“I have a big family,” he said. “We would be here a long time.”
“Your parents?” I prodded, snuggling into my pillows.
His eyes tracked the small movement through the screen. “They’re dead.”
“I’m sorry.”
He dipped his head in acknowledgement. “My uncle raised me after their deaths,” he said. “And then when I was a teenager, he met his mate, and they had a son. Evik. He’s my cousin, but he annoys me like a younger brother.”
“You love him,” I said, grinning. I could hear the affection in his voice.
Yiri made a gruff sound. “I’d love to kick his ass most days,” he said. “But yes.”
I almost said I couldn’t wait to meet Evik. But that was crazy, right? I wasn’t going to marry this alien man, and I was never going to meet his cousin-brother, either.
“He’ll be mated soon,” Yiri said. “Poor kid.”
“He’s not happy about it?” I wondered.
“It’s an arranged match,” he explained. “The female is not someone I would have picked for him.”
“So that’s a thing?” I asked. “Arranged marriages? Mates?”
“It’s not common,” He said. “Our family holds a lot of power in Eissoi, though. Sometimes it’s necessary to make alliances with other regions, other worlds.”
“Wow. I guess you got lucky it wasn’t you, huh?”
A look I couldn’t read crossed his face and was gone again before I could decipher it. “I’m lucky I found you among the thousands of other human women on here.”
“You think so, huh?”
He nodded. “I do. I didn’t know what I should be looking for. What I would want in a wife, or how to find it. I saw your profile and thoughtthat.Her. She’s what I’m looking for.”
“Because of my eyes.” Wasn’t that what he said last night?
“Yes. Your eyes. Everything about you. You’re very beautiful.”
“There are a lot of beautiful women on this app,” I pointed out, but he shook his head.
“Not like you. You’re a different kind of beautiful. I haven’t figured it out yet, but I knew as soon as I saw you.”
“But you don’t know me,” I said. “How can you know you wantmewhen all you know is what I look like?”
“I’m not sure,” he said. “But I’m going to figure it out.”
CHAPTER 6
YIRI
“You didn’t tellme about your whole family, though,” I reminded Cora. “Tell me about your son.”
“My son?”Her eyes rounded with surprise. Many mothers in the Bion system weren’t close with their children, but I’d never met one whoforgotthey had a son.
“Mr. Darcy,” I reminded her.
Cora’s face relaxed. “Oh, Mr. Darcy! He’s not my son. He’s my cat.”
She grabbed what I assumed was the Earth equivalent of a nexus frame, and the view swung around and focused on a small furry ball of a creature that glared at me through the call. Cora’s small pink pink-tipped fingers scratched behind the thing’s ears, and he gave a big, toothy yawn before laying his head back down to sleep.
