Page 32 of An Alien for Her Heart

A dangerous thought that makes me swallow a groan, the sound escaping like a grunt. Because now that I’ve thought about it, I realize Idowant her in my mouth. I want my lips on her skin. I want to taste her.

“I have cake.” She sets the beverages down and moves over to her storage crate, crouching over it. The thin linen she’s wearing does nothing to hide the curve of her soft body away from me and I thank the artisan who made it for his slight. “I’m pretty sure I do. Xarion had mentioned that he’d ordered some for me. Probably because Eleanor had wanted some. It’s not exactly like cake from Earth. It’s more like bread, but it’s pretty good for alien bread.”

The moment she finds the item she’s searching for is the moment she rises with a slight ‘whoop’ of victory. But as she unpacks the item, I can only think on one thing.

“Xarion?”

“Hm?”

“Who is Xarion?” I try to keep my tone light, even leaning as nonchalantly against the wall as I can manage while inside there is a riot of emotions.

“Oh? You don’t know Xarion? He’s the New Horizons representative that brought me here, remember?”

I blink, the male faint in my memory from when he’d visited Eleanor’s farm.

“Right.” I ease off the wall, suddenly feeling like a fool again. When Catherine’s soft little laugh reaches my ears, I find she’s looking at me strangely.

“What were you thinking?” She asks. I’m saved from further disgrace when she focuses on using a blade to cut thick slices of the doughy meal block. “I haven’t hired someone else to do the job I asked you to do. I actually wish I’d hired you from the start.”

I’m happy she seems clueless as to why I asked, and my shoulders straighten at the fact that she seems pleased with my progress so far. But that’s not why I asked about this male. “I thought he was courting you.”

Catherine laughs in a way that makes her almost choke. “What? No!” Her wide eyes turn to me, but I can see they’re no longer shuttered. They’re full of life. Perhaps I should continue this line of conversation.

“Why not?”Because she said she didn’t want a mate, you pilkra.She already told you this.

She finishes cutting the doughy thing, her surprise and mirth sobering somewhat as she places the slices on separate trays. “Well, because he’s far too young for me. And, to be honest, a relationship was the last thing on my mind when I grabbed the opportunity to move to these plains. I’ve already done that. I’ve already lived that stage of my life.”

“What do you mean, sura?” I know I’m pressing. I can’t seem to keep my maw shut.

Catherine stops moving and for a moment I think she’ll evade my question and shut down again. But then she shrugs and releases a breath as she lifts the trays, balancing them as she heads to the main room.

“I was married once.”

It seems like those words should have some significance. Instead, they’re lost on me. As she takes a seat and I move to sit in the one facing her, the steaming beverage before me fails to grab my attention. I watch her take a sip of hers before she takes a bite of the doughy thing, almost as if she’s purposefully focusing on the meal.

“Married?”Stop pressing, fool. If she doesn’t answer, you’re digging a hole you mightn’t get out of.

But Catherine dips her chin in a nod. She finishes chewing before her gaze meets mine. “Yes. For the better part of my life.”

I still don’t know what she means. “Married?” I ask again and then her eyebrows lift on her head.

“Hmm, you don’t know what I mean, do you?” Her eyes are still on mine as she thinks, her digits now tapping a rhythm on the hard table that’s attuned to the staggered thumps of my core-beat.

“Mated.” She finally says. “I was mated.”

My core-beat stutters. “You found your lifemate.” Everything I’ve been dreaming about, everything I’ve wanted, feels like it’s shattering beneath me. “The Tasqals took you from your world…from your mate?”

Catherine shakes her head. “No. He passed away long before that. Cancer.” She pauses, her eyes zoning out to memories I cannot see. “Even with our children, I was alone after he left and—”

“Children? Younglings?”

She gives me a slight nod, and the absolute sadness that creeps into her vision makes me immediately regretful that Ipressed for this conversation. But a lifemate…Catherine had a lifemate…

“I wouldn’t call them younglings.” She gives a soft laugh that’s so unexpected, I sit up a little straighter. “They’re in their forties now. Both married. Kids. I had them young. Far too young, but I wouldn’t change that now. My son has a beautiful wife. Really lovely girl who can keep him grounded, and my daughter, well, she’s living life out on a farm in Utah. She’s happy, though, which is all that matters.” She stops suddenly, her eyes widening on me before she presses them closed, a groan in her throat. “I’m sorry. You don’t need to hear all this. It’s the first time I’ve talked about…” She trails off. Something compels me to lean forward, because despite everything she’s said, about the lifemate and all, something is still rising within me. It’s even worse now. I want to hear more about her life. I want to know more abouther.

“If you wish to talk about them, I’d love to hear it.”

Catherine’s face loses all emotion, goes completely blank and I fear that I’ve said the wrong thing. She is nothing like a Kari female who would have either outright rejected me already or made it clear she finds me attractive and wants me in her nest. No. Catherine is nothing like that. I am learning as I go and that might be to the detriment of me. I open my mouth, easing back, my claws rising halfway off the table as I’m about to tell her it’s fine if she doesn’t want to speak. But that’s when I freeze. Because a single drop of water releases from her eye.

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