Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 92507 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92507 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
She’s not the type to give up. Ever. She’ll just grit her teeth and get down to business. Admirable little thing.
“That’s too soon,” I say abruptly. “I need another day or two. Cleaning up some business here.”
“We’re not going to wait another week,” Mathiras warns, a hard look on his face. “If they get word that we’re heading in their direction, they might scatter.”
“Two days,” I tell him, nodding. I watch in horror as Piper leans over the drone with a hand welder. That’s the last tool she needs to fix a faulty drone and she’s going to destroy it if she’s not careful. “I have to go. Two days, all right?”
“What are we supposed to keffing do for two more days—”
I hang up before they can argue with me and sprint outside. Mathiras talks a big game, but if they need a navigator and a fourth for their head-hunting mission, they’ll wait two more days for me. I just need enough time to get Piper settled and then I can join them. It doesn’t feel right just running out on her hours after she sprung me from jail.
If I’m being honest with myself, it doesn’t feel right leaving immediately after last night…but I’m not gonna be honest with myself. I’ll help her fix a few drones, maybe help her wire a sentry system around the perimeter, and let her know I’m coming back in a few months and I’ll slide her some credits to help things along.
10
PIPER
I don’t understand Vordigar.
One moment he can’t leave this place—and me—fast enough. The next, he’s racing across the field to come and fix my drone. He takes all day working on my equipment, optimizing things and fixing burnt out parts that look like nothing to my uneducated human eyes. He’s unfailingly patient, too. As he fixes the drones, he tells me what he’s doing and shows me how to fix these sorts of things in the future. He wants me to learn, and I want to learn, and I appreciate it. I’m not sure all of it will stick, but I appreciate the information all the same.
For an ex-con, he sure does have a soft heart.
I watch him as I make dinner—more noodles, this time with a protein broth and savory spices—and he tinkers with a bit of equipment at the table. He’s sweaty and dirty from spending all day working on my farm equipment, dirty smears on his blue skin that blend in all too well with his riotous tattoos. His scars face me, but he’s not ugly. I think of the way he watched me last night as he came inside me, as he touched me and made me come.
He’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.
I’m blushing even as I think that. After years of alien captivity and being treated like less than a person, I’d come to terms with my fate. I knew no alien would ever look at a human as an equal, but I was hoping with a husband at my side, we’d come to an agreement and I’d happily trade my body for some security and to protect my farm. After all, it’s just a body. I’ve learned to mentally “go away” every time I’ve been touched in a way I didn’t want to be touched. It’s the only way to stay sane.
I didn’t expect Vordigar to be…kind, though. I thought he’d just climb on top of me, go to town, and then fall asleep. I didn’t expect him to caress me. To pleasure me. To ask what I liked. The idea was so foreign to me that I couldn’t even answer. I was too afraid of saying something wrong. I’ve learned that the best thing is to say nothing at all and hope for very little.
Instead, he gave me orgasms. One shattering orgasm after the next, and he made me feel…beautiful. Special. Like someone important. Someone who deserved just as much pleasure in bed as her partner.
It filled me with such joy that I’d woken up this morning, humming. I’d pictured our life together on the farm. I’d hoped for someone to talk to—nothing more, nothing less. A lifetime full of evenings like that one was…unbearably exciting. There’s no talk of love. I’m a realist. But if I have someone at my side to talk to, someone that looks at me like I’m a normal person, someone that smiles at me and touches me gently at night?
That changes everything.
It was too much to hope for, though. I fight back a knot in my throat. He’s not staying. He’s never said he would. Last night was just an aberration. In some ways, I wish it had never happened, because now I’m going to know what I’m missing.
Now I’m filled with yearning.
But there’s no place in my life for things like that. I swallow the knot, clear my throat, and dish up a big bowl of noodles for him. I set it down in front of Vordigar and keep my tone neutral. “So when are you leaving?”