Les Misérables by Victor Hugo (early reader books txt) 📕

She supposed it must be something likemilitary rations, though, designed for survival. Holding herbreath, she took a tiny bite, chewed it a couple of times andswallowed. If was unfortunate that she’d already swallowed beforeit occurred to her that ‘good for him’ might be poison forher—because that bite was gone.

She placed a hand over her racingheart, trying to decide whether she should wait to see if therewere any ill effects to the food or run her finger down her throatand try to bring that bite back up. Surely one bite wouldn’t killher, though?

“Thirsty?”

Anya looked up at the alien—Aidan—whenhe spoke, wondering if he’d said something like ‘gotcha!’. She sawhe’d either eaten his piece already, though … or he’d tossed itaway while she wasn’t looking.

He began digging in thepockets of his pants again and pulled something else out. It didn’tlook a lot different from the thing he’d pulled out before. Whenhe’d taken the end off, though, he put it to his mouth, tipped itback and swallowed. Her throat closed instantly. She could almosthave sworn she smelled water, liquid anyway. She didn’t hesitate that time when heoffered it. She grabbed it with both hands. Unfortunately, it wasmalleable and when she did, she squeezed some of the contentsout.

Consternation filled her when she sawit was water she’d spilled, but there was still some left in it andshe turned it up and drank.

It tasted like water, which was to saynot terribly good. She’d never liked plain water, but it felt goodgoing down.

He wrestled it away from her after afew gulps and she eyed him resentfully when he closed it again andshoved it back in his pocket, watching every move he made like ahawk and wondering if she could get it away from himagain.

“You might be dehydrated.It’ll just make you sick if you drink too much at the time. I’llgive you more in a little bit.”

She didn’t know what he said but afterstudying her while she licked the water off her fingers he begantugging at the top of his suit. Anya’s heart skipped a beat and shejerked her gaze from the closure he was slowly opening to his face.He seemed intent on what he was doing.

She wasn’tabout to wait around tosee what he had in mind! Deciding that was as good a chance as shewas likely to get, she took to her heels. If she could just get alittle bit of a head start, she thought, she could hide in thewoods ….

He caught her before she’d managed todo much more than launch herself into a run.

“No! I told you I wouldn’tharm you.”

Gritting her teeth, Anyastruggled for several moments to free herself and finally gave up.As soon as she did, he released his hold on her. She eyed him withmisgiving. He frowned at her. “Don’tmove!” Since he emphasized whatever it washe said with a stern shake of his head, she decided he was tellingher he wasn’t about to let her escape.

Well, he had to sleepsometime!

She didn’t know what he had in mind,but he’d proven he was faster than she was and stronger. The onlyway she was going to escape was to wait until he had his guarddown. Maybe he’d fall asleep and she could find a rock and bash hishead in? She smiled at him at the thought.

He studied her uneasily for a momentand finally smiled back.

Two things happened when he did that.Her heart quickened and an oddly weak sensation flowed through herbehind it. And guilt smote her.

She ignored the first, unwilling toanalyze it, and chastised herself for the second. She had no reasonto feel guilt just because she’d succeeded in deceiving him! Was ither fault he was dumb enough to think she was thatstupid?

To her relief, although he continued tounfasten his suit once he’d assured himself she wouldn’t run, hestopped when he reached the waist, shrugged out of the top andbegan to work on the seam there. Her curiosity was snagged then andshe watched him until he’d removed the top part of his suit. To hersurprise, he handed it to her.

Studiously ignoring his bare uppertorso, she looked at the ‘jacket’ and then looked at his face. Heshook the jacket at her and finally, deciding he was offering it ashe had the food and water, she took it and slipped her arms intoit, wondering if it was yet another attempt to win her over or ifhe just didn’t want to have to look at her.

She was still searching for a way tofasten it when he grasped the sides and pressed them together fromthe throat to the bottom, which ended just below the tops of herthighs. Thankfully he was enough bigger than her that it was almostdecent. Unfortunately, he wasn’t tall enough that the damned thingcovered her ass. She could feel that the bottom of her butt wasstill exposed.

It was still far better than beingcompletely naked and she looked up at him and smiled with realappreciation for the first time. “Thank you!”

He seemed to freeze for along moment, staring back at her, and then frowned, stepping away.“Don’t thank me,” Aidan said wryly. “I can’t thinkstraight with all that jiggling, bare flesh to look at.”He looked around, wondering where he’d lost hissuit helmet. No doubt, he’d lost it when he’d slipped and rolled tothe bottom of the hill and he didn’t suppose he needed it or he’dalready be dead, but he’d lost the damned communicator built intoit.

Briefly, he debated whether to sparethe time to look for it, but he’d already lost a lot of timedealing with the alien female. He needed to get to thatsatellite—if there was anything left to collect between the impactwith his ship, the fiery entry into the atmosphere, and thecrash.

He checked his wrist computer and thatsettled the matter. That was still functioning alright as far as hecould see. He had a map to the satellite crash site and the onboardcomputer’s calculation of his ship’s probable location.

And he had the woman as proof of histheory even if he couldn’t find the satellite.

If he could hang on