Page 51 of Theirs to Crave

Shane turned his back without complaint, pulling off his tunic as he went.

It was hypocritical of me, but I watched. His back was long and leanly muscled, with a phoenix tattooed in sweeping lines up his spine.

Mariano noticed the direction of my stare and opened his mouth—probably to call me out.

Suddenly, I missed mopey Mariano.

Cass and Ria stepped up to flank me, arms crossed over their chests, and he rolled his eyes. “Really?”

“Yes,” Cass said firmly.

He turned around, muttering, and after a moment Litha and Zafett did the same.

Smart and sweet was a pretty unbeatable combination.

The girls and I exchanged a few glances, agreeing to leave the lower, larger pool to the Quoosalk, Shane, and Mariano. I hadn’t shared a bath with my brother since we were kids, and I’d prefer to keep it that way.

The water was blissfully hot. It stung as it hit my cuts—I sucked in a breath at the burn on my chafed inner thighs—but the sting quickly faded. The heat soaked into my sore muscles, and I dropped to the bottom, the constant pressure from the planet’s gravity slipping away. The feel of the water against my itchy scalp was damned near orgasmic.

Mariano was right. This was heaven.

I snuck a peek at the lower pool. Just to check on the Quoosalk, I promised myself. They were floating, their translucent eyelids closed in pleasure, moving through the water with lazy swishes of their tails.

Shane rose, biceps flexing as he slicked his hair back from his face. My eyes followed the stream of water down his body with...artistic appreciation. Yeah.

Bruises in a rainbow of colors marred his skin, and his stomach had more fashion model hollowness than I generally preferred, but he was a pleasure to look at. Sleek and toned,he had the kind of body that would look amazing in a suit. Maybe just slacks and a vest, I fantasized. Open, to show off the horizontal scars that marked his chest below each pectoral.

He caught me mooning and winked, twirling his finger in the air.

I gave him the privacy I’d demanded for myself, but not without one last, lingering look. I didn’t want to think anything positive about the bugs that had stolen us—may they suffer for all eternity—but damn. They had good taste.

A clay pot appeared on the stone lip of the pool. I noticed for the first time that these weren’t natural pools. They were organically shaped, and had stones set into them so they blended seamlessly, but they were made out of the same almost-concrete, almost-adobe material that the floors of their home were made from.

Zafett crouched between the two pools, his eyes averted. He tapped the pot. “Setkuh.Setkuh shirra javet.” He moved his hands over his body in small circles, as if he was washing.

Then he indicated one of the clumps of tall, purple grass that grew among the moss at the water’s edge. Pulling out a blade, he chewed it, then dug a small hole in the dirt with his finger and spit it out. “Rethi a’aith javet,” Zafett announced, baring large, sharp white teeth with a purr as his tongue ran over them.

Big teeth. Long tongue. Long, agile tongue. What would that purr feel like if he—

No! Clean thoughts! I’d been dreaming of a bath the whole time I’d been trapped on that pinche spaceship, and now that it was happening, I was going to savor it. I wasnotgoing to be distracted by my shameless libido.

Ria reached past me, dipping her fingers into the pot, and her breast brushed my arm.

Dios, why are you punishing me?

Thesetkuhsoap didn’t foam, but it cut through the layers of grime coating my skin and left my hair miserably tangled, but squeaky clean. It had a mild scent that was lightly citrusy—not lemon, something more floral. Grapefruit, maybe.

I wouldn’t have cared if it smelled like tuna casserole, it felt so good to be clean.

It took three scrubbings before my tunic stopped feeling grimy, and then another after I used it to scour the months’ worth of ick off my body. I washed and washed until my arms ached. Then I hung it over a branch and floated, letting the gloriously hot water turn me into jelly. By the time I finally dragged myself out of the pool, my tunic was dry.

The walk back to the palapa was blessedly short. I smelled the delicious aroma ofshejfirst, and when I pushed aside the huge, red-violet leaves to see Revik putting the last dish on a table full of food, I almost fell to my knees and asked him to marry me.

We piled into our sleeping nest as soon as we finished eating, by mutual agreement. It had been a long day.

Clean, warm, with a belly full of delicious food and no ghost hovering at the edge of my conscience—I slept well for the first time in what felt like forever.

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