Page 16 of Thon

“There is nothing else I would ask you for.”

Krista shakes her head. “Ask. If I don’t want it, I’ll say no, but we should know where we both stand. We should tell each other so that we don’t—” she sighs. “No more misunderstandings, okay? What do you want?”

Does he want more sex? Krista is willing to bet that’s what it is. It’s always about more sex.

Would it even be that bad if he wanted more, though? The sex had not been awful. It had been incredible, to be completely honest. Thon is an enthusiastic lover, and he’s smoking hot. He becomes more attractive to her the longer she looks at him, the more she thinks of him, and that is part of what troubles her. This bargain gives her a promising future to look forward to. She cannot jeopardize it by confusing things.

No fun sex then. Only breeding. For both of their sakes.

He still hasn’t confirmed that’s what he wants, though.

“Thon?”

“You will not like it.”

“Tell me anyway.”

“I have discovered that I … would like to come over there and be close to you.”

“What?” Krista hopes that Thon cannot see colors so well in the dark, because the sudden heat that erupts in her cheeks is intense. “You mean like … cuddling?”

Surely she has misunderstood. Thon is so serious, so reserved, so very nearlygrimin his whole demeanor. He’s the size of an adult bear and twice as lethal. He has probably killed and eaten actual adult bears. Are men like this interested in cuddling? The men back home would have taken a secret like that to their graves even if they had been. They certainly wouldn’t go andrequestit.

“Cuddling,” Thon repeats blankly, like the word doesn’t translate. “Is that a word for wrapping myself around you while we sleep?”

“Um. Yes.” Krista swallows thickly. “Yes, that’s it.”

“Then that is what I want to do.”

Cuddling. He could have listedanythingas his first desire, but right off the top of his head comes … this. Ignoring the ugly twisting in her chest region, Krista flops over to her other side and takes the edge of Thon’s blanket with her. “It’s silly not to share, anyway,” she mutters awkwardly, bracing herself for some extreme weirdness. Krista doesn’tthinkshe’s a cuddly person, but it isn’t as though she has ever tried. Her trysts with the baker’s son had been brief, stolen moments in any secluded place they could find—no place they would want to linger.

Krista hears the Harkurian move behind her, but only because his trousers creak softly in the dark. Had he been naked, he would not have made a sound. His presence is more of a tactile thing than an aural one. First, it’s the mantle of heat that surrounds him, shifting the chilly air at Krista’s back. Then it’s fur shifting, the feel of something heavy denting the pelts beneath her and the hard body fitting into place along her spine. Krista doesn’t know how to reciprocate or where all of her body parts should go, so she lies still and leaves Thon to sort it out. This was his idea, after all.

The Harkurian curls around Krista like a superheated carapace, nestling her into the curve of his torso with one of those tree trunk arms. Krista realizes with a jolt that she can feel an elevated heartbeat pressed firmly to her back, but Thon has occupied himself with threading their legs into a comfortable tangle and he doesn’t notice when her breath catches and holds. He takes a deep breath and blows the air out, ruffling Krista’s hair as he settles.

“Satisfied?” Krista asks, trying to ignore the fact that one of his thighs has ended up between her legs and that she is still attracted to him. She could probably rub herself to orgasm at that angle. Thon would probably like it. But that would not be for breeding. She sort of hates this new dynamic already.

“Yes.” Thon snuffles closer and breathes in, feeling liquid and relaxed behind her like no place on the planet suits him better than this one right here. He might even be onto something. This ismuchbetter than lying too close to the hearth.

10

Krista

Thenightisastrange and fitful one for Krista. She’s comfortable enough physically, with Thon’s solid warmth coiled around her. His embrace is casually defensive as if, even in sleep, he’s mindful of her safety. Or her transience. The slow rhythm of his breath lulls her into a light doze only to shake her back out of it again as she recalls that there isanother personin bed with her. She has slept alone on a twin bunk since childhood and does not know what to do with another person’s presence. It’s strange. Notbad, exactly, but distracting.

Krista doesn’t remember falling asleep. When she wakes, she might have said she never slept at all except, oh Gods, she would have noticedthissituation developing had she been awake for it. It isn’t subtle, the rigid line of heat pressed firmly against her backside. She can feel it through Thon’s pantsandher undergarments.

The Harkurian rocks his hips in a small, barely-there way, his breathing deep and even. Oh shit, he’s humping her in his sleep. Both of them probably should have seen this coming. Krista’s body doesn’t care a whit, reacting with stunning enthusiasm to the prospect of an imminent fucking. Her pussy floods, her clit aching to be touched, but … she should wake Thon. He’s meant to be putting a baby Harkurian in her, not rubbing one out on her ass. She’s not certain, anymore, that she would mindthe latter, but it would be unproductive andagainst the rules.

“Thon?” She peeps desperately. Her hold on the rules is tenuous and she needs to stop this before she starts breaking them entirely. Krista wiggles against the body behind her, but he only seems to like that. His heavy cock twitches, probably releasing some of that slippery precome into his pants. Krista thinks about it squishing around in there and her hand slides down her belly. The feel of her fingers on her clit startles her. “Thon,” she moans.

He snuffles a bit in his sleep, which is a promising sign right up until he rolls over onto Krista—not with his full weight, thankfully. She can still breathe, just … not easily. Her initial flurry of panic morphs into a sort of frustrated lust as one of her hands ends up trapped beneath her, almost but not quite where she wants it to be. She wiggles her fingers, but cannot reach her clit. That’s almost okay because Thon has her pinned beneath him and he’s humping more insistently now, letting out a quiet grunt each time his cock grinds against her. It’s hot—it’ssohot and Krista reaches back with her free hand, trying to push him into the cleft of her ass.

Wait. Nope.No!She can’t break her own fucking rules this soon. The No Unproductive Sex rule is barely twelve hours old and Thon isn’t evenawaketo know that he’s breaking it.

Regretting it already, Krista draws her hand back and smacks the Harkurian as hard as she can, aiming for the first part of him she can reach. It feels like a bicep, though the sensory input from her blow still takes a moment to reach his brain. She hits him again for good measure. Finally, his hips falter, delivering a few more thrusts before they peter out and he goes still.

The frozen, horrified sort of still.

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