“Maybe I’m the stupid one,” he shrugged, like getting caught was no big deal. “I did hope you wouldn’t notice.”
“We were playing Would You Rather,” I said. “It’s your turn. Would you rather leave my friend alone or never taste my pussy again?”
Yiri’s jaw clenched.
“Would you rather leave him alone or have to ask permission every time you want me again?”
Qhev, also quite high on sellah, started to titter quietly, a hand loosely held over his mouth. I shot him ashut up while I save your lifeglare, and he nodded, mouthing the Venastean equivalent ofsorry… and laughed harder.Good grief.
“Would you rather,” I said a little louder, raising my brows at Yiri,“leave him alone or never fuck me again as long as we live.”
“You’re my Ibar chosen mate,” Yiri said. “Denying me forever would drive you insane.”
“Yiri Ahlon,” I said, popping up to my feet to stick my finger in his face. He had to steady me by the shoulders, and that definitely took some of the gravity out of the moment, but I forged ahead anyway. “I left the only planet I’ve ever known with nothing but my cat?—”
“And your couch,” he reminded me. “That’s still on the way,Aneah.”
“My cat and my couch!” I said. “Who does that? Who-who, just hops on a spaceship and zips across the universe for aguy?A guy who’s always bleeding ornot bleedingbut is still somehow bloody? A guy who says he swims withsharks!Yiri Ahlon, if you don’t think I’m already crazy, you need to think again!”
Behind me, Qhev was wheezing, slumped half on the couch and half on the floor in a state of sellah-induced mirth.
“He’s coming home with us,” I said.
Yiri blinked. “What?”
“You heard me. I can’t let him out of my sight now. I’m worried you’ll kill him.”
“Cora, I don’t think?—”
“You said I’d want for nothing if I married you,” I reminded him. “I want him.”
Yiri’s face went terrifyingly blank.
“I always knew a woman would get me killed,” Qhev said from the floor.
I rolled my eyes at both of them. “As myfriend, Yiri. You’re being so dramatic. I like him. He’s funny. So we’re keeping him, got it? No murdering my friend. Now, take us home. We’re really high.”
Sighing, Yiri pulled me close and kissed my forehead. “Alright,Aneah.”
CHAPTER 31
YIRI
“I’m taking the week off,”I said, bursting into Zacal’s study a week later.
He leaned back to gaze up at me, unimpressed. “Why is that?”
“Mywife,” I snarled.
Zacal chuckled. “Keeping you on your toes, is she?”
“She needs my attention,” I said, forcing a deep breath into my lungs.
“Alright,” Zacal said, not hiding his amusement.
“She’s prancing around Eissoi with that musician of hers,” I said, “buying the sexiest clothing she can dream up, smoking all my good sellah, and falling asleep before I get home every night.”
“That sounds dreadful,” Zacal smiled.
