Chapter 11
Jaime
I wake up with a start, confused about where I am and why creeper vines are wrapped around my body.
Once the initial wave of panic subsides and my brain engages, I realize the vines are Adam’s limbs, probably all eight of them, wrapped around me like I’m a Christmas ham.
Judging by the even breaths coming from behind me, he’s still asleep, so I stay still, not wanting to wake him.
The poor male has been lugging my ass around all day. He deserves some rest.
I realize I’m lying on my side and frown, trying to remember how I got there. I usually wake up when I need to roll over and spend a minute or two repositioning my legs until I’m comfortable. It’s possible I did that in my sleep, but something tells me that my alien keeper had a hand or four in it.
It’s sweet, especially since he definitely didn’t take any courses on caring for a disabled person.
Yet, he’s doing all the right things, purely on instinct.
Alien instinct at that. It’s remarkable and sweet.
Did I mention sweet? I’m a sucker for sweet guys.
Not those who just woo you with sweet words, but those who actually back those words with actions. And Adam is all action.
I’m thirsty, need to pee, and my cock is uncomfortably hard, but since there’s nothing I can do about any of that right now, I let myself enjoy the first time I’ve woken up in someone’s arms. I’ve had sex before, a few times, though looking for hookups as a disabled gay is, unsurprisingly, quite difficult, but I’ve never had this.
Someone holding me just to hold me. Sleeping next to me.
Carrying me around. Protecting me. Looking after me.
The person who comes closest to this is Steven, but I’m absolutely not going to think about my brother while sporting an aching erection.
Just as I’m wondering whether I could jerk off without waking Adam up—probably not—he stirs. There’s no groggy confusion when he wakes. He just starts purring, his arms tightening around me, and buries his face deeper into my hopelessly tangled hair.
“Good morning,” I say, although I can’t really tell whether it’s actually morning. Does this moon even have a day and night cycle? The daylight seemed to last forever. “Sleep well?”
He chuffs into my hair before rolling away.
Plopping onto my back, I watch him perform a cat-like stretch and cringe at the impossible way he bends his long spine.
Once he’s done with his stretch, he cautiously approaches me, as if worried about startling me.
I smile, momentarily forgetting that showing my teeth to a predator isn’t the best idea, but Adam seems to understand that from me, it isn’t a threatening gesture.
When he bares his teeth back at me in what must be an imitation of my smile, though, I shudder.
Creatures with this many teeth should never grin.
“I’ll take that as a yes. Hey, if it’s safe out there, can we go outside for a bit? I need some private jungle time.” Since Adam doesn’t understand me, I point at the tunnel leading out of the cave.
He points to the cave floor, waits for me to repeat the gesture, then disappears into the tunnel.
“Right, so I stay put and you go scout if it’s safe,” I conclude to the empty cave.
“That’s wise. Wouldn’t want me weighing you down in case whatever was after us yesterday is still lurking out there.
” I still have no clue what scared Adam so much yesterday, but I won’t question his expertise.
If he thought we were in danger, we were in danger.
For all I know, there could be evil ghosts haunting this jungle.
With the way my luck has been going, it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest.
It doesn’t take long before scuffling in the tunnel announces Adam’s return.
Without a word, not that I expected one from him, he scoops me up into his arms and carries me outside.
Without a word, not that I expected one from him, he scoops me up into his arms and carries me outside.
Once there, all I can do is stare with my mouth wide open.
It’s night, which means there is, in fact, a day and night cycle.
Curiosity about astrophysical facts is the last thing on my mind as I gawk at the incredible beauty around us.
The sun isn’t up, but that doesn’t mean the jungle is dark.
Everything glows. The trees, leaves, creeper vines, bushes, and blooms shine with an ethereal glow.
Even the forest floor bursts to light wherever Adam’s feet touch.
Then there are the animals. The loud dragon birds I saw earlier are no longer grayish white but glow deep purple, like they’ve been put under UV light.
There are glowing bugs and lizards in every color imaginable.
Looking up, my breath catches again when I see the emerald green gas giant filling most of the sky.
