Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 77692 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77692 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
“And every time I’m in your presence,” I say. “I’ll make sure to remind you of how much I owned your body just now.”
“Never.”
I only smirk.
“I will go get us a meal. I would say I hope you’ll be here when I get back, but well, I know you will.”
“Bastard!”
I slip out of the room and the door slides shut behind me. She bangs against it, calling me curse words I know and don’t know from the other side as I press my hand to the door so it won’t open for anyone but me. Then, I walk away, my mind already trying to figure out how to get another kiss from my mate.
And more. Much more.
SIX
Eating is the one thing I don’t make Halun force me to do, but we sit across from one another in his room with food between us in silence all the same. At least with the knee-high table and a selection of new food to contend with, there is lots for me to focus on besides Halun.
Not that it stops him from constantly watching me.
He finally got a translator into my ear, but that was after refusing to speak to me in anything but his language. While at first I didn’t really mind because at least then I couldn’t understand him, the incessant chatter got to be a little much.
I let him put the damn thing in my ear.
His first word once I did?
Ami. Mine, according to the translator.
I really don’t know what to do with him. Just because I can’t see a way off this ship now that we’ve exited Earth’s atmosphere doesn’t mean I’ll make this time with Halun very pleasant between us. Even if my only weapon currently is giving him as much silence as possible.
Besides, he did this.
It’s his fault.
“The globe berries are my favorite, too,” Halun says as I reach for the pink grape-shaped fruit with a taste similar to strawberries.
I’ve already eaten a few from the platter along with various other sliced, cubed, and whole options. Nobody with a sense of taste could deny that the fruit is fresher, crisper, and all around better than the options we humans are stuck with. Even the dark, pit-looking things that I was sure would have a raisin-y taste, considering the texture and shape, but no.
More like the closest thing to chocolate, if possible.
But better.
Moving from the fruit on the platter he came back with for us to the dried jerky meat on the other end, I meet Halun’s unflinching gaze with my own as I take a bite. Expecting it to be good as well, like the other finger-food-type options, it doesn’t fail to be amazing.
“I take it you don’t want me to point out that, out of the options I could have brought back, that, too, is my favorite,” Halun notes.
I just give him an exasperated look.
His very stare might send my pulse racing and get my chest tight in the best way, but he’s still the bastard that forced me onto this ship.
Good food won’t make me forget that.
“I sincerely hope the box of cat litter in the next room isn't the only thing you intend me to piss on,” I say after swallowing the food. Although, I have used it. Not like I had a choice when he hadn’t allowed me to leave the room.
Halun, reaching for slices of light blue melon, hesitates. “I am not sure what cat litter is, but you’ll find we Hallans don’t flush our waste into tanks underground using water.”
“You are not serious.”
Grinning wide, Halun replies, “Mate of mine—”
“Don’t start,” I warn.
He winks, one black eye disappearing as fast as it shows itself again, but that expression of his never falters and the intensity of how gorgeous he is when he’s enjoying himself is all the more apparent because of it. I hate that I have to avert my gaze just to keep from flushing with the heat that gathers low in my belly at his wink.
A wink!
“Mate of mine,” he drawls, holding a slice of melon high that he admires but doesn’t eat yet. “As I understand it, before the humans captured you, your father’s group and you hid in a man-made camp in the woods. And you are concerned about a box with sand that disappears when you press the black square on the wall?”
All at once, I want to kick the table holding the food between us at him for making a good point, but that seems a little petty, and I also want to know just how much information he gained about me.
Or do I?
“Well?” Halun asks the longer I stay silent.
Once again, I consider kicking the table and getting this entire farce over with. It’s much easier for me to sit here in silence picking at food when I can avoid staring contests with him that make me remember the weight of his body pinned against mine. Because his lingering gaze sizzles, he doesn’t even try to hide it, and that makes it harder for me to stop going back to that place and those thoughts.