Page 4

Tori

T he world's most awkward first introduction happened four months ago, and since then, I haven't found time to sneak out to speak to Marron again.

I've wanted to, and I've tried, but somehow, he's never alone.

Either Beren or Lyath is always working with him in the field, or they'll walk him back to the tribe in the evenings.

The one time I thought I could go, I crawled out my window just for Nia to come out the front door, asking me to help her set the dinner table.

"I'm going to bathe before it gets too dark," I call out to Nia and Jen.

They're both sewing in the living room, and I don't think they'll want to join me, but they might.

I've already decided there's no way I'm going to get Marron all to myself unless I ask them to let it happen.

Seeing as I'm not ready for all the questions that will follow, I'd rather not mention it until I'm ready to answer those questions.

"Tell Beren and Lyath to come in for dinner then," Nia says, barely looking up from her sewing. "They can go ahead and send the boys back to the tribe and be inside so no one accidentally stumbles on you naked."

"Will do," I say, forcing the warmth in my cheeks away.

I step onto the porch and grab the rope handle to the bell Beren fastened to the porch ceiling. I ring it a few times, alerting everyone that the workday is over and they can all go where they need to go. I stand on the porch for a few minutes while waiting for them to appear.

"Dinner?" Beren asks as he wipes his hands on his tunic, leaving dark smudges of dirt.

"Nia wanted everyone inside."

My conversational skills are improving each day, but I'm still only good at topics I already know about and phrases and words I use frequently. Beren gives me a short nod and then turns to see where everyone else is in the field.

"Marron and Thro will go home tonight," he tells me, his gaze flicking over at me from the corner of his eyes when he says it.

"Okay." I shrug, not wanting to give him more suspicion than he already has.

They've all seen me wave at Marron. They know how he watches me whenever I'm outside. And they're all almost positive I've snuck out to talk to him before. They have to be at least a little suspicious, or they wouldn't always be trying to keep us apart.

"Where are you going?" Lyath asks when he notices the clothes in my hands.

"Bath," I respond, not giving them a second longer to interrogate me as I step off the porch and head toward the river that feeds the irrigation ditches of the farm.

Beren's set up a small fence around the farm's perimeter that keeps most animals out of the farm, and not many come this close to the tribe anyway.

There's always a chance there could be a verpar or olack out near the river, though, so I'm not surprised when Beren grumbles under his breath something I can't understand but probably has to do with him not liking me going alone.

"I will be safe," I call over my shoulder, shooting the males a smile.

Beren continues scowling in my direction even after I smile, but he goes inside when he sees I won't be deterred. I'm sure he was mostly making sure that Marron and Thro were off the farm before going inside, so they didn't think Marron was sneaking away to find me.

I whistle a song to myself as I walk, not liking how quiet the planet is when it's just me by myself.

It's peaceful at first, but then it gets creepy.

My mind starts thinking all kinds of crazy scenarios, like maybe I'm actually back on Earth, and everyone else has died, and this is all some kind of weird hallucination, and if I think about it too hard, I'll wake up and be back on Earth and alone for real.

So, I whistle so I don't go down rabbit holes of what-ifs.

I'm on my second song when I see a tunic thrown onto one of the pathways.

I keep whistling, squatting to pick up the tunic and hold it up, trying to figure out whose it is since it was just left out here.

Beren and Lyath wear mostly beige tunics since they don't bother with dying them, but Marron has a whole stash of dyed tunics he got from one of the other males whose mate likes him in a specific color.

I hold the red tunic up and determine it's probably Marron's.

I suck on my bottom lip, trying to decide if I'm really about to steal a tunic and hide it away in my room so I can wear it when no one is around.

Is it a little pathetic? Maybe, but I never said I wasn't pathetic.

I add the tunic to the top of my little pile of clothes and continue whistling all the way to the river.

I strip and set my dirty clothes in a pile next to the clean ones, then wade into the river.

There's a small section just past the irrigation ditch dams that's calmer than the rest, and that's where I wade to before lowering my body down so I'm sitting in the warm water with only my shoulders and head dry.

I whistle as I start scrubbing at the dirt and sweat accumulated on my body throughout the day, and then lean back to start getting my hair wet.

I dunk my head under the water and notice movement in the field closest to my bathing spot. I place one hand over my mouth and scoot back in the water so that only my nose and eyes are out.

I would know Marron's bright red scales anywhere, but he hasn't noticed me yet. He paces back and forth, his head pointed downward as he looks for something. I bite my lip as I notice his lack of a shirt and realize he came back for the tunic I've stolen.

He looks around, moving in a circle before throwing his hands up and grabbing his horns in frustration.

Then, he raises his gaze from the ground, and his eyes land directly on me.

He stares for a few beautiful and perfect seconds, his chest expanding and his eyes widening in wonder.

Then, he turns around so fast I'm surprised he doesn't hurt himself.

"Sorry!" he yells out, not turning around as he starts walking back the way he came, his tunic not as important as getting away from me.

"Wait!" I call out, lifting myself just enough to get my mouth out of the water. Marron's body freezes, but he doesn't turn around to face me. "I have your tunic."

He grows even more tense somehow, and then he ever so slowly turns his head. He turns enough to see me out of the corner of his eye and then whips back around like he wasn't looking at all. Not that there's anything to look at when I'm making sure the water covers me.

"It is yours," Marron says, starting to walk away again.

"Wait!"

I don't know what I'm going to do to get him to come back this time, but just like before, he stops. The only movements are his shoulders rising and falling as he takes deep, unsteady breaths.

