She shook her head. “He died several years ago, leaving nothing for me to inherit, and therefore no funds for my mother to live comfortably on for the rest of her days. Hence, her big push for this arranged marriage.”
“I’m sorry about your father.” The sorrowful look he sent her way was sincere.
“Me, too. I miss him. He was always the buffer between me and my mother.”
“No siblings?”
“Nope, just me. What about you? How many siblings do you have?”
Cam’s eyebrows rose. “Lots. I have a large family.”
“How large?”
“Seven kids.”
“Really? All boys?”
“Six boys and one girl.”
A smile shaped her lips. “I’ll bet it was fun growing up in your house.”
“If you ask my mother, it was lively, that’s for certain.” He looked at the bedside clock. “I need to check who got on the cruise liner, since it obviously wasn’t you.”
She pushed out a long sigh and nodded. She should likely be concerned that the ship had left without her, but all she felt was total and utter relief. How long before her mother sought her out in her suite and found she wasn’t on board? Would she demand they turn the ship around? Would the captain do it and jeopardize everyone’s vacation plans because Ria had managed to miss the boat, literally?
If Dirt Bag discovered she’d stayed behind on Earth, would he even care? Or would he simply continue gawking at other women and flirting without her there to see him do it and try to lure them into bed since she wasn’t there to see him do that, either?
Ria didn’t have to think hard about the answer to that question. He might not have noticed her at all if her mother wasn’t there to constantly shove Ria directly into his personal space. It seemed as much as Ria didn’t want to marry him, her dirt bag intended didn’t want to marry her either.
Before departing Alpha-Prime, she’d overheard him tell one of his friends the pending wedding announcement and get-to-know-your-future-bride journey wouldn’t change much about the way he operated. He planned to do whatever he wanted up to the day he was chained in matrimony to a bride who was so much lower down the ladder from his own lofty place in Elite Alpha-Prime society. He didn’t like being forced into an arranged marriage, she’d heard him tell his friend. Therefore, he didn’t need to be true to the woman he married.
Dirt Bag was an enthusiastic snob, another Earther term she’d assigned him in her mind. The Earther term gold digger was likely the best way to describe how he thought about her. On Alpha-Prime, a rank rambler was someone on the prowl to increase their standing in the social stratosphere of Alpha-Prime.
Ria liked gold digger better. If a nasty term was going to be used to label her, she preferred the Earther one. The term rank rambler sent a shameful burning sensation directly into her chest every time she heard it.
“Hurry back,” she told Cam.
Ria’s new plan included another term she’d learned from her Earther reference book. Elopement.
Would Cam be willing to run away with her and let her stay on Earth?
Chapter Five
Cam knew he should go, but walked back to the bed, leaned down and kissed Ria’s mouth briefly. She seemed deep in thought until he kissed her. Any more engaging lip locks would result in too much time going by. He needed to leave. He needed to see if the cruise liner had departed and how it managed to leave without Ria.
He tried to stay on his original train of thought, but every kiss, touch, and look sidetracked him. Ria was like a drug in his system, a dangerous one. He was grateful she wasn’t enamored of the man she was supposed to marry. Not that it would change anything. Arranged marriages were difficult to escape or dismiss unless both parties agreed to sever the agreement.
Having met her mother, Cam knew the Governess would never willingly give up a Technician’s son in favor of a colony outpost security man, as she’d sneeringly called him.
Ria smiled, slid gracefully out of his bed and stretched like a feline after a long afternoon nap. His shirt definitely looked better on her.
“I’ll be back shortly,” Cam said and hurried out before he stayed and lost total track of time. Again. He hopped into his small SUV and drove the short distance to the Big Bang Truck Stop for the second time that day.
He passed Aunt Dixie’s home and resisted the urge to whisper an incantation to ward off evil spirits as he drove by. Cam shook his head, remembering the day she moved in. His aunt spent quite a lot of time working on schemes to earn money for an old folks’ home, a place she didn’t actually live most of the time.
Having his very eccentric aunt reside only a few doors down was always interesting. She’d been known to drop by unannounced. He figured she wanted to catch him with a girl and grill him about his marriage intentions. She’d spent a month raving to Diesel about free milk and cows when his older brother started dating Juliana.
