“But I wanted it to be good for you, too,” he groaned.
She breathed out a soft laugh.
“It still can be.”
Arching her back, she clicked open her breast harness.
Leaning over her, he rolled her onto her back, then pushed the pink material up to her chin. Freed, her breasts spilled out, round and full, tipped with dark pink. The sight of them made his cock throb all over again, but he ignored his own arousal, this time.
“Tell me if you like this.” He lowered his head, dragging his long tongue across one of Svetlana’s nipples.
Soft and silky, her skin quickly wrinkled around the tip which got hard like a small, perky button.
“I do...” She smiled at his questioning glance, her chest rising faster. “Do you like doing it?”
“I’ve wanted to taste every part of you for such a long time,” he rasped, sucking the nipple into his mouth.
She moaned, stretching under him.
He moved his mouth to the other nipple while stroking the one he had just released with his fingers. Carefully, he slid out the very tip of the claw on his thumb.
She whimpered when he lightly scraped across her skin with it, circling the tip of her breast.
“More...please,” she panted.
Releasing all his claws on that hand, he gently dragged their tips over her skin. A shudder ran through her body with her long, shuddered exhale.
“That is so good, Vrateus...”
Good.
The word gave him encouragement. He wrapped his hand around her throat quickly, just to check what he already knew—she was aroused and ready.
He slowly trailed the tips of his claws down her belly, then sheathed them completely before slipping his hand inside the waistband of her shorts.
Touching her there felt familiar. He’d done it several times, now. Except that this time, it was just for the two of them. There were no others.
She gasped, the same way she always did when he circled that spot between her legs.
Rising on his elbow at her side, he watched her face, noting every change in her expression.
She gazed at him with a small, happy smile. Then her eyelids dropped. The smile melted off her face. Her lips parted, letting out a soft moan.
Just for him.
“Faster, Vrateus...” she begged. “Just a little harder...Oh, yes right there...”
Then, she stopped talking completely. Her breathing hitched. Her body tensed; she fisted her hands above her head.
With a long groan, she released her breath that broke into a series of gasps and moans a moment after. Her hips jerked, and she trembled.
He removed his fingers from her. Instead, he cupped his hand between her legs and gently massaged her there, curious how many little shudders he could reap out of her.
Finally, her expression melted into a blissful one. With a sweet, delightful moan, she opened her eyes, meeting his.
“All these moans were real,” he whispered, happy to see her smile.
“Of course, they were...” she stretched throughout her entire body, then reached for him. “All of this is real, honey.”
Wrapping her arms around his neck, she kissed him again.
HIS EXPRESSION FLOORED me. It was that of a complete wonder—delighted and unguarded.
Despite the many horrible things Vrateus had lived through—things that had hardened him, made him strong and uncompromising—he remained innocent in so many ways.
I had the unstoppable urge to kiss and cuddle him.
He welcomed my affection, soaking it in like a desert absorbed the first rain of the season. I realized that all of it was new to him. Every single thing that had happened between us—each touch, kiss, caress, and whisper—was something he had never experienced before with anyone else.
And I wanted to give it all to him—everything he’d missed, stranded in this place with no one capable of any feelings.
I wished to give him my all, but I hadn’t expected how much he would give back.
With Vrateus, I felt not just wanted, but needed, desperately. His strong arms around me made me feel safe in this place filled with danger.
Rolling to his back, he drew me over his chest. I broke the kiss, rising over him on my arms.
He gazed up at me. “You are by far the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen in my life.”
“Well, considering the appearance of some of the guys around here, it’s hardly a compliment.” I giggled, warm with pleasure from the glow of affection in his bright orange eyes. “By Earth standards, I’m fairly ordinary looking, to be honest.”
“I don’t believe you.” He grinned, the tips of his fangs glistening in the dimly lit room. “You make me feel happy, Svetlana. When I should be stressed and terrified.”
