Page 8 of The Emerald Boa’s Lover (Operation Colonise #3)

Bonding

Dalahan

It’s day two of having Charlie in my nest. His things arrived shortly after I registered myself as his sponsor.

He has received his clinic assignment and before he’s allowed to start, he has to study Ucfeni anatomy.

Massive books were delivered by an Allico Inc drone and Charlie seemed begrudged by the task ahead.

I fussed in the kitchen area, mainly so I could snoop over him as he set up a corner of the living room to work in.

Tabitha coined the phrase for the social level.

An Earth term, she said. Charlie shoved one of my red beanbags against the wall, stacked the books the drone delivered, and began reading.

He had the medical book resting on the bulging side of the beanbag and turned to face it.

On his lap he had a notepad and periodically nodded and took note of something.

“Charlie?” I ask, approaching with a bowl of Tabitha’s favourite snack, mixed nuts and fruit.

He doesn’t answer, so I slither closer to him.

“Charlie?” Still no answer, so I lower onto my belly and bring my offering closer.

I hold the bowl over the page he’s currently reading, startling him into flinching and looking at me like a startled bird.

Instead of feathers being ruffled, his hair was.

“Charlie?” I give him my biggest smile, showing my jaw-hinge membranes, and offer the bowl to him.

“You were working so hard you didn’t hear me calling you.

” I chuckle at the dazed look in his eyes.

“I’m really busy Dalahan. I’m being deployed into my first clinic tomorrow and I need to get myself up to speed in a day.” He chuckles, but I don’t think he finds anything funny. “So I don’t have time to chat.”

“Of course. I can see you’re busy.” I nod, still smiling.

“You must be in need of food though, right? To keep yourself going? By all means, keep working if you need to, but I’ll take care of you while you do, okay?

” He blinks at me, then down at the bowl, then back up at me.

His mouth is open, but he seems speechless.

“Would you like some water? Can I get you anything else?”

“…n…no this is good. Thanks.” He accepts the bowl and I feel like I’ve won this round.

Charlie braces the bowl beside his books and immediately starts to gather clusters of fruits and nuts to nibble on.

He reminds me of a Gissok foraging, and it’s so cute.

“Water would be great, actually.” He says like he’s just realised he’s thirsty too.

“Coming right up.”

◆◆◆

Charlie

Dalahan keeps bringing me food and water whilst I cram a ridiculous amount of medical knowledge about the Ucfeni into my brain in 24 hours.

Even when I walk around with a book in my hand, he seems to be hovering.

I found this annoying at first, but the second time I realised what he was doing.

I was heading towards the pulley with the intention of going up the second tier to make use of the toilet when I nearly walked face-first into the wall instead.

Too busy reading my book to pay attention to where I was walking.

Dalahan grabbed my shoulders and stopped me before I could flatten my face against the wall.

He didn’t mock me. He just turned me around to let me continue towards the pulley system.

He even held my book for me whilst I secured myself on the pulley seat.

This is so weird. Dalahan is doing what I normally do for the guys I bring home.

He’s doting on me. At first I thought he was trying to score brownie points with me, or something, but he isn’t even flirting with me.

He totally could. Like, he could have said ‘Are you thirsty? I know I sure as hell am’, or even something like ‘don’t worry, I’ll see to all your needs’.

But no. He didn’t. He just smiled and asked me if I needed anything else.

It was pretty useful that he’s had a human charge before me, as he knew how to cook food I could eat.

Damn, he even made me a really tasty curry for dinner.

I was exhausted by the time evening came.

Ucfeni anatomy was very different, and although they were more resistant to traditional infection than a human.

Nothing they eat is going to survive the digestive system long enough to infect them.

If anything contaminated comes into contact with their scales, they can just wash it off safely.

However, once infected they couldn’t fight it off as well as a human can.

The most common form of infection for an Ucfeni is through being wounded.

If their scales are cut and they bleed, so the bloodstream is exposed, they are highly susceptible to infection.

From the looks of things, my assignment will be mostly first aid and trauma treatment to prevent infection.

Prescribing antibiotics and monitoring those who are wounded to ensure they don’t get a fever.

Thankfully I won’t be the only doctor on site.

The clinic already has two experienced Ucfeni doctors.

I bet I’m taking over the everyday grunt work and handling of the antibiotics.

Still a far cry from the immunology lab and my precious Petri dishes, but at least I won’t be carrying out surgery or handling chronic illnesses.

I’m dog tired as I brush my teeth and get ready for bed.

I plant myself face down onto the bed, groaning with exhaustion.

My brain is throbbing. I haven’t studied that hard for that long since I was a med student.

I lift my head, getting ready to just turn it to one side and pass out, when smooth scales slide over my back and my legs.

“Wow-wait just a minute?!”

“You’ll catch a chill.” Dalahan chuckled.

His tail coiled loosely around my legs and waist as he tipped me over onto my back.

“The Jungle of Orna is cool at night.” I raise a brow as I watch Dalahan from his relaxed coil in the netted hammock above me.

His tail slides free of me to tug the blanket out from under me.

“Here.” His tail drapes the blanket up to my midriff and I pull it the rest of the way to hide everything below my chin from the emerald green Ucfeni.

His green eyes twinkle where they catch the moonlight coming in from the skylight.

He pulls his tail back up to wrap around the relaxed coil of his long body.

All I can see now is a tangle of scales surrounding his upper body.

His head rests on his folded arms and his eyes are drooping closed as he peers down at me through the netting.

“Sweet dreams Charlie. Don’t worry. You’ve worked so hard today I bet you hit the ground with speed.

” He closed his eyes, sighing with contentment and relaxing above me.

Oh no, he’s actually a sweetheart. Damn it.

That’s going to be a problem. When he flirted with me yesterday, it was easy to resist when I could just think of Dalahan as an arrogant prick who fancied a quick fuck.

But how exactly am I supposed to keep him squarely in the jerk box, when he is…

sweet to me? It doesn’t help that I’m still a tad frustrated and I can see the rippling muscles of his torso pressed to the netting above me.

I turn onto my side so I can’t stare up at the sexy sweetheart who has fussed over me all day.

I scrunch my eyes shut and certainly don’t think about how strong his hands were on my shoulders.

Or how his fingers would linger whenever he passed me a glass of water.

Or how genuine his smile was whenever I thanked him for each kind gesture.

I definitely don’t dream about his strong tail wrapped around my body… or…specific parts of my body…fuck.