“Ava,” he groaned, then slid a hand down her stomach. Finding her clit with his fingers, he began to stroke her.
Crying out, she came again, her inner walls clamping down around his hard cock in rhythmic pulses until he joined her. His fingers continued to stroke her, drawing the pleasure out until she finally sank, limp and sated, onto his chest.
Breathing hard, Jak’ri wrapped his arms around her and cuddled her close.
Thanks to her heightened senses, Ava could hear his heart slamming against his rib cage with the same speed and force as her own.
Burrowing closer, she wished she had the breath to express the emotion that swelled inside her. She wished she had the words to tell him that she had never in her life felt as close to another person as she did to him.
Burying his nose in her hair, he whispered, “I love you, Ava.”
She smiled, eyes drifting closed. “I love you, too.”
Jak’ri smiled at Ava.
Juice trickled down her chin as she ate the sweet tree fruit with relish.
Several days had passed. Days he would consider idyllic if the Gathendien threat didn’t still hover over their heads.
He took another bite of his half of the fruit they shared.
No. Even with the threat hanging over their heads, he thought their time together here idyllic. They spent every night making love as Ava called it (a term he liked very much) and simply enjoying each other’s company. They spent their days in the fresh air, embracing their new freedom.
This planet had proven to be a safe haven for them thus far. With her extraordinarily sharp hearing, Ava heard everything that ventured close to their little rocky home. Those large mammals that had peered into the escape pod the night of their landing had poked their noses into the passage and given it a sniff on their third night here. But the nocturnal hunters hadn’t returned since.
He and Ava had killed spiders and other things she deemed creepy-crawlies that ventured into the cave, as well as a snake that had been large enough that Ava had shuddered after they decapitated it. It had taken both of them to drag the massive serpent back out through the passage and leave it what they hoped would be a safe distance away.
He suspected that might’ve been what attracted the big cats’ attention, because nothing had remained the next day but red splotches on the soil where they’d left the snake, surrounded by those huge paw prints.
The little leapers never ventured inside. They did, however, linger nearby. Ava thought they liked having new neighbors. Jak’ri thought they simply liked the fruit he tossed them.
The berries he’d seen the little creatures consume in large amounts had been sweet when he’d carefully tasted them. They also hadn’t made him ill, so he and Ava had been enjoying them. Jak’ri also climbed high into the trees again and cut some of the fruit they currently ate that Ava said were the size of Earth coconuts but bore the skin and flavor of something called an orange.
To Jak’ri, the odd melons tasted much like the magani fruit he loved so much on Purvel. The skin was harder to peel, though, so he had to use one of the daggers Ava had confiscated from the escape pod’s weapons stash. The leapers had hooted louder than ever and crowded around him as soon as he’d opened one. So he’d climbed back up and retrieved a few extras.
Though he enjoyed his jaunts with Ava, leaving the cave so frequently did raise some concerns. “If we venture out every day, I worry we’ll leave too strong a scent trail for the Gathendiens to track,” he said before consuming another slice of the tasty fruit.
Swallowing, Ava shook her head. “As long as our little furry friends here continue to hang out with us, we’re good.” She smiled down at a leaper that leaned against her, eagerly devouring another sweet morsel. “These little guys may be cute, but they stink. Even I have a hard time picking up our scent when they’re around.”
He laughed as one of the smaller ones tentatively approached him. They did have a rather pungent aroma. “The babies seem to be even more fragrant than the adults.” When he offered it a slice, it crept forward, snatched the chunk of fruit from his fingers, and scampered back to its mother.
Ava laughed. “I know. It’s so weird.” She ate another slice. “Maybe on this planet, the smaller you are the more you smell, because those big ones we caught glimpses of a couple days ago—the ones that looked like gorillas with cheetah fur—didn’t have much of a scent at all.” And had kept their distance, much to his relief.
Tenderness suffused him as he smiled at her. She looked good. Her wounds were now mere scars and no longer pained her. He thought such injuries healing so rapidly without the benefit of a silna remarkable.
It’s the virus, she reminded him telepathically.
They slipped in and out of each other’s thoughts often, sometimes without intent. Had any other woman inserted herself in his mind to this extent, Jak’ri would’ve been both disturbed and angry.
But he loved having that connection with Ava.
She winked at him as she took another bite of fruit. I do, too.
Every afternoon as the forest began to darken—indicating the sun’s descent toward the horizon—they headed for the stream, filled their canteens, washed their clothes as best they could, and bathed. Ava had flushed a pretty pink the first time she’d doffed her meager clothing on the banks. “I can’t help it!” she’d said on a laugh. “I’ve never been naked outside before.” But he was the only one around to see her, and he’d thoroughly enjoyed the view.
The lighting was so dim beneath the canopy that dusk left them in almost complete darkness so they performed these tasks fairly early.
They tended to encounter more wildlife at the stream. Nothing that viewed them as prey, fortunately. A four-legged mammal with hooves, bushy dark brown fur, and majestic black antlers had led a small heard of similar mammals to the stream the previous day while he and Ava had been bathing. The beautiful creatures had stood still and stared at them with dark, alert eyes, ears twitching. After a moment, during which he and Ava had murmured to each other over how beautiful they were, the animals had apparently deemed them no threat, drunk from the stream, then ambled away.
After the long months of captivity, Jak’ri relished this time. The fresh air. The delicious fruit. And—most of all—Ava’s company.
He cared more for her every day. And not just because they spent each night exploring each other’s bodies and losing themselves in the greatest pleasure he had ever experienced.
She grinned. “You’re just saying that because I went down on you last night.”
He grew hard just thinking about it, her soft lips closing around his length as she sucked him deep. Instead of pouncing on her the way the memory urged him to, however, he arched a brow. “And when I reciprocated, I believe you thoroughly enjoyed it.”
Her face flushed as her eyes began to glow. “Hell yes, I did. If I’d moaned or screamed any louder, those giant cat things probably would’ve come running, thinking I was one of those shaggy deer dying.”
He grinned. Their strong telepathic connection had the added benefit of making very clear to him what she enjoyed sexually, including things she was too shy to ask of him.
The latter were his favorites.
Ava laughed. “I bet they are.”