CHAPTER SEVEN
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Jillian
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FIN’S GREEN EYES searched my face, a spark of hunger flaring in their depths.
My stomach gave an excited flutter. Uh oh, JJ. Stop that, now!
But it was too late. I pressed my thighs together, which only increased the excited tingling.
This man—this alien—was supposed to be the enemy.
Yet he’d just saved my life and gotten hurt in the process.
Then he nobly shared the last of his water instead of keeping it for himself even though we’d possibly be stuck here for days.
What woman wouldn’t find that hot as hell?
Especially when wrapped in the delicious package that was him.
I licked water from my lips, and his eyes latched onto the movement, growing heated.
Oh, yeah. He wants this too.
Everyone always called me impetuous like it was a problem, from my foster parents to my last boyfriend. But right now, my body thought being impetuous sounded like the best thing in the entire universe.
“We should see if we can clear the opening ourselves.”
I took a deep breath and tried to slow my racing heart. “Sounds good.”
The goat-lope trotted around him and sidled up to me. I bent over to pet his little head. It had become clear he was a male as soon as he had run ahead of me. I didn’t know much about animals, but I could recognize balls.
Fin took the water bottle from me and drained it, then crouched to refill it from the stream.
Varool were a lot tougher than us, so maybe he didn’t know. “I can’t drink the water,” I said. “There’s some kind of bug or something in it.”
Once he’d capped it, he gave it a good shake. “This bottle has a built-in purification system. We will not thirst. Food is another matter. It would also be prudent for us to do as much work as possible while we have the most energy.”
“Uh.” My hand fluttered over one of the pockets I’d shoved the rations into, and then I pulled one out. “About that.”
His eyes and lips narrowed as he stared at the stolen food, but he only said, “Well, that is another issue solved for the short term.” He pushed to his feet and headed back to the crack. “We should still get to work so that we may escape as soon as possible.”
Right. Because who’d want to be stuck with me.
The goat-lope looked up at me, his golden eyes trusting.
“You like me, don’t you, boy?” I rubbed at the coarse fur on his head, right between his little nubs. “You need a name.” There was something in the back of my mind, some lingering childhood story from old Earth. “Billy! What do you think of that?”
He butted his head against my thigh with a little bleat.
“Billy it is.” I stood and took off after Fin, the light dimming drastically as he finished pushing through the crack. “Come on, Billy. We’d better go help.”
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“Ugh.” I dropped the rock onto the pile with a clack, then swiped my forearm over my face, probably doing nothing more than mixing sweat and dust into mud.
If everything had hurt after the fall, all of my muscles now ached from labor. Didn’t ancient humans use hauling rocks as a punishment of some sort? I understood why now, though I wished I didn’t.
Fin moved like a machine, his muscles bunching and flexing in the light from his jacket. He’d taken it off and laid it over a boulder on the other side of the cave to keep our only light source from being damaged.
The view was distracting—very, very distracting.
His muscles had muscles, and they rippled as he picked up a boulder that should have been way too heavy.
His shoulders flared wide as his arms wrapped around the stone, making his back taper in a perfect V to his waist. Sweat slicked his skin, but on him it was sexy, making it gleam where it caught the light.
The faint dusting of rock dust did little to hide the dark orange-brown stripes covering his tan skin.
They should have looked odd, being so different from human, but on him, they were perfect, outlining his muscles and making them stand out even more.
He heaved the boulder to the side with the deafening crack of rock on rock.
Billy bleated. I’d used some of the largest stones I could move to block him in the passage leading to the other cave, too worried he’d get under our feet and get hurt. He’d hopped up on the first I’d tried, able to get over them easily. Fin had needed to roll one of the larger boulders into place.
Fin went back for another of the larger rocks, refusing to slow, even though we’d been working for hours. All of this can’t be doing his shoulder any good.
“Why don’t we take a break?” I said. “Drink some water—maybe eat something.”
“No.” It sounded more like a grunt than a word.
“There’s no way we’re going to get out today, so why—”
He spun around and stomped over to his jacket, or at least stomped as much as his hunched posture would allow.
In a split second, the cave plunged into pure darkness. My eyes strained, trying to adapt to something that wasn’t there.
After a few moments, he said, “Look toward where the entrance should be and tell me what you see.”
I did as he asked, but it didn’t do any good. After a few moments, I gave up. “Nothing. It’s too dark. I can’t see anything.”
“Exactly.” He turned the light back on and walked back over to the pile of rock. “The obstruction is so perfect that it blocks even the faintest hint of light, which means we should assume we also do not have a source of fresh air.”
No.
Shock jolted through me in a sickening wave, and my knees wobbled as my legs gave out. I hugged my knees to my chest, rocking and shaking my head.
Not that! Anything but that!
Strong hands gripped my shoulders, and Fin’s voice sounded from far away, muffled by the rushing in my ears.
Arms encircled me, crushing me to a firm chest. I pressed my face to hot skin. His heart beat so strongly it vibrated my cheek. He was so alive, so vital that the sound pulled me from the depths of memory and back into the present.
When I could finally release the clench I had on his biceps, his deep voice rumbled through me. “Tell me what has upset you so.”
“Th-the thought of suffocating,” I whispered from numb lips.
“It’s how my parents died.” I couldn’t force any of the rest of it out—how the air-recycling system on our deck had given out in the middle of the night; how the low-oxygen sensor in our cabin had also failed without anyone noticing; how I’d been found unconscious but still alive, only because my body was so much smaller than theirs.
His arms tightened, and it was so nice to be held.
I’d been a lot lonelier than I’d wanted to admit.
Having the base to myself had been nice for the first few days, but I’d grown up constantly surrounded by others.
Even with my parents gone, there had always been someone around to talk to, to buddy-watch an entertainment vid. These past few months had been hard.
Slowly, my breathing evened out as his touch filled an emptiness within I’d been unwilling to acknowledge until now.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
I nodded, loving the feel of his warm skin sliding against my cheek.
He let go and jumped to his feet, and I leaned into the space where he’d been for a moment before I caught myself.
Hurt pinched my chest. Guess he couldn’t wait to get away from the human. Here I’d loved touching him, and he’d been disgusted.
But when I looked up at him, I didn’t see derision.
Instead, his jaw hardened into a firm line as he met my eyes.
“I will break through to fresh air before I rest again. You have my word.” Fin thumped his fist to his chest in some kind of salute and returned to attacking the fall of rocks, completely ignoring any pain his shoulder might have given him.
Shock made me stare at him for a moment before I snapped out of it to go help.
It was the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for me.