“No,” Yiri said, squeezing me as he pointed out the buttons to push to open the cargo door. “The dock might be a little off center, though. Let me test it before you go out.”
“You’re out of your mind if you think I’m walking across that tiny little rope bridge,” I snorted.
He patted my thigh, telling me wordlessly to get up.
“It suits me fine if you stay inside,” he said. “But it’s up to you.”
He led me to the cargo hold where a small crew of daernir men were already carrying in boxes with mine and Andy’s handwriting on the sides.
“We need the old couch taken out before you bring anything else in,” Yiri told them.
“What do you want us to do with it?” one of the men asked.
“Burn it,” I muttered.
I was joking, but the man nodded like that was a perfectly reasonable request, and went to get the thing out of the living quarters. I wasn’t sad to see it go.
“I don’t know why I hate that couch so much,” I said as they lugged it across the precarious dock.
Yiri eyed me for a beat and then said, “Promise you won’t be mad at me if I tell you why?”
I squinted back at him. “No. But you have to tell me now, or I’ll definitely be mad.”
He sighed and pulled me close so he could speak quietly. “I’ve had other females on that couch. You’re myAneah, so your instincts are telling you it’s abhorrent.”
My stomach flip-flopped, and my skin heated. “Had?”
“Did you think I was a virgin,Aneah?” He held onto me like he was afraid I’d try to run away.
“No,” I pouted. “But we don’t have to talk about it.” But then I had a thought. “I don’t hate the bed, though. Why is that?”
He seemed to pale a shade or two. “I replaced the beds.”
I stared up at him. “Beds. Plural.”
His throat bobbed, but he didn’t look away. “Aneah.”
Yeah, no. I was uninterested in continuing that line of thought.
“I packed some snacks,” I said. “You wanna try some chocolate?”
“Yes.” He glanced at the platform where several boxes that were not mine still waited to be carried over. “And I have some other things for you, too.”
“My stuff wasn’t the surprise?”
He scoffed. “What kind of mate surprises hisAneahwith her own property?”
“The surprise is that it’s here.”
“I’m not spoiling you right,” he muttered to himself. “I’ll do better.”
CHAPTER 37
YIRI
Not everythingI procured for Cora was contraband, but the methods I used to find out what she might want from her home planet weren’t strictly legal. Earth’s version of nexus communication was terrifyingly primitive. My mate lived her whole life with so much of her personal data dangerously accessible to anyone and everyone. After I downloaded it all for my own use, I deleted almost everything but the record of her birth and her departure for Bion 8KV. Would she be upset that I’d seen all of her search histories and virtual shopping carts full of un-purchased items? Only one way to find out.
“Oh my god,” she said, stepping forward as one of the extra boxes was deposited into the cargo hold. “Is that Andy’s handwriting?”
