Lily and the Lion by Honey Phillips
Chapter Eight
Leotra stomped into the jungle, trying to contain his rage. Someone had stolen her? Taken his fragile female from her home planet and then abandoned her in this wilderness. Wilderness. He came to a sudden halt. The springs should be safe enough—he wasn’t aware of any predators that lurked in the waters or frequented the area—but he suddenly felt uneasy about leaving her.
He turned back to the clearing, but after confirming she was still safe in the water, he remained hidden in the undergrowth. There was only one reason she would have been taken—whoever had stolen her had intended to sell her into slavery. For the first time, he recognized that her skimpy outfit had most probably been created from one of the slave gowns typically worn by female slaves. Slaves. A snarl rose in his throat.
Slavery was not forbidden under Imperial law, although there were laws governing the treatment of slaves. At one time, his native planet of Yangu had depended on slave labor to mine the gems that had made them so wealthy. But over the years, manual labor had been replaced by machinery and most of Tajiri society now frowned on the practice. His own grandfather had been one of the first to move away from those methods.
There were even rumors that the new Emperor was considering outlawing slavery, even though it was still a significant economic consideration for many planets. Something tugged his memory. The new Emperor had chosen a consort recently and there were rumors that she was a former slave, from an unknown planet. Human. He was sure that had been the term used to describe her—and that was how Lily had identified herself. No wonder she had been taken. There would be many seeking to emulate the Emperor.
Assuming that everything she told you is true, a small cynical voice insisted. He wanted to believe her, he really did, but it wouldn’t be the first time that a seemingly helpless female had appeared in his life. He still remembered the delicate little female he’d found crouched on a street corner. She seemed so fragile, half-starved and helpless, and he had whisked her away to his quarters. He lavished her with food and jewels and expensive clothing. He’d been head over heels in love with her, on the verge of claiming her, when he’d heard her laughing with a lover. It had all been part of an elaborate scheme.
Showing up here on his hunting planet seemed farfetched, but was it that much more unlikely? He hadn’t seen any signs of this supposed escape pod, although that wasn’t a guarantee that it didn’t exist. But his guards should have been able to detect the presence of a foreign vessel. And if they had, why hadn’t they gone after it?
He sighed, and rubbed his aching head. He wanted to believe her, but the intensity of his feelings already disturbed him. I need a truth drug, he thought wryly, leaning back against a moni tree.
A drop of sap dripped on his shoulder, the same sap they had drunk the night before, and a thought suddenly hit him. When left to ripen, the sap developed a mild alcoholic content that, according to his grandfather, caused the drinker to speak the truth. Perhaps a few sips of ripened moni would be enough to make sure she was being honest with him.
This is a bad idea, his conscience told him in a voice uncannily like his grandfather’s, but he ignored it. He just needed to know.
Filling another of the cup-shaped leaves with the sap, he placed it on a rock at the edge of the clearing in full sun to hasten the ripening process. But he had also promised to return with food. There wasn’t as much game as he would have liked within earshot of the clearing, but he managed to capture one of the long, sinuous reptiles that liked to hide amongst the vines and snag unwary prey.
When he returned triumphant to the clearing, Lily was still in the healing pool. Her head was tilted up to the sun, sunlight creating sparks of fire in her glorious hair, and those small yet full lips curved in a provocative smile. He stood at the edge of the pool looking down at her, her thin outfit so translucent in the clear water that he could see the pink areola surrounding her luscious little nipples and the tempting little patch of fur between her legs. Was she posed like that on purpose, knowing what an enticing picture she made?
In spite of his doubts, his cock responded, throbbing hard enough against his loincloth that it threatened to escape. He grunted and tried to push it back under the leather covering, and Lily’s eyes popped open. The provocative smile disappeared as she glared at him.
“You told me we were going to talk. That meant you too.”
Gods help him, her anger turned him on even more, and he gave up the useless battle to contain his cock. As soon as his hand dropped, her eyes focused there and that provocative little tongue flicked across her lips. If he had been anyone else, if he had any other experiences, he would have sworn the desire on her face was genuine. He took a half-step closer, then forced himself to maintain the discipline his grandfather had taught him, discipline that still lurked beneath his privileged façade.
“Food,” he said, pointing his claw at the reptile.
