Chapter 4 #2
She kicked out and landed a blow to the creature.
It didn’t seem phased. Instead, it scuttled closer, black eyes gleaming in what looked like triumph at the prospect of an easy meal.
There was nowhere to go. Its long, thick body uncoiled, making itself wide to block off any chance of escape.
Not that she could in this thick jungle.
Amelia watched it approach with dread. This was it—she was going to be eaten on some far-flung planet because she couldn’t make nice with the asshole ship operator who did save her life. With a sob, she wrapped her arms around her head, shut her eyes and waited for the worst to be over.
Instead, she heard crashing footfalls, some loud crashing around, followed by a grunt and a strangled hissing sound. She opened her eyes and peeked out to see…Taron.
But this was not the snide transport operator she thought she recognized.
This was an alien warrior, knife in hand, dispatching the creature with a swift stab through its head.
A chaotic look lit his eye. He yanked the knife—who knew where he got it—from the creature’s skull and stuck it in his belt.
In his large hands lay the dead, twitching body of the thing that had been about to eat her.
Purple blood had spattered on his chest and arms.
He scowled down at her, gaze raking up and down before settling on her eyes again. “Don’t wander off.”
She nodded, gurgled out some inarticulate sounds, then got some words out. Maybe not the right ones. “Where did you get that knife?”
“You think I would get in a crash pod without a weapon?”
“I didn’t see it.” Good God, she sounded ridiculous. Focusing on a dumb thing like his knife was silly, but it was settling her adrenaline. “You might have mentioned it.”
“I’m mentioning it now.” He picked up the creature and hefted it on his shoulder. Without another word, he carried the snakelike thing away like a sack of flour.
She blinked, staggered to her feet and followed him. “Taron…”
“What?” He didn’t look back.
“I—I should t-thank you.”
“Yes, you should.”
Asshole. “Fine. Okay. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” He paused, stopped, and turned around. One dark eyebrow raised and a crooked smirk curled his lips. “Next time, don’t take a pee break under a tree with a giant predator in it.”
“I had no idea that—”
“And you may want to close up your suit,” he added, turning back around and continuing on. “Not that I’m complaining about the view.”
Amelia looked down at her very visible and fully exposed upper half, and her brain went haywire. “Oh!” So not her intention. She stuck her arms through the sleeves, and her still-shaking fingers closed the fastenings.
Then, because she wasn’t letting him out of her sight, she followed him back through the underbrush to the wreckage of the capsule.
So, he saw her boobs. He’d seen lots of boobs, if his choices of screen entertainment were any sign. He wasn’t making a big deal about it. She hadn’t made a fuss about the giant erection that poked into her belly half the time they were in the pod, after all.
“What are you doing with that dead thing?” she asked.
He dropped the carcass next to a twisted sheet of charred metal that had come from his ship. “Eating it.”
“Oh.” She started to recoil, but no, it wasn’t like there was a supermarket around the corner. “Is it safe?”
“Safer than starving.”
“I mean, it could be toxic,” she said. “Eating it may kill us.”
He opened his mouth, paused, then shut it. She could almost see the sarcastic retort on his lips before he smoothed them out. “Still better than starving. You’re not obligated to partake.”
She sat down, suddenly tired and feeling profoundly defeated. “I’m hungry.”
“Well.” He surveyed the eight-foot-long creature. “There will be plenty of food.”
“Enough for twenty people.” A laugh gurgled out of her. “Twenty dead people, if it’s toxic.”
Her gaze met his. She knew her eyes were smiling, and it surprised her to see that his were, too.
It probably wasn’t a great thing that he had a streak of dark humor in him, just as she did.
The moment called for it, however, and Amelia was grateful for some levity in this awful, scary, impossible situation.
She wouldn’t ask him how they were going to get home. She knew the answer: no idea. Instead, she extended an olive branch to see if he’d accept, or throw it back in her face. “Can I help?”
He paused, then his gaze turned skeptical. “I don’t know. Can you stay out of mortal danger?”
“Depends on what you need me to do.”
A wicked glint sharpened his eyes. “Oh, the things I need you to do,” he murmured in a husky voice.
“Think carefully on your request.” Her eyes narrowed with warning.
He chuckled. “Gather some loose metal from the wreckage. There’s some lying around. It’s going to be night soon. We need to make some shelter.”
She nodded. “I can do that.”
“Don’t stray too far,” he said. “I can’t rescue you three times in one day. Two is my daily limit.”
Amelia opened her mouth to retort, then realized he was trying to make a joke. Trying being the operative word. She went the dry route and played along. “Good thing that resets in the morning. I don’t know how else I’ll survive.”
He flashed her a grin—a real one, not a smirk or a grimace—and her belly did a wild flutter.
Oh hell, his smile was pure gold. Dimples winked, and green eyes twinkled, and those white teeth flashed, and oh, her body responded in the most primal of ways.
Heat suffused her face and neck. She turned away, toward the jungle, to hide her reaction.
“And Amelia,” he called to her. “If you hear a disturbance, don’t forget to look up. I don’t know how you didn’t hear that thing. It was making a ruckus in that tree.”
She stopped and closed her eyes. She counted the beats of her heart and forced herself to slow the deep pulls of her breath.
It wasn’t shame she felt about her hearing impairment.
It had never held her back, but the times when it put her at a disadvantage frustrated her.
“I won’t go far,” she said, and stepped out into the forest.