Page 52 of Gravel and Grit

They’d spent the last two weeks since theirmake up sex, as she referred to it, compensating for the time they’d lost. They rarely left each other’s sides. Before her, Zaek hadn’t known simple, daily tasks could be so much fun or that almost any situation could lead to mating. Meal preparation, for example. That had always been a necessary task and one performed mechanically. Not so with Mira. More often than not they wound up in a food fight that led to cleaning each other. A person obviously needs to be

unclothed to be cleansed properly, and Mira without clothes was not a sight he was able to resist. Neither was Mirawithclothes, for that matter.

Bathing was another formerly necessary task that was now one of his favorite times of the day.

Zaek groaned, imagining her soapy and wet and naked…

“Focus,” she muttered with a chuckle.

He grumbled and returned to mapping out another route, this one involving sneaking aboard a freight train, but he reached out and slid her chair closer, then buried his claws in her hair. If he could not convince her to bathe with him, he would soothe himself by petting her as he worked.

They hadn’t spent theentirelast weeks mating. Most of it, granted, but not all of it. He’d also spent hours every day training her in self-defense. He did not want there to ever be an occasion where she was forced to defend herself, because it would mean he was not there to keep her safe, but he needed her to be able to protect herself. If anything should happen to him, he needed to know she would be okay. He taught her how to use firearms, hand-to-hand combat maneuvers that used her small stature and her new strength to her advantage, and some blade training. He also added her to his security system and showed her how to use his sigil. He had to tweak it so it would recognize and respond to her, but she would now be able to use it to beam aboard the rescue ship, with or without him.

Spending the last weeks preparing meant they had just enough time to reach Mount Nirvana, with a only a couple days to spare for any unforeseen delays. As idyllic as their time together in his cabin had been, and as much as he wanted it to continue, it was time to leave.

That night he would fly to town to gather supplies. Mira would stay at the cabin to limit her exposure to danger, and so he could get there and back faster. They were running low on food, and since they would be traveling to the far north, she would need appropriate clothing. They planned to leave the evening after he returned, so they could travel under the cover of darkness.

He had disguises, if needed, but moving at night was safer, to avoid as many Earthians as possible. But, first…

“I believe I need to cleanse myself before leaving for the supply run,” he announced.

With that, he snatched her out of her chair and up into his arms then carried her to the bathing room, peals of laughter spilling from her lips the whole way.

Setting her on her feet, he turned on the water then helpfully stripped her and set her inside the spacious shower stall.

“You’re incorrigible!” she gasped as he backed her against the wall and hiked her up against him.

“Mmm, and you taste good,” he growled, licking water droplets from her neck. “So good that I believe I will need a snack before I leave.”

He felt the shiver of anticipation that traveled down her spine at his low-voiced threat. He pulled back long enough to give her a hungry grin that bared his sharp teeth, his orange eyes dark with predatory desire, then lifted her higher and settled her with her thighs over his shoulders.

Mira gasped and clutched his horns, but he knew it wasn’t with alarm.

Zaek would never drop her. No, his hungry mate fisted his horns to pull him closer.

“Is my Bunny needy?” he rasped teasingly, rolling his eyes up to gaze at her beautiful face as he flicked his tongue out, leisurely gliding it over her clit in a way that had her lips parting on a moan.

He didn’t give her a chance to respond. He used his fingers and tongue to push her to a swift, shattering orgasm then, when she was limp and panting against the shower wall, slid her down his body and impaled her on his cock.

He fucked her hard, careful with her delicate body but relentless until she came for him twice more. Only when her screams tapered off to gasping moans did he bury himself to the hilt and surrender to his own release. He filled her tightcanikinwith jet after jet of cum, pushing her into a final orgasm that had her clamping down on his cock and screaming his name.

By the time he pulled out of her, releasing a flood of cum from her still spasming center, she was as limp as overcookedarirrk.

Gasping for breath, she panted, “I’m… gonna… get you back… for that.”

His deep, rumbling laugh echoed in the bathing stall around them.

“Do your worst, Fluffy Bunny. I am yours,” he purred and gently nipped her neck.

Fisting her wet hair, he tipped her head back and kissed her until she was no longer limp but clutching at him once again.

Zaek stepped out the back door of the last store on his list, the sack hanging across his chest stuffed full, just in time to be spotlighted when four police cruisers screeched to a stop in front of him. He immediately darted back inside and slammed the door shut, but he heard their shouts of alarm and one voice yelling into a radio about a monster, dissolving any hope that he’d moved too fast for them to see him. He imagined he looked like a demonic version of their gift-giving winter deity, Santa Clause.

“Fuck.”

Glancing through the windows at the front of the store showed two more cruisers waiting out there. They didn’t pose much of a threat, but being spotted by humans was a no-no and damned inconvenient since he and Mira were set to leave the next evening. They didn’t need the police on the lookout for them in addition to being hunted by the soldiers from Area 51.

“If you had not been so focused on that thing Mira did with her tongue in the bathing room, we would not be in this predicament,” he chastised under his breath as he made his way to the second story and the door leading to the roof.

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