Chapter 9
Mariska
Seeing Jeltom disappear into the dark night was possibly the most terrifying moment of my life.
That was saying something, because I’d seen some terrible shit while living on Earth Colony Nine.
Hearing those laser shots echo in the night had been worse.
I was so certain Jeltom was hurt, but at the same time, I felt so weak myself that I didn’t know how I could possibly help him.
I barely managed to hold up my own gun; it felt ten times heavier than it normally did.
But he was fine—not a scratch on him—and I’d allowed my eyes to wander everywhere as soon as he’d stepped into the porch light.
Now, he was holding me in his arms, and I felt so miserable that I couldn’t even properly enjoy it.
He took me into my home, tucked me in some blankets on my couch, and then disappeared into my kitchen, only to return a short while later with a mug of tea and some toast. “Here, this should help,” he told me.
He had placed my gun on the coffee table and then sat down right beside it.
The leather straps of the holster for his own pistol circled his big thigh, and they kept drawing my eyes.
It looked sexy, and I wanted to trace his legs higher, eye the thick bulge outlined by his leather pants.
There was a lot, and this was so not the moment to wonder about Aderian dick.
Or dicks, as the case may be—or so Jess had gleefully informed me a couple of days ago.
Aderian men had two cocks, as if one wasn’t enough.
“I’m going to call someone for help, okay?
” he said, pushing the mug into my hands and waiting until he was certain I had it.
I nodded, because I was pretty sure he was right, I was sick, and perhaps seeing a doctor would be good.
He tapped away on his comm device, and then, a few moments later, a woman appeared as a tiny holograph above his device.
She was Aderian and floated prettily in the air, all shiny anthracite skin and waves of black hair.
“What is it, Jeltom? Two calls in one week, what’s gotten into you?
” she said in a lilting voice. There was only one way to describe her voice: sweet.
She sounded so nice, heck, she looked nice too, in the tiny floating hologram.
She was astute, too, the kind of empath I had worked hard to avoid all year.
Jeltom had to say nothing at all, and already she knew this wasn’t a social call.
“Who is hurt? You? It’s not your shoulder.
” It wasn’t a question, it was a statement of fact, like she instantly knew.
Aderian empathy didn’t work through comm calls, though, did it?
“It’s Mariska. She thinks she’s coming down with the flu, but I believe it’s something else.
” He sounded so worried that my chest grew tight, but the heavy weariness that had plagued me all day was beginning to lift a little.
I had begun to give up on any kind of Valentine dating, simply because I felt so damn sick, but now, energy seemed to be rushing back into me by the minute.
Jeltom’s black eyes were big, fathomless pools.
“With your permission, Mariska, I will send Danitalin some scans I took, okay?”
Scans? When had he taken scans? But I had already nodded before I could think over the consequences, and his rapid fingers moved over his comm like he’d had this ready and waiting.
This Aderian woman—Danitalin—confirmed she had received them and then hummed under her breath as she went through the readings.
When her eyes seemed to grow in her face and her dainty black eyebrows rose in arches on her forehead, my stomach turned.
“What is it, my little scientist?” another male voice asked.
This one was a rough growl with a cool, sharp edge.
The figure that stepped into view inside the floating hologram was a Rummicaron—a very big one—or perhaps Dani was just small.
He curled his arms around her waist from behind and rested his head on her shoulder to peer down at what she was reading on her own comm.
I got a good look at sharp rows of teeth, and my pulse spiked with a hint of fear.
“That’s Jaxin, Danitalin’s mate,” Jeltom said in a low voice.
“Danitalin is a scientist I worked for before I… well, before I got shot. She’s brilliant, Mariska; she’ll figure it out.
” I would have felt all kinds of low self-esteem at the obvious admiration for the other woman in his tone, but his eyes were locked on my face, and that worry I saw was all for me.
I wasn’t used to being the center of a man’s attention, especially one as potent as Jeltom, one so genuinely caring and protective beneath the gruff layer and the often monosyllabic answers.
“Are you sure these are right—your readings and hers?” Dani asked.
I didn’t feel like I had the flu anymore.
In fact, I was beginning to feel great—strong, awake, a little hot for Jeltom, but that was all the time, regardless of whether I felt good or not.
I shifted on the couch, sitting up, and peered into the face of Dani the hologram.
“Jeltom is probably worrying over nothing, uh… ma’am? I feel fine now.” To demonstrate, I waved jauntily and tried to rise from the couch entirely. Yup, even my previously wobbly legs were completely fine now. Whatever had been bothering me, it was gone.
“Do you? When was the last time you were, ah, close to Jeltom? And Dani is just fine.” The woman smiled brightly at me, but my senses tingled, I was certain she knew what was going on and wasn’t telling, at least not yet.
Her question made me close my eyes and think back.
Close to Jeltom? How weird. What would that have to do with anything?
We had shared lunch and dinner today, though not breakfast. Wouldn’t that count as close?
But dinner had been rushed tonight, and lunch had been standing in the barn while we snacked on the sandwiches I made.
