Chapter 5 #2
“Hmm.” He still studied his injury in the mirror, cleaning it again, and then aiming a small device at it. He sucked in a sharp hissing breath as bright blue light hit his skin in a slowly traveling beam. Wherever it touched, the skin knit back together, leaving an angry red line behind.
“Yiri, seriously, what happened?” I watched the process with morbid fascination. “How did you get hurt?”
“Swimming,” he said.
I threw up a hand, annoyed. “What were you doing? Swimming with sharks or something?”
His head canted to the side for a moment before he glanced at the camera.
“Yes,” he said matter-of-factly. “It seems our cekets are very similar to your sharks.” He paused.
“I think your sharks are larger. Cekets are this long.” He spread his hands about four feet apart, and then changed their position, showing me a vertical measurement of about a foot and a half.
“About this much girth. They swarm at night. I was out too late.”
“Um. Okay. The man swims with sharks.” I said, shaking my head. “He laughs in the face of danger.”
“How did you know, Aneah?” He asked with a rakish, quasi smile.
Stop it ovaries. This one’s trouble. Big, tattooed, muscular trouble.
“I know your type,” I said. “Tough guys.”
“Tough guys,” he repeated under his breath, but I saw another almost smile cross his face as he pulled a fresh shirt on, covering up a lot of stuff I wasn’t done looking at.
Frowning, I returned my gaze to my own mirror and finished putting on my serum. “How was work?” It seemed polite to ask.
“Productive,” he said. “I made some personnel changes that will be beneficial to my family’s business. How was your day?”
“Good,” I said. “I did some things around my apartment that I haven’t had time for with work.”
“And you’re tired now?” he asked, his focus back on me. I watched his eyes trace over everything my camera was catching, and then took another look in the mirror.
“Oh god,” I said. Jerking the headband off and wrapping an arm over my boobs. It was chilly in the bathroom, and my nipples were showing through my pink satin cami. “Um. I was. I’m… I could talk to you for a few minutes, though.”
“That would make me very happy,” he said, his voice low and rumbling. “Tell me about yourself, Aneah.”
“What do you want to know?” I asked, taking my phone to bed and propping it up on the nightstand.
“What will you miss most about Earth?” he asked.
I laughed. “If I decide to leave, you mean?”
“When you agree to be my bride,” he said.
“Hm.” I pulled down my duvet and crawled into bed, thinking as I got comfortable. “I don’t know,” I said. “I have a few friends, but no one I’m super close to. I could probably make new friends… wherever I went.”
“You’ll be someone everyone is excited to meet, here,” he said. “My family will welcome you, of course.”
“Tell me about your family,” I said.
“Tell me about yours,” he countered.
I pursed my lips. “Not much to tell. My grandparents are all gone, and I’m an only child. And my parents are… um. They don’t talk to me anymore.”
He frowned. “Why not?”
“We have different views,” I said, “on a lot of things. And they’re kind of crazy. It sounds awful, but I won’t miss them much.”
His mouth curled up into the first real smile I’d seen on him, and it was so distractingly attractive that it took me several long seconds to realize what I’d said to bring it on. “No, you won’t,” he agreed. “I’ll see to it.”
“You’re really handsome,” I blurted, biting my lip as soon as the words were out.
His face went blank for a second, like I’d shocked him. “Am I?” He ran a big hand back and forth over his angular jaw. “I wasn’t sure I could be appealing to a human.”
I snorted. “Seriously?”
He just tilted his head to the side in answer.
“So wait. Do daernir women think you’re handsome?”
He glanced away from the camera for a second. “Some do, I guess.”
“Just… some?” There was no way he wasn’t considered a daernir hottie. He and Qhev were both absolutely stunning males. Any human woman would find them objectively attractive.
“Some females don’t like body art,” he said. “And some like it because it looks... Dangerous.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Totally get that. But forget the body art for a second. What about you? Your face and your, um, body?”
He shrugged. “Some like those things.”
I stared at him, waiting for more, and he huffed a quiet laugh. “Uh, I guess it’s the same issue. Some might be attracted to my size and rough appearance for the same reason they like the body art. Others steer clear.”
“Yeah, well, the others who steer clear still think you’re sexy,” I said. “You know that, though, right?”
“You think I’m sexy, Aneah?” he gestured to himself. “My face, and my body?”
I laughed, my cheeks warming. I really set this up for him, didn’t I? “Yeah, I do. Your face, your hands, your shark bite scar, and everything.”
“Good,” he said, looking smug. “It helps to appreciate your husband’s appearance, doesn’t it?”
“Tell me about your family,” I said. “If they’re going to be so welcoming.”
“I have a big family,” he said. “We would be here a long time.”
“Your parents?” I prodded, snuggling into my pillows.
His eyes tracked the small movement through the screen. “They’re dead.”
“I’m sorry.”
He dipped his head in acknowledgement. “My uncle raised me after their deaths,” he said. “And then when I was a teenager, he met his mate, and they had a son. Evik. He’s my cousin, but he annoys me like a younger brother.”
“You love him,” I said, grinning. I could hear the affection in his voice.
Yiri made a gruff sound. “I’d love to kick his ass most days,” he said. “But yes.”
I almost said I couldn’t wait to meet Evik. But that was crazy, right? I wasn’t going to marry this alien man, and I was never going to meet his cousin-brother, either.
“He’ll be mated soon,” Yiri said. “Poor kid.”
“He’s not happy about it?” I wondered.
“It’s an arranged match,” he explained. “The female is not someone I would have picked for him.”
“So that’s a thing?” I asked. “Arranged marriages? Mates?”
“It’s not common,” He said. “Our family holds a lot of power in Eissoi, though. Sometimes it’s necessary to make alliances with other regions, other worlds.”
“Wow. I guess you got lucky it wasn’t you, huh?”
A look I couldn’t read crossed his face and was gone again before I could decipher it. “I’m lucky I found you among the thousands of other human women on here.”
“You think so, huh?”
He nodded. “I do. I didn’t know what I should be looking for. What I would want in a wife, or how to find it. I saw your profile and thought that. Her. She’s what I’m looking for.”
“Because of my eyes.” Wasn’t that what he said last night?
“Yes. Your eyes. Everything about you. You’re very beautiful.”
“There are a lot of beautiful women on this app,” I pointed out, but he shook his head.
“Not like you. You’re a different kind of beautiful. I haven’t figured it out yet, but I knew as soon as I saw you.”
“But you don’t know me,” I said. “How can you know you want me when all you know is what I look like?”
“I’m not sure,” he said. “But I’m going to figure it out.”