Brittany raised an eyebrow at him. “Let me guess. The gal on the other end of the line there was your teacher?”
He winced, but nodded. She chuckled, adding, “Okay, I’ll assume, since you’re still being taught by Miss Coach, that you haven’t had a full language course yet, and you’re actually doing pretty well, if we go with that assumption. It’s not a major problem, just time-consuming, all this explaining stuff. No biggie.”
The earphone had gone silent while she spoke, prompting him to risk putting it back on. It buzzed for a moment at a normal volume. The woman Martha was obviously temperamental, but able to recover swiftly and get back to business.
He said now, “I am told that your language is more familiar to us than was first realized. Taken from the computers, the language was basic. Hearing you speak it, the similarities are becoming noticeable.”
“Similarities to what? Your own language?”
“No, to the ancient language of my mother’s people, which I have full understanding of. If such continues apace, and other of your words have the same meanings, I will have the correct translations momentarily. Thus we will have no further difficulties in communicating.”
“Huh?”
He held up a hand, silently asking her to wait on any further explanations. The noise coming out of his earphone now was a steady buzz, a nonstop low-volume sound like a high-speed acceleration on a tape recorder, much too fast to be understood. It was probably broken. Good. She didn’t really mind explaining things to him. But she did mind third-wheel Martha continuously butting in. How were they supposed to find any time alone to get to know each other better with that ever-present eavesdropper connected to his ear?
Chapter 12
“CAN THAT BE TURNED OFF?”
Brittany blushed as she asked it. She shouldn’t have asked. It smacked of her obvious preference to be alone with Dalden.
Yet he didn’t seem to notice any ulterior motive to the question and simply answered, “Only partially can Martha be disabled. The unit can be made so she cannot, or will not, speak, but there is no way to keep her from hearing when she is already hearing.”
Brittany assumed that something got lost there in the translation, because it almost sounded as if Martha had some other means out of his control for listening in on him, which conjured up an image of her apartment being bugged with a spying device, which was absurd. And she wasnotgoing to start looking under tables.
The subject went no further, though, because noises were finally heard from behind Jan’s bedroom door, a bit of swearing, then the door opened and Jan stumbled groggily out, rubbing her eyes. Seeing Brittany first, she said, “I had the weirdest dream,” then noticing Dalden on the coach, “okay, so maybe I didn’t. Who the—”
She didn’t go any further, was absorbing Dalden’s looks by slow degrees, to the point that her eyes got wider and wider. If someone could be said to be drooling without actually drooling, Jan was doing it. At least, she was until Dalden pushed off of the couch to turn to face her, so he didn’t have to crane his neck to look behind him.
His neck-craning was nothing compared to hers. Jan was on the petite side and had to look up at Brittany if they were standing too close, but Dalden’s seven feet were a bit intimidating. She’d been amazed at his handsomeness, but his size had her literally backing up until she was almost back in her bedroom.
She stopped at the door and said, “Holy cow!” And then as an explanation occurred to her, “One of your brothers, right? You could have warned me he was coming.”
Jan had never met any of Brittany’s brothers, but for some reason she assumed they were all alottaller than Brittany was. Which wasn’t the case at all. York was six-six, but both Kent and Devon were a bit shorter than that.
Brittany replied, “I’m happy to say he’s no relation.”
“Oh?” Jan’s eyes swung to Brittany and, seeing the blush, added, “Ohhhh,” which made the blush even brighter.
Brittany made introductions and offered a bit of explanation about why Dalden was there. She then escaped to the kitchen with the excuse of getting dinner started, and stayed there until her cheeks cooled off. It was appalling that she’d blushed more in this one day than she had in the last several years.
She didn’t have to worry about leaving Jan alone with Dalden. That longer “oh” had been clear understanding on her part. Jan even managed to disappear for most of the evening. She was a compulsive matchmaker, after all, had been trying to fix Brittany up with one guy after another in the three years they’d shared the apartment, and wasn’t about to be a third wheel tonight when it was so obvious that Brittany was attracted to their guest.
Brittany cooked one of the most lavish meals she’d ever prepared. She even broke out the cookbook for it, not wanting to make a single mistake. Realizing afterward what she’d done, going to so much anxious effort to impress Dalden, she was disgusted with herself. If he couldn’t like her the way she was, then there was no point in even thinking that they might be able to form a relationship, even if only a brief one. She wasn’t going to change for anyone, was very comfortable with her life and her goals.
He was impressed with the meal, though—at least, he cleaned his plate thrice over. She knew men his size could eat a lot at one sitting, her brothers being testament to that, but even she was amazed at the amount of food Dalden consumed. Fortunately, she had prepared enough side dishes that she didn’t run short. Still, there were no leftovers, and thank goodness Jan had a sweet tooth, so there was half a chocolate cake available for dessert as well. With half of that and a full carton of milk, she was reasonably sure her guest was finally replete.
And then she got nervous.
It was natural, she supposed, with a few hours yet to kill before her usual bedtime, that she’d start thinking about sex. Not that it hadn’t been in the back, or forefront, of her mind all day, when she’d never before met someone she was this powerfully attracted to. And since that attraction had seemed to be mutual, she was pretty much expecting Dalden to make a move on her at some point in the evening.
For an immediate distraction, she turned on the television. It wouldn’t be the first time she had used it to ease awkward moments with new acquaintances. But Dalden didn’t seem the least bit interested in it, was staring at her instead, which just increased her nervousness.
“What would you like to watch?” she asked him.
He chuckled. “Is that not apparent?”
Back came the pink cheeks. “I meant on the TV,” she explained.
