Squinting at the street, he verified the accuracy of her estimation. Even with the storm moving in quickly, they would reach their camp destination soon.
Lowering his inner eyelids to protect them from the windblown sand, Veral took position standing over her protectively, his back against the stinging bite of the wind as she dug for whatever she was searching for. With a triumphant snarl, she pulled out a pair of bulky, worn goggles, snapping them on over her eyes just in time before the wall of sand hit them. The wind shrieked around them, muffling everything. Terri raised her voice to be heard over the wind, though he could have heard her just fine at a lower volume. She tapped her goggles with one hand for emphasis as she spoke.
“I found these a few years back at an abandoned airfield.” She tilted her head and peered at his placid expression. “How is it that your eyes aren’t bothering you?”
He leaned in close, a finger raised to his eye so that her attention was drawn to it, before briefly drawing his inner lid to the side. She flinched, her breath drawing in on a quick gasp as it slammed shut once more to protect his eyes from the grit.
“My species is accustomed to such an environment and are adapted to it. Far better than humans, it seems.”
Her lips part in another human grin. “Guess so.”
The goggles darkened her eyes so that he was unable to see them any longer. He did not like that they concealed her eyes in such a fashion. Not only that, but they were inferior and fit her face oddly so that tiny granules of sand were still creeping in. They were clearly meant for a male. He frowned at the ill construction. It was a decent substitute for a species that didn’t have an inner protective eyelid, though he imagined he could fashion her something more efficient in his ship. When they took their first load back, he would look among his scrap materials to craft something appropriate for her.
Without saying anything else, Terri swung her pack on her shoulders and turned away from him to head down the street once more. Krono jogged after her, his six feet picking up with swift steps as his head lowered against the wind. Veral watched them, clicking his mandibles thoughtfully. Giving his head an abrupt, aggressive shake, his vibrissae rattling in agitation, he spared a glance to make sure the collector carts were rolling after them as his wide, stalking steps easily kept pace.
When they squeezed into their sleeping chamber—the outer room being inundated with sand—and the door firmly shut behind them, Veral snarled and shook the sand off himself. Even Krono seemed to stumble to a corner where he settled on a pile of rags that Terri had gathered for him to serve as a bed. Walking against a storm was a lot of work even for Argurma, so he was not surprised when the female bent over, her weight braced on her hands against her thighs.
After several minutes, Terri recovered enough to laugh before sidling up to a large wooden case. Throwing her weight against it, Veral watched as it slid painfully slow across the floor, moving in the direction of the door to barricade it against the storm. Growling, Veral stepped by her, nudging her aside as he lifted it and moved it effortlessly. As he set it down in front of the door, he could feel her eyes on him while she swiped her hands over her arms and shoulders before dropping her bag in the center of the room. Terri peeled her goggles off and grinned up at him cheerfully. Despite the goggles protecting her eyes, her face and arms were red from where the sand had rubbed her raw before they made it inside.
“Well, that’s that. At least we don’t have to worry about the Reapers for the next couple of nights. They won’t be out in this mess either. That’s about the only good thing about a sandstorm. Nothing, and no one, goes out.”
Bending over, her ass jutted in the air as she picked up her bag and overturned it. Pieces of metal chinked and whispered against each other, though a dull impact of something larger hitting the sand drew his attention. He crouched down to look at it just as Terri snatched it up from the sand. He turned his scope light from his wrist comm on it and frowned to see a simple wooden box.
“Oh, don’t scowl,” Terri muttered, her nose wrinkling at him as if with distaste though her eyes were lit with humor. “This is something wonderful. I had one as a child and I couldn’t pass it up. Watch.”
She set it on her lap as she knelt on the floor. The fingers of one hand drifted to the back to wind a small metal key several turns. Flashing him a smile, she lifted the lid on the box, and inside a delicate figure of a female spun around as a melody of some kind sang out from it. He raised his eyes to Terri and found her humming along to the melody, her eyes closed as she swayed with the music. Though the low light obscured much of her body outside of what was provided by the limited light of his scope, the pleasure on her face and the way she moved was so ethereal that everything within him paused to give undivided attention to her. His mandibles clicked and he trilled.
Slowly, her pale eyes opened, and she looked at him. Beads of moisture clung to her eyelashes, which she hurried to wipe away with the back of her wrist. He leaned in close, his heavy brow lowering. His mandibles expanded and he inhaled. There was a hint of sadness, but something else that confused him.
“Why are you leaking?” he demanded brusquely.
Soft laughter rolled from her lips that intrigued him and made something within him tighten with interest.
“I’m just a little teary. Playing this reminded me of some good memories. I recognized the melody.” Her voice softened as she sang nonsense words of a peculiar place that existed over a rainbow that brought happiness. He scowled.
“That makes no sense. Rainbows are from the sun catching moisture as they reflect a prism of light. There is nothing on the other side of a rainbow except more air. Nothing can be gained of significant value from that.”
Her lips thinned at him. “Rain can bring hope, yeah? So when it rains and water in the sky after the rain makes a rainbow shine, it can represent happiness with that hope, can it not?” she challenged.
He tilted his head in consideration. “Your logic is strange. Hope is unreliable, and yet I cannot dispute that youmayhave a point.”
Just that quickly, her expression evened out and her lips quirked once more. “I just may get you to believe in magic yet,” she teased.
He flared his vibrissae in mock irritation. “Do not test me female. I have no interest in such silliness.” His regard, however, softened toward her as she began to hum once more little dreams that were perhaps long forgotten within him along with everything else.
10
Terri sang to herself as she wetted a rag. She sat naked on a blanket facing away from Veral. Normally she might have felt unease with a male in the room, but she trusted him, especially after several occasions when she’d changed clothes at night with him in the room without any reaction. It made it easier that he didn’t have any sexual interest in her.
That kind of stung too, since she had recently found her eyes tracking him more frequently, admiring his tall, strong build. His features had taken some time to become accustomed to, but after a few days, she found them more interesting than intimidating. Usually. Sometimes he still did things that gave her a pause. Like the so-called trophy he’d stripped off his belt as he was carefully burning away excess flesh with a small handheld laser.
Turning her attention back to her bathing, Terri tried to ignore it. Normally she wouldn’t waste any of her collected water, but after brushing up against the severed head followed by battling through a sandstorm, her skin itched and crawled until she gave in and decided to use a sparing amount of her precious water on a sponge bath.
Dragging the wet cloth over her breasts, she paused, her skin tingling as she felt Veral’s gaze on her back. He rumbled out a low growl, but that was all before the weight of his gaze slid away, much to her secret disappointment. Swallowing, she made quick work of washing the rest of her body, slicking the cloth between her thighs only once before shimmying into an old threadbare nightshirt.
Embarrassed at the direction of her thoughts, she avoided looking at him as she climbed into the pile of blankets that served as her own bed. It was insane to entertain such interest. He was a fucking alien! Their anatomy probably wasn’t even compatible. Her cheeks heated at the thought as she burrowed down into her bedding.
Settling down into the warmth of the blankets in the chill desert night air, her eyes began to drift closed only to snap open when Veral got up and strode over to the discarded cloth. She kept her eyelids lowered, watching him from beneath her lashes as he bent and picked up the cloth. Her breath caught as he turned it in his hand.