His grip tightened for a second before he jerked away, putting space between them.
He let out a sound of frustration. “Yes, that smell. You think it doesn’t drive me up a wall?”
Lily was left cold and weak. She’d been just about ready to throw caution to the wind and twine her arms around his neck.
“But I don’t constantly attack you for your smell. I know you can’t help it. It’s a natural physical response.” He stalked past her. “Stop pestering me about mine.”
Lily’s cheeks flamed. Was all that sexiness a ploy to seduce her into making a point? The nerve!
She sped after him. “I haven’t seen any men in a month. At this point, an old, hobbled Davy Crockett would garner the same response. Don’t flatter yourself.”
Lie. Lie. Lie.
Verakko aimed a death glare at her, then stalked forward at a pace she couldn’t match without jogging. Lily let out a pent-up huff and followed.
Forget about him. The sooner you find Alex, the sooner you can get out of here and ditch that overgrown chameleon for good.
The reminder of Alex served to cool some of her anger. The subdued dread she’d felt for days on end before Verakko had arrived replaced it. Maybe it was better to think about Verakko and her anger. Maybe then, the hollow guilt and worry wouldn’t claw at her insides, demanding to be acknowledged.
Lily continued on, taking her time to scan the water and land for any signs of Alex. How realistic was it that she would’ve floated this far? The river had a few spurts of calm, long enough for a floating person to swim to shore at least. Why hadn’t she found any evidence yet? Had it all really been washed away, like she kept trying to convince herself?
Lily swallowed a lump in her throat and tears burned in her eyes. She was grateful Verakko’s back was to her.
There was a possible answer as to where Alex had gone, but she didn’t think she could stomach it at the moment. If she got caught by a boulder or log and it pulled her under… Nausea roiled in her gut, and Lily had to stop. Alex is alive. She was tired and couldn’t make it, so she kept floating, and then the storm washed all signs of her away. That was all there was to it.
Just breathe. In. Out. In. Out.
“Do you need a break already? Water?” Verakko called from in front of her, his tone edged with irritation.
A spark of indignation flared, and she let it overtake her. “No, I’m fine!”
He crossed his arms over his chest and scanned her body in a way that made her skin tingle. “We’ve only been walking for an hour or so. Are you already tired?”
“I said I’m fine. I just had a pebble in my shoe.”
Verakko turned, grumbling about something under his breath, likely her.
They resumed their silent hike, him in front and her trailing behind. He slowed a few times, probably giving her the opportunity to catch up, but she made sure to slow her pace when he did. Sending a clear message that she wanted to walk alone.
Lily replayed what he’d said earlier about his scent. Could he really not control it? He’d compared it to the smell she put off when aroused. If that was the case, then did that mean she was smelling his arousal too? How could that be? She hadn’t even known that was something people could smell. He wasn’t exactly “people,” though, was he.
He’d said her brain was choosing what he smelled like. Could that be true? Her mind wandered back to a memory she’d thought about often over the years, and she knew why her subconscious had chosen crisp, burning cedar.
She’d been fifteen or maybe sixteen and camping in Turkey. Her parents had decided they’d wanted to hike the Carian Trail, and as always, they’d brought her along. Unlike many of their trips, this one was like a vacation for Lily. They’d followed a cleared path, slept in a tent, and packed food. They’d even brought a lighter with them that time. A real lighter, not a fire starter or a bow drill, but an easy-to-use one-click lighter.
Looking back, she suspected they’d done it because of her incessant whining. When you’ve been dragged around the world practicing primitive bushcraft survival techniques and hunting for all your food and water, even a bag of trail mix seems luxurious. There was another reason that trip had been so special to Lily too. There’d been people.
One handsome, tall teenage boy in particular.
His family and hers had both been headed in the same direction and had decided to hike together. The family was from New Zealand, and the boy’s parents had been fascinated by her parents’ descriptions of truly living and thriving in the wilderness. To her utter embarrassment, her parents had forced Lily to demonstrate flint knapping and point out all the edible plants she saw as they’d walked, claiming the education she’d received from them was far better than any she could’ve gotten from traditional schools.
When she’d gutted and fileted a fish without batting a lash, the boy had given her such a bewildered look. As if she’d had two heads. Looking back, she understood she hadn’t been a normal teenage girl.
She was so wrapped up in the past that she wasn’t paying attention to her surroundings and walked directly into Verakko, who stood staring at her with an odd expression. Just like the boy had.
Panic swamped her, and she glanced up to see the sun was shining high in the sky, peeking through the surrounding dark clouds. How long had they been walking for? “We need to go back!” she yelled, already heading in the opposite direction on the verge of tears. “I was thinking about something else, and I didn’t watch for signs of Alex. I could’ve missed her.”
Verakko wrapped a large palm around her arm and swung her around. “Calm down. I kept watch. There was no sign of her.”
Lily could still hear the blood rushing in her ears, but there was something else. Verakko’s voice echoed in her head again, trying to find somewhere to stick. Instead of pushing his words out like before, she listened and, despite herself, she calmed. “Really?”