“You make the life here so much better for me, too,” I confessed. The fear, the dread of what was to come were still there. But all of that seemed manageable as long as he was with me. “Together, we’ll be okay, Vrateus. You and me.”
Tomorrow was going to be a busy day.
Chapter 21
“HERE, TAKE THIS, TOO,” Vrateus said, taking a ruby ring off his pinky and putting it on the ring finger of my right hand.
“A promise ring?” I attempted a joke with a nervous giggle to combat the dreadful anxiety of the looming uncertainty.
This morning, he had taken me to the functioning bathroom on one of the ships near the gardens. Then, we’d had some berries and fruit for breakfast. We had taken care to stay out of sight. However, the gardens appeared deserted. Even Malahki seemed to be gone.
Back in the room behind the library, Vrateus was now getting ready to confront Crux.
“If you press the button here...” He lifted my hand, pointing at a small bead in the setting of the ring. “A needle will slide out. It’s soaked in a concentrated fuhnid juice.”
“It is?” I took a closer look at the tiny button he had indicated.
“Very potent.” He nodded. “The needle is too fine to penetrate the skin of every species on the Dark Anomaly, though. If anyone gets too close, aim for the eyelids or lips if you can. It should kill a large male within seconds.”
“Wow.” I admired the ring with newly found appreciation. “I see what you meant when you said you liked things that are pretty and functional.”
He checked all my weapons, as if I were the one going out there to face the wild crowd, not staying in the small room behind the library, waiting for his return.
He cupped the side of my face for a moment, then slid his hand down my arm, lacing his fingers with mine.
“I’ll come for you in an hour or two.”
I squeezed his hand, wishing I didn’t have to let go.
“Be careful, please. I need you to come back.”
“I will always come back to you.” He held my gaze. “You understand what you’ve done to me, Svetlana? It’s no longer just about survival for me. You’ve shown me how to live. If I lost you now, I wouldn’t know how to go on.”
ONCE AGAIN, I WAS SITTING in the dark, waiting. My eyes on the glowing screen of the tablet, I tracked every passing second, counting down the minutes until Vrateus’s return.
An hour passed, then another crawled by, and he still wasn’t back.
I strained my hearing, listening to every little noise out in the tunnel, but none of them were the sounds of him returning.
At lunch time, I ate some fruit Vrateus and I had brought from the gardens. Unable to sit, I paced in the small space.
Something must have happened. I couldn’t shake the dread.
I had no doubt Vrateus would have come for me as soon as he was able. If he was able.
Something bad must have happened to him, and I couldn’t stay here, not knowing what it was or if I could help.
Adjusting the weapons strapped to my body, I slipped out of the room and into the tunnel, then made a turn to the gardens, the way Vrateus had showed me that morning.
From the
re, I travelled via the conveyor belt inside the garbage tunnel.
My plan was simple. Stay out of sight, learn what had happened, figure out how to help Vrateus if he needed help.
Keeping my hand on the wall, I felt the loose panel that covered the opening into the corridor not far from my old room. Getting off the conveyer belt, my hands and feet pushed into the walls of the tunnel, I crawled up, then peeked out into the corridor.
No one was here. From what Vrateus had told me, Crux and the crew would either still be celebrating, or recovering after last night’s party. Either way, most of them would congregate around the mess hall and the kitchen where the food and the wine were.
Getting back down on the conveyor belt, I kept going in the direction of the waste sorting room.
My destination shouldn’t be far now.
I got ready to stop if necessary, listening for any noise up ahead.
Instead, a rattling sound came from behind me.
Was it some large debris going down the tunnel?
It sounded big and heavy enough to push me out into the waste processing room. I had no way of knowing if anyone was out there, and I would get no chance to stop myself before falling out.
I braced my arms and feet into the walls. Maybe, I could at least try to slow down my tumbling out of the tunnel by stopping the debris with my shoulders?
