by C L Rowell
“It’d be easier for you to just try it,” he hedged.
“Why?” I followed him into his room. Inside was a bed that looked like it could be somewhere in-between a queen and a king and a stiff ungiving cushion-less chair. A threadbare carpet stretched from wall to wall. No pictures or shelves could be seen anywhere. I crinkled my nose. Eww.
“What’s that look for?”
I raised both eyebrows, “Trying to change the subject?”
“No. Okay, maybe.” He threw his hands in the air in disgust. “Fine, it’s a sonic shower.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning it doesn’t use water.”
“So, I’m guessing that means no baths either, huh?” I planted my hands on my hips, “No pictures on the walls, no shelves, no knickknacks, nothing but drab blue walls and dingy gray carpet on the floors, and now no baths—this is not acceptable.”
“Uhh…” He stood there with his mouth hanging open. I went out on a limb and took a wild guess—he didn’t have much experience with female tantrums.
I swallowed a giggle. “Cat got your tongue?”
“A wha—no! It’s just—you’re a sight to behold when you’re angry. Do you know that? Magnificent.” He shoved his fingers through his hair and paced. “What… uhh, what would be acceptable? I’ll see what I can do.”
I chewed on my lip, thinking. What would be acceptable? “Could you make an acceptable bathtub?”
He shook his head, “We don’t carry enough water—just what the replicator makes for meals.”
Bummer. I snapped my fingers as a thought occurred to me. “Do the replicators make paint?”
“Yes.”
“In other colors besides pale blue and white?”
“Yes.”
“Great!” I tried again, “If I can draw a throw rug, will it make one?” He nodded hesitantly. Probably didn’t even know what a throw rug was. I didn’t let it stop me. “What about a crib? Or baby toys?”
He eyed me up and down, eyes wide, “Are you—”
I shook my head. “No, I’m not pregnant. I’m just fluffy. I meant for later.”
“Oh…” His palpable look of relief was nearly my undoing. He did know where babies came from, didn’t he? “Well, there are cribs and such things back on my world—”
“Yes, but we left my birth control on my world, and trust me when I say you could look at me wrong and I’d get pregnant.” I bit my lip hard when his eyes popped open, but persisted, “If we need it sooner can we get it?”
He nodded and sneaked a peek at me. “Yes.”
“Sweet. So, what do you do for entertainment on this ship?” His eyes lit up and I held both hands out, “Not so fast, Romeo. I mean other than sex.”
“There’s a movie room and a digital library in the entertainment area.”
“There is? I wonder why Sylvie didn’t mention it. She said there was a weight room and some type of ball court—becca ball?”
“Bokko—it’s similar to your basketball and handball.”
“That sounds fun. Still, I wonder why she doesn’t know about the movie room and library.” I had my suspicions. I snorted. Typical male.
“You’re going to tell her, aren’t you?” He pursed his lips, obviously worried.
“Damn straight I am. She deserves to know. Either he tells her, or I do. Now show me how to use this shower and loan me a t-shirt. I feel grungy.”
9
Alex
◆◆◆
While Aly was in the shower, I slipped over to Zander’s to give him a heads up. As I expected he would, he protested.
“Stall her. Sylvie will stop speaking to me if Aly tells her there’s a library and theater onboard. She’s spoken countless times about movies she wished to share with me and how much she missed having a library right up the street.”
“I can’t believe you haven’t told her about it by now. You’ve been up here over a week. What were you thinking?”
“Yeah, Zander, what were you thinking?” Busted.
“Sylvie, baby, I thought you were sleeping.” He jumped, scowling at me like it was my fault he got busted.
“Don’t you baby me,” she shoved him out the door and secured it shut behind him. “Jerk!”
He pounded on the door, begging and pleading, then cursing and threatening, until I led him back to my quarters for a drink. “Come on, have a drink or two, let her calm down. It’ll be fine.”
“No, it won’t.” His whole body drooped. “I misled her. She hates me now.”
“Who hates you?” Aly came padding out of the bath in one of my t-shirts. The thin material hugged her breasts and flirted with the curve of her hips before falling to dance around her dimpled knees. Just like that, my entire body went rock hard.
“Sylvie hates me and it’s all your fault,” he glowered down his nose self-righteously, puffing up and looking even more intimidating than he usually did.
“My fault?” Aly, far from being the least bit cowed, laughed in his face. “Dude, I wasn’t the one who neglected to tell her about the movie room and the digital library. That shit’s all on you.”
“We were doing fine until you showed up.”
“Fucking like bunnies in every room, you mean?”
“What if we were?”
