“Get off your knees!” Kendra tugged on Faron’s hand, all too aware that the camera bot was filming this embarrassing situation. What the hell was he doing? It looked like he was making a proposal of marriage.

“You must accept my apology.” His grip tightened on her hand.

“I don’t know what you’re going on about. You have nothing to apologize for. Please, get up.”

When his gaze met hers again, Kendra was shocked to see pain simmering behind those normally serious eyes. “It is my weakness. You are ashamed to be seen with me.”

“I’ve not seen any sign of weakness from you. You’re the size of an ox on steroids. You could crush me if you wanted to.”

He lowered his head. “I am bringing your family name into disrepute because you are entertaining me.”

“My family name? They won’t care who I go to dinner with.”

He looked up at her. “Is that true? Why do they have no care who you spend time with?”

Kendra sighed. “I’ll tell you but only if you get off your knee and sit back in your seat like a normal person. And tuck yourself away. I can see inside your thong.”

Faron grunted but moved back and sat in his own seat.

She glanced over to see the camera bot still hovering. Dammit, it had caught everything. Ivy would be having kittens. She’d be so thrilled with that bit of footage.

“Your family,” Faron said, “they do not care where your attention is focused when it comes to finding a suitable mate?”

Kendra played with her cutlery, taking a moment to line everything up. “My family is complicated.”

“Most are.”

“I mean to say, I don’t really know who they are.”

“Everyone knows their family.”

“Not everybody. I know a bit about my biological mom but nothing about my father.”

“He is dead?”

“Most likely. He might as well be. I’ve never met him.” A shiver of pain ran through Kendra. It still haunted her that she’d been given up so easily by her parents.

“What of your mother?”

“She’s a drunk and a drug addict. I was taken into care when I was six months old. I’ve had lots of temporary families since then. None stuck around for long.”

“You were an abandoned infant?” His gaze shifted over Kendra. “Because of deformities I cannot see?”

She sighed. “You’ve got to quit it with your obsession with deformities. It’s not cool. Difference isn’t a bad thing.”

He rested his cybernetic arm on the table. “Some think otherwise.”

“Then they’re idiots.” Anger flared in Kendra’s eyes. “If your family thinks you’re somehow less because you injured your arm, then that’s their problem. You’re fine as you are.”

His eyes tightened. “You do not understand my family.”

“Clearly not, but the way you get stressed when you talk about them, they seem like assholes. They didn’t lose a son when you had that accident.”

Faron grunted and sat in silence until their food arrived.

Kendra studied him as she picked up her fork. There was something about this mountain of an alien that intrigued her. Sure, he was gruff, rude, and straight to the point, but that was refreshing. He wasn’t trying to sweet talk her and tell her what he thought she wanted to hear.

Faron grabbed a chunk of steak with his fingers, tore it to pieces, and shoved a lump in his mouth.

Kendra grinned. “When you’ve finished devouring half a cow, why don’t you tell me more about your family?”

He swallowed his food and licked his fingers clean. “My family is the Tiket clan, one of the most high-ranking on my home planet. They have great status and wealth.”

Her eyes widened. “Hold on. I know your family name. They’re like royalty.”

He shrugged. “We don’t have royalty, but I understand your meaning. Until my accident, they were one of the most powerful families on the planet.”

“Powerful and ruthless if the rumors are to be believed,” Kendra said. “Didn’t they slaughter another family because they challenged their mining rights?”

“They did, as is to be expected when you receive such a challenge. To get a high-rank, you need a deadly instinct. My father has that.” Faron stroked a finger along his bare arm, an arm that was laced with old scars.

Kendra’s stomach tightened as she stared at the scars. “I assumed you got those during your work in the mines.”

“No, beatings from my father. It’s important to be taught logic and order.”

Kendra’s throat tightened, and she blinked tears from her eyes. “When did this discipline begin?”

“From a young age, as is deemed appropriate.”

Faron talked about being beaten like it was an everyday event. “Beating a child is never right. All that teaches is fear.”

He looked away as he chewed on more steak. “You wouldn’t understand.”

Kendra swallowed the sickness she felt. Their childhoods weren’t so different. It sounded like they’d both been disapproved of and forced to believe things that weren’t true in order to make others happy. She’d felt the hard slap of an uncaring foster parent more times than she cared to admit. And there had even been a beating that left her with a broken arm. The scars Faron wore showed he’d experienced a different level of beating. His family had tried to break him.

“If I have children, I’d never beat them,” Kendra said.

Faron shrugged. “Do you plan to have a large family?”

“One or two.”

“One or two dozen?”

She laughed. “I’m not sure I’m up for that challenge. Tolongs have large families, don’t they?”

“As big as we can. The bigger your family, the more power you receive. That is part of the reason my own family is so successful. They’re excellent breeders. With children comes wealth.”

“Yet you have no children of your own?”

His forehead furrowed. “I am not strictly a part of my family.”

“What does that mean? They can’t disown you.”

“They had every right to do so following my injury. I brought shame to the family name.”

Her gut tightened. Faron carried so much pain within him. He might not admit to it, but it simmered beneath the surface like a festering volcano that could explode at any time. “They should be ashamed. They should have supported you after you were injured, not considered you defective.”

“They are correct in their behavior. I am defective. With only one arm, how can I be a collector?”

“A collector of what?”

“My job in the mines was to discover cherry opals. I was one of the best.”

“You had to stop after your accident?”

“I had no choice. I needed time to recover and have my replacement arm fitted. After that, my place was gone, along with the wealth and my reputation. If I had died in that accident, my family would have been gifted that mine and everything in it as compensation for their loss. Their wealth would have tripled.”

“And all that needed to happen was for their son to die.” She snorted in disgust.

“They have other sons. Better sons.”

Kendra shook her head in disbelief at how casually Faron talked about his fall from favor. “So, you don’t get to work in a mine anymore. That’s hardly a bad thing. As you’ve discovered, it’s dangerous. There must be other work you can do.”

“Nothing that will bring the wealth my family expects. Besides, after the loss of my arm, no one would hire me. Not even for manual labor.”

“Let me guess. They considered you defective.” Kendra picked over the food, her appetite gone. Faron’s life on his home planet sounded terrible. She’d always considered herself hard done by being shoved into foster care, but it was a walk in the park compared to what he’d endured.

He nodded. “I am not whole.”

“You look whole to me.” She leaned closer. “Do you miss it?”

Faron tensed. “I miss my home planet. I miss the work.”

“Grubbing around underground in dangerous conditions? What’s to miss?”

“That’s an incorrect description of our mines. They’re ventilated, and the temperature is controlled. The majority of hard labor is done by machinