Again, she caught his hand and Khiva’s eyes flashed up to hers. Evelyn licked her lips and then after a brief moment of hesitation brought his hand up to kiss the very center of his palm.
Khiva froze. That feeling that he’d had last time he’d seen her…created when she’d stroked down his back returned full force.
And he’d realized what it was…affection.
Something he hadn’t felt in over ten Earth years. He’d forgotten the sensation.
“Don’t take this the wrong way,” Evelyn said softly, “but I don’t want to have sex with you tonight. I didn’t come here for that.”
His world stilled. Khiva’s brow furrowed. “Kruvu?”
“I just came to…to see you,” she said softly. “I came to find out if I hadn’t just…made it all up in my mind.”
Khiva didn’t know how to react, so he didn’t speak. At least not immediately. It was a difficult concept for him to wrap his thoughts around, considering that human females came to him specifically for sex. Evelyn, originally, had come to him specifically for sex. And for that constant to be erased away…it jarred him more than he thought it would.
“Is that a problem?” Evelyn asked softly, when he failed to answer, and he realized that her body had stiffened slightly. “Should I…go?”
“Veki,” he growled, panic flooding him at her words, his hand unconsciously holding her in place when he felt her muscles tense to move. Softening his tone, he said, “Veki. You are…you always seem to be surprising me too.”
Like when she’d told him she was untried…a virgin, come to a Krave to experience sex for the first time.
“Forgive me,” he murmured, pulling her closer.
“There’s nothing to forgive, Khiva,” she said softly back. “I’d imagine it’s an odd request.”
“You truly do not wish to mate tonight?” he asked slowly. Truthfully, he didn’t know how to feel about that. “Was it painful for you last time? Did you not like it?”
“No, of course I liked it, Khiva,” Evelyn said, frowning. Then she sighed softly, turning on her side so that they faced each other. “Morethan liked it. It’s just hard to explain.”
“Try,” he urged.
Evelyn’s gaze dropped to his chest, absentmindedly smoothing her thumb over his palm. When she finally spoke, she said, “My father was a merchant.”
Khiva trilled in agreement, remembering her speak briefly of him. But what did her father have to do with her visiting him? “Pax,you said he traveled the Quadrants often. He used Keriv’i firestones.”
She nodded. “He was wealthy, he was good at what he did, and he was trusted. And because of it he gave me a nice, comfortable life here on Everton. Then one day, I received news that his vessel had been lost. Destroyed in an unpredictable meteor storm. All the crew were presumed dead, along with my father.”
Khiva’s chest tightened and he squeezed her hand. “How old were you?”
“It was four years ago. I was 21. Even though he was never found, I feel it…I feel it with every part of me that he is truly gone from this universe and has passed into the next. We were very close. He was all I had for a long time.”
Khiva let out a trill, wanting to comfort her, but knowing that death, across all races and species, was a difficult loss, a pain that was never quite mended.
“He left me my inheritance credits, all of his Old Earth collections, vessels, and the townhouse that we shared in the Garden District,” she told him.
In the back of his mind, Khiva had wondered how Evelyn paid for Madame Allegria’s steep price, though it had been none of his business and he’d learned early on in Everton that credits were a sensitive subject to most humans. He knew most of his clients lived in the Garden District. It was the wealthiest of living spaces in Everton.
“I had never touched any of it,” Evelyn told him, looking up at him. Her words surprised him. “To me, it still remained his. His hard work, though he’d left it for me so that I wouldn’t have to ever worry about credits or a home once I retired from my shop job, so that I would never have to feel the pressure to marry, to let a husband provide for me. He gave me that freedom, his last gift. Even when I came to you, the first two times, I’d used my own credits.”
Realization was beginning to dawn on Khiva.
“But to see you tonight, for the first time, I had to use his,” she finished.
Khiva went quiet for a brief moment and then commented softly, “You feel guilt for this.”
Evelyn shook her head. “Not guilt. I don’t want you to think that I feel guilty seeing you, like you’re a secret I’m trying to keep. Iwantedto see you again, so much, but I’ve struggled with the decision, knowing that if I continued to see you, I would have to use my inheritance credits for the first time since my father died.
“And to complicate matters…” she continued softly, trailing off before admitting, “I did not know if you truly even wanted to see me again.”
