Chapter 13 #2
She hiccupped once, shuddering. Tuvo growled, approval lacing the sexy sound, as he wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted straight up. Clutching her body to him as he deepened the kiss with a hungry desperation, like he was trying to consume her.
A moan passed her lips as she slumped against him, holding tight. Her safety. Her strength. The thing grounding her in this crazy world.
She was alive, and she tasted it in his kiss.
He tried to pull back, but she chased him. Grabbing his head, gripping his hair. Another growl shook her core, her pussy right against his chest. She could feel it vibrating through her.
Yes. Yes! Kiss her. Claim her! Remind her that they were alive!
Tuvo’s hand wound through her hair, and she hummed in approval. A sound that became a needy whine when he instead used that hand to pull her head back, breaking their kiss. She licked her lips, eager for more, giving him a hungry look.
“Tuvo…”
“There you are,” he said, slowly lowering her back to her feet. “Stay with me, Hattie.”
“I… I can’t…”
“You can.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “You can do this. I know it’s scary. I know it’s a lot. And I promise, you can break down later. I’ll hold you through it. I won’t let you be alone. But you can’t do it now. Okay?”
She sniffed, taking in a shuddering breath as she tried to gather herself. To be strong. A near impossible task when she could feel, physically, in her chest just how fragile she was at this moment.
Looking down, the side of her bright red blood made her pause. Her arms and legs, unshielded by Tuvo’s body during the fall, had been whipped raw by the twigs and branches above. Flaying her open completely in some places.
Tuvo took her wrists carefully and looked her arms over.
“I wish I could lick these for you,” he said softly.
But he couldn’t. Her blood was an aphrodisiac for him. If he licked her wounds clean, that would only succeed in making him horny.
And it was definitely not the time.
“I’m okay,” she assured him, trying not to think of how likely it was that they would become infected. She had to believe they wouldn’t be lost in the forest that long.
“Some of these will scar.”
She chuckled weakly, looking at him. His skin had been whipped as well, but he only had a few dark spots here and there – bruises, no lacerations.
He was already covered in scars. There were three right across his face.
He was the only domini she knew with scars, especially such extensive ones.
No other domini had kinks in their tails from previous fractures. Only Tuvo.
And he was concerned about her scarring? It was kind of funny. Legitimately funny, not hysterically manic. She was back in control. Even if it was fragile.
“I don’t want scars on your skin,” he growled, as though angry.
“You don’t think scars are attractive?”
“Scars on you are marks of failure. My failure. Because I didn’t protect you. I will get you back to the Jutiron Stor, I swear to you. And I will see these healed.”
“Failure?” She repeated, looking at this scarred body. Surprised he thought that way when it seemed like he collected them for fashion.
“Come on. We need to get to the crash site.”
“Huh?” That was not what she had been expecting him to say. “Why?”
He turned away from her and looked through the trees. Sniffing at the air.
“We need to get to the plane. See if there’s any supplies we can use. If we can find the comm.”
“Oh, crud! The comm!” She joined him in looking around. Not that there was anything to see but trees, ferns, vines, and more trees. “And our phones. They were all… We can’t even call for help!”
“A landing shuttle wouldn’t be able to make it through the canopy anyway. Although, if the plane made a big enough hole, it could land through there. All the more reason to find the plane.”
“Okay, er…” Hattie looked down at herself. At her skirt that barely brushed her knees, at the chunky heeled, nude pumps. Neither of which were good for traversing the jungle.
“It will be relatively close,” Tuvo assured her. “It was falling in a spiral. A wide spiral, sure, but it will still be somewhere nearby.”
“Sure.” Hattie took a fortifying breath and focused only on that immediate goal. Get to the plane. One step at a time. She could do that without freaking out.
Tuvo stared at her a second before offering gently, “I can carry you.”
“No.” She shook her head quickly. “You already carried me out of the falling plane. And down… Did you really rip open a tree on the way down?”
She looked up and, even from here, she could see the deep gouge marks where his claws had torn into the bark as he slowed their fall.
“My claws are made for it,” he assured her.
“Are you injured?” She reached out for his hand-
-only for him to jerk it away.
Hurt, she flinched back.
“Sorry,” she said quickly. “I didn’t… I’m sorry.”
Holding hands was a very intimate thing for the domini. Their claws were their weapons and trusting someone enough to let their claws that close to you while rendering their own useless was a huge show of trust. It was done only between close couples.
