"Is all this familiar to you or something?" I ask him as he lifts me over a particularly large fallen branch and sets me down on the other side. My shoes squelch into the damp forest floor, and I shift my weight, trying to steady myself. Every step feels spongy and a little uneasy, like at any point I could hit a muddy spot and slide away.
Kaspar's eyes meet mine. "This place?" He laughs. "Oh no, I've never been here before." He pauses, hands on his hips, surveying our surroundings. I can't help but stare at the “gun show” a little. I mean, the man's naked from the waist up, so of course I'm looking. Anyone with eyeballs would. There's a lot to see, too. He's got a few tattoos on that blue skin of his, one curving up his side and another across a shoulder. I don't recognize the designs, so I figure it means something to alien eyes, not human. There's a couple of scars on his chest near the plating across his heart, but none of that hides the fact that his abdomen is a thing of beauty.
Being around him has turned me into an absolute hornball. Maybe it's because I'm away from my friends that I'm feeling lonely and needy. It's that loneliness that pulls me to Kaspar like a moth to a flame. That and his kindness. Even now, he gently holds my hand even though it'd probably be easier for him to hike without having to tug me along. He's watchful over me, too, making sure that the ferns don't smack me in the face as we move past them. He's…nice.
Sure, I caught him jerking off, but wasn't I doing the same thing? It's entirely possible he was just relieving some tension. It's entirely possible he wasn't even thinking of me when he was doing it.
I can't say the same. I feel a little naughty and more than a little weird about that. It's been forever since I was creeping on a guy, and I suspect Kaspar is the focus of my fixation right now because he's nice. It's certainly not because I love aliens. It's not because I love how damn excited he is to be stranded. The guy's got a few screws loose upstairs.
Luckily he doesn't seem like he wants to talk about the whole “getting caught masturbating” thing. Which is a relief, because I don't want to talk about it, either.
As if he can read my mind, Kaspar gives my fingers a squeeze. "You're quiet. What's going through your mind?"
"Just wondering if you've ever been to a planet like this before," I blurt out like the big liar I am. Like I'm going to tell him the truth.
"To a privately-owned planet? No, not me. My brothers went when we were younger, but I stayed home."
I pause, surprised. "Wait, how do you know this is privately owned? I thought you said you didn't know where we were."
"I don't."
My bad hand brushes against my side and I hiss, clutching at it. Since we're stopped, it seems like a good moment to take a break. I cradle it against my chest as Kaspar pauses, watching me. "You said this planet is privately owned. What makes you think that?"
He gestures around us, one big arm lifting up, and now I have something new to touch myself to, if I ever get the opportunity again—arm porn. Lord have mercy, but those arms are magnificent. Taut and bulging with muscle, I stare at them as they flex when he moves. "Look at all this. It's habitable, but there's no cities. No civilizations. We're not far out enough in space that this is undiscovered. Remote, yes, but not undiscovered. Therefore, it must be privately owned."
I tear my horny gaze away from his biceps. "Who can own a planet?"
"Exceedingly rich families who like to vacation in private," Kaspar tells me. "There's this one lord back on Homeworld that has a planet where he keeps his gladiator stables. I've heard he trains them there, then sends ’em out into the wild and lets them tear into each other and the wildlife he breeds to keep them occupied."
Well, this sounds like a super-fucked version of a big game hunter. "You think that's where we are?"
"On that planet?" Kaspar grins. "Not likely. But on one similar to it? Oh yeah." He gazes out into the trees. "I'm sure if we look hard enough, we can find some sort of vacation home or stable, one or the other. We can break our way in and take over, if we're lucky."
"Oh good," I say sarcastically. "I wasn't sure if we were in enough danger yet."
He just laughs. "There's good and bad in every situation. You just have to look at it the right way. If nothing else, this'll be an adventure. It beats sitting in the shuttle and starving to death, doesn't it?"