Return to Eden (5 page)

“
Ow! Stop it! Stop it!
Gods damn it! Quit!”
Aidan yelled as he
felt the cut of the thin branch she was beating him with, trying to
catch it to stop her when she ignored his command to stop. He
finally managed to catch it and tried to rip it from her hand.
Instead, since she didn’t let go, he only succeeded it jerking her
closer.

She snarled at him when they came face
to face.

Uneasiness slithered through Aidan as
it occurred to him that he had hold of a wild thing. He hadn’t
noticed a great deal about her beyond the fact that she was naked
and that she was clearly female since she looked very much like the
females he was familiar with. Nearly nose to nose with her now, he
took in her bared teeth and her lips curled back in a snarl and
realized that she was dirty and her pale hair matted with leaves
and other trash and so tangled it stuck out around her
head.

His mind went blank. For the life of
him he couldn’t recall a single lesson in communicating with
primitive cultures.

In any case, he discovered that he was
far too busy for several moments trying to prevent her from tearing
his head off. They wrestled for dominance for several minutes, but
Aidan finally managed to subdue her by virtue of his superior
strength and weight. Rolling on top of her, he pinned her to the
ground, caught her flailing arms at the wrists and, gritting his
teeth, forced them to the ground on either side of her
head.

Instead of admitting defeat once he had
her pinned, she commenced to bucking against him.

He had no doubt her intention was to
throw him off, but her humping against his pelvis had a predictable
effect considering that he’d never managed to lose awareness of her
nakedness.

She stopped abruptly as he felt himself
rise to the occasion, staring up at him wide eyed and huffing for
breath.

He stared down at her, trying to force
his sluggish brain to work on something besides the fact that there
was something about her face and her wide sky-colored eyes that
appealed to his senses in a very sexual way.

Or maybe it was the soft mammary glands
pressed against his chest and the female genitals he knew were bare
that were pressed against his raging erection?

Pushing thoughts he
shouldn’t be thinking from his mind with an effort, he forced
himself to smile at her.
“I don’t mean you
any harm.”

Cold terror went through Anya when he
grinned down at her triumphantly. To her mind the grin and the
erection added up to rape. She’d already discovered that
overpowering him wasn’t likely, however, and searched her mind
frantically for some way to save herself. With an effort, she
forced a smile in return. “If you pull anything out,” she said,
using a tone similar to the one he’d used, “I’m going to tear it
off and choke you with it, you alien son-of-a-bitch.”

Surprise and gratification
flickered through Aidan at her response since he knew very well
that she couldn’t possibly understand him any better than he could
understand her. Deciding that his tone and the smile had
undoubtedly had the desired effect of calming her, he cautiously
eased his grip.
“Not harm,”
he said again, trying to emphasize his benign
intentions by simplifying his sentence structure.

Something flickered in her eyes.
Abruptly, she dragged in a deep breath, closed her eyes and went
limp.

Consternation filled Aidan for a
moment. Studying her face, though, he decided she hadn’t passed out
and the suspicion arose that she was feigning to catch him off
guard when he let go of her.

Regardless of whether she
was or not, though, he couldn’t very well continue to keep her
pinned to the ground. He
had
to let go of her at some point. After some mental
exercise to decide on the best way to go about it, he cautiously
eased his grip a little more and drew his knees up, settling his
buttocks on her thighs and sitting up.

She confirmed his suspicion that she
was faking a faint by opening her eyes a sliver, no doubt to gauge
her timing for the next assault!

“
I’ll let you go if you’ll
refrain from attacking me again.”

She narrowed her eyes at
him at his tone, but she smiled at the same time. There was
something distinctly seductive about that look and, despite the
uneasy feeling that she had something unpleasant in mind, Aidan
felt his body react to it in a very distracting way.
“No harm,”
he repeated,
that time trying to convey the idea that he didn’t want to be
harmed any more by wrenching the switch from her grip.

Her hand tightened
momentarily, but then she let go of the stick, to his relief. He
smiled at her again.
“My name’s Aidan. Do
you have a name?”

She stared at him
uncomprehendingly.

He frowned, trying to
decide the best way to communicate. Finally, he transferred his
hold on her wrists to one hand and touched his chest.
“Aidan.”

She smiled at him. “Fuck
yourself.”

He frowned, mentally testing the
unfamiliar syllables before he tried repeating them. “Fk r
slf?”

She uttered a snort and looked down,
biting her lip.

Tipping her face up, he studied her
expression and discovered she was looking perfectly blank. Maybe
she wasn’t very intelligent? Maybe he’d been right to begin with
and it was just a fluke that she appeared so similar to his species
and she was actually no more than a higher life-form with very
little intelligence?

She’d spoken, though. He
was certain the sounds she’d made were actual speech.
“Aidan,”
he repeated,
touching his chest again and then touched hers.
“Fk r slf?”

That time she giggled. It
sounded as if she was amused, but at the same time he detected a
note of hysteria. “
No harm Fk r slf,
alright?”

It dawned on Anya that the
alien was trying to convince her that he didn’t mean to hurt her.
Not that she believed the bastard! As
if
she was so stupid as to believe
that when the son-of-a-bitch had invaded her world with some kind
of bomb that was destroying everything in its path!

Chapter Three

On the other hand, even though it had
relieved some of her fear and frustration to tell him to go fuck
himself, and it had amused her to realize he’d completely
misunderstood—although, of course, she’d intentionally deceived him
by smiling when she’d said it—she discovered she didn’t especially
like being called ‘fuck yourself’. “I’m Anya. My name is
Anya.”