She rolled her eyes toward the ceiling. “A relationship isn’t just about sex, you know.”
“It isn’t?” He scratched his head.
“No, it isn’t. It’s about sharing and caring and just spending time together, getting to know each other.”
He deflated, slumping against the wall. “So, I’ve lost her for good?”
“Nah, you’re still fine,” she assured him. “You just might have to do a little groveling.”
“What is groveling?”
“Translator malfunctioning?” She gave him a cheeky grin. “Groveling means that you take your hulking ass down to the replicator and have it replicate a box of chocolates, a big bouquet of flowers, and a diamond bracelet.” He opened his mouth, but she rolled right over him, “If you don’t know what that is, search it up. If you can access books and movies then you can damn sure access other information, too.” She headed for the door, “After you have those items in hand, come back and knock on your door. By then I should have her calmer and ready to listen to your heartfelt apology.”
“Why must I apologize? Soldiers do not grovel.”
She glanced back. “Y’all bumping uglies?” When he frowned, confused, she sighed and spelled it out. “Are you having sex?”
With a huge grin and emphatic nod, he replied, “Yes.”
“Do you want to keep having sex?”
“Yes,” he nodded again, but his nod wasn’t as dramatic, and concern filled his eyes.
“Then you grovel.”
“But—” He scowled at her.
“Were you in the wrong?” His scowl deepened and he muttered something. She cupped her hand behind her ear, “I didn’t quite catch that.”
“Yes, I was in the wrong.” The admission was given grudgingly, and I wondered if she knew what it cost him to say it.
“And you hurt her.”
“No, I—” His eyes rounded until we could see the whites all the way around the silver of his iris. “I would never—”
“Her feelings, numb-nuts. Hurting someone doesn’t always infer bodily injury. You hurt her feelings. She’s feeling used right now. Deceived. In her shoes I’m sure I’d feel the same way.” She shook her finger at him. “You lied by omission and she found out from someone else. That’s a good way to lose her trust and when you lose the trust you lose the girl. Now go—go get the apology gifts while I try to undo the damage you did.”
We watched from down the hall as she knocked on the door across from mine and slipped inside.
He glanced at me, unsure. “Do you think she knows what she’s talking about?”
“Who knows?” I lifted a shoulder in a halfhearted shrug, “But she’s a female so I’m thinking yea
h.”
“Females are complicated.” He chewed on his lip until it was raw, working himself into a big ball of nerves and second guessing everything. Finally, he lifted his head and looked at me. “What would you do in my shoes?”
I turned him one hundred and eighty degrees so he was facing away from the temptation of the locked door and his woman hiding on the other side before he could give in to our inner caveman and break it down. “I’d take the advice given to me. Let’s go. I’ll see if I can figure out what those things are as we walk.”
Using a resource called, oddly, Google, I searched for appropriate gifts and found a treasure trove. I fed the images to the replicator’s computer. After it spit out the finished products, he scowled down at the strange items in front of us, unabashedly doubtful.
“You’re sure these things are what she referred to?”
“As sure as I can be. According to Google, roses and lilies are the perfect apology flowers. Together, they signify love and devotion.” They also signified humility, but I left that little tidbit out since I didn’t want the flowers to end up stomped into a smear on the floor.
“And the fruit?”
“Chocolate dipped strawberries—a well-known Earth aphrodisiac.”
“Truly?” His eyes lit up. “And the glittery trinket?”
“That was the hardest one to figure out, so I went with my gut and emulated a diamond bracelet from some place called Tiffany’s.”
“Sounds girly.”
“She’s a girl.”
“Good point.” He gathered up the bouquet, the box of strawberries, and the long, thin jewelry box. Holding them awkwardly in front of his body, he gazed back toward the sleeping quarters, obviously eager to head back. “Do you think it’s been long enough?”
Since I wanted to finish what Aly and I’d started in the pod, and the sooner the better, I agreed, “Surely, it has. Let’s go.”
We arrived at the door and I knocked. My stomach sank when, instead of stepping out of the way and letting us through, Aly stepped out and let it close behind her. She met my eyes and then his before glancing at the objects in his hands.
“Oh good, you got the gifts.” She paused and blew out a long breath, “I did the best I could but it’s really going to be up to you, Zander. Right now, she’s still understandably upset. She feels like all you want from her is her body and a kid.”
“That’s not true.” He shifted from foot to foot, hesitant. “I… I love… her.”
“Don’t tell me, big guy. Tell her. She’s the one you have to convince.”
He nodded, standing straighter, “I intend to. Can we go in, now?”
