"Sounds good." This time her sigh turns into a yawn. "Lead the way."
I climb up the ladder and then turn and hold a hand out. The ladder's not more than eight or nine steps, but they're made for my size of legs, and not Alice's. When she's close enough to grab, I haul her up anyhow, and she gets to her feet, looking around the narrow quarters.
She coughs, waving a hand in the air. "Dusty."
"We'll air it out in the morning. Can you sleep in dusty?"
Alice turns to look at me. "In the past few days, I have slept on a rock surrounded by man-eating bugs, I've slept in the rain. I've slept on the ground in the mud. I think I can handle a little dust."
A faint clink-clink-clink-clink on metal reaches my ears, and when I turn around, I see Sterre's big, opalescent head pop up. I bite back a groan as the big carinoux hauls herself into the room. I was kind of hoping she wouldn't come up the ladder so I could have Alice to myself, but I guess I can't complain. I move toward the bed, and the gel-filled mattress is covered in tatters of aged plas-film that's cracked and dissolved from being exposed to the elements. I pick up the mattress and shake it off so we don't have to sleep amidst flakes of old plas, and then settle it on the bed again. "Climb on in, Sunshine."
She does, and immediately groans with pleasure, sprawling out on the side closest to the ship wall. "Oh my god, it's so soft. I'm never leaving this spot."
"My dark plan has worked perfectly," I joke, mock-rubbing my hands together. "This is how I get you in my bed for all time."
She giggles, the sound both light-hearted and tired. "You evil genius, you."
I climb in next to her. As beds go, it's not the greatest. The gel mattress has seen better days and all of it slides out from under my much-bigger body, leaving my ass pressing against the hard support underneath. But it's better than the ground, and much better because it's next to Alice, so I don't care. I immediately reach for my female and tuck her smaller body against my side. "Comfortable?"
She lets out a groan that instantly makes my cock hard. "I'm in heaven."
"That's good, right?" I want to congratulate myself for managing to sound normal when I respond to her.
"It's great," Alice says, sighing. Her hand moves to my chest and she snuggles in against me. "Thank you, Kaspar."
For…not having sex? For finding this place? For shaking off the old plas? "You're welcome?"
"If I had to be stranded, I'd rather be with you than anyone else in the universe," Alice tells me in a sleepy voice, and her hand pats my stomach.
I smile at that. "The feeling's mutual, Sunshine."
A moment later, Sterre jumps up on the bed and settles her heavy weight on the other side of Alice, her big head laying across Alice's shoulder and the perfect height to glare at me like a disapproving chaperone. Alice doesn't even stir. She's too tired.
Me, I guess I get to stare at a carinoux head all night and try not to move a muscle. I really hope Sterre doesn't plan on sticking this close to Alice for the next while, because it's really going to put a crimp in my plans to kef the daylights out of my woman.
47
ALICE
When I wake up the next morning, I realize two things.
One—that I'm sandwiched between Sterre and Kaspar, and they're both giving off so much heat that I'm sweating.
Two—I forgot about the dead guy in the other room.
My lips curl in horror. How could I go to sleep with the corpse of another man in the next room over? Was I really that tired? Or am I just becoming immune to common decency? I slept in the dude's bed and ate his cookies and I couldn't even cover his corpse? I'm the worst kind of person. I nudge Kaspar, who's still asleep beside me. "Wake up."
He wakes up with a snort, then rolls onto his side and presses his very erect cock against my hip. "G'back to sleep, Alice," he murmurs against my hair. "Too early."
As if agreeing with him, Sterre's tail thumps against my leg. Her head is pressed against my shoulder, her long body stretched out and eating up far more of the bed than I am. Between the two of them, I feel like that sliver of creme sandwiched between the two halves of the Oreo.
I poke Kaspar again.
"What?" he mumbles.
"The dead guy," I hiss at him.
Kaspar opens one eye and looks over at me. "Did he move?"
What the fuck?!
"Why would he move?" I yelp, struggling to sit up.
"I dunno. You're the one that woke me up. You tell me." Kaspar rubs his eyes as I pull my way free of the pile of limbs on the bed. Sterre just yawns and thumps me with her tail again, going back to sleep. Some guardian.