Ice Planet Barbarians (Ice Planet Barbarians, #1)(38)

It must be soon, or else Georgie will not survive.

The thought sends a stab of fear through me, and I press my form to hers, holding her close. No. She is mine. I must keep her. With a groan, I stroke into her and feel her body give to mine.

Georgie gasps. “Vektal. Ohhyes!”

I pull back and slide into her again, and her legs twitch then grip me tighter. I stroke into her over and over again, need making my motions quicken. Her cries increase as my movements speed up, and when her hot warmth clamps around my cock, I feel her orgasm race through her even before she cries out.

My own khui responds, and I thrust into her again, spilling my seed inside her. I hold her close and stroke her hair as I come, my own body locked in the process of pleasure. Her hands touch me, fluttering over my skin, and she pants small, sweet, unintelligible words.

When the last of my seed is wrung from my body, I press my mouth to hers and then roll to my side, pulling her against me, our bodies still joined. I want to stay like this for hours. All night, even. My exhaustion is gone with my mate in my arms. Already I’m thinking of how to make her cry out with pleasure again.

I stroke a hand over her skin and feel her sex quiver around my cock again. Just a few touches and she would be crying out once more. I’m intrigued by the thought and tug her closer to me, until her small back is pressed against my chest.

As I do, she props up on one elbow. “Wutwuzzat?”

I touch her arm. “Hm?” I wish again that I could speak the language of humans.

Georgie pats my hand to get my attention and then points. “Sawa lyteblink. Wutwuzzat?”

She indicates the far wall, and sure enough, a star blinks under the ice and then fades. Ah. “This is the cave of elders. The cave of stars. It is full of magic. That is what you are seeing.”

But she pulls free of my grip and crawls out of the blankets. I feel a sense of loss as my cock slides from her warm body, but she is preoccupied. So I sit up and watch as she climbs to her feet and runs to the far wall. She presses her face against the thick ice, watching the light as it slowly blinks again. Then she looks back at me again.

“Vektal,” she breathes, and there’s excitement in her voice. New excitement. “Izzit a spays ship?”





PART FIVE


GEORGIE


Holy crap, it’s a spaceship.

I don’t know how I didn’t see it before.

Well, actually, I do. I was so tired after our journey that my brain was a fog. The need to help save the others constantly burned in the back of my mind. Vektal seemed to have a sense of urgency, too; he crossed over valleys and climbed up sheer walls with me clinging to him, more agile than a mountain goat. I held on for dear life, but it was still exhausting. The cold hadn’t let up, and the wind felt as if it had chapped my face into one big cold burn. But I still had it better than the other humans, so I didn’t complain.

By the time we finally stopped for the night, I’d barely glanced at my surroundings. Yes, the cave was perfectly made inside. Yes, it was in the side of a hill that also seemed perfectly oval-shaped outside. I’d noted it and stumbled inside, heading for the warm furs that I now knew waited within.

It wasn’t until after sex, as I relaxed and cuddled against my alien, that I saw a light flash. I’d thought my eyes had deceived me until it did it again. Then I stared at the ice really hard.

And realized that the cave was perfect because it was the interior of a ship.

“It’s a ship,” I tell Vektal. Behind the thick layer of ice, I can barely make out a control panel of some kind.

His eyes narrow, and he shakes his head. He doesn’t understand. “Es sa-khui tokh.”

That doesn’t sound like spaceship to me. Right. My big blue barbarian probably wouldn’t know a spaceship if it bit him on his big ridge-covered nose. He wears leather, eats raw meat, and hunts with slings and bone knives. Big guy’s probably never heard of a space heater, much less a spaceship.

I pat his chest. “You know what? I got this. Don’t worry.” I take the blade of the knife I carry with me and use it to hack at the thick ice coating the walls.

Vektal stops me with a gentle hand. He points at the firewood pile in the fire pit, still unlit. Oh. Fire will melt things faster. He’s right. I reach up and give him a quick, smacking kiss. “Clever man.”

He doesn’t know what I’m saying, but he’s pleased by the kiss anyhow.

As I wait for the fire to start, I stare at the walls around us. I’m trying not to freak out. The ice covering the walls is thick. Vektal’s familiar with this place, and it’s set up like a camp as the other caves, which tells me that this has been here a long time. It looks nothing like the cargo hold the other girls are currently camping out in. The odds of it belonging to the same aliens are slim, I tell myself.

I still worry, though. That’s why I have to see that control panel for myself. I have to know what it is we’ve found.

It’s either a frying pan about to go into the fire . . . or a ticket home.

Or neither.

I need answers. No matter how tired I am, I won’t be able to sleep without answering some of these questions.

When the fire is stoked and burning brightly, Vektal takes up a lit stick of wood and hands me the safe end. It’s like a crappy makeshift torch, and I carry it carefully to the wall and then hold it near the panels, watching the ice glimmer and then melt. It takes a long time to thaw away the layers of ice, but as I do, more and more instrument panels become uncovered. I look over at Vektal, and he seems unnerved by this discovery as well.