Page 48 of Fighting Gravity
Her face paled. I watched her throat bob as she swallowed and I loved it. I was making her nervous. Not scared but nervous. Unhinged.
“How would you do that?” she said.
“There you are,” Veron’s voice broke between us.
Her tone was indistinguishable. She walked through the chamber toward us, crossing her arms over her chest when she found me in Quinn’s bathing stall.
“I was expecting to take her vitals and she was gone,” she explained. She looked over Quinn, who was pressed naked in the corner, trying her best to keep her modest breasts covered. “Did you check all of her wounds?”
“She’s healing slowly, but healing nonetheless,” I nodded.
“Good. And you?”
I turned to her, water still dripping down my body, and reached out to deactivate my bathing stall.
“I need to rest.”
“I would suggest it,” Veron agreed. “I’ll make sure she’s looked after. Is there a holding cell for her?”
“A room,” I said as I picked up my things to leave. “Just give her a room.”
I knew Veron was puzzled again by my choices, but it was not her place to understand them. Especially when I was beginning to not understand them either. As I passed her heading for the entrance, I heard her sniff. She knew better than to touch me if I was on edge, but she grabbed my attention anyways, stepping partway into my path.
“Are you feeling alright? Your scent is off.”
I gritted my teeth. “I need my rest,” I said again.
Without giving her time to ask any more questions, I walked out of the bathing chamber and headed toward my quarters clear on the other side of the level, far away from Quinn and that aroma her body was giving off. An aroma mixed with the blood from her wounds. It was a combination that could make any gek hard, only Quinn wasn’t gek. It was a fact I desperately needed to drill into my head because something had changed since the arena. Something I hoped would correct itself after my sleep cycle revitalized me.
21: Quinn
If not for my wounds, I’d have tried a lot harder to show Norm how much I disliked his company. Ket was enough of a creep. I didn’t need his green, alien hands on me, too. When he put his hand around my throat, I really thought he might add another injury to my already battered body. Hell, I almost thought he’d accidentally kill me. He was constantly telling me how frail I was in a way that sounded like he was disgusted. What was stopping him?
And then that damn vibration in his chest began to peel me apart. His hand on my throat didn’t matter. I felt that hum all through my body like bubbles in a hot tub and it was… calming me? Distracting me? I wasn’t sure exactly what it was doing, but I didn’t like that I couldn’t focus on anything else while it was happening.
When a figure stepped into the room, it took Norm’s abysmal eyes off of me and relieved me of that crushing weight. He stepped away from me as Sour Face… err…Veron joined us in the bath chamber. She said something to Norm in their language and I watched, still butt-naked, as they seemed to argue briefly over something. It wasn’t until Norm started to leave that I realized his presence had set me on fire. In his absence, I was already feeling cold.
Veron looked at me once we were alone, but she always had that sour look on her face.
Sour Face suits you better.
I rolled my eyes and stepped into the water again, attempting to finish my shower. Behind me, I could hear the beep of a medical scanner and glanced back to see her taking my readings.
I was so sick of aliens taking my readings.
“I need clothes,” I said, doing my best to figure out how to turn off the water.
I ran my hands all over the walls looking for the proper controls when Veron reached in and slapped a small square with a large, blue symbol on it, deactivating the water.
“There is a leftover storage closet that may have something in your size,” she said. “But you’ll have to look through it yourself. I’m here to monitor your health. I’m not your servant.”
Her English had become better than Norm’s already and it made me wonder how long she fiddled with my Buddy.
“So, no foot rubs?”
She was unamused. So unamused I wondered if she’d ever smiled in her life. As she looked over the medical readings, I bent to pick up the sheet off the floor. If it was all I had, I was going to use it. Veron started muttering something I didn’t understand and then slipped the scanner into her belt pouch.
“What’d you say to Norm before he left?” I asked.
