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Keoke awoke to a raspy tongue licking his hair and face with
annoying insistence. Fire-breathing Volcano Goddess! He wiped his cheek and
batted at the pestering whatever. The licking stopped. Keoke pulled the sheet
over his head and returned to sleep, enjoying the soft mattress, but the
nagging feeling of being watched made him open his eyes.
He tossed away the sheet, sat up on the bed and froze.
At the foot of the bed, three sets of round blue eyes stared
at him from three white and silver-gray furry faces, and one pink tongue still
hanging between unusually long fangs. Keoke’s heartbeat accelerated to the
tempo of a wahine’s hips in a Tahitian circle. He glanced around for an escape.
He was inside a dome made of blue glass, with no windows or doors. Daylight
filtered in through the translucent material.
He reminded himself to breathe.
“Tibeta is a Smilodon.” The lovely woman, with diaphanous
robes flowing down to her ankles, appeared from nowhere at the edge of the
dome, as if she’d walked through the wall.
Keoke did a double take. She was breathtaking, with flowing,
coppery hair, bare shoulders, and wonderful curves in all the right places. A
blue sword hung from her hip. And she spoke Galactic standard. Good. That would
facilitate communications.
The apparition smiled as she glided toward him on sandaled
feet. “This large cat species is extinct on most planets.”
Keoke patted his belt for a blade or a gun and only touched
skin. He scanned the space for a weapon. Not even a boot to throw, or a
bed-lamp to wield as a stick. And he was naked on the bed. No clothes… an old
trick to humiliate a prisoner or prevent an escape. But Keoke never felt shy
about his body. His ancestors lived naked. And he didn’t need weapons to defend
himself.
Still, he pulled the sheet up to his waist to hide his
reaction to the gorgeous woman. “Where am I?”
“I am Lady Valoria, and you are in my home.” The apparition
strode with the easy grace of a feline, or a trained warrior. “What’s your
name?”
“Keoke.” No harm in giving his first name, it might humanize
him as a prisoner, but that’s all she would get.
“Well, Keoke,” her bright blue eyes narrowed upon him. “How
are you feeling this morning?”