The next moment, the thing behind me rushed down with a sound of a rumbling log. It painfully hit my shoulder, narrowly missing my head, then wedged between the wall and my body.
My stomach lurched with terror when I realized what it was.
A full-grown vasai centipede!
It hissed, thrashing violently against me. Its jaws clanked somewhere just above my head.
I shoved at its chitin-covered body as its many legs scraped at my bodysuit. Horror and disgust exploded in my chest. I couldn’t scream. My throat closed in terror, choking me.
Tumbling together with the centipede, my limbs tangled with its countless legs, we both flew out of the garbage shoot, landing in a pile of trash below.
The vasai seemed really pissed. Sinking its mandibles into my shoulder, it shook its flat head like a fighting dog. It seemed determined to let go only with a piece of my flesh in its mouth.
Rolling down the garbage pile with the nightmarish insect, I frantically patted my side in search of the gun holster. As soon as my fingers brushed by the smooth handle, I yanked the gun out and fired.
I had no time to aim properly. The laser ray grazed the creature’s side, not harming it much but enraging it even more. Kicking me with all its legs, it shoved me to my back, knocking the gun out of my hand.
Two brick-brown hands suddenly gripped the centipede’s head, twisting it out of its body. A stream of milky-white goo gushed out of the wound, foul and steaming.
My stomach roiled. Then, a fresh wave of terror chilled my spine at the sight of my “rescuer”. The burly dimo lifted the severed head of the centipede to his mouth, sucking on the dangling tissue and torn vessels.
“God, it’s so gross,” I groaned, scrambling for my gun.
He tossed the vasai head aside, kicking the gun out of my reach.
“Huh!” A kreer peeked at me over the dimo’s shoulder. “Crux’s female is here.”
Both aliens appeared to be fresh out of a fight. One of the kreer’s arms hung motionless. The dimo’s side was covered in blood, his or the kreer’s, it was hard to tell.
Two more dimos were lying by the wall, either death or passed out.
“Go, get Crux,” the dimo ordered.
“Why me?” the kreer whined, his bloodshot eyes fixed on me. “You’ll have all the fun with her while I’m gone.”
“Go,” the dimo roared. “Tell him we found her. Crux may let you have her after he’s done, for bringing him the good news.”
“But you’ll have her now—”
“Go, I said!” The dimo shoved the kreer toward the exit, so hard, the male nearly lost its balance. Spurred into action, the kreer jumped to all his feet and ran to the short hallway that led to the vasai farm and the main corridor.
At the same moment, the dimo lunged for me.
Scurrying around him on all fours, I leaped to my feet and dashed after the kreer. This was the only way out of the room besides the tunnel I’d arrived in.
It was quieter inside the vasai farm this time. I ran between the cages, many of them empty, their doors open. The clusters of eggs in those were squashed, with the clear contents smeared all over the floor, mixed with the creatures’ spilled blood.
My feet slipped in the gore. The heavy footfalls of the dimo sounded close at my back.
I sprinted for the entrance.
The sound of other footsteps came from the corridor, then the kreer rushed back into the farm, with Crux on his heels.
“Where is she?”
I skidded to a stop, nearly crashing into them. My feet slid in the mess on the floor, and I grabbed on to the bars of the nearest cage to stop myself from falling.
Then the heavy hand of the dimo fisted in my hair.
“Finally.” Crux smirked, a black flash in his yellow eyes promised nothing good for me.
Fear paralyzed my mind and my body.
The lanky alien, Vrateus had called Tunkrox, staggered unsteadily through the entrance into the farm.
“Hey, Crux...” he hiccupped. “The captain escaped—”
Crux span on his heel, glaring at Tunkrox. “I am the captain! You idiot.”
“Okay.” Tunkrox shrugged, swaying on his feet. “He is still gone, though...”
“How?” Crux roared, hands fisting at his sides. “Lock her in the cage,” he threw over his shoulder to the dimo. “Fuck! How did he get out? Who was supposed to be watching him? Do I have to be everywhere at once? A bunch of idiots!” he raged, stomping out of the farm.
