Page 67 of Secretly Abducted
"Like what?"
"Connection. Touch. Someone to share meals with." I gesture at the banana split, ice cream melting into colorful puddles in the bottom of the bowl. "Someone to introduce me to bizarre human foods while watching sunsets."
He kisses me softly, and I taste chocolate and strawberry on his tongue. A drop of melted ice cream drips onto my hand, and he catches my wrist, licking it clean without breaking eye contact.
"I love you," he says against my lips.
"I love you too," I reply.
We return to the dessert, taking turns feeding each other as the sun sinks lower. Alex explains the components—vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, strawberry topping, something called butterscotch. Each element too sweet on its own but somehow perfect together.
"Like us," he says after licking a drop of chocolate from my finger, then immediately looks embarrassed. "That was cheesy."
"It was." I lean in to kiss the corner of his mouth where butterscotch lingers. "But accurate. You're too much on your own—too warm, too intense, too forward."
"Thanks?" His hand finds my waist, pulling me closer.
"And I'm too cold. Too isolated. Too careful." I nestle against him, my head on his shoulder. "But together..."
"We're a banana split?"
I laugh into his neck. "That's terrible."
"You started it." He presses a kiss to my temple, his arm tightening around me.
We finish the dessert as the sun touches the water, turning everything molten gold. Alex sets the empty bowl aside and pulls me against him, my back to his chest, his arms around me.
"Thank you," he says quietly. "For asking me to stay."
"Thank you for wanting to."
"Did you really think I'd say no?"
I consider this. "No. But I thought you might want to wait. Take time. Humans have that saying about not rushing things."
"'Fools rush in'?" He laughs, the sound rumbling through his chest where I'm pressed against him. "Yeah, well, I crossed galaxies to find you. I think that ship has sailed."
"Ship has sailed?"
"Human expression. Means it's too late to change course." He shifts, pulling me more securely against him, and I can feel his heartbeat against my back.
"Ah." I turn in his arms to look at him, having to push his hair back from his forehead where the evening breeze has blown it. "So we're fools rushing in?"
"The biggest fools." He kisses me again, his hand tangling in my wet hair from the day's work. "But happy ones."
The sun disappears completely, leaving us in the soft twilight. Around us, bioluminescent plankton begin to glow in the water, creating constellations beneath the surface.
We stay on the deck as darkness falls properly, watching the water come alive with natural phosphorescence. I show him the navigation stars my people have used for generations, teaching him the old names while small fish jump nearby, their scales catching the moonlight.
"I should get my things from Tev'ra's," he says eventually, stretching with a small groan. "All one bag of them."
"Tomorrow," I say, catching his hand before he can stand. "Tonight, just... be here. Be home."
"Home," he repeats, and through the bond I feel the warmth that word brings him. "I like the sound of that."
"It's not much. And you'll have to deal with my family visiting sometimes."
"It's perfect. And your family is growing on me."
