Swept Away (The Krinar Chronicles 0.40)

The human girl was shaking so hard Arus thought she might pass out. He hated terrifying her like this, but he didn’t know any other way to get her out of the storm quickly. Her skin felt chilled as he held her pressed against his side, and he had no doubt the poor thing was cold.

Cold and scared of technology she couldn’t possibly understand.

Loosening his grip on her, Arus let her twist out of his embrace. It probably didn’t help that he was naked and hard, he thought wryly. He’d heard her gasp when her eyes landed on his erection earlier, and he had no doubt the evidence of his desire added to her nervousness. He had to calm her down, but first, he needed to make sure her health wouldn’t suffer from this storm.

His computer was on his left wrist, so Arus lifted his arm and commanded, “Set the temperature to human comfort level.”

He spoke in Krinar, and he could see the girl turning pale as the nanomachines went to work again, speeding up the air molecules around them to create warmth. He wished he could explain about force-field technology and microwaves, but her people knew so little about science that it would take him months to teach her just the basics.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” he repeated instead, speaking her language. She didn’t look the least bit reassured, her eyes wide and panicky as she stared at him, and he realized there was nothing he could say to calm her down.

He’d have to come up with another way to soothe her.

Stepping toward the girl, Arus picked her up and sat down on the ground, holding her on his lap. She stiffened immediately, her hands pushing at him again, but he kept his grip gentle and nonthreatening, hoping she’d settle down when she saw he meant her no harm.

“Everything is fine. You have nothing to fear,” he told her softly, stroking her hair as she kept trying to wriggle out of his hold. The feel of her ass moving on his lap was arousing him further, which wasn’t helping matters. Thankfully, after a couple of minutes, she seemed to exhaust herself and her struggles eased, letting him settle her more comfortably against him.

“I’m Arus,” he said when she stilled completely and stared up at him, her chest heaving with rapid breathing. “What’s your name?”

“Ares?” She tensed, her eyes growing wide again. “You’re the god of war?”

“No. Ar-us, not Ar-es.” He repeated his name slower, letting her hear the difference. “I’m not the god of war, I promise you.”

Her slender throat moved as she swallowed. “What kind of god are you, then?”

“I’m not a god,” Arus said patiently. “I’m just a visitor from far away. Where I live, everybody can do what I do.”

She stared at him, and Arus knew she didn’t believe him. Rather than waste energy trying to convince her, he asked again, “What’s your name?”

The girl licked her lips in a nervous gesture. “I’m Delia.”

“Delia.” Good. They were making progress. “Are you from nearby, Delia?”

She nodded, still looking wary. “My village is to the east.”

“Right, I thought so.” Arus kept his tone casual despite his growing hunger. He couldn’t see much of her body under her shapeless dress, but he could feel its soft, slender curves, and his gaze kept drifting down to the throbbing pulse at the base of her throat. Now that they were out of the rain, he could smell her delicate feminine scent, and his mouth watered as he imagined tasting her all over. With effort, he wrenched his thoughts away from sex. “What made you come out in the storm today?” he asked, forcing himself to carry on the conversation that seemed to be calming her.

“I wanted to gather some mussels.” The girl—Delia—shifted on his lap, and he knew she had to feel his erection pressing into her ass. It didn’t seem to frighten her as much as his technology, and Arus realized he’d done the right thing by using his embrace to calm her. The best way to demonstrate his nonviolent intent was to hold her and let her get used to his touch, so she’d stop fearing it.

So she’d focus on him as a man, rather than a stranger with magical powers.

“Are you hungry?” he asked, resuming stroking her hair. Even damp from the rain, it felt thick and silky to the touch. “Is that why you had to go out in this weather?”

She blinked up at him. “No, I just always gather mussels in the morning. My family needs the extra food.”

“I see.” He’d already guessed that she was poor. Even by human standards, her roughly made clothes were quite primitive. “So your family sent you out in this weather?”

“No, my sister warned me against going, but I thought the storm wouldn’t be this bad.”

Of course. Arus had forgotten that her people didn’t have a way to track the storm and measure its strength. All they had to go on was the weather at the present moment and whatever experience their elderly had gathered over their short lifespans.

“Well, you’re safe now,” he told the girl, whose shaking was finally subsiding. Outside, the storm raged on, but inside their shelter, the temperature was comfortably warm. “Nothing can hurt you here.”

She looked up at the transparent bubble over their heads, and he realized how odd the force-shield walls had to appear to her. When she met his gaze again, he wasn’t the least bit surprised to hear her ask, “What are you? Where do you come from, if not Mount Olympus?”

“I come from another world, a planet similar to this one,” Arus said, though he knew the girl wouldn’t understand. “It’s very far from here.”

“Another world?” He felt a tremor go through her. “Like Hades?”