Ruby
It had been a full week since I’d left the Varakartoom and resumed the Finix ’s course to Rumcas. A whole week alone with my extremely elusive Hoxiam companion. After that incident on the bridge, I thought we’d been making progress, but I’d seen neither hide nor hair of him ever since. That didn’t mean he wasn’t taking care of me, though, or pulling his fair share of the work aboard the ship. In fact, he was doing all of it. Which left me with a lot of downtime and no hulking but oh-so-shy companion to talk with.
When I woke up in the morning, there would be a tray of delicious food waiting for me by my door. Everything would still be warm, the ginger tea the perfect temperature for drinking, like he knew when I woke up, and when to have it ready. For lunch and dinner, trays of food would also appear at the door of whatever room I was in, but I never heard him, never saw him. Meanwhile, my ship had never been this clean — scrubbed to insane degrees, every surface gleaming. I had even suspiciously sniffed at the railing over look ing the hold yesterday morning, certain it had gotten a fresh coat of paint.
Though I did not see him, Brace was making himself known to every inch of my ship. I wanted more time to figure out how to reach him, talk to him, but we were making unexpectedly good progress. Whatever hiccup the left engine module had been struggling with during the first leg of the journey, it wasn’t present now. Like Brace was giving the interior of my ship a facelift, someone had done the same to my engines. I was pretty sure that wasn’t my Hoxiam; the engines had been running smoothly as soon as I’d turned them on, and I doubted he could be a fantastic cook and an engineer at the same time.
Although, why not? I could n’ t, for the life of me, figure out why Captain Asmoded and his mercenaries would bother to fix my engine. There was nothing in it for them . I t was already bizarre that they’d given me a bodyguard, but at least that suggested some kind of payback against Jalima for them. Did they just want Brace back as quickly as possible? Considering how good his food was , that was a distinct possibility. Good food was good for the morale of your troops , after all.
In two days, we’d reach Rumcas at this pace. That meant making my delivery, selling my ship, and booking passage to Ker. Reaching my destination would mean saying goodbye to Brace, and it felt like I’d barely gotten to know him at all. I did not want to leave him without at least making one good attempt at breaking through his walls. I’d regret it for the rest of my life if I didn’t, of that I was sure.
Currently, I lay on my bunk inside my room, holovids playing on my screen that I was only half watching. The Aderian medical drama was usually a favorite, but it couldn’t keep my interest today. It felt like time was running out, and I had to act now or it would be too late. Sitting up, I clambered to my feet and gazed around the room that had been my home for years. It would be weird to leave the Finix behind, but I had to do what was right for my baby, even if the thought of staying in one place felt uncomfortable and made my chest tighten.
I halted by the mirror to check my hair, which , for the longest time , I’d kept in two braids —p ractical, simple. I hadn’t given a second thought t o my appearance because I was always on the Finix and rarely went outside. After a moment of hesitation , I pulled the hairbands from my braids and fluffed out my hair. It was wavy and a little wild from having been in braids all this time. A brush only made my hair poofier. Now my stomach was in knots, I looked crazy, and the only way to fix it w as a shower.
Ah, who was I kidding? I was primping for my super shy, mysterious bodyguard chef. He wasn’t going to look twice; he was going to hear me coming and run the other way. I wasn’t fast enough to keep up with him inside the Finix , and I was dead certain he was the one who had figured out all the hiding places by now. Despite his huge size, he was making them work, too. I was beginning to suspect he spent all his nights up and his days hiding in his quarters. If that was the case, this was a futile mission, but I wasn’t going to give up.
My door slid open silently, and I tried to be equally quiet as I stepped from my room. The narrow metal hallway was dark, the evening lighting guiding the way only by small strips along the floor. I was normally never up and about at this hour , so I hoped that meant I had a chance. One of the cleaning bots came humming around the corner, gently buffing the floor with its polishing disks as it went. I eyed it for a minute, inhaling the pleasant , foresty aroma of the cleaning products it used. And then a plan formed.
Following the bot’s paths meant it was slow going, and it meandered around the ship, not going directly where I wanted to go. It made sound and caused a distinct smell , though, which I hoped would cover my tracks. I didn’t like sneaking furtively around my own ship, but if that was the only way I could have a conversation, I totally would. Eventually, my feet were getting tired from standing , but the bot had turned back down the hallway and was closing in on the Finix ’s galley. I could hear the gentle murmur of something boiling on the stove and the sound of water running; he had to be there.
As the bot passed the open door, I leaned my back against the wall and peered around the doorjamb. I breathed in deeply to suppress the muffled gasp that instinctively wanted to come out. He was there, and he wasn’t wearing that big cloak that always covered him from head to toe. For the first time, I got to see all of him. Even though I’d seen a Hoxiam male before, I wasn’t prepared for this.
