Sarah lost consciousness at some point during the fall. She didn’t come to until the impact of the vessel crash landing jolted her against her restraints, the soft fabric digging in hard enough to bruise. Other than that pain, she was uninjured.

The purple warrior hadn’t been as lucky.

He lay in a heap across from her, his body contorted into an almost impossible position. At first she feared him dead, but his chest rose and fell steadily as he sucked in breaths.

Unconscious, but alive.

For a moment Sarah wavered between checking on the unconscious warrior or checking out where they’d landed. She settled on leaving him be for the moment. She was awake and had her wits about her. If Rex was dangerous, she couldn’t be trying to protect an injured man at the same time.

She took a deep breath and unhooked the restraints which held her in place. The sudden lack of tension hurt even more than the pressure had, and she swung her arms back and forth for a few seconds to try and get blood flowing.

Sparing one last look for the warrior, she approached the door. She looked out the little porthole above the window, but she couldn’t see much. It was too bright.

From her quick read of the guidebook, she knew that Rex had a breathable atmosphere and a climate she could survive. She had to assume the same would hold true for her purple friend. She hadn’t seen any life support suits inside the vessel. She had nothing to give him to help if he needed it.

She cranked open the door and looked out.

She could hear birds chirping and water lapping against land. It smelled of salt air with something faintly sweet and fruity woven through it. The air of Rex filled her lungs and she felt a little dizzy. It smelled so much better than the ship. She’d forgotten that rusted metal and weed were not normal things to breathe in.

She leapt down from the door and landed in soft sand. Her feet sank into the hot granules and she wished that she was barefoot so that she could feel it between her toes.

Not now, she reminded herself. Despite the beauty of this spot that they’d landed on, the Sky Chaser cruise guide made it clear that the ship would not and could not land on Rex under any but the direst of circumstances. Help might be a long time coming.

She and her purple warrior were in danger. Sarah just didn’t know what kind.

They’d landed on a beach. Behind the ship, reddish orange water stretched all the way to the horizon. A yellow sun shone high above them and the life boat’s door faced a jungle of green and purple trees, the leaves fat and hanging down nearly to the ground. A bright blue bird sat atop one of those trees. It leveled its gaze at her and Sarah had the strangest feeling that it was sizing her up.

It let out a cry and took off, flying toward the interior of the jungle.

Sarah let out a breath.

Other than the bird, she saw no other living things. Wind whispered through her hair, deceptively cool. It wasn’t quite warm enough that she wanted to swim; besides, the color of the ocean made her wary. At home on Earth, red water would have been toxic.

She walked around the life boat and took stock. The dark hull was covered in scorch marks along the bottom from where it had broken through the atmosphere. It was warm to the touch. There were markings above one of the seams in the side wall. Under them Sarah spotted a handle and a small depressor lock. She pressed the depressor and pulled on the handle.

A compartment in the life boat opened to reveal a dozen or so survival packs. They’d have food and water for days along with temperature controlled tents to keep them warm if the nights got too cold. Sarah said a silent thanks to any god that might have been listening and closed the compartment back up. They could unload it later.

It was safe enough for the moment. Safe enough to recover the warrior. She turned and walked back to the entrance of the life boat to find the warrior standing there scowling.

“You’re awake!” It wasn’t the ideal greeting, but seeing him standing wedged in the doorway shocked any politeness out of her.

The warrior stepped out of the doorway and took two lurching steps toward her. He advanced until less than a meter separated them and she could smell the delicious masculine scent embedded deep in his skin.

The warrior raised a hand and cupped her cheek, his fingers sliding until they rested right behind her ear. For a moment Sarah thought he was going to kiss her. Then he started pressing behind her ear and she got even more confused.

“What are you—”

“Hush!” he said without moving his fingers.

This was one of those moments when Sarah realized that it was more prudent to stay still. The warrior towered over her, and he could have crushed her head between his beefy hands. His biceps were bigger than both of her arms put together. Suddenly, she was afraid. Rex might not have been dangerous so far, but this warrior could do her serious harm and there was no one but her to stop him.

With a final press of his index finger, he pulled back. Sarah’s ears rang and she felt something click into place behind her ear. Her subdermal translator.

