Halley
Ihear Rin approaching before I see her. She’s stomping her way back to Eot and me, and breathing loud, huffing breaths. I might’ve been worried she was angry, except that I suspect all the noise is more about her warning us that she’s coming so Eot and I have time to straighten our appearance.
Reluctantly, I pull back from our kiss, my lips tingling. For a guy who’s never kissed anyone before, Eot sure is an excellent student—even if his tusks create a bit of a learning curve.
As Rin’s blurry form solidifies, I see she’s pushed my glasses onto the top of her head and is glaring as fiercely as Keelo ever has.
What had a human kiss looked like to her? Probably disgusting.
When I was Rin’s age, my friends and I used to play catch and kiss with some of the boys in our class, but we were only ever brave enough to kiss each other’s hands or cheeks.
As fascinated as we’d been with the idea of romance, it wasn’t until I was well into my teens that I actually wanted to try it for real.
Speaking of wanting to kiss someone, I sneak a glance in Keelo’s direction.
He’s loitering a little ways behind Rin, evidently waiting for the full force of Rin’s personality to interrupt my and Eot’s make-out session before closing the rest of the distance between us himself.
He’s still holding on to my cardigan, though, his grasp so tight his knuckles are a pale yellow.
I can’t work out how he’s feeling. I would have thought Eot announcing his attraction to Keelo’s and my mixed smells—however abrupt Eot had been—was Keelo’s dream come true. Instead, he stood as still as a statue, hid his stiff dick and ran away, almost like he’d misunderstood what Eot had said.
Or…perhaps he’d prefer to have Eot all to himself.
I’m the interloper, after all. The woman who pushed her way into their lives without bothering to ask if that was okay with them.
Beside me, Eot stiffens, much of his excitement fading, as if the sight of Keelo’s scowl is enough to make him doubt the other man’s feelings.
He shouldn’t, though. Of course Keelo’s in love with him. Eot’s amazing. More than amazing.
I love how kind and caring he is. I love his playful side and how, when he’s getting ready to say something he thinks will be funny, his top lip catches on one of his tusks, as if he’s barely able to get the words out of his mouth.
And I especially love how much he loves Rin. If there’s one thing this last week has taught me about myself, it’s that I find nothing hotter than a man taking care of his child.
That applies equally to Keelo as to Eot.
No wonder it currently feels like my heart is beating so hard it’s trying to force its way up my throat and out my mouth. I’ve got two incredibly hot aliens in my sights.
“It was another bone,” Rin announces, and it’s the loudest I’ve heard her speak. Her voice echoes off the walls of the ravine, and she doesn’t flinch away from it as I predicted she might.
“Sorry? Another bone?” I wrack my brain, trying to remember our last conversation, but I can’t seem to think around the roadblock that was Eot’s toe-curling first kiss—and Keelo’s reaction. The memory of those two conflicting events sits inside my head, filling all available space.
I really want two boyfriends, and I really want my boyfriends to be boyfriends.
The biggest flaw in that plan is Keelo himself.
The last thing I want to do is break up the boy band.
“Umm.” Another bone... Oh, right. I sent Rin ahead to bring back whatever it was I couldn’t properly see.
She isn’t carrying anything, probably because me kissing Eot distracted her.
I slip my glasses off her head, and strands of her matted hair tangle in the hinges.
She grabs the crown of her head, releasing a hiss of pain, and I make soothing noises as I carefully separate glasses from hair.
“Were there a lot more?” I ask.
She nods, running a hand over her hair to smooth any rumpled sections. It’s going to need a lot more work than hand smoothing, but I don’t say anything—merely kiss her lightly on the cheek and step back.
“And some scales,” she adds, watching me through narrowed eyes, clearly not certain how she feels about being kissed. I don’t appear to be in trouble, so I count it as a win.
Keelo is very pointedly not meeting my or Eot’s eyes.
He’s retrieved the skinned trikon head, holding it with two fingers looped through an eye socket.
And with his axe strapped to his back, he’s looking like a proper hunter—albeit a hunter with social anxiety and a scowl Oscar the Grouch would envy.
“Keelo—” Eot begins, but Keelo interrupts.
“Time to collect our bounty.” And he motions for us to start walking back toward the bend in the ravine and the waiting bimors.
