Page 12 of Fated to the Alien Hero (Warriors of Tavikh #7)
Astrid
I knew remaining hidden was too good to be true, but I’d hoped for a little longer. The sick twisting inside my stomach keeps going, and I’m still not sure I won’t vomit up the meal I just ate. Gary’s going back to the colony, and Grady will know he failed to kill me.
“Astrid,” Evren says quietly, his voice rumbling through me in an oddly soothing way. There’s been something about it—from the first words he spoke when he found me—that settles the unease inside me.
I lift my gaze to meet his, surprised I’m still within his embrace. A weight around my waist registers, and I realize it’s his tail. There is so much tenderness in the eyes that should appear alien, with their vertical pupils surrounded by yellow, but don’t. Like his voice, the way Evren looks at me calms the panic that pounds in the center of my chest.
“I’m okay,” I tell him although he hadn’t really asked a question. “Or at least I will be.”
“You are sure?”
“Yeah.” I have to be.
“Perhaps we should have our date another time,” Evren says.
I almost agree, but Grady has been ruining things for me for years. I finally have a chance at happiness—real happiness—with a guy who claims I’m his fated mate and supposedly already loves me because of his soul light thing. Am I really going to let that…shitbag ruin one more thing?
“No. We’re having it now.”
“Good for you,” Zara cheers.She appears sheepish at our stare. “I guess I’ll be going now. Have fun, you two.”
“Same with us,” London says and takes her husband’s hand.
The three of them, plus the massive warrior Benham, walk away. One by one, the rest of the tribe that had gathered either to gawk or for a show of support disperse, and soon it’s only Evren and me left.
I glance up at him. “Where would you like this walking date to take us?”
He studies me for a moment, and I get the sense he’s judging whether to suggest again we cancel, until finally he makes his decision. “I thought there was no purpose or destination in mind during this kind of date except to walk?”
His confusion makes me chuckle. “I suppose we could just walk aimlessly around the village, but wouldn’t it be better to go some place specific? Maybe a place I haven’t seen so I can appreciate Tavikh more?”
“We have walked to the training arena and through most of the village, as well as the river, already. There is one place I believe you might like, but it resides slightly outside our border.”
“Is it safe?” Not that I don’t think Evren can protect me, but the thought of leaving the security of the village and all the people in it makes me a bit nervous.
He cradles my cheek. “I vow no harm will come to you where we are going.”
That settles that, I guess. “Okay, let’s go.”
With my hand warmly ensconced within his, Evren and I take off toward the rear of the village, and past where all the elders have their tents together in their own small community. He points out the bizele crop that will be ready to harvest closer toward the end of the summer—or warm season as the Tavikhi call it.
“Those are the peach-flavored fruits you told me about?”
“Yes. When we return, we can stop at the food stores and try some that have been dried and preserved.”
I’m curious to see if they really do taste like a peach. “I’d like that.”
We stroll beyond the perimeter and alongside the river that twists and turns at the base of the mountainous hills that run outward from both sides of the village, as far as I can see. The forest on the opposite bank ends, and it is nothing but a large field of the knee-high skewered cotton balls-looking grass.Another family of those alien chipmunk things scurry away from the riverbank at our approach.
“I keep managing to scare them away.” It’s not fair, although I can understand why.
“There will be many more ketri sightings, I am sure.” He says it with a hint of amusement.
That’s when I remember where I heard the word before. It was the day Evren rescued me and carried me back to the village for the healer. I dart a glance at him out of the corner of my eye and admire his thick, muscular biceps and broad shoulders. My gaze travels downward and lands on the lines of his abdominal muscles. Especially the diagonal one along his hip that’s just visible over the top of his low-slung hide pants.
My mouth waters at the sight. Evren is muscular and built, but also lean. Lord, is he tall, too. All Tavikhi are, but I don’t care about the rest of them. Only him.
“I’ve always loved the colors here. They’re so different from Earth, and yet, it’s still beautiful.”
“Jodah has spoken of some of the color differences between our two planets. He and Sage play something they call a color game,” he tells me.
“A color game?” The second I ask, I rethink my decision. Is their color game some kind of sex thing?
Evren nods. “Yes. They will point out different things and name the colors that make it up. For instance, this is brown.”
He lifts the fall of my hair and glides his fingers through it sending a shiver racing down my back. Was it only this morning that I told myself it wasn’t right for me to even consider being romantically involved with him? Because at this moment, I’m not sure why.
