Page 33 of The Arabis Triad

“Well…” There was nowhere to put her dress without it getting wet and she wasn’t going to walk back on that hot sand. “Maybe I’ll just stand here.”

“Do you hear our mate, brothers? She is scared of the water,” Ashir said.

“I’m not afraid of the water. I don’t want to get my dress wet,” she said.

“I think that is just an excuse. Maybe she can’t swim,” Coltan said.

“I’ll have you know I’m a very good swimmer.” She’d won several high school carnivals, and her regular exercise consisted of weekly laps at the local pool.

“I can hear the hesitation in her voice. I think she needs help.” Paxt walked toward her. Drops of water ran down his face. His bun was undone, and his wet hair trailed halfway down his back, making him look like something out of Conan the Barbarian.

She’d always had a thing for that show, but here, now, it was coming for her in multicolor.

She stepped back, the water only covering her feet, but the sand behind her was too hot to walk on. Paxt towered over her, and he swept her off her feet so that she was cradled in his arms.

“Let me go!” She pushed against his chest. His skin was burning, even though he was wet with cool water. It already felt delicious on her overheated skin.

His only reply was a cocky, half-smile.

She pointed a finger at him. “Don’t do it.”

“And what am I going to do, other than look after my mate?” he asked, moving into deeper water.

She threw her arms around his neck, climbing up his torso. “I know exactly what you’re thinking about doing. And you’re not looking after your mate.”

He didn’t stop walking. “But she is hot and I have the remedy of cool water to soothe her skin.”

The surface soaked the hem of her dress. “I can’t wet this dress. I don’t have anything else to wear.”

“You won’t hear a word of complaint out of me,” Paxt said, loosening his hold.

“Paxt… I’m warning you…”

It didn’t come as a complete surprise when he held her out and let her go. She held her breath against the smile that burst across her face, before shock rippled through her mind. She’d let her guard down, having fun as if she hadn’t been abducted, tortured and now lost on an uninhabited planet with three hot aliens doing their best to seduce her.

What’s more, she was giving her heart away to them when she should be guarding it, but how the hell was she meant to protect herself when she was falling for them so quickly?

Chapter Thirteen

Evelyn

The water closed over Evelyn’s head and she floated, savoring the welcome coolness and weightlessness it provided. A sigh rippled through her. She hadn’t thought she would miss the simplicity of water, but she’d been wrong. On this planet, or another planet, it was the same. Had they known how she might feel about it?

Finally, she stood. It was still shallow, the water only coming up to her waist, and she faced down Paxt. “You’ve ruined this dress.”

His gaze travelled down her, lingering on her breasts. “From my view, it’s made a vast improvement.”

Frowning, she glanced down to see the material was completely transparent. Her breasts were on full display, her nipples pebbled through the coolness of the water. “Typical male.”

She swatted the surface of the water and sent a spray over Paxt. He blinked, caught totally by surprise. The expression on his face was so comical, she burst out laughing.

“Don’t tell me no one has splashed you before.” She sent another spray over him for good measure, taking great delight in watching him blink through the onslaught.

“No one who has lived to tell the tale,” he said.

“Nonsense. As a child, he always would splash everyone else, and yet not let anyone splash him back,” Ashir said.

“He would run to our parents and tell how we both would attack him, saying it was unfair that it was two on one,” Coltan said.

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