The human grit her small, flat teeth, her bottom lip turning over and downward. “Does the meat taste okay at least?”
With some hesitation, he took a morsel of the braised meat and brought it to his lips.
A burst of flavor spread across his tongue and he almost choked on the food, trying to hide his reaction.
What was bad was the human’s expectant look as she watched him chew.
“It’s…edible,” he ended up saying. She didn’t need to know just how delicious it tasted.
It sure as phek beat eating rock cakes and washing them down with Xurli.
Accepting his answer, the human smiled a little and settled in the seat across from him.
Eyes on her, he brought some of the rai to his mouth and fought to keep his expression cool.
It tasted good enough for him to finish an entire bowl and that was surprising. Not only did he hate rai, but he’d never met anyone who boiled rai.
Rai was usually popped in the high-temperature tube.
Clearing his throat, he swallowed the food as discreetly as he could.
He must try not to look too eager and give the female any ideas.
If this was a ploy to get him to change his mind about her leaving, she wasn’t going to be successful.
No matter how good her cooking tasted…
Or how much it reminded him that something was missing in his life.
They ate in silence with Grot at their feet underneath the table.
Well, he mostly ate.
She mostly picked at her meat, glancing at him every now and then and it was obvious something was on her mind.
“What is it?” it came out a bit more gruff than he’d intended.
She looked down and her long lashes fanned over her pale cheeks. Raising a hand, she rubbed her neck absentmindedly and he followed the motion, unable to look away from the way her fingers brushed over her pale skin.
Her skin looked so soft…it was soft.
Back at the exchange, when he’d held her, he’d felt her softness.
He’d just forced himself not to pay attention to it.
Now, though…
Now, he allowed himself the moment to look.
He may not like people, females…but that didn’t mean he found them unattractive.
And this female…
The plain face, the pale skin, the delicate limbs attached to the soft, curvy frame… She had no outwardly offensive features and looked like she’d be a good fit with several species he could think of off the top of his head—the Merkannians, the Plixians, the Drori, the Nuva and even his race, the Merssi.
His gaze moved over her face and fastened on her lips. It was her second most striking feature, her eyes being the first.
“Do you like it?”
Her question caught him off guard and he almost choked again on a spoonful of rai.
“Like what?”
“The food. Did you like it?”
Oh.
For a second there he thought she was asking…
He looked down at his food. He’d finished the entire bowl.
“It tasted…okay.”
A small, almost imperceptible smile graced her lips.
“It was nice to cook. The last time I cooked was when I was back on Earth.”
Earth. Such a strange name for a planet.
Her eyes focused on nothing as she thought about her home world. He bet it was a wonderful place, free from all the things that made his world so phekked up.
She didn’t belong on this side of the phekked up universe.
“What are you doing here?”
She blinked at him, a slight frown crossing her face. “You say it as if I just got on a shuttle and left.” Her brown gaze got hard. “Do you really think I’d willingly leave my planet to hop into a zoo so I could be stared at by aliens?”
Riv shrugged. “Some beings have weird fetishes.”
As she glared at him, he almost smiled.
Almost.
He was riling her up, but it was no laughing matter.
“I know you were taken. You said so.” He rested his hands on the table and studied her.
When she cast a wary glance his way, he knew there was something she wanted to say.
What now?
The more she looked at him, the more he knew he didn’t want to talk about whatever she was going to bring up.
Distract her.
“You…” he cleared his throat. “…you cleaned.”
Her face suddenly lightened and she glanced around the room.
“Yea, I…I hope you don’t mind. I just thought…” She trailed off.
Even sitting at a chair behind the table, he could see she was wringing her hands in the new trousers she now wore.
Her top was a long-sleeved tunic and it bothered him that he was noticing such a thing.
“You thought what?” He scowled and she seemed to stiffen.
“You’ve been very kind to me. I didn’t want you to think I didn’t appreciate that. I can help around here, you know. In fact,” her small chin rose and he realized she was exerting some sort of challenge, “I intend to. I don’t know much about tending to animals, but I can learn. My grandfather had a farm back in Texas…has a farm…” She trailed off again, thoughts clouding her eyes.
Riv resisted the urge to growl at her.
This wasn’t a permanent situation.
Right. He needed to nip this in the phekking bud before it got out of hand.
“I don’t need your help. You’re not staying for long, remember? In this, you have no choice.”
Her shoulders stiffened some more, her eyes turning to slits as she regarded him.
As they glared at each other, he got the distinct impression that she heard his words but that didn’t mean she was going to listen to them.
“I know you don’t want me here. You’ve made that very clear.” She leaned forward, her gaze never leaving his and Riv had to raise an eyebrow.
“I know you’ll kick me out soon. I know it isn’t my choice.” She spat the word and if it could materialize, he felt it would have smacked him right across the face.
Crossing her arms, she pushed her chair back. “But until then, until I find my place in this messed up world, I refuse to be a burden.”
“Fine.”
Her eyes widened a little, her stiffened
