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I swallowed and allowed my eyes to drift down the length of his body, from the unruly and thick dark hair on the top of his head and down along his spine, taking in his broad shoulders and defined back muscles. His butt was … well-toned and quite round. There were no other words for it. Perfect, maybe? And his legs were thick and muscular. The man was tall; I already knew that. His feet were bare, and they were big, too, and his toes were long.
My lower belly fluttered.
I was obviously hungry.
“Go eat something, Kitten,” Zane grumbled sleepily, not bothering to face me. “Ration packs are divided equally. When they run out, we’ll go ashore and hunt.”
I glared at his back. How did he suddenly become captain of this ship?
“Can you sail?” he asked with a tinge of mirth to his tone.
No. That was why Neffers was supposed to be coming with me.
“That’s why I’m the captain,” he said blandly as if he’d just read my mind. “Now go eat.” There was zero room for negotiation with that gruff order, and before I could contemplate why he suddenly had such authority over me, I was sliding off the bed, ignoring my shoes, glaring at his back, and making my way—wobbly, I might add—toward the deck of the boat, where I could hear Jorik and Rix.
“Ray of sunshine, that one,” I muttered as I climbed the ladder. The sun was starting to set, and insects dipped and dove along the top of the water. Long shadows from the trees painted dark, jagged blobs across the calm bay, but out toward the open ocean, I could see the sea glittering.
“Zane’s not much of a morning person,” Jorik said, sitting just outside the door, his back against the outside wall of the cabin.
“Or an afternoon person. Or an evening person,” Rix added, chuckling at his own joke and grabbing a pack of rations. He tipped the contents into his mouth. The words on the packet said, “beef and vegetable stew.” One of those freeze-dried power meals that soldiers were sent out with. Quick, easy, and from what I’d heard, disgusting.
And if Rix’s face was any indication, that review of the food was dead on. He grimaced, stuck out his tongue, and shook his head. “Fuck, you’d think they’d be able to make thesenottaste like dog food.”
“Flavor isn’t a priority,” Jorik added blandly. “Each packet is carefully designed to provide all the nutrients, vitamins and minerals we need in a balanced meal. There is the same amount of protein in one of these packets as there is in an entire steak or chicken dinner.
Rix grabbed a handful of the packets and splayed them out in front of me. “What would m’lady like this evening for supper? We have turkey and squash, beef and vegetable stew, chicken and rice with vegetables, and my own personal favorite, curried lamb.” I could tell by his expression that the curried lamb was actuallynothis favorite.
I clutched my stomach when it grumbled loud enough that both sets of eyebrows in front of me shot up. “You pick,” I said.
“Chicken with rice and vegetables it is,” Rix said, grabbing the packet, opening it up, and handing it to me. “It tastes less like vomit if you plug your nose when you eat it.”
I glanced at the packet in his hand, then to his face, then to Jorik’s. All Jorik did was shrug and give me ayou-don’t-really-have-much-of-a-choiceface.
“Bottoms up, Wildcat,” Rix said with a smirk. “You won’t starve, but you also won’t enjoy it.”
With a deep breath, I took the packet from Rix, opened my mouth, tipped my head back, plugged my nose, and emptied the contents of the pouch into my mouth.
It was disgusting.
Dry powder flakes and chunks created a paste on my tongue and clung to the back of my throat as I tried to swallow.
I coughed, which forced me to let go of my nose and of course then get more of a taste of my “meal,” if it could even be considered that.
And then the gagging started.
“Here,” Jorik said, handing me a canteen with his big meaty hand. “Wash it down.”
I took the canteen from him with vigor, put it to my lips and chugged, washing down the vile paste that hung in the back of my throat like tree moss.
Both of them were laughing.
I glared at each of them as I handed Jorik back the canteen.
“I think I saw a fishing reel and line somewhere in the cabin,” Rix said, still chuckling. “We can start fishing for dinner. Not that I think there’s much left in the ocean, but it’s worth a shot.”
“Can go ashore and set traps and hunt, too,” Jorik added, tipping his head back against the wall and taking a sip from the canteen. “Deer are way overpopulated in the woods anyway, what with the grizzlies practically wiped out. I’d say we could hunt seals, or whales, but those have been extinct for over a hundred years what with the ocean temperatures rising and basically boiling the poor creatures alive.”
Rix rolled his eyes. “Mr. Encyclopedia over here. If he’s not tinkering with some kind of technology, he’s got his nose wedged in a book. And the old-fashioned kind, too. With paper pages and everything.”
