“It was a few years ago. Wylda.” She extended her hand to Stiila and was engulfed in a hug instead.
The whisper in her ear, “I remember you,” made her smile.
Stiila leaned back and said, “You are looking pretty nice. Do you live in town?”
“I live where my car is. Delphine has opened her house to me.”
Stiila paused. “What?”
“I am what is called an unhoused person. Every time I got a place to myself, it was under attack. I stopped having safe places. Oddly enough, I feel safe at Delphine’s.”
Lord Rez frowned. “What do you mean you have no home?”
“Never had the need for one. Well, not for the last two years. They were looking for me and occasionally finding me.”
Stiila muttered, “You could have found a shelter.”
“I couldn’t get a job with a shelter address. I tried. I had to open a post office box and use the street address to get through the AI filters when I applied.”
“Oh.”
Lord Rez was bristling with outrage. “You have been on your own for the last two years?”
“Yes.” She smiled.
“I need to speak to you.”
She looked at Stiila. “Please excuse us for a moment.”
“Hey, he’s going to be my son-in-law one day.”
Lord Rez stiffened. “No, I will not. Wylda, a moment please.”
Wylda nodded, and he took her hand and led her out of the room to a nearby empty room.
“I did not know you were undefended.” Lord Rez looked at her and gripped her arms.
“Of course I was. Now I have Delphine to help me.” She smiled to gentle the fierce look in his eyes. “Congratulations on the engagement.”
“I am not engaged. She is a kijin like me, and it was a joke when she was born.” He looked embarrassed and said softly, “I would like to correct my first impression.”
“How so?”
“I would like to please you. I have learned much about women and how to please them. I will not hurt you again.” He stroked her shoulders and leaned in to kiss her.
She blinked as his lips stroked hers, and shivers started to move across her skin. Her form was trying to change to suit him.
She stared up at him when he backed away. The light pressure had been nice. Beyond nice. She had nearly shown him her otherform, here in a building with her friends watching from across the hall.
“Um, this is a bit of a surprise.” She blinked at him.
He smiled. “I have thought about you every day and every night. I imagined you safe and happy. That was not the case?”
“Um, sometimes it was, and sometimes it wasn’t.”
He caressed her cheek with his thumb. “I want nothing more than to whisk you away right now.”
“Not wise. Elodie and Delphine can follow me anywhere.”
