Page 18 of The Warrior's Oath
“You’re too hot to be able to tell.”
“I can tell. Nimenni are a warm people, but our skin is very sensitive. Far more than most races.”
Nyota almost blushed at the hint of a filthy thought that flashed through her mind.
“I don’t understand. What are you worried about?” she asked, calming the heat that had stirred in her belly.
“You appear to be in perfect health, yet you talk of eating in bed. It is plain to see that you are lying in the dirt. I worry there may yet be lingering effects of your head trauma.”
Nyota’s laugh, bright and clear, took him by surprise.
“You think it’s a head injury?” she asked, eyes glistening with amusement. “Korvin, I know I’m not in a bed. It’s just an expression. You know, like when you bring your wife a surprise meal in bed.”
“I am unbonded. I have not yet encountered my Infala mate.”
“Okay, sure. Your tattoo mating thing, right. But what I mean is it’s like that sweet thing you do for the woman you love.”
He looked at her a long moment. “We do not eat in bed on my world.”
“No?”
“No. It is frowned upon.”
“Jeez, that’s no fun. But I’m sure you still get the idea.”
He looked at her with an odd expression. “Where I am from, the bed is for only two things, and dining isnotone of them.”
Again that flare in her belly threatened to distract her. Korvin’s people ate in bed, she was certain, it just wasn’t food they’d be using their mouths on. The heat between her legs returned as she looked into his sparkling violet eyes, the gold circling his irises picking up the morning sunlight. Nyota bit down on her cheek just hard enough to distract herself.
Don’t go thinking those thoughts,she chided herself.That’s not what this is about. Besides, he’s not into you, he’s made that perfectly clear.
But looking at his well-muscled frame moving easily within his clothing, she found herself staring with a more than purely clinical interest. Alien or not, he was an impressive specimen, as she had seen quite clearly back at the stream.
“So, trekking,” she said, shifting her mind to the day’s task at hand. “You have a plan for today?”
“I always have a plan.”
“Ooookay. Do you plan onsharingsaid plan?”
He looked down at the little human woman and sighed. “As I have stated, my general yet lives, and if the compartment of the Raxxian ship in which he was being held survived its entry into this world’s atmosphere, he will be out there, somewhere.”
“Key word being somewhere,” she added. “I mean, it’s kind of a walk in the dark here. We have no idea which direction we should even be looking in.”
“True, but in time we shall coveralldirections if so required.”
“You want to go wandering all over this place, not knowing where we are or where we’re going, and then you justhopeto stumble upon him?”
“It is, admittedly, not the best plan, but our options are few.”
“Okay, but what if we findothersurvivors? Humans, like me? What then?”
Korvin quietly mulled over the possibility for a moment. Clearly, he had been fixated on the task of finding his friend and general, but Nyota made a valid point.
“We will take them with us as well,” he finally said. “Provided they are in condition to join the search.”
It wasn’t what she’d expected him to say, but hearing his willingness to help other survivors even if they weren’t his people served to put her mind a bit more at ease. Korvin could be a bit stubborn in his quest for his friend, but he still seemed to be a decent person, regardless.
As if he could read her thoughts, he turned a slightly less judgmental eye to his Earthling counterpart. “Eat well,” he said with a sympathetic look. “You will need the energy. I was quite serious when I said you will need your strength.”
