Chapter 26
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
NORA
Still by the pool, Nora finished wrapping her ankle in one of the alien cooling bandages.
Airik emerged from the forest with a vine of blue carrots dangling from one shoulder and a pair of wet pants from the other. His hair was soaked, but he wore another pair of dry pants, the exact same black military-style as the other. He must’ve bathed alone in the nearby river—far from her.
As soon as he saw her sitting on the pool’s ledge, his jaw hardened, its flex as clear as the death grip he had on the vines. His gaze traveled from the top of her head down her body to where the hem of his shirt hit her just above the knee.
Nora’s face flamed, but as much as she wanted him to look, she pulled down the shirt, covering her thighs.
He cleared his throat. “Zarro,” he said, gesturing to the strange carrots. “Not good, but it will be enough. Hot water needs to soften it.”
She quickly rinsed the bucket with soap, filled it with clean water from the fountain feeding the pool, then went to where he’d started unloading, near the firepit in the hut. Airik stopped, scowling as she approached him.
“I can boil the water,” she said and turned to head to the fire.
He grabbed the bucket, stopping her. “I will do everything. Go far from me.”
The need to help was critical—Nora didn’t let go. “Please, let me do this—”
“I said no. I know that is the right word.”
She withered but held fast. “Just let me fucking help—”
“Your ears do not reach your brain.” He spoke with such scathing confidence that Nora would’ve understood his insult in any language.
Tearing the bucket from her, he continued, “You are not careful—scared and dangerous. I do not want you close—to me or the fire. Sit down next to our bags.” The tips of his fangs glinted in the moonlight. “Do you need help?”
When she didn’t move, he caught the hem of her sleeve and pulled her to where he’d spread a bedroll, a sensible distance from the firepit inside the shed. “Sit.” He looked to Lucky. “Sit,” he said again.
Lucky happily flopped onto his side on the bedroll, then gave Nora an expectant look.
She glared at him as she sat down, trying hard not to cry out as her ankle bent too much. “You didn’t have to say it twice—one command for both your pets.”
Airik might’ve been a “breaker of planets,” but he looked quite young—in his mid-twenties, maybe a little older.
For some reason, it stung even more that she was being treated like a helpless child by someone who might be younger than she was.
Yes, she’d done wrong the day before, but he didn’t have to keep punishing her for it.
It had been his choice to come back and save her.
If she didn’t manage him now and make it clear he’d have to do much worse to hurt her, he might keep testing the boundary. “Where’s my treat for being a good girl?” she asked, staring straight up at him as he towered over her.
Airik narrowed his eyes, glowing brighter than she remembered. “Good girl.” He paused, then returned to where he’d been sitting on the other side of the fire, a whole three strides for his long legs. “Is that what you are? A good girl?”
Nora’s thighs clamped together, her belly swooping low as he said the words with a tantalizing lilt. Her attempt to push back had backfired completely, arming him with a new phrase to undo her.
She frantically began finger-combing through Lucky’s thick rainbow fur so he wouldn’t see her blush. “Thank you for saving me—I know I fucked up yesterday. But…I hope you didn’t save me just so you could be an asshole about it.”
Airik flicked her an indecipherable look, then returned to laying out the carrots on the ground. “Ass…hole… That does not sound like a good word that a good girl would say.”
She blinked, annoyed and aroused at once. “It’s a great fucking word for a good girl to say when someone’s being an asshole!” She turned back to Lucky, who had wiggled his front arms into her lap. He looked at her with wide green eyes, his tongue lolling adorably from his mouth.
Still acutely aware of his actions, Airik placed the bucket directly over the fire, then wiped the blue carrots with a damp cloth. Once the water boiled, he dumped the carrots into the bucket.
You are not careful… I do not want you close to me…
She brushed through Lucky’s fur harder. His eyes shut and purred, clearly in ooshi heaven.
Hoping he wouldn’t notice, she stole another glance at Airik. He was tilting his head toward the fire at the most alluring angle, his hair falling over his eyes. In the firelight, his cool-toned skin took on the colors of the flames.
Fuck, even his scars are beautiful.
Needing a shift in focus, Nora asked, “Will they let me have Lucky when you turn me into the zoo you’re keeping me in ‘one piece’ for?”
Airik didn’t bother to look up. “You go to the Veynari. Not a zoo.”
She frowned, assuming the answer was no but that he didn’t want to admit it. “Will I stay on your planet…Vorakon?”
He turned to her, quirking a brow.
“Did I say your home’s name wrong?”
