Saved by the Beast (Kindred Tales)

As it happened, Bard’s pool could have easily accommodated even more than two. His suite had originally been meant to house Twin Kindred and their mate, which meant everything in it was big enough for three. So his bathing pool was nearly nine feet across and got quite deep in the middle.

It was filled with steaming water and he often liked to take a soak after a stressful day. In fact, he was thinking that he might do just that—after he had relocated Makenna, that was—when she pointed at it and looked at him with an excited light in her lovely dark eyes.

“What…is?” she asked hesitantly.

“Water,” Bard said automatically. “You know, pool? Bath? Swim?” He made diving motions with his hands and pointed at the pool.

“Swim?” Makenna frowned and imitated his motions.

“Yes.” He nodded and wished again she would have taken the whole damn pill. “Swim.” He raised his eyebrows at her. “Can you swim? Can Makenna swim?”

But Makenna seemed to take this as an invitation rather than a question. Quickly, she shrugged out of her torn gown, leaving herself completely bare.

“Makenna swim!” she said excitedly, and jumped into the pool.

“Shit!” Bard exclaimed. Could she swim? He had no idea but he was pretty sure she was going to be in over her head. He was already toeing off his boots and shrugging out of his shirt.

A moment later, her small head bobbed above the water…and then went right back under again.

Shit! Bard didn’t hesitate any longer. He jumped into the bathing pool, splashing a large amount of water out onto the floor and reached for Makenna.

He got to her and scooped her, spluttering, out of the water to cradle her in his arms.

“Deep!” she exclaimed, when she’d pushed the long wet strands of hair out of her eyes. “Deep swim!”

“Well, something like that,” Bard muttered.

It wasn’t lost on him that, yet again, he was holding her naked against him and this time she was wet, with her full breasts bobbing on the surface of the water. Also, he was half naked himself. Well, at least he still had his trousers on, he told himself.

“Are you all right?” he asked, raising his eyebrows to indicate concern. “Makenna good?”

She nodded.

“Makenna good with Bard. But not swim good.”

“Yeah, I noticed,” Bard growled, but he couldn’t be too mad at her. He had been genuinely worried about her and she was clinging so trustingly to him.

“Deep swim,” she said again, splashing the water with one hand. Then she sighed and leaned her head against his bare chest. “Makenna tired,” she murmured.

Bard felt a surge of sympathy for her. Despite her distracting nakedness, she seemed so innocent and vulnerable, nestled against him as she was. He could see the bruise on her cheekbone again and he wished once more that he could heal it—that he could heal her of every awful thing that had doubtless been done to her on that fucking planet.

“It’s been a pretty rough day for you, hasn’t it, baby girl?” he murmured. “Come on—let’s get you dried off and find you something to sleep in.”

It was getting late and at this point, he didn’t think there was any hope of getting her back to the Med Center. The best thing he could do now was dry her off, give her one of his shirts to sleep in, and put her in his spare room for the night. Maybe they could try with the translation bacteria again in the morning.

Still holding her in his arms, he climbed out of the bathing pool and wrapped her in a towel to cover her. He gave her another towel for her long hair and then wrapped a third towel around his own shoulders.

Makenna twisted one towel around herself, securing it under her arm and wrapped her long hair in the other. Then she came over to Bard, who was drying his chest but still had on his dripping wet leather trousers, which were going to be a real pain in the ass to get off now that they were soaked.

“Bard wet pants?” she asked, looking down at his trousers.

Bard barked a laugh.

“Yeah, well that’s one way to put it, baby girl. I guess so.” He thought that maybe the half-pill she’d taken had done at least some good. She seemed to know a few more words now.

“Bard…take off wet,” she said, motioning at him and frowning in apparent concern. “Wet not good for Bard.”

“Don’t worry about me, baby girl,” Bard told her. “I’ll get out of them in a minute.”

When he didn’t have to worry about getting a hard-on from being next to her when she was only wearing a towel, he thought.

But Makenna wasn’t done yet.

“Bard…much fur,” she remarked, coming closer and putting her small hand on his chest. It was true that he did have kind of a hairy chest, Bard thought, though Rilla had never minded. At least his “fur” was confined to his chest and didn’t grow on his shoulders or back.