12. Lorken
Lorken
Ipaused once inside my quarters. Dawz had told me he’d delivered Athena here, but there was no sign of her. There was nothing for her to hide behind in my room, and my sleeping area looked just as I’d left it earlier.
I bristled, on the verge of turning and storming out to mount a search or question my majak.
Possibly both. As I spun on my heel, a faint sound caught my attention.
It was something no one else would notice, but I’d memorized the ambient noises in my quarters.
I knew the vibration of the engines through the floors, I knew the hum of the environmental systems pumping cool air inside, and I knew the pounding of water into the bathing pool.
What I did not recognize as familiar was the soft sigh that danced beneath all those sounds.
My gaze swiveled to the archway as an almost imperceptible splash joined the sigh. I released my own sigh that I wouldn’t need to initiate a search or needlessly interrogate my majak.
I strode toward the bathing chamber, my fingers tingling. Was she bathing? Her reticence and defiance made me believe that she was not the type to shed her clothes and bathe so easily, but I had been mistaken about females before.
I didn’t bother to quiet my steps as I entered the chamber and rounded the wall. There was no way she would hear me over the waterfall. Still, I stopped once I spotted her.
She wasn’t bathing, so I’d been right in my first assessment, which did not please me as much as being correct should have. Her shoes had been left behind, and she stood a few steps in the water with her skirt held up so it wouldn’t get wet. Even so, spray from the water flow speckled her clothes.
When she moaned, the sound sent heat crawling up my spine and down my tail, which flicked behind me insistently.
I crossed my arms to keep me rooted to the spot, even though my instincts told me to wade in and join her, to pull her deeper into the seductively warm water and mingle her moans with my own.
But I didn’t do any of that. I stayed perfectly still—aside from my quivering tail—and announced my presence. “I see you found my bathing pool.”
Even though I kept my voice low and steady, she twirled around in surprise and stumbled back. The angle of the pool steepened quickly, which caught her off balance. She released her long skirt as her arms flailed, and she splashed into the pool backward.
I fully expected her to stand sputtering and spitting out water, but she only continued sinking to the bottom of the not-deep pool.
“Tvek!” I yanked off my boots, tore off my kilt, and strode into the water after her, cursing in my head the entire way.
She’d drifted to the deepest point in the pool directly under the impact of the waterfall, which was holding her under. I took a deep breath and went under myself, scooping my arms under her and pulling her up and out.
When we broke the surface, she gasped, coughing and spitting water.
I stood fully, the water only reaching my chest, and walked her out and laid her on the floor.
Her green dress had darkened in the water and clung to her like a second skin, the low neckline sagging even lower.
I averted my eyes so my cock would not thicken.
Athena rolled over and hunched her shoulders as she coughed. Then she shot a look over her shoulder. “You startled me!”
Was she blaming this on me? I opened my mouth the argue back that entering my own quarters and speaking calmly should not have startled her, but her wracking coughs stopped me. She’d clearly inhaled a good deal of water. More than was normal for a simple stumble into a bathing pool.
I crouched beside her and rested a hand on her back. “Are you unaccustomed to water?”
Another hacking cough that shuddered her body. “I’ve been in water before.” Her very tone was defensive. “It’s not like I don’t bathe, but that’s not a normal tub.”
“Do you know how to swim?”
She slicked a wet strand of hair from her eyes but didn’t look at me. “In case you didn’t notice, there’s not much water in Kashara. Swimming isn’t a necessary skill.”
I hadn’t given much thought to the lack of bodies of water on the planet, but it made sense.
What use was swimming in a place where there were no oceans or even ponds of any significance?
As Vandar raiders, we were taught to swim as part of our training.
It was unknown if we would be sent to liberate planets covered in water or if we would be required to navigate an alien sea.
I’d always found the water to be a place of sanctuary, which was why I’d replicated my favorite natural spring in my quarters, but Athena was right. It was no normal bathing tub.
“Are you unhurt?” I asked, guilt gnawing at me that she’d almost drowned in the place I considered a refuge.
“I’m fine,” she snapped. Then she let out a breath, and her voice softened. “Thanks for coming in and saving me.”
“You do not have to thank me for that.”
She twitched one shoulder. “Thanks anyway. Your clothes are probably as soaked as mine. . .” Her words died on her lips as she slid her gaze to me and registered that I no longer wore any clothes. Her pupils flared as she stared at me, her jaw falling open when her gaze drifted between my legs.
Since I was squatting beside her, there was no hiding the cock hanging between my legs or the fact that it almost brushed the floor. I stood and walked to where I’d shed my battle kilt. “They are not.”
I didn’t watch her reaction as I scooped my kilt from the floor and hooked it around my waist, but when I turned back to her, she’d lowered her eyes.
“As you said, your clothes are very wet.” I crossed to the wall and snagged a length of dark gray linen that was hanging on a peg. “You should remove them and cover with this.”
Her jaw dropped again. “A towel? You want me to wear a towel?”
I eyed the fabric that was large enough to cover her entire body. “I could get you a battle kilt, if you prefer.”
She flicked her gaze to my kilt and my bare chest. “No thanks. I’ll take the towel.”
I nodded and replaced it on the peg. “I apologize that I don’t have suitable clothes to provide you, but I will have the ship’s tailor work on something for you.”
“Because you don’t have women on your ship, right?”
I grunted at this. “Correct. The only females typically allowed on Vandar warbirds are Raisas. The mates of the Raas.”
She stood, and her sopping wet clothes sagged heavy as water pooled at her feet. “Until now.”
I was so distracted by the way her wet clothes clung to her curves that I almost didn’t hear her.
“Until now,” she repeated, her voice rising over the sound of the waterfall. “Because I’m not a mate of the Raas and neither are my friends.”
I pulled my gaze from her and gave a single, sharp nod. “Until now.”
She returned my nod but didn’t make a move to disrobe. Finally, she cleared her throat. “Whatever you might have heard about actresses, isn’t true about me. You might like to walk around naked in front of strangers, but I don’t.”
I had heard nothing about actresses, but the edge in her voice told me not to ask. I did know that humans were not as comfortable with their bodies as Vandar were, which was probably why she made no move to take off her soaking clothes.
“I will wait for you at the table. Our dinner should be arriving soon,” I said as I turned to leave. Then I paused. “But you should not think of me as a stranger, Athena. Not when you agreed to share my furs.”
I walked out of the room without glancing back, but I didn’t need to look back to imagine that her mouth had fallen open again.