His gaze ran over her. “And I am admiring your form as well.”
“Do you like it?” she asked.
“I do. You are both a shadow and a light. It is quite appealing.” He took a few steps closer to the pool’s edge.
“You’re a poet,” she replied.
“No,” he said. “Just an observer.”
“Most poets start out as observers.”
“We do not study such things,” Wrathin said. “We choose to invest our time in more practical matters.”
“I would say that not knowing the art of a people is a true loss of knowledge. For in art, whether it be poems, stories, painting, or sculpture, you see who the people want to be. And who they are.”
“Do you see me?”
“I see lots of things,” Veta said, her gaze wandering over his body.
He stepped closer, encouraged by the way she studied him, and the expression of satisfaction on her face. “Would you like to seeallof me?”
She raised her eyebrow, a smile on her face. “I—” Her brow furrowed, and her expression suddenly somber. “What, exactly, are your program protocols for this mission?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Because you have offered me anything I needed since landing here. You have cared for me, made sure I was given medical assistance. And I don’t know what you did, but I feel better than I have in years. Things that usually ached and clicked don’t anymore. So, it seems that whatever you dosed me with, is working.”
That was good to note, Wrathin thought. “Nano technology is caring for your internal systems. Repairing damage to your body’s cells. They will continue to do so until removed or until you can no longer be repaired.”
She smiled as if she finally understood something. “That’s how your people don’t seem to die. It repairs you from the inside.”
“We die,” Wrathin said. “Far too many of us have died already for this war.”
“On the Terran side as well,” Veta said. “That’s why we’re here. Why the Ambassador is here. To see if we can stop this fighting.”
He nodded. “Hence, my protocol. I am to give you everything you need until I turn you over to the negotiations. Whatever it takes to help you survive, I will do. If you require me to also entertain you, I will.”
She smiled. “And how would you entertain me? More poetry?”
“However, you need, I suppose.”
A smile spread over her face. “And if, oh, I said I wanted to see you naked?”
He touched his wrist, and his suit recoiled back into its lysteel components to reveal him naked.
Veta licked her lips. The expression on her face, the way she looked at him, he felt his member get harder and start to swell.
“I didn’t expect you to strip naked,” she said.
“You asked. Do you not approve?”
“I approve,” she said. “Oh, boy, do I approve.” Her gaze met his. Desire pooled in her expression, and it fueled his own Craving.
Then she stood in the pool
Every curve of hers was visible. The way her hip curved into her leg, how her waist was small in the center, and then went up into the curves where her breasts met her body. The symmetry of it was beautiful.
She was beautiful.
