“I missed you,” she murmured, not caring that her feet were bare as she stepped outside.The blue moss covering the ground was soft enough and it tickled the undersides of her soles.
She went to him, breathing him in, and leaned up for a kiss, which he gave her gladly.
“There is no sweeter welcome than this,” he murmured against her lips and she smiled, before stepping back.Then she watched as he hefted the carcass and opened the hatch to the cellar below the house, which was located along the back wall.
Below, he kept supplies, but there was also a small room for game, which he’d wired to keep cold.
When he reemerged from the cellar, sansbeggawi, she led him inside the house and murmured, “Come on.Let’s bathe.”
He purred in response.
And Cara washed and caressed his body as they showered together in the washing tube.It wasn’t long before he had her legs wrapped around his waist, her back against the glass, driving home between her thighs.
“Luxiva, luxiva, luxiva,” he murmured over and over again in her ear.
And as she orgasmed, she couldn’t help but think that it was too perfect, that she was too happy.
She was waiting for the other shoe to drop even as she clutched him tighter.
TWENTY-ONE
It was just a few days later when that other shoe finally dropped.
They’d just returned from a long afternoon at the market, the transport craft loaded down with supplies that Devix had spoiled her with.Throughout the afternoon, she’d kept her eyes peeled for a potential area to open a small restaurant.And she thought she’d found the perfect place.
Her favorite spot had been located towards the quieter edge of the market.An old, run-down, and vacant stall that Devix had told her used to be owned by one of the largest game suppliers on Rozun.When he’d died, however, the stall had shut down and no one had taken it over.Devix told her he thought it was because it wasn’t in a prime location, too far from the bustle of the marketplace where most vendors captured the majority of their customers.
But to Cara it was perfect.A sturdy stall with a large enough overhang for a makeshift roof.She could put tables and chairs just beneath it, like an open patio, a more peaceful place to eat when market-goers needed a reprieve.It would only seat maybe ten, if she could fit the tables just right, but it was small enough for her first venture, just to test out whether her business would be well-received.
All the way back home, she’d thought about that stall.And ideas started swarming her mind so quickly that she’d pulled out her spare parchment and wrote them all down so she wouldn’t forget.By the time they were home, she had five pages of crammed, tiny notes and she was buzzing with excitement.
Now that she had a potential location in mind, it seemed more real to her.Attainable.
And at her first opportunity, once all the supplies were unloaded, she pounced on Devix to show him just how happy she was.
Afterwards, with trembling limbs and tingling from multiple orgasms, she’d lounged in bed with her male and pressed her cheek to his chest to listen to his heartbeat, reassuring and strong.He was purring steadily, stroking his fingertips down her back all the way down to the swell of her ass before venturing upwards.
But something seemed off to her.
“You’ve been quiet,” she murmured.
He’d seemed distracted for most of the afternoon, after he spoke with a tall, broad alien he knew at the marketplace.Cara wondered if it was because he was worried about Sarkon in such a public place or if it was something else.
Devix grunted and turned his head to look at her.She couldn’t count how many times they’d done this, just lying together, being with each other.
“Tell me,” she whispered.“Who did you talk to at the market and what did you talk about?”
Devix stilled.He continued to stroke down her back until his hand paused and then he lifted up on his elbow to look down at her.
Cara watched him carefully, the high of that afternoon slowly fading, dread replacing it.
“He was a trader I have known for many rotations,” Devix murmured.“He lives on Rozun but he has connections off planet.”
“Okay,” she said slowly, waiting.
Devix’s lips tightened briefly but then he said, “I vowed to you on my vessel that I would try to find you passage to Earth, whatever it took, so that you might return to the home you were stolen from.To give you your choice back, which was taken from you.”
“Dev…” Cara trailed off.
