Chapter 25
My heart hurt for him. I couldn’t truly understand how he felt, he was looking into a future he’d never see, but knew the outcome of all the same. One of my coworkers at the spa had been a Korean immigrant. She’d met her husband while he was stationed overseas and got married, following him here.
They had a great marriage and she was happy, but she’d once confided in me that she knew that her children wouldn’t have the same childhood she did. They would be raised in a completely different culture, and wouldn’t have the memories and shared experiences she’d had with her peers.
How much deeper did that loss go when you couldn’t even visit your home? Her children might find other Koreans in the world, would have access to the language, and media that connected them a little with their heritage. But Tovis? Once the last full blooded turoch died, it was over, they were gone.
Tovis gently swiped water over my crossed arm and I shivered when a drop slid between my breasts.
It was dark in the tent, I could barely make out his features, even though we were inches apart.
His hands were rough with callouses and I could feel the grit of dirt between our skin as he tended to me.
When he tugged at my wrist, I let him pull my arms from my chest, hardly breathing as he poured a cupped handful of water over me.
“Thank you for coming for me,” I whispered. He paused, one hand pressed to my breastbone, and leaned forward until our foreheads touched.
“I will always come for you, Jessa.”
My breathing hitched, half at the intimacy of sharing breath as he bathed me in the dark, and half at the way his words hit me in the heart.
I’d been alone, it felt like forever. The months after the invasion an endless haze.
To be close to someone again, hear a voice other than my own, know that someone had my back, it was almost painfully wonderful.
Tovis swiped his hand over my bare breast, washing me without pushing for more and I felt my nipples harden as the water cooled. That single kiss in the trailer lingered between us, the current moment both more intimate and less.
I reached up and twined my arm around his thick neck, pulling him closer until we were chest to chest, bare skin sliding together. His tail flicked, brushing over my calves where they laid over his crossed legs and I bit my lip.
“Thank you for taking care of me,” I murmured, lips brushing his.
“Jessa-”
I cut off whatever he was going to say with a kiss. He groaned into my mouth, wet hands sliding up my spine, rough fingers digging into sore muscles hard enough to hurt and soothe in the same moment. He took my mouth with a fervor filled with things yet to be said.
There was no resentment, or hurt left between us.
But the want I wasn’t ready to fully acknowledge burned in my chest as I met his movements.
Our tongues slicked together, and I twisted in his lap, pressing into him even as he clutched at me, both of us trying to get closer than physical bodies could allow.
Tovis grabbed a handful of my hair and pulled my head back, baring my throat and sending prickles of pleasure over my scalp. I moaned and panted at the low ceiling of the tent, the thin walls felt like a bubble outside of reality where only the two of us existed.
Hot lips slid down my neck, and I squirmed in his lap, gasping as I felt his cock press against my butt. Only his loincloth separated us, I couldn’t decide if I was relieved or disappointed, we weren’t completely naked.
I pressed my thighs together when he sucked at the skin above my collarbone and a shrieking cramp shot through my left leg. I yelped in pain, stiffening as the muscles in my overused legs and feet tightened in unison.
“Jessa?” he jerked his head back and I clenched my hands over his massive arms as every muscle from my groin to my toes twisted into the worst pain I’d ever felt.
“My legs,” I moaned, all thoughts of kisses and cocks wiped out by the shocking agony. “Holy fuck, my feet.”
Tovis grabbed me around the waist and pushed me off his lap, setting me on the pile of blankets I’d passed out on earlier.
“Ow, ow, ow,” I chanted, hands scrabbling uselessly at my thighs and down to the hard knots writhing in my calves. It hurt in too many places for me to process and I briefly wanted to ask him to cut the damn things off.
Huge hands landed on my thighs and Tovis worked his fingers into the bulging muscles. I fell back, breathing through my teeth as he chased down every knot and kneaded them into submission. By the time he reached my feet, I felt like a wrung-out rag, limp, and sore and dizzy from my harsh breathing.
“Thanks,” I panted, laying my arm over my face and gritting my teeth as he ruthlessly rubbed the aching soles of my feet. I had blisters over every inch of my feet and ankles, but the discomfort was nothing compared to the tightened muscles.
My toes curled and I wriggled on my back, wanting to pull away from the pressure even though I knew it was helping.
“You are not used to hard travel,” he soothed, nothing but a looming shadow in the darkness. “You’ll probably hurt more tomorrow.”
I couldn’t hold back a whimper at his warning. It hurt so bad now, how could it get worse?
“I don’t ever want to walk again,” I moaned pitifully. The worst of the cramps had eased and Tovis snagged the bucket from beside the bed and started scrubbing down my legs. Cool water trickled over my skin and I propped myself up on my elbows.
“You don’t have to wash my feet,” I said, abs whimpering as I attempted to sit up. Tovis planted a single finger in the middle of my chest and pushed. I fell back onto the blankets without a fight.
“You washed my hooves,” he said, his voice amused even if I couldn’t see his face at the moment.
“I did?” Oh, I’d given him a pedicure. It felt like a lifetime ago that he’d let me paint his hooves. I wondered if any of the sparkly polish had survived all our walking.
“Human feet are strange things,” he said, wiggling one of my toes.
“Hey,” I protested, pulling my foot away. “Humans are weird about feet, be nice.”
“Weird?” he reached out and caught my ankle, effortlessly pulling my foot back to his lap.
I shrugged even though it was too dark to see. “Self-conscious, or pervy, depends on the human.”
He dragged a light touch from my sore heel, up my sole and to the tip of my big toe.
“Human feet are sexual?” There was nothing but curiosity in his voice, but that light touch made the deepest parts of me go all squirmy and I could feel myself blushing.
“Uhuh,” I managed. “Some people are turned on by feet, sometimes they pay for pictures...and stuff.”
“Are you self conscious?” he asked, trailing more light touches over my arch like he was learning my anatomy from the outside.
“Kinda,” I squeaked, knowing that currently, my feet were a war zone of blisters, scabs and swelling.
“They are very different than my own,” he admitted, slicking a handful of water over my foot and gently rubbing a finger between my toes in a way that felt downright illegal. “Small and soft...vulnerable.”
I was almost certain he was teasing me, but apparently, I was one of the pervy humans because I liked it. A breath escaped me on a shudder when he cupped my foot between his hands as if pointing out how small it was and then blew a breath over my wet skin.
“Okay!” I yanked my feet away and grabbed them despite the way my legs protested being curled into pretzels. “I can’t tell if you’re joking or not and I’m too tired to play games.”
He chuckled and set the bucket aside.
“Games will wait then,” he said, moving around in the darkness as I curled up on my side. “I never expected to gentle my female's feet, but if that's what you like.” I could hear the implied shrug and glowered at the shape of him.
“Leave my feet out of your alien sex rituals,” I muttered. Tovis crawled onto the bed and laid his arm over my naked waist.
“What about clean clothes?” I asked, yawning as the comforting heat of his body battled the goosebumps on my skin.
“Tomorrow,” he whispered. “Let me hold you skin to skin tonight.”
It sounded too nice to argue, and I was beyond tired. Tovis pulled me to his chest and sighed, his body going slack against me in a way that said he was just as tired as I was. I pressed a hand to his chest, feeling the solid thump of his heart behind the slabs of muscle and smiled.