Halley
“Remind me why we’re not flying,” I ask with a glance between Keelo and Eot.
They’ve been acting strange all morning, avoiding each other through breakfast and packing up camp.
Now we’re getting ready to set off, they’re arguing about which bimor each of them is going to ride and not paying my question a second of notice.
The sun has barely been up for an hour and already I’m sweating.
I swear it’s even hotter today than yesterday.
Despite the heat, I’m wearing my cardigan, wanting to keep my arms and shoulders covered.
All my summers spent growing up in Australia have taught me I need to be careful.
So I sweat through my cardigan, hoping that if I don’t raise my hands over my head, nobody else will notice the damp patches under my arms.
I tip my head back, all the better to see out from under the wide brim of my borrowed hat and catch sight of Rin scuffing the toe of her too-large boot in the sand.
Neither she nor I can mount the bimor without help, and since I’m not strong enough to lift her, we’re stuck waiting until Eot and Keelo have finished their pissing contest, as if Keelo thinks we don’t all know he’s trying to offload the slowest bimor to Eot.
“…think it would be a good idea to rotate,” Keelo is saying.
“Oh, really?” Eot sneers. “And did you also want to be the one holding the datapad?”
“Now you mention it, yes.”
“Fek off.” Eot twists out of reach of Keelo’s grabbing hands, and I take the opportunity to step forward and tug the tablet from his grasp.
“Thanks.” I grin, pretending innocence.
I don’t need to know how to read alien to understand how to follow the tracking signal.
I learned by watching Eot navigate yesterday.
Our marker is at the center of the screen, and so long as I keep the marker for our target at the top center of the screen, then we’ll be heading in the right direction.
Considering there aren’t any notable landmarks aside from the seemingly endless stretch of dunes, the displayed map is blank except for the two markers, making the task particularly easy.
“Actually”—I change my mind—“Rin, did you want to be the leader today?”
I look up in expectation of her wordless answer in time to see Keelo clapping a hand to the back of Eot's neck, like he’s swatting at a mosquito.
That catches my notice, but what holds my attention is the expression on both their faces.
They’re leaning toward me, their gazes fixed on my throat, and they’re both breathing shallowly, a wrinkle across the bridge of Eot’s nose.
I glance down, scared there’s an alien bug on me. It’s just a drop of sweat, and the three of us watch it run down my décolletage and be absorbed by the neckline of my white T-shirt.
“Akh…” Eot’s eyes glaze over, as though he’s watching me through a transparent film.
There’s a long pause, both of their brains like computers running a full-system reboot.
Then Keelo clears his throat. “What…what did you say? Earlier.”
It takes me a moment to remember. “You mean when I asked why we’re not flying?”
“Because…” is all I hear of Eot’s answer before Keelo’s hand on the back of Eot’s neck tightens a fraction, leaving pale imprints in the other man’s golden skin.
As opposed to pushing Keelo away, Eot seems to lean into Keelo’s hold, his eyes once again on my throat.
“Because our ship’s too loud for a hunt like this one.” A muscle twitches in Keelo’s jaw, and he’s rubbing at his own neck with his free hand.
He glances at Rin, looks back at me, and then turns his gaze skywards. “We would scare the trikon away before we’d even disembarked. Can’t kill it when it’s hiding.”
“That makes sense.” What doesn’t make sense is how these two are acting. “Is something wrong?” Do I stink? Is that why Eot’s covering his nose?
It’s not my fault I don’t have deodorant, and I might’ve showered yesterday morning back on the ship, but there’s no water in the desert except for what we’ve brought with us to drink, and we can’t waste that on washing clothes. So I turn my back on the guys and surreptitiously sniff my armpit.
It really isn’t that bad, considering how hot the sun is.
Maybe their sense of smell is better than mine. Or maybe they can smell something I’m missing.
I give the air a cautious sniff. There is something…
so faint I might be imagining it. It’s sweet with an undertone of tanginess, reminding me of…
baked apples, perhaps? Apple cider? Apple pie?
Something with apples, certainly. Which is crazy because I haven’t seen a single recognizable piece of fruit since my abduction.
Are we suffering a group hallucination? But instead of seeing apparitions we’re smelling phantom scents.
Drawing another deep breath into my lungs, I tip my head back, hoping to locate the origin of the mystery. My hat slips from my head, rolling down the sand dune, and Eot and Keelo jump into action, as if they’re suddenly desperate to get moving.
