Page 25 of Rescued By the Alien Bull Rider

I’m not breakable, I wanted to tell him. I was just unfortunately rather red and itchy.

When we reached the house, Zohro took me around the side. In the shade, he rolled a large tub towards a hose and began to fill it with water. Once the tub was full, he glared at me and said, “Get in.”

“I’d rather not,” I said, remembering what he’d told me about being direct earlier. I stepped forward and dunked my hands inside. “Holy shit, that’s cold!”

“You need to cleanse your skin of any lingering irritants and put on fresh clothing,” Zohro said with a haughty sort of certainty, eyes scathingly white.

“Has anyone ever told you that you are extremely bossy?” I asked him, rubbing my hands together in the freezing water. Oh,well. At least if I lost all feeling in my fingers due to the coldness, I wouldn’t be itchy anymore.

“Not just your hands,” he ordered me, ignoring my question and entirely proving my point. “You need to undress and get in for your back as well.”

“Undress?”

Zohro suddenly tensed, as if in his hurry to order me around, he hadn’t actually stopped to think about the words coming out of his mouth. His nostrils flared, and his bright gaze dragged up and down my body.

In a strangled-sounding voice, out of nowhere, he said, “I’m a doctor.”

I didn’t know if he was saying it to make me feel better…

Or himself.

“Look,” I said, taking my hands out of the water and shaking the drops of icy water off. “If we’re going to be married, then you’re obviously going to see my body at some point. And I’ve never been a prude. But I am telling you right now that I am not getting my naked butt into that tub. It’s too cold.”

My pregnant penchant for overheating would only get me so far. The air was refreshingly cool right now, especially after the morning’s sweaty work. But after about ten seconds in that tub, I was going to be a Jolene-sicle.

Zohro ripped off his hat, scowling at me so hard I half-wondered if he was going to throw it at me or something. He didn’t. He merely disappeared into the house, returning a moment later sans hat and instead holding what looked to be a clean rag. He dunked the rag into the tub of water, then slapped the soaking weight of it into my hands.

“Wipe yourself down with this,” he commanded me. The hot glow of his eyes illuminated the tightness of the muscles beneath them. “I’ll be back.”

With that, he stormed away.

12

ZOHRO

Youngest-ever graduate from the Medical Academy of Zabria, I sneered viciously at myself,and you couldn’t even keep your bride healthy for a single day.

My boots hammered on the wooden floors of the house. In the bedroom, I opened the large, single window. Then, I took the hay bale from the bed and hurled it outside. It landed with a dusty thud that was not at all satisfying. Seething, my gut clenching every time I remembered the redness spreading over Jolene’s soft skin, I stripped the bed for washing. I’d use the tub for the laundry, since Jolene had refused to get into it. But before then, I’d prepare a salve for her. I had a few basic Zabrian drugs on hand, as well as veterinary medication for the animals, but I had no idea which would be contraindicated for a human, let alone a pregnant one. But one of the puhla squash from the garden would hopefully suffice. The cool flesh inside was full of anti-inflammatory compounds which I sometimes made use of myself. Hopefully that would make a difference for her.

I could not stand the thought of her in pain.

Hate yourself later. You have work to do.

I fetched a puhla squash from the garden and returned with it to the house. In the kitchen, I hacked it open with a cleaver, peeling out the seeds and setting them aside for planting. I scooped the pale lavender flesh – hard and uncooked – out of the rind, then mashed it forcefully into a paste in a bowl. My actions created an odd slapping sort of sound. Only, when I stopped, the sound kept going.

It was coming from outside. I leaned towards the open window, angling my head, my ears twitching.

It was Jolene.

She was stripped to the waist, her back to me. And she was slapping the wet rag I’d given her against the backs of her red shoulders. After a few rounds of this, she’d dunk it in the water and begin again, awkwardly flinging the rag behind her, smacking it against her inflamed skin.

She can’t reach.

My breath felt hot in my lungs.Yet another thing you failed to anticipate.

“Get in here,” I snapped. “Stop all that flailing and let me help you.”

She turned to look at me from over her bare shoulder, her orange eyebrows drawing upwards. I was about to ask her what she was waiting for, but I found myself momentarily stunned into speechlessness by the sight of her there.

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