Chapter 6
SIX
Amelia
Amelia woke up to the gentle hum of the pod’s air filtration system and the warm pressure of a male hand loosely cupping her breast. Her eyes flew wide open. More shocking, she had locked the male hand in place with both of hers.
The male to whom the hand belonged, slept peacefully at her back.
His deep breaths warmed the top of her head.
His broad chest pressed up against her back like a great wall of muscles.
Something—his tail, she deduced—draped heavily over her legs.
If she lifted her head to look, he’d wake up, and she wasn’t ready for Taron to be conscious.
He was pretty outstanding to sleep beside.
As a bonus, his dick was soft, finally, and it didn’t feel like there was a stick against her ass crack.
God, that had turned her on, though. Just thinking about it made her pussy tingle and moisten.
The thought of that huge cock angling down, sliding between her legs, pushing into her quivering folds and slowly filling her, made her nipples bead up beneath his palm.
She took a deep breath and ordered herself to calm down.
Taron Bando pushed all of her buttons. Considering how—oh, how she hated to admit it—dependent she was on him, it would be wise to avoid pushing any more of his. She’d gone a little nuts in the button-pushing department the day before. It hadn’t been her best day.
It was time to treat Taron like a partner out here, rather than an adversary.
If she wasn’t so damn attracted to him, that would be easier.
If she hadn’t kissed him… Well, she had, and he’d kissed her too, and he straight up admitted that she caused his frequent erections—that had been the dumbest question of the century.
Mutual attraction while stranded on a foreign planet, complicated things.
Taron stirred. He made sleepy noises and the hand on her breast squeezed. It felt so good, she bit her lip to keep from moaning.
“Mmm,” he mumbled. He yawned and stretched, causing those muscles to ripple and flex against her back. Ugh, he felt amazing. He raised a leg to throw over her and whacked it hard against the lid of the pod.
“Ow.” He was awake now, for sure.
“Good morning,” she said dryly.
She felt Taron freeze and take stock. His hand removed itself from her breast and shifted to the spot where her waist met her hip. The weight of his tail lifted off her leg. “Sorry,” he muttered. “For the tail.” Not the hand.
“It’s fine.” She placed her hand on the lid. “How do we get out?”
He unlocked the pod with a swipe of his hand to the lid, and it opened. It must be synched to his biometrics somehow. Bright morning sunlight beamed into the clearing. Heat and humidity instantly slammed into her.
Amelia sat up. Her body immediately missed the warm strength of Taron against her.
He rose, climbed out of the pod and stretched.
Rumpled hair and sleepy eyes made him look absurdly sexy.
No one should look that good first thing in the morning.
She knew she didn’t. She didn’t even want to think about the state of her hair.
The jungle wasn’t as hostile as it had been the night before. The noises didn’t sound as threatening, and the colorful trees had a dreamy quality to them. Leaves gleamed with dew and sparkled in their bright tones. High above, a group of massive birdlike creatures glided across the sky.
“Shit.”
Taron’s blunt word drew her attention to the mess in front of them.
“Oh, no.” She got out and followed him to where their fire had been the night before. Something had completely ransacked the clearing, eating every bit of the meat and scattering their makeshift camp. There was nothing to eat and still nothing to drink.
“Thank goodness we were in the pod,” she said. “Whatever came through here was big.”
Taron nodded.
Odd, but he hadn’t looked at her once since they’d gotten up. He began sifting through the scattered fire. “It even ate the bones,” he murmured to himself.
“What do we do, Taron?” she asked. Why wouldn’t he look at her?
He shrugged and turned his back to her. “Why don’t you go relieve yourself? I’ll give you privacy.”
“Okay.” She hesitated. “Are you okay? You’re acting different.”
“I’m fine,” he snapped. His tail flicked like a cat’s. “Just go.”
She felt unsettled, but headed a little way into the jungle to find a place to relieve herself. What was his problem? A sinking worry settled under her ribs. The jungle was too quiet. She hastily finished her business and hurried back to the clearing.
What she saw there made her stomach drop straight to her toes. Taron was gone. She went to the crash pod. The cushion they’d lain on had been pulled up. There was a small compartment under there. It was empty, and the knife stuck point down into the dirt beside it.
