Page 157 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Hina

Everything ached when I woke up. I was sweating, blisteringly hot, wrapped up as I was in a blanket and with Fluffy purring loudly on my chest. She was doing that thing cats like to do—making biscuits with her front paws, massaging my chest. Thankfully, she seemed to know how to do that without using her claws.

There was a loud cracking sound that echoed between the cliff walls surrounding us. It was loud enough to be a gunshot, and I jerked upright in shock. My head was swimming and aching as I turned it rapidly to figure out what the heck that was.

A fire was burning on the rock next to me, bathing me in heat.

On the other side, I saw the carcass of the creature that had attacked me, the one that Fluffy had killed, if I hadn’t imagined that part.

Snarl had his head buried in the creature’s rib cage.

And Fierce was on the far side, naked as the day he was born, his skin radiant in tones of turquoise and darker blue, his long, strange hair black.

I admired his muscled back, the curve of his ass, and the faint glimpse of balls dangling between his legs as he squatted.

I started to greet him when another cracking sound echoed through the ravine.

I gasped in surprise, and Fierce turned partially my way, a bone dangling from between his lips and his front covered in blood.

Holy Hannah, he was literally chewing on a bone?

I knew my eyes were probably as big as saucers.

His expression shuttered, he tossed the bone to the ground, turned, and leapt into the water. My heart was in my throat at the response. Was he ashamed that I’d caught him eating like that? I hoped not, but I was kind of relieved that he was washing the blood off.

Only, he was staying with his back toward me in the water far longer than I liked. I struggled to move Fluffy off my chest and free myself from the suffocating blanket. My skin felt hypersensitive, pricking like pins and needles everywhere. “Fierce, are you okay?”

My legs were like noodles as I stumbled to my feet and tried to figure out how to get off this high rock I was on.

“Fierce, it’s okay. Talk to me, alright?

” I urged. I wasn’t trusting my legs right now to make it safely down, which severely hindered my options.

If I wanted to reach him, he had to come to me instead.

My breath shuddered out of me in a sigh when he finally responded.

His shoulders had been up around his ears when I spoke, but now they lowered as he waded out of the water toward me, not in the least concerned with his own nudity.

I had only just realized I was as naked as he was, my clothes were spread out on the rock to dry on the other side of the fire.

I had really been out of it. With the state my body was in now, I’d skirted very close to extreme hypothermia.

I tried not to let my gaze drop down between his legs, focusing instead on his bright yellow eyes.

“Are you alright? Did you get hurt in the river?” I asked, scooting my butt to the edge of the rock and dangling my legs over it.

I reached my arms in his direction, trying to make it clear that I was not at all repulsed by what I’d seen.

Maybe if I acted casual about his eating habits, he would too.

I should have known that a mouth full of sharp teeth like his was meant for tearing meat.

“Hina, safe,” he growled, leaping forward and catching me around the waist. Our bodies slid together as he set me down on the sandy beach at his feet.

I didn’t move away, letting my hypersensitive skin touch him everywhere I could.

I ran my hands over his shoulders, dug them beneath his long, strangely moving hair, and cupped the back of his neck.

Then I yanked a properly startled Fierce close and claimed the kiss I had been imagining.

His mouth was firm for a moment, his breath hissing out of him.

It still smelled faintly metallic—like blood, I guessed—but I didn’t care.

His hands slid from around my waist, one curling around the back of my neck in a possessive grip, the other cupping my ass and urging me more tightly against him.

His mouth opened against mine, his tongue slicking out across my lips, his sharp teeth gently nipping my bottom lip.

I felt a hot spike of pleasure at that tiny sting of pain, quickly soothed by his lips.

Fierce did nothing halfway, just like his name suggested.

In moments, he had me up in his arms and pinned against the warm rock behind me.

My far-too-sensitive skin didn’t like the rough texture, but that was eclipsed by Fierce’s body pressing into mine.

His skin was sleek and firm, and everywhere I touched him, his muscles were rock-hard.

As was the even warmer bar of his erection, which he’d shamelessly pressed right against my most sensitive core.

