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“There’s light shining through the vines.” JayJay’s rumbling voice synced with the vibrations of his purr.
I guessed that meant he was happy? This place seemed to totally revive him.
JayJay jumped into the raised opening, bent over and grasped me under the arms. Before I could stop him, my legs dangled from the ledge of the alcove, and my ass sat in a pile of cushy moss.
I slapped at his arm. “Stop picking me up like that, would ya?”
Every time he did, tendrils of delicious heat simmered low in my belly, and I wanted nothing to do with the unbidden attraction. I needed to focus on getting better, returning to Earth and rebuilding my career.
JayJay carefully removed his coat, his head barely clearing the domed ceiling, then spread it out and tucked my mittens into my hat to form a pillow. “Rest.” He patted his threadbare coat with one large hand.
I elbow-crawled over the soft moss to the inviting bed, not caring how desperate I looked. The springy mattress enveloped me and I sighed. Our tiny cave was far enough from the river of magma that I’d stopped sweating, but I had a new problem. My nose filled with JayJay’s musky aroma, a scent my traitorous body now associated with safety. As I drifted off, light fingers unlaced my boots.
“This female is going to be the blanting death of me,” he muttered before sleep overcame me.
I woke feeling rested. A huge, velvety palm lifted from my forehead. Stretching my arms above my head, I moaned. My hips wiggled deeper into the luxurious plushness for a moment before I shot up, clutching my chest as yesterday’s events flooded back.
A reminder chimed on my wristport, my monitoring app oh so helpfully letting me know to take my medicine. “Goddamn it.” I pressed the heels of my palms to my eyes. How could I have been so stupid?
JayJay had propped a few oversized trumpet-shaped flowers in the corner of our… bedroom. On his knees beside me, he poured the contents of one of the beautiful blooms over a cloth. “It’s not that bad.” Smudged in foxglove-painted pinks and whites, the petals bled into each other like a watercolor. After discarding the flower and fabric, he passed the water bottle to me. “Here, drink this.”
If it had been anyone else, I would’ve had a million questions to ask before accepting an unknown drink from an unknown flower on an unknown planet. But today…one heroic rescue from an avalanche and a giant fucking worm was all it took for me to shed my staunch independence and rely on JayJay. The mild nectar soothed my parched throat, a perfect tonic, and I guzzled the liquid with ravenous gulps.
Vines covered the door, letting a dim orange glow through the gaps, and humid lilac-flavored air dissolved like honey on my tongue. The tension had lifted from JayJay’s eyes, softening his face.
“Thanks.” I returned his water bottle and tried to form a more adequate response. “So… you’ve saved my life a few times now.” I dipped my chin to take in my sock-clad feet. “And I wanted to tell you…” His fixed gaze felt like a warm blanket. On a deep breath, I forced myself to maintain eye contact no matter how that warm blanket made me itch. I shoved my tangled hairbehind my shoulders and started again. “In fact, it’s a super big deal. Even if you’re tall and swift and very strong. Like, the biggest deal.” I choked out the last of my jumbled apology, “Ahem. Sorry, JayJay. I owe you one. Big time. I should’ve picked somewhere safer to trap.” I leaned closer and patted his enormous bicep. “Thank you.”
He didn’t say anything for the longest time. Thanks, Mom and Dad. I just won the dorkiest apology ever award. Frozen except for his thumb, JayJay swiped it over mine in an absent caress where I patted his bicep. Then, with no jingle to warn me, he shifted to his knees, stood and lurched toward the vines, tangling himself and tripping as he escaped.
“Well, that went about as expected,” I muttered. So, I suck at apologies. Tell me something I don’t know. I plucked at the mossy floor as a heavy weight dragged at my chest. Uncertain how safe I’d be if I tried to follow him, I stayed put, swallowing around the lump in my throat and distracting myself by going through his spare set of clothes.
My inner seamstress cringed. His pants had more holes than cloth. Lucky for JayJay, I never traveled without my sewing kit. If only I’d gotten around to adding in the little pocket for my meds or restocking the mini first aid kit… But there’d always been a pair of mittens to make, or a linobee hat or a hoverbike to learn to ride. JayJay had spare clothes, but I didn’t even have my meds. It figured.
While trimming the ragged edges around his knees, I hummed, happy to be in my element. But when the monitoring app blipped at me again, I grew silent. I hadn’t checked off that I’d taken today’s prescribed dose.
How long would it take Sisip to get here? I reworked a messy stitch. How long would the hellsna guard the entrance? It would get bored eventually, right? I bit back a curse as I pricked my finger with the needle. “Damn it!”
Fingers like blocks, I finished the final repairs on JayJay’s coat-turned-blanket. I rubbed my hands together to minimize the tingle in my fingertips, staring at the teeny holes in the walls until my eyes watered. The vines swung open, breaking my trance, and a large armful of the blue cucumbers landed at my feet before JayJay jumped inside. A few starbugs flew in, peppering the air with flashes of blue light.
“What are you doing?” His booming voice didn’t bother me so much anymore.
“JayJay, you need some new clothes.” I frowned, ignoring our earlier…moment. “These are mended for now, but they’re in terrible shape.”
“You fixed my clothes?” His fingers plucked at the hole in the pants he wore, and the elephant charms tinkled. “And you gave me a gift?” He lifted his bracelet and jiggled it until the elephants danced in front of his eyes. They shone in the low light. “And you called me tall, swift and very strong—a compliment.” His deep green eyes grew wider and the rumble of his voice deeper. The air in the small, humid hollow grew electric, charged with energy.
What’s happening?
JayJay launched himself at me where I sat cross-legged in the soft blue moss. His lips, much softer than I imagined, pushed against mine in an awkward embrace. An unexpected tickle pricked along my sensitive nerves, drawing me in for more. But when I tipped backward at JayJay’s sudden advance, and he mashed his lips over mine much too hard, my desire turned to annoyance.
What the hell?
My arms were pinned between us, and if JayJay didn’t swallow me first, with all his weight on top of me, the bed of moss surely would.
“JayJay,” I hissed between our squashed lips.
Oblivious to my words, he continued to roll his lips over mine in a strange mockery of a kiss. I had to end this. But how?
“Blant.” He jerked upright, laving his tongue over the spot I’d just bitten. It had been the only way I could think of to make it stop.