A sinking feeling made her shiver despite the heat. She sat down on shaky legs beside the dead, scattered remains of their fire. She dropped her head in her hands and breathed through her mouth, trying to keep from hyperventilating.
He’d abandoned her. After seeing evidence of a gigantic creature that tore their camp apart, he still left her here to a certain not-so-pleasant death. Her head spun and her stomach turned as the implications sunk in. She had the pod, but no way to use it. He left her the knife, at least.
“Hey,” said a low voice. “Are you coming, or are you just going to sit there?”
Her head snapped up. “Taron?”
He had a bag slung crosswise over his chest and he held a small device. The T-shirt was back on, but looking nasty. “I think I found a settlement, but we need to move now to get there before nightfall.”
She got up on shaky legs and crossed to him. Her throat was tight, and she knew her face was red and streaked with tears. She stood there, facing him, and a long, strained moment stretched as their gazes held.
His expression was complex. He raised a hand and wiped the tears on her cheek with his thumb. “I thought about it,” he said softly. “But there was no way I could do it.”
He was talking about leaving her. “Why not?”
“We can brush some mistakes off, but others stick with you and tear you apart.” His gaze dropped to her mouth. “Abandoning you would have fallen into the latter category. I’ve made enough of them.”
“I thought you left because I was pushy.”
“You are pushy. I don’t mind pushy. That’s not why. I have a complicated past.” He looked past her and squinted into the trees. “I thought for a moment that I could outrun it.”
She nodded. “You can’t. It follows you.”
“It does.” He held out a hand. “Come with me?”
She gazed at his hand, the wide palm and long, male fingers extending to her, and placed her smaller hand in it. “Okay.”
He pulled her to him and crushed a hard, quick kiss to her mouth. She gasped against his lips. Her body suffused with heat. “You fucking taste good.” He set her back on her feet. “I did not come back for you because you make my cock hard. Just saying that.”
Her head spun from thirst and dizzy arousal. “Jesus, Taron. Let’s just go, okay?”
He retrieved his knife, and they started off into the forest. He hacked through areas of dense vegetation, but in other areas, the tree canopy was so thick, not much grew on the ground.
They could walk unhindered. Periodically, he stopped and used that small device that pointed the direction to the settlement or outpost.
Amelia was growing desperately thirsty. Her mouth was dry and sticky. She wasn’t sweating anymore, and her head was feeling lighter and lighter. “Taron,” she said weakly.
“What?” He turned just as she sank to her knees on the thick, blue mossy ground. “Whoa.” She felt firm hands on her shoulders, then on her cheeks as he tilted her face up to his. “What’s wrong, Amelia?”
“Water,” she croaked out. “Thirsty.”
“Okay.” His deep voice calmed her instantly. “Lie down and rest. I’ll see what I can find.”
Then he was gone. The forest floor was deeply shaded here as she let her body sink into the soft moss.
The bright sunlight filtered through the wide, blue and violet leaves high above.
It gave the forest an underwater look that was soothing.
Her eyelids dropped over eyes that were gritty and dry. Her body ached for something to drink.
She didn’t know how much time passed until Taron returned. He lifted her into his arms and settled her on his lap. “Wake up, Amelia.” He patted her cheek. “I have something for you.”
She groggily opened her eyes. Her vision swam. She felt woozy, as if she’d had one cocktail too many. Taron’s concerned face was inches away. She traced the angles of it with her gaze. “You really are beautiful,” she slurred. “S’not right.”
One dark brow rose. “I need you to drink this.” He placed something against her lips. It was a rubbery cup of some sort that smelled faintly of apricots. He tilted it up and liquid touched her lips. Water! Her body jolted at the sensation and she leaned up for more. She drank deeply.
It wasn’t exactly water, but it was wet and light on her tongue.
He kept the cup tipped to her mouth, and she drank it until it was empty.
“Better?” he asked.
“Much better,” she said. “What is this stuff?”
