Captain's Captive Page 19

  The woman’s glower deepened. She looked as though she was about to launch herself at me. I hoped it wouldn’t come to that, though there was a part of me that would have enjoyed the experience of wrestling with her if only because that meant I would have a chance to feel her body pressed against me once more.

  “Fine,” she finally said in a tone that said she wasn’t happy about the agreement. “But if I don’t like what I hear…”

  She let the threat hang in the air. I cocked an eyebrow. It wasn’t much of a threat considering I was the one holding all the power in this situation, and I think we both knew that. I wasn’t going to draw attention to that though.

  Besides, I liked this attitude. She had a fire burning in her as well. Not exactly the sort of fire burning in me, but close enough. It was refreshing to speak with a woman and not deal with all the bowing and scraping that usually accompanied such meetings.

  “Let’s start with names,” I said. “My name is Jiorj.”

  “George?” she asked, sounding out the name and completely butchering it in the process. I squeezed my eyes shut and shook my head. Why did aliens have such a difficult time pronouncing my name?

  “No, the name is Jiorj,” I said. “Note the accent at the correct place in the beginning.”

  “Huh,” she said. “You can go on about accents all you want, but it sounds to me like your name is George. I think I’ll just call you George if you don’t mind.”

  I opened my mouth to tell her exactly what I thought of that, a red fury lancing through me, then stopped. Wasn’t I just thinking how refreshing it was that this woman spoke her mind?

  “If that would make it easier for you,” I said.

  “It would George,” she said, smiling in a way that told me she was clearly enjoying the discomfort she caused as a result of deliberately mispronouncing my name.

  “And your name is?”

  “Oh, sorry,” she said. “Stacy.”

  “Staaay-seeee,” I said, rolling the name around in my mouth.

  It was strange. Exotic. Just like the rest of her with her skin that strange color and her deep green eyes with that light hair that was unlike anything on my world.

  “It’s…”

  I shot her a warning glance and for a wonder she quieted down. After all, she couldn’t very well deliberately mispronounce my name and then get upset when I did the same to her. Not that I had any intention of doing that over the long haul. I merely wanted to get a feel for the name.

  “Very well Stacy,” I said. “The truth is I was on a patrol through this forest when I heard the sound of your struggle with that strange creature. I came to investigate the sounds and that’s when I discovered you charging at that monster, that bear, with nothing but a stick to protect you.”

  “So that did happen,” she muttered. “It’s true. I’m dying and this is all a crazy dream.”

  “A dream?” I asked.

  “Um, sort of your body living through something while you’re asleep?” she said. “Because let me tell you there’s no way this is anything but a dream.”

  I smiled a thin smile and had to remind myself that this was an uncontacted world, after all. The only experience this woman probably had with aliens was in the entertainments they made. Our agents had been seeding those entertainments for some time in an attempt to prepare them for contact with the wider galaxy, though the entertainments seemed to be more violent here than they were on other worlds we’d seeded.

  “I can assure you this is no dream,” I said. “I traveled to this world with some of my friends to buzz one of your military bases, but it turns out the fighters and pilots here were far more skilled than I gave them credit for when we first arrived.”

  “So you came here to screw around with humanity and we shot your ass down?” she asked.

  I frowned again at her frank assessment of the situation, but again it wasn’t as though I could hold that against her. Not when she was absolutely correct. We had come here to screw around with the locals, and the locals had proved more than adept at fighting back.

  It had to be a result of how much time they still spent fighting amongst themselves. Yet another reason why this world wasn’t quite ready for contact.

  “Right, so you saved me,” she said. “That still doesn’t explain why we were together naked in this little bubble. Don’t get me wrong. You’re hot and all, but that’s more than a little creepy don’t you think?”

  I had to pause for a moment to roll all those words around in my mind and find the appropriate translation. When it came through I felt a burst of elation.

  She thought I was attractive. At least I was fairly certain that meant she thought I was attractive. She thought I was attractive but she also thought that what I was doing wasn’t socially acceptable.

  At least that was the nearest translation I could think of for that “creepy” word. It seemed to have a negative connotation, that was for sure. So she was impressed by me but also put off.

  What a strange language. What a formidable creature. Beautiful and able to stand up for herself. In that moment I knew that I had to have her. I didn’t know how it was going to happen, but she would be mine.

  Of course I would do it properly. I wouldn’t want to do anything “creepy” to win her heart. Something told me that would merely push her away.

  “That was simple,” I said. “Your clothing was no longer providing you the warmth you needed with the frozen water falling from the sky.”

  “Snow,” she said.

  “Excuse me?”

  “The frozen water stuff. We call it snow around here,” she said.

  “Ah. Right. The snow. It had soaked some of your clothes and I found it necessary to warm you up. Otherwise you would have lost too much body temperature and likely died.”

  “Right. So the whole reason you were lying practically naked next to me was because you were concerned for my health,” she said.