But it’s Rin who rushes after my hat, and Keelo follows her. Eot busies himself double-checking the contents of our saddlebags, while I try refusing to acknowledge the thought niggling at the back of my mind—that maybe Eot and Keelo are desperate to move away from me.
You don’t stink, I silently scold my insecurities, while out loud I say, “Could you give me a hand mounting up?”
“Akh…right. Sure.” Eot takes half a step toward me. There’s another wrinkle across the bridge of his nose, which might’ve been cute were I not feeling annoyingly self-conscious.
I quickly turn my back to him, grabbing hold of the saddle with my free hand.
He has to step right up behind me to lift me, his large hands spanning the breadth of my waist. The scent of apples intensifies, and oh my God, it’s so delicious that my head swims. My knees threaten to give way, and my hold on the saddle loosens as my fingers lose some of their strength.
At the same time, an intense desire to bathe in applesauce rushes through me. It’s like being caught in a flash storm without any warning and with no umbrella. One minute I was normal. Now, I’m drowning.
In lust.
Which…wow.
My mouth goes dry, and the tiny hairs along the backs of my arms rise, almost as if the smell of apples is tangible and sinking into my skin. Into my body.
The second I’m seated in the saddle, I want to climb down again so Eot has to put his hands back on my waist. A small part of my brain realizes how ridiculous I’m acting, but I don’t care.
Instead, I reach for Eot’s shoulders, intending to jump from the saddle and slide down his body as a firefighter would slide down a pole.
I’m still holding his tablet in one hand, which will hamper my descent, but I know with absolute certainty that if I were to fall, Eot would catch me.
“Halley.” He releases my name on a breath, as if he hadn’t realized he’d stopped breathing until he tried talking. “There’s something I’ve got to tell you. About Keelo and me.”
“Talk. Yes. Sure,” I agree, even as I imagine how amazing it’d feel to wrap my legs around his waist and grind against the closure of his trousers.
I tighten my single-handed hold of his shoulder and swing my far leg over the saddle so that I can begin my descent, but Eot grabs my knees, halting my process.
I release a keening moan, a sound I swear I’ve never made before in my entire life and one I vaguely think should be embarrassing. It isn’t, though. I’m far more focused on Eot’s hands on my bare legs.
“You don’t understand,” Eot insists. “My pheromones—”
“You’re wrong,” I tell him as moisture floods my panties. “I’ve never been more sure. I want you. I want to rub that delicious smell all over my skin. I want to—” And that’s when I catch sight of the top of Keelo’s head over the nearest dune. If he’s returning, that means Rin is too.
That realization goes a long way to re-establishing common sense as the dominant force in my body. Eot stumbles back a step, and I clutch one-handed at the saddle’s pommel to keep myself steady, even as my heart beats wildly in my chest.
Um, what the fuck just happened? I’ve never felt like that before, like I would happily tear off my own skin if it meant being allowed to climb into Eot’s.
And it came on instantaneously. I smelled apples and I wanted to drag Eot down onto the sand so I could lick his chest as if he were an ice cream.
I force a smile. “You’re in charge, Rin,” I say, swapping the tablet for my borrowed hat, hoping she thinks my face is flushed because of the suns’ heat and not because I’d been about to do something incredibly stupid.
Surely she’s too young to think otherwise?
Keelo isn’t though. He’s watching me so closely I swear his gaze is making me itch.
His eyes are narrowed, and the corners of his lips are turned down in a classic Keelo scowl.
Something about that scowl once again gives me the childish urge to deny any misbehavior, as though he’s caught me in the act of doing something I shouldn't be.
Which…yeah, I probably was, with Rin so close by.
Eot’s looking as guilty as I’m feeling, and I can tell by the way he’s refusing to meet Keelo’s eyes that they’re avoiding each other again, just like they were when we first ate breakfast.
Keelo pulls one of the bedroll blankets from a saddlebag and tears two narrow strips of fabric from one end.
I don’t dare ask what he’s doing, not when he’s glaring at the blanket like he’s imagining using it to throttle someone.
He thrusts one fabric strip into Eot’s hand and ties the other one around his neck, making him look even more like an Earth-style cowboy.
Without argument, Eot follows suit.
Okay, then. That’s weird.
“I’ve made room for you,” I tell Rin, patting the saddle in front of me, but Keelo puts her on the other bimor and mounts up behind her. He gives me one last dark look before setting his mount to walking.