“Except that his parents decided not to go at the last minute, supposedly to give us time alone—personally, I believe they don’t care one whit about it either way—but my mother came along with us as a chaperone.” She rolled her eyes. “As if I needed one with him.” She sent him a scandalous look. “I didn’t, by the way.” She’d never even kissed Dirt Bag, let alone any of the delicious and wonderful things that had happened last night…and again this morning with Cam.
“Really?” His sexy half-smile made her weak.
“Yes. Really. From my perspective, we don’t suit. At. All.”
“Tell me more about this man you’re supposed to marry.”
“No. Not a good idea.”
His brows curved up. “Why not?”
She shrugged. “Why do you need to know?”
That super desirable and now very familiar lopsided half-smile returned. “How else am I going to be able to compare myself to him and improve my chances?”
“I call him Dirt Bag FitzOsbern instead of Douglass Barnard FitzOsbern. What does that tell you?”
His smile deepened. “Ooh. Of the Elite Alpha-Prime Technician Class FitzOsberns, I presume?”
Ria stiffened and then scrambled off his lap. “How did you knowthat? Do you know them?”
That would be just her luck, to fall for a guy who was related to the dirt bag she was supposed to marry. Wouldn’t that make all future family reunions interesting? She could practically hear her future mother-in-law say, “And here’s our cousin Cam. I understand Ria already knows him of course…in the biblical sense.” She’d read that phrase and definition in a book on Earther culture when she couldn’t wait to know an earthling “in the biblical sense.” She thought she’d accomplished that last night—and this morning. However, Cam wasn’t an earthling and now she didn’t want anyone else. She mentally crossed out earthling on her Earth trip to-do list, wrote Earther, and then mentally crossed that out, too.
He shook his head. “I don’t know them, but your mother mentioned it.”
The fake future family reunion fantasy evaporated. “Of course she did. She’s very proud to be nearly associated with the FitzOsbern family.” She frowned. “Wait a minute. You spoke to her? My mother?”
Cam nodded as he moved to put some distance between them. He still sat on the bed, but with one leg bent at the knee and one foot on the floor. Ria leaned her back against the headboard to face him. They weren’t touching, which she thought was a shame.
“Was she upset that I was missing?”
He nodded once more. “Come to think of it, she was also very concerned that Douglass Barnard FitzOsbern, a Technician’s son, by the way, was beside himself with worry. But he didn’t bother to leave the ship with your mother to look for you or express his concern in person.”
Ria rolled her eyes. “I doubt he was the least alarmed about my whereabouts. He didn’t pay much attention to me on the weeklong trip from Alpha-Prime to Earth. Without his parents present, he was even more horrible to me than usual and obviously not concerned about my mother’s opinion, either.”
“What did he do?”
“For starters, he made it clear he finds me a lesser candidate to take on the role of his wife. I’m not even in his class, you know. He then used that excuse to promptly ogle every female but me the entire time we were together. It’s well known that when he’s not in gaming halls, he’s spending time with every woman he stumbles across. He’s a total elitist, womanizing jerk. I’m better off without him.”
Cam narrowed his eyes. “Elitist, womanizing jerk?”
“Isn’t that the right Earther phrase?”
“Yes. And it’s inventive. How do you know it?”
Ria settled back against his padded headboard. “I studied up on Earth before making this trip.” Thanks to the little-known book of phrases and Earther meanings she’d tucked away for the trip.
“So…elitist, womanizing jerks, escaping a cruise liner without being caught and operational awareness of karaoke bars? What interesting study material you found for your journey.”
She laughed. “I read a great many things about Earth before I even got on the ship.”
“Was ‘How to Get an Earthling Into Bed’ one of your homework topics?”
She sobered and stared at him intently, willing him to believe it when she said, “Not exactly. It’s a good thing, too, since you aren’t an earthling.”
“You didn’t know that until now.”
“True, but I’ve also never felt about another the way I feel about you, whether Alpha or earthling, or Earther. I was drawn to you. There’s something about you—and only you—that makes me—” she paused, trying to find the right word. “Yearn. I yearn to know you better. You engage me. The moment I saw you, I wanted to talk to you. I wanted to learn everything about you.” She grinned. “I wanted to sing to you.”
