Page 39 of Rescued By the Luxirian

Pulling away with a gasp, meeting his half-lidded eyes, I said in a ragged voice, “I’ll stay.”

He froze.

“Rebax?”

I smiled though it felt shy. Shy and excited.

“I’ll stay with you. Here on Ullima,” I told him.

“Rebax?”

I laughed, pushing at his shoulder. “You heard me.”

“You…you willstay? Here? With me?” he asked.

“Who else?” I asked, grinning at the bewildered expression on his face. “You were really ready to go to Wero, weren’t you?”

The knowledge softened my already softened heart. He’d been about to give up this place for me. Without a second thought.

And while I loved Wero—it had been the place where I felt like I’d come into my own, a place that made me feel safe and secure and independent—I didn’tloveloveit. I wasn’t asattached to it as Droxan was to Ullima. I could never ask him to give this place up. Not for me.

“Though,” I said quietly, looking up at him to gauge his reaction, “maybe we can split our time on another colony once a child comes?”

His eyes flared. Hot and bright. “Tev?”

Gods, helikedwhen I spoke of a child. Hewantedto get me pregnant and that thought alone sent a flurry of butterflies racing to my belly.

I swallowed. “For schooling. For socialization. I’m okay with being on this beautiful planet with just you but…what’s that old saying? It takes a village to raise a child. Maybe during the stormy season, we can live somewhere else.”

His voice was guttural. “You’ve given a lot of thought to this.”

“Yes,” I told him, my tone sheepish. “Since we got back to the house. I…I had already made up my mind on the walk back from the waterfall, to be honest. But I was working through the logistics in my head all afternoon. All the what ifs.”

Because that was how my brain usually worked.

“And I know we don’t have to decide this now, I’m just throwing it out there. That I?—”

He cutmeoff this time with a soul-sucking kiss. I made a muffled sound, want pooling between my thighs.

“Tev,” he rasped. “Tev. We can live off-planet during the stormy season. Longer if you’d like.”

“You’re making this so easy,” I whispered.

How easy would it be to love him? I wondered.

Ridiculously so.

I might already be halfway there.

“I am a simple male,” he informed me. “I want you. I want our child.Children, as many as you will honor me with. As such, I will do anything to make you happy because it makes me happy.Tev?”

When he put it that way…

“This is insane,” I said, grinning.

But I found I wasn’t scared at all.

“Do you really feel that way?” he asked me quietly, cocking his head to the side.

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