She looked at him, puzzled.
“What did you just say?” she asked.
Now it was his turn to look confused. “Ming rang novar flin jabjab?” he said, or something like that.
She tapped her ear. She couldn’t understand a word that he was saying.
He looked at her in confusion.
She frowned at him. “Seriously, is this a trick?”
He answered with gibberish.
She threw up her hands in exasperation. She’d never seen so many machines glitch at the same time.
Jaspar shrugged and smiled at her. He made a heart shape with his hands and then pointed at her.
Liza tried not to smile back. This was serious, damn it.
But the snow was falling so fast that they could barely see, and Jaspar grabbed her hand, yelled out alien gibberish, and tugged her towards the bungalow.
She followed along behind him, blinking hard and trying to see. Then she tripped and almost fell to her knees, and Jaspar caught her.
He scooped her up in his arms, and she squirmed in protest. “I can walk!” she yelled into the howling wind.
“Glar jib jab! Ragnar mignar!” he yelled back, his arms tightening around her, and walked through the blinding snow.
She could feel his muscles bunching, and his broad chest was warm and solid. She stopped struggling and buried her face in his shoulder as he walked.
When they stopped at the front door, he set her down, paused and pointed up at the sky. She could barely make out the stars in the swirling snow. He gestured at the sky, seemingly trying to tell her something.
“Mar glarvab larvar,” he informed her solemnly, and bent and kissed her.
This time, she rose on her tiptoes to meet him, linking her hands at the nape of his neck and moaning at the ache between her thighs as he wrapped his muscular arm around her waist and crushed her to him, almost pulling her off her feet again.
As she parted her lips, he growled with satisfaction and slid his tongue against hers, flicking and tasting. She realized her breathing was fast and shallow, and she followed his lips breathlessly as he withdrew and regarded her through eyes made heavy-lidded with lust.
He dipped his head again and firmly, sweetly, he licked her lower lip, an agonizing promise ofnot yet…but soon.
Then he slowly pulled away and opened the door and walked inside.
The suites at the Suisse Chalet had the same alpine aesthetic as the restaurant itself, but here it was even more obvious that the décor had been chosen for luxury as well as charm. Rustic-looking cabinets opened to reveal a top-of-the-range holoscreen and an absurdly well-stocked minibar. The wine list even included vintages from Terra 1, back when it had still been possible to grow anything on humanity’s home planet. The prices made Liza blanch, and she hastily stuffed the list back in the minibar and closed the door. The enormous bed, its posts of elaborately carved blond wood, was as soft and deep as a cloud. She shivered, reluctantly deciding that it would be bad form to crawl underneath the hand-sewn patchwork quilt – wet, muddy shoes and all.
Jaspar said something else incomprehensible, hurried into the bathroom, and came out with a towel.
He began toweling her snow-soaked hair, while speaking to her in his own language.
She looked up at him. “Can you still not understand me? Good. I really, really want to have sex with you. For days. Forever. But I have no idea what my future holds, and also I’m still afraid to trust you.”
Jaspar answered her with more gibberish and stroked the side of her face gently with his hand. Arousal washed over her in a red-hot wave, and she stifled a whimper.
“Furthermore, when you touch me, it’s all I can do not to jump on you and wrap my legs around you,” she said, staring up into his eyes. “Thank God you can’t understand me. I’d die of humiliation.”
Jaspar swept her up in his arms, eyes burning with desire, and carried her to the enormous bed. And after that, they didn’t need any words.