One kiss meant to calm her down did not a couple make. And his humping at her didn’t mean that he trusted her. Of course, he wouldn’t let her take his hand.
“We should get going,” Tuvo said, turning forward. Bringing his hands forward as well, as though he didn’t even want to let her see them. “Tell me if you need me to carry you.”
“Sure. Okay,” she mumbled, stepping after him.
She had no idea why he chose the direction he did, but he quickly outpaced her. Even if she hadn’t been wearing heels, even short ones, his long legs ate up ground faster than her. He quickly realized it though and slowed down so she could remain behind him.
The animals were calling out again. Yelling at each other through the trees, making goosebumps pop up on Hattie’s arms. She rubbed them nervously as she looked around.
Where were they anyway?
This forest was dense, thick, and completely untouched. Were there even any forests like this in North America? It almost looked like…
But no, that was ridiculous.
However, the first time she saw a bright, blue frog, just chilling innocently on a leaf, it brought her up short. She might not be a forest or wildlife expert, but she knew very well that, at least in the frog world, anything bright and not green was bad. Poisonous to the touch bad.
And they definitely didn’t have those in North America.
“Hattie? What’s wrong?”
She didn’t realize she had come to a halt until Tuvo returned to her side. He followed her gaze to the tiny, bright blue frog and cocked his head curiously.
“Is that creature dangerous?”
“It’s a, er… Well, it looks like a poisonous frog.”
“I shall know better than to bring you such things to eat then.”
“No, I mean... No, you can’t eat them, but they’re poisonous to the touch. Their skin secretes a poison that seeps through the skin.”
Tuvo looked at her, horrified. “Is that a thing that can happen to humans?”
“What? There’s nothing poisonous to the touch on Turv?”
“No! Just how thin is your skin?” He took her by the shoulders and pulled her back.
As he did so, she caught a glimpse of his claws out of the corner of her eye. Huge and black. He hadn’t retracted them yet.
He quickly took his hand away.
“There aren’t any frogs like that in North America. At least, I don’t think there are. Tuvo, I don’t think we’re even on the right continent. This place… This forest… It looks like the .”
“What is that?”
“It’s a huge rainforest. Massive. Wild. We could be days… weeks from civilization. How is anyone even going to find us out here?”
“Maybe that was the point,” Tuvo said, growling. “Roger didn’t want anyone finding us out here. We were meant to die in this place. Why did you just smack your arm?”
“A mosquito bit me,” she mumbled, already anticipating the itch that was going to be later.
Tuvo yanked his shirt off of his head and offered it to her. It wasn’t long sleeved, but it was long enough that she could use it as a cape.
“Are you sure?” She asked, taking it from him cautiously.
“I doubt those little bugs are going to be able to penetrate my skin. Take it.”
She nodded thankfully and pulled it around her shoulders. It smelled like him. A warm, comforting scent. The forest was hot and humid, and she was already feeling the effects of both, but it was nice to relax into the fabric for just a second.
“Let’s keep going,” Tuvo said, leading her forward again.
She followed, staring curiously at his back. His skin was brown and beige and green now. His jeans and boots kind of broke the illusion, but both were already becoming stained and ripped, letting him blend in just a bit more.
And the scarring actually helped. The scarred skin still camouflaged, but it gave him a bumpy, irregular appearance that aided in blending him into his surroundings. Nature wasn’t perfect, smooth skin, after all.
It was easy to imagine losing him in the trees if he didn’t want to be found.
“You called this a rainforest?” He asked a short time later as he was pushing his way through the brush. Looking at each leaf as though checking to make sure there weren’t any frogs there for her to touch. “How often does it rain here?”
“Pretty much once a day, I think,” she said, even as distant thunder echoed a few miles off as if to confirm her theory. “At least we won’t lack for water.”
“It’s not wise to count on rain as a water supply. Too inconsistent.”
“Even in a place that rains daily?”
“Admittedly, there is some leeway there, but I would still rather have a river or something.”
Hattie grimaced. “Erm, well, I’m no expert, if this is the , I think there are things in the water that can eat you.”
“Any big predators? On land or in the water.”
“I’m not sure. I know the frogs. I’m pretty sure piranhas are from the . Got that from a movie. They’re fish that swarm and eat meat. Which, now that I actually have to face the possibility of that, is a genuinely terrifying statement.”