“Wait a minute! Where’s Mr. Tiddles?”
A familiar voice chittered excitedly, and she looked over her to find her small companion gnawing cheerfully on a large, many-legged insect. She shuddered, glad that she hadn’t realized what was sharing the tree with them the previous night.
“It’s time to go,” she told him, then grimaced as he shoved the rest of the insect in his mouth before leaping cheerfully into her arms.
“Yuck,” she shuddered. “I hope you swallowed it all.”
Tarax chuckled and she frowned up at him. “Can you understand what I’m saying?”
He tilted his head on one side, studying her face, but he did not respond and she sighed. “No, I suppose not. I guess I’m just easy to read.”
He opened his mouth, then shook his head and closed it again. He tightened his arm around her, then grabbed a vine and leapt off of the branch. Her squeal trailed through the air behind them as he swung easily down to the ground. She was still shaking when he set her down.
“Oh my God. Do not leap off a tree without warning me first. I thought I was going to die,” she scolded him.
He actually looked offended, and she sighed and patted his chest. “All right. I know you weren’t going to let me die.”
He briefly touched her cheek again, then went to collect water leaves as she attended to the morning necessities.
Taraxan did his best to keep an eye out for any possible dangers as they resumed their journey, but his mind was still consumed with the events of the morning. When Jane had started rubbing her luscious body against him, he had been thrilled. His caution of the previous night had been forgotten as he responded to her. Then, when he realized she had been sleeping, he had tried to force himself to put her aside. But when she gave him that sweet smile and moved, his good intentions disappeared. The feel of her soft body against his, the liquid arousal bathing his cock, had been too much to resist. He had been lost in her, and his body had betrayed him, exploding with pleasure without waiting for her. Fortunately, his climax had triggered her own, and he had been privileged to experience the exquisite sensation of her coming apart in his arms.
Afterwards, when he had seen her embarrassment and confusion, he had longed to pull her closer, to assure her that he cared for her, to promise her that he would never leave— His thoughts came to an abrupt halt.
You can’t bond with her, he reminded himself. She is not Doturan. These feelings are caused by the situation, and they will disappear as soon as you return home.
But despite his lecture to himself, the thought of their future separation made his chest ache. He forced himself to focus on the present instead, while they were still together.
The night’s rest seemed to have refreshed Jayn, and he watched her study her surroundings with an interested eye. Several times she stopped to observe a plant and pose a clearly interrogatory question. It was quite clear that she still thought he was a native of this planet. He had no more idea of the names of the plants he was pointing out than she did, but he hated to disappoint her.
Instead, he gave the plants generic names in his own language – pink flower, big ass leaf, golden rain plant. The last was a vine that dripped long strands of small yellow flowers. Giving in to an unexpected impulse, he plucked one of the strands and wove it into a circle that he placed on top of her dark mane. The shy smile she gave him in return was more than enough reward.
As they continued their journey, she chattered on, talking to both Mr. Tiddles and to him. He encouraged her as best he could, and his implant picked up more and more of her language.
But by the time the sun reached its zenith, her words had died down and he could see that her footsteps were beginning to drag. He remembered that she had rested at midday the previous day and decided that it would be worthwhile finding a safe place to stop. His conscience gave a brief twinge that he was not hurrying to his destination as quickly as possible so that he could return to his duties, but it was easily pushed aside. Here in this wild jungle with his female—the female—at his side, strategy and battle tactics seemed far away. His duty was to care for her.
He caught the scent of water a few minutes before he led her through another sheet of hanging vines and into a small clearing. Water trickled along a rocky streambed, gathering in a crystalline pool surrounded by lush, deep purple vegetation. Jayn gasped with delight, then hesitated, obviously remembering her last experience in an open space.
“Isit safe?” she whispered.
He studied the area carefully. The moss carpeting the ground was the same as that beneath the trees. He could see some faint tracks leading to the water, but those were only to be expected and none of them looked recent. Reluctantly dropping her hand, he found a sturdy branch and cast it out into the middle of the clearing. It landed with a thud but no predator appeared, and the area remained undisturbed except for a small flight of brightly colored avians that fluttered from one tree to another.
“I believe that it’s secure,” he said reassuringly, but he kept one hand on his knife as they emerged from under the trees.
Jane immediately headed for the pool, but he grabbed her hand before she could dip it into the tempting liquid.
“Let me check it first,” he said firmly.
He did not like the fact that her eyes