Brace was eight feet tall, huge inside the tiny galley. He could barely turn in the narrow space, but he made it work anyway. Light on his clawed feet, he turned gracefully as he stirred on e pot before returning to a cutting board with fresh vegetables and herbs. His body was covered in a thick, deep blue pelt , with purple and darker blue feathering along his back and shoulders. Only a small loincloth around his hips covered him ; otherwise , he was naked. That made sense — that thick, very soft-looking pelt probably kept him warm. But there was also a part of him that wasn’t so covered in that lush fur. Along his lower back and his shoulder blades, scars crisscrossed his skin —l ines upon lines of them that interrupted the growth of his fur. Some scars were still pink or red, as if they’d only healed more recently ; others were white and faded, stretched and warped.
I must have made a sound after all, or maybe he’d simply sensed my eyes on his back. Abruptly, he froze in place, then slowly craned his head and peered at me over his massive shoulder. His blue eyes glowed brightly . T hen he opened his mouth , and I was staring into his maw. That was almost more shocking than the sight of all those scars had been. A Hoxiam was known for its ferocious hunger, for its inhumane appetite to hunt and devour the flesh of sentient beings : l ike a human, like an Elrhorian.
From the moment I’d met Brace, I had never once believed that he wanted to eat me. Staring into a mouth that had opened impossibly wide and was ringed with far too many razor-sharp teeth, I could finally believe it. An atavistic kind of fear shivered through me, my lizard brain responding before sanity and rational thinking could take control. That was a beast, a monster, and it was a predator far stronger than me. He would kill me; he would eat me if I did not get away from here right now.
My foot shifted along the floor, readying me to turn and run. My toes bumped loudly into the doorframe, echoing in the deadly silence. His mouth snapped shut, and I froze rather than ran. Our eyes met, and what I saw in his gaze pierced me to my core. Such anguish, such loneliness.
Everything in me shifted from fear to instant empathy. I didn’t know how it happened ; I don’t think Brace knew either. I hurled myself across the short distance between us, my arms digging into the fur around his waist as I hugged him tight. “I know!” I said, tears rising in my throat like a tidal wave. They wet his fur as they coursed down my cheeks , and I only held on more tightly when he remained rigid beneath my grasp. “I understand,” I told him. And I did, because I was lonely too —s o very lonely.
I don’t know how long we stood like that, but eventually , he began to soften beneath my touch. Then he raised his arms and wrapped them around me, enveloping me in his heat and scent. When he hugged me back, i t felt huge —i t felt life-altering. He held me so gently, like I was precious, or as if he was uncertain what to do. His arms were soft as he bent down to cuddle me against his massive chest. My tears dried quickly then, but I did not step away. For the first time in years, it felt like that big , yearning hole inside my chest was beginning to fill up. This felt like home.
This was the part of me that was used to a big family and lots of noise at home : a lways someone cooking — be it my mom or my abuela ; a lways one of my cousins over to hang with my brothers or go out on the town with my sister. L oud discussions, sometimes shouted at the top of our lungs just to be heard. The love of always having someone to count on, someone who’d stand in your corner. That space had been so empty for so long, and now he was here, filling it back up with his awkward but quickly improving hug.
A growl suddenly began to swell beneath my ear, vibrating deep inside his chest. It was followed by the sound of a pot boiling over on the stove, water hissing into steam as it splashed out of the pan. My world turned topsy - turvy after that. Like before, back on the bridge, Brace effortlessly swung me into his arm, this time one - handed.
I found myself cradled against his side and hip while he used the other massive paw to turn off the heat and move the pot aside. Raised higher, I was almost at shoulder height with my face, and I couldn’t help but find myself intrigued by the abundance of thick, silky fur that grew there. He was blue, yes, but I had never realized just how many shades of blue there were in a Hoxiam’s fur.
Digging my fingers into the softness, I curled them through his pelt and marveled at how soft it was. Then I found the tense muscles beneath it, and it was instinct to push back, to gently massage that heavy trapezoid. “Female!” Brace snarled so loudly that my ears rang, but when I met his shocked gaze, all I could do was smile. Ah, he was so adorable, and clearly so unused to being touched. It made me want to touch him more ; it made me want to give him all the pleasure he’d been missing out on. He was even more starved for sensation than I was. I understood him ; I was certain of that. We were both lonely, and we needed each other.
The word “ female ” he’d uttered like a reprimand , but I did not let that deter me, not when he was still holding me gently in one arm. Wriggling against him, I managed to raise my arms enough to fling them around his neck. That was difficult; not only was his neck really thick and hairy, it was still a bit of a reach , and he wasn’t quite cooperating. My fingers clutched at the fur at the back of his neck, holding it for leverage. And then we were eye to eye, my belly wedged sideways against his chest, and his arm shifting to raise me the way I wanted. Protesting, yet not protesting. He had no clue how badly he wanted me to get even closer.