He’d been elbow-deep in the pressing machine again and hadn’t stopped for a proper break.
“Two days ago was the last time we physically touched,” Jeltom intoned.
“We have been in the same room since, but not...close.” Dani immediately hummed, as if that explained everything, her smile wide and friendly.
She tilted back her head to look at the big Rummicaron holding her in his arms. A sharp spike of something very close to envy shot through me at the sight.
They were so close, so obviously in love.
“Your theory is correct. Please keep sending me scans for analysis; this is very interesting. You have nothing to worry about, neither of you. Jeltom, make sure to explain the Pyra and Pato legend to Mariska.” She said her goodbyes immediately after, the words rather rushed and a giggle escaping just before the call disconnected.
Jeltom was grimacing, but I discovered that I was smiling myself.
Dani’s mate had clearly been up to no good in the background there.
Jeltom was quiet, and that quiet lasted, his eyes massive in his handsome face—black mirrors that should have been eerie or creepy, but looked beautiful to me now that I’d gotten used to Aderian faces.
He had a chiseled jaw, a straight nose, and that intriguing braid with the silver forelock and shaved temples.
He was scrumptious, and now that I wasn’t feeling sick, I wanted to seize the moment and finally explain the Valentine thing to him.
Sure, I wanted him to tell me about this Pyra and Pato, to explain what was going on, but I wanted to find out if he liked me even more.
My priorities were so screwed up right now.
“Jeltom,” I began, but he interrupted me by abruptly rising from his seat on the coffee table.
Now he towered over me, but not for long.
His arm swept around me, hauling me into his chest, and then he bent me back.
As I gasped in surprise, his mouth came down over mine.
I’d been dreaming of kissing him for days now, but the reality didn’t match the fantasy. It was better. So much better.
His taste was sweet, enticing, addictive.
His mouth pressed against mine just right, and his tongue tangled with mine in bold, possessive strokes.
Add the strong arms he’d wrapped around me, and I felt owned, and safe.
A very heady combination. I clawed at his shoulders, found his braid with one hand, and clung like a needy little kitten.
A mewling kind of moan escaped the back of my throat, and he pressed into me harder, as if he wanted to eat that sound, swallow it.
I felt it then, the hot press of his cock, both of them, against the sensitive softness of my belly. A pair of thick, hard bars outlined against the leather of his pants, pressing like brands into my skin. Hot—so hot—they made my legs go limp and my panties flood with a rush of wetness.
He raised his head slowly, forehead pressed to mine, his breath rapid in his wide chest. “Pyra and Pato,” he panted against my lips, “are our most admired ancient healers. They are the architects of our culture. They were also true mates, back when Aderians still had true mates…” The words hung in the air between us, too big to be poked at, too big for questions.
I just knew that I hadn’t felt this good in days, weeks, months.
I just knew that I wanted Jeltom to bend his head back to mine and kiss me again.
What I really wanted was to lead him to my bedroom so we could change kissing into touching, petting, stroking.
I wanted him to show me how Aderians had sex.
I wanted him in ways I’d never felt safe enough to want another man.
But with him, I did. Jeltom, though, was the voice of reason, and that was exactly why I trusted him, why he made me feel safe.
Even if I hated him a tiny, teensy-weensy little bit right now.
“No,” he said. “You must go to bed to rest, not mate, Mariska.” He carried me into my bedroom—not in that sexy, I’m-going-to-devour-you-any-moment way, but because he wanted me to sleep.
“I’ll lie down next to you. How’s that? It will help, you’ll feel better for it tomorrow.
” Funny how aliens all seemed to like the word mating for sex, or maybe that was just a quirk of the translator.
As much as I wanted to protest, we were in new waters now.
Jeltom was inside my bedroom, he’d kissed the living daylights out of me, and not that long ago, he’d stalked into the vineyard to hunt intruders with a laser pistol.
I needed to remember that I hardly knew this man, and face the fact that he hadn’t just been working late and arriving early.
I’d seen the bedroll, the fresh clothes, and laundry when he searched for his weapon. He’d been sleeping in my barn.
When Jeltom said he was going to stay with me, I realized there was no way to object.
Not because I feared he’d deny me or that he’d cross a line I couldn’t handle.
No, it was because he was giving me exactly what I hadn’t realized I needed.
Bundling me into my blanket like I was a little burrito, he lay down beside me.
Then he gathered me close, tucking my head under his chin and onto his chest. It was a cocoon of safety and warmth, and parts of me that had never known what that was began to unwind—melting into a Mariska-shaped puddle in his arms.
“Okay?” he whispered after a soft moment.
“I have studied them, but I don’t know everything yet about human courtship.
” I fell asleep with those words buzzing through my veins.
Human courtship? Had he understood me about Valentine, after all?
Had I not misread the situation as blatantly as I feared I had?
There was definitely a smile on my face, and all kinds of fuzzy feelings bubbling through my chest. So it was no wonder I fell into a deep, easy sleep filled with lovely dreams.