Unperturbed, Tunkrox stumbled out of the room, following his new captain.
“The cage can wait,” the dimo growled, flipping me to face him.
Snapping out of the stupor, I punched him in the jaw. The blow didn’t seem to affect him, but definitely hurt my knuckles.
He smirked.
“Crux said to lock her up.” The kreer bounced on the balls of his feet by the entrance to the farm.
“I will,” the dimo growled, pressing himself against me. “In a minute...”
Glancing out into the corridor then back at the dimo assaulting me, the kreer seemed to be torn between joining in the fun with the dimo or running to rat him out to Crux.
Finally, the fear of the new captain must have won, as the kreer ran out the way Crux had left.
Trapping my legs between his, the dimo gripped my waist with the two short arms he had growing from each side of his abdomen. He then caught my wrists with the second pair of hands of the arms that grew from his shoulders.
“Now what are you going to do?” He sneered, licking his lips with a wide, meaty tongue, the centipede’s body fluids still glistening on his face.
“I guess I’ll just let you have me,” I said, trying hard not to grimace in revulsion. “If you’re good to me, I can be good to you, too.”
“I don’t need you to be good.” He dragged his tongue along the side of my face. The stale stench of alcohol assaulted my nostrils. “I don’t even care if you’re alive.” He guffawed as if he’d just made a funny joke.
“Oh, but you don’t know how much more fun I can be alive,” I attempted a flirtatious murmur, though it came out more like a strangled croak, as terror pressed the air out of my chest. “Just let me use one hand.” I wiggled the fingers of my right hand, playfully. “And I’ll show you.”
“Just one?”
“Mhm.” I nodded, biting my lower lip seductively.
He released his grip on my wrist. “If you try anything funny, I’ll make sure it hurts more when I fuck you,” he warned.
“Don’t worry.” I brought my hand up to his cheek. “There is definitely nothing funny about this.�
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Hard plating covered the dimo’s skull and most of his face. He had no eyelids, his eyes mere slits under the thick brow ridge. His lips seemed just as hard as the rest of him.
“Shove your tongue down my throat,” I moaned breathily, trailing the back of my hand down his jaw line.
With an intrigued growl, he stuck his thick tongue out. It descended toward my mouth.
Pressing the small protrusion on Vrateus’s ring, I released the sharp needle and stabbed his tongue with it.
He roared in pain then slapped me across my face with his free hand. My head slammed into a cage bar. The blow rang through my head, disorienting me for a moment.
“I want you dead, after all,” he snarled, putting his huge hands around my neck.
His enormous body suddenly shuddered. The hands choking me relaxed, allowing me to twist my neck free from his grip.
With gurgling noises coming from his mouth, he collapsed at my feet, thrashing in convulsions.
The dimo’s tongue had quickly swollen to the size of my forearm, completely blocking his mouth. A pair of his hands clawed at his throat as he struggled for air, the other pair scratching at his chest.
“What did you do?” the kreer yelled from the entrance.
He was followed by a group of others. Crux might have sent them to make sure the dimo complied with his order of locking me up.
“Get her! Now!”
All of them rushed me.
Jumping over the dimo’s writhing body, I dashed back to the waste sorting room—there was nowhere else to run.
Swiping my gun off the floor, I shot at the two males who came the closest.
Spinning on my heel, I climbed up the garbage pile, back to the chute. The belt inside moved down when I needed to go up. I’d have to climb up the walls inside the tunnel, careful to stay off the belt. It wouldn’t be easy, but I had no other choice.
“Get her!” Someone shouted drunkenly behind me. My stomach dropped with dread. My heart beat so fast, it was hard to breathe.
More of them rushed in.
Frantically, I scrambled into the tunnel. Bracing my boots and my arms against the wall, I climbed up.
Gravity (Dark Anomaly Book 1) Page 17