“What?” I drawled at him. “You don’t want to get to know me better? You don’t want to kiss me?” I couldn’t believe I was being this bold, but that hug, his presence, his pain — all of it — had unlocked something inside of me that I refused to ignore. Too much time had already passed in silence, alone. I was determined to fill that space , starting now.
His other arm came back to me, touching my spine, gliding up it to cup the back of my neck. That palm was so big, it covered the entire width of my back; I felt so tiny in his arms. His blue eyes were glowing with light and heat, desire sparking at my boldness, which made him exhale roughly through his nose. “Kiss me? You want to put your tiny mouth on mine?” he growled, as if the idea was completely foreign to him. His mouth opened just a fraction, but it was enough to remind me that his maw was huge, like the rest of him. Ah, fuck, why did that just make me more horny for him? I knew the answer—thinking of how huge he was made me wonder about his cock. I was certain it would be massive, and that made wetness slick from my core, my inner muscles squeezing around nothing, my thighs pressing together as I ached for him.
“God , yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying,” I told him , f ighting the laugh that wanted to break out at the surprise on his face. He did not believe me ; he could not wrap his head around this, so I moved to show him , t ipping myself forward in his arms and pushing against his shoulders for leverage. There, our lips collided, his warm and a little rough. His mouth was definitely much bigger than mine, with wrinkles creasing the corners beneath the soft fur on his cheeks.
I l oo ked at the soft curve of his upper lip, and taste exploded across my senses. Salt, something savory and tasty, possibly whatever he’d been cooking when I came in. He was frozen in my arms again, his chest rumbling with a deep vibration. It was almost the purr of a cat, but not quite, so low it was beyond my range of hearing. When I scraped my teeth over his bottom lip, it was like I’d lit a fire in him. He groaned, and then he kissed me back.
His mouth became soft and pliable, shaping to mine, and when I darted out my tongue, he did the same. He did n’ t l e t me slick mine beyond his lips, but when he realized what I’d planned, he had no compunction about invading mine. His tongue was thick — way thicker than mine — and as he pushed it deep, it reminded me strongly of a cock. This was far closer to oral sex than kissing. That tongue push ed into my mouth, filling me, claiming my senses with his flavor the way the thick muscle claimed every inch of that wet cavern. I moaned loudly, my clit aching fiercely. I was so close to coming from that kiss that I mindless ly tried to spread my thighs to rub myself against his chest —a nything to get a little friction.
Things were escalating fast. The world spun, my mind in the same state, and my body on fire. Then I felt the cool metal of the wall against my back, and Brace as he helped me spread my legs. He was big, and pinning me to the wall forced me to stretch wide, so wide. But then I was rubbing against the heavy ridges of his abs and sucking his tongue at the same time. With a muffled shout, I shattered in his arms, but I wasn’t scared , because I knew those big, strong arms had me. Brace would never let me fall.
He slicked his tongue back as the last shudder began to ebb, raising his head as far as my tight clasp around his neck allowed. His eyes were still on fire, and I thought I saw things there that made my heart leap with excitement. Then his eyelashes lowered over those bright blue orbs, hiding what he was thinking. “That was…” I began to say, desperate to keep him with me. “Amazing.”
The baby kicked firmly in my belly, roused from his nap. He kicked so hard that I was certain Brace could feel the thump against his chest. It broke the moment as if someone had dunked ice water down my big Hoxiam’s furred back. He raised a hand to gently break my hold around his neck, and then he was setting me down on the edge of the galley’s limited counter space, swiping an overflowing cutting board aside as he did so. I only became aware of the way he’d gripped my ass to hold me up when his warm hand was abruptly replaced with cool , slightly damp metal.
I wanted to hold onto him, keep him with me, but there was no stopping a male as big as Brace. As soon as he’d safely put me down, he fled the galley, his clawed feet slapping against the floor. That was more noise than he’d made for two whole weeks. If not for the fact that his loincloth had shifted, rising and struggling to contain an absolutely massive erection, I would have thought he hated every minute we’d just spen t together.
“Whelp,” I said to the empty air. “ Way to go , Ruby. ” Not only had I failed to start a real conversation with him, like I’d planned , I’d sprung a surprise hug on him, followed by humping him like a dog in heat. What was he thinking? Had I scared him off for good? I looked a little helplessly around the galley, which was probably the room aboard the ship I spent the least time in. I didn’t know how to cook, no matter how hard my madre or my abuela had tried.
Snatching up some freshly cut veggies, I munched on the m as I contemplated what to do next. A shower, probably, a cold one. T hen I was going to research pregnancy details on the Kertinal. I had a feeling this baby was growing a little faster than he should. That kick was way too strong, considering how recently I’d just start ed feeling it.
I stuck my head around the corner to see if Brace was anywhere, but the door to his bunk room was closed, and only a few scattered hairs remained in the hallway. The cleaning bot was coming back around to scoop those up, leaving no trace of my big, hairy, and apparently very shy Hoxiam.