Trey climbs off first and then reaches up to help me dismount. When he sets me on the ground, he continues to hold my arm under my elbow, because I’m a little wobbly. I walk around for a little bit, stretching my legs. Everyone but me begins digging a hole in the ground with mechanized shovels that do a lot of the work for the soldiers. In no time at all, the place resembles a mass burial site. As I walk up next to Hollis, who is shoulder-deep in a hole, I ask, “What are you guys, vampires?” I watch him line his grave with a waterproof foam spray before lying down in it to check its level of comfort.
“What’s a vampire?” Hollis says, staring up at me from his supine position in the hole.
“You don’t know what a vampire is?”
“No. Is it as handsome as I am?” he asks.
I frown to keep from laughing. “Er . . . not exactly. A vampire is an undead creature who feeds on human blood for survival. It sleeps in a coffin and you can only kill one by putting a wooden stake through its heart.”
Hollis looks disturbed. “That is terrifying, Kricket. I am never visiting Earth.”
My eyes widen as I hold up my hands and say, “No! It’s mythical—”
He pulls a small piece of twine that’s looped in his camouflage blanket: the pile of blanket at the foot of his trench slides over the top of the grave. The fabric is on a chameleon setting that takes on the color and texture of its surroundings so that the hole and Hollis are completely hidden from sight beneath it. “Good night, vampire assassin,” I hear him call from within the dirt.
Jax nudges my shoulder. “Kricket,” he says. When he has my attention, he hands me one of the personal toiletry totes, like the kind I remember from when we traveled here from Earth. “You may want to use this now. We’ll be staying down most of the daylight hours.”
“Thanks.” Jax moves away as I rummage through it, seeing things in it that we didn’t have before, like hair remover spray and scented oils. I smile, because I know he must have packed these with me in mind. I slink off to find a private place. Hiding behind a large tree, I use the soapy sponge in the pack to clean up as best as I can, and then I use just about everything else in the tote as well.
When I return, the spixes are wandering around free, munching on grass. All the supplies have been buried in trenches. Most of the Cavars are in their holes. Trey is waiting for me by a rather large trench. As I approach him, he jumps down into it, holding up his arms to help me in. After he lowers me in, I realize that I’ll need a leg up in order to get out of it because it’s deeper than the other trenches. The waterproof foam lining the walls and floor has hardened, giving the trench iridescent shell-like walls. Trey has spread out mats on the floor over the foam, so it’s actually comfortable inside our grave. After I lie down, Trey takes off his shirt and lies beside me, pulling the twine so that our camouflage blanket covers the mouth of the hole.
I quickly snuggle up next to Trey. With my head on his chest, I say softly, “This is quite a burrow you’re dug for us. It’s twice as big as Hollis’s hole.”
Trey smiles. “There’s two of us and we’ll have to stay in it for hours, so making it bigger made sense to me. But really, I was just working off some demons.”
“Demons?” I ask as I raise an eyebrow at him. My night-vision glasses slip to the edge of my nose when I do. I use my finger to push them back up.
“I had you practically on my lap the whole way here,” Trey says ruefully.
“Is that a bad thing?”
“It’s a different kind of torture, Kitten.”
“Well, we’re entombed here with nothing much to do except . . .” I trace the ridges between his ab muscles.
“Don’t tease me. I’m about to go off as it is.”
I sit up and slip off my jacket, tossing it into the corner. I straddle his hips, saying, “I’m not teasing. You’ve been rubbing up against me for hours. I’m about as frustrated as you are.”
He sits up abruptly, pulling me against his chest while his lips cover mine, searing them with kisses. Strong hands slide up my sides, pulling the cloudy fabric of my black blouse with them. Our lips part as he pushes it off over my head. It joins my jacket in the corner. From there, it becomes a race to see who can disrobe the other faster. Trey is definitely the winner because I’m completely bare when he pulls me back to him, while his dark slacks are still around his ankles and his boots are both on.
As I sink down on him, I say his name without meaning to. He quickly covers my lips with his to smother my cries. We’re both too far gone to be gentle. My nails dig into his back while he roughly presses me against him, lifting my hips over and over until my head falls back and I lose myself to ecstasy. He follows not far behind me, burying his face between my hair and throat, panting harshly in my ear. I relax in his arms, resting my head on his shoulder while we remain locked together in a tight embrace.
Trey strokes my back. “We need to find someone soon who can perform a commitment ceremony.”
“I don’t need a commitment ceremony to be with you,” I murmur against his skin, placing small kisses along the breadth of his wide shoulder.
“I need it.” He lifts my hair and unbraids it so that it falls over my shoulders.
“Why? I know how you feel about me.”
“Because I need everyone to know that you’re mine.”
I giggle. “That’s a little cavemanish, don’t you think?” I ask him teasingly.
The next thing I know, I’m on my back. With the palms of my hands flat against his chest, his warm skin rubs against me while I gasp at the exquisite feel of him. “Most of all, Kricket,” he says passionately in my ear, “I need you to know that you’re mine.”
His hands on me are possessive and demanding. “Say you’re mine, Kricket.” His fingers twine in my hair.
Intense pleasure washes over me. “I’m yours,” I whisper, biting my lip to keep from screaming it.
“Whose?” he growls again.
“Yours, Trey, I’m yours.” I say breathlessly, as we completely lose our minds and our bodies to each other. For the next few hours, we prove over and over that we belong to one another.
When I awake in our little love nest, I stretch beneath the blanket. “It will be dark soon,” Trey says from behind me. His hand moves on my side, stroking my skin possessively. I can’t help feeling disappointed that we’ll have to leave here soon. It’s been an oasis in a sea of scary. I sit up; Trey’s hand falls away when I crawl for my bag in the corner. On my knees, I sift through it until I find the personal tote that Jax gave me yesterday. Finding a comb within it, I sit on the mat and attempt to untangle the snarls from my hair. After a few minutes, I realize that it’s a hopeless mess.