Page 36 of Rock Hard Alien

“You said you could move your legs.”

“I can. They’ve apparently decided they don’t want to hold me up.”

“Then I will.”

Her hands pressed against my chest. She was so small beneath my wing. So warm, so fragile. The cut on her temple had already stopped bleeding, but I could still smell the faint metallic trace of it beneath the rain.

I bent my head and breathed her in.

She was alive. She was in my arms.

I had survived battles without fear. I had watched enemies charge towards me with plasma weapons and felt nothing but anticipation. Even when our ship had crashed on this planet, I had been too busy escaping the wreckage to be afraid.

Seeing Georgie’s vehicle spin towards that wall had terrified me.

“You saved me,” she whispered.

I tightened my hold. “Of course.”

Her fingers curled against my skin. “You didn’t even hesitate.”

“Why would I?”

“You could have been hurt.”

“I would rather break every bone in my wings than allow harm to come to you.”

Her eyes shone. I could not tell whether the moisture came from the rain or from tears.

“Don’t say things like that.”

“It is the truth.”

“That’s why you shouldn’t say it.”

Humans were very strange. They demanded honesty, then became upset when they received it.

I loosened my embrace enough to look down at her. “You saved me first.”

“That wasn’t the same.”

“You gave me your blood. You brought me back to life.”

“I didn’t know that would happen. I just hoped. Prayed, almost. And I'm not even religious.”

Her hands slid higher over my chest, one settling at the side of my neck. My body reacted at once. My tail uncoiled from my waist, finally freed from the remnants of the C-suit, and curled around her ankle.

“Cairn?”

“Yes?”

She rose onto her toes and kissed me.

For an instant, I could not move. I had kissed her before, but this was different.

I bent over her, sheltering her with my body as well as my wing, and returned the kiss. Her lips were cold from the rain, but her mouth was warm. I held her gently to protect her ribs even though every instinct urged me to crush her against me.

She made a soft sound and opened for me.