Page 21 of An Alien for Her Heart

“Well,” he says after a few moments, “will you be giving up then?”

I meet his gaze across the comm. “No.”

His grin gets wider and I groan, throwing my head back against the slab as I consider ending the communication.

Because I am Kari. We aren’t known for giving up when there’s something that we want. And I want Catherine.

I just have to make her want me, too.

And then it hits me.

“Zynar.” I lift the comm again. He sobers, noting the look in my eyes or probably the way I said his name.

“Yes, brother?”

“Tell me everything you know about humans. Tell me everything a human female likes.”

The look on his face morphs to something downright devious, and I wonder for a moment if I’m making the right decision.

“The first thing you need to do, brother, is this…”

CATHERINE

I wake like I usually do every morning nowadays. Alone in my new cottage, the soft glow of the sun reflecting inside my window, and the serene sounds of the plains…

Wait.

I ease up on my elbows, squinting sleep from my eyes.

There’s hammering outside. Rhythmic clangs that aren’t usually present in my mornings.

I rise from the bed, rubbing sleep from my eyes as I gather my sleeping tunic around me and head to the front door. Opening it, I realize the morning really is very young. The rays of sun that greeted my window were ones that had barely stretched over the horizon. Walking along the porch, I head toward the sound, only to look up and see…him.

Varek is on the barn roof, stripping the rotten beams. He must have been there for a while because he’s already stripped a quarter of the roof. I stare open-mouthed, forgetting I’m dressed in nothing but some thin linen and that my hair is a tousled mess.

How does he work so quickly? Where does he get this raw strength from? The Raki took an entire week before he managed to remove the roof fiber from the cottage, which is less than half the size of the barn. Never mind stripping the actual support beams underneath it, which took him another two weeks. Varek is one man, onemale, and he’s already done ten times what the Raki could do and in less than a day.

I must make some sound as I stand there, barefooted and still in nothing but that thin linen gripped against me, because Varek suddenly looks down and across to where I stand.

I don’t know why I blush. My cheeks heat as if I’ve been caught doing or thinking something I shouldn’t have been.

“Good dawn, Catherine.” That deep voice finds me and sends a tingle from my toes straight up to my center. Goodness. Every pep talk and everything I berated myself about the day before seems all for naught. A shiver goes through me like my inhibitions have been completely reduced to dust.

“Good morning, Varek.”

He walks down one of the slanted beams and comes closer. My heart does a little thud, but this isn’t like when the Raki looked clumsy on the roof and I was scared he’d make a mistake and fall off. Varek’s body is completely sturdy. His steps are sure and firm.

My hair blows in a soft wind, obscuring my view of him for a moment and plastering the thin linen against me.

“You’re awake early,” I hear him say. “I didn’t mean to disturb your rest.”

I brush my hair away from my face, suddenly very aware of what I’m wearing when I find that intense yellow gaze on me. I resist the urge to adjust the linen nightgown and bring attention to it. “Don’t worry. You didn’t. I’m usually awake at this time anyway.”

His gaze shifts to the cottage, then pierces me again. “Will you be drinking your customary heated beverage? I would like to share it with you.”

I blink at him, confused. “My customary what now?”

Varek’s expression remains stoic, but there’s a hint of uncertainty in his eyes as he clarifies. “A brew made with blooms or weeds that you drink every dawn and sometimes at dusk?”

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