Everything was moving too fast; I couldn’t even understand him when he talked, but that hardly seemed to matter right now.

My core was weeping for him, desperate for that life-affirming act of sex with someone as potent and virile as Fierce.

I couldn’t find it in me to care that he was an alien—and a rather feral one at that—one who apparently preferred raw flesh and bones.

With my weight supported by one arm and the snug clench of my thighs around his narrow hips, he had one hand free to roam across my body.

His long, calloused fingers searched out the most responsive places he could find.

He cupped my breast and tugged one turgid nipple, making me moan—so he did it again, his lips pulling into a fang-filled grin.

His fingers trailed across my collarbone, tickled the inside of my elbow, and found the flare of my waist. Then he slid those clever digits between our bodies and swirled them through my wetness.

I thought for sure he’d grip his cock and slide it home.

I wouldn’t stop him if he tried. But he raised his fingers and studied the fluid on them with glowing, wild eyes.

His tongue flicked out to lick his lips, then he slipped that finger into his mouth.

A growl rippled from his chest. Then, he shifted, dropping my legs to the ground and going to his knees at my feet.

The shift was so sudden that, if not for the rock at my back, I would have stumbled and fallen.

Then, his hands cupped my hips, steadying me, holding me still as he buried his nose straight into my wet slit and inhaled deeply.

“Whoa,” I mumbled, but the sound turned into a moan when his tongue flicked out and ran across my clit.

My legs trembled—I nearly did fall—but his grip on my hips held me up.

He licked at me like a man possessed, suckling my clit and swirling his tongue into my opening.

A steady, deep thrumming sound filled the air, shivering across my skin and vibrating his tongue against my hyper-sensitized nerve endings.

It took me a moment to realize that he was purring, like a big, contented cat.

He pulled one of my legs over his shoulder, holding me open.

His long, odd hair slid over my leg, curling tightly against my skin—almost as if it was holding me to him.

I was only briefly weirded out by the sensation of moving hair, too overcome with other things to pay it much attention.

I didn’t know if Fierce had experience with human women or not, but he certainly knew his way around my body.

As soon as I surrendered to his touch, my body flew apart in an explosive orgasm.

My spine curled, my heel dug into his shoulder, and his name flew from my lips in a scream.

He didn’t even give me a break, just continued fervently lapping at my sensitive flesh until I yanked on his hair to pull him away.

His body had turned shades of red, black, and gold in diamond patterns that shimmered across his skin, his mouth pulling into a feral snarl as I dislodged him.

“Too sensitive,” I moaned when he swirled his fingers through the wetness coating me.

He sucked on his fingers, but his yellow eyes lost some of their obsessed focus.

“Hina,” he purred at me. He didn’t let me retreat or close my legs, though my legs were trembling so hard I could barely stand.

He cupped my thigh against his shoulder, holding me up, then spread his legs a little, his thick erection straining up toward me.

He was putting himself on display, his eyes avid on my face as he ran his hand over his shaft, making sure I saw what he was sporting.

His rod was mostly red, but it glittered gold in the thick veins that ran up the sides.

To me, it looked human in shape, just bigger than average.

With a bit of striated skin around the base, it didn’t look ridged, just more oddly patterned than the rest of his skin currently was.

Curling his fingers around his cock, he pumped his fist up and down, his eyes flicking from my face to my spread-open pussy.

“Hina,” he purred again, his movements increasing until, not long after, he growled deep and low, seed spilling from his tip to splatter the rock between my legs.

Whoa, that was sexy—and a little shocking.

I had no idea I could be this adventurous when it came to sex. Had I been such a bore before?

His gold eyes flicked up to mine again, and I smiled at the satisfaction I saw there.

He was pretty smug just now. I could care less; I was happy to be alive.

Though what he did next was a little too much, even for the reckless side of me that was in charge right now.

He rubbed his fingers through the spend still dripping from his tip, then swiped the sticky mess across my belly with a satisfied rumble and a growled word.

I had the distinct feeling that I’d just been claimed, that he’d just declared me “his.”

*

Fierce