Page 77 of Hot Zone

Rustam murmured, “Time to rest the horses.”

He’d stopped on a tiny patch of sand that barely qualified as a beach. But a small dune rose behind it and sparse grass dotted the sandy slope. She and Rustam unsaddled the horses and stripped off their bridles to let the animals forage for what food they could find. Frowning, Tessa watched Rustam gather driftwood until he had a substantial pile of the stuff. Three substantial piles, in fact. Spaced evenly along the spit of sand.

Finally, her curiosity got the better of her. “What are you planning to do with that?”

“Light signal fires.”

“To signal whom?”

“The Persians when they get here.”

“You think they’ll come investigate a lone fire on the beach?”

“They will when it’s three separate fires.”

“What’s to keep them from killing us when they get here?”

That earned her an arch smile. “I’m the Sorcerer of Halicarnassus. My fame is widespread within the empire, and certainly anyone in the Persian fleet has heard of me.”

“Yeah, and last they heard, you were a runaway slave.”

“I do not think Artemesia will have admitted to anyone that I’ve run away. She’ll have concocted a tale of sending me off on an errand after I paid too much attention to the pale foreigner. No one will question her story. It’s unthinkable that a high-profile slave like me would slip from her grasp.”

“Maybe,” Tessa said doubtfully. “You’re screwed if you’re wrong, though.”

“Ahh. Screwing. I know this one.” His grin flashed as quick and dangerous as lightning. “I had thought you too fatigued for such athletics, but if you insist, I stand ready to serve.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet.”

He closed the distance between them and swept her up against his powerful, and indeed ready-to-serve, body. She gasped at the sensation of his impossible length pushing impudently against her belly through their clothes. “Don’t taunt me, woman. I have my limits.”

“But Rustam,” she said sweetly, “if I’m carrying your child, you dare not hurt me. We human females are fragile and miscarry easily.”

He muttered something to the effect of “Fragile, my ass,” under his breath as he turned her loose. He stalked over to the first of his woodpiles and began to lay a fire with sharp, violent movements.

Silently, she moved to the second pile and did the same.

For the first time in days, he made an actual camp, spreading out their bedrolls side by side over a patch of soft sand. After they gnawed the last of their jerky and washed down handfuls of dried fruit by drinking from their water skins, there wasn’t much to do but go to sleep.

Rustam took off his boots and sighed in appreciation as he lay back on the sand. He held out his arm to her. “Come, Tessa. You need rest. The horses will watch for the fleet for us.”

She’d long since quit marveling at the distinctly non-horselike things he got the beasts to do for him. And she did need sleep. But she wasn’t sure cuddled up with him was the way to get it.

“I promise to leave you to your dreams,” he murmured, grinning boyishly. “Unless, of course, you have other ideas.”

She couldn’t help but grin back at his ridiculously hopeful expression. “You’re incorrigible.”

“No, I’m Centaurian.”

And so he was. For better or worse. And for better or worse, she was addicted to every arrogant, masculine, alien inch of him. There was no use trying to fight it. As soon as she fell asleep, she would promptly curl into his warmth and strength as surely as she was standing here.

“What am I going to do with you?” She shook her head as she sank down beside him and laid her head on his shoulder.

“Laugh and fight with and love me, but never leave me,” he murmured sounding already more than half-asleep.

Never leave him?What in the heck was that supposed to mean? She was a twenty-first century human and he was…well, he was not. There was no way the two of them had a future together. Was there? Her head spun with the prospect. How would that work, anyway? Would he stay on modern-day Earth with her? Did he expect her to go back to Centauri Prime with him? Her, traveling across the galaxy to some alien planet? The first human in history to do so?

On second thought, maybe not the first. There’d been plenty of stories of alien abductions over the years. She was beginning to think some of them might just be true. Stranger things no doubt had happened, like a time-traveling human bumping into a stranded Centaurian and having epic sex that might have resulted in a baby.

If Athena Carswell or Beverly Ashton found out about that, they were going to kill her.

She lay there, wide awake, long after Rustam’s breathing had settled into the long, slow rhythm of deep sleep.

Never leave him, indeed. Impossible.

But a tiny voice in the back of her head wished that somehow the impossible was possible. After all, she’d time-traveled to ancient Greece, and that hadn’t been remotely conceivable even a few years ago.

She fell asleep praying for a miracle.

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