The planet’s ring glitters like it’s made of diamonds.
The northern lights are gone, but the planet more than makes up for their absence.
I almost regret that the leaves are stretched out again, the way they were when I first landed here.
The way they were before the northern lights started.
Of course! How didn’t I think about it before? It was a solar flare that knocked Pon’s ship off course and caused us to crash here, and what are auroras, really? Solar radiation caught in the planet’s magnetosphere.
Like I said. Long hospital stays. Lots of documentaries.
My point is, what if the thing Adam was protecting us from wasn’t a predator, but the sun itself?
If the star is very active, it can cause solar flares and storms frequently, which would explain why the local life adapted to withstand them without absorbing too much radiation.
Radiation. Shit. That’s not good, is it?
Although radiation should probably be the least of my worries.
Between being stranded on a hostile planet with no way out and my chronic condition that’s bound to kill me sooner rather than later, getting skin cancer down the line is just a rotten cherry on top of my cake of messed-up-ness. And yes, that’s a word.
“Adam?”
He immediately lowers his head to look at me, his eyes doing that synchronized blink again.
Front pair, side pair. Pause. Repeat. Then his tongue darts out of his mouth to lick at an eyeball.
It should be revolting. It really should, but all it makes me think about is how damned good that tongue would feel wrapped around my cock or up my— Nope.
This is not helping my boner situation, which in turn is not helping my need to pee.
“Set me down, please. Down.” I point on the forest floor.
Huffing, Adam moves a few steps in this and that direction, presumably to find the best spot to place me at before gently lowering me on the ground.
Great. Now, if my cock could just calm the fuck down so that I could pee, that would be great.
I don’t even know why it’s this hard. I’m attracted to Adam, obviously, but mere attraction shouldn’t give me a hard-on like this.
I try to think of something else. Anything other than how good his arms felt wrapped around me and how sweet he is, and don’t even get me started on that tongue.
Steven. Yes, thinking about my brother should kill my boner quickly.
He must be worried sick. He’s always been my protector, beating up anyone who even looked at me wrong and helping me with whatever I needed whenever I needed it, sometimes before even I asked.
He never forced me to eat worms but.. Yeah.
Were Steven here instead of Adam, he would absolutely stuff my mouth full of worms and force me to eat them to keep me alive.
I guess the two of them aren’t that different, except thinking about Steven’s tongue doesn’t make my cock hard. Adam’s tongue, on the other hand…
Dammit, what’s wrong with me? Is Adam emitting some alien pheromones or something like that? Because my horniness sure as hell isn’t normal. Now I’m stuck here with a desperately hard cock and an equally desperate need to pee, and I can’t deal with either because I have an audience.
“Adam? Can you give me a moment, please? Alone,” I say in a slightly sharper voice.
Adam moves closer, giving me those puppy murder-chameleon eyes again.
“Don’t do that,” I groan. “I just need to jerk off so I can pee, and then we can go. But you need to go away now. Go. Away.” I accompany the words with a flick of my hand, waving toward the trees.
Whining, Adam backs off a few steps, then flops to the ground, giving me a determined stare.
“No. Further away.”
He just huffs and wriggles to get comfortable, clearly letting me know he isn’t moving an inch.
“Come on. Don’t be a dick.”
Another huff. Is he pouting?
“Fine. Whatever.” Jesus freaking Christ, I guess I’m jerking off in front of him, because I can’t hold back any longer.
Normally, the thought of having an audience would make my erection shrivel up, but with Adam, it’s different.
The thought of him watching me touch myself only makes me even hornier.
Damn, who knew I was such a kinky fucker?
Fortunately, with the way the jumpsuit opens in the front, I don’t have to take the whole thing off for this particular task. I undo the bottom part, heaving a relieved sigh as my cock springs out of the tight confines.
Still works.
I can’t even begin to describe the fear that one day the polyneuropathy will steal this from me too. But today is not that day, and as I grab myself, my fingers thankfully cooperating enough to squeeze my cock just the right amount, I send a silent thank you to the gods I don’t believe in.