I scowled at him. “Quit that. What’s so funny?”
When Cav didn’t answer, I rolled my eyes and walked away from his laughter.
“Hey, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” He caught up with me again and fell into step beside me. “It’s just that human women are not made the way we are. They don’t have the inborn sense of what man would be perfect for them.”
I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye. “I’m not sure I believe you. I have read some of their literature. There are all sorts of stories about human women falling in love at first sight.”
“Have you noticed how many of those end up with one or both of the couple dead?” Cav countered. “I mean, have you seen any of the vids of Romeo and Juliet? That’s supposedly one of their great love stories, and everyone involved in that little love affair ends up dead from either stabbing or poison.” He snorted. “Does that sound like a culture that believes in the ability of humans to choose their own partners wisely?”
I had to snicker. “Maybe not. But we have been together for days now. She should have learned something about who I am in that time.”
“You mean in all those days together when first, she couldn’t understand a single word you said, and you were sick and dying?”
This time, I was the one who stopped in the middle of the path. “You know, I didn’t necessarily want someone to challenge me right now.”
“Oh. So you were looking for—what? Commiseration?”
The corner of my mouth twitched up. “Maybe.”
Cav slapped me on the back. “Sorry, my brother. You will not get that from me. Remember, you have chosen a female from a completely different planet as your mate. You cannot expect her to abide by anything resembling logical rules.”
I grunted something that might have been a sound of agreement.
“Besides, you told me you like a challenge.”
I cut my eyes toward him. “Says the warrior who chose the human female who said she wished she had thought to run.”
“Somehow, that doesn’t cut very deep coming from the male who went after the female who actually did run.”
We walked along in silence for a bit longer.
“You know,” Cav said contemplatively, “even human males complain about their females being overly emotional.”
And if she’s emotional now…
I groaned aloud, stopping in the middle of the path and dropping my head into my hands.
“What?” Cav asked.
“I have done something really, really stupid,” I admitted. “Something that, if Amelia finds out about it, might be an even bigger obstacle to us mating than her running away from the Bride Lottery in the first place.”
Cav frowned at me. “What could you have done that would be that bad?”
“So, back there on Earth, while we were in the hotel…” I paused, my stomach clenching at the thought of saying the next words out loud.
Cav waited patiently for several seconds, before finally prompting me. “What happened?”
“It was after I had been ill but before you got there. She took me into the lav. We got into the sanicleanse together. And then…” My voice trailed off.
“Are you trying to tell me you fucked her?” My friend fought to keep from smiling.
“Well, yes. But that’s not all. After I came,” I paused, inhaling deeply to try to draw in the courage to say the rest of it.
Comprehension began dawning on Cav’s face. His voice dropped to a horrified whisper. “Your mating cock?”
I nodded, feeling the heat of a blush turning my cheeks from their normal bright pink to something closer to Commander Gendovi’s color.
Cav’s eyes grew wide as he stared at me. “Please tell me she knew what was going on.”
I shook my head mutely.
“Oh, warrior brother of mine. You have stepped in a flaming pile of etav droppings.”
“I know,” I agreed miserably.
We turned off onto a side path, heading deeper into the garden.
“You know you have to tell her, right?” Cav stopped, stepping in front of me to look me in the eyes. “And before she makes any kind of final decision.”
“I know.”
Cav back into step with me, his brow furrowed. “However, telling her might not be as bad as you fear.”
“What do you mean?” For the first time since I had accepted what I’d done, hope flared in my chest.
“Human physiology is not like ours. Their females don’t respond to mating cock the same way that a Khanavai female would. A human woman isn’t bonded to you the way you are to her.”
“I already knew that.”
“But think about it. Because it’s not something that happens to them—at least, not on the same level and to the same degree as it would have with one of our own kind—there is not a taboo around it in human culture as there is on Khanav Prime.”
“That’s true.” Maybe things weren’t looking quite so bleak, after all.
“In fact, Natalie didn’t even know about the mating cock until we were together. She had never heard of it.”
I flashed a shocked glance at him. “What? Are you sure? Is that something that our government has been hiding from the humans?”
Cav shrugged, “I’m not sure that they have been hiding it, so much as not talking about it.”
“Why wouldn’t they tell humans about it?”
“I think it might be something that is such a given on our world that it never really occurs to us to discuss it. So maybe it never occurred to our government to consider it important information.”
“That’s…possible.” And it was considered such a personal, private matter between mated pairs that the only time conversation about mating cocks came up was between couples who were mated to one another. And of course, in our sexual education courses—where we were taught at a young age that sex was natural and normal, but that the mating cock was to be reserved for one’s true mate—a rule that was easy enough to abide by, since one’s mating cock only made an appearance in the presence of that mate.
I shook
