Chapter 15 #2
Her gaze traveled over my shoulder to where Ethan lay. “And this is…” she swallowed with a wary expression.
“Ethan,” I said.
“Hi,” he waved.
“Ee-than,” she gave him a hesitant smile, which he returned, and I felt a weird swirling in my gut. An ugliness that seemed aimed at Rilee. What was this feeling?
“Do we look alike?” I asked Ethan sharply. I wasn’t sure why. I just needed to know.
His smile dimmed as he studied me. “You look like the same species, but I can tell you apart. Is that what you mean?” He held out his hand for me, and his eyes went warm and liquid. “Goldie, I’d know you in the dark.”
That ugliness faded as quickly as it came as a different kind of heat warmed my belly. I stepped to receive his hand. He tugged me down so I sat on the edge of the bed near his hip. He brought my hand to his lips and kissed my knuckles. I shivered.
Rilee let out a little gasp of delight and covered her hand with her mouth. “Goldie,” she whispered. “I like that.”
“This is my friend Rilee who I told you about,” I said to Ethan.
“Nice to meet you Rilee. But hey, Goldie here needs rest. So can she hit you up when after she lays down for a while?”
“Hit me up?” Rilee was confused.
I was also confused.
“Uh,” he scrunched his lips. “Visit you. In your little hut thing.”
“Oh, yes,” Rilee ducked her head. “Hara get rest. Then I want to hear all about your adventures and your linyx.”
She left us then with a swirl of her skirt and a parting of the vines. Ethan wasted no time tugging me down next to him.
“Hey,” he tucked my hair behind my ear. “I’m not sure all what this linyx bond means, but I get it’s a big deal.
You should trust it. But you should also trust me.
If you think after all we went through, that I’m going to look at literally any other female the way I look at you, you’re crazy, Goldie.
” He pressed a kiss to the tip of my nose.
“Now I want you to spoon me while we’re asleep because I need to be held. ”
He was perfect for me, my linyx. I smiled. “Spoon you?”
Turning onto his side with his back to me, he tugged me against him and drew my arm over his waist. “Like this. Spooning is cuddling.”
I nuzzled my face into the back of his neck. “I like this spooning.”
“Cool, we’ll switch then, because I want to hold you too.”
“Okay,” I whispered.
I woke up later to find our positions reversed. Ethan breathed deeply at my back, his body curled around mine, and his hand splayed on my stomach.
Darkness surrounded us. The only light was from the softly glowing pipla plant blooms on my table.
Sometime in the night, Wensla had brought fresh food, and the smell of it made my stomach growl.
When I made to get up, Ethan made a snuffling noise and tugged me against him.
He murmured something, cleared his throat, and spoke louder. “What time is it?”
I didn’t know his time. “It’s nearly sun rise.”
He kissed my neck and rolled onto his back to rub his eyes. “We slept long, huh?”
I sat up and turned to see him blinking up at me in the low light. His smile was soft and easy. His coloring was back, and his eyes no longer looked feverish. I touched his forehead to find his skin at a normal warmth. “Are you hungry?”
“Starved,” he muttered.
I led him over to my table and gently pushed him down onto a chair.
When I went to sit in the other one, he grabbed my wrist and pulled me down onto his lap.
He wrapped his arms around my waist and placed his chin on my shoulder.
“There, that’s comfortable. So what kinda food we got here?
Nothing looks familiar, but it smells incredible. ”
I turned to straddle him, because I wanted to see his face as he ate. I fed him freshly sliced playa fruit, grilled birk meat, and held a cup of iviler to his lips which he drank greedily. I licked the juices from my fingers, and then he fed me back until we were both full and warm.
I wrapped my limbs around him and buried my face in his neck. He held me tightly. The beat of his heart against mine soothed me. I ran my palms over the short hair on his head, and he shivered. “Tickles,” he murmured at my ear.
I kissed his temple before pulling back. The fading glow of the pipla plant let me know the sun would be visible soon. “Let me show you something pretty,” I said as I stood.
“I’m looking at it now,” he answered, but he allowed me to tug him to his feet.
I pushed aside the vines in the doorway to sit on the end of my fungi platform. I patted the space beside me and he lowered himself with a groan.
“Are you hurt?” I asked.
“Just aches and bruises, Goldie. I don’t heal at Superman speed like you Kaluma do.” He teased me with a smile as he linked our fingers together.
I leaned against his shoulder and pointed to where a sliver of pink lit the sky. “There. I have one of the best views from my vinus. The sun will rise soon.”
“My first sunrise of my new life,” he said as he kissed the back of my hand. “It’s going to take a minute for me to believe this real. That I didn’t die back there, and this is just a tease of happiness before I’m plunged into an eternity in hell.”
“This is real.” I reassured him.
“I don’t know that I deserve this. No, I know for a fact I don’t. All my life, I felt like stealing and scheming was the only way to get ahead. But you showed me a different life. A different way. I’ll spend every last minute trying to make you proud.”
“Don’t change,” I told him. “I like you the way you are. Your anger and your smiles. Your arrogance and your humility. I like the humanness of you.”
He was quiet for a long moment, so long that I had to lift my head to check on him.
He stared straight ahead, jaw tight. A single tear leaked out of the corner of his eye.
He sniffed and continued watching the sunrise.
“I love you, Goldie. You’re the bravest person I’ve ever met.
Human, alien, pet, everything.” He finally turned to me.
“We’ll make this life the best we can, you and me.
And I’ll win everyone over.” He grinned with moist eyes. “You’ll see.”
“I know you will,” I patted his hand. “Because you’re my linyx, and this was written before we were born.”
He swallowed. We closed the distance between us, and we kissed as the sun warmed our faces.