She couldn’t do it.
Fuck.
She blinked as a huge breath shuddered from her.
If this stranger hadn’t been there to urge her down the hole, could she have done it alone?
The answer to that question scared her.
She’d have let herself down.
She’d have folded and gone back up for air.
Her breathing was still labored, but she was able to lift her head a little.
Embarrassment made her cheeks warm as she realized what she was doing.
She had her legs spread over him, her hands fisted in his shirt…
Nia lifted her gaze and green eyes met hers.
Fuck.
Her heart skipped a beat.
She hadn’t realized his face would be that close.
If he wasn’t wearing that mask, they’d be so close they could kiss.
She should pull her gaze away.
She should…
Or maybe he would look away first?
No such luck.
It felt like time slowed down as she looked into those green eyes, and she could forget for a second that how she was sitting on him was completely inappropriate.
The hum of the ship disappeared and the earlier events occurred in some other dimension.
How he managed to do that with just one look was a question she’d have to ponder later.
“You are okay now, ta’ii.” His voice was like a comforting cloak. “You are safe.”
Her heart thumped in her chest, reacting to something other than the remnants of the panic attack she’d just suffered, and Nia managed to smile at him a little.
She was calming down and it was all because of him.
She didn’t know how she was going to thank him but the first order of business was to stop straddling him as if she was about to take him for a ride—because, and she realized this much too late in her opinion, she was in the exact position to do so.
As she eased off his chest, she tried to straighten his shirt, but she’d thoroughly crushed it; she’d held on to it that tightly.
“Sorry.” She gave him a weak smile. “I’ll get you a new one once we get out of this…” she glanced around them “…this mess.”
Nia cleared her throat and slid off his lap with as much grace and poise as she could muster, which wasn’t much. The space was small, and she had to set her body awkwardly just to rise off him.
He didn’t move, and she was glad he didn’t say anything.
If he did, she might have evaporated from embarrassment.
She already knew what she looked like.
“Sorry for…” She tried to find the words but stopped short.
What was she doing?
Even if she apologized, he couldn’t understand a word she said.
She would just have to let Riv relay a message to him when they finally returned to the Sanctuary.
Maybe she’d even volunteer to work at his farm for a bit, to repay him for all this trouble.
It was her fault he was now stuck in the underbelly of a ship.
Shit!
The thought made her anxiety rise.
“Where are we? What is this place?”
She glanced around the small room, if she could call it that.
The walls on all sides were metal, and there was hardly enough space for both of them to sit comfortably.
Recognizing that, she felt another wave of claustrophobia incoming.
Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes.
One, two, three…she counted over and over as she focused on her breathing.
There was a rhythmic clanking sound somewhere farther in the ship’s underbelly and she focused on that too.
The rhythm helped.
But despite her best efforts, the panic was rising once more.
Forget that she had an audience. Her sense of self-preservation apparently did not care if she died of embarrassment.
She was focusing on the clanking in the background while trying to measure her breathing when she heard the song once more.
The alien was humming again.
Nia’s eyes flew open and her head snapped in his direction.
Green eyes studied her through the metal mask and he stopped humming for a moment.
When she said nothing, he continued.
And it helped.
She didn’t know how, but his strange alien song…helped.
“Thank you.” She smiled and the alien’s gaze flicked to her lips.
Maybe he was trying to figure out what she was saying.
Another breath shuddered through her and she focused on the deep rumble of his voice.
It was a deep, low hum coming from the depths of his throat, but it was utterly enchanting.
So much so that she could only stare at him, her panic attack fading once more.
The sound reminded her of Slavic music; there was simply something hypnotizing about it.
If she didn’t think about where she was, if she focused on everything except the small space they were stuck in, she could possibly survive this ordeal without going into another panic attack.
She had to force herself to do this, because she could feel the anxiety simmering in her chest, as if ready to squeeze her throat shut and cut off her air supply if she dropped her guard.
She pulled her gaze away from the alien.
In the short time since she’d met him, he’d seen her at her most vulnerable and she didn’t like it.
She hadn’t had a panic attack like this in a long time.
The last one had been when she’d been carried in a box to Riv at the Sanctuary, but this was a stark reminder that she still had a problem.
At least the guy didn’t appear to be judging her.
He seemed confused and concerned more than anything else.
For the next few minutes, they sat in silence while Nia focused on her breathing.
The longer she worked on it, the easier it became.
13
She reckoned a quarter of an hour passed before she was able to breathe normally again.
And in all that time, the alien beside her hummed. He was watching her, too, observing her every movement.
His presence was…surprisingly calming.
Glancing around them once more, Nia repeated the question she’d asked before her panic attack had flared up.
She motioned to the space around them. “What is this place?”
He stopped humming then, and his gaze followed her movements as he looked around.
She wondered if he would understand what she was trying to
