Sam's Secret (Icehome)

"Right. Okay." She blows out a breath. "We'll go back to the cave and think things through, and then we'll decide what to do."

14

SAM

I can't think straight.

The alien with the cat-face in the pod needs a rescue and a friend. If he's anything like Gren, he has a hideous, fierce exterior but the sweetest insides. Gren was terrifying to me at first, but Willa has never been afraid of him. She's championed him at every turn and seen something in him no one else did. Because of her, she's shown everyone that Gren is kind and caring. He loves children and adores Willa. Just because he's ugly and foreign on the outside doesn't mean that he's less than a person.

I try to remember all that, but all that goes through my mind is that he's not Brad.

He's not Brad, and I'm safe, and Sessah is right here and he smells so fucking good I want to just rub my face all over him.

Sessah's been a rock all afternoon. I've been so incredibly grateful for him. He never makes me feel uncomfortable or pushes me, and when I lost my mind at the sight of the pod, he calmed me down before I hyperventilated. He's so patient and sweet.

And handsome. I can't stop realizing how handsome he is, too. How big he is, how thick his biceps are when he moves, how broad his shoulders and tapered his waist. I've been silently lusting after him all afternoon despite myself, but the sight of the pod reminded me that Brad showing up is not out of the realm of possibility, and I need to calm my hormones.

Sessah is gentle and kind, and he doesn't deserve to be dragged into my shit, no matter how weak I feel at the moment. No matter how much I want a hug.

We head back to the fruit cave without a fresh kill for dinner, but I'm not really thinking about food at the moment. All I can think about is that there's another alien in a pod out there, and it's not Brad. I should be thinking about how the next one could be him. How we could find a pod tomorrow with Brad in it. I think about what Sessah said earlier.

It does not matter. We are not opening it.

I've been thinking of these pods as a moral obligation. That those of us here on the surface should open them just to be fair to the occupant inside. But if it's Brad, of course we don't have to open it. We can just leave him sleeping inside forever.

Daisy arrived in a pod, after all. This new cat-guy did, too. In fact, the only ones that didn't come here in a pod were Georgie and the “extras” as she called them. They were additional captives that were abandoned. Even if Brad shows up, no one has to wake him. For the first time in a long time, I feel like I can breathe again. I'm almost giddy with relief.

Between that and resonance, it's hard to think about the cat-guy at all.

We make it back to the cave and Sessah immediately strips off his layers of furs the moment we get inside. His head goes back and he lets out a weary sigh, rolling his neck as he undresses. I stare at him, fascinated, because he's thick and sweaty and his skin looks like a soft blue velvet that begs to be touched. I think about how I touched his leg earlier and how I hadn't thought about it until after I put my hand on him…and then I couldn't remove it. I didn't want to.

My hands itch to touch him right now, too.

Instead, I force myself to move to the lip of the ledge, where the vines spill downward toward the pool. I reach over and pluck a fat yellow fruit from the vine. "You hungry? Should we eat?"

The vibe in the cave is a little tense as we eat some dried jerky and fresh fruit. We swim in the pool for a bit, but when Sessah climbs out, his cock is utterly enormous and jutting, and the sight of it makes heat slick between my thighs. I clench my lower half tightly as my khui fires up, practically beating out of my chest it's so damn excited. I think about when we got drunk and watched each other masturbate and wonder if I'm brave enough to suggest the same thing again.

But as it gets late, the words don't leave my throat. I fake a yawn and lie atop my fur bed, my body aching and full of need. I stare up at the ceiling and the bright lights overhead and try to sleep. After a while, though, I glance over at Sessah and find he's watching me instead of dozing.