Turning, he glared down at her and she paled.
“Saw-ree.” She flinched a little under his gaze then flashed her blunt teeth at him again.
Catching herself, she paled even more, eyes going wide as she put a hand over her mouth.
Riv frowned as he watched her through wary eyes.
Moving to the side, he gave her enough space to enter the room.
Her eyes grew even larger as she looked inside.
Her gaze moved over the elevated sleeping cushion, to the chest in the corner and to the window that looked outside.
When she turned back to him, she was smiling, her eyes glassy.
Riv glanced around the room.
There wasn’t anything special about it. Not that if she’d complained he’d have changed anything.
She was lucky he didn’t drop all he had to do and take her back to Geblit, because he’d been very phekking close to doing so.
The female wrapped her arms around her bare torso and he assumed she was cold. Never mind, the room would adjust to a temperature that suited her soon enough now that there was a being inside it.
As she moved farther into the room, his gaze followed her.
Her light hair hung over her shoulders, hiding her face and neck from his view.
“Dis iz naice und uhn-ex-pekted,” the female said, turning.
Big brown eyes met his. “T-ank yoo.”
A brilliant smile split her face and made him stiffen. It transformed her features so much his eyes narrowed to slits.
When panic and fear were replaced by happiness, those large brown eyes of hers became entrancing, making her beautiful to look at.
Riv’s nostrils flared.
Beautiful females were the most deceiving things in the galaxy.
All the more reason she had to leave.
Turning on his heels and without a backward glance, he stormed down the corridor and left the dwelling.
He needed to sort out his head.
She didn’t come after him. She was learning quickly.
He’d given her a room to stay in and he hoped she stayed in it.
He’d prefer to be alone till he decided what he was going to do. But he knew without much consideration that there was only one option.
He had to return her to Geblit and be in the Torian’s debt once more.
Stepping into the warm sunshine, the door slammed behind him and a nosy tilgran lifted its long neck to look over the fence of its enclosure.
“What?” Riv snarled and the tilgran lowered its head once more.
Brows set in a frown, he headed around the back of the building toward the oogas grazing there. He needed to feed them, clean their pen, and give them water before the day ended.
This was a bad day for Geblit to turn up. If he didn’t have so much to do, he’d have taken the time to return the female to the Torian, but he couldn’t. It would have to wait till tomorrow, or even possibly the next day.
He only hoped she understood enough to get that he wanted her to stay inside and out of his way while he tended to his animals.
Riv paused as he reached the ooga enclosure, his hand on the gate as he cast his eyes to the window of the spare room.
Maybe he shouldn’t have left her alone in there.
Who knew what she would get up to while alone.
Movement by the window caught his eye and Riv snorted.
She was watching him.
Fine.
She could do whatever she wanted. As long as she didn’t wreck the place or get in his way.
As he opened the gate and entered the enclosure, the oogas lifted their large heads from the yellow-orange grass and glanced at him before dipping their heads again.
Patting the back of one of the animals, Riv’s brows slowly relaxed from their frown.
Silence.
Sweet, sweet silence apart from the occasional snort of an ooga and the soft sounds of their chewing.
This was why he preferred animals.
They didn’t speak.
That had always been a winner for him.
But, most of all, they didn’t judge. He could be himself around them.
Life was simpler.
Glancing back toward his residence, he frowned.
The female was still at the window, watching him.
He could feel those brown eyes following his every move.
Phek.
Well, he guessed he had an audience then.
Wouldn’t be the first time others stood and watched him while he worked.
Lauren knelt on the floating bed, eyes fastened outside.
Riv was in the field working with the cow-hippo things and she couldn’t help but stare at her host.
The sun was hot out there, she could see that. Even from where she was, she could see his skin had a thin sheen of perspiration over it.
He seemed to be completely in his element, moving bales of hay, shoveling animal dung, and tending to the animals.
He’d looked her way a few times and she wasn’t sure if he could see her or not, but that’s all he did, glance her way.
She watched as he paused and rolled his shoulders, stretching his arms into the air.
Eyes widening, her cheeks flushed as Riv pulled his shirt over his head and put it to the side. No longer hidden, a set of stacked muscles were displayed.
Damn.
This seemed inappropriate.
She probably shouldn’t be looking. Yet, she couldn’t look away.
Maybe she’d been in that terrarium for too long and the little bit of sun on the way to the Sanctuary had suddenly awakened her libido…
Or maybe it was because he had snarled in her face so many times in the last hour that her heart sped up with anxiety and her pussy was mistaking that for attraction or something but…
Damn.
Lauren blinked.
He looked good for an alien dude—and for the past year, she’d seen a lot of alien dudes.
He was humanoid. Maybe that’s what this was. He was the first humanoid male she’d been in close contact with since she’d been taken.
Sure, she’d seen a few through the transparent shield of her terrarium but she’d never been close enough to feel their breath on her face—and Riv had come in real close to her earlier. Close
