Page 26 of Alien Orc's Prize
How lovely for me.
“It’s OK. Everything’s alright, Prince Gal.” Luna lightly touched my arm.
“Don’t call me that,” I snapped, whirling on her. She recoiled, and her scent went all wrong. I wanted to rip out my own tongue.
“Call me Galbrath,” I said more quietly, softer. Softer than I’d likely ever spoken to anyone in my life. “Please.”
A ripple of gasps went through Padreth and my family members. They knew how rare such a request was, especially with “please” tacked on the end. They knew what it meant. The intimacy of such a thing.
Luna didn’t, of course. But her scent settled once more, and she looked pleased all the same. The black parts of her eyes bloomed a fraction wider.
“Alright. Galbrath.”
Blast. I needed to be alone with her.Now.
“I’m going to teach you how to swim,” I told her gruffly. “Lessons start right now.”
CHAPTER 15
LUNA
Prince Gal – or Galbrath, as he apparently wanted to be called – led me over to his hover vehicle. It was similar to the one Althrop rode in on, though a little bigger. I probably shouldn’t have felt that way, but seeing that Galbrath’s vehicle was bigger than Althrop’s gave me a distinct thrill.
“Get on,” Galbrath said. Rather a redundant command, considering he was already lifting me onto the seat. I scraped damp tendrils of hair back from my face as Galbrath manoeuvred his colossal bulk in front of me on the vehicle’s seat.
“Hold onto me,” he grunted as he did something that turned on the engine. I yelped and wrapped my arms around his torso as the vehicle immediately lurched up into the air. Without another word, Galbrath turned the vehicle and sped forwards. Right towards the water.
I half-expected a wall of water to hit me dead in the face, but of course, it didn’t. The hover capabilities of the craft clearly worked as well on water as on land, and we skimmed easily over the shimmering blue surface. I squeezed Galbrath, a smile unfurling on my face as cool, salty spray tickled my cheeks. My braid whipped out behind me as sea air buffeted us. Every timea wave rose before us, the vehicle rose, too, then careened back down in an exhilarating undulation.
It was intoxicating. The speed. The wind. The water, so clear and beautiful both ahead and below.
Galbrath’s body between my thighs.
The ride didn’t last too long. Soon, we were rounding a large outcropping of white stone and slowing as we entered a much smaller beach than the one we’d come from. It was a glorious, tiny, private little inlet where the water lapped lazily, clear as liquified teal glass, against white rock and smooth sand.
Galbrath parked his vehicle in a shaded place beneath the cliffs, dismounted, then helped me down.
“You couldn’t teach me to swim at the other beach?” I asked, quirking a brow at him. He was already wrestling out of his leather vest.
“Get undressed,” he said, before adding, “I don’t want Althrop or Padreth or anyone else seeing you without clothing. It’s private here.”
“Why is that, though?” I asked. “It seems like it’s normal to swim naked.”
“Yes,” he confirmed as he tossed down his vest and kicked off his boots. “But you’re not normal.”
“Excuse me?!”
He looked up from where he’d been undoing his belt, frowning fiercely. “What is it? Your scent’s gone all wrong again. It makes me want to put my head through a wall.”
“Well, sorry. But you just said I’m not normal!”
How,howcould he not see how rude that was?
“You’re not,” he said easily. Infuriatingly. But then, just before the spark of my anger could really turn into a fire that burned everything down, he said, simply and seriously and without fanfare, “Special isn’t normal.”
Special.
Oh.