Page 18 of Corvak's Challenge

CHAPTER

EIGHT

AIDY

I expectto feel shy the next morning around Corvak, but when I wake up next to him and he gives me a delighted grin, it's hard to feel weird. I smile back, and the day seems a little brighter.

Then again, most days seem brighter the morning after you get your pussy ate.

We get dressed, and I wrap new furs around my feet, wincing at the blisters on my soles. There's a red, irritated mark on my shoulder from carrying my pack, and I feel as wimpy as Corvak makes me out to be. I add a little more padding in the hopes it'll fix the issue and then drag my pack on. "Shall we go?"

Corvak frowns down at his cock, adjusting the front of his clothing. He's not as buried in leathers as I am, but he's definitely wearing more layers than when we first met. "My cock is stiff again."

He sounds so dismayed that I have to bite back a chuckle. "I've heard that happens in the mornings."

"Every morning? I do not know whether to be delighted or annoyed." He shoots me a hopeful look.

I pretend not to see, stepping out to the lip of the trail and eyeing the sunrise. What we had last night was fun, but I'm not ready to be at his beck and call every time he wants a hand job. If we were in love, it'd be different. We barely know each other. He's going to have to learn to cope. I put a hand to my brow, squinting up at the sun. Correction, suns. There's two of them, tiny dots in the sky like a spider bite. That's new. "Weather's clear today."

Corvak grunts, and I could swear I hear him humming from across the rocks. I'm feeling a little aroused myself, this morning, but I'm also starting to grow worried about that. Why am I in a perpetual state of horniness when I should be focused on survival? It makes no sense, and I worry something else is going on. That kills my ardor. I turn around, and notice Corvak has himself in hand, furiously working his shaft with what can only be described as a resigned expression.

"I'll give you a moment," I tell him and turn my back again.

"Talk to me?" he asks, voice strained as he works his cock.

Something tells me he doesn't want to hear more about the weather, but I'm not interested in dirty talking. Well, okay, I am, but I'm also trying to set boundaries. I study my nails. "Do you think they did something to us? When they dumped us here on the planet?"

He doesn't answer, but his breathing turns ragged.

I resist the urge to peek—strong, Aidy! Be strong!—and continue to pick at a jagged nail. "I'm just curious because we're still strangers, but we're also constantly all over each other. I don't know about you, but that's not normal for me. So I'm wondering if they gave us something when they dropped us here."

"Possible," he grits out, and then I hear a deep gasp and a shuddering breath. Money shot, if I don't miss my guess.

I peek. I'm the worst, but I peek. Sure enough, he's got his arm pressed to the rock, and his forehead resting against his arm as he leans forward, hand on cock, and works the last of his release out. There's steam rising from the spot on the rocks he just anointed, and I have to clench my thighs together again because the sight of it is arousing the hell out of me and it should not be. The thing in my chest throbs. "What about this parasite you put in us? Could it be why?"

Corvak cleans his hands on snow and then adjusts his clothing. I turn around, presenting my back again, pretending I wasn't watching. "I do not think it was the parasite," he says, and I can hear him picking up his pack. "The other gladiators were not overcome with arousal, and at least one had a parasite of his own."

Good point. I think he would have noticed if the other men had been all over each other. Not the parasite, then, though the humming is distracting. "I see."

He moves to my side, his body lightly brushing against my leg as he does, and I clench my thighs, wondering if he's going to call me out for an arousal smell. But he only eyes the desolate, icy rocks around us, as if trying to determine the best route forward.

"Where to?" I ask brightly. "You're the man with the plan."

To my frustration, Corvak shrugs. "We walk until we find what we are looking for."

"And remind me of what we're looking for?"

"I will know it when I see it."

Super. Just what a girl wants to hear.

We head out, and I notice that we head up today. Not down the sharply sloping cliffs, nor do we seek out easier footpaths or even more of the supply caves like before. Corvak heads higher and higher into the forbidding mountains, his gaze constantly landing on the tallest purple peak in the distance, the top of ithidden by clouds. I hope his plan is a good one, but I don't have a plan of my own, so it's not like I can complain.

I don't want to walk in silence, either. I think about last night and how he'd gone down on me eagerly, all because he could smell my arousal. Just thinking about it starts to make me turned on, so I decide to focus on other things. "Why don't you tell me about yourself, Corvak?" I ask as we hike. "We can get to know each other."

"There is not much to tell. I am a splice." He shrugs, unbothered. "We are given rules so we know the games, but not much else."

"See, I'm not entirely sure what you mean when you say things like that. What's a splice? What do you mean, you're given rules but not much else?"

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