Ruth's Bonded (Ruth & Gron Book 1) by V.C. Lancaster Page A

extra limb. He bent his arm under her head
for her to use as a pillow, then shuffled down so that he could burrow his face
into her hair and neck, inhaling deeply, his massive chest almost pushing her
off him if he hadn’t been holding her to him.
    As he settled down to sleep,
apparently content, his thankfully soft genitals brushing her thighs, she was
suddenly afraid she had initiated something she didn’t understand. He had
clearly changed his mind about them touching, but why? What did he think they
were now? Cellmates? Friends? He wasn’t making moves to have sex with her, but
he was spooning like a pro.
    She wasn’t going to interrupt his
sleep for a second time. Not when they couldn’t talk about what was going on.
This was what she wanted, a warm, pliant place to sleep. If he did anything she
didn’t like, she would stop him. She didn’t think she would end up breaking his
heart at any rate. If she had to correct him, or they had to separate when they
escaped, it would just be a misunderstanding. It wasn’t like she would cause
him irreparable emotional damage. They’d only known each other for three days.

Chapter 13
    Ruth woke up in Gron’s arms. She was
a weird patchwork of warm and cold, but overall she was more comfortable than
she had been since she was taken. Her head was off the floor, for one thing,
still resting on his arm. He was asleep behind her, his arm curled around her
waist, holding her to him. His tail was still draped limply across her lap. She
glanced down at it speculatively. He was asleep... and he’d seemed to have got
over his aversion to her touch. Glancing behind her at his calmly sleeping
face, she gently moved her hand down to brush the fur of the tail, receiving no
reaction.
    She wrapped her hand around it and
ran it down to the tip. It was weird. She was still kind of thinking of it as a
human-tail, because Gron was so much like her, overall. It was warm and solid,
the fur almost soft but with sharp points. She lifted the tail and brought it
to where she could see it. It had to be three or four feet long at least, and
she couldn’t quite get her hand all the way around it. The fur tufted into a
point that she flicked back and forth, jumping when the tail twitched in her
hands. She smiled, that must tickle. She did it again, and the tail jerked to
try to leave her hand, but she kept her grip and ran her finger across the end
to soothe it and straighten any hairs she had disturbed. She brought it to her
mouth to feel the fur against her lips. It was distinctly prickly. She ran it
through her hands a few more times before moving to lay it back across her hip,
but it curled around her wrist and the tip rubbed back and forth on her palm,
as if asking her to continue.
    Ruth looked behind her and found
Gron’s large dark eyes watching her. The tail pressed harder into her hand, and
she had to smile. Someone apparently liked being stroked, much as he had
protested earlier. Ruth smiled again and went back to stroking the tail,
smoothing any ruffled hair where she found it and dragging her nails through
the fur. Gron groaned and lowered his face to her shoulder, tightening his hold
on her to bring her closer.
    This was the point at which a human
man would be pressing an erection into her back, she recognised, but there was
nothing. Clearly, this was a platonic interaction for Gron, so Ruth resisted
the urge to drop the tail and roll over to start running her fingers over his
muscles instead. What the hell was she thinking? He was an alien, and a virtual
stranger. It must just be the post-coital position she was in, waking up naked
with him, she decided. In fact, she should probably move now they were both
awake. It was nice of him to keep her warm while she slept, but she couldn’t
rely on him anymore than that and she couldn’t get used to it. She sat up away
from Gron, and made the eye-covering gesture so she could use the hole.
    There was still no food or anything
to drink, and