Chapter Eighteen

 

Jerik swept the dishes off the table, pulled Medora onto it and ripped the fabric of her dress down the middle. She wore black lace—a vixen’s design on a virginal maiden, and he growled with desire. He wiped his eyes to destroy the vision, and instead calmed the beating of his heart. She ate his food with small bites and soft smiles in his direction. She didn’t look at him with pity after his revelation. Only compassion. How many children had died to her? And yet she took on life with smiles and yellow dresses. She kept the treasures and remembrances of those painful moments within arm’s reach in her home. At any moment she could reach out and touch the memory of someone who had died. And bring them back to her in that moment.

The fragrant herbs and seasonings of his dish dissipated in his mouth. Instead he smelled Easter lily and tasted it on his tongue.

“You’ve dated men.” He stated.

“Yes, several.”

He startled at the jealousy that sprang awake in his chest. He’d never experienced it before. Men and women, they were all delights for his body to enjoy. If they left him to enjoy others, so be it. There were always more after them.

“You never slept with them?”

She laughed. “Of course not!” She shook her head and sipped her Coca Cola, smiling as it went down. “What, did you think I lied to you, so you would leave me alone?”

“I have a hard time believing they didn’t try to press their advantage.”

“They did, to an extent.” She shrugged, though on her it was a graceful gesture. “Daddy knows powerful people. It was better for everyone involved if they kept their hands to themselves.”

“You never wanted to marry any of them?”

Again, she laughed. “No. They were all too predictable. Too polite and careful.”

“You like impolite and dangerous.”

She blushed. “It seems I do.”

Jerik smiled. The wicked smile. The one that made her heart beat double-time; he could hear it. The one that spiked the aroma of her arousal in his nose. “What would make this engagement real to you?”

She snapped her mouth shut. Shook her head. “You said we didn’t have to talk about heavy things now.”

“I want to know.”

She looked at him, seeming to search his face for something. A part of her surrendered. “You shared something very personal with me. I will never forget that you trusted me with that.” She looked down at her plate and fiddled with the food. “I have been waiting to fall in love. Do the Krinar not have love matches?”

Jerik pressed his lips together. “Love comes and goes,” he offered. “I did love my mate, after a fashion.”

“After a fashion?”

“Clearly it wasn’t enough to make her want to stay,” he said in clipped tones and stood up. He gathered his dishes and walked to the galley kitchen. Medora made him say things—no, he chose to tell Medora things he hadn’t thought about in centuries. In millennia. “Love is important to you?”

“Oh yes. My parents were deeply in love with each other,” she said with a smile. She cleared her own dishes and brought them over. “I’ve seen something special in my work with Humans with Heart.”

“Tell me.” He would never tire of hearing her talk to him. About anything.

“The families are so together,” she explained. “It’s like the cancer galvanizes them. Fires them in a crucible so that they’re stronger together than they were before.”

“Really.”

“Yes, at least for that short time that I’m with them.” She sighed, and he smelled her mood change to something sad. “I can’t speak for after. Some families end up breaking apart. Maybe the cancer is a forged metal that brings them together, but death makes it brittle.” She gave a humorless laugh. “I don’t know. Daddy and I had a hard time after mother died. But we made it.” She looked up at him with those dark eyes. Eyes he could dive into and never touch the bottom. “Your mate and your baby. It was brittle for you, too.”

He inhaled sharply. She was peeling him, layer by layer. Revealing secrets he didn’t know he possessed. Pain that hid for so long he thought it didn’t exist.

“You need to leave,” he said in a low voice. “Now.”

She looked like he slapped her. “But why?”

“You’ve stripped me bare, Medora,” his voice broke on her name. He gripped the edge of the counter and closed his eyes. “I can’t escape from your wiles. I want to fuck you now more than ever.” He slipped his hand into his pocket and gave her a nano-device. His voice turned husky with desire. “Push this here. I programmed it to go to your apartment. Leave me.”

He glanced at her stricken face, saw decisions skating by in her eyes. A part of him, alright, his dick, grew hopeful. But in the end, she accepted the device and nodded, then disappeared into the portal.