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“To survive. We have none, and our world needs it.” Autumn reached out, covering Soulara’s fingers with her own. It was the first time she initiated the touch, but something about the way their fingers slid together felt so right. Autumn’s chest tightened, her throat constricting. This was the most she’d talked to anyone in as long as she could remember, the most she’d opened up. But she hadn’t said anything personally revealing. “I need water to live.”

“So do I,” Soulara whispered. She tilted her chin up, and their eyes met.

A shock ran through Autumn’s body, a lightness followed closely behind by a fire, until it consumed her. She dropped her gaze to their joined hands, realizing far too late that Soulara was doing some kind of magic on her. The pull was threatening. Autumn despised the fact that she wanted to lean in even more, that she wanted to take Soulara’s lips in a kiss that would be brutal and pure passion and desire and nothing else.

“I don’t sense hostility from you,” Soulara murmured.

As soon as the words were out, that fiery inferno was gone, and Autumn was back to normal. Her brain spun from the intrusion. What was real and what wasn’t? She couldn’t tell with Soulara in front of her. She couldn’t find herself.

But the last thing she wanted to do was have sex with an alien. The last thing she would do was fall in love with someone who would use magic on her to get information. Soulara had already proved multiple times that she would do that. Autumn pulled back, putting space between them. She couldn’t let herself get lost in the fantasy of a beautiful body and some pitiful attention.

Pulling her knees up to her chest, Autumn wrapped her arms around them and stared out at the horizon. She’d already revealed way too much, and she needed to stop it. She needed to think first and keep everything hidden like she always had.

She was about to make an excuse to leave when Soulara curled her fingers around Autumn’s arms. Sucking in a sharp breath, Autumn let her eyes flutter shut and focused just on the feel of Soulara against her.

“What’s it like to be in the water? I mean completely in it. Covered. Encompassed. Surrounded. Embraced.”

“Embraced is a good word for it.” Soulara moved her fingers up Autumn’s arm to her chin, turning Autumn’s face so they were looking each other directly in the eye again. “It’s like the warmest and safest place I’ve ever been.”

“Then why leave it? Why come here?”

“It’s not the water I’m escaping,” Soulara answered. There was a tension between them, a pull from Soulara to Autumn, from Autumn to Soulara.

“Then what are you running from?” Autumn’s breath was dragged from her, straight to Soulara. Everything about this moment was about Soulara, hand against Autumn’s chin, lips slightly parted, pale blue eyes that seemed like an impossible color to see in the real world. But this was the real world, and Autumn had to remind herself of that, repeatedly.

Soulara was real.

This tension was real.

This world was real.

“More than I can share in one conversation.” Soulara moved in, a breath away, but she stopped suddenly.

A loud splashing noise reached Autumn’s ears, but it was so hard to make out behind the loud ringing and rushing wind she swore only she could hear. She dragged in a deep breath, and Soulara backed away shaking her head.

“I’m so sorry,” Soulara said.

“Sorry?” Autumn frowned, already missing the closeness. “For what?”

“I need to leave.”

“Leave?” Autumn gripped Soulara’s arm. “Where are you going?”

“I…” Soulara stopped, looking out at the water. “I need to go. Will I be able to see you again? Talk to you?”

Kiss you?

The question was implied even though it wasn’t asked.

“Yes.” Autumn’s voice wavered with emotion. “Yes. When?”

“In two suns from now. Right here. Same time.”

“I’ll be here.” Autumn winced. She would have to sneak out, and that would be hard, but she couldn’t tell Soulara no. That pain that she’d sensed before in Soulara’s person was back.

“I’m looking forward to it.” Soulara winked. She stood up, brushing the dry sand from her body. But she didn’t walk toward the water. She moved into the dense forest behind them, disappearing into the shadows.

Autumn watched her until she couldn’t see Soulara anymore. Then she looked back out across the waves.