Authors: Evangeline Anderson
“You…you wh-what?” My heart was pounding in an irregular rhythm, the sound filling my ears and I wasn’t sure I’d heard him right.
“I’ll go with you,” he repeated patiently. “After all, I’ve got the slime on me too—we’ll get clean together.”
“Will…will my head have to go under?” I asked at last, tremulously.
“Only for a moment,” he promised. “I’ll hold you up and I won’t let you fall—I promise. If you go under, I’ll go under too.”
“Well…” My heart was going crazy now, stopping and starting, making me feel like someone was squeezing it mercilessly in an iron fist.
“Listen to your body,” Sarden urged me quietly. “You’re going into cardiac shock—you need to get that damn slime off your skin so it can start beating properly again.”
I looked at him uncertainly. There was anxiety but also patience in his golden eyes. If he’d wanted to, he could have picked me up by sheer force and thrown me into the vertical bathtub—he was certainly strong enough to do what he wanted with me. But he didn’t—he waited for me to make up my own mind to go with him. To trust him.
Chilled to the bone, teeth chattering, and heart pounding I made my choice.
“All r-right,” I said at last. “As long as you p-promise not to leave me.”
“I promise,” he said gently and scooped me into his arms.
Sarden
She felt so light in my arms and I could hear how erratic her heartbeat had become. It scared the hell out of me and I wanted nothing more than to rush her into the cleansing liquid of the pool. But the fear in her eyes told me I had to take things slowly, no matter how worried I was.
I cradled her close to my chest as I pressed the switch on the side of the vertical tank. The door slid to one side—the force field holding the cleansing liquid in place—and I stepped into it, holding Zoe high to be certain it didn’t go over her head.
“Sarden,” she whispered and I felt her shaking—not from cold but from fear—as we got fully inside. The warm liquid was up to her neck, though it was only up to my shoulders, and her eyes were shut tight, as though she didn’t want to look.
“It’s all right,” I assured her, holding her closer. I felt the slime from the Gods-damned sensitivity tank beginning to melt away at once. Good—I’d been feeling somewhat shaky myself. Doloroso had been right—the tank was no good as anything but as part of a collection. The slime inside it was much too strong and the sensu-pods were far too aggressive to use on a living sentient being.
I wondered again how in the world she’d been able to get out of the Force-Locks and use them to get back in the hold in the first place. She obviously had no Vornish DNA—maybe it was because she was a
La-ti-zal.
But could her gift really be that strong, even with the inhibitor in place?
Zoe was still trembling against me, her arms clutched tight around my neck. I rubbed her back soothingly and murmured to her that everything was going to be fine, that I had her and wouldn’t let her go.
But you’ll have to let her go, won’t you?
whispered a nasty little voice in my head.
Once you get to Giedi Prime you’ll trade her to Tazaxx and never see her again, unless he extends an invitation to his private zoo.
I thought of that, of only seeing her from behind a clear force field, of never being able to hold her or touch her again and my heart felt like someone was twisting it.
It’s the toxin,
I told myself trying to push the feeling away.
I haven’t even had her for two solar days yet. Trading her to Tazaxx should be no problem.
So why couldn’t I make myself believe it?
Looking down, I saw that the slime had melted off both of us. I was completely clean since I hadn’t gone in under my head. Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for Zoe. Her long red hair—so vivid when I held her despite the inhibitor she still wore—was matted with the stuff, and it still clung to her face and her long lashes and eyebrows too. She was going to have to go under—there was no other way to get rid of the slime completely.
“Zoe,” I said, as gently as I could.
She opened her eyes a crack and peeked at me.
“Yes?” Her voice sounded tiny and uncertain—very different from her usual confident banter—but at least she’d stopped trembling in my arms.
“We have to go under,” I told her. “Just for a moment. Just to get your face and hair clean.”
“I…I know,” she whispered, looking up at me with those big, impossibly blue eyes. Even coated in the thick slime of the tank, I thought I had never seen a lovelier female. Her freckles stood out against the skin of her face—probably because she was pale with fear.
“Can you trust me?” I asked her. “I’ll go under with you, I promise. Will that help?”