  I shrugged. This human was strangely ungrateful for some one who just had her life saved. If she had any idea what it meant that she got close enough to touch my royal person like she did… though of course she would have no idea of the honor that had been bestowed on her.

  Uncontacted world and all that.

  “You required body warmth. Would you rather I let you die?”

  “Getting my body warmth required stripping me entirely?” she said.

  “Your clothes were soaked through. You fell in the snow and it covered you before I could get to you,” I said.

  “Okay then,” she said. “So do you want to tell me why you’re out there running around in a blizzard in body paint?”

  I looked down, following her gaze, and realized she was talking about my skin. I laughed. I couldn’t help it. She seemed like a smart enough creature for a world that hadn’t been contacted, but it seemed that in this case at least she was being willfully ignorant.

  Not that it surprised me she would act like that. The reports I’d read of previous visits to this world indicated that an almost unhealthy skepticism was a surprisingly common reaction with the people of this world.

  “This isn’t body paint,” I said.

  “So what is it?”

  “Use your brain,” I replied.

  She didn’t look happy about that. No, not happy at all. Her nostrils flared and her eyes went wide. Her whole body tensed as though she was getting ready for combat. A strange reaction to an insult. The only people I’d ever known who stood up to an insult from me were Rtukh and the other men I took with me when visiting one of these worlds, and Rtukh was my younger brother so he could get away with that sort of thing.

  “You’re an asshole George,” she said. “I want you to know that. A cocky, sexy asshole.”

  Once more I found myself trying to translate that on the fly. She’d just compared me to the posterior where creatures on this world evacuated their…

  Ah. An insult. She’d insulted me. That must be some slang term they used on this world. She’d
insulted me and she’d complimented me at the same time.

  It would appear that this local I’d discovered was suffering from some complicated feelings about me. All the better. I could use that, because I still had to have her.

  I couldn’t explain those feelings. Perhaps it was because she was so sure of herself. That was so different from the women on my world who were always throwing themselves at me. Always currying for favor and trying to get the attention of the crown prince because they thought it would mean a lifetime of luxury for them and their family.

  Odd that I would have to travel to another world to find a woman who didn’t show me exactly what she thought I wanted. Odd and so refreshing.

  That overwhelming desire was getting too strong to ignore. I knew of men who traveled to uncontacted worlds for a little fun with the locals of the sort I thought about when I looked at Stacy, but I’d never been about that. My preferred method of fun was buzzing military bases, but as I looked at her that was all changing.

  I moved forward on all fours like that giant furry predatory creature, that bear, that I’d killed to save this delicious creature before me. I pushed the thermal blanket aside, its silvery material crinkling as I moved over it.

  “So you’re trapped here with a man who knows your languages and has a strange skin color that can’t be explained,” I said. “What do you think that means?”

  “I…”

  “How many men on your world do you know who could fight off a bear with their bare hands? How many men do you know who have the ability to cocoon you in a forcefield under a pile of this snow your world produces?”

  “None,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean it’s not possible. That can’t possibly mean that you’re…”

  “From another planet?” I finished as I reached her.

  She was so close. I could feel the heat coming off of her body and smell her scent. It was intoxicating and she was a hell of a lot more hot now than she’d been when I was holding her against me for body heat.

  Now that she mentioned it maybe it wasn’t necessary to completely remove all her clothing, but everything had been wet and I’d told myself at the time that I was only being thorough. Now I wasn’t sure how true that was, but I knew I had to have her.

  “You have a strange alien all alone to yourself in the middle of a blizzard,” I whispered.

  She shivered and I knew I had her. She looked me up and down with obvious appreciation. That was a look I was well versed in. It was one that I saw at court on the regular from women eager to get with the crown prince.

  Better to see it from this earth woman though.

  “I know what I’m going to do,” she whispered, her voice barely audible.

  “And what’s that?”

  She gave me one heck of a surprise by moving her foot up and pressing it square against my chest. My eyes went wide as she pushed back against me with a surprising amount of strength and I flew across the small bubble and slammed against the other side where the forcefield flared but stayed in place sending tingling feelings shooting down my body where it contacted the field.

  Damn. I guess I was reading those looks all wrong, but I only found myself more drawn to this woman. There was something about the chase that was driving me wild!

  8

  Stacy

  Okay Stacy. You need to get this under control. There had to be a rational explanation for everything happening here. It’s not like men with strange purple skin just appeared out of nowhere and rescued girls from apex predators in the middle of blizzards on the side of a mountain within spitting distance of a mansion and a ski resort.

  The only problem was the only rational explanation I could think of was that the bear had stopped just short of killing me and this was all some sort of crazed fever dream I was having in my last moments before bleeding out or the cold took me.

  That was hardly a comforting thought.

  The alternative wasn’t very comforting either. The alternative was that I was staring at a man from another world, as crazy as that sounded.

