Heydar ceased his washing abruptly, staring at her with an unusual look. Darla felt her cheeks flush and turned from him, crouching down and submerging in the water.

“Your skin is healing well,” he finally said, a slight huskiness to his voice. “I have never witnessed anything like it. At this rate, the itching should be gone in no time, from what I have seen.”

Darla felt unusually hot even submerged in the cool water. And you’ve seen it all, haven’t you, buddy?

Heydar turned from her, quickly finishing his scrub then climbing onto the banks of the stream, water running off of his sculpted ass in rivulets. Darla marveled at the utter perfection of that ass. It was the sort of thing master sculptors would have memorialized in marble back in the day and it made her mouth water.

Then he turned toward her, locking eyes with her for a moment.

His cock was mostly flaccid as it swung between his legs, but there was clearly a stirring engorgement taking place as he stared at her. Shrinkage from the cold was most definitely not an issue.

The water flowing down from his chiseled abs was slowly dripping from the tip of his manhood, the ridges encircling his length becoming raised before her very eyes.

There was a sparkle in his gaze when he turned from her and began pulling his clothes back on. One that made her stomach flutter with a not entirely unpleasant sensation.

Darla finished her rinse and stepped out of the stream, her nipples hard in the cool air. A little steam was actually coming off her body as she shook off most of the water and began dressing. The runes may have helped increase her ambient temperature, but there was something more interesting at work here.

“You are ready?” he asked, circling around to her as she pulled her pack onto her shoulders.

“Yeah, I’m good.”

“And refreshed, I hope.”

“Something like that.”

His lips creased in a little grin as he nodded his approval. Then, without another word, he turned and began trekking over the rocky terrain, his powerful legs handling the uneven ground like massive pistons.

Darla hurried after him, her strides shorter, but her balance no less sure than his. They made good time following the general direction of the stream. They had seen its course from up high the previous day, but eventually it curved from the way they needed to go. A short while later, they came to the base of their next obstacle.

It hadn’t seemed like much from afar, but the rocky cliffs blocking their progress were taller and steeper than either had expected. Heydar scanned the area for a quicker route, but it was apparent that attempting to circumvent the geological formation would add many hours to their trek, and that was time they simply did not have to spare.

Heydar slipped his pack off and secured it to a length of rope from his waist. It would ride a few meters below him as he climbed, not obstructing his movements. He crouched down low.

“Climb onto my back. I will carry you.”

Darla’s stubbornness flared up strong. “Like hell you will. I can climb, I’ll have you know. In fact, I flashed a five point nine—okay, that was indoors, but still, I’m saying I’m not helpless, here.”

He looked up at her quietly for a moment, disarming her with his calm gaze.

“I did not say you were. But if the others are to be found, we must not delay. My reach is far greater than yours, and your tattoos are not yet fully settled.”

“Yeah, but—”

“I would very much like to see your climbing skills one day,” he interrupted. “But this is not the time. I am sorry, little one, but we cannot afford your pride right now.”

She hated that he was right. Not that so much as admitting that he was right. In any case, she knew what had to be done. Others were out there, and they couldn’t wait for her to play on a rock wall.

Darla climbed up onto his back, wrapping her arms around his chest, her legs locking her in place. He felt like he was cut from granite beneath her touch. Warm granite that moved with cat-like prowess.

Heydar stood up, hefting her weight as easily as breathing. “Hold tight.”

He reached up and grabbed a handhold and started his ascent. Darla was quietly amazed at just how fast he was climbing. He would reach the summit in a fraction of the time it would have taken her on her own. She squeezed him in her arms, holding him close, her breath hot on his neck. She noticed the fine hairs standing on end every time she did, along with faint goose bumps that accompanied them.

Darla’s pack shifted slightly, causing her hips to slide. She adjusted quickly, her leg slipping from around his waist, moving lower and rubbing his cock as it did. She felt the beast twitch to life under the pressure and start to rise, elongating and thickening as it pressed back against her touch.

Heydar, the seemingly indestructible hunk of masculinity actually twitched, a slight shudder running through him as her leg flexed against his stiffening length. Securing his grip on the rock face, he reached back with one meaty hand and shifted her position higher on his back, locking her legs in place and cutting short whatever the hell had just happened.

He continued climbing without a word, and Darla found herself equally silent even as her swelling clit pressed against his body as she wrapped her legs tightly around him. The one who needed to focus on the climb, lest the plunge to their deaths, was free to pay attention, but his passenger was getting an entirely different experience out of the ride.

Darla bit her lip, forcing her body not to quiver from the sensation, the electric shocks of his body against her clit with every movement sending flashes through every inch of her until she thought she would cry out in pleasure. But somehow, she managed to control herself.

Barely.

Heydar hauled himself over the edge at the top and quickly moved back a safe distance so Darla could dismount. It was a good thing, too. Her legs trembled when she set foot on the ground and her crotch was damp with more than the sweat from his laboring back.

She looked around, taking in the yellow-orange scrub brush and more woody branches of the smaller trees that grew on the rocky peak. Heydar, however, was not wasting any time.

The alien pulled up his pack and donned it in a flash, then began trekking up the slight rise to the true summit. Darla shook off her arousal as best she could and followed, but her legs still felt rubbery for the first several steps. Finally, she regained control over her body, but the warmth in her belly remained, diffused but not gone by any means.

“There,” he said, pointing off in the distance. “Can you see them? The clear spots in the trees over there?”

Darla scanned where he pointed and this time her eyes picked up on the target. “Yeah, I see them,” she said. “No smoke.”

“Fires would have burned out by now if they were not caused by Raxxian fuel. This is a good sign. Come, we have our course,” he said, then began the descent down the sloping back side of the cliff.

Unlike the steep face, she would not need a ride for this. And given what had happened last time, she honestly wondered if she could handle another.

OceanofPDF.com

CHAPTER TWENTY

Darla’s clothes had gone from post-stream-bath damp to dry and quickly back to damp again, but this time from the sweat of exertion. She had been moving fast, her legs churning as she kept pace with Heydar as he hurried them closer to their destination.

They were covering a lot of distance, far more than she’d have been able to do on any of her hikes back on Earth, and at a speed well beyond her normal capabilities. But it seemed her capabilities were anything but normal now, thanks to the alien plant ink permanently etched into her skin.