My marriage to Grady is over. I will never go back with him. Why shouldn’t I move on with my life with someone who could make me happy and who has made it more than obvious he cares deeply? Is it really wrong to start again? With Evren?
I stop in the middle of the path we’re on and turn to face him. My hand goes to chest. “What color is your skin?”
His whole body tightens as if my touch has the same affect on him as his does on me.
“Purple,” he says in a voice gone gruff and vibrates through my fingertips that lay on him.
“I’d consider it more lavender, but that’s just me.” I trace the swirling line of one of his mating marks. “What about this color?”
“Black,” Evren answers in an even huskier tone.
I step close enough that my bound arm brushes across his stomach. He sucks in a hissing breath. I thread my fingers through his hair, dragging my nails along his scalp before lifting his hair like he did mine. “Yours is yellow.”
“It is.” He swallows and I follow the movement.
Never before have I felt particularly like a seductress, but right now I do. Seeing Evren’s reaction to my touch makes me feel powerful. Grady’s only ever made me feel weak. Stop thinking about him. The past needs to stay in the past .
“Will you kiss me? I know what I said earlier today—about us—but I think I might have been wrong.”
He gently cups my jaw and I shiver. The rough, calloused pads scrape across my skin in the most delightful way. It makes me wonder how they’d feel on other parts of me.
“Are you sure?” Evren asks. “I do not want you to have any regrets about anything that happens between us.”
I shake my head. “I won’t. Gary’s visit changed something inside me. Made me realize what I want and what I’ve been missing. I don’t want to be afraid, and if there’s a chance for us to be together, then I think I need to take it.”
He doesn’t ask me again. Instead, he gives me everything I could have asked for and more. Evren’s lips capture mine in a gentle kiss that, for something so simple, nearly takes my breath away. My toes curl within my shoes and my nipples harden. I ache to rub myself against him, and curse Grady yet again for putting my arm in this sling which means there’s too much space between Evren and me.
I wait for him to deepen the kiss, but he doesn’t. It takes me far too long to realize it’s because he doesn’t know how. Which means it’s up to me to take the lead and demand what I want until he learns.
A boldness I’m not sure I’ve ever displayed before comes out, and I flick my tongue against Evren’s lips. Just a teasing, fleeting touch at first. The second time I do it, he parts them. Merely a sliver’s width, but enough that I’m able to slip inside his mouth and brush against his tongue. I graze one of his teeth and the sharpness of it sends a shockwave through me that starts a low pulse to beat between my thighs.
Evren catches on quickly and with only a bit more coaxing, he takes over. The kiss is perfect. Not too wet and with the right amount of playfulness that makes kissing one of my favorite things. Sex is okay. Or at least it was in the beginning of my marriage, but kissing? Kissing is different. It’s like…like the fuse on a stick of dynamite, I suppose.
It sparks and tingles, and the anticipation slowly builds because there’s the knowledge that at the end of that fuse the explosion happens. It’s like how the journey is almost better than the destination because there’s so much more to experience. An orgasm is a single, powerful moment. A kiss, though, is like a thousand moments, and I get to enjoy each one to its fullest.
A loud screech echoes around us and we break apart with heaving breaths. Evren grabs the sword in the belt at his waist, but relaxes his grip at the sight of the two yellow alien birds fighting in the sky above us.
“There must be a female nearby,” he says, sounding far more composed than I feel.
“How can you tell they’re male?”
He points upward at them. “Do you see that long black line that decorates their tail feathers?”
I study the two birds that dart and weave before nearly colliding with each other in a frantic flapping of wings. Finally, I spot what he’s pointing at. “Yes, I see it.”
“The females do not have that. Only the males do,” he says. “Mellenje spend the beginning of the warm season attempting to find their mate so they may nest and breed. It is a courting ritual, not unlike the dating of humans.”
That makes me smile. “Where did you hear about dating, anyway? Or at least a walking date?”
Evren laces his fingers through mine and we set off again.
“Benham, at first. Then Jodah. It is how they courted their mates before the females accepted the mate bond. They both said it is during these walking dates that their keeshlas fell in love with them.”
“Is that what you’re hoping? For me to fall in love with you?” My heart stutters at the question before it races.
“Of course.” He says it so casually. “There is nothing more I hope for than for you to love me like I love you.”
Before meeting Evren, I wouldn’t have said I believed in love at first sight, but how else do I explain this connection I’ve felt since he first found me?