“Not we—this is all your fight.” She squeezed his arm. “You need it to be just you and her, one on one. No distractions.”
“But—”
“No buts,” she cut him off. “Speak from your hearts and she’ll hear the truth in your voice.”
He swallowed audibly, pale beneath his usual tan, “From my hearts. Got it.”
“You got this,” I assured him.
“Sure. I’ve got this.” He didn’t sound very sure, but he stepped up closer, triggering the door. “I hope.”
10
Aly
◆◆◆
“How did it go in there?”
I winced. “She was pretty hurt. Pissed, too. If we weren’t stuck up here on this spaceship…”
“She wanted to leave?”
“Part of her did. Or, if I’m honest, still does.” I met his eyes, holding them. “Always be honest with me, Alex.”
He nodded. “So… you want to wait?”
“Wait?”
“To finish what we started on the pod?”
“Hey, now—I didn’t say that.” I placed my hand on his hard chest and let him see the lingering desire in my eyes, “You and me, we definitely have some unfinished business to take care of. If you think I’m waiting because Sylvie and Zander are fighting, then you’re not half as smart as I gave you credit for. Now, did you want to shower first?”
“Already taken care of, but—”
“But?”
“I’m getting hungry…”
My stomach growled. I rubbed it, giggling. “Me, too. What did you have in mind?”
“Google says a good date food on your world is something called pizza?”
“Oohhh,” I moaned as my stomach rumbled louder. Then a thought occurred to me. My shoulders slumped and my smile wilted. “Pizza is delicious. It’s one of many things I’m going to miss.”
“Maybe you won’t have to.”
Say what? I perked up, “I won’t?”
“Nope. I had the replicator make one—”
Drool pooled in my mouth. “What kind?”
“Pepperoni and cheese?”
My favorite! I scoured the room. “Where—” I barely got the word out when I spotted a familiar looking square box. It was laying on the floor in the center of a red and black checkered blanket. Off to one side was a green bottle in a bucket of ice. Next to it was a basket filled with two fluted glasses, a small stack of napkins, and paper plates. There was even a pie tucked behind the basket. He’d thought of everything—even pillows. Scattered around the blanket, stacked in squishy tumbled piles, were pillows in all shapes and sizes. My heart melted. “Aww, a picnic? Really?”
“Do you approve?”
“Do I approve? Of course, I approve! I love picnics—and I love pizza and champagne, and—ooohhh, is that Key lime pie?”
“It is. Google says—”
“Let me guess. Google says it’s Florida’s state pie, right?” I laughed at him. “Google talks too much. It’s a good thing my taste buds grew up along with me. I hated Key lime pie as a child.”
Worry darkened his pale eyes, “Would you rather have something else? I want everything to be perfect.”
“And it is perfect,” I assured him. “You thought of everything. It’s almost like you read my mi—” I gave him a hard stare, “—nd. You can’t read minds, can you?”
He shook his head, “No. I wish I could. It’d be so much easier—”
“And, you’d be so single right now—all alone up here in this room—after you returned me to Florida, of course.”
“But, why? I would think you’d like having me know your wishes without you ever having to say a word.”
“Would you like it if I could read your mind?”
He flinched. “Well, no, but… my species are very private people.”
My heart growing softer over his confused frown, I explained, “In that way we’re very much the same. Just like you, I like my privacy. I don’t care how hot you are—if you could read my mind it would be a no go.”
The clouds of confusion vanished with my words and a sunny smile took their place. “So, you do think I’m hot?”
Holy crap, he was fishing—and not subtly either! I pointedly rolled my eyes, groaning. “Oh, like you don’t know how you look. Women probably chase after you on every planet you visit.”
“They aren’t you, though.” He edged closer, all up in my personal bubble.
“I’m not that special,” I squeaked, frozen in place as the warmth of his body heat surrounded me. I could smell his scent, musky and male, and it called to something deep inside me. As I breathed him in I could feel my body readying itself for his possession. The tops of my thighs became slick with need.
“You’re my destiny,” he dragged his nose up the sensitive skin of my neck, sniffing me and not even trying to hide it. His breath brushed my ear, “My mate. The only woman in the universe made just for me. That makes you quite special.”
I shivered. “Mmm.”
He pulled back just far enough to look into my eyes, concern growing in his. “Are you cold?”
I swallowed a laugh and shook my head. He could be so clueless at times. It was adorable. “Far from it.”
“You shivered.”
“But not because I was cold.”
“No?”
&n
bsp; I watched his lips come closer, barely shaking my head as I did. Impatient, I rose up on tiptoe to meet him partway. “No.”