Page 25 of An Alien for Her Heart

I feel the tension melt away at her laughter, and a sheepish grin tugs at my lips. “Noted,” I manage to say, my voice rough from the scalding tea. I can’t take my eyes off her, and at the sound of the roughness in my voice, I watch her cover her mouth, trying her darndest to preserve my ego as she tries to stop herself from laughing.

The tee, the biskits, the world fades into the background as I watch her eyes twinkle with her mirth. Something swells within me that I can’t explain. Something that makes me feel like I could walk on air. At this moment, I realize I’d do anything to make Catherine laugh again. Herrealmirth. Not the other times she laughs and it never reflects in her eyes. When she truly laughs, it’s like the stars are in those green depths. How much pain and hurt she must have endured for even the stars to stop shining there.

She sobers, taking up a meal square and handing it to me. My claw brushes her thin digits, sending a spark through my arm as I accept the food.

“It’s better with the biskit. Gives you something to chew. Back home I always—”

I go still. She does too. My throat tightens, waiting for the shadow of her past to constrict. Waiting for her to shutter and hide herself away from me. Waiting, my core-beat feeling like it’s going to fail, for those stars in her eyes to dim again. And they do. Slightly.

“I always would have some sort of biskit or cake on the rare occasions I’d drink some tee. And that was only when my best friend, a woman I met really early on before I got married, visited. God forbid she’d have a glass of wine or anything else. It was always tea.”

I release a breath slowly, not daring to engage in case I really do make her shutter. This is the first time she’s finished a proper sentence about her life back on her home planet. I’m thankful for just that. But the gods must be looking down this dawn and decided to bless me more because Catherine continues.

“It’s…nice.” She smiles and her gaze meets mine. “Thank you, Varek.”

I pause, the receptacle halfway to my lips. I finish the movement on the pure fact that it will give me more time to figure out what she’s thanking me for. I sip the liquid this time, taking a bite of the meal square as Catherine instructed, and chewing them together. It’s…surprisingly good.

Catherine’s smile softens, but it’s real.

I swallow the mixture and set the receptacle down. “For what do you show me gratitude?”

“For reminding me that…” Catherine pauses, her eyes searching mine as if trying to find the right words. “For reminding me that it’s okay to remember the good times, too.That even though my life has changed so drastically, there are still small joys to be found in the everyday moments, like sharing a cup of tea with a friend.”

Friend? Poor soft little thing has no idea I want to be sosomuch more. But her words have me frozen. She’s said a lot. More words than I believe she’s ever said to me in one sitting. Is this success? Did this tee meal work? I stare at Catherine, my core-beat picking up in my chest. When Zynar told me to invite her to share a hot beverage, I thought it ludicrous. But maybe he was on to something. After all, he’s the one with akahl.

My throat tightens as I swallow another sip of the tee, my gaze shifting to the leaves swirling in the bottom of the receptacle.

We finish the meal in silence, but I do notice one thing. Catherine meets my gaze more and when she stands to clear the items away, I rush to help. She releases a sort of breathless laugh as I set the items down in her meal preparation area. As I wash them, I hear her voice from the main room.

“Oh, you don’t have to do that. You’re my guest.”

I pause in my washing, looking over my shoulder at Catherine. “It is no trouble. You have shown me kindness and shared your meal with me. The least I can do is assist with the cleaning.”

Catherine’s lips curve into a soft smile, and our gazes lock for a moment before she nods. “That’s very thoughtful of you.” Her smile doesn’t fade. She doesn’t look away until I’m forced to in order to complete cleansing the utensils.

I resist punching the air in victory. By the time I’m finished cleaning, I’m buzzing with an unseen energy.

I thank her for the tea as she follows me to the door. “It was my first time. But possibly you will share tee with me again?”

She seems a bit surprised. “Did you really enjoy it?”

I’m at the door when I turn to face her, that note of uncertainty in her voice making my gaze shift over her face.

She was worried I didn’t like it? Flurvian gods, if she knew how much I loved it she might not invite me in again.

“I did.” The hoarseness in my tone is something I couldn’t have removed even if I tried. Catherine pauses there at the door, her gaze directed at my chest. The spot heats under her attention. When her head tilts and she smiles again, I know it’s time to say goodbye. At least, for now. I must get back to work and she, well, she will go about her day as she usually did before I arrived.

Except, I wish this moment would never end.

My gaze falls to her lips and a small nest of crumbs at the corner of her mouth. My claw lifts, rising toward her skin where I freeze just a breath away from touching her. I feel the moment her breath stills, the soft feathering no longer brushing over my scales, and a lump forms in my throat, making it even harder to speak.

“May I?” I croak.

I believe she will say no. That she’ll shift away from my touch and wipe the crumbs away herself.

She doesn’t.

My core-beat leaps, the organ beneath it swelling as Catherine gives the slightest of nods.

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