The warrior stepped back and nodded. “Much better.”

Sarah took her own step backward, trying to put a decent amount of space between them in case he got other ideas. “What did you do?”

“Misconfigured translator.” He waved at his ear in a circle. “It made a hell of a buzzing sound. I fixed it.”

Without meaning to, she raised her hand to the spot he’d just touched. She could feel the small protrusion of the implant under her skin. Stranger still, she could almost feel the imprint of his fingers. It was like he’d marked her somehow.

She gulped.

Sarah wanted to take another step back, but that felt too much like running away. Sure, he’d touched her, but he hadn’t tried to hurt her. Yet. No, she wouldn’t worry about it. They had bigger problems.

The warrior studied her, the shocking blue of his eyes enough to send shivers down her spine. But they weren’t cold. A raging inferno of heat swirled in them, intense enough to scald her. She’d thought him attractive from afar, but looking into his eyes, she could see that he was dangerously beautiful.

“Are you injured?” he asked, unaware of the turn her thoughts had taken.

“No, I’m okay.” She’d been moving around and nothing felt injured. Sure, she was sore and bruised, but there was nothing she could do about it at the moment. And she wasn’t the person to be worried about. At least she’d been strapped into the life boat when it ejected. “What about you?”

His dark brows drew down and his eyes narrowed. “I am well.”

She’d have dreams about the way his lips formed those words. Already her fingers itched to reach up and trace over the full burgundy skin. She’d heard lips described as sinful before, but she hadn’t realized what that meant. Looking at this warrior’s lips, she got it.

But she had to look beyond his lips. He wore low slung gray pants hanging off of his hips and a thin white shirt. It was so thin that she could make out the contours of his dark abs in shades of purples and burgundies. Sarah wanted to do wicked things to those muscles. There was a faint pattern to his skin, dark dots that she could barely make out. In all other ways, he looked a lot like a very purple human man.

Was it the same under his pants?

Sarah shook her head. She wasn’t trying to ogle him, she was trying to figure out if he was concealing an injury. On the surface he looked alright, but with purple skin, she couldn’t tell if he was covered in bruises or not. She wasn’t even sure what color he would bruise.

She’d need to take him at his word for the moment. She moved on. The more time they wasted, the more time they’d be stuck on a deserted planet. “There might be a radio with the survival gear,” she said. “Maybe we can get in touch with Sky Chaser 4 and they can send someone to help.” Otherwise, they’d need to hike and hope they found civilization.

The warrior tilted his head to the side, doubt and bemusement written plainly on his alien skin. “Do you truly think they're in a position to do so?”

It was Sarah’s turn to be confused. “We fell by accident, didn't we?” She hadn’t spent any time figuring out why they were ejected. But what else could it have been? “Some sort of mechanical malfunction?” Whatever it was, they were lucky to be alive.

The warrior was not convinced. "I highly doubt that."

"Why's that?" she asked, truly curious.

"Because… never mind.” He shook his head and took a deep breath, relaxing. As the tension drained from his muscles, he shrank by a few centimeters, still a head taller than her, but now much more like a large man than a terrifying warrior. “My name is Nyxant. Of Oscavia." He added the last bit as an afterthought.

So the warrior had a name. It was nice to know after all the time she’d spent thinking about him back on the cruise. Now she had something to call him while she dreamed.

Or not. She needed to get off this planet, not have crazy sex fantasies about a purple warrior named Nyxant.

"I’m Sarah Gallagher. Of Earth." She almost added Canada to where she was from, but thought better of it. Planetary politics of a barely interstellar backwater wouldn’t be of interest to anyone outside of her solar system.

Nyxant looked over her shoulder out toward the horizon. "Night will fall soon, Sarah." Her name on his lips made her shiver. He said it like no human, emphasizing the last syllable and breathing it out.

They had to make camp. And she needed to get a hold of herself. “I found supplies,” she told him and led him around to the outside of the life boat. Rex’s sun was setting fast and she could feel that it was going to be a cold night.

Hopefully by morning Sky Chaser 4 would realize that they’d been ejected. Otherwise, her vacation had just been extended indefinitely.