Page 10 of Victoria's Discovery

Thorn smirked as an image came to his mind of her trying to maul him with her tiny, ineffectual claws, her strangely appealing pink lips pulled back in a snarl, and cute little growls spilling from her mouth as she crawled over him, nibbling and tickling.

He scoffed under his breath and shook his head, then frowned when he realized she was still gaping at… something.

Wondering what had her so stunned, he followed her gaze and almost swallowed his own tongues when he saw that she was staring up his loincloth. It had shifted when he’d crouched, and from where she lay in Thegan’s arms, he imagined she had a perfect view of his cock.

A deep, rumbling chuckle shook his shoulders.

Ah, the little beauty is curious.

It would be impolite to interrupt her study. Thorn may be many things, and impolite was often one of them, but never let it be said he was rude enough to disturb a female’s appraisal of his cock. Instead, he subtly shifted so she had a better view, just to be polite, of course.

“Are you… is that… laughter?” Thegan gasped dramatically. “Who be you, and what have you done with my ill-tempered friend?”

“Hush, fool,” he grunted automatically, not taking his eyes off of her, a smirk still curling his lips.

“Ah, there you be. Gave me concern for a moment the shock had robbed you of your senses,” Thegan teased, clutching a hand to his chest in mock relief.

Rolling his eyes, Thorn ignored the ridiculous male and reached out, raising the female’s gaze to his with a knuckle under her chin.

As much as he appreciated her awed gawking, if she did so much longer, his cock was going to rise and there wouldn’t be anything he could do to stop it. Best to redirect her attention before that happened. He did not want to give her any cause to have fear he’d ever hurt her in that way.

He bent forward slightly and held her stare as he murmured softly, “I will not harm you. On that, I swear my honor.”

Keeping his knuckle under her chin, he reached out with his other hand and gently took one of hers. He paused after that, waiting to see if she decided to believe him or not.

She bit her lip and stared at him searchingly. Thorn returned her look calmly, content to wait as long as it took for her to decide to trust him.

He was often thought surly and short-tempered, because he oftenwassurly and short-tempered, but that did not mean he was a brute, just that he did not feel inclined to entertain softer feelings often.

But, for this little female, he would do so.

They were not of the same people and, since he did not see any understanding in her eyes at his words, knew she needed toseein his deeds and bearing that he would not harm her.

Chapter 5

Victoria finally managed to tear her gaze away from the dusky blue, uncircumcised, veryalien,verythick cock hanging between Grumpy’s legs when he took her hand.

Bending a little farther so he could meet her eyes, he said something in a low, rumbling voice. She hadn’t magically learned to understand him in the last five minutes, but she didn’t need to speak his language to recognize that he was trying to reassure her.

Oddly, particularly since she’d been convinced not twenty minutes ago that he was going to squish her, itwasreassuring.

She could hear the solemn earnestness in his tone, almost like he was making her a promise. When he finished speaking, he waited patiently while she hesitated, giving her time to come to a decision without once sighing or pushing her to hurry up. That convinced her he wouldn’t hurt her more than any amount of soothing words would’ve, whether they were understandable or not.

Okay, he’s being nice. That’s a welcome change to the glaring and yelling. Maybe he even wants to be friends. If we’re going to be caged in together, it’d definitely be better to be on amicable terms than… well, squishing terms.

She should seize that offer before he changed his mind and took it back. She just needed to accept their giant alienness, trust that their actions said they weren’t interested in hurting her, and pull on her big girl panties.

Not that she was wearing any damn panties because, of course, she would get abducted right before she was headed to bed.

“Lesson learned. Always wear underwear, because you never know when you’re going to wake up on a spaceship, locked in a cage, with giant alien men,” she muttered.

Sucking in a bracing breath, she used his hand for balance and slowly rolled out of Cuddly’s lap, using her other to hold the hem of her dress in place so she didn’t flash anyone her ass, then got to her feet.

With him crouched, she was maybe an inch taller than him and, standing less than a foot away, she realized his eyes were different colors. She hadn’t been able to tell before, not with the way he’d been angled. His left eye was a pale, silvery blue slightly darker than Cuddly’s, but his right was a light, purplish-blue.

“Periwinkle,” she whispered. “That’s my favorite color.”

Forcing herself to stop staring, she shifted uncomfortably when she realized she was standing less than a foot away from Grumpy then stiffened in surprise when she felt Cuddly’s shins brush the backs of her heels.

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