Sohut's Protection: A Sci-fi Alien Romance (Riv's Sanctuary Book 2) A.G. Wilde (best way to read an ebook TXT) 📖

“Nice to meet you, Nupak.”

“Here.” Krior pushed something toward her. It looked like a piece of sugarcane.

“It’s fermented rai,” said Nupak. “It’s delicious.”

She had no idea if it was poisonous or not.

Searching for Sohut, she found his green gaze on her, as if it never left. He nodded and she took a bite of the food, not expecting much.

As she chewed, Cleo paused. It tasted like a salt and vinegar rice cake.

“Thank you,” she mumbled as she took another bite and both aliens beside her smiled.

Around the circle, chatter ensued as if nothing had changed and it didn’t take Cleo long to relax.

Between the rice cakes she was fed and the water to wash it down, she filled her belly while she watched the aliens inhale a strange-looking smoke from glass vases.

“Woogli smoke,” Krior mentioned. “Do you wish to try it?”

As he asked this, she noticed Sohut was being offered some as well, which he promptly refused.

“I’m fine, thank you,” Cleo said.

That didn’t stop the two aliens from indulging themselves and soon the clearing was so thick with the smoke, she might as well have been smoking it herself.

For the next few hours, she watched the aliens smoke, drink, and tell stories and she found herself relaxing as she listened to them.

It felt strange being in society again, even if it was one as strange as this, and it made her wonder about life after they left the jungle.

Would it be like this?

She’d been on her own for so long… There were times she’d wished she had company, but she wasn’t even sure she’d be able to integrate into alien society.

Her eyes found Sohut through the din and he was still looking at her.

He had a life outside of this jungle.

For some reason, she’d forgotten that.

As the aliens continued to party around them, she realized Sohut’s gaze didn’t leave hers.

He was speaking to the aliens who spoke to him, but his eyes never moved.

His gaze was intense and it made her feel as if he was imagining just what they’d done in the trees when the nights came in.

That thought made her forget her ruminations.

“—with Clee-yo.” Her name made her blink several times. Sohut was saying something about her. “She’s had it hard the last few days, trekking through Koznia.”

One of the aliens, she assumed it was Senrit, stood on wobbly legs. Maybe he had sniffed too much of that smoke.

“I’ll take you to your quarters,” he said.

Following Sohut’s lead, she stood and met him at the edge of the circle before they both walked behind a staggering Senrit.

Before long, they stopped in front of one of the huts.

“This is yours for as long as you like,” Senrit said, his four eyes meeting hers. “We have no feminine products here, I’m afraid.”

“Oh,” Cleo smiled. “I’m—I’ll be okay.”

She’d lived in the jungle for a whole year. She doubted going a few more nights without shampoo was going to kill her.

As Sohut opened the door and led them in, Cleo’s eyes widened.

Inside the hut, there was a huge cushion on the floor and she assumed it was the bed. Off to the side, there was another room.

Sohut gazed down at her. “After you.”

Cleo stepped in and Wawa immediately hopped off her shoulder to settle in the middle of the bed.

“Hey!” Sohut frowned at him. “That’s for all of us.”

Wawa blinked at him before, surprisingly, he moved to settle on the side of the bed.

Cleo’s eyebrows shot up. “Well, that’s a first. He listened to you.”

Sohut smiled, a devilish glint in his eyes as pulled her into him.

“A wash before we sleep? I know you’re tired,” he said.

“A bath?” What she would do for one right at that moment.

Sohut nodded before taking her hand in his and leading her to the second room in the hut.

As soon as they stepped in, he pressed her into the wall, his body holding her hostage.

“Clee-yo,” he groaned, as he dipped his head to her neck. “I’ve missed you.”

A chuckle developed within her. “What? I’ve been with you this whole time.”

“Not close enough,” he breathed down her neck, sending a shiver down her spine.

Sohut took her skin between his teeth and flicked his tongue over it, causing her to inhale deeply.

One arm pressed against the wall beside her head while his other arm moved underneath her dress to caress her leg.

“I’d rip this off you if it didn’t mean you’d be walking naked…” he murmured, nibbling her skin as he did. “I don’t want those Torians looking at what’s mi—”

He stopped short and froze suddenly before he lifted his head to look her in the eyes.

There was shock in his as she studied him.

“What were you going to say?” Cleo wet her lips.

Sohut’s throat moved as he stared into her eyes, but he didn’t answer.

Instead, it was as if a switch flipped and he leaned from off the wall.

Cleo watched him move, a ball developing in her throat that prevented her from saying another word.

Because…she was pretty sure he was just about to say…that she was his.

23

“We should get you clean and comfortable. You deserve the rest.” Sohut stepped away from her and moved over to a circular indentation in the ground.

Confused, she watched him and for the first time, she noticed the room.

It was smaller than the room with the bed in it but large enough to hold both of them.

Off in the corner was one of those lanterns with what she was going to assume was alien fireflies. It lit the room in a warm glow.

Sohut crouched over the indentation in the ground and pulled out the stop from what looked like a wooden pipe. As soon as the stop was released, steamy water came pouring through.

“They have hot water here?!” Cleo moved forward, unable to believe what she was seeing.

She hadn’t taken a hot water bath in like…forever.

Sohut smiled as he moved to another side of the room and dug his hand into a bag that