Page 13 of Chloe

She glanced over at Jubal.

His raven-black hair was lifting from his shoulder in the breeze from their movement, showing off his chiseled features and his long, elegant neck. Something about him was almost familiar, but they had obviously never met before.

“Better,” he said, glancing over at her.

That was enough to remind her that she was skating.

She promptly leaned forward a little too much and went down on her hands and knees.

“Don’t get cocky, now,” he laughed, gliding over to help her up.

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” she told him. “Obviously.”

He reached out his hands, and she decided to take them rather than risk falling down again. At this rate, they would never make it to their destination before darkness fell.

She placed her hands in his, noticing how small they looked in his giant grasp. If his hands were that big, then what about the rest of him?

But she forgot everything else as shivers of electricity seemed to arc to her from him.

Her eyes slid up to meet his.

They were flashing with something between anger and lust.

She started to pull her hands back, but he was already hauling her up, helping her back to her feet.

“Let’s go,” he said gruffly.

He released one of her hands, but kept hold of the other.

“We can’t have you getting hurt,” he told her, his eyes set on the road ahead.

As soon as they began to move, everything felt different.

She wasn’t sure, but it was almost as if the skates were moving her instead of the other way around. In spite of the slight hill, it was getting easier.

And the gentle breeze provided just enough coolness to counteract the late afternoon sunlight. She began to feel refreshed, in spite of her efforts.

“Nice day,” Jubal said.

“It really is,” she agreed. “I wonder what the weather was like back home. My kids do so much better when the temperature is pleasant.”

“Can’t you just use the climate controls?” he asked.

“No,” she laughed. “We can’t just use the climate controls. We’re on a strict energy ration, so we have to save it for testing days.”

“Seriously?” he asked, turning to her.

“Seriously,” she told him.

“Oh, wow, I forgot you were Terran,” he said. “I guess it’s a little more challenging.”

Typical.

Beings from other planets always judged the Terras.

In fairness, most Terran planets were pretty backwater, and some were downright desperate.

“I’m from Terra-58,” she told him primly. “We don’t want for much, but it’s hard to convince taxpayers to allocate funds for schools. Everyone seems to think teachers and admin are just greedy jerks looking to take a season off every year.”

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