“Maybe. If…if I can see you.”
“We’ll be face to face the entire time. Look.” I shifted her around so that her legs were wrapped around my waist and we were facing each other directly.
“Okay.” She clung to me tightly, her arms wrapped around my neck as she pressed as close to me as she could. Her lush, naked curves were distracting but her fear was too obvious for me to become aroused. I’ve known males who got off on the fear and pain of females but I have never been one of them.
“All right,” I murmured. “On the count of three take a deep breath and we’ll go under. We’ll stay under for a count of three and then come back up. Understand?”
She nodded, her eyes big with fear. It hurt me to see how terrified she still was but I couldn’t help it—this had to be done.
“One,” I told her. “Two…three.” Taking a deep breath, I ducked us both beneath the purple liquid of the cleansing pool.
Zoe’s long hair floated free, the liquid in the pool going to work at once on the slime left by the tank. I hoped it would do its job quickly. She was trembling against me so violently now that it vibrated my entire body. I had the sense that this was bringing back some old trauma for her and that she was barely holding on to her self control.
I made a count of three and then lifted us both, breaking the surface.
Zoe gasped in a breath, her eyes huge in her pale face. Then she squeezed them shut and a deep, hitching sob came from her throat. She clamped her lips shut as though to keep another from following it. Clearly this experience was absolutely terrifying to her—and just as clearly she was determined not to give in to the fear and cry.
“Zoe?” I looked at her with concern.
“Is it done?” she whispered in a small, choked voice. “Please tell me it’s done, Sarden.”
I felt her thick hair with my free hand. Unfortunately, there was still slime caught in its curly locks.
“I’m afraid not,” I said regretfully. “Your face is clear but your hair…”
“It…it always takes forever to rinse the shampoo and conditioner out,” she said and tried to laugh. “So I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Do…do we have to go under again?”
I was about to say yes but I had a sudden thought.
“Not if you don’t want to,” I told her. “Not if you trust me enough to support you.”
“You’re supporting me now,” she pointed out.
“Yes, but I mean support you while you float on your back,” I said. “I’ll hold you up and you can lean back and let your hair drift in the water. That way at least your face doesn’t have to go under. What do you think?”
“I think…I
guess
that would be okay.” She nodded. “Only I don’t know how to float.”
“You don’t really have to—I’ll hold you up,” I promised. “Just relax and trust me. Can you do that?” I very much wanted her to say yes, to know that she trusted me, though I didn’t know why. When she nodded her head, I felt as though something clenched tight inside me had loosened a little. “Good,” I told her. “On the count of three, then?”
“Yes, okay.” She took a deep breath. “Just…just put me where I need to be.”
“I will,” I promised her, stroking her cheek. Gods, she was lovely.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“Thank me later—when we’ve gotten all this off of you,” I told her. “One…two…three.”
Zoe
It was both awkward and terrifying, floating on my back in the purple liquid. I’d had boyfriends before who promised to teach me how to swim and I knew this was how you were supposed to start—just floating with someone you trusted holding you up.
I hadn’t trusted a single guy enough to let him do that for me. Not until Sarden. And I didn’t know why I was trusting him now. I barely knew him, so why was I okay with believing he would hold me up and not let me go?
I couldn’t answer that question, even to myself. I tried to think up some snarky explanation but my mind was too tangled in knots with the past and the future merging together to make one big nasty mess of my emotions.
When the snarky part of me goes into hiding, I know I’m in trouble.
I tried closing my eyes but I kept seeing Angela’s face—Angie, little Angie that I was supposed to be responsible for. That I was supposed to watch. Guilt and sorrow flowed through me until I couldn’t bear it and had to open my eyes to look up at Sarden who was holding me firmly and patiently, just waiting for the cleansing liquid to do its job.
I tried to help it along some by lifting my arms very, very carefully over my head to scrub at my hair. But then I suddenly became aware of the fact that I was naked and my boobs were floating very obviously, my nipples like two little pink boats bobbing on the surface of the purple liquid. More like two
red
boats actually—those damn starfish suckers on the end of the tentacles had really done a number on me!