He frowned, but she could see it was
because he didn’t understand what she was trying to tell him, not
because he was angry.

Bizarre that his features were similar
enough to human that she could actually read his
expressions/emotions!

Mental note! If she could read his
because of the similarity, it seemed to follow that he’d be able to
read hers.

He looked … cat-like, she decided. She
wondered if it wasn’t just the exotic slant of his eyes or the
elongated pupils of his golden eyes, but decided it extended beyond
that particular feature. His nose and mouth and even the shape of
his face were vaguely cat-like—similar enough to her pet that she
thought she might have been inclined to accept him with
friendliness under different circumstances.

They must have evolved from some
cat-like creature, she decided, just as humans had evolved from
something in the primate family and still bore some resemblance to
other branches of that family that hadn’t evolved as they
had.

But did that make them closer to cats
in behavioral characteristics? Or humans/primates?

He stood up, pulling her with him, to
her disappointment. She’d already planned her next attack, thinking
she could grab a couple of fistfuls of dirt and debris from the
ground and blind him with it long enough to escape. Instead, when
she thought he might be off balance, she gave him a
shove.

She hadn’t miscalculated …
completely. He
was
off balance and the push sent him over backwards.
Unfortunately, he still had a good grip on her wrists and he took
her with him. She bumped her forehead on his chin when she landed
on top of him.

He glared up at her, the narrowing of
his eyes making him look just that much more feline—and
unnerving.

She gaped at him a moment, wondering if
she could convince him it had been accidental.

Ok, so she could see right off that he
wasn’t going for that. Forcing what she hoped was a seductive
smile—although she found that in itself unnerving considering she
was pretty sure he’d already gotten a woody from wallowing all over
her—she hunched him a couple of times and then tried to nuzzle his
neck.

He heaved her up and flipped her off,
springing to his feet.

Stunned, Anya lay where he’d dumped
her, gaping up at him.

His lips tightened.
“
Get up!”

She didn’t know what he’d said, but the
motion of his hand seemed pretty self-explanatory. Grunting, she
pushed herself upright and finally managed to get to her feet.
Realizing he was staring at her, particularly uncomfortable since
he’d seemed immune to her attempt to seduce him, she covered her
breasts and her mound the best she could with her hands.

Aidan frowned, puzzled at her attempt
to cover herself for a few moments. Then it dawned on him that the
nanites were already at work. Undoubtedly, she’d been close enough
to one—and wearing clothing made of materials they were designed to
break down—to lose whatever she’d been wearing and she wasn’t a
primitive as he’d supposed.

The thoughts of the
terra-formers abruptly diverted him and he glanced around.
“I need to find that damned satellite,”
he muttered grimly,
“while there’s still a chance that there’s something
left.”

He transferred his
attention to the alien female, Fk r slf, when her movement caught
his attention and he realized she was preparing to run.
“Don’t even think about it, Fk r slf!”
he growled.
“If there’s
nothing left of that gods damned satellite when I find the spot
where it crashed, I’m going to need something as proof.”

Anya froze, struggling
with the urge to ignore his command, the fear that made her knees
weak when he growled at her, and the indignation that he was still
calling her fuck yourself. Her lips tightened. She patted her
chest. “My
name
is Anya, damn it!”

He tilted his head curiously, obviously
confused. “Ah-na dam dit?”

Anya stomped her foot in frustration.
“No, shithead!” She pointed at him. “Fucktard.” She pointed at
herself. “Anya. Anya Dupris,” she added as an
afterthought.

Something glittered in his eyes—anger,
she thought, feeling her heart trip over itself. It had to be the
tone. He couldn’t possibly understand what she’d said.

“
Aidan,”
he responded, touching a hand to his
chest.

Anya smiled a little weakly and decided
to pretend she hadn’t grasped that before. “Uh-lane,” she repeated
dutifully and then touched her chest. “Anya.”

“
A-lain,”
he corrected her.

“
Uh-lane.”

He rolled his eyes.

She glared at him and then erased the
expression quickly when he focused on her again. She had the
feeling from the look he gave her that he’d caught the glare.
“Ah-na.”

She smiled tightly. “Close
enough.”

Aidan studied Ah-na with an entirely
new perspective. His first guess, not the second, had been correct,
he decided. She’d been through hell—probably all because of the
terra-formers—and guilt smote him, not because he was personally
responsible for the disaster but because he’d been against it and
had failed in all attempts to make a change. The terra-formers
certainly explained why she’d looked so primitive, though, and he
supposed she held him responsible for the attack and that explained
her earnest attempts to claw him.

Because he knew it must seem like an
attack to her and she’d felt like she was fighting for her
life.

Given her intelligence, he seriously
doubted that anything he’d said or done had convinced her to trust
him one iota. It might have been easier, upon reflection, if she
had been more animal than intelligent being. No doubt she would’ve
been harder to subdue, but food would probably have convinced her
to trust him.

He considered that for a
moment and shrugged inwardly. It was worth a try. Lifting a hand to
his mouth he mimed eating.
“Ah-na
hungry?”

Anya watched him. She was pretty sure
he was talking about food, but she couldn’t decide if he wanted
some or he was offering.

Her stomach growled.

At this point, she thought she could be
won over with food … if he hadn’t been a damned alien! She smiled
at him, nodding. “I don’t trust you worth a fuck. I don’t care how
much you offer, you fucktard.”