Mate Abduction (Alien Abduction #9) - Eve Langlais Page 0,30
his legs shadowy in the deepness.
“Does anything live in there?” she asked. There was nothing floating atop or projecting through the surface. Not a single weed. It should have been reassuring.
“Nothing that will come near us. It’s safe.”
She highly doubted that. Being near him was anything but.
Sitting first on her ass, she dipped her toes into the water, submerging both feet, not realizing she held her breath until her lungs strained. She heaved in some air and tried to relax as she focused her feet in the water. Nothing else.
“You planning on coming in today? I’d prefer setting up camp while there is daylight,” he teased, but not in a mean fashion.
“I’m coming.” Not yet. But possibly soon. He was attractive. She gripped his hand as she slipped into the water, the chill making her gasp. “It’s cold.” The water dropped in temperature as it got deeper.
“Only cold until you start moving. Make your body work a little, and it will feel fine.”
“Work my body how?” She clung to the lip of the rocky ledge. If she let go, she knew she wouldn’t immediately sink. Or was she assuming too much? Alien planet, it might have different laws of physics.
She dropped her chin to stare at the water and could see her toes resting on the rock below the surface. Just her feet, then his were beside hers. A good bit bigger than hers. Darker, too. She liked knowing he was near.
“Push your lower body away from the rock and extend your legs.”
She knew what he meant. “You want me to flutter kick.”
Ryan had been on the swim team, and she’d watched him quite a bit for the cheap thrills and the making out in his car after.
“Not yet, just hold yourself in that position until you feel the buoyancy of the water.”
“You can’t feel buoyancy.”
“Yes, you can but only once you lighten your body by getting in tune with the water,” he insisted.
“Floating is not some magical trick. Either you’re heavy enough to sink or you’ve got some fat or fluffy spots that help you stay on top.”
“I see why you don’t know how to swim,” was his grumbled reply.
“Are you calling me difficult?” she sputtered.
“I think you are arguing so that you can avoid trying. Probably too scared.”
Maybe she was a little. This was water. She’d had nightmares about it for a long time.
“You are scared. Why?”
Despite having kept it a secret for a long time, she found herself telling him. “My dad drowned when I was little. A fishing accident. Water freaks me out. Took me years before I could get in a bath. I know it was a fluke. People swim all the time, it’s just…” She glanced down at the water and trembled.
Suddenly, he wasn’t just beside her. Touching and yet not, he formed a cage around her body, his legs bracketing hers, his hands gripping the rocky lip beside her own. “I’m not going to let you drown.”
She believed him. She couldn’t have said why. But she let out a shuddering breath. “You’d better not.”
He dipped his head, and his breath tickled the lobe of her ear. “You’re my sykyrah. I will never let you down.”
Probably the hottest thing anyone had ever said to her. She let go of the rock wall and turned, placing her fingers on his shoulders before she could sink like the heaviest rock to the bottom.
He met her gaze instantly. Glowing, his expression intent.
“You shouldn’t say that.” Just like she shouldn’t be touching him. Touching that bronzed skin proved it soft and warm. Hairless, too, his chest smooth, and not because he shaved. Her lower body dangled in the water parallel to his. They even brushed a little bit. He could have easily pinned her to the rock if he’d wanted.
She eyed his mouth, waiting—hoping—for a kiss.
“I will say what I feel for you because it’s true.”
There was something highly arousing about having a male, a man of this much virility, declaring himself. Finding her attractive.
Wait. Did he find her attractive? He certainly appeared to flirt and tease but never actually touched her. Was that because he kept true to his word? Or was he not all that interested?
Why was the answer suddenly important?
“Do you think I’m pretty?”
“Pretty seems too mundane a term. Exotic, perhaps.”
“Hardly exotic with my red hair,” she said, scrunching her nose.
“I like the color of it and the spots on your skin.” He brushed a thumb over her cheek, and her breath caught.
“You said I