He had a runner’s body, I decided, slim and toned. There was no hair anywhere except his head. His cock, which was coming to full attention, was in proportion to his size. He was breathtaking.
Suddenly, body image issues I hadn’t known I had raised their hoary little heads. I was pretty enough, and I’d never been short of boyfriends at school or college. I hadn’t even taken my so-called fiancé’s infidelity as a reflection on my looks, as many girls might have done. I had a nice enough figure, a pretty enough face, and great hair that was naturally highlighted with golden streaks in summer. My eyes were pretty too. Or so I’d been told more than once.
But pretty enough wasn’t in the same league as this beautiful being in front of me. And suddenly I was only too aware how foolish it was to take a kid’s word that I was his podmate. I was just a crush. Okay, he might be an adult in his own species, but he had only seven years of life experience.
Rian dived into the water like an otter and came up laughing, his handsome, pointed face alive with delight. He seemed to be standing on the bottom, the water coming to his chin. Therefore it was over my head, just as I expected from the tentative efforts I’d made to reach the bottom with my extended toes.
“This is better than I expected!” he exclaimed, letting out a loud whoop of pleasure.
He swam lazily across the short distance to the other side and then back to me. Somewhere along the way he’d lost his nervous insecurities over skinny-dipping with a woman. Now he was just having fun.
I could have fun. It seemed like forever since I swam in a river and forgot my problems.
Diving down under the water, I grabbed at the pale legs I found there. It required a lot of effort to ignore what sat above those legs, enticing me, but I did. Putting my weight behind it, I tried to knock Rian’s legs out from under him. But he was wise to my tricks, I guess because he had three brothers, and simply reached down to grab me.
For a few playful minutes we wrestled. How I found the energy, I have no idea. Maybe the water, maybe the release of tension after everything we’d been through. Whatever the reason, we did play, and it was perfect. But it didn’t last long, my muscles turning to limp noodles part way through our game.
Feeling the energy draining out of my body, Rian’s hold on me relaxed. I could have rested there in his warm arms, but that seemed way too dangerous. Memories of how close I’d come to making love to a child in an adult’s body was too fresh.
Instead, I used his weakening grip to slip away from him. With the last of my strength, I swam the short distance to the bank to rest. Drawing in several deep breaths, I gloried in my surroundings. Not long ago I was sure I was going to die; now I was swimming in a warm river, on a glorious, oddly colored planet with the beautiful alien male who’d saved me. No, I was swimming with two alien males, both sharing the same body. How cracked was that?
Throwing myself back from the edge, I let my body float on the surface of the water. It held me up well. I could be on the Dead Sea or whatever that place was where you could float because of all the salt in the water. Yet when I got a mouthful of this river water it didn’t taste salty. What kept me afloat? My tired brain couldn’t dredge up a reason. All I could do was float and enjoy the utter tranquility of the situation.
In another moment, Rian was floating beside me, perfectly content to just laze away the time. We didn’t touch, but his closeness was reassuring. Yes, the situation was beautiful and tranquil. But there were dangerous predators here, just as there were in space.
“What if they followed us?” I asked softly, my eyes on the yellow sky above.
“They didn’t,” his lazy voice assured me. “And if they try to find us after they pick up the Zuaire, they won’t succeed. Our ion-trail will have dissipated and I’ve cloaked our ship. They can’t find us.”
“Good. That’s good.”
After about ten minutes of floating, I grew bored and swam to the bank again. I tried to lift