Hidden Gem (The Travelers Book 1)

by Gaia Octavia

  “I miss her, Jade. I miss them all.”

  I held him tighter with one arm, tucking his hair behind his ear with the other as I brushed my lips against his temple.

  “I know, Em,” I said simply, petting his hair as I pressed him tightly against me, “I know.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  ⸙

  EMIT

  I put my back against a tree, propping my foot up on the trunk below me so that I could lean into it. The heat was so thick, I could feel it in my lungs whenever I breathed. As I waited for Jade to return, I closed my eyes and pictured myself swimming in cool, crisp water. It was a trick I had learned as a child to help get through the stifling heat.

  It’d been hotter than usual. Even as we traveled farther north. The past couple of months had been brutal. The loss of my family still hit me at the most unexpected times and the heatwave had brought a drought along with it. I never thought I would miss the feeling of being damp, but it had cooled me as I walked. And now that the rain was gone, I yearned for it.

  I was pulled from my thoughts as I heard something making its way toward me through the brush. I kicked off and stepped out, pivoting around the massive trunk. Before I knew what was happening, a hand grabbed my upper arm and pulled me back behind the tree–this time facing the trunk. A hand was pressed firmly over my mouth before I could protest. At the same moment, the weight of a body crushed me up against the tree as arms caged me in, holding me in place. I began gathering my strength to fight free when a warm breath blew almost silently into my ear.

  “It’s me, Em.”

  Relief flooded through me as I heard Jade’s voice and my body relaxed. I knew it was him even though he had barely made a sound. We’d spent so many hours talking to each other, I knew his voice as intimately as I knew my own mother’s. But with relief also came confusion. What was this? What was Jade doing?

  I didn’t have to wonder for long as a large, lumbering body came into my peripheral view. I had never seen one up close before, especially not out of the water, and the terror that gripped me as my eyes opened wider than I thought possible, was overwhelming. I was thankful Jade hadn’t moved his hand from my mouth as an involuntary cry forced itself from my throat.

  “Shh,” came an almost silent reassurance, “just keep quiet and you’ll be fine. It’s not looking for a fight.”

  I forced my eyes back into focus and fought my terror as I began to drink in the sight of the enormous creature. As it moved through the brush on four legs, its back still reached above waist-height and it was easily as long as the shorter side of the tent I’d spent my childhood in. That’d have to be at least thirty feet.

  Jade stayed completely still, pressed against me as I slowly began to appreciate the massive reptile before us. The high-set, round eyes of the giant croc looked steadily ahead as it moved with purpose in the direction of the water that I’d asked Jade to go swimming in earlier. Thankfully, Jade had known that the large pond was too much of a risk and had denied my request. I silently reminded myself to thank him, and to apologize for pouting after the denial.

  The enormous croc’s spike-lined tail swished slightly back and forth as it shifted its weight between its legs, acting as a balancing weight I presumed. I couldn’t see the feet from where they were in the brush, but I knew that they would each end in terrifyingly thick, sharp claws. Dense scales the color of dying moss covered its belly as a much darker shade of green made up the hard bony plates and bumps of its armored back. Its snout protruded a good six feet past where its eyes lay, and its mouth was long and narrow, flaring out and rounding off at the tip.

  But what I couldn’t stop looking at were the large, pointed teeth that hung from its top jaw and down along the outside edge of its bottom one. Teeth that were so big, they didn’t fit in its closed mouth and were housed along the outside instead. Its two front teeth were especially large–easily eight times bigger than its other teeth–and hung out the front of its mouth like my little brother’s front teeth had when they had started to grow in. The sight was paralyzing, but almost strangely sad. I missed my brother, my family so much.

  Jade didn’t move and I could feel the slick beads of sweat that had begun to form all along my back where the heat of his body pressed into me. As the creature continued to lumber on, Jade’s body began to relax a bit, but he stayed where he was. My heartbeat finally started to slow, and I became more aware of the feeling of Jade’s chest pressed against my back.

  Of his breath on my neck.

  Briefly, I closed my eyes, willing my body to stay still. Not to push back against his weight and betray my line of thinking. But my breaths ticked-up and started to become shaky, even as I willed myself to think about the lessons I’d been learning back home, or of how many knots a ready-trap needed to secure it correctly. Anything other than how much I wanted to turn around and taste Jade’s lips.

  Jade’s breaths started to become heavier in my ear. With the immediate threat moving away from us, he must have noticed my hitching breaths and the feel of his hard body pressed against mine. I stayed as still as I could and prayed that I wouldn’t fuck our friendship up more than I already had. Jade’s stomach began to move against the small of my back in quicker, deeper movements. The breath on my neck became hotter, as if the heat of desire was stoking the same furnace within him as it was inside of me. Suddenly, I felt his cock thicken between the cheeks of my ass. I hadn’t known he’d been pressed so close to my entrance until I felt him stir. Air shot out of my lungs and into his hand–which was still over my mouth–while my nose struggled to bring in enough oxygen to replace what I’d lost, before the next rush of air escaped me.

