Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 101280 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101280 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
I knew by those looks what the three of them were planning to do—they were going to Bond all over again and strengthen their connection. It made me so damn jealous I could hardly stand it! If only I could Bond Natalie to me, I wouldn’t have to wonder what she was thinking or how she felt about the two of us staying together. I would know. I would have a piece of her soul and she would have a piece of mine. That was what I wanted—what Rylee and Drace and Lucian had.
But I knew I would never have it.
Still, even without a Bond, I wanted to be with Natalie. Did she feel the same? I waited anxiously to see if she would leave the table and accompany her cousin and her cousin’s mates to the other ship.
But she remained sitting, staring pensively at her half-eaten slice of “peeza,” as if she didn’t like it.
Perosnally, I thought that the Earth food was pretty damn tasty, though I had never heard of it before Rylee had used my food replicator to make it. There was a sweet dessert too—a pastry made with spices and rolled up into layers before it was baked into a kind of bun—Natalie had eaten a few bites of hers but nothing more. I had eaten two myself—they were good, filled with a sweet, spicy paste I liked. They were called “sinning” rolls, though I couldn’t see anything especially wicked or sinful about them.
“Well, thanks again for dinner and have a good night,” Rylee said, as she and her mates made their way to the umbilical hatch. “Um, give me a call tomorrow, Cuz and let me know how things are going,” she added, hovering in the hatchway. “We’ll be hanging around here for a little while longer, establishing diplomatic relations for the Goddess Empress.”
“Sure. I’ll, um, let you know how it goes.” Natalie gave her cousin a half-hearted smile and a nod. She seemed troubled by something, but I didn’t know what exactly. Had she decided to leave me and she was worried that I would be upset? Was that what the cryptic exchange meant?
I wished I fucking knew, but of course, I couldn’t come right out and ask. So I just nodded good night to our guests and waited until they were safely through the umbilical and back in their own ship. Then I sealed the hatch and cut the connection between us, allowing our ships to fly free of each other.
I turned to Natalie, who was already clearing the broad, plasti-wood dining table and putting the plates along with the remains of the dinner into the recycling shoot.
“It was nice to share a meal with your kinswoman and her mates,” I said to her, hoping to draw her into conversation. “Drace and Lucian seem like solid males—they treat your cousin right.”
“Yes, they all seem really close,” Natalie remarked, nodding. “I never would have dreamed that Rylee could fall for two guys at once, but she seems really happy.”
“That’s how it is with Denarins,” I told her. “The males have to share a mate.”
“Yes, that’s what Rylee said.” She nodded and picked up the dessert plate.
“Wait—don’t throw those away,” I exclaimed, when she headed for the recycling chute. “I really like those sinning rolls—I might want another later on.”
Natalie’s face broke into a smile.
“Uh, ‘sinning’ rolls?” she asked, gesturing at the plate with its three remaining pastries sitting in a lake of sticky sweet stuff.
I frowned.
“Isn’t that what they’re called?”
“I suppose you could call them that, since they’re so fattening it’s almost a sin to eat them,” she said, grinning. “But no—they’re called cinnamon rolls—after the spice used in the filling. You know?”
“Oh. Cin-na-mon,” I said, copying her pronunciation carefully. “Okay, I guess I’ll have to remember that. And now that the recipe is in my food replicator, maybe I’ll make them sometime to remember you by,” I added, hoping to poke her into saying how she felt about the idea of leaving…or staying.
Natalie dropped her eyes and nibbled her lower lip.
“Oh,” she murmured. “That would be nice, I guess.”
“Yeah…nice,” I echoed, wishing like hell I could just ask her right out if she wanted to stay with me or not. “They’re good—though that sticky stuff on top of them is really sweet.”
Natalie raised her eyes and lifted her chin. She gave me an unreadable look, though for just a second, I thought I saw determination flash in her lovely brown eyes.
“The sticky stuff?” she said. “You mean the glaze?” Idly, she dipped one finger in the sticky sweetness and spread some of it on her full, lush lips.
Damn! I followed her actions with my eyes, feeling my cock begin to harden.
“Yeah…the glaze,” I muttered, watching as she spread it over her mouth.
“Well maybe you’d like another taste of it?” Natalie asked, looking up at me through her long, thick lashes. “I mean, just to remember me by.”