Page 41 of Victoria's Discovery

“Er… are you well?” he asked, looking both taken aback and a little alarmed at the expression she was still making.

What the fuck am I doing with my face? Stop it!

Shitfuck! Quick! Say something funny so he doesn't think you’re a crazy person!

Trying to fix it, she barked a nervous laugh that came out more like the squawk of a dying bird, and abruptly stood, startling a yelp out of Vi’kail’s pet who skittered up her front, crawled over her face, and latched onto her head in response to her erratic movement.

In a full panic, she winked first one eye, then the other for no logical reason whatsoever and compounded the already epic level of awkward by exclaiming, loudly, “I’m funny!”

What the fuck! No!You’refunny!

Just stop talking!

Eyes wide, face on fire, she made a garbled sound of embarrassment that even to her own ears sounded like she was having an aneurysm and did the only thing she could think of.

She fled.

Prying the critter off her head, she all but threw it at Vi’kail then spun on her heels and made a beeline to the small group of beings standing by the elevator, waiting for the Gaelli to take them up and show them their rooms.

She’d only just made it to the back of the group when the sound of their approaching footsteps reached her ears.

She hadn’t honestly thought she could panic more. She was wrong. Just the thought of being trapped in an elevator with them after that mortifying spectacle was enough to make her palms sweat.

Fight or flight kicked in. Unsurprisingly, flight won.

Focused solely on avoiding that nightmarish scenario, Victoria used her small stature to weave her way between bodies until she was hidden in the middle of the group and, when the doors hissed open, allowed them to push her into the elevator.

Did she hear Thorn growl her name warningly? Yes.

Did she pretend she’d suddenly gone deaf? Damn right.

She did feel guilty about it, though, and bent to peer at them between the crush of bodies once she was safely on the elevator.

Relaxing considerably when she realized there wasn’t room for them, she offered a wave like this was all totally normal and she wasn’t very obviously doing a world-class impression of the cowardly lion and called out, “See y’all tomorrow!”

Straightening, she let her head fall back and blew out a breath. She’d never been so relieved than she was when the doors slid shut with them on the other side.

Someone snickered on her left. Startling, Victoria gave the alien woman staring down at her wide eyes, more than a little disconcerted to find that someone had been paying attention to her exchange with the guys.

“Wise,” the female offered with a sly smile and an approving nod. “Always best to let them chase you for a while before accepting their mating stems.”

Blinking, she returned the woman’s slightly unnerving smile with a stiff one of her own and tried to nod like she knew what the woman was talking about.

“Definitely,” she agreed.

As soon as the woman faced forward, Victoria felt her face scrunch up.

What the hell is a mating stem?

* * *

By the timehalf the group had been assigned rooms, Victoria had stopped obsessing over her verbal mishap and subsequent awkwardness and had moved on to berating herself for running away like the Chihuahua she told herself she was no longer going to be.

The only justification she could come up with for her ridiculous reaction was that one shock after another, compounded by thinking he was flirting with her, had fried her brain.

She didn’t even know for certain that Thegan had been flirting with her. Maybe he was just being nice and engaging and trying to learn about her culture. And even if he had been flirting, that was no reason to completely freak out and then abandon them when they clearly weren’t comfortable around strangers.

As soon as she thought of that, she stopped in her tracks and rubbed her forehead.

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