He must have wanted to bathe too. She should have thought to offer.
He did not, however, reach immediately for the water bottle. He stared down at the cloth, clicking his mandibles quietly to himself before rubbing the damp, used cloth across his chest. His bare chest! Her eyes flung wide open. She’d never seen him without his body armor. He was stripped down to a simple cloth barely covering his groin. Was that how he always slept? She wouldn’t know. Veral was always dressed when she went to bed, keeping watch late into the night beyond her own endurance as he seemed to require less sleep than her.
Her breath escaped her in a shudder as he swiped the cloth over his face several times before trailing it back down to his chest and finally dipping the cloth to his groin. The male growled, his eyes seeking hers out in the low light of the fire he’d built in the center of the room shortly after their return. He watched her, the whip tendrils on his head puffing out around him, writhing as they made a soft swishing sound. Desire surged through her, heating her belly, dampening her pussy and upper thighs despite her best efforts to resist it. Terri shivered as his mandibles widened and his lips parted as if he were tasting the air. A low, aggressive growl filled the room.
It was frightening and exhilarating, making her lust spike in a way that didn’t seem entirely healthy to her. What sort of person lusted over another making such sounds? Apparently, she did. No matter how much she tried to control or ignore it, it surged through her unpredictably and with such strength that she was caught helpless in it until it eased. It never truly passed, for even after the brunt of it was gone, that edge and awareness remained, taunting her.
Veral’s growl gradually became louder, responding to her rising need. She observed that his whips had not only puffed out but were moving around his head as if in a seeking motion. He took a step toward her and her belly clenched in anticipation. Suddenly, his mandibles snapped closed and he shook his head before stepping away from her. Going to the door, he pushed the barrier away just enough to allow him to slip out. Then he was gone.
Terri’s face stained crimson as she ducked into the blankets. He probably thought she was going to jump him or something in a burst of uncontrollable lust. The snort turned into a giggle as she tried to imagine herself doing just that, given that he had considerably more height and weight than her. Her humor died away at the memory of the way he shook himself as if touched by something unpleasant.
No, she was going to have to do better at controlling herself if she wanted to hang around long enough to catch that ride. Still, the sting of rejection was a painful reminder of just how alone she was.
That was fine. Shelikedbeing alone. No one tried to control her, and she didn’t have to answer to anyone except herself. She never had to censor her thoughts when she talked aloud to herself—one of the unfortunate consequences of her isolation. She knew that she had no filter and often caught herself rambling about anything and everything to Veral’s silent silhouette at her side. Really, his presence wasn’t much different than having a pet.
She sighed. A pet would be welcome. She doubted that Veral would part with Krono but maybe she could find something among human settlements once she got to the coast.
That was all she needed. That she was happier than she’d been in a while had nothing to do with the surly male.
Having Veral around was messing with her hormones. The irony was not lost upon her that her biological clock ticked a bit too loudly for a male that likely wasn’t even compatible with her. She laughed at herself. That figured. Of course it couldn’t be a handsome human passing through who would sweep her away. No, she was drawn to a male who not only came from literally an entirely different planet but who also had so much technology implanted in him that his responses were often much more cold and calculating than what she’d consider normal.
That whole thing with the head had been bizarre too. Her lips quirked slightly at how proud he’d looked as he explained that it was a trophy specifically to honor her. That was almost sweet—if she could get beyond the fact that it had been a decapitated human head. Settling back to her normal routine, with fewer severed heads, would be welcome.
Terri stared into the dark and sighed, her eyes straining in the low light of the fire. Who was she kidding? She hated it. Her life before Veral came—having no one but herself to speak with day in and day out unless she ran into Meg, and even then she had to hurry before they were caught—had been one of barely existing. Veral gave her something she hadn’t had since her father died: someone to connect to and lean on. Not that she would say so to him. No doubt he would deliver a caustic reply before directing his attention to something else that required it. She wondered what he would think if he knew that she’d miss him when they finally went their own ways.
That led to another troubling thought. Once she was on the coast, then what?
Terri shifted anxiously beneath her blanket, drawing Krono’s attention to her. The dorashnal made a whining-trilling noise and squirmed over to her side. Terri opened her arms gratefully as he snuggled against her torso, his massive length curling around her as he pressed against her. As they lay side-by-side, his whips affectionately stroked her skin and patted her. Sighing, her arms wound around his thick neck and hugged him tight. The contact alone was soothing and became even more so when he began to purr contently like a giant cat. She brushed the tip of her nose against the top of his head in a loving nuzzle. His whips moved to caress her face. It did little to diminish her frustrated arousal, but it at least soothed her until she finally fell asleep.