He turns his head so his words don't need to be yelled as loudly. Again, there are still some words I can't pick out, but for the most part, he doesn't say anything too convoluted.

"You are… and I should not be here." Marron grabs his horns again, forcing himself to look forward. "I should go."

"You can stay," I call out, hoping it's not too forward.

Who am I kidding? I don't care if it's too forward. This could be the only time we can talk for the next few months, and I don't want it to be over so soon.

Marron murmurs something under his breath, the word mate sounding like an airhorn against the rest because I've been trying to figure out if it's what he said all those months ago.

Hearing it muttered from his lips again, I know, without a doubt, he said it the first time we talked.

I might've tried to tell myself I heard wrong, but now I know he calls me mate.

" I'm not going to flash my boobs at you, " I say in English.

He must be intrigued by the words he doesn't understand because I can see him decide to do the right thing or wrong, depending on how you look at it.

"What?" he asks, spinning around slowly.

He holds a hand up near his eyes like he might have to cover them at any moment if I decide to stand from the water. I want him, but I still barely know him. Not to mention, as soon as he thinks this is going too far, he'll bolt.

"I will sit," I tell him in his language, hoping it will help him understand that I have no interest in making him uncomfortable.

He nods but doesn't move to come closer to the river so we can talk.

I use my hands to drag myself through the water a little bit, so I'm sitting where I was before I noticed him out here.

His eyes widen as my shoulders pop out of the water, and then my collarbones.

His attention is riveted to the water even as I stop moving and make it clear I'm not showing it anymore.

"I did not know you were here," Marron says, his gaze finally forced away from the slopes of my breasts up to my face, where I'm probably bright red.

If he notices, he doesn't say anything. No, he takes a step closer and then another until he's standing next to the two piles of clothes I left on the shore.

"I find the tunic on the farm." I point at the pile of clothes and then toward the fields.

Marron kneels and flicks through my clothing before plucking the tunic off the ground.

He goes to stand back up, but I call out again, wanting to make this last and maybe get him to shed some of the rule following he seems so fond of. "I will trade you."

I don't know the demon's word for trade, so I say it in English and try to think of a way to explain to him what I mean. He tilts his head to the side, his hand fisting the tunic as he waits for me to elaborate.

"I take the tunic. You take something."

He seems even more confused by my offer than he was before, which makes me feel foolish. I don't even know what I have that he could want, but I know that I want his tunic. I was planning on wearing it to bed tonight and pretending he gave it to me.

"This is yours. I told you this."

He holds the tunic up, points at it, and then returns it to my pile of clothes.

My cheeks burn as I realize I misread the situation, but then again, I don't know what he was doing digging through my clothes if he didn't want it back.

He must realize my confusion because he folds the tunic neatly on top of my clothes and says more.

"I was not sure if it was mine or Thro's."

My eyebrows rise because I don't know how he could think it was Thro's when Thro is easily my size, and the tunic is not.

I'm about to say something when Marron turns his attention to the dirty clothes beside the clean ones.

He flicks at my tunic and pulls out a piece of fabric that has me dipping my head under the water.

When I come back up, he's still holding my underwear in his hand and looks at me in question.

" Trade? " He uses the English word, and I can't even answer because I'm burning up inside. The only thing saving me from absolute mortification is that I didn't sweat too much today, so at least they're not gross.

"You want…" I don't know the word for underwear, so I just motion toward his hand.

"Very much," he says as though this is a completely normal conversation.

Maybe for the demons, it is. I haven't asked any of the women if their mates have asked for their underwear or what they could possibly want with them. I'm not about to ask Nia about it. So, I do the only thing I can think of to get my answer.

"Why?"

Marron's smile widens as he begins to explain to me what he plans on using my underwear for.

He talks too fast, with too much enthusiasm, and with too many words I don't understand.

After a minute of explaining it all to me, the only word I understood was 'cock'.

He tilts his head to the side, laughs, and explains again, slower and not even remotely the same thing he just told me.

"I want them to hold." His tongue flicks between his lips, and I nod lamely at his excuse. He laughs to himself before standing. "I should go. It is late."

"Okay," I say, my mind still trying to figure out what he's going to do with my underwear. He tucks them into the hem of his shorts so no one can see that he has them. He shoots me one more devilish smile before turning around and making his way back through the fields.

I finish cleaning my hair and then hurry with the rest of my bath.

The clouds are darkening, and I don't want to be left alone out here.

I dress quickly in Marron's tunic and shorts before speed walking back to the house.

I feel eyes on me as I walk back through the fields, and when I turn to see who it is, Marron is standing by the gate, waiting to make sure I get home safe before he leaves.

I'm chewing on my bottom lip when I open the door to the house. The smile I'm wearing would be proof enough that I was up to no good, but I'm also wearing my crime.

"Thro came by to tell us Marron had to come back to look for his tunic," Nia says as her eyes flick down to what I'm wearing. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

"Me?" I squint and tap my chin. "No, I don't think I have any idea what you're talking about."

Nia shakes her head, her lips twitching at the corners as she tries to keep the smile off her face. "Be careful, that's all I ask."

"When am I not careful?" I ask, skipping to my room with a flick of my damp hair. Nia snorts a laugh before sitting back down on the couch to work on more sewing.

After that, she doesn't push anymore about what happened and even seems to ease up on chaperoning me when Marron is here. Beren and Lyath are still overbearing, but they don't know how to be any other way.

Still, I need to find more time to be with Marron so I can figure out if we can make this work even without being able to communicate fully.