Chapter 8
Kalani
Iave was impossible, truly. When I pointed out that there was less debris in the direction I wanted to go he still didn’t budge.
Didn’t he get that less dust and debris on the tunnel floor probably meant that the tunnel was much more stable?
In other words, much safer to travel in?
I really didn’t feel like dying in this dark hole because the ceiling collapsed on us. There had been enough death already.
“No, we go that way,” he said stubbornly, and he jutted that broken chin horn of his in the wrong direction.
Typical that I’d run into the one Naga on the planet that exhibited the same Neanderthal habits as many of the macho men I’d had to deal with back on Earth.
A complete inability to take directional advice from a woman.
“Aargh! Why? Why is your pick better than mine?” I demanded to know.
Settling my hands on my hips I glared down at him and then realized just how ridiculous it was to be arguing with him while we still tangled on the floor where we’d fallen.
I mean, I was practically sitting on his pelvis, this was not at all conducive to a conversation.
The moment I realized where I was sitting, my entire train of thought was derailed.
Iave had broken my fall with his body. It was hard to forget what it had felt like when I’d been wrapped up in his coils, his hands cradling my head to his chest. I hadn’t gotten a single bruise or scrape from the entire slide and fall down that strange air shaft we’d stumbled into.
He looked fine and he was talking, arguing even, but he hadn’t gotten up, what if his spine was broken?
I scrambled to my feet in a rush, and his clawed hands slid from my hips; only briefly clenching as if he wanted to hold me in place.
As soon as I was on my feet, all my worries were eased.
He flowed upright in a sinuous move, the tip of his tail lashing out to curl around my leg so we could keep talking.
“Why?” he asked with a deep growling note to his voice.
The tunnel filled with a sound I’d heard earlier; a rattling, whispering noise.
With the light on I could finally see what caused it; the large, plate-like scales on his back were raising and twitching, clacking together as his skin shivered.
A threatening noise? Was he trying to intimidate me into doing what he wanted?
Well, I had news for him, I was immune to that bullshit.
“Yeah, why? Why do you want to go that way when I have a good explanation for why we should go the other? You haven’t explained, tell me why!
” I had to dance around on my feet when he curled his body around me in a rapid, cobra-like move.
A little disoriented by the sudden motion, I fixed my eyes on his frowning face and glared right on back.
“Let’s go,” he said, which by my book was not an explanation at all but he was already moving and the bastard dropped his tail from my leg.
Clearly, the conversation was over for him, not that it had been much of a conversation to begin with.
For that, both parties actually had to talk and all he’d done was growl and snap orders.
With an angry huff, I stalked after him, my finger already raised to jab him in the shoulder; whether recovering from an injury or not.
The light from his alien flashlight was dancing along the black walls as he swung his hand at his side in agitation.
I blamed that for how slow I was to realize what was going on.
I’d just reached him and opened my mouth to give him a piece of my mind when it clicked.
He’d stalked off in a huff, but he’d done it in the direction I wanted to go.
So that’s how it was? He realized I was right but he was too prideful to admit it, huh?
He angled his head my way and gave this little growling noise, almost like an inquiry, his nubbed eyebrow rising beneath the long black hair that crowned his head.
“You could have just said, hey Kalani, good point, let’s do that,” I told him, but of course, he didn’t understand what I said because he wasn’t touching me. Extremely inconvenient, especially during a shouting match.
His mouth curled into a half-grin, the tip of his tail raising to dart into my field of view while he wagged it in an almost playful manner. Yeah, I got it, you were saying you couldn’t understand that. I stuck out my tongue in response and was not at all prepared for the reaction that evoked.
His dark gray eyes grew wide, and then his own much longer and split tongue flicked out of his mouth.
I started to dodge when his hand came up and grabbed for me but he was suddenly much faster than I expected him to be.
Pinching my chin between his clawed fingers with a firm grip that bordered on the edge of pain, he tilted my head toward him while he leaned in.