It was sometime later when she awoke to the sound of the door swinging open and bumping against the dresser. Terri watched from behind Krono’s massive shoulder as Veral growled at it and pushed it open to step inside before maneuvering it back into place. His eyes brushed her briefly, but he strode by, barely acknowledging her presence as he grabbed his bedding and pulled it clear to the farthest corner of the room. Terri frowned but concealed her expression against Krono’s neck, her eyes shut tight against the sight of him preparing for bed. She hadn’t expected him to lay beside her and hold her again tonight, but that he felt it necessary to move clear across the room, farther away than he’d ever lain before, pissed her off.
As if being near her were contaminating him in some fashion, or maybe that he didn’t trust her to control her lust. She rolled her eyes with a small sneer.
What a dick.
Rolling over, she gave him her back as she pressed her lower back and bottom against Krono’s warm side. He immediately shifted to snuggle around her once more and lay his head across her neck. Determined to ignore the asshole on the other side of the room, she sighed happily from the way Krono’s body heat seeped into her muscles. Tightening her thighs to provide some relief to her sex, she drew her blanket up and dismissed the infuriating male from her thoughts.
11
The second day of the sandstorm wasn’t any better than the first for Veral. His skin itched and tingled all over and it had nothing to do with the sand finding its way into their shelter. Several times, he left to get some reprieve from Terri’s intoxicating scent that was causing strange chemical reactions that his nanos were working overtime to neutralize. Was he having a bad reaction to her pheromones? He typically didn’t spend much time in the presence of other species outside of delivering instructions for the salvage teams following in his wake. Perhaps an allergy to her pheromones was the cause. He didn’t believe that it could be his mating heat.
In all his revolutions away from Argurumal, he’d never once had more than the vaguest of responses to any female from his civix. He glanced over at Terri and was relieved to find her distracted by Krono with her back to him. While her attention was diverted, he pulled open his pants and inspected his civix pouch. As expected, it was still unbroken, the seam still fused. He poked at it gently with one claw. Did it look a bit thin in some spots? He analyzed the area and found it to be an eighth of a millimeter thinner than it had been. He growled and sealed his pants once more. It was possible, if he was having a reaction to her pheromones, that the moderate swelling of his civix alone would have caused the weakening.
As long as he wasn’t extruding, everything was fine. Uncomfortable but still within the limits of the laws. While he preferred to remain separate from Argurumal, he didn’t wish to be hunted for violating any of the planetary laws. He knew with the link between his systems and his brethren that someone would notice if he extruded and went into the consequential mating heat.
His eyes drifted back over to Terri and he grimaced. He could admit that he was fascinated with the female. She had so much strength within her delicate, vulnerable body. It made him hunger for it.
He hadn’t been untruthful when he told her that many males would have courted her as a worthy mate if she’d been Argurma. Even as a human, she still wouldn’t suffer any lack of males vying for her attention, but it would have happened only after she’d received basic control implants and permission was granted from the mating registrar. They would insist on the implants to tie her to Argurumal, whereas mating would do nothing more than load her system with nanos, extending her life and linking it to that of her mate without interfering with her mind or autonomy. He could almost imagine the pleasure that would come with being tied to her… Though he saw what it did to his sire, a part of him drew toward her, seeking to bind to her with his vibrissae.
Terri looked over her shoulder at him and his body tensed, uncertain if she was going to approach and surround him in the overwhelming pull of her pheromones. She didn’t move; instead, she turned away and bared her teeth in a smile at Krono, who took it as permission to drape his massive frame over her lap while she bent down to smother him in affection. Veral felt his vibrissae lift away from him into the air as jealousy speared through him. He drew them back down with self-admonishment. He was acting absurd over the affection that the female was giving his dorashnal.
It was illogical for Veral to possess any sort of feeling toward the human female, or to even consider that she might set off his mating heat. He was on Earth for a limited time, and despite her fears, the female was capable of taking care of herself. She would relocate to a better area with his aid, as promised, and perhaps take a mate and attempt to breed a new generation of humans. It was the logical outcome… so why did he want to kill something so badly? Not just something. He lusted to destroyanymale who would so much as even attempt to touch Terri.
Maybe he would even procure a dorashnal pup and have it delivered to her to give her company and added protection. He would protect her from the unwanted advances of males, even if he had to acknowledge that she would eventually find a mate. Until then, however, she would be safe. Even a pup was dangerous to most beings after it bonded. Given the way that Krono was acting like a lovesick pup over the female, he had no doubt that one would bond to her.
He could clearly read the dorashnal’s frustration as Krono rolled against her, his vibrissae tapping against her. He was instinctively trying to lure out her dorashnal that she would also have had if she’d been born Argurma. Such signaling could prompt a mating between dorashnals that could disastrously provoke the mating heat between a male and female Argurma if they weren’t careful. At least that was something Veral didn’t have to worry about with Terri, though Krono didn’t understand why a female wasn’t presenting herself to him for mating. Veral growled and looked away.
It was for the best.