---
Kai kept her close, his body heavy with the weight of release but unwilling to move away. His breath still came hard, his chest pressing into her big breasts with every rise and fall. She clung to him as though afraid he might vanish, her arms looped tight around his neck, her nails leaving faint red trails across his back where she had held him through the mating.
For a long while, neither spoke. Silence felt full and complete on Kai's arms, the silence of a field after lightning has struck, or a river that has finally spilled its flood and lies calm in the moonlight. The only sound was her breathing, shaky at first, then smoothing into a rhythm that matched his own. Every exhale carried the sweetness of survival, of victory, of love discovered through her struggling time.