The other two follow him, but my feet are reluctant to start walking. It’s not the memory of how far we’ve got to travel that’s keeping me still; it’s a gut feeling I’ve missed something important.
I glance toward the trikon’s cave, empty now just like the rest of the drying ravine.
You missed getting properly groped behind the cover of a large rock, I tell myself.
By not one guy, but two. And sure, that voice in my head isn’t wrong.
As much as the kiss was amazing, my damp panties are all the reminder I need of how much further I’d have loved to have gone with Eot. And with Keelo.
But that’s not why the tiny hairs on the back of my neck are rising, my skin prickling with anticipation.
I press a hand to the crown of my hat and tip my head back so I can stare up at the sky. It’ll be midday soon. The very edge of one sun is peeking out from behind the high ravine wall. Not a cloud in sight.
One of my uni tutors used to say that gut feelings are a good indicator that your brain’s made subconscious observations and that your conscious mind is yet to make the connections.
I don’t know what my observations are. Something to do with what I’d been telling Rin about groundwater…
or maybe it was something she said to me.
“Coming, Halley?” Eot’s concerned face suddenly fills my vision. He’s so much taller than me that even with my head tipped back I can’t see around him.
“Yes.” I take his offered hand. “I think so.”
“You think you are coming?” He looks around at the layers of rock and what remains of the trikon’s carcass.
As it turns out I did get used to the smell; it’s hardly bothering me now.
“You can’t want to stay here.”
“Not here, exactly.” Without water, there’s no reason for other animals to come this way anymore. The trikon might as well have been buried underground for how little it’ll be disturbed. “What if there are more predators nearby? Won’t they attack the farmer’s bimors now there’s no water here?”
“We’ve done our job.”
“And we’re leaving without you,” Keelo calls angrily, looping an arm around Rin’s shoulders.
“We’re coming,” I shout back at him. “Give me a minute.”
Despite the grumpy bite in my voice, Eot looks relieved I’ve agreed to come, but he still tugs on my hand, trying to get me moving. My feet stumble into action, and I jog to keep up with his long strides.
“Maybe we could go a little farther up the ravine, to see if we can find the source of the water.”
“Why?” Keelo demands, coming to a stop by the bimors and untying their reins. He lifts Rin into a saddle and swiftly mounts behind her.
“Because—” I can’t actually think of a good reason, and I can hardly explain that I’ve got a gut feeling. “It’ll be a good learning experience for Rin,” I add pathetically.
Keelo’s not buying a bar of it, whereas Eot’s clearly torn. Maybe he’s thinking he’s more likely to experience a repeat of our make-out session if he agrees with me. And he’s not wrong. But I can tell he knows my argument is weak.
I’m guessing he's also not keen to piss Keelo off even more.
“Do we have enough water to extend our journey by another half day? I promise we’ll only go exploring until nighttime, and tomorrow I’ll be the first one heading back to the ship.”
“I don’t know…” Eot watches Keelo nudge his bimor into a walk.
“Come on. How many chances is Rin going to get to see a proper desert?” The instant the words are out of my mouth, I know I’ve fucked up.
Keelo stiffens in the saddle, and Eot winces.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean—” I try apologizing, silently cursing myself for forgetting that their home planet, the one they’ve been exiled from, is a desert.
“You’re saying all this because you’re scared that when we get back to our ship we’ll leave you behind,” Keelo growls, over his shoulder. Looking at Eot, he says, “She’s trying to buy more time to convince you to keep her.”
“I’m—” I open my mouth to deny the accusation, but my voice sticks in my throat—partly because that’s actually not a terrible idea, and I would've tried that move had I thought of it myself. And partly because the excited look has returned to Eot’s face.
He’s pleased I’d go to such lengths to extend my stay with him, and I don’t want to accidentally make him think otherwise.
“Never mind. It was a silly idea. Of course, we’ve got better things to be doing than hunting for the source of the missing water.” I force myself to smile, close mouthed, as I grip the pommel of a saddle.
Eot lifts me, and I settle into my seat with a wince. Even after a day of walking instead of riding, my ass immediately starts aching now I’m back in the saddle. I’ve got a strong feeling the next two days are going to be miserably long.