Page 28 of Purring, Presents, and Parties

“I’ve dropped your rocks,” Tarrian said.

Aubrey chuckled. “I figured that out. Don’t worry, I'm sure you didn’t bruise the rocks.”

“Close your eyes,” Tarrian warned. Aubrey did as he asked and soon sensed warm light through her closed lids. “Open your eyes slowly, my human.”

Blinking, Aubrey looked away from the light Tarrian was holding and let her eyes adjust. When she could see, she gasped at the place Tarrian brought her to.

They were inside a good sized cave, probably about as large as the dormitory they had shared with fifty other people last night. It wasn’t the size of the area that made her gasp, it was the contents. The entire center of the cave was taken up by a pool of water with gorgeous speleothems all along one side.

These speleothems were in the forms of stalactites hanging from the ceiling, and under them were stalagmites reaching up, almost as if they wanted to touch their stalagmite cousins. Normally mineral deposits like this would be formed by rainwater seeping into underground caves, but this had to be due to snow melt caused by the warmth provided by the geothermal heat.

“It’s beautiful!” she breathed.

Tarrian started purring. “I’d hoped you'd find this interesting. I worried that the smell would be harsh so I brought a deadening agent for us to use.”

She looked over at him. “Smell?”

He was still kneeling on the ground, searching the bag. When she spoke, he looked up with a questioning rumble. “You can’t smell it?”

“You mean the sulfur smell?” she asked. “It’s like something rotting.”

He went back to searching. “Yes, we call that type of smell discolored. It smells like something is decaying but the cause is a chemical, not organic. It is truly not bothering you?”

“Nope, I’m fine.”

“I’m not. It’s intense, bordering on painful.” Tarrian pulled out a bulb with a small cup attachment. He fit the cup over his nose slits and squeezed the bulb while breathing in deep. Then he offered it to her.

She shook her head. “I don’t think I need it. But we can leave if the smell is still bothering you.”

“I’m perfectly fine now.” He dropped it back in the bag. “It’s there if you need it.”

She pointed to the water. “Can we swim in that?”

“Yes, it’s within the water temperature you can tolerate. There’s another cave where the water is much too hot and two others that are cold enough to occasionally form thin layersof ice. This was the only one with an appropriate temperature range.”

Aubrey moved close and wrapped her arms around his waist. “You really did plan this all out. It’s like a honeymoon, I love it!”

He embraced her back, purring. “Honeymoon?”

“It’s a human tradition for couples to spend time alone, usually at an exotic location, after they’ve gotten married.”

His purr got a little louder and the smell of peppermint got stronger. “Yes, this is our honeymoon, my perfect Aubrey.”

When his purr started dipping into the sensual register, Aubrey pulled away a little. “Um, shouldn’t we be worried about someone finding us?”

Tarrian tapped a finger over his nose slits. “Unless everyone is packing deadening medication, no one will bother coming in past the cave entrance. The smell will turn them away. Besides, the Talins visiting the mountaintop aren’t here to explore. Very few will even leave the monastery grounds.”

“That means we’re really alone here,” she whispered, going up on her toes and lifting her face toward his.

“Yes.” Without hesitation he lowered his head until their lips met.

Chapter 12

Tarrian

Before meeting the humans, Tarrian never thought pressing lips with someone could be so wonderful. The scent glands in his cheeks started aching as Aubrey’s soft lips moved over his, urging him to open his mouth. He never refused his human anything, so he parted his lips and let her deepen the kiss.

Although Aubrey was from a much smaller and weaker species that didn’t have a cohesive government or even a homeworld, she had absolute dominion over him. Even before he’d scent-bonded with her, he would’ve sacrificed everything if it meant he could stay with her. He never told the other men, but if they hadn’t gotten permission to bring the humans back to Talarian, he would’ve found someplace outside of the Talin Empire to take the humans.

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