Hidden Rage: Kindred Tales
“Hey, let me go! Put me down!” Bobbi protested angrily. “Isn’t it bad enough you stripping me and leering at my naked body while I was unconscious without grabbing me, too?”
“I was trying to keep you from bashing your brains out on the floor,” he rumbled, frowning at her. “And I wasn’t fucking ‘leering’ at you. I told you—I was trying to warm you up!”
“Well, I’m just fine now, so please put me down.” Bobbi tried in vain to cover her breasts and sex with her arms as she spoke. She didn’t know when she’d felt so vulnerable and her head still ached miserably, which didn’t make her inclined to give the big Kindred the benefit of the doubt.
He set her carefully down on her feet and then draped the blue sheet-towel around her shivering shoulders.
Bobbi grabbed the fabric—which seemed to be surprisingly absorbent—and wrapped it around her chest, making sure her breasts and naked body were covered. The sheet fell down to her feet—apparently it was made to dry someone the huge Kindred’s size, not hers. But too much was better than too little, as far as Bobbi was concerned.
Looking down, she surveyed herself. There—at least she felt a little less vulnerable than she’d felt in the bath—though considerably colder. Her long red hair was wet and dripping down her back in icy rivulets.
“D-do you have anything I c-could use to dry my hair before I f-freeze to death?” she asked, teeth beginning to chatter. “Why d-do you keep it so c-cold in your house?”
He shrugged as he handed her another one of the long blue sheets.
“This is a normal household temperature for Saurians. They’re cold-blooded so cold temperatures don’t bother them.”
Bobbi hastily wrapped the second absorbent sheet around her dripping hair, turban-style. She used the rest of the long length of fabric to drape around her shoulders, which made her moderately warmer. At least her teeth stopped chattering.
“See, now on my planet, being cold-blooded means an animal can’t regulate its own body temperature,” she told Dragon. “Which generally means they live in warmer climates—like rain forests and tropical jungles—in order to stay warm.”
“Your planet called…Earth? Is that right?” he asked, frowning. “What kinds of cold-blooded animals do you have there? Are any of them sentient like the Saurians?”
“No, thank God.” Bobbi made a face at the thought of sentient reptiles. “We have all kinds—snakes, lizards, turtles, alligators. One time we found a great big gator in our swimming pool when we came out to swim,” she added, remembering her fright at the huge shape hovering near the bottom of the clear blue depths of the pool. “Of course, we lived in Florida and you hear all kinds of crazy gator stories from there.”
But Dragon was frowning and shaking his head.
“I don’t know any of those animals,” he rumbled. “I do know that Saurians thrive in the cold and can easily get overheated in warmer climates. That was why we had to make our trip to Avria Pentaura short.”
“Well, it was plenty long enough for you to kidnap me,” Bobbi pointed out. She put her hands to the side of her head, which was still aching. “Look, did you say your, uh, mom was getting me some kind of medicine? Because my head is killing me.”
“Of course. Come with me into the sleeping chamber. I’ll get you settled and then go see if the posset is ready.”
He led her from the large, black-tiled bathroom with the enormous tub and a very-strangely shaped toilet—at least Bobbi thought it was a toilet—into another room which was apparently his bedroom. There was no bed in evidence, however. Instead, there was a deep, rectangular hole in the floor.
Bobbi didn’t even see it—the floor tile was black and the hole was dark. Plus, her feet got tangled in the damn towel-sheet. She stumbled and nearly fell right into it.
“Be careful!” Dragon wrapped one muscular, tattooed arm around her waist and pulled her back from the edge of the hole. “Don’t fall into the sleeping pit. Are you still dizzy and disoriented or is there a problem with your sense of balance?” he added, frowning down at her. “You appear to be extremely clumsy—I’ve had to catch you several times now.”
“I am not clumsy!” Bobbi exclaimed grumpily. “I’m usually very graceful. But how was I supposed to know you sleep in a freaking pit? I mean, who sleeps in a hole in the ground?”
“Saurians do,” he said, shrugging. “Why—where do you sleep?”
“Not with you, that’s for sure!” Bobbi snapped. “So you can get the idea of me joining you in the ‘sleeping pit’ right out of your mind, Mister!”
He sighed and rolled those strange, bronze eyes of his in apparent irritation.
“Told you, I don’t fucking force myself on females who don’t want me,” he growled.
“You kidnap them and take them home with you, though,” Bobbi said, sarcastically. “Oh but wait, I forgot—but you kidnapped me for my own good, right?”