“Your tongue isn’t split,” he said, sounding both extremely fascinated and surprised. “Show me again.” This suddenly got a whole lot weird but I obliged, not willing to pass up the chance to stick it to him a second time, even if he didn’t know what I meant with it.
“Nope,” I drawled when I closed my mouth just before he could reach out with his other hand to touch it. “I bet that will be an interesting experience when we kiss.” I had no idea what possessed me to say that, but I guess arguing kinda was like foreplay for the two of us.
He didn’t jump on that opportunity like I expected him to, instead his eyes raised from my mouth to my eyes.
His confusion was evident in the way he tilted his head and gazed at me.
“What is kiss?” he grumbled, the words sounding like they were almost a struggle to get out.
Yeah, Iave was a proud male, he didn’t like it if he didn’t know something. No wonder we had issues earlier.
“You don’t know what kissing is?” I asked and smiled when he shook his head while still giving me a confused look.
Finally, he let go of my chin, but only so he could move his hand along my neck and then up into the tight pile of curls on top of my head.
The fascination was back on his face as he raked his claws gently through them, testing their texture, their springiness as if he’d never seen hair like mine before.
It was cute, I couldn’t help it. I liked how much he liked my hair and how much he seemed to enjoy playing with it.
So I opened my mouth and said, “I’ll show you.
” Then I couldn’t back down anymore, so I slung my arms around his neck, raised myself on my toes, and pressed my lips to his.
This was the perfect distraction for the harsh reality I was struggling to put to the back of my mind right now.
Iave exhaled in surprise and his firm lips remained unyielding beneath my own.
I immediately realized that this wasn’t a translation issue; this was a huge cultural divide.
His people didn’t do this, they didn’t kiss, so they had no word for it.
It was just lucky that ‘kiss’ was a natural enough sound for him to replicate without any trouble.
I was about to draw back to see how he was doing when his mouth suddenly softened, turning pliant beneath my own.
My belly tingled, and instead of pulling back, I darted my tongue out and licked along the seam of his lips.
He opened with a startled noise and I swept my tongue inside his mouth, surprised when the tip brushed along the sharp fangs in his upper jaw; that was definitely different but I liked it.
Iave hissed deep in his throat and then the hand in my hair turned fierce, gripping me tightly by my curls so I couldn’t possibly escape.
“Yes, kiss,” he groaned against my lips, “Taste so good.” His tongue mimicked what I’d done, sweeping into my mouth, the split tips gliding along my teeth, my tongue, the roof of my mouth.
His tongue was far longer than mine and he dipped it into my throat, brushing along my gag reflex.
I jerked back, spluttering, and he let me go but only far enough so that our tongues no longer tangled.
“Ah… Too deep?” he asked and I nodded, my eyes watery from the reflex.
“Can I try again?” I only had to dip my chin the slightest fraction in response and he already swept back in, invading my mouth, though this time carefully keeping his tongue away from my throat.
I was a dazed, wobbly puddle by the time Iave finally retreated.
Raising his head, he kept my hair clasped tightly in his grip while he flicked his tongue at the air.
“This arouses you,” he hissed, eyes flicking from my kiss-swollen mouth down along my body.
It was embarrassingly obvious how hard my nipples had gotten, pressing against the thin fabric of my shirt and bra.
Then my eyes snagged on the slit at his hips that had parted just enough for the split tip of his cock to escape.
Pale white fluid beaded at the tips and a spicy, warm scent filled the air between us.
It looked to me like I wasn’t the only one who had gotten turned on by that kiss.
“And you,” I said and pointed with a sly grin at the evidence.
His eyes narrowed, the nubbed texture of his scaly brows becoming more pronounced as they lowered.
“This is a human custom? Between mates?” he asked.
His fingers finally eased their tight grip on my hair, gently rubbing my scalp where he’d put pressure before he slid them down along my cheek and my neck, to end up clasped around my shoulder.