A slight frown crossed her features. “Why?”
“At times, you seem shy, hesitant. Other moments, you are not.”
“Oh,” she said softly. “I guess, I’ve always been a little shy. But…”
She trailed off and he shifted his body under her. “Pax?” he urged.
Evelyn met his eyes. Finally, she finished with, “But with you, I don’t want to be. You make me feel comfortable.”
Khiva remained quiet, but kept his hands on her. Her skin was impossibly soft and she had the most lush body he’d ever seen.
“Can I ask you a personal question,leeldra?”
He’d lived on Everton long enough to understand the human need for privacy, long enough to know that many preferred not to talk of intimate subjects.
But Evelyn nodded, so Khiva asked, “How is it that you are still untried?”
“Untried?” she asked, her small brows furrowing.
“A virgin,” he clarified, using the human term.
Evelyn’s eyes dropped briefly to Khiva’s throat, thinking over his question. Her lips parted, like she was on the verge of answering, but no words came out.
“You do not have to answer, female,” he said after a brief moment, giving her a pass.
“It’s not that I don’t want to answer you,” she replied. “It’s just that…it’s complicated. I guess it’s for a variety of reasons, not just a single one.”
“And what are those?” he asked, his head cocking to the side. He wanted to know more about her, about her life. It wasn’t something he was used to feeling with his clients, but he felt this compulsion to learn as much about her as possible, to learn as much as she would offer.
“The main reason is that I’m shy, as I’ve told you.” The corners of her brown eyes tilted upwards even though the lift of her smile was small. “Really shy. I find it hard to talk to people, to connect with them. And I always feel…lesser when I try to.”
Khiva frowned, making a disapproving sound in the back of his throat. “Why?”
Evelyn sighed. “I’ve always kept to myself, even when I was little. I was an outcast during my early years. I didn’t talk much, only really to my father…and so, my peers began to believe that I couldn’t talk at all, or that something was wrong with me. And children can be cruel when they sense a weakness.” Her eyes flickered away from his gaze for a brief moment. “My peers would try to taunt me into talking once they knew I could. It became a game to them, but I didn’t like the attention or how they would bully me into it. So, I didn’t talk to anyone except my father, for a long time. After a while, talking to anyone but him became something that frightened me.”
“You talk to me perfectly,” he murmured, his hands settling around her wide hips, pulling her closer into her body, his hearts thrumming restlessly at the childhood she described. A lonely one.
A flit of a smile passed over her lips. “I’ve gotten better. I had to. Eventually, I made a friend. Her name is Genni and she helped me because she’s the opposite of shy. I got a shop job, doing something I really enjoy, but one that requires me to speak to people everyday. It got easier. But still…I’m most comfortable in my home, alone. And well…it wouldn’t be very easy meeting a potential lover or husband there, now would it?”
“Veki,I suppose not.”
Evelyn continued after a brief moment of silence. “On Everton, it’s expected that women marry young. I’m only 25, but even I know that my time has passed for that kind of life.”
Softly, he said, “I confess that your culture confuses me often, Evelyn. Humans are very strange in regard to matehood and sex. There are species that are stranger,pax, but humans are singularly…repressive.”
She raised one brow. “How different is it for the Keriv’i?”
“Was, you mean. That part of our culture is long past.” Khiva’s fingers clenched into her hips and slowly, he said, “Even still, I see a beautiful female right at this moment, one who I wish to mate…and it is that simple.”
Even though Evelyn flushed, she whispered, “Is it that simple though? Because I think that some very non-simple situations led us both here. To this very moment.”
Khiva sobered. Then he said, “Pax. However, when we are together, it does not have to be anything but simple. Nothing and no one needs to penetrate these walls when we are here.”
Evelyn’s shoulders were tense, but they relaxed slightly at his words. Slowly, a small smile spread over her lips and she said quietly, “That’s true. I’d rather it be simple.”
Khiva pulled her closer, his hands straying around her hips to settle on the curves of her backside. Water trickled between them, the temperature still hot. Hot for a human, he knew, but cooler than his species preferred.
Evelyn’s eyes flashed to his as he said, “Shall I get the oil then?”
