Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 56021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 280(@200wpm)___ 224(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 280(@200wpm)___ 224(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
“Why do you think you need to clean up?”
“I was the ship’s cleaner,” she explains. “It was my way of staying out of trouble. But I suppose my luck ran out. Well, not luck. I was sent down here…”
“They used you as bait,” I say.
I wonder when she will notice that she is pressed against me entirely naked. I have already noticed, of course. But I think the novelty of getting into some innocuous trouble has distracted her so much it does not occur to her.
I like the way she feels. She is very curvy and very soft, and slightly squeaky in the parts where all my lotions and soaps haven’t quite rinsed off. I feel a surprising welling of tenderness for her, a feeling I haven’t had in a very long time.
Very strange.
“You need to get dressed,” I say, sliding my hand down her back to pat the roundness of her cheeks.
The gesture is gentle enough not to hurt, but that does not stop her from letting out a small yelp of surprise.
“Of course,” she says. “Of course I want to get dressed.”
I have chosen a dress for her, not the work clothing that Adaine picked out for her. I am sure Adaine would have had her in the forge soon enough, cleaning hot tools and no doubt burning her soft digits off. I have recruited enough of Adaine’s unhappy workers to know what kind of master she is. Being brought to me is a narrower escape than this human understands.
Allie
He felt good against my naked body. I didn’t even notice that I was naked. Too busy being flustered by the mess of my making. This isn’t like me. I don’t make messes. I clean them up.
Ever since I arrived on this planet, everything has been upside down. I barely recognize myself. I’m starting to wonder who I am. I’m starting to wonder if I ever knew who I was.
I am grateful for the towel he wraps around me, one of the towels he brought me to use before I turned his bathroom into a hazard. He snugs it around me with what feels like a practiced touch. As far as I know, he has not taken any of our crew before. That is why they thought I’d make good bait. I’m something different from our usual crew. They thought I might be the thing to entice him.
They might have been right.
They think I am timid and weak.
Perhaps he thinks I am timid and weak. Maybe it is my plainness and unremarkable lack of bravery that endears me to him. That is humiliating to realize. It sends a hot flush of shame through me, snug and warm as I already am inside the towel.
I can’t believe I laughed when the bubbles took over. I can’t believe I thought it was funny. Of course it wasn’t funny. It was another stupid mistake, made by a stupid person.
“I’m sorry for the mess,” I repeat, genuinely apologetic. “I really don’t know what came over me. I’m usually so much more careful.”
“Don’t worry. It is harmless and easily washed away.”
“I will clean up.”
“No. You won’t. You will get dressed and you will come and have something to eat.”
Wrath does not seem to suit his name at all so far. He seems like a genteel host and a very nice guy. I find myself starting to wonder if it is all an act. He might not be a monster after all. Lettie blames him for everything that happened to her down here, but it’s not his baby that came out of her in a fucking egg. It’s Shan’s. Shan was the one who fucked her. Shan was the one who impregnated her. Shan is the one who is breaking the goddamn no-boys-allowed rule of the Mare.
“Here,” Wrath says, giving me a dress in the wrap-around style. I snug it on over the towel first, slipping the towel off underneath and then further tightening it before using the ties to settle the entire garment in place.
“Why does this fit so well?”
“Because I want the humans in my care to be well-cared for. And because that style of dress is very forgiving for all sizes, shapes, and even species. Though it would be a juvenile who wore that in our species.”
“Well, it’s nice, thank you.”
He takes a second towel and wraps it around my head, ensuring that my hair gets to dry. I am surprised that he knows how to look after it, given that he does not have hair himself. These are the actions of a man who has looked after a female of some kind before. I feel a flash of jealousy, a wild impulse that makes no sense whatsoever. He is my captor, not my lover. He owes me nothing, and even if he did, he wouldn’t owe me his past.