Page 34 of Planet Zero
“Watching you,” he replied calmly.
The realization that he had been facing her, looking right into her wide-spread legs made her face flame red, the brilliant color spreading down to her chest and small freckled tits in splotches, and she wasn’t able to cover upthat.
“Go watch something else! Birds! No, we don’t have birds. Truneds and their mating rituals.” She rolled over and stood up with her back to him, snatching her dress and hastily pulling it over her head without bothering to shake the sand out. “It was a private moment,” she threw over her shoulder. “Not intended for a man to see.”
“Don’t worry on my account. I’m not tempted.”
“Good.” She pulled on her undies, lifting her dress just enough to slide them on without revealing anything. Not that there was any longer any mystery as far as Zoark was concerned, but she took no chances. What if he got ideas despite claiming no interest? The thought made her shudder. “Neither am I.”
She turned to face him just in time to catch how his eyes sharpened, missing nothing of her revulsion.
Addie picked up her sack and her small spear. “I hope your curiosity is satisfied, Zoark.”
He cocked his head unnaturally. “After two years in the city, what do you think I’m curious to see?”
Addie’s high color that had started to subside returned. “I don’t know,” she muttered, thoroughly off balance with the whole situation. “That I’m not deformed as your High Priest Yellow Shirt suggested?”
Zoark made a dismissing motion with his head, reminding Addie again of the animal nature of For people. “Chemmusaayl hasn’t lived in the city.” He disengaged himself from his spear and brought the weight on both his legs. “Whatever you think I’m after, it’s not that.”
“I don’t think anything, Zoark. I don’t know why you’re skulking about these parts. But I’m sure there’s somewhere important you need to be. And I’ve got to go, too. There are mushrooms waiting to be picked.” She couldn't wait to get away from him. Talk about an awkward encounter. “And how did you know where to find me?”
“I followed you from your home.”
“You’ve watched me!”
He didn’t deny it. “I have.”
“You know what? There’s a thing called privacy. Spying on a person without their consent is unacceptable.”
Another eyebrow arch. “Because someone can see you rolling around naked in Jat sand?”
She gasped. “What… It’s not…” She wasn’t going to win this argument with the uncouth brute. She was too discombobulated to even try. “I can do whatever I want. If you didn’t follow me, it wouldn't have been an issue!”
She stomped away, refusing to look back.
Addie walked as fast as she could without breaking into a run. She allowed a good mile to stretch between Jat sand bath and her before she stopped and cautiously checked around.
He hadn’t followed. The area around her felt empty, and she was fairly confident he wasn’t hiding in the bushes nearby, watching her.
But then again, how would she know if he was or wasn’t?
She covered her face with her hands, certain that he’d purposefully allowed her to sense his presence. Worse, he must’ve shown himself to her in the sand bath precisely because he hadn’t wanted to watch her ride that pleasure wave to the end.
Damn him.
Foraging, normally not a mentally challenging activity, took all the concentration Addie possessed. Still, she bumbled around pulling the stubborn tubers and allowed her hand to come into contact with Qom bush leaves.
Angry at herself for her inability to get her wits together, she inspected the red spot, knowing that it would spread and that for the next three weeks it would bring agony, especially at night when the burn would alternately itch and sting.
She blamed Zoark for it.
Addie continued to brood on her way home, walking slowly under the weight of the sack she had filled to bursting with she didn’t even remember what. She passed Jat sand valley but refused to look at the spot that she used to find peaceful and serene. She’d never be able to look at it and not remember those feral eyes staring down at her when she was at her most vulnerable.
Maybe if it were someone else, any other male, she’d have laughed it off. But Zoark, with his pointed antagonism toward human women and Addie in particular, didn’t make her feel like laughing.
She wished fervently to never see him again.
Ihr and Ehr lowered down to sit on her shoulder as she approached her teepee, the little buggers recognizing home. But just as she came within sight of it, they took off again, hovering above her head in that watchful fashion Addie had learned to heed as a warning.
