Chapter Three
Annika’s heart leapt in the split second it took for her brain to digest the fact that he hadn’t spoken in response to what she’d said—not directly—because he hadn’t understood awordof it.
Clearly, though, he was not only capable of speech, he had a language!
And some of the words-sounds actually seemed a little familiar.
Which didn’t necessarily mean they were, or that they meant the same thing or even something similar to the language it reminded her of.
But it did mean he was a higher animal—which might not actually be a good thing for her, now that she thought on it.
She still felt hopeful. If he was intelligent there was at least a chance that she could negotiate her release.
If she could figure out how to communicate with him.
She’d studied language analytics and xeno-cryptography, had mastered both, mostly because it wasrequiredof anyone in her field. She wascertainshe could figure out how to communicate with him. It might take a little trial and error to communicate, but there were certain things that one could be fairly sure of even with extra-terrestrial beings. They were motivated by the same basic needs as humans, or indeed, any animal—survival and reproduction. Everything else was an extension of the basics. Which meant there could be some fairly wild variations, but it was unheard of as far she knew to find a humanoid species that didn’t have alotin common with humans.
So she thought she could figure it was a given that he’d either taken her for breeding purposes—assuming he recognized her as a female and he was the male he appeared to be … or he’d captured her for food.
She wasn’t certain which possibility was more terrifying, but she couldn’t afford to dwell on any of the scenarios playing in her head. That would just turn her into a mindless vegetable and she needed her wits.
And she damned well couldn’t allow herself to believe he’d simply rescued her to be helpful—because he wasn’t human and she couldn’t afford to give him human-like qualities, no matter how determined she was to cling to similarities between humanoid species.
Even though she knew that there were actually species that had been discovered that weremorehuman than humans—meaning they had the qualities humans had aspired to but never actually achieved—not as a whole, at any rate.
Before she could formulate any kind of plan to attempt communications, however, he approached her and scooped her into his arms. Taken off guard, she grabbed for him instinctively to keep from falling, but, with her hands still bound, she could do nothing but grip one brawny shoulder.
He carried her through a short corridor and into another cavern ‘room’. There, he settled her on a crude, makeshift bed that was surprisingly comfortable—particularly in comparison to the freezing cold stone floor he’d lain her on before. She didn’t get the opportunity to figure out how that had been achieved when her impression was that it was a completely primitive invention. As soon as he had settled her, he began to run his hands lightly along her arms.
Shocked and unnerved at the intimate touch, Annika struggled—briefly.
He grasped her arms, lifted them above her head and pinned them to the bed with one hand. At the same time, he moved over her, straddling her waist and pinning her down with his weight.
Stunned, Annika gaped up at him as he continued his examination.
He’d skimmed his hands over every part of her from her bound wrists downward before it dawned on her that he was either examining her to see if she had enough meat on her bones to be worth eating, or he was checking for broken or cracked bones. There was nothing the least bit sexual about his touch or the expression on his face, which seemed completely impersonal.
The artificial light and his closeness gave her the opportunity to examine him now that some of the shock had worn off and she was actually able to focus.
She was surprised he looked so human-like when he was clearly not human at all—not with the wings, because they were appendages, not some artifice for gliding on the air currents. She recalled that she’d felt the bunching and flexing of his muscles in flight, although at the time she’d been far too terrified of him and her situation, and still shaken from the crash, to realize she was taking mental notes.
Physically, though, beyond the wings—which were very much like bird wings in appearance at least—he could have passed for human even though there was enough exotic, alien variation to his facial features that he certainly wouldn’t have passed unnoticed. The difference wasn’t unappealing. In fact there was a stark, hawk-like look to his face that she might have found very appealing under other circumstances.
He was muscular in the way of men who spent a great deal of time and effort on building bulging, well defined muscles, but she thought she could safely discard that as a possible explanation for his cut physique. Flying couldn’t be effortless even without a burden, even though he’d made it seem that it was.
No doubt they used the air currents and dynamics of their bodies to conserve as much energy as possible, but it would still require a lot of muscle power and that most likely explained what she could only think was a stunning beautiful build—from what she could see of it, which was most of it.
He was wearing something sort of vest-like that exposed almost as much chest and back as it covered, and a loin cloth, leggings, something similar to moccasins—all of which seemed to be made from some sort of leather and tied to together to keep them in place.
The fingers on the hands that slid over her were long and graceful, his palms narrow.
Butterflies fluttered in her belly as she examined them coasting over her ribs.
Or maybe it was only that he found every sensitive patch of skin with the same apparent effortlessness that he’d captured her mid-air and flown away with her?
“What? What are you doing?” she asked in a strangled voice, more to distract herself than because she expected an answer.
In response—almost as if he completely understood her, he used a thumb and forefinger to trace one of her ribs.
