The twin suns crossed the sky, spinning and twirling around each other.
Now, they began to set, bringing the night’s early chill with it.
Finally, Egara said the words I had been desperate to hear for the past few hours:
“Okay, I think we should set up camp.”
I would have collapsed, except I knew there were probably jobs I needed to do.
I was hungry, thirsty, but more than anything, I was dog tired.
Egara took two wrapped packages from his pocket.
They were covered in tissue paper.
Before he even handed one to me, I could smell them.
I didn’t care what the food he handed to me was.
I snatched it out of his hand, open the tissue, and gulped it down one hungry mouthful after another.
“A fan of Jilaxic biscuits, huh?” he said.
“I’m a fan of any food right about now.”
I noticed he only ate half his meal before tucking it back in his pocket.
I realized how greedy I’d been when I wolfed down the whole meal.
He hadn’t expected to have someone else along for the journey.
And so far, I hadn’t offered much in the way of benefits.
Even worse, I wheezed with the effort required to consume the food as fast as I did.
“With any luck, we should arrive by tomorrow,” he said.
“I look forward to it.”
Assuming I didn’t die from lack of oxygen during the night, I thought.
I lay on my back but that proved to be a poor decision as I wheezed even harder.
I lay on my side and that helped relieve some of the pressure from my lungs.
Still, I gasped.
Egara lay beside me and took me in his arms.
I liked the warmth his body gave off as the night chill was already beginning to seep deep into my bones.
He edged closer and pecked me on the cheek.
It felt nice, but as he pressed further and nibbled on my ear, I knew he wanted more.
I gasped like I’d been smoking forty a day for the past fifty years.
I didn’t think I could survive another one of his marathon sex sessions.
“I’m not sure I can do it tonight. I can barely breathe.”
“This will make it better,” he said, nibbling the base of my neck.
Maybe it would, but right then, I couldn’t take the risk.
I felt like an asthmatic without a pump.
I needed to be careful.
He pressed his lips to mine, gently, and without passion.
When he pulled back, my breathing ease.
It was like I’d been injected with medicine that expanded the airways.
“It is a little better,” I said.
He leaned forward and kissed me again.
Once more, the breathing cleared up, becoming almost perfectly smooth.
I relished in the feeling of a perfectly operating body.
The kisses became more passionate, and this time, I responded.
The more we kissed, the easier breathing became.
Finally, I pulled back, putting a hand to his chest.
“How is this possible?” I said. “One minute I’m gasping like a fish out of water, and the next, you kissed me, and I’m breathing fine.”
“This is my habitat. This is how I grew up, where my ancestors evolved. We developed systems to survive in such harsh environments.”
“I understand that but why am I able to breathe easier after you kiss me?”
“Because I am passing my strength onto you.”
He said it as if he was telling me the sky was blue.
“Passing on your strengths?” I said. “What does that even mean?”
“It means if I can breathe in this atmosphere, now, so can you.”
Suddenly, the bruise that disappeared after having sex made sense.
Most of the species in the prison had the ability to heal quickly.
After spending the night with Egara, I had benefited from his ability too.
“How long will this last?” I said, still barely able to keep my surprise hidden.
“Kissing will last for minutes,” he said, “but it depends how much we kiss. Vulcarians mate a little differently to most other species. We share our strengths, weaknesses, and once we mate, it’s for life.”
My breath caught in my throat.
“You’re saying we’re mated for life now?”
Egara shook his head and had a small smile on his face.
“No. Fated mates do not become a pair until they are both in love.”
“How do you know we aren’t fated mates already?”
“You would know. Trust me. So would I.”
I smiled and thought back to our experience the previous night.
If that wasn’t how fated mates mated, then how did I explain that explosion of golden light in my chest?
I had never felt anything like it before.
Maybe for him it was normal, but for me, a regular female, it was anything but normal.
“Are you still hungry?” Egara said.
“Hm?” I said, lost in a world of my own. “Oh. Um… Not really.”
My stomach growled.
“Your stomach appears to be making the counter-argument,” Egara said.
I rapped my stomach gently and shook my head.
“He’s always had a mind of his own,” I said. “I tell him I’m not hungry and he insists on eating any nearby chocolate.”
“I’m the same when it comes to Vulcarian rice cake. I just can’t stop eating it.”
He got to his feet and dusted off his hands.
I peered at the desert around us.
Good luck finding any food in this place, I thought.
Egara stood up straight and his ears fluttered.
They turned from one side to the other, his left ear turning sharply one way, his right the other.
Gradually, his left ear drew around to point in the same direction as his right.
At me.
Egara approached me with that same intense look in his eyes that I recognized from making love.
He was not a big dumb animal like many of the other prisoners.
When his eyes drew together, focusing, blocking out everything else, he became a man possessed.
I couldn’t help but blush.
Then I realized his eyes weren’t really focused on me.
They concentrated just beyond me, over my shoulder.
I peered at where he was looking and found a wall of dull sand.
He approached it, his footsteps slow and stealthy, his eyes and ears focused on the same point.
When I made to get up, he raised his
