Oh, geez. “Uh huh. Sure you are.”
N’kal snorted. “You doubt me, but you also will not allow me to demonstrate my prowess.”
“I’m not sleeping with you for a demonstration, sir.”
The big purple man huffed and turned his head. “You are afraid. That is fine.”
Oh, no he didn’t! Rather than take the bait, I stretched my legs out, propping my feet on the bed with my ankles crossed. I made a show of inspecting my nails, like that was more interesting than his attempt at a jab. “Just becauseyouare trying to boost your ego is no reason to assume thatI’mas desperate as you are. It’s less about fear and more about disinterest. I couldn’t care less about getting laid by some alien.”
His brows drew together as he scowled at me. “I am not trying to boost my ego. I am not desperate. I simply wish to find a human mate.”
“What’s so special about humans? I thought Xalanite women had it all: scales, gills, extra boobs …”
N’kal scoffed. “I do not care how many teats a female has.”
“Then what’s the big deal? Why, specifically, do you want to mate with a human woman?”
“You would not understand.”
Probably not, and I honestly didn’t even know why I cared. Horndog alien wanted to get freaky with the new species. Seemed pretty straightforward.
After a long moment, N’kal let out a heavy sigh. He scrubbed his face with his hand, and he got up and started pacing.
“Xalanite women do not excite me. They are boring. They do not want to try new things or have new experiences. They want to mate for the sake of reproduction, and that is it. They do not want to mate for passion or even companionship. Most of the Xalanite women are resentful of the new relationship our species has with the humans. They do not want change.” He gestured at the TV. “Your programs all show women who are equal companions. They are not just vessels for new life. They have jobs, they have ambitions. You are such a woman. You have a job that I understand to be very important. You have an equalpartner in this job who defers to you at times. A Xalanite woman would not take initiative in a situation like today. She would not have been the one to aim her weapon at me. She would have been meek, timid. I do not like that.”
Well, that was surprisingly deep. I expected him to say something about how Earth girls are easy.
“I do not want a mate who is somehow less. I want an equal mate. A companion, a partner.” He stopped his pacing and looked up at the ceiling. “And if she is inventive and creative like the women in the mating programs, all the better.”
There it was. The porn. That had been our number one export to Xalan, from what I understood. The men there went wild for it. Xalanite pregnancies were up something like seventy-five percent since porn was introduced.
Despite my effort to remain disinterested, I found myself leaning forward as N’kal talked. It was kind of cool getting this bit of insight into an alien mind.
“If you’re so keen on an equal partner, why are you asking every woman at first meeting if they’ll mate with you?”
He blinked in confusion. “How else are they to know I wish to mate?”
I shook my head and sat back again. “You’ve got a lot to learn, dude.”
Chapter 3
N’kal
Detective Millwood did not elaborate despite my inquiries. What did she mean when she insinuated that I should not ask women to mate with me? Was it a cultural difference with the Earth women? I must know!
The detective changed the TV to a cooking program. “Here. Hopefully this will take your mind off mating.”
To my surprise, it did alleviate the urge to mate. Unfortunately, it did so at the cost of making me quite hungry. After several time units of programs, I turned back to Detective Timber, who still spent much of her time inspecting that device of hers, the phone.
“Detective, may I have something more to eat?”
She glanced up from her phone but otherwise did not move. “After all I fed you, you’re saying you want more?”
“Yes. Please, I believe is the proper term, yes?”
Tossing the phone on the small desk, she sighed and scrubbed her face with her hands. “N’kal, I don’t know if I canafford to keep feeding you like this. Are you really that hungry, or are you just bored?”
I frowned, confused. “What does boredom have to do with hunger?”