  Everything fit. The guy had that weird skin color and I was pretty sure from feeling him rubbing against me that it wasn’t body paint. Stuff like that would’ve worn off on me.

  I knew because I’d worn the stuff at a particularly wild Spring Break party back in college and let me tell you the pristine white sheets in my hotel room had been less than pristine the next morning when I woke up next to a hot hunk of thing that ended up being the man I would marry.

  At least he’d been the man I thought I would marry before fate stepped in and pulled that away from me.

  And that lingering guilt more than anything is what gave me the strength to push this Lothario from another world away from me. I don’t know who the hell he thought he was trying to take advantage of this situation, but I wasn’t going to let him.

  I looked him up and down and thought I was an idiot for not letting him take advantage of the situation. Obviously wherever this guy came from, whatever strange new world he’d traveled from, they made them all muscled and beefy there.

  I wouldn’t mind a roll with him, never mind the odd skin color, but it just wasn’t right.

  Damn it. Talk about fucked up. Here I was with a sexy alien from another world who was hitting on me and I was still living in the past. Still refusing to live my life now because of what I thought Travis might think if he were here, which he wasn’t. If he was here then I might never have found myself in this situation in the first place.

  “That’s one hell of a kick you have there,” Jiorj said, rubbing at his chest where I’d pushed him away.

  His skin had turned a lighter purple color where I pushed against him. Damn. I guess I kicked a little harder than I’d intended, but it was the least he deserved for getting so fresh with me so quickly.

  “Yeah, well just keep that in mind the next time you get too close to me buddy,” I said.

  “I wouldn’t dream of it,” he grunted, still rubbing that spot as though I’d genuinely hurt him. For all I knew his species kept their genitals there and I’d just done the equivalent of kicking him in the nuts or something.

  “Sorry if I hurt you,” I said. “I…”

  I wasn’t going to explain myself. He got too close and that was that.

  I wasn’t going to tell him how conflicted I was because it had felt so good having him up close against me. I wasn’t going to talk about how it had been so long since I’d felt a touch that compelling and intoxicating. That I was afraid of how he made me feel because it had been so long since I’d allowed myself to feel that about any man other than Travis, never mind a strange man who claimed to be from another world and had evidence to back it up.

  I looked him up and down again. I couldn’t help it. I knew it was probably only encouraging him in thinking he had a chance with me, but what can I say? The guy was a looker. It wasn’t that often that a girl got a look at a handsome beefcake like this and I was going to look even if I wasn’t going to allow myself anything else from this guy.

  And this time as I looked down between his legs I saw something stirring there. It seemed that whatever he was hiding under those strange shorts with what looked like a utility belt at the top was coming to life and straining for me.

  I shivered. I’d felt that earlier when he was pressed up against me. I guess my kick right to his chest had been enough to make that go down and now it was going back up. That also answered the question about where his species kept their genitals, because damn.

  “Don’t worry about it,” he finally said, finishing rubbing his chest. “I’m just used to…”

  Now it was his turn to trail off, but I could only imagine where he was going with that line.

  He was used to women throwing themselves at him. Assuming they had women on his world. It seemed impossible that in an infinite galaxy he would come from a species that looked exactly like a human except for the weird skin color and had the exact same anatomy as humans, but what did I know a
bout evolution on a galactic scale?

  All I could tell is that everything with this guy seemed to work pretty much the same as it did with humans down here on earth and so I was going to go with the evidence right in front of me for now.

  I shivered and he moved forward but I held a hand up to stop him. It was still cold in here, but I didn’t want to warm up in the way he had in mind. Not when that led to temptation that I wasn’t prepared to deal with right now.

  “Stay right there buddy,” I said.

  He gestured down to the fitfully glowing thing in the snow. “This device was only meant to provide warmth for one person, and even then it’s only designed to raise the temperature by a few degrees. This snow overhead is providing some insulation, but who knows how long the snow will continue falling from the sky?”

  “Yeah, and let me guess. Your solution is for us to cuddle up nice and close again?”

  He shrugged, though it was no casual shrug coming from him. It was like two massive mountains rolling together to either side of his neck. “That would be the ideal solution.”

  The way his eyes darted over me left no doubt exactly how ideal he thought that solution would be. I shivered and felt a tingle between my legs that had nothing to do with the strange forcefield pressing against my naked body.

  Yeah, the more I looked at this guy the more it was feeling like an ideal solution for me too, but there was still a part of me holding out.

  Well. I could at least find out how long this blizzard was supposed to last.

  “Pass me my coat over there,” I said.

  “It’s still soaked through and cold,” he said. “Are you sure you want to put that on? If you wish to preserve your modesty it might be better to use the scraps that were covering your…”

  He trailed off and his face turned a deeper shade of purple. If I didn’t know any better I’d say I just saw the alien equivalent of a blush. Interesting.