“Fruit from a tree. I saw these winged creatures pecking at these things hanging from the trees. There was liquid dribbling out, so I figured I’d try it. I had to climb the tree, which was tall, so don’t hold back any appreciation you may want to express.”
She smiled weakly. “Thank you, Taron.”
“That’s all you’ve got?” he teased, flicking a finger down her nose. “Wow. Next time you can climb your own tree.”
“Ha ha. Funny guy.” She climbed off his lap slowly, as her head was still woozy. “Did you grab any more?”
He held up six oval-shaped fruit connected to vines. They clunked together dully, sounding full with liquid.
They started off again. Amelia drank frequently, being mindful of the amount they had left.
The morning stretched into the heat of midday, then into the afternoon.
Soon, the evening was approaching. She could tell the darkening sky was putting Taron on edge.
Aside from their stop for the water fruit, they had pushed forward without breaks.
Fatigue weighed down her limbs. He had to be tired too, but it didn’t show in the powerful lines of his body.
“We should be nearly there,” he said. “Just a little farther.”
The instrument was correct. They heard the signs of habitation before they saw them. Voices, the whir of machines, the sound of faint music.
Taron held up a hand, signaling them to stop.
They slipped closer and crouched behind a thicket of bushes.
Peering out, Amelia saw a cluster of buildings.
One was made of carefully stacked stones.
The others were made of metal, pieced together from what looked like storage compartments.
There was a grouping of platforms and some structures built up in the trees.
They were for lookouts, she imagined. Sure enough, she spotted figures up there.
They held weapons, and they gazed out, mostly toward the sky.
The smell of cooking food wafted over to them. Her mouth watered. She hadn’t eaten a thing since the meat the night before. The sight before her was so wonderful she bit her lip with longing.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” said Taron, dashing her hope.
“Why? Do you know these people?” All she saw when she looked at this settlement was safety, food, and their best shot of finding passage off this planet.
“No, but I know the type,” he said. “It looks like a raiders’ camp to me.”
“What does that mean? What are raiders?”
“You would consider them criminals in your world. Thieves, smugglers, traders of drugs and stolen goods.”
“Our options are limited,” she said. “We’ll have to take our chances with them if we plan to get out of here.”
He turned his gaze to hers, brows furrowed. “I know that. I’ll tell you right now, this is not a safe place for females.”
“Great.” No, it wasn’t really great at all. “I can handle myself.”
He laughed softly. “No, you really can’t. Not with these types. This is a rogue camp. I bet it isn’t registered on any databank.”
“So it’s a secret criminal den?” she asked. “They must have communications, though. Your device picked up their transmissions.”
“Yes, but I guarantee you, there will be a price to pay to send any signals out of here.”
That didn’t surprise her. Criminals weren’t the altruistic type. “Alright. So how do we do this?”
His expression turned challenging. “You’re not going to like it.”
“I already don’t like it,” she said. “Let’s hear it.”
“Fine.” He crossed his arms. “The only way you’re entering this camp is under my protection.”
“Your protection?” She scrunched up her nose and peered at him. That didn’t sound so horrible. There had to be something else to it for him to look so mulish. “What does that mean?”
“Simply put, you’re going to have to be my female.
To put it plainly, my property. My…pleasure female.
” His lips twitched. Clearly, a part of him was enjoying this way too much.
“You’re going to have to do everything I say, when I say it—no debates or suggestions or refusal.
Otherwise, the raiders in this camp will think you’re free game.
If you go ahead and be your usual self, they’ll eat you for dinner.
” He shrugged. “Maybe literally. I don’t know what species are inhabiting this camp. ”
Pleasure female? Oh, fuck no. “Are you joking?”
“Nope. It’s going to be hard enough as it is to keep you safe, but usually even raiders won’t mess with a female who belongs to a male. Plus, I have a few…advantages when dealing with raiders.”
She swallowed. Well, pretending to be his—ugh, vomit—property was better than spending another night in the jungle without a pod to keep them safe, or any food. “Fine. Okay.” She waved a hand, as though shooing away a bee. “Let’s get this over with. I can pretend to be your…female for a night.”
He smirked, white teeth flashing. “Be careful, Amelia, you may find that you like it.”