Page 32 of His Human Librarian

“Let me turn on the light and I’ll have a look around.” Soon he’s standing and marching around the perimeter of the areawhere we’ve been staying, shining the light in every nook and cranny. He finds the large bug and flash flames it because he declares that it’s indeed poisonous.

I’m staring at the large, fire breathing, handsome Hyrrokin with one tattered pant leg who I had sex with last night. In fact, I still smell like sex. Both my nipples are still sore and I feel a warmth between my thighs because I’m still recovering from that huge shaft hitting me in places I never knew existed.

I love his forked tongue and his kisses and the taste of his mouth and…and grabbing his horns and barbed tail was simply next level. And I know for certain I could want that for the rest of my life.

But as I gaze at his profile and remind myself that Sten Sandstone originally wanted nothing to do with me…

My brain kicks into overdrive and I wonder if this is nothing but a one-night stand. A pleasure mating. Did I misunderstand? Did I think we were starting something special last night, as in I’m falling in love with Sten Sandstone and he is with me and we were in fact making love and starting a new relationship that could possibly turn into marriage?

Or did I only have inappropriate sex with my boss?

Heat gathers behind my eyes. I place my palm against my chest. “You don’t have to worry, I'll be gone soon,” I blurt out.

He flashes the light towards me. “Gone? Why would you be gone?”

I look away and then back at him. “What is this to you, Sten? Was last night a one-time thing or did you want a relationship? When we get rescued and get out of here, what do you want to happen between us?”

“I don't ever want you gone,” he says from across the cave, striding back toward me, his tail flicking in the air. “I would never want that. Taylor, I thought you understood what was happening between us. You are my…”

And then there's another rumble and groan in the walls of the cave and rocks start crumbling and rolling.

“Taylor.”

“Oh hells. It’s an aftershock.”

“Watch out,” he yells. Sten comes running for me, and I get up and I’m swaying on my feet. And in the outline of the fading light, I see a random stone, luckily, not that big, hit Sten directly in the head.

I scream and go running to him, but I trip over something then the light goes out.

I open my eyes,and it's completely pitch black.

My head feels a little sore, but not that much. It’s already going away. I put my hand around my head and don't feel any wound or any pain. “Thank gods,” I whisper. But just like last time, there's a warm body next to me in the dark.

My heart's racing. I whimper because I know what happened. Another aftershock. We felt a few small ones over the last diurnal and we’d been worrying that another larger one would return. We were hoping to get rescued before any type of devastating aftershock that could cause us more harm, but no such luck.

I click on the small light that’s still attached to my pants. There’s an enormous rock on the ground directly next to me. A huge rock was coming for me and he must have seen it. He’d told me his hearing was better, his vision, his smell, all his senses are sharper than a human’s, so he was able to react faster. He saw it coming and shoved me out of the way again. Luckily, it landed next to both of us, but I remember seeing him move as if something smaller had hit his head. I'd gotten him healed from what happened yesterday, only for him to have a new injury.

And I can't find my med kit, and I don't even know if I can help him.

I put my hands on his chest, and all over and up his shoulders feeling, because I can't let anything happen to Sten Sandstone. My hands continue up his thick neck. I can feel his jaw, his face, when I get to his top of his head, near his horns, and that's when I feel a wetness. I'm not sure how bad it is, but any type of wound in the head isn't a good thing.

He groans.

I sigh with relief. I don't want him to be in pain again, considering I can't find my med kit or the pain meds, but at least it means he's alive and not in a coma yet.

And that's when I hear a sound.

I turn my head, scared. Is it an animal, a predator, or another bug, that was able to get in here after this landslide? Maybe the back of the cave was opened. Something's coming in here to attack us.

Then I hear it again, and now it sounds like voices. I sit up, “Hello, hi,” I yell in the dark, fighting back tears. “We're here. Help us. You have to help him.”

“Sten,” a deep voice shouts.

Then that's when I see a little bit of light between cracks in the wall of rock at the entrance to the cave, and I cry out with joy. “Sten they’re here, they found us.”

“Are you there?” someone cries out. There is a scramble of falling rocks.

In the emerging light I can see that Sten does have a nasty head wound, but I sigh with relief, because it's not as bad as I was imagining. I get up and stumble over and walk closer to the tiny opening. “I'm here. We're both here. It's me, Taylor Dumas and I’m here with Sten sandstone.”

---