“Not my home. Not…anymore.” She thought she saw another smile, or maybe it was just the shadows. “You said it well,” he finally said.
An unfortunate, hopeful heat spread through her chest. Had she just caught a glimpse of who he really was beneath the Major Asshole facade?
Her finger brushed the shoes he’d sewn for her, urging her to speak.
“You’ll visit me? When this is all over, you’ll come see me again?
Maybe bring Lucky if they don’t let me keep him? ”
Airik hastily grabbed a bottle of water, tilting his head back to drink deep, long gulps.
A great impulse struck Nora—to crawl over to him and tousle his white hair that had fallen in his eyes. Brush it back and look him straight in the eyes. To see the universe reflected in them, knowing he’d seen so much more than she ever would.
What have you seen? What makes you so angry?
“No.” His abrupt words startled her. He set the bottle down, staring into the fire, and didn’t utter another word.
Any desire to coax out the kindness she’d thought she’d seen in him moments earlier vanished. Not wanting to face him, she turned away. Her ankle twinged, throbbing with pain.
Why couldn’t anything be easy?
Needing to readjust the bandage, Nora gently pushed Lucky aside, then pulled off her socks again because both feet hurt. She unwrapped the bandage, then paused. The black-and-blue splotches across her ankle looked worse in the firelight.
She heard a splash from Airik’s direction, and then in the next instant, he towered above her again. Her head spun, blinking up at him. “Did you just…pounce—”
“Blue,” he said, voice hard. He crouched, reaching for her. But just before touching the swollen skin of her ankle, he froze. “This color is wrong.” His accusing gaze flitted to hers. “Your lips were blue when I found you—close to death.”
“This isn’t like that at all. I’m okay—”
“Not okay. I hate that word!” His hand fisted over her leg. “Is there pain?”
Nora opened her mouth, but before she could get a word out, he said: “Do not lie to me.”
“It fucking hurts,” she blurted out.
Airik slammed his eyes shut, then opened them again, glowing with breathtaking intensity. “Why did you not tell me? You talked about everything else. You only want to talk to Lucky. How many times did I stop and ask: Your leg, Nora? You say okay. Now it is worse.”
“Bruises get worse before they get better. Does your species not bruise?”
He narrowed his eyes, a panther’s glare in the darkness. “No.”
A furious whoosh of air blew past her cheek as he pushed away. “I cannot fix this. You will suffer. And you make me watch.” His large boots crunched small twigs as he paced. “And slow! Even more slow!”
“Well, you can always leave me—”
“I will not leave you.” Making an inhuman growl of frustration, he grabbed a cloth and a clear sheet of jelly from his bag. He sat before her on the ground, cross-legged, and laid the cloth in his lap. “Put this on your foot.” He put the jelly sheet in front of her.
She stared down at it.
“To help it,” he growled.
Hesitantly, Nora grabbed the jelly. It was cool to the touch and held its shape. But as soon as she laid it on her ankle, it melted into a gooey substance, tingling as it absorbed.
Lucky looked at Nora’s ankle, making a sad little whimper. Then he slunk back, clearing the space between Airik and her.
“Give me your foot,” Airik said.
Nora tucked her legs beneath her. “W-What?”
He huffed, then reached out for her injured ankle. His long fingers closed around her, using the cloth as a barrier between his hands and her feet. With no will to resist him, Nora allowed him to unfold her left leg, tugging it into his lap.
Resting her heel against his inner thigh, he rolled his thumbs in small circles along the arch of her foot, careful to keep the cloth between them as he worked the gel into her foot. But even with the thick cloth between them, his touch was searing.
What in the world is happening?
“You really can’t touch me?” Nora asked, trying to keep still.
“No.”
“But you’ve been touching me all day. You carried me—you touched my hair. Is it just my skin?”
“It is everything about you I cannot touch. Before, I had no choice. And this is also not a choice. I want your foot better. So we can move faster.”
“What happens if you touch me? It’s not like I can kill you.”
“You might,” Airik whispered harshly. “You are dangerous.”
Nora let out a short laugh. Of all the terrible things she’d been called, dangerous was new.
Ignoring her, Airik moved the cloth so he could work the muscles of her lower calf. His graceful fingers wrapped around her leg, kneading with surprising care. She flinched as he rolled her ankle in just a few degrees. Instantly, he softened his touch.
After a moment of gentle motion, he spoke. “I make a promise to the Veynari. Not to touch. Not to lose. Not to do anything that can make me weak. All I am to think of is how to…help fix things in new worlds.”