“You do not have mating on your planet?”
My cheeks grow hot, which is idiotic considering he’s seen me naked and nearly gave me a mind-control orgasm thing.
“Of course, we do. But, between humans. Not between humans and, you know, other species.” That wasn’t how I intended to explain myself.
“You are human.” He says this with interest. In fact, is regarding me as if he finds everything about me interesting.
“Am I the first human you’ve ever seen?”
He nods. “Yes. You appear very soft.”
“Geez, thanks?”
I swallow hard, considering if I want to know the answer to my next question. “Have you traveled to Earth before?”
“Earth.” He rolls the word around on his lips. “I have not. My King looked at it with interest; however, I can assure you that none of my people will bother your planet.”
Reassured a little, I grab my spoon fork and take a bite of the meat before I can talk myself out of it. No idea what’s in it and I’m too hungry to ask.
“How can you be sure?”
He finishes his meal and watches me as I eat. Normally, I’d be bothered by someone eyeballing me while I stuff my face. I’ve always been self-conscious about eating in front of other people, thanks to my continual struggle with food, but it doesn’t bug me right now. Nothing about this man seems to bother me.
“We are no longer raiders, but farmers and merchants. At one time, my people sought new worlds too raid and plunder; however, we began to crave a more peaceful existence.”
A lump of meat lodges in my throat and I have to clear it. “Raiders? So you’d go to other planets and steal their money?”
A fried ring slides off the side of my plate. Gam picks it up, his eyes trailing to my mouth. The back of my neck tingles as he brings it to my lips, blinks slowly as he watches me. My first instinct is to take a bite, but that’s just weird. We barely know each other. Taking it from him, I set it back on my plate. Does he look disappointed or is that my imagination?
“What is money?”
Wow, my heart is racing. How would it have felt to take a bite and have my lips brush against his fingertips?
“Money is currency. Something valuable that humans use to trade for things we want and need, like food, and shelter, and clothing.”
“Ah, yes. That is correct. We would take things of value. Things we consider currency.”
“That’s not a very honorable way to exist, is it?” I think again of the Vikings. “The human race had raiders, too, in our history. They also turned to farming and trade eventually.”
“My people do not dwell so much on our past, but on what we wish to become. We are aware of the faults of a raiding culture. This new generation of Talarions wishes to live a different way. The King and I support this. My King no longer desires the personal cost to his people involved in maintaining a violent lifestyle. He craves peace. It comes at the perfect time as my ability to manipulate portals has changed.”
He drinks from the fizzy liquid. Lowering my fork, I lean into the slight tone of disappointment in his voice.
“Changed? How?”
His fingers wrap loosely around his mug. Long, strong fingers. His forearm is heavily muscled, his bicep positively bulging. The scales covering the bared part of his forearm look soft and gleam in the lights. I’m tempted to touch, to stroke them and see if the edges feel rigid or if they’re pliable and smooth against his muscle. Subtly, I move the fried vegetable off the lip of my plate. It teeters and falls onto the table.
“I use my energy to manipulate the energies of the universes to open and close portals and fractures which can be used for travel, and also to access to the dark world. However, my power is not infinite, and each session has drained the lifeforce from me.” He holds his arm out for me. “I was once the same color as my King.”
Without thinking, I touch his forearm and run my first finger along the outside. His skin is smooth and warm. A trail of pink forms beneath my touch. Enthralled, I make a small circle, watching in wonder as the pink shape appears behind my movements, then quickly fades.
“Your powers are killing you?”
His chest rises and falls quickly. I withdraw my finger when I realize what I’m doing and refocus.
“What is the dark world?”
He looks to the dropped ring near my plate. Pulling a breath through my nose, I go still with anticipation that he’ll pick it up and bring it to my lips again. I’m not sure where this newfound confidence is coming from. I’m never bold, or one to make the first move. Gam makes me want to lie down on the grass and open my arms for him to fall into. To explore his body fully, completely, slowly and find all the nuanced differences between him and a human male.
