Safe to say my brain nearly short-circuited from sheer relief when the imposing form of my husband suddenly appeared under the large frame of the open door.
His chest was heaving, like he’d been running since he left. Hands flexing at his sides like he wasn’t sure what to do with them.Hold me, I thought.Hold me while we try to figure us out.
“You are not sleeping.” Not a question, but I shook my head anyway.
“You were gone,” I said. “I was worried.”
He took a careful step forward, his head tilting to the side in wonder before freezing, his foot just a couple of inches away from the first flower.
“What were you worried about?”
“What do you think?” I asked, my voice wavering. “That you’d be hurt? That you were so upset with me you didn’t want me anymore? That, maybe, you found your way to another woman’s bed? I don’t know, you name it, it has probably crossed my mind.”
Ghauro kneeled on the ground in front of me and delicately moved the flowers to the sides as he got closer.
“Do you not trust me?” I tried burying my face back in my arms but he didn’t let me, his hand cupping my jaw as he leaned forward to press his forehead against mine. “I am sorry I left,” he said. “My brain worked faster than my mouth and I was not sure what to tell you until my plan was clear enough.”
I shivered as his nose brushed against mine, inhaling deeply his now comforting scent, so similar to mine but still tinged with something that was wholly him.
“What plan?”
He pulled his head back a fraction, one corner of his lips curling in a joyful smile. “I needed to find a way for you to stay here. For your kin to not be…in danger of starving anymore.”
My eyes widened, jaw dropping in surprise. “What?”
Ghauro pulled me toward him and out of my bunched up position, placing my knees on each side of his thighs. One arm slid around my waist while his free hand cupped the back of my head, tilting my face to his.
“I went to meet with Maxwell,” he said and I gasped. “I asked him to bring your Granny here.”
He had to be joking. “What?” I repeated. “No…you didn’t—”
“You said she was sick because of your planet’s air. That she was alone. She would be thriving here…She could rest until her health improves, and then, if she wants to, join one of the elder’s farms.”
My grandmother?Here?
She had always dreamed of traveling to space. To find some place better to live in and to raise my father, then me when he died. But leaving Earth was more expensive than living on it…
“Ghauro…” I started. “I—you don’t realize how expensive it is to do something like this. I can’t afford—”
“Oh, no, no, no.Youwill not have to pay anything. Maxwell will.”
The joke was becoming ridiculous. “I doubt anyone could manage to convince him to pay for anything.”
His smile widened. “I may have threatened to tell all the others about the way the program had abducted you from your home world. To ensure his whole experiment would fail. Some of our species are reluctant to participate in this whole thing, so finding out their brides are not completely willing? They would back down.”
That was it. My husband was an evil genius in disguise.
“Are you…upset with me?” he asked.
“I—no. No, I don’t think so. I wish you’d told me before you left…but I’m not upset.” I circled his neck with both arms, searching his beautiful yellow-ish eyes. “Why did you do this for me?”
He blinked, eyes darting to my lips, between my eyes, the sparse freckles over my nose and cheeks. “Is it not obvious?” he asked, grabbing a discarded baraghu to slide it in my braid. “I love you. I do not want you to leave. You belong here, with me, in a world that will heal instead of kill you.”
“Ghauro…” I breathed out, my lips brushing against his. “I didn’twantto leave. I wanted to stay here. With you.”I reached blindly for the floor until I grasped the closest baraghu, and slowly lifted my hand to his hair. His gaze followed the motion until I pinned it in place, and as they set back on me, his eyes flared. “I love you too, you green softy.”
20
Mine to pleasure, mine to love, and mine to breed