  It was everything I could do to keep from pushing my ass up into his growing erection. The need to feel his hands on me began to torture my body as I silently screamed for it to stay still. My cock shifted against the trunk, filling uncomfortably with the heat of my desire and pressing into the hard, unforgiving bark. I squeezed my eyes shut. Desperate to move, to run, to never leave this spot. Jade’s breaths seemed to be coming in gulps now.

  Though the croc had moved away from us, it’s slow pace meant that we weren’t quite clear of danger yet. If it was hungry enough, it could still bolt into action at the sight of us, and we’d be easy targets for the creature. Even on land.

  “No.”

  His strangled cry was barely voiced, but I’d heard it, and it steeled my resolve to remove myself from the situation as best I could by refusing to allow my body to react in the way it was begging to. I prayed to all the gods to help me out of this mess and then cursed each of them as my body continued its torturous pleas.

  Every place of contact, especially where his hard cock pushed against my ass, tingled with a heated hum. It was as if Jade was made of lightning and the current was passing to me through every inch of where his warm, hard body met mine–clothing be damned. The thought of what it would feel like to be this close to him, skin to skin, made my body betray me. A whimper parted my lips and blessed the palm of his hand.

  Jade stopped breathing.

  I silently swore at myself even as Jade pressed himself infinitesimally closer. I needed the beast to move away much quicker than it was. There was no way I was going to be able to control my body for much longer. As it was, I could feel the head of my dick begin to weep as it fought to press itself into the tree–heedless of the pain it was causing. Jade’s breath finally returned, but there was something different about it this time. It sounded–hungry. Like he’d stopped fighting.

  His arm slid down the bark toward mine, the sound of the rough scrape sending shivers up and down my spine. I closed my eyes as his hand gripped my shoulder, pushing down and holding me in place as his pelvis began to slide back and forth in the smallest of movements.

  I knew Jade was under a spell that threatened to break if I moved in any way. I moaned quietly into his hand to encourage him while keeping myself completely still. At the feel of my moan, Jade’s breath hitched and the
n became more solid, more demanding, as he began to roll his pelvis in a small circle–forcing his cock deeper inside the crease of my ass and sending shockwaves throughout my body. I couldn’t hold back any longer.

  Gods forgive me.

  I pressed my ass back and up, inviting him farther in. Dropping my right hand, I started rubbing myself through my pants as best I could in my current position, my knuckles smarting against rough bark. Jade stilled for a moment but seemed not to notice any further as his hips began a more urgent rhythm, rubbing and swirling his cock against me as his breath quickened and he began making soft mewing noises in the back of his throat.

  My hand fought its way under my pant waist, down to my erection, and I began stroking the length of my shaft–my thumb tracing over my slit and spreading the slick, plentiful precum to help lubricate my aching cock with each stroke. My head tilted back against his shoulder as his mouth began tasting the sensitive bit of skin where my neck and shoulder met, the hand against my mouth moving to grip my hair.

  When I finally opened my eyes, I was surprised to see that the croc was gone. How long had we been like this? I didn’t stop to think about the why or how of what was happening. I just knew that I never wanted anything in my life as much as I wanted Jade to turn me around and kiss me.

  “I like that,” I moaned quietly against the softness of his hair.

  At that, Jade snapped his head up.

  “Don’t worry,” I murmured, my mouth curving into a smile, “it’s gone. Please don’t stop.”

  But Jade didn’t relax in the slightest. In fact, he completely froze. I gently turned my body so that I could see his face. He was pale–almost green–and his eyes were far away.

  “Jade, I–”

  “No!” He said too loudly.

  “No,” he said again, quieter this time.

  “Jade. Oh, Jade I’m sorry. It was my faul–”

  But he didn’t let me finish. He pushed himself off the tree and turned away so that his back was facing me. We stood like that for a while, neither of us speaking, until I heard him heave a deep, shuddering sigh and speak in a surprisingly calm, but emotionless voice.

  “With the croc just having come through, there won’t be any big predators out for a little while. Get yourself safely to camp and start a fire. I’ll finish setting the traps.”

  He stepped away as I began to reach for him, but then thought better of it.

  “Please,” I softly pleaded, “stay.”

  Jade barely hesitated before he kept walking.

  “Don’t wait up,” he said over his shoulder, disappearing into the darkening wood.

  ⸙

  As I made my way back to camp, my cock still half-hard and my skin still tingling in all the places Jade’s body had been pressed against it, the full force of realization hit me like a punch to the chest. I loved Jade. And not only did I love him, I was in love with him–had been in love with him for quite some time now.

  It was thoughts of Jade that kept me awake each night. Of how to help him. Of how much he meant to me. And in the back of my mind, whenever I pleasured myself, hadn’t it been Jade’s face that I had been trying to cover with images of Sheena and faceless, female bodies? How had I kept myself from noticing–from admitting it for so long?

  I was hopelessly, irrevocably in love with Jade. It made no difference that he was a man. It was love–pure and simple. I didn’t care about what people would think about it, what they would say if I kissed Jade in front of them. I wanted to show the world how much I loved him. How this beautiful, strong, brilliant man belonged to me. And I to him.

  So what was stopping me from telling him?

