It was maddening.At first, she’d been taken aback, stiffening with every graze of his palm or when he’d wiped dirt from her cheeks in a gentle way.
But eventually, she’d grown used to it and she didn’t know when that had happened.After taking her hand to wade through an area deepened with black mud, Taylor began to suspect that she mightlikehis attentions, his touch.
It had been a long time since she’d had a boyfriend.And even then, her longest relationship had only lasted five months.It was a bad habit she had, of breaking up with men before things gottooserious, just another layer of protection she knowingly wrapped around herself.
It was something she’d been trying to change.The night she’d been captured by the first group of aliens—the ones that had kept the women caged, in the dark—she’d just gotten home from a great date with a wonderful man.
His name had been Karl.He’d been blonde, with kind brown eyes, and he’d worked for a local non-profit organization.He’d been safe, yes, but he’d been the perfect gentleman, kind, open, and he’d made his interest in her clear.
Taylor had been excited for a second date with him.Now, she realized he must’ve thought she’d ghosted him…when in fact, she’d been captured by aliens and taken against her will.
Taylor sighed.Most of her adult life, she’d purposefully chosen men that she knew she wouldn’t have a future with, because it was so much easier to let them go when she got too invested.It was an awful cycle.
Karl had been her attempt to end that cycle because as she ventured deeper and deeper into her late-twenties, she’d begun to realize that she wanted more from her life.She’d built up her own little boutique shop.It wasn’t much, but it let her lead a comfortable life, and she’d worked damn hard to make it a success.She had her group of girlfriends and a fulfilling social life.And yet, she realized that she wanted a family one day, she wanted children she could love and dote on and spoil.
From the outside, Karl had been just the kind of person she could envision a future with: dependable, loyal, kind, safe.Sure, maybe their chemistry wasn’t off the charts, but Taylor knew she wasn’t looking for that.Not anymore.
As she glanced at Vikan out of the corner of her eye, she realized he was all wrong for her.For one, she couldn’t look into his gray areas without remembering her erotic dreams about him.Already, that was dangerous territory.Secondly, he was about as unsafe as they came.Perhaps a few years ago, Taylor would’ve been okay with that.
Now?She was looking towards her future.
A future which might include him, that little voice in her head whispered.She couldn’t deny that her dreams were strange.She couldn’t deny that she knew things she couldn’t possibly know, like his ex-mate’s name or the color and feel of the furs on his bed, something she had a terrifying feeling she’d come to know quite well.And quite soon.
When the twin suns were high over their heads and sweat had begun to bead down her back, they’d just threaded their way through more sandpaper grass when, through the clearing, she could see a shimmer.
“Is that a lake?” she asked, incredulous.Yet, excitement rose in her breast.What she wouldn’t give for crisp, fresh, cold water to float in right about then.
“An inlet,” he corrected.“The shore is not far.”
As they cleared the heavy forest of the sandpaper grass, the inlet came into view more clearly.The water lookedsilver, gleaming underneath the sun.It rippled with the slight breeze, but was otherwise calm.
“Is it safe to go in?” she asked, hoping that he would say yes.
Vikan looked at her, close enough that she could feel his arm pressed against hers.
“Tev,” he murmured.“You wish to?”
Taylor nodded eagerly, already walking towards it.The inlet was narrow but bulged slightly at the very end, where a small beach with sand lay.Like a mini-ocean, she thought.
One thing she certainly hadn’t thought to have on this planet was a beach day.
Then she realized she’d either have to swim in her shirt…or she’d have to go in naked.Neither option appealed to her, considering she didn’t want to travel the rest of the day in wet clothes, nor did she want to undress in front of Vikan.
And, eyeing the bag he carried around his shoulders, she knew he used his spare shirt so she could wash herself the previous night, considering he was still distractingly bare chested.
Nibbling on her lip, she weighed her options, peering into the water.She would be cooling off in there one way or another.
She heard Vikan’s bag drop to the ground and when she turned to look at him, he was unlacing his pants.
Taylor jolted, her lips parting.“W-what are you doing?”
He quirked a brow in a very human expression.“Taking off my leg coverings.”
And then he did, bending over to peel them off his legs until they lay in a heap next to his bag.
When he straighten, Taylor’s mouth went dry, her heart throbbing in her throat.
Vikan stood in front of her, completely naked, save for the strap of sheathed blades across his chest, which he quickly unfastened and dropped too.