A Tajiri female would have known that it was a difficult predator to catch and would have admired his skills. Lily recoiled.
“A snake? That’s your idea of food?” She shuddered and shook her head. “I don’t think I can eat that raw, no matter how thinly you slice it.”
It seemed a waste, but if she preferred her food cooked, he would oblige. He returned to the edge of the clearing, gathering dry branches and loose undergrowth. By the time he had a pile assembled on a flat rock, Lily had abandoned the pool and come to join him. Her outfit was only slightly less translucent out of the water, and he wanted to lick his lips at the sight of her. She caught him looking and glared, her hands going to her hips.
“If you don’t like it, you shouldn’t have thrown me into the water. It’s not as if I have another outfit to wear.”
An immediate—and foolish—desire to promise her a thousand outfits almost made it out of his mouth, but he caught it in time. He still had a role to play.
He took a step closer, noting approvingly that she didn’t flinch away from him, and dipped his head into the bend of her neck where he could breathe in her enticing scent.
“Like,” he growled.
He felt her shiver, and when he stepped back, those impudent nipples formed hard little points against the damp cloth. He wanted to taste them again—Gods, how he wanted to taste them—but he needed to know the truth first. He returned to his collection of wood.
Lily glaredat Leo as he turned away from her and bent down over his fire. How could he do that to her—set every nerve in her body on fire just by sniffing her neck? Her foot itched, urging her to push him over from his crouched position, but in the end she reconsidered. Based on what she had seen before, she doubted she would succeed and she suspected he would retaliate.
Another wave of desire washed through her at the thought of wrestling with him. She knew it would end up with her pinned beneath him and her clit actually gave an excited little pulse at the thought. What is wrong with me?
She shook her head and started to take a step back, but before she could, something warm curved around her calf. For a horrified moment, she thought it was another snake, but when she looked down she realized it was his tail, squeezing her leg in what almost seemed to be an apology. Curious, she crouched down behind him and took his tail in her hand as she had the previous day. The fur here was even softer than that on his body, warm over the thick length of muscle and she stroked it, squeezing gently. He whirled around so quickly that he almost fell.
His mouth fell open in combination of shock and outrage, but she saw the head of his cock pushing up past the waistband of his loincloth again. Hmm, so it was an erogenous zone.
“Tail,” she said innocently. “Just another language lesson.”
He tried to snatch it away from her, but she held on tight enough that he was forced to tug it out of her grip, the muscle flexing beneath her hand until she came to the ridiculously soft and fluffy tip.
“No,” he growled, but she didn’t think he sounded any more convincing than she had when she told him not to suck on her nipples that morning.
Feeling unexpectedly triumphant, she shrugged and moved back a little. It was nice to know that she had her own weapons in whatever game he was playing. She just wished she knew the purpose of his game. She was almost positive that he understood everything she said, and even though he still insisted on his limited one-word vocabulary, she was beginning to suspect that he could choose to make himself understood.
All of which made her want to glare at him again—but then again, he was making a fire he obviously didn’t need just for her. He was still doing his best to protect her. Even throwing her into the pool could be interpreted as a desire to make her feel better. The water had soothed away the lingering aches and bruises from the crash.
She stretched out on the soft moss to let her outfit dry in the warm sun, and tried to come up with a plan. Unfortunately, she had never been much of a planner—she tended to drift whichever way the wind took her.
Kate would have a plan, she thought idly, then her throat closed. She needed to find her friends. That meant she needed to get tall, golden, and gorgeous to communicate with her. Maybe I should seduce him. The wicked little suggestion flickered through her mind. It wouldn’t exactly be a hardship, she decided, turning over on her side to watch his muscles flex.
“How are you going to start that fire?” she asked challengingly. She had no doubt that he had a plan, but she liked the way he looked offended whenever she challenged him.
He looked over at her and raised that eyebrow again before holding up a small black stone. Holding it close to the pile of dried brush, he let one of his claws emerge, then struck it against the stone a few times. A spark landed in the brush, smoldered, then started to burn.
Oh my. When he turned and grinned at her triumphantly, she couldn’t prevent herself from smiling back.
“I should have known.”
“Yes,” he agreed as he picked up the snake.
He used the same claw to slit open the skin, but she really didn’t want to watch this part. She rolled over on her back again and watched the leaves swaying against the pink sky.
