22. Terra #3
“I suppose so, since this is my true home. The Earth domicile is convenient for business but I never intended it to be permanent.”
Terra nodded. His penthouse might be luxurious, but this place had roots—both literally and figuratively.
“Your sleeping chamber is next on our tour,” Taurex told her.
“My sleeping chamber?” Terra repeated.
“You prefer the term ‘bedroom?’”
She smiled.
“Yes. It sounds less like I’m being kept in a medieval castle.”
Taurex frowned.
“I do not know what—”
“I know. Earth reference. Never mind.” She waved a hand.
Her room was smaller than his but still far more spacious than anything Terra had expected. The living bed was easily king-sized by Earth standards, with thick blankets woven from soft plant fibers folded neatly at the foot, and a curved couch grew along one wall beneath an oval window.
Terra immediately crossed to the window to look out.
“Oh, wow,” she breathed.
The room overlooked the back of Taurex’s property, where the forest opened into a private clearing surrounded by tall, glowing plants.
In the center was a large oval pool filled with deep blue-green water.
Steam curled lazily from its surface, drifting through the trailing vines that hung from the surrounding trees.
Terra pressed closer to the window which seemed to open from the inside.
“Is that a hot tub?” she asked eagerly.
Taurex came to stand beside her.
“It is a bathing pool.”
“It’s steaming, though,” she pointed out.
“The water is naturally heated by the domicile’s root system,” he explained.
Terra turned to him with excitement.
“Can we get in it? Please? I love hot tubs.”
Taurex’s eyebrows rose.
“You wish to get into the bathing pool with me?”
She nodded.
“Absolutely! Are you kidding? I haven’t been in a hot tub in years.”
“It is not precisely a hot tub.”
“It has hot water, and you sit in it. Close enough.” Terra looked back through the window at the steaming water.
The pool was beautiful, surrounded by thick cushions of moss and long trailing vines heavy with strange blossoms. Some of the flowers were broad and flat, with creamy white petals arranged around soft pink centers.
Others were completely different—long, narrow red blooms that hung downward from the vines, thick at the base and tapering toward rounded tips.
These seemed to come in various sizes from the size of her pinky finger all the way up to the size of a girthy zucchini.
Terra frowned as she looked at them.
“Those are some weird-looking flowers.”
Taurex followed her gaze, and his expression changed slightly.
Terra caught it and frowned at him.
“What? Was it something I said?”
“No, nothing.” He shook his head quickly.
“Taurex…I can tell you’re hiding something.” She poked him gently in one rock-hard ab with her finger. “Come on—spill it.”
He sighed.
“All right—those flowers aren’t just for decoration—they are pleasure blooms.”
“Pleasure blooms?” Terra asked. “What are those? I mean, what do they do?”
Because by now, she had learned that every single plant aboard the Monstrum Mother Ship had some kind of function.
Taurex was silent for a moment and Terra thought the big Monstrum looked distinctly uncomfortable.
“They…provide pleasure,” he said at last.
Terra put a hand on her hip.
“That explains absolutely nothing,” she pointed out.
He shrugged, still looking uncomfortable.
“It explains their purpose.”
Terra pointed through the window.
“The white ones or the red ones? Which ones provide pleasure and how?”
“Both—they both do,” Taurex said, without answering the second question.
Her eyebrows rose.
“Okay, now I’m curious.”
“I suspected you would be.”
Terra threw up her hands.
“Fine—keep your secrets. Can we soak in the pool after supper?”
Taurex hesitated.
“We can,” he said slowly. “But…”
“But what?” Terra asked impatiently.
He rubbed one hand over the base of his horn in that distracted way Terra had started to recognize.
“Well, I have not culled the pleasure blooms lately and they sometimes grow aggressive if left unattended for too long.”
Terra looked out the window again. The vines certainly looked healthy. In fact, several of the long red blooms had grown so close to the water that their tips nearly touched the surface.
“How aggressive can flowers be?” she wondered aloud.
Taurex gave her a long look.
“You will see. I will only say this—it’s better for you to wait for me and not get into the pool by yourself.”
Terra narrowed her eyes.
“That sounds ominous.”
He shook his head.
“It is only a warning. I just want you to be safe.”
“Do they bite or something?” she demanded, picturing one of the long red blooms opening to reveal tiny, sharp teeth.
But Taurex shook his head again.
“No, of course not.”
“Well, do they sting?” Terra asked.
“No—nothing like that,” he assured her.
“Are they poisonous if you touch them?”
“No. You could touch one or even eat one if you wished to—though it probably wouldn’t taste very good—with no ill effects.”
“Then what do they do?” Terra demanded impatiently.
But Taurex only shook his head again.
“Let’s eat first—then I’ll explain.”
Terra frowned at him.
“You’re enjoying keeping me in suspense,” she accused him.
One corner of his mouth twitched in amusement.
“Perhaps. Or perhaps I just don’t want to shock you.”
“Shock me?” she shook her head and turned back toward the window. How could flowers be shocking? She wanted to ask but she was sure he would just put her off again.
One of the pale white blooms shifted slightly in the breeze—or at least Terra assumed it was the breeze. The broad petals opened a little wider, revealing the soft pink center. Then one of the long red blooms beside it slowly curled upward.
Terra frowned as she watched. Had that thing just moved on its own?
She leaned closer to the glass, staring harder, but the flower became still again.
“Huh,” she remarked, but Taurex was already walking toward the door.
“Come. I need to begin the stew,” he told her. “I cannot wait for you to taste it.”
Terra looked over her shoulder one last time.
“You’re really not going to tell me what the flowers do?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because you would not believe me.”
Terra turned fully toward him.
“Now I really want to know.”
Taurex’s golden eyes gleamed with amusement.
“After Last Meal, I’ll tell you.”
She laughed.
“Fine. But if one of those things eats me, I’m going to be very upset.”
His golden eyes were suddenly heavy-lidded.
“They will not eat you. At least, not in the way you are thinking.”
“What?” Terra demanded.
But he was already heading out of the bedroom and back down the hallway that led to the kitchen or “food prep area.”
Realizing she wasn’t going to get any more information out of him, Terra followed.
“You know, for someone who claims to be a serious businessman, you have some extremely suspicious landscaping,” she said to his broad back.
Taurex laughed, the deep sound rolling through the living hallway.
Terra smiled as she followed him back toward the kitchen, but she couldn’t resist one last glance over her shoulder toward the oval window.
The bathing pool waited outside beneath the alien trees, steam drifting over its glowing surface while the strange white and red flowers swayed lazily around it. Whatever pleasure blooms were, Terra had a feeling she was going to find out before the night was over.
And judging by the look Taurex had given her, the experience was going to be interesting.