Page 72 of Victoria's Discovery

Stars, but he was a fool.

He was trying to be honorable, to put aside his own wants in order to do what was best for her and, yet, it seemed no matter how he tried, he crikked up.

He may be a fool, but he wasn’t a halfwit.

He’d hurt her.

Chapter 36

Victoria frowned and slapped a hand against the screen to open the door to her room with more force than necessary, startling ameepout of Snitch who was perched on her shoulder.

She’d escaped from the closet of pleasure turned prison of humiliation at least an hour ago, found Snitch raiding the kitchen of the main cantina on the ground level, gathered him up amid apologies to the chef, and managed to get waylaid by no less than eight different people all wanting to unload their frustratingly petty complaints on her.

On any other day, she would’ve taken pleasure in helping those people, no matter how small or, at times, trivial their problems. But she couldn’t get Vi’kail’s words out of her head, and all she wanted to do was retreat to her room. Still, knowing that wasn’t a good enough reason to abandon her responsibilities, she’d forced herself to listen and offer solutions, but it was a struggle.

Why the hell was touching her a bad choice? Better question: why were men so damn confusing? The giants had the bravery thing as an excuse, but what about Vi’kail? What was his logic behind getting all hot and heavy and giving her an earth-shattering orgasm only to act like an aloof asshole afterward?

Stalking inside, she slapped the interior screen to close the door, and began pacing the room, muttering under her breath, “Stupid, sexy aliens and their stupid mixed signals. One minute it’s all ‘ooh lemme touch your hair and boop your nose and kiss you until you’re all flushed and horny’ thenbam! Ha ha just kidding. ‘We only kissed you because it’s a stupid custom of ours. We don’t actually want to put our penises in you or be your boyfriends.’ Who does that? It’s… it’s… rude, damnit! And confusing and I’m still horny,” she finished on something entirely too close to a wail.

Proving, yet again, that he was the best friend in the entire universe, Snitch flew off her shoulder, transformed into his big form, and joined her in stomping around the room, adding in an occasional kick to the couch or bed as they passed them.

As though that show of solidarity wasn’t enough, he started grumbling and fussing along with her.

It sounded like, “Mek burka-burka trrrrlll. Brrt! Awwrrreep kurr ha! TATA!” and was accompanied by a lot of wing flexing, claw pointing, color flashing, very dramatic facial expressions, and kicking at nothing.

When he put his hands on his hips in a hilariously awkward mimicry of her own irritated pose, Victoria lost it.

A snicker turned into a full-on belly-cramping, tear-streaming laugh that sent her falling back onto the bed when she couldn’t stand upright for how hard she was hooting.

Snitch joined her, moving to all fours as he pranced and hopped about in a circle around her prone form, chittering happily in response to her mirth.

Then, as quickly as it came, her laughter changed to sniffles and she was back to being sad and confused.

Snitch froze mid-leap at the first rough exhale and moved to peer down at her. Gazing up at his upside-down face, Victoria tried to smile, but was fairly positive she failed. He gave a warbling coo and cocked his head, his big ears pricked as his black eyes followed the tear that slid down her temple to disappear into her hair.

Making a soft sound like the rhythmic chuff of a tiger, he bent to rub his forehead against hers then circled around her once, twice, three times, before he laid down across her stomach and contorted himself so his snout was buried in her curls. Thankfully, his weight didn’t increase with his size or she’d be struggling to breathe. Something about his mass staying the same regardless of his size or the shape he took. Best as she understood it, he could stretch his molecules like elastic then suspend them for a time before he had to return to his normal state.

They lay like that until she’d cried herself out for the second time that day, Snitch continuing to whuff warm, oddly soothing breaths into her hair. When her tears stopped, he picked his head up and stared at her for a long moment as though having some kind of internal debate.

Apparently coming to a decision, he gave a hard shiver, slowly shrank back to his usual size, then scampered off to disappear under the nest of pillows he slept on at the head of the bed.

Curious as to what he was up to under there, Victoria wiped away her tears and turned onto her stomach. He crawled back out a moment later and stood on his hind legs with his wings wrapped around his stomach to help hold… something. It made him look like a little pot-bellied alien man.

Stopping a few inches in front of her, ears sticking out to either side in what looked a lot like sheepishness, he pulled his wings back, letting a variety of things fall to the mattress.

“What’s all this? Wait, is that… ”

Brows shooting up to her hairline, Victoria reached out to pick up the little ball of hair in the middle of the pile. A little ball of brightredhair. Eyeing the other items, she bit her lip. Aside from the ball of hair he’d clearly stolen from her brush, there were two healing rings, a beautiful iridescent scale that she was pretty sure was Thrasin’s, a jeweled necklace, three earrings that didn’t match, a length of soft looking cord, the smallest knife she’d ever seen, and… was that a bone?

“Snnitttchh, did you steal these things?” She knew the answer because she’d been cornered by a male named Lqaur the day before who was convinced someone had been in his rooms and stolen his necklace. A necklace that perfectly matched the description of the one currently laying on the bed in front of her.

He dropped his gaze and stretched out one of his hind legs, digging a toe claw into the comforter, and gave a noncommittal, “Mrrrp?”

Trying desperately to hold back an inappropriately delighted smile at the discovery the eccentric little alien beastie was a closet klepto, she hummed and nodded.

He peeked up at her when she didn’t chastise him, oversized ears perking hopefully, and bent to pick up one of the earrings. His shoulders hunched as he stared possessively at the shiny surface of the very large green gem but, after a pause, he blew out a short breath and held it out to her.

Realizing he was willing to share one of his treasures just to make her feel better, Victoria had to swallow repeatedly to keep from bursting into tears again. Instead, she snatched the foot-tall little thief off his feet, hugged him to her chest, and proceeded to smother him with kisses.

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