“Oops.” I lowered my arms hastily to cover myself, feeling both shy and more vulnerable than I could ever remember feeling before. Yes, even more vulnerable than the night before when the damn hoverbed had been touching me while he watched.
Sarden frowned but never let go of me—his large, warm hands were spread carefully under my back and the top of my butt, holding me up.
“Are you still so shy with me?” he murmured. “You have nothing to be ashamed of—your curves are lovely.”
“Thank you but that doesn’t mean I want to go parading around naked as a jay bird,” I said tartly.
“What?” He frowned. “Is that some kind of Earth creature?”
“Yes, a bird—you know, they fly through the air?”
“We have such creatures on Vorn 6 and also Eloim,” he said, nodding. “The Ancient Ones sowed the seeds of life everywhere. But the birds on my home worlds usually have feathers. On Vorn 6, some have scales as well.”
I tried to picture a scaly bird and shuttered.
Ugh
.
“They have feathers on Earth, too,” I said.
“Then how can a bird be ‘naked’?” Sarden asked reasonably. “I don’t understand.”
“Honestly, I don’t either,” I told him. “It’s just a saying. Look—do you think we’re almost done here?”
He felt my hair carefully, making sure to keep me well supported with one large hand under my back.
“I think so.” He nodded. “I take it you’re ready to get out?”
“More than ready,” I said fervently. “Seriously, so, so,
so
ready.”
“All right.” He gathered me close to his broad chest and prepared to exit the vertical bathtub. The fabric of his sleeveless shirt was soaked and clinging to him transparently in an extremely yummy way but it was hard to appreciate when I wanted so badly to get out of the water.
But then he just stopped. Instead of taking me out of the PPC, he just looked at me.
“What? What is it? Why are we stopping?” I asked nervously. “Please, Sarden, I
really
want to get out of here!”
“I can tell you do. But I’d like to understand
why.”
“Why what?” I asked, feeling exasperated.
“Why you’re afraid of going in over your head.” He was still looking at me intently. “What happened to you, Zoe, that made you so fearful of water or swimming?”
“Angela…my little sister,” I said stiffly. “She…there was an accident. She was only five. I…” I shook my head. “I don’t….I can’t talk about it.”
“You did tell me you had a sister—I remember.” Sarden looked at me thoughtfully.
“
Had
being the operative word,” I said, my throat tight.
He raised an eyebrow. “She died?”
I looked away, unable to meet his gaze.
“Look, can we please just get out? I am so past ready to leave this damn purple bathtub thing it’s not even funny.”
“Right.” He nodded and, to my infinite relief, let the subject drop. I’d had enough trips down Memory Lane today, first in the awful tentacle tank and then in the weird vertical bathtub. I just wanted to let the memory of my sister and what had happened to her fade away—at least for now.
We stepped out and I started shivering again—the liquid in the Personal Pool of Cleansing, as Al had called it, was as warm as bathwater. The outside air felt incredibly chilly in contrast.
“Here.” Sarden carried me over to the mister and stood me on my feet in front of him. I wobbled a minute but then I was fine—my heart was beating normally again. Well, as normally as it could when I was naked and so close to the huge, muscular alien.
Sarden changed the controls so that blasts of hot air started coming out to dry us. It felt wonderful against my chilled skin but not so good against my tender nipples, which still felt like they’d been half sucked off by the awful tentacles in the tank. You know how it is when you burn your hand and then you try to cook something over a hot stove? The heat hitting your burn is almost more than you can stand. That’s how it was with my nipples…and between my thighs too. Those tentacles had been
awful.
“Ouch!” I winced involuntarily and took a step back from the hot air.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” Sarden sounded concerned. I turned to him.
“Nothing, it’s—hey, you’re naked!”
“Of course I am.” He kicked the heap of sodden clothes he’d shed to one side. “I have to dry off too.” Rivulets of the purple cleansing liquid ran down the hard planes of his abdomen and beaded on his broad, bare shoulders. Between his long, muscular legs his shaft was every bit as big and impressive as I remembered. It was also more than half hard.
“All right, well…fine.” I started edging away from him.