“We need to figure out another way to get out of here,” he said.
“Like what?” I said. “There’s no door! What do you expect us to do? Make our own?”
He stared at me and I stared back at him.
We had infinite amounts of food and water and plenty of time on our hands. Why couldn’t we do it?
“Move out of the way,” I ordered. “Computer, give us a jackhammer.”
“It needs power,” he reminded me.
“Then give us a power generator!” I spat.
“It’s too big,” Chax said.
“Gah!” I yelled. “Fine. We’ll have to do this the old-fashioned way. Give us hammers and chisels. And safety goggles.”
“You can’t be serious,” Chax said. “What makes you think they aren’t on the other side of the wall armed with blasters?”
“I don’t. But they put us in here somehow. They might be technologically advanced but there’s nothing a hammer and chisel can’t break.”
I scooped up the instruments from the replicator and handed them to Chax.
“You’re one of a kind,” he said, shaking his head at me.
“You better know it,” I said with a wink. “I’m an engineer by trade. I can tell you we can tunnel our way through anything given enough time and will.”
I lowered the goggles over my eyes and slipped the work gloves on my hands. I put the chisel to the wall’s surface and hammered at it. The material chipped off and fell to the floor. I breathed a sigh of relief. The one thing I was concerned about was finding the wall was built of some kind of impenetrable substance. It turned out our abductors weren’t as advanced as Chax warned me they were.
I grinned up at Chax.
“See?” I said. “It can be chipped, which means it can be destroyed. Now, pick a section of wall and get to work.”
Twelve hours later, and I’d dug a tunnel through the wall three feet deep. My hands hurt and my wrists were tender and sore from the constant hammering. I developed a rash on my arms where the shards of stone had embedded themselves in my skin. And the dust was itchy as hell.
Chax worked on a separate area on the other side of the room. He was so much stronger than me that he managed to carve two tunnels in the time it took me to dig one.
I leaned back on my elbows and removed the protective goggles from my face. I wiped the sweat from my brow.
“Anything?” he called to me.
I tossed the goggles to one side.
“Not a dicky bird,” I said.
He frowned at me in confusion. No doubt the expression didn’t translate well and he couldn’t understand what a bird had to do with anything.
“It was worth a try,” he said. “I’m proud of you for even coming up with the idea. I would never have thought of something like this.”
“Then you wouldn’t have ended up wasting half a day,” I grumbled.
“Hey,” he said. “All we have is time. If we’re not using it to try and escape, what are we supposed to do with ourselves?”
I massaged my wrists. He had a point. We were trapped in this room. There was precious little else we could do.
“How about we take a break?” he said.
“We should keep going,” I said.
But God knew I didn’t want to. My arms were suffering from serious pain. It wasn’t good for them to keep getting these shuddering shocks.
“You’re going to lose the use of your wrists if you keep going like that,” he said. “May I?”
He reached for my hands. He wanted to take them, but to do what? I wasn’t sure I wanted him touching me—
Ohhhhhhh.
He massaged my wrists and forearms with his thumb and forefingers, making concentric circles over the surface of my skin. Who would have thought someone so big and powerful could be so gentle?
“I can feel it in there,” he said.
“Mm?” I said. “Feel what?”
“The tense muscles. If you’re not careful, you could do some serious damage.”
“I’ll be okay,” I said.
“We’ve done enough for today. Let’s take a break and relax for the rest of the evening.”
“Evening? It’s not evening yet.”
His fingers found a nub of swollen muscles and worked them firmly.
“Computer, make a clock for us, please,” Chax said.
A clock? Now that was a good idea. Why didn’t I think of it? It wasn’t like me to forget something like that—
Ohhhhhhh.
One of his hands worked up my forearm and elbow. His touch was magical.
“How does that feel?” he said.
“Good,” I said. “So good.”
My eyes were firmly shut now and my head lolled to one side. I suddenly felt exhausted.
His other hand worked its way up my arm, massaging and working out the kinks and turning them to mush. If I wasn’t careful, I would fall asleep. And snore. Then I’d drool.
So what did I care about that? He was a stranger.
A hot stranger. With one of the most ridiculous bodies I’ve ever seen in my life. And I had seen a lot.
His hands were on my shoulders now. He must have shifted position. He got to work kneading the firm muscles. My arms sagged. I was putty in his hands. He eased my body forward with my face between my knees and really got into the crevices.
This Titan had the hands of a god.
And then I became aware of the other effect the sensation was having on me.
I got a tingling sensation across my body like he’d tossed a pebble in a pond and the ripples washed across the surface of my skin. The ripples weren’t evenly spread. They seemed to gather in one place in particular…
Down there…
My eyes bolted open and I shot up onto my feet.
“Okay!” I said. “Wow. Yes. That’s much better now. Thank you. I feel as good as new.”
“I didn’t finish yet,” he said.
He stood up and approached me with those devil mitts of his.
He said, “I need to finish your neck and work on your—”
“Woah-ho!” I said.
I
