Page 7 of The Naga Scavenger’s Precious Mate

This time he propped his trident next to the door, then circled around the fire and ducked low so he was at face height with me. He held out one huge, clawed fist and slowly opened it to show me what was inside. I gasped at the shimmer of lavender pearls set at intervals along artfully twisted copper wire. A bracelet, one of his prettiest trinkets yet.

Blushing, because that’s always what happened when he gave me pretty things, I accepted the bracelet and slid it onto my wrist. I was still bony and thin after all this time being sick, and I was only too happy to focus on the shimmering jewelry that adorned me, rather than my physical issues.

“Thank you,” I said to him. And not for the first time, I made an attempt at making conversation. “Farah,” I said, and tapped my chest. Today I got a bit more daring, thanks to feeling clean and sort of myself again for the first time. Not quite so weak and exhausted that sitting upright was too much. I reached out and tapped the center of his impressive pectorals in turn and gave him my best inquisitive look. “What’s your name?”

His body flashed with a shimmer of emerald, slashes and swirls along his upper body all the way down the front of his tail. They appeared and then faded as quickly as they’d come, but the effect was startling. My sexy caretaker had frozen in place, his green eyes huge in his face, the yellow along his cheeks brighter, shimmering golden. I was pretty sure that was his equivalent of a blush. Now that was interesting.

“Come on, tell me your name. You must have one.” I tapped my chest again, “Farah. I am Farah.” I insisted several times, but each time I’d start to reach for his chest, he moved just out of range. Okay, no touching him. “Well, I can’t keep calling you ‘caretaker’ or ‘sexy alien’. That’s just weird, and not all that original either, if I say so myself. How about Poseidon? You look like a water god.”

He rose high on his tail so suddenly that it caught me by surprise. I tumbled back into the pile of furs I’d practically lived in all week. His eyes were huge in his face, his mouth open in what had to be shock, displaying a set of upper and lower fangs as sharp and scary-looking as those of a real snake.

“What? What’s wrong?” I asked. Looking around his huge form, raised high on his thick, muscular tail, I searched for any sign that that presence had returned. None of the animals seemed disturbed this time, the stag still grazing, the little ones like Srazz still snoring in their nest. Buzz was disgruntled, but that was just because I’d dislodged him when I tumbled backward. He was already shaking out his tail and crawling back on top of me to continue his nap.

My caretaker hissed something at me, then again. Slowly, he settled back on his tail, still much taller than I was, but more manageable. It took me a moment to realize that he was hissing the last part of that silly name I was trying to give him back at me. “Sssseidon.” Then he tapped his chest with his entire fist, hard enough to make a slapping sound echo through the chamber. The stag snorted loudly as if that offended him.

“Zeidon?” I asked, “Poseidon?” He shook his head, one of the few things communication-wise that we did have in common. “No, just Zeidon? Zeidon?” He nodded wildly, his hair flying around his shoulders in dark blue streaks, the biggest, toothiest smile breaking out across his face. My whole body lit on fire at the sight of that smile, I hadn’t realized he could even make such an expression. It was pretty and a little scary looking, like I was staring into the maw of a very dangerous predator.

“Alrighty then, you’re Zeidon, I’m Farah. Glad we got that sorted at least,” I said breathily. I meant it, I was really glad that we got past the name thing. Even if I wasn’t quite sure yet if he knew mine. We were starting to build something here, something other than him just handing me food, water, or shiny trinkets whenever he thought I needed them—which was very often.

I sighed and settled more comfortably against the furs, no longer feeling strong enough to get up and explore. The thought of something lurking in the shadows at the back of the room had also dampened my spirits a little, I really hoped that Zeidon wasn’t going to leave me alone in here again. I had no desire to find out whatever skulked around back there. None at all.

“Farah,” Zeidon said. I jerked open my eyes and stared. So he did know my name! He even said it right, the R rolling from his tongue in a far too sensual manner to be considered polite. He was holding out a waterskin to me and I sighed and took it to obediently drink a little. I had learned by now that he wouldn’t go away until I’d done so, insisting I drink enough until he was satisfied.

The flavors that exploded on my tongue took me completely by surprise. Tart, fresh, and cool. This wasn’t water but some kind of juice, maybe made from the purple berries I regularly saw him feed his tiniest of wards. Eyes wide, I snatched the waterskin from his hand and drank deeply with a moan. That was so good!

The rumble that filled the air around me made my skin break out in goosebumps, a different kind from last time. My nipples perked at that sound and heat washed through me, warming my core, my limbs, it turned everything languid and soft. Zeidon laughed loudly, a masculine, amused sound that was sexy as sin.

I lifted my eyes from the waterskin to his face and that heat bloomed into full arousal. His emerald eyes were dark like a forest, sparkling with laughter and warmth. Then his tongue flicked out and tasted the air, forked, because why the heck not? The amusement was gone in a flash, what filled his eyes next couldn’t be mistaken for anything but desire. Oh, darn. Did he know how much that laugh turned me on? Or was it the moaning noise I’d made?