  Then I remembered that haunted look in his eyes and the way he still flinched at my touch at times. The way he’d left me against that tree and about the man who had tortured him for so long. How would my touch be any different to him? Could it ever be? It seemed so unfair of me to ask it of him. I knew Jade loved me. I knew he would always love me.

  But sometimes love wasn’t enough, was it?

  When I got back to camp, my body was still aching for Jade. I was worried about his reaction after what had just happened but was no longer able to deny my body what it was painfully screaming out for.

  Release.

  I knelt in the brush at the edge of our camp, near the spot we’d used to fill our waterskins, taking my dick out of my pants. Shamelessly stroking my shaft up and down in languid strokes, I closed my eyes and gave in to the pleasure. I remembered the feel of Jade’s hard cock searching for my entrance through layers of clothing and the tingles that had shot through my body as he’d licked my neck. The way his breaths were hot and demanding–his need plainly evident.

  I wrapped my fingers around my shaft and imagined that they were Jade’s. Moving in an unforgiving rhythm, squeezing until I was almost in pain from the pressure, I added a twist on every upstroke as my slit leaked my desire. My shaky breaths were loud, but I didn’t care. Jade wouldn’t be back for hours and even if he did come–let him.

  Because I sure as hell needed to.

  The thought of Jade’s scent and the fire he ignited inside of me wherever he touched me sent a moan up from deep within my belly. I wanted Jade. I needed him to touch me. To kiss me. I needed him to become a part of me. The urgent, soul-shattering need should have terrified me, but it felt entirely right.

  “Jade!” I called, in a high-pitched moan.

  My balls drew up against my body as I felt a tingle, deep within my shaft, begin spreading its delicious tendrils from the base of my cock all the way up to my slit. I imagined what it would feel like to have Jade’s hot, wet mouth surrounding my cock as he moaned and swallowed me to the root. The image of him doing so, while keeping eye contact, sent me over the edge and I fell onto my outstretched hand, barking his name as jets of cum coated my hand and wrist–littering the ground beneath me.

  As I rinsed the proof of my desire off my hand, I started to wonder how I was going to tell Jade how much he meant to me–about just how much I loved him. How much I wanted him. I sighed as I made my way along the rock wall to the spot Jade had chosen and where we’d left our things before going out to scout for trap sights. I began to set up camp, continuing to wonder how I was going to tell Jade something that I had only just been able to tell myself.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  ⸙

  JADE

  “Fuck.”

  I cursed as the knot I had been tying slipped loose, setting off the trap for the third time. Between not being able to focus and not being able to stop my hands from trembling, what was usually second nature to me was taking forever to accomplish.

  Not that I was in a hurry.

  I forced myself to focus on setting the trap, trying to deny myself thoughts about what had just taken place. I couldn’t stop thinking about the moment when I had realized something was wrong. Had it really been only an hour since I’d been here, setting up this same trap, and had realized how quiet the wood had gone?

  I had been thinking about how I regretted denying Emit time to enjoy a swim in the pond. Not because I thought I had been overly cautious, but because if I hadn’t denied him, we would’ve been splashing and playing right then–our naked bodies close together. My fingers had frozen in the middle of tying the knot as I’d realized that there were no noises around me, knowing the only time that happened was when there was danger nearby. My senses on high alert, I had raised my head to see a large flock of cornupes take flight, screeching as they used their clawed fingers on each wing to fight for position. Knowing how fearless they are, my stomach dropped in the realization that whatever was out there–it was big.

  And dangerous.

  The flock had scattered from the area I’d sent Emit in to scout for trap sights. I took off running toward the commotion, careless of my own safety. If I had been paying attention instead of fantasizing about Emit, I would have noticed the danger much sooner. I’d pushed the thought out of my mind as the edges of my visi
on began to go dark at the thought of something happening to him. I usually stayed closer to him but had needed the time and distance to think through what was going on between us.

  Whatever it was.

  “Em!” I’d shouted, hoping not only to alert him but to draw the attention of the predator that was surely somewhere close by.

  As I got closer, I began to see the tops of the shorter trees swaying off to my left and I’d had absolutely no doubt that whatever was disturbing them was huge. The massive constrictors out here were deadly within mere seconds of catching anything in their sight.

  As I’d continued to run, my mind flashed back to the day one of the raiders had been grabbed at the edge of a massive body of water. It had been a surprise assault by one of the behemoths while the entire camp had been on the move and there to witness it. The raider hadn’t been far ahead of where the man and I had been walking and I had seen it happen in far too much detail.

  It had happened so fast; I’d had no time to look away. After it was over, the man had had to drag me–screaming–past the still-feeding constrictor as it lingered at the edge of the water and unbound itself, swallowing its prey. The raider had died within seconds, but it’d been a grotesque way to die, and it had left me in the grip of a terror so strong, even the man’s beatings couldn’t shake me from it for days. The memory of the raider trapped within the folds of that thick, scaled body was burned into my memory.

  Within seconds of him being grabbed, I’d heard the raider let out a nauseating bleat before he began to bleed from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears–his blood splashing to the ground. The man had called it a red-out and had sounded impressed as he explained to me that the force of the pressure the constrictor exerted pushed the blood of its victim up and out of any available exit above its heart.