“Oatmeal?” At his confused look, I remind him that he gave me his portion the other morning.
“Oh, yes. It was fine. At least oatmeal is edible. But oysters… my people would use oysters in warrior training to test the fortitude of our soldiers, to see if they could withstand torture under the hands of our enemies.”
I cackle at his over-the-top description. I love that I’m starting to see Ravok’s humor emerge.
Thankfully, I saved the chocolate-covered strawberries for last.
“So, these are… what did you call them? Aphrodisiacs? They will make you open to my advances? Then I will need you to eat a few more,” Ravok teases me, holding a strawberry by its stem for me to bite.
“I don’t need a strawberry for that.”
Ravok’s eyes blaze so bright at my words that I can see them through his dark sunglasses.
“I believe I am finished eating. Perhaps… you’d like to return to the cabin now?” The look on Ravok’s face says he’s hungry, just not for food.
“Yeah,” I reply, my voice sounding breathless and needy to my own ears. “We should get out of here.”
Ravok helps me gather our trash and throw it out on the way back to the car.
As we head across the park towards where we left the car, I tuck myself under Ravok’s arm, encircling his waist with my own. Under the soft glow of the moon and lampposts, I nestle as close as possible to Ravok. I inhale the night mingled with his scent. He smells like soap and a bit of salt – absolutely delicious.
I feel safe, strange, and wonderfully alive, all at once. A walk through a park has never felt this magical. I spot my car sitting alone in front of Harbor Home Tools when a man passes in front of us. Something about the man puts me on high alert before I even quite realize what I’m seeing. He is clad in a powder-blue polo shirt and jeans. He sorta looks like a young dad but there is something off. For some reason, he seems out of place.
He walks with a measured stride along the sidewalk, not talking to anyone and at a pace that says he has somewhere to be. It’s his demeanor that’s raising alarm bells in my head. He gives off the sensation of a man on a mission, walking ramrod straight in a measured stride, rather than someone enjoying the festivities. He sticks out like a sore thumb against the backdrop of laughter, brightly colored banners, and the townsfolk dressed in cheerful outfits.
“Ravok, wait,” I urgently whisper, nudging my towering alien. He complies immediately and we duck out of sight behind a thick tree.
As I watch him from our hidden spot, I notice that he seems to be scanning the area, his head on a swivel. He almost seems to be scanning the crowd. A chilling sensation washes over me. I am probably overreacting, but I’d rather be wrong and overly cautious than risk Ravok.
“He’s… uh… I don’t know, something’s off,” I murmur to Ravok. “His demeanor doesn’t match his clothes.” I know that sounds ridiculous, but my gut is screaming at me. I dart my gaze at Ravok briefly before returning my anxious attention to the black-haired man now melting into the festival crowd. Ravok has pulled down his sunglasses to give the man an assessing look.
Ravok’s luminous eyes are filled with questions as he turns back to me, his gaze intense but understanding. “No, you’re right, Leelee. Something about his bearing reminds me of some of your military people I have encountered.”
Relief flows out of me in a shaky sigh. I’m pleased that he trusts my judgment without question. We remain hunkered down in our hiding place, watching for several long minutes before quickly making our way to the car and back to the cabin.
I spend the whole drive back to the cabin with one eye on the road behind us, but we are the only car on the road at this time of night.
CHAPTER 45
Ravok
My ship has been fully operational for two days.
And yet, I continue the charade of working on my vessel rather than face the fact that my time with Leelee is coming to an end. I should’ve left days ago, but I linger, wanting to savor every moment with my Leelee.
Each night, with her in my arms as we lay in bed together, I vow to tell her the next day. However, each morning when she wakes, smiling at me so sweetly, I can’t force the words past my lips. I can’t say them knowing that they will wipe that happy look off her face. So, again, I silently vow that I’ll leave the next day. That I just need one more day.
I have a lifetime I need to fill with memories of her, after all.
My tool clinks against my ship’s hull. The sounds disguise my unnecessary fixes – I’m down to tightening bolts and nuts at this point. I fiddle with my navigation array, running yet another unnecessary diagnostic report. This ship is ready to traverse galaxies yet again, but I cannot bear the thought of flying away from the Earth and leaving Leelee behind.
I find myself consumed with thoughts of Leelee. Just this morning, we’d had another bout of incredible, intense sex and had been sprawled together on her mattress catching our breath. Leelee had sprawled across my chest, flushed and quivering from our shared passion, her eyes half-lidded and cheeks flushed a lovely pink. I had frozen in shock and trepidation when she had started to trail her fingers down the scar marring my sternum. She ran her fingers slowly over the worst of my scars, given to me by her people. I stiffened, filled with a warrior’s shame of my failure to stop my captors, but when I looked at Leelee’s face, it had shone with understanding and compassion. Then Leelee had pressed her lips so softly against the scar.
Then she slowly kissed each and every one of my scars, somehow washing away any lingering shame I’d felt about the scars like a balm.
Never has anyone shown such tenderness and understanding.
Shaking away the distracting, enticing memories, I step inside my ship, double-checking that no messages were sent to me from my people. The screen displays nothing – as expected. My home planet would only contact me if my directive had changed, and I cannot imagine a situation in which it would.
I now solidly reject the duty I had once vowed before my peers – to serve my species by expanding the Cryzor’s reach past our galaxy. My lifelong mission has been erased, and only pure determination is left. Now, my sacred duty is to keep my sweet Leelee safe.
I have been thinking about the cautionary tales of other Outriders’ failures to complete their missions and how ‘space sickness’ caused them to desert their duties, and I have wondered… Did those males truly go insane under the pressure and isolation, or, like me, had they discovered the folly of our people? Perhaps other Cryzorians have found their true selves on other strange planets filled with strange but lovely species. I hold it as a hope in my heart that they did.
From the corner of my eyes, through one of the several windows that face the cabin, I spot Leelee emerging from the back door and heading my way. I hear her call my name in an excited tone. A thrill courses through me at the sound of her voice. I drop my scanner on a workbench, forgotten before it even touches the wooden surface, and hurry toward the door to greet Leelee.
The sight of her, flushed with excitement and with that irresistible smile aimed my way, makes my heart pulse with a strange and fantastic rhythm. When we reach the doorway at the same time, I scoop her into my arms. She squeals and laughs as I swing her around.
“Ravok!” Leelee exclaims, her voice breathless and filled with giggles and joy. “Oh my gosh, put me down!”
I kiss her smiling lips briefly before I loosen my grip and gently lower her to her feet. “Leelee…” My voice trails off into the still air, and I consider whether she’d be interested in joining me in bed for a bit. But then I remember that she’d seemed to have a purpose when she came out here. “Do you need something, Leelee?”
“Oh! Oh, yeah. You distracted me,” Leelee accuses in a playful voice. She’s got this energy about her that I adore. “I just remembered that today is the last day of the spring love festival they’re having in town. Koko said that everyone dresses up in costumes. Sooo, I thought maybe we could go and have some fun.”
“What kind of costumes?”
“Probably every kind of costume. I have some clothes I could repurpose to make me look like a pirate. And for you… I have a couple of ideas. There are some comic book characters that resemble you a bit, so we might be able to play into that. There’s the Silver Surfer or maybe even the Terminator. I can show you what they look like on my computer.”
