Page 58 of Matched to the Alien King
She threw up one hand, the other white-knuckling her oar. “I don’t know. A crap ton. A lot.”
He reached out and gently stroked her cheek with his fingertips. “I love it when you talk math to me.”
She sucked in a breath as she stared at him rather than at what dangers lurked ahead, her lips parted and a blush staining her cheeks.
A master of distraction, that Killian. He’d taken her worries completely by surprise, stalled them, and replaced them with desire, all within seconds. Even I had to admit I was impressed.
“Here it comes,” Nera shouted over the rush of the falls. “Get ready!”
Ahead, the choppy water curved sharply downward. On the other side of it, cavernous cave walls needled with stalactites and stalagmites yawned open like a monster’s maw.
Time slowed at the top of the curve, or maybe we did. But we hung there for too long, balanced on a precipice, neither tipping nor daring to breathe. We simply existed in this snapshot of time, and for some reason it reminded me of right before my first kiss with Nera. Before we took the plunge and lost ourselves in the unknown.
It had been so worth it.
Part of me had already fallen for her; the other part poised on the edge, resistant to drowning in her, but unable to breathe without her.
Now, we plummeted down, down, down, freefalling for so long that my stomach scrambled itself into my head. Bling shrieked. The Killian pumped his oar in the air with both hands. Nera and I just laughed.
Then the boat slapped hard against the water. From the force of the landing, the four of us lost our seating and slipped and slid to quickly get it back so we could row ourselves out of the fall’s turbulent currents.
We dug in with our oars, and it was only then that I realized how bright it was. The sun beat down on the ocean waves and crested them with opalescent pearls that both blinded and mesmerized me.
We were outside. We’d escaped from whatever hellhole we’d been in.
The four of us cheered.
I turned to see what exactly we’d just come out of—and laughed. Behind us, a giant cornucopia sat in the water and spat out a waterfall that was at least a thirty-foot drop to the sea below.
Nera chuckled too while she looked on in wonder. Shimmering water droplets clung to her golden skin and fastened her loose-fitting Earth Space Fleet uniform snugly to all of her delicious curves. With her dark hair cascading down her back and crowned with the sun, she took my breath away.
“Oh my god, Pete,” she said, shaking her head. “Way to take my idea literally.”
“Yeah, I’m still going to murder him,” the Killian promised, and with the sharp edge in his voice, I believed him.
We angled the boat toward shore about twenty meters away where—surprise, surprise—a whole crowd waited. Maybe even Pete, though I had to imagine he was too busy crapping his pants. He had to know we were coming and that we’d be pissed.
“Don’t forget about Judge,” Bling said. “I don’t appreciate nearly falling to my death because of some greedy asshole, so if you’re going to kill him too, you’ll have to get in line.”
“So there will be lots of murdering today,” Nera said with a nod and then shot a glance at me. “Guess we better get back, but…maybe go easy on Pete. His heart was in the right place.”
“He almost killed you with his idea, Nera. He almost killed all of us.” I gripped my oar so tightly that it creaked, a clear promise it would snap in half if I didn’t ease up, so I did.
“At this point, who hasn’t?”
I groaned. “Well, I can’t argue with that.”
Bling turned in her seat at the front so Nera could read her lips. “Welcome toAlien Love Island’sfirst ever Hunger Games. If finding love doesn’t kill you, the island definitely will.”
“There’s the perfect tagline for the show.” The Killian grinned at her, and a current of radiant energy connected their gazes, so powerful in its grip that neither of them looked away.
Nera and I shared a look and smiled. She’d noticed too, no doubt. Our current was better than theirs, shocking in its intensity and pulling us together more and more with every second.
“So, Bling, how did you solve that water puzzle?” Nera asked.
“Oh. Right. Those numbers I said were x-y coordinates. That’s why the scale read X, Y. The coordinates were basically what each vial is holding at a particular moment to get exactly four ounces of water inside one of them.
“There was a three-ounce vial, a five-ounce vial, and the jug of water. I filled the five-ounce vial and used it to fill the three-ounce vial, leaving two ounces in the five-ounce vial…”
