Page 41 of Riv's Sanctuary
There were none but, for a reason she couldn’t determine, she remained plastered against the door.
Call her strange, but it didn’t feel like she was alone when she did that.
* * *
Riv leaned against the door to the room he’d left the female in.
He hadn’t seen her since earlier that evening when she’d been watching him through the window, and for some reason, he was interested to know what she’d been doing all that time.
From the looks of it, she hadn’t exited the room to search his house, which he appreciated.
It meant she probably hadn’t left the room at all.
He believed his theory to be true because his tevsi, Grot, had caught her scent as soon as he’d entered the dwelling. The tevsi had bounded straight to her room, which meant that’s where her scent was the strongest.
He’d found Grot trying to claw his way inside and had to send him to bed.
Leaning against the door now, Riv placed an ear against it and listened.
He couldn’t hear a thing.
There was no way she was sleeping after the racket Grot had made. But if she was, that made his dark-cycle easier. It meant not seeing her till the next light-cycle.
Pleased with that, he was about to walk away when something terrible happened.
He didn’t know if he pressed the panel that opened the door by accident or if she’d opened it on her end, but the next thing he knew was that the door slid open and the human was standing right there.
Not only was she standing there but she must have lost her balance or something because she was suddenly falling against him.
As she made contact with his chest, a soft exclamation left her lips.
His arms went around her immediately, out of pure instinct to stop her from falling, and the shock of it made his eyes widen to meet hers.
She was cradled against him, her soft figure pressed against his hard one, as they both froze, staring at each other.
She recovered first, regaining her balance and righting herself and with that movement, he pulled his arms away from her.
She was saying something, which he assumed was an apology of some kind judging from her tone, but it sounded far, far away in the background. Even if he could understand her words, he wasn’t listening…couldn’t listen.
That one touch…
The feel of someone against him…
Swallowing hard, he blinked a few times to focus.
She finished speaking, her brown eyes hitting him with deep consternation, and he wasn’t sure what he should do.
So he did nothing.
With a grunt, he jerked his head at her in greeting and a farewell, turned, and walked back down the corridor to his room.
10
Maybe she had a knack for getting into trouble or maybe someone had put a hex on her while she was on Earth, but she couldn’t have made up the events of her life even if she’d tried.
If she ever did make it back to California, she’d write a book.
A memoir.