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“Word play, Zion? You hardly ever speak to me and now you’re throwing out puns?”
I rarely spoke to anyone before her, but this star girl swims in a sea of words, and to reach her, I have to use them too.
Before she has another chance to argue, I toss her into the nearest pool. She sinks like a damn stone. Her head goes under and it is a second before I realize she is not coming up again. Cursing, I throw myself into the water, find her flailing form and pull her up out of the water’s embrace.
“Why didn’t you tell me you can’t swim?”
“Why didn’t you tell me you were going to drown me!” She throws the accusation right back at me. “You threw me in, you idiot!”
“I thought you would float.”
“Well, I didn’t,” she complains.
I like the way she’s holding on to me, her fingers clutching at my shoulders. I’m not going to let her go again, and I’m not going to assume that she can survive something just because others in this world could survive it. I’m going to hold her close and protect her no matter how mouthy she gets.
Standing in the pool, I keep her in one arm and use the other to swish the water lightly over her body. There are strips of bark placed around the edges. When slipped into the water, it produces a lather. I use the bubbly residue to wash her body, my seed slipping from her skin.
She is cute and pink and heated from the water. Her cheeks are flushed, her eyes are bright, and the silvery skein of hair flowing from her head is more dramatic than ever catching the light of the day. She shines not like the stars, but like the sun.
Chapter Ten
Tselia
Being clean is an incredible sensation. I have not bathed in years. Ships don’t contain baths. I used to wash myself with a vibrating cloth. This is pure luxury, steaming water lapping all over my body.
The momentary panic of finding myself submerged is fading as Zion holds me in his arms, his body a shield and a support as the filth of the chaos of the past few days is washed away.
He caresses where he slapped me. He washes the same parts he invaded. His fingers stroke my sex and circle around my bottom. He is washing away my sin, all the traces of the way he used me, the way he had me at his mercy.
Water beads over his skin, rivulets coursing down his chest and over his shoulders. He is like the rocks that line this place, the water of the spring flowing over them and into these baths, which are the most beautiful places I’ve seen in this world.
The sun has risen and it is bathing the world in its glow. It’s beautiful. The valley rolls out beneath us. The village is below and then past that a river, and past that, fields and forests and more creation than I can take in.
This world is big enough to contain me. It is a beautiful prison, and this warden is a handsome one. It is better than the cold grip of stasis.
If I stay here, submit to him, and allow him to take me as he pleases—not that I have a choice—I still have to worry about that. My ship is up there. The Patron knows where I am, and even if he doesn’t find me right away, they will look.
“My father is going to come for me.”
“I would like to meet him,” Zion says. “I have so many questions.”
“He won’t talk to you. He’ll have you knocked unconscious and he’ll take me and freeze me for a hundred years at least. When I wake up, you’ll be long dead.”
I tell him the truth, even though there is no way he will understand.
“Why would he freeze you?” Zion cocks his head and fixes me with that brilliant blue look.
“Because,” I say. “I’ve been in trouble before. This was my last chance. Stasis—being frozen, it’s a good way to keep people out of trouble.”
“Hmm.” His lips quirk. “I don’t blame your father for being at his wits’ end with you. If you can find a way to disobey, you do.”
I cut my eyes at him. “Don’t argue my father’s side of this. You keeping me down here puts my life in danger.”
“If what you say is true, this is just another way you’ve put your own life in danger,” he says. “I don’t think your father is going to hurt you. I think you’re going to hurt you, and he’s going to try to keep you safe.”
“He doesn’t want me safe. He sent me across the universe to this backwater! He told me to stay in my ship. He was going to make me stay here for three years. Alone.”
