| |
Malo had just left with yet another non-declaration of love. Caro was a fool to hope. He’d made such sweet love to her after she’d tortured him with the rabbit fur, and the way he’d looked at her had given her hope. She sniffed.
“Lady Caro, Lady Izzy is on the comm.” Afax’s voice cut through her misery.
Joy gripped her, and she whooped, wiggling her butt in the comfy, making it grow and shrink. She chuckled. That was mean of her.
Izzy. Caro sniffed again, missing her bestie so much. “Thanks, Afax, please put her through.”
Caro leaped to her feet to stand in front of the display vid. Dark circles under Izzy’s eyes and a little weight-loss said much. “Izzy? Where the monkey’s bananas have you been?”
“You’re one to talk after you’ve traveled the galaxy. I merely had an incident and just returned. When Garix said Malo found you, I had to call you. I need you, babe. The shit’s hitting the fan, and I don’t know how to handle it.”
Caro folded her arms across her belly, needing someone to hug. “That doesn’t sound like you. Your solutions are usually too creative for me.” Izzy leveled a glare on her. Caro chuckled and held up her palms. “Okay, start from the beginning.”
“When those bastards took you, I was so scared, but not once did I think it was me they were after. A second attempt to take me changed things. I was shafted from stick-up-his-ass Vorn to some other guy named Oyaz. I didn’t care who as long as they rescued Simmy. Can you imagine her alone?” She shook her head. Alone in her house, Izabelle’s blind sister Simone was capable, but against an intruder, she wouldn’t stand a chance. “Regardless, after Oyaz brought her to the battleship, I met him.” She beamed and bounced. “My Eth, Caro. At last.” Sadness ripped across her petite face. “But on a mission to collect Simmy’s art supplies, Yithians ambushed us and blasted Oyaz’s O.D.I.” She sobbed behind her cupped hands. “Oyaz awoke not knowing who I was, and while I tried to drag his huge ass into the forest to hide, his memory didn’t return. I couldn’t contact Garix or Reyes, stranding us.”
Caro placed a hand on the vid, wishing Izzy was here with her. “Holy noodles, Izzy. Does he remember you now?”
Teats dripped off her chin. “I found my alien only to lose him.” She paced across the screen, disappearing for seconds in each direction, her high-energy returning. “No other male has claimed me, so I assume it’s Oyaz or no one.” She raised her big eyes to Caro. “I don’t want anyone else. What do I do?”
“Granny’s nipples, I don’t know what to tell you, Izzy. What did the medic say?”
“There’s no medical reason for his memory not to return.” She paced again. “Maybe he doesn’t want a soulmate? Maybe he doesn’t want me as his Dar Eth?”
“They can’t choose, babe. It happens once in their lives. If he dropped to a knee for you, I’m afraid the poor bastard is stuck with you.” Caro forced a chuckle, hoping to calm her friend. “Now, be patient. Yeah, I know it’s a curse word for you, but let nature heal him. He’ll kneel for you again.”
“Patient? That’s worse than a rash.” Izzy pouted. “You look good though, Caro. Are you glowing?”
Caro drew in a shuddering breath. “As expected of a mom-to-be, Aunt Izzy.”
Izzy gaped, and in all the time Caro had known her, she couldn’t once recall her friend speechless.
“I’m an aunt?” Izzy squealed, threw her hands in the air, and danced. “Way to go, Malo. He has super swimmers, he does.” She stilled and flipped her hair out of her eyes, a smile still lingering. “But how are you doing, babe? You seem off. Are you unhappy about the baby?”
“No, never that.” Tears pricked behind Caro’s eyes. “He doesn’t love me, Izzy. I’m not even sure they know what love is.” She let herself cry since it was becoming a favorite pastime. “The sex is amazing, and he’s attentive, even affectionate.”
“I can’t believe that, babe. I mean, once they feel, they throw themselves in, boots and all. They have no idea how to hold back emotions. Maybe he doesn’t know what he’s feeling is love?”
Caro snorted. “Getting a human man to admit love exists is like pulling teeth. How the hell am I going to teach an Etterian how to recognize it, Izzy?” She slumped, the massive task too much for her. “It’s impossible.”
“Let me know if you figure out how. Once Oyaz returns to his senses, I might need that how-to-for-dummies.”
Malo stormed into their quarters.
Caro gasped, spinning her back to him to wipe her cheeks. He worried when she cried.
He crushed her in his embrace, and like an addict, she burrowed deeper, needing his natural cologne, the strength of his arms, and the warmth of his body through his armor.
“Hi, Malo.” Izzy waved.
“It is good to see you, female. Your disappearance would have delayed heading home. Now that you are well, I will show my Dar Eth my Etteria sooner.”
“What?” Caro squeaked. “We’re not going to Earth?”
“Thamani, I need to speak to you. Bid Izzy farewell for now.”
She huffed, waved at Izzy, and ended the comm. “We decide things together, Malo. It’s what married couples do. Explain this.”
He didn’t but reached around her to activate her O.D.I. She glared at him, not understanding why he had to fiddle with her O.D.I. now, of all times.
“Izzy is correct.” He released Caro’s forearm to cup her face, holding her still for his penetrating gaze. “Etterians can feel—”
“You eavesdropped on my conversation?” Ice slithered down her spine, and she tried to leave his embrace.
“Your safety above privacy, always, beloved.”
She pummeled his chest, trying to get him to release her. “No, and no. It implies a lack of trust, as if I would lie to you.”
“And if any of my enemies found a way to take you from me, heart?” He snagged her gaze again. “Caro, I need you.”
She huffed. “No privacy, Malo. Can’t you understand that sometimes I just need to be with Izzy as me. Not as your Dar Eth, not as a soon-to-be mother, just a human woman with a friend.”
“And can you not understand that I am nothing without you, Caro.” He gathered her close, tucking her face into the curve of his neck. “You are the universe to me, heart of my hearts.”
Agony sliced across her chest at his words. Heart of his heart? Did he even know what that meant? “What’s with the strange endearments? I like your Etterian ones better. Your language is beautiful, Malo.”
He chuckled, his teeth bright against his bronze skin. She loved it when he laughed. “I did not realize your Etterian Language Protocol wasn’t activated. I have attended to it.”
Her mind was a fog, and she struggled to clear her thoughts. “So, I can speak Etterian like Yithian?”
“Yes, beloved.” He chuckled, kissing her temple then the tip of her nose. “Now, you will hear my love for you.”
She squeezed her eyes shut as something heavy, like a thick, down blanket wrapped around her chest. “What are you saying, Malo? It doesn’t make sense. You’ve been calling me ‘heart’ since the beginning.”
“Alodon’s balls, Caro, you have had my hearts from the moment you tilted your face to your blue Earthian sky and gifted me with birdsong.”
The day on the beach after too much ice cream? She swayed, her knees weak, and had he not been holding her, she would’ve slid down his body into an undignified mess.
“Beloved?” He lifted her into his arms.
“You love me?”
He laughed, then kissed her, snatching what breath she had found. “Always, heart of my hearts. Always.”
Page of 126