Embarrassment filled me. What was I even doing right now? I had no clue where I was, or how primitive or not primitive Zeidon was. I didn’t know how I’d gotten here either, or why I was so sick and weak. No, I did have an idea about that: stasis sickness; that had to be the answer.

I had huge problems, so flirting with my one ally was a really bad idea. But that thought was immediately followed with, was it? Why? Why couldn’t I flirt with sexy, but oh-so-alien Zeidon? Nobody was here to judge me, nobody but me.

Then Zeidon had to turn my whole world upside down again when he slithered closer, almost perching on the edge of the pile of furs. He gently took the waterskin filled with delicious juice from my limp fingers and put it aside. He raised the tip of his tail in the air, bringing it closer and closer to my face. So close that he could nudge an escaped curl behind my ear.

The touch of his scales against my temple was soft, warm, and dry. The scales at the tip were fine and small enough to almost feel like a mildly textured bit of skin. It didn’t remind me of snakes or other creepy crawlies, it just felt like the brush of a hand, maybe a bit rougher; calloused. The touch sent light racing up his body, a bio-luminescent glow that slashed and swirled savagely across his front.

“Can you understand me, Precious?” a male voice drawled in a husky, sensual voice. I jerked against the furs, eyes wide as they shot to Zeidon. Was that him? The tip of his tail gently pressed against the side of my face, maintaining that bit of contact. It had slid from my temple to the curve of my cheek though, and it was still dipping lower, along my jaw toward my throat.

“Yes?” I said uncertainly. Why was this happening now? Had he always been able to talk to me in what sounded like perfect English to my ears? That could have been useful days ago when I wanted more to drink, and he couldn’t explain to me why he wouldn’t let me. Had he been holding out on me all this time? If he’d been waiting until I was stronger, I did not appreciate that kind of coddling. Granted, I had been pretty out of it even yesterday. This was the longest I’d been awake in a row since I got here, and truthfully, I was flagging. It sucked so bad.

“Good,” he said, nodding at me. When I demanded to know how this was possible he slipped his tail away from my throat, raising it in the air between us. The light show on his body died down in a heartbeat and when he opened his mouth and spoke, all I heard was the hissing and growling from before.

He lowered the tip of his tail and pressed it against my collarbone. The lights returned instantly, flaring between us with a green glow. I imagined that it wouldn’t be entirely enough for me to see by in the dark, but it drew the eye like a beacon. “And now you can understand me,” he said smugly, his eyes glinting with amusement, with a hint of satisfaction.

“Oh!” I exclaimed, my hand shooting out to grab the tip of his tail and clutch it to my chest. I was not letting him take that away when I could finally ask him all the questions that had been bothering me. “It takes touch? You need to touch me so we can understand each other? That is utterly bizarre!”

The laugh that rumbled from him was just as sexy as that first one, I hoped his tail wasn’t sensitive enough to feel my nipples perk against it. “Yes, this is true,” he agreed, nodding. His eyes slipped from my face down my chin, stroking my throat, then lingered on my chest. Oh, he definitely felt it. Dang it.

“Then why didn’t you do this before?” I asked him, my tone sounded much sharper than I meant it to be. He smirked as if that amused him, maybe he was even a little entertained by the waspish tone. His left eyebrow went up a little higher than the right one. The ridge of spikes and nubs was not as flexible as my own eyebrows were, but he was managing just fine.

“I had not courted you yet, I did not have permission,” he said as if this was the most obvious thing. Was that what he’d been doing with the gifts? My eyes instantly shot to the three bracelets that circled my arm, including the pearl-studded one he’d brought me today. There had also been a pouch of fresh-smelling herbs, a swatch of silky orange fabric, and an endless supply of food.

“Today,” he started, his eyes finally taking on a hint of uncertainty. It smoothed away a moment later, so quickly I thought I might have imagined it. “Today you signaled to me that my courtship was welcome.” And that’s why he’d taken this step, touched me so we could finally speak. It was a strange custom I didn’t understand, but I supposed that when on an alien planet I had to adapt.

I wondered if it was that thing about finally getting our names across that had signaled him, or if it was something else. I was a bit afraid to ask him what he meant if I were honest, it might be the strangest thing that told him I was into him. Those words instantly sent my brain into a tailspin, into him? Hadn’t I been thinking how sexy he was, and that starting something with him might be totally fine? I wasn’t ready to be confronted with the fact that he was courting me. I had never been desired before by a man as sexy or dangerous as him, and it was a really strange feeling.

My mind filled with comments my colleagues might make, things my boss might say if they discovered I was seeing a guy that wasn’t human. On Earth, the sight of an alien wasn’t all that out of the ordinary. The United Alliance of Races ruled most of our quadrant of space, which included Humans, Dragnell, and Praxidar. The Dragnell were not an uncommon sight, many lived and worked on Earth but intermingle? Cohabit with a human? I had never heard of that.