Amatista

The tight animal-skin breeches the men wore left very little to the imagination. And hers had already actively been putting a picture to the prominent bulge in Kavi’s front. She’d seen what lay under it—and she was certain not even amnesia would rid her memory of the image.

After Liana had proudly wore what little remained of her own clothes for several days in a row, Kavi had handed her new ones along with a tight, “Put it on unless you want all of Oriana to keep staring at your breasts.”

He could certainly use some lessons in subtlety. He could’ve just stared at her breasts himself and she would have eventually looked down, only to realize they’d been peeking out from under her torn shirt. Of course, if he’d stared, she wasn’t entirely certain she would have wanted to cover herself…

She’d scowled and grabbed the folded garment. It was a taupe-colored thick animal-skin dress, similar to the ones the Foher women wore, that gave her legs freedom to move. It wasn’t high-fashion, but just the look on Kavi’s face when he saw her in it had been worth the time it had taken to discover how the hell to put it on—being she first slid it on backward.

It was a look he’d given her before, and it did funny things to her insides. In fact, ever since Kavi had touched her in the tent, Liana felt as if a new person had been born inside her. Someone bolder, stronger. Happier.

She’d been happy on Earth—or so she’d thought—but had left so long ago that sometimes it seemed her time there had just been a dream. Now living with the Fohers for mere weeks, she realized what little interest she’d had in anything for the past nine years. Little more than a captive on Oriana, she’d had no interest in learning anymore. No interest in living. It was as if she’d been asleep for years.

Now a new thirst had bloomed inside her, and she was looking forward to life. Her life. Watching Fohers with their families, the rowdy way they slapped each other and laughed, Liana felt some tightly locked doors open inside her, and she’d begun to feel a deep caring and respect for these people. The way they’d welcomed her into the group as if she were one of them had made her long to reach out and search for her own happiness. She’d found herself laughing with them, bantering with them. Wanting to belong there—with them.

She lived for the nighttime, when the temperature dropped and they would sleep after a long, tiring day. And she would be with him.

Kavi’s distant, somewhat harsh treatment of her by day would change into a warm closeness by night. His voice would drop, sound tender almost, and it would fill her with longing as he whispered things in her ear.

He wouldn’t say anything naughty. He wouldn’t speak of what he’d done to her in the tent, much less what she’d done to him.

But he’d talk to her, ask if she’d liked the fish or beast they’d had for dinner and if she was warm enough. Whatever he spoke, just listening to the soothing rumble of his voice made her tingly and…aware.

This particular night, as she lay under a plush, delicious fur, she was only aware that she missed him, needed him to get warm, and she was trying very hard not to be obvious about it.

Before her, bright flames danced high, reaching out toward the quarter moons. The Fohers had set their weapons aside and settled down on their pelts with their mates and children.

Kavi stood guard and Liana marveled at the regal sight of his muscled back, the warm, golden color of his skin. She was exhausted down to her bones, but still couldn’t find a comfortable position. Even this luxurious pelt seemed a pitiful second to the strong, living warmth of Kavi’s body.

Hours passed. She spent them tossing and turning and looking at Kavi’s muscled back under her lashes. There was tension in his posture, and Liana could imagine his eyes scanning the darkness, ears alert to the slightest sounds. Twice she caught him looking at her, and pierced by his fierce, steady stare, she quivered under the fur, immensely grateful that it covered her.

It seemed like an eternity later when she finally watched one of the younger Fohers, Ajay, leave his mate Galina and rise for his turn to stand watch. Ajay was as tall as Kavi, his muscles not as large but equally hard and chiseled. His hair was blacker, falling past his waist, and his nose was as sleek as the narrowed slits of his eyes, giving him the appearance of a predator.

Watching him relieve Kavi from his duty, Liana exhaled a shaky breath and forced her eyes closed as she waited for him to come to her. Her heart began to pound in her ears.

Eternal minutes later she felt him slipping behind her under the warm pelt, his muscled front pressing to her back. He wrapped a heavy arm around her. “You’re shivering,” he whispered in her ear.

No more from the cold, though. A slow, steady heat was spreading out to her every extremity. “Yes.” She couldn’t even speak without sounding horny. She could only pray he was too. And that he had some bindings somewhere to tie her down and have his way with her. Or that she could borrow some to use on him.

“A few more days and we’ll set up the tents,” he murmured against her hair.

For all Liana’s hopes, Kavi didn’t sou

nd like a man overcome with lust, about to fuck her under the fur—while she was very, extremely, inhumanly aware of every breath he exhaled. The exact location of his hands on her hips. Of his smell—musky, natural, male. She wanted to turn around in his arms and press her lips to his. Lips she’d felt in other places, but not on her own.

He dipped his head until his nose touched her hair. His fingers opened, spreading over her belly and gently pressing her back against his massiveness.

Liana had never been held like this. Nor had she ever been held for so long. She’d never known her real parents, and her adoptive parents had been busy, methodical people—her father a lawyer, her mother a doctor. They’d had little to no time for coddling.

The day of her eighteenth birthday, along with a brand-new car from her parents, she’d found Lyle on her doorstep. Her dear “cousin”, whose speech was filled with promises of fulfilling her dreams. Dreams of finding herself, her origins, her past.

He’d carried a strange gleam in his eyes, one which had made Liana uneasy. And though Liana would later come to discover he was a year younger than her, the already-hulking man had carried an air of authority about him—authority and menace. But the young man knew things. When he’d mentioned the mark on her back she’d wondered if she was being too quick to judge. How would he know about the mark if his words weren’t true, if he were not really a long-lost relative—possibly one with answers?

Liana had spent her whole life wondering about her birth parents and about the mark she bore. What the mark meant. What her parents looked like, what they did for a living—if they even lived!—and why they hadn’t been able to keep her.

She’d wanted to believe Lyle.

But she should’ve known better.

Alone in the house, she’d unwisely invited him in to talk further—and woken up much later on this strange planet with two moons, lakes the color of oranges and landscapes and wildlife as varied or more so than those on Earth.