She blushed and sat up as the shine disappeared under his careful tongue.
He met her gaze as he lowered his hand. “That distressed you?”
Athena sighed. “My society had a lot of hang-ups. I am going to have to work through them.”
“Well, you are not afraid of hard work.” He stroked her hair back from her face. “I look forward to your future efforts.”
She blushed and wondered when it would be appropriate to put her coveralls back on.
He helped her get dressed, and just as the coveralls were closed, Tolr came in. “My lord, my lady, it is time for the noon meal.”
She crawled off him and stood next to Etska. She blinked. “Is it lunch already?”
Tolr nodded. “My lord has asked me to keep you on a strict schedule while you are recovering. I am good at scheduling, my lady.”
She nodded. “Right. Well, I am just going to wash up for lunch.” She looked at Etska. “You should too.”
He chuckled and got to his feet, directing her to the lav so she could wash her hands and splash her face before she left the space to wait next to Tolr.
The green man murmured, “You should have let him go first.”
She murmured back, “He wanted to watch me bend over the sink.”
Tolr flushed dark green as Etska came out and wrapped his arms around Athena before patting her backside. “Let’s go for lunch, Athena. We don’t want you getting weak.”
Athena shrugged, and Tolr led the way down the hall. Her butt was the one thing he hadn’t really gotten a look at. He was settling for groping, for now.
Chapter Seven
While they ate Melr’s current offering, Tolr disappeared.
Athena ate from Etska’s lap, and it did, indeed, slow her down.
“Where did Tolr go?”
Etska picked up one of the small finger sandwiches, and he sniffed at it. “I don’t know. He has his own meals and schedules to arrange.”
They continued to eat, and when she was full, she held up her hand when Etska tried to give her another piece. “Enough.”
“You are underweight.”
“Not by much.” She sighed. “I am comfortable with things. I like the muscles that I have gained.”
“They were a pleasant surprise. You look so slight, but there is strength in you.”
She snickered. “There had better be. I had to haul Tber and Hivr out of a bog. Those guys are heavy.”
He grumbled. “You were in the bogs?”
“For an entire week.” She chuckled and braced her hands on the table to move from the backless couch that he was sitting on to the chair.
He wrapped his arm around her and used the other hand to continue his lunch. “It is even more amazing that you survived your time as a forager. It is normally assigned to those that lack intelligence but have strength and can follow orders.”
“Well, we were given a larger bunkhouse with shower facilities, but that could have been because we were mixed sexes.”
He grunted. “That is standard. The same-sex teams have the advantage of numbers. Also, your combined scores were impressive, so it added amenities.”
“You have looked into it?”
“I went over your records last week. For one team to correctly identify the uses of the items that they found is rare. For them to bring back the volume that you did is exceptional.”
She chuckled. “Thank you. It was like herding cats.”
“What is a cat?”
She explained cats to him for five minutes before he nodded.
“Soft to the touch, deadly, and yet friendly? It sounds like khitan. They fly. Hm, perhaps I should import some.”
“Okay, sounds sort of similar to cats, though cats with wings would be terrifying. Well, cats with opposable thumbs would be worse.” She snickered.
He continued to clear the plate, offering her each of the small bites before he took it.
“So, what are we doing this afternoon?”
He took a sip of water. “We are returning to the research facility and going through level by level to see what they are doing with your findings.”
“Yeah, about that. If you designed this place, why don’t you know what all the plants are?”
“I have mixed and mingled seeds and plants from hundreds of worlds. They landed on this soil and began to grow. Their growth patterns and the end result is not predictable. That is life. It takes strange and unusual pathways. So, we get the foragers in to take samples of what has grown. It is determined if it is stable, can be used for seeding, and then it goes to the greenhouses and the experimental fields for germination.”
“Like the fruit.”
“Right. Like the fruit you had this morning. It is good raw, excellent cooked, and oxidizes when juiced into something that tastes completely different. That took experimentation.” He chuckled. “It is my favourite part of a new world. Getting it ready for habitation.”
Tolr returned, and he had fabric draped over his arms. “My lord, Lady Theena, I have some clothing and a pair of shoes that the facility has readied.”
The fabric was a nice ombre pattern in ocean blue to cream with coral. She couldn’t see which piece went where, but it looked like she wouldn’t be having a peep show if she wore it. Getting it wet was another question, but unless Etska flew in the rain, it wouldn’t be too much of a problem.
Athena got up and walked to him, extending her arms. “If you hand them over, I will get changed, and then your eye can stop twitching when you look at my coveralls.”
Tolr looked a little surprised, but he handed her the fabric. She didn’t look at the overseer. She headed up to the bedroom and stripped, holding up what turned out to be a skirt and a wide breast band with a shoulder strap on her right side. Her abs were shown off to advantage, and the skirt had a sash tied at her hips. The skirt wasn’t going anywhere, but the multiple panels meant that her legs were going to be flashed every time she took a step. The slippers covered her feet, and that was that.
She looked at herself in a mirror that was uncomfortably close to the bed and twirled around. The panels parted up to mid-thigh, and that is where the exposure ceased. That was something, at least.
Well, she was dressed to spec as a Hmrain companion, so she might as well return to her Hmrain.
She walked back to the table out back, and Tolr looked pleased and relieved. Etska got to his feet, and he held her hand before he slowly turned her.
“Nicely done. The colours suit your skin tone.”
She chuckled. “Yours as well.”
“A coincidence.” He chuckled and ran a finger along the bare expanse of her neck and shoulder.
She wanted to shiver, but he walked slowly around her, touching the exposed skin of her midriff.
“I do like the design and fit.”
Athena nodded. “I just have a few tests to do on the fabric, but that can wait until I have a change of clothing. I am guessing that I am wearing the prototype.”