Page 18 of An Alien for the Farm

“Carnivore leaning.” I answer her question, my gaze shifting down her form.

She shivers under my scrutiny, and I can see her struggling to keep her composure. With shaky fingers, she lifts her scoop to her lips, sipping the stew. Her little tongue darts out to clean her lips before she dips the scoop and repeats the action. The tension is palpable, a taut string ready to snap.

“I guess that’s good to know,” she murmurs, trying to focus on her meal.

I should focus on mine too, but frakk the stew. I want to ask her if she knows what I’d really like to taste? That it’s been on my mind from the moment she opened that door.

But I don’t know her species’ mating rituals. I should not court her when there’s no indication that she is mine—just this unignorable fascination that’s growing with each click.

I can’t take my eyes off her as I finish the stew. Surprisingly filling, I set the empty bowl down on the tray and fall back against the grass. Eleanor gives an amused huff through her nose as she watches me rest with my arms behind my head. Above us the sky grows purple and the distant stars begin peeking out.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve eaten like this because Varek and I usually get our meals from the taverns. Meat, fresh dough, and drink, before we head back to our quarters. I do not usually eat under the stars,” I answer her first question, gaze shifting to her as she finishes her stew, too.

She sets her receptacle down before glancing at me, her bottom lip curiously being eaten by her own mouth. Her nose crinkles in the most endearing way before she shrugs and mutters something about “fukking it”—whatever that means—before she falls back onto the grass as well.

From this angle, the mounds on her chest are even more prominent each time she takes a breath.

A soft giggle rises in her throat before her gaze shifts to mine. “This is nice.”

“Mm.” Not even a word. I cannot speak. Here, in this light and so close, her skin looks even more enchanting, almost as if the dying starlight is giving her an embrace.

“This must be usual for you, though,” she whispers. “A calm life like this on Hudo III?”

I don’t answer for a moment, just watching the stars with her. She’s wrong. My life has been anything but calm, but would she be scared of me if she knew the truth?

“You know nothing of the Kari?” I hedge.

She hums a sound in her throat. “Apart from the fact you’re good at fixing roofs, no.” There’s a soft laugh in her throat and I find my lips curling in humor, too.

“For most of us, life has never been calm. Not until now, at least. We’ve fought in wars. Many wars. I have only lived this calm life on Hudo III for the past…ten orbits.”

I sense when she shifts. Feel her focus on me.

“You’ve fought in wars?”

“More than I can count.” And the memories haunt me. But I don’t tell her that. I don’t tell her that inside every Kari she’ll find here on Hudo III is a gaping hole that can never be filled. “The Tasqals made sure of that.”

I hear when she inhales sharply and through my peripheral vision, I watch her shoulders rise and fall.

“The Tasqals…” she murmurs. “I know them. Somewhere up there,” she points at the stars, “is Earth. One of those dots.”

There’s that note of sadness in her voice again and I watch the light in her eyes slowly die. The excitement being ripped away by some memory that’s haunting her. I’m drawn to it. Drawn to some urge to comfort her.

“Erth?”

“Yep…” A deep exhale. “My planet. What was once my home.”

“Do you miss it?”

She shrugs. “Not really. My life was over anyway. Those brutes that abducted me might have traumatized the shit out of me, but I think, in the end, everything will work out for the better.”

Abducted? Frakk.

I’m a qrakking fool. I don’t have to ask. I don’t want to ask. The thought that this delicate little bloom might have been a victim of the Tasqals is enough. Their kind is hated across the galaxy for their crimes. What they did to us Kari…what they’ve done to so many others…is unforgivable.

Without realizing this Liora’s a victim of the same race that had me and Varek fighting when we were only chids, I’ve now awakened memories she must have tried hard to push away. Idiot!

“Do you like it here?” she whispers. “On this planet?”

---