“Really.” He ran his palms down her arms and gave her a lopsided grin. “I want to find her as much as you do.”
How could she have been so careless?
She eyed Verakko, and the last of her panic faded. He’d done something to calm her down with his voice. She knew that for sure, even if she was unclear as to how he’d done it. But he looked sincere, and regardless of their constant bickering, she trusted him not to lie about something as important as a missing person.
“Here, drink some water.” He held the canteen out to her expectantly.
“You first.” An anxious edge still lingered in her tone, and she amended, “I mean, you need to drink too. You haven’t had anything for almost two days.”
Verakko took a long breath and ran a hand through his somehow flawless hair. “How long can a human survive without water?”
Lily shrugged. “About three days, but it depends on myriad other things.”
Verakko’s eyes widened and concern creased his brow. “Goddess…three days? You only have two canteens. Why didn’t you…” He paused at the warning look Lily gave him and held the canteen back out to her with raised brows. “I can go two weeks.”
Two whole weeks with no water? “How?”
He shook the canteen at her when she didn’t move to take it. “I’m not a doctor. Do you know how you can go one day with no water?”
“Yes,” she said instantly, earning her a frown. Her parents had made it a point to teach her exactly how her body worked. If she were on her way to death, she’d know specifically which organs were failing and why. Lucky me. So far, her two butternut-squash-sized canteens had managed to stave off the warning signs of dehydration.
“Well, I don’t. We don’t have as many sweat glands as some of the other Clecanian races. Or humans.” He eyed her damp forehead and her lower chest, where she was sure a lovely line of underboob sweat was present. “That has a lot to do with it, I think. Our kidneys are different too. And our skin helps regulate temperature.”
Lily took a large gulp of water. She’d been holding back, w
anting to make sure they both had enough, but now she felt okay about truly quenching her thirst. “At least you know some stuff, I guess. They don’t teach you about your own anatomy in husbandry school?”
Verakko pinned her with a dark look. “I can assure you, we were all more interested in learning the ins and outs of female anatomy to waste time on studying our kidneys.” He let his gaze roam down her body again, and she stifled a shiver.
“We’re probably very different. I mean, human women and your women.”
“As I explained before, we’re the same species.” He held her gaze. “You’re similar enough. I bet I could find my way around.”
Butterflies flapped around in her stomach, and her heart pounded furiously.
Verakko’s brows furrowed in thought as he looked at her. He gave his head a small shake and replaced the water canteen in the pack.
Lily was burning to know what he’d been wondering just then, but she clamped her mouth shut.
Verakko peered into the sky, and to her shock, a dark, translucent second lid slid down over his bright green eyes. Without thinking, she grabbed his face and wrenched it down to her own. “You have a second lid! How cool. You have no idea how many times I wished I had something like this. You go on a three-week trip into the Australian outback and lose your sunglasses the first day—trust me, constant squinting messes with your sanity, not to mention the wrinkles I must’ve accumulated. It’s like you have built-in sunglasses! This would’ve come in so handy if only for the flies. My God, they’re terrible there. You wouldn’t eve—”
A low, rattling vibration, more melodic than the growl he’d directed at her before, sounded from his chest, and she jumped away.
“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry. I just got excited. I shouldn’t have grabbed you like that. What was that sound?”
“It was nothing.” Verakko straightened, clearing his throat.
Lily stared at the spot on his chest where the sound had come from, then back to his face. She held back a wide smile at what she found.
Verakko, the sour, proud, strong alien, appeared…ruffled.
“As I was saying.” His gaze darted, and a deeper cerulean tinted his high cheeks. He glanced around again. “What was I saying?”
Lily bit her lip to keep from grinning. “Do you mean, what were you saying before you started blushing?”
His blush deepened. “I am not blushing,” he said, then stomped away. Something in the trees caught his attention, and he stopped again. He motioned triumphantly toward the tree line. “Ah! I was going to ask when you were planning to stop. There’s a guren tree here.”
“We can stop now.”
Without looking at her, he nodded and made his way over to the tree. Lily studied his six-and-a-half-foot frame as he plucked the guren nuts from limbs higher than she could reach while jumping, and smiled again.
What was that sound, and how can I get him to make it again?
Chapter 7
“Confusing female. Grabbing my face,” Verakko griped under his breath as he hauled the last load of firewood to the small camp they’d set up.
Lily sat under a beautiful sprawling tree heavily laden with delicate yellow flowers. The small blossoms floated down around her as she focused on cracking nuts open against a smooth rock. She looked like some kind of forest goddess come to life. Verakko scowled. And he couldn’t have her. Couldn’t even try.
He dropped the wood pile, and she started at the loud cracks of dry wood hitting dry wood. For a moment, she stared up at him quizzically then returned to her task.
Verakko settled himself with another long stick and began carving a new spear tip. The one he’d started on yesterday hadn’t made it through Lily’s first dead-of-night moan. He’d be prepared for the sound tonight, though.
“Do you know what these flowers are?” She asked, examining one of the small yellow blossoms.
He scraped a large flake of wood from his spear and ground his teeth in frustration. “No.”
“Hmm. Too bad. It’d be nice if it could be made into a medicine or tea.” She returned to shucking the nuts.
The need to explain why his knowledge was so lacking bubbled in him. “They don’t grow in the desert where I’m from.”
“Tell me about your hometown,” she said, never taking her eyes from her work.
“Mithrandir? What do you want to know?”
“Everything.”
“Well,” he began, leaning back against the soft bark of a tree, “it’s a desert city. Fairly large. Surrounded by black sand as far as the eye can see. The old city is situated in the Well, an enormous pit formed by my ancestors centuries ago. But most people have moved into the new city, and now the old city is used primarily for recreation. There are shops and restaurants and spas.”
“Spas?” Lily interrupted, her head snapping up.
Why was she so excited? “What are spas where you’re from?”
“People go there for beauty treatments. Hair, massages, facials. Things like that. Are those the kind of spas you have?”
He gave a tight nod. “I didn’t take you for the type to frequent such establishments.”
“Just because I don’t complain about being dirty and gross doesn’t mean I like looking this way.” Her chest puffed a little, and her eyes returned to the ever-shrinking pile of un-shucked nuts. “I’ll have you know, I was a hairstylist back home. I worked at a spa, and I loved it.”
“You could work at one again now.”
Lily paused and grew thoughtful. “I’d like to. I wonder how long it’d take to work through beauty school again. I can’t imagine the products are the same. Or the hair, for that matter.” She studied Verakko’s hair, and he quelled the urge to smooth it. “What steps did they take to put those streaks in your hair?”
“I haven’t colored my hair. I only get it cut on occasion.” His comment seemed to irk her, and she returned to shucking the last few nuts.
“Do hairstylists get paid well in your city?”
Was Mithrandir his city anymore? He loved his town, and his people, but he loved them as an outsider would. He fit in much better in Tremanta, where technology and innovation were revered, rather than luxury and tradition. Verakko supposed he’d have to give up those things now. If he managed to have a child with Ziritha, he’d need to remain in Mithrandir indefinitely. “Yes. A trip to the spas and the basins is a regular occurrence and held dear among my people.”
Lily cracked her last guren with a dreamy smile.
“What is it?”
Her eyes focused on his. “Oh, nothing. I was just thinking about some treatments I’d like right about now. A massage, a hot-oil scalp treatment, a manicure.” She frowned at her small, somewhat dirty nails.
“I received high scores in my massage classes.” Verakko’s voice came out a little huskier than he’d intended, a small, rattling hiss punctuating his words.
Verakko couldn’t believe it, but for a moment, Lily appeared to be considering his offer. His fingers twitched in anticipation.
She shook her head. “No, that’s okay. I’ll wait.”
Verakko had to stop himself from breaking his newly sharpened spear in half.
***
“Are you ready to learn how to make a fire?”
To Lily’s surprise, Verakko didn’t argue or hesitate. Instead, he sat quietly and listened as she showed him how to use the bow drill and explained what to do after he managed to get an ember in the soft bundle of tinder.
“Got it?”
“I think so,” he replied, brows drawn in concentration.
At least he didn’t mind being taught by a woman, she thought, her estimation of him rising a fraction. Lily stood. “Good. Then I’m going to refill our canteens so we can purify the water before it gets too dark.” She neglected to mention that she was also going to bathe. Better he didn’t know.
He stood suddenly, and she had to take a step back. He peered around the clearing, then up to the sky just visible through the la
rge leaves, worry evident in his eyes. “Maybe I should go with you.”
Placing a hand on his arm, she tried to not sound too eager when she said, “No, it’s fine. Someone needs to start a fire, and I want you to learn how to do it.”
The muscle beneath her palm tensed, and his eyes traveled to where she touched him. His skin was warm and smooth. Awareness of his large, solid frame washed over her. How much better would she sleep curled against his warm chest after he’d used his strong hands to massage her stress away? Lily had been a breath away from agreeing to the massage before his dark tone had registered.
She jerked her hand back and awkwardly continued. “Okay, so…uh…you just stay right here and start a fire, and I’ll be back before you know it.” Lily gathered her water container and bowl, avoiding his intense stare that had darkened at her touch. “See you soon,” she called, scurrying toward the river.
When she’d ventured far enough away and the frustratingly pleasant scent of cedar no longer hung in the air, she allowed herself a moment to breathe. It was funny how she’d been so lonely for so long, and now all she wanted was to be alone so she could gather her thoughts in peace.
Peering up at the sky, she estimated she had an hour or so before she’d need to head back. She picked up her pace and gave herself permission to finally think through what she’d learned. So much.
This planet wasn’t at all what she’d thought. Her heart sank. If Verakko was to be believed, she’d have to get used to it, though. She’d never be allowed to return to Earth. Lily shook her head and dismissed the idea. Laws could be changed, and laws could be broken. Figuring out how to get back to Earth was a winnable fight, she was convinced of it, but it was a fight for another day. Besides, what was the rush? It wasn’t like she’d have anybody waiting for her on Earth.
Saving Verakko: The Clecanian Series Book 3 Page 9