She was obviously hungry and needed to eat it all.
“You eat.” He met her gaze and she looked at him without a speck of fear before she smiled again and gulped down the rest of the meal.
Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, she smiled.
The other hand moved to her midsection and rubbed the soft flesh there in a slow circular motion, a smile on her face.
His gaze fastened there, at where her hand touched her skin, and he found himself staring, unable to look away.
“T-ank yoo. Yoo hav noh aidee-yuh how good dat was.”
No idea what she was saying, but she looked far too pleased about this.
Pleased wasn’t what he’d been going for.
Phek.
He had no idea what he’d been going for.
He shouldn’t have brought the bowl to her in the first place.
It was this same generosity that always got him in trouble in the past.
Growling, he lifted himself off the wall and stalked forward, taking the empty bowl from her hands.
He made to walk away when he felt the warmth of her palm against his arm.
Stiffening, his gaze fell to where the heat was spreading across his skin, and he realized she’d held on to him.
He stopped moving, staring at her hand for moments that seemed to pass by slowly.
She was touching him.
Touching him. AGAIN.
The one sense he’d denied himself of for so long was now something he’d received twice in such a short space of time.
Her palm felt as if it was burning against his skin and when she snatched her hand away and his gaze met hers, her wide-eyed stare was frozen on his face.
“Saw-ree, ai—” She blinked a few times, her gaze darting away before returning. “Ai need too sho-wher.”
She was talking again.
Riv frowned at her as she went on, seemingly unable to stop once she’d started now.
She was making motions with her hands, her mouth moving quickly and she ran her hands through her hair, over the skin on her face, and down her body.
It was hard focusing on what she was trying to tell him. All he could feel was the imprint of that small hand against his skin.
It took him a few moments as he frowned down at her before he realized what she wanted.
The cleansing room.
With a grunt, he jerked his head toward the corridor. He didn’t trust himself to speak at the moment.
12
Lauren awoke, her eyes flying to the wall again and expecting to see the transparent shield there.
No.
She wasn’t in the zoo anymore. She was at Riv’s Sanctuary.
Swallowing hard, she turned onto her back and stared ahead.
She’d slept soundly again. After she’d spent the previous day doing nothing, she’d been sure she’d have a hard time falling asleep but it turned out the warm shower was just the thing she’d needed to put her in the mood for sleep.
After he’d brought her the food and showed her the shower, her host had disappeared for the night.
She could still remember how he’d stood there and watched her eat, a look of surprise and something else she couldn’t determine in his eyes.
At first, she’d felt self-conscious but the taste of real food had been too divine to resist.
It’d been filling, that meal, because even now, she wasn’t hungry.
Rising, she cast her gaze out the window.
There were the cow-hippos grazing again and the beautiful clear sky above, the sunrise casting a reddish tint over the pink.
Off in the distance, she couldn’t see the robots anymore. Maybe they had moved to another section of the farm. But that wasn’t what she was really looking for.
Her gaze flicked over the Sanctuary in search of a hint of blue.
She saw him for a second before he disappeared behind one of the buildings.
The rest of the day went like this.
Now and then she caught glimpses of him but for the most part, Riv was out of sight.
When the sun finally left the sky, Riv entered her room with a bowl of food. He said nothing and she wasn’t sure what she should say.
Whenever she opened her mouth to talk, the growing irritation on his face was almost comical. Still, he said nothing. He just watched her as she ate with those piercing eyes of his.
For the next day and the next, the same thing happened. She’d watch him work through the window and in the evenings he’d come to her room with a bowl of food, staring at her as she ate and then leaving for the rest of the night.
Now, Lauren settled on the bed when the sun was almost in the middle of the sky, her bottom lip between her teeth.
Wasn’t she a free woman?
She wasn’t in the terrarium anymore. She was no longer at the zoo.
But it sure felt as if she was in captivity, being stuck in the room.
Not that he’d explicitly said she should stay in there. It’d been her choice not to move.
That and the fact the large animal she’d heard was somewhere out there. It hadn’t come back to her door but she could still remember the terror of the night when it came like the big bad wolf trying to get in.
Gulping, she decided she needed to be brave and step out of the room.
If she was ever going to regain her independence, she needed to take the first step.
Lauren moved to the window to look out again before her gaze shifted to the door.
She was going to do it.
Pressing the panel on the wall, the door hissed open to reveal the corridor and Lauren froze, her ears perked for any sound.
Nothing.
As she stepped into the corridor, she stiffened and waited.
Still nothing. Only the sound of the door hissing shut behind her.
When she reached the main room, she paused again.
There were piles of gadgets all over the place, even on the floor, and a thin layer of dust coated them all.
Stepping over to some, her gaze moved over the items with mild interest. She had no idea what they were, but they looked old and out
