relationship status.
Inkiri looked over my shoulder. “You have a phone.”
“Oh, yeah. It survived. Battery’s even still fine.” I showed him my aunt’s cocktail. “This is the screwdriver of the apocalypse. The newest cocktail my aunt made. See what I mean about her liking her drink?”
“Yes. But it’s pretty. So colorful. Why is there fruit in it?”
“Garnish.” I zoomed in on the maraschino cherries and apple slices. “Cocktails need garnish, you know.”
“Ah. Nokim wanted to sample alcohol, but he got distracted by all the tea and coffee. Especially the tea. According to his latest count, he’s found seventy-three different flavors. He’s been cataloging them and taking notes about the flavors and where he found them.”
I snorted. “Couldn’t ever happen to my aunt. She always knows to go for the booze first.”
“She sounds like a character.” He licked my neck. “You want to go downstairs, yes?”
“Yeah.” I had a relationship status to change, after all.
“All right. I’ll walk you down, then I’ll check to see you have all you need in a bit.”
He peeled away, and my back felt very cold without him there.
We went downstairs, not hand in hand, but with Inkiri leading me by the wrist. He made even that gesture intimate with how he ran his thumb and fingers over the sensitive inside of my wrist, and at the bottom of the stairs, he tilted my head up to kiss me again before heading to one of the downstairs rooms to prepare with Fellisse.
When I walked back into the living room area, I was still dazed, something that faded quickly when I spotted Vergis lying stretched out on the mattress pile with his arms behind his head and the curves of his horns digging into the mattress.
He glanced up at me and smirked. “You get noisy when you get cock.”
My jaw dropped, and I got, like, the worst case of cabbage-red face. “Excuse me?”
“You’re loud when you fuck, and your voice carries. Especially when you leave the bathroom window open.”
“Well, excuse you.”
I wasn’t sure whether I should go back upstairs, but I’d spotted an outlet by the mattresses earlier. I wasn’t going to let this asshole keep me from finally telling what remained of the world that I was no longer single.
I walked over there, trying to hold my head high, plugged in my phone, and sat on the floor by the foot of the mattress. Which of course made me wince.
Vergis adjusted so he could look at me. “Oh dear. Still a bit raw down there, are you?”
I cleared my throat. “You’re either jealous or a misanthrope. That has to suck.”
He sniggered. “Oh, I’m a total misanthrope. And on the subject of misanthropy, let me promise you something.” His voice made my skin crawl.
“I’m good, actually.” I tried keeping my eyes firmly on my screen, but I couldn’t. I felt him staring at me. My lizard brain urged me to run.
“Oh, but I fucking insist.” He moved so fast that the scream bubbling up in my throat never had a chance to come out before he was all up in my face.
“This is nothing personal. But if you hurt Inkiri in any way—if you decide to use him or think he’s some dumb savage you can lead along like all your colonizing ancestors have done to their own kind for centuries—I will gut you.
And I mean that literally. I will find you when he’s not there, and it will be so fast you’ll only know what’s happening when all your wobbly bits are tumbling out.
Always remember that while you keep doing whatever it is you think you’re doing here. ”
What I was doing was clenching hard so I didn’t pee myself. Luckily, Vergis didn’t wait around for confirmation that I’d understood his threat. He stormed out. Or rather, he slinked, moving soundlessly and so darn nimbly that I had no doubt whatsoever that he could do to me what he’d promised.
I sat there frozen for a few moments while Vergis closed the glass door behind himself. Clicking from my right made me turn to see Nokim standing just at the edge of where the carpets began.
“Donna used to say he is an acquired taste,” Nokim said.
I nodded. “Sure. One way of putting it.”
“I’m almost finished with your brooch, but maybe you’d like some tea first? Chamomile? It’s supposed to be calming.”
I nodded. “You know what, I don’t usually drink tea, but I think I’ll give it a shot.”
Nokim beamed and headed for the kitchen.
“Nokim?”
“Yes, Rory?”
“Do you think I could try that mashed potato thing you’ve been doing? With sugar?”
He brightened like a kid on Christmas morning and rocked back and forth on his feet. “Honey, in fact. Just wait there and relax. I’ll bring everything out in a moment.”
I’d been threatened, overheard during orgasm, deflowered, and carried in Inkiri’s arms. Not to mention, I’d been barbed without warning. Potato pudding didn’t feel all that adventurous compared to that, and I was looking forward to it.
I turned to my phone and changed my status to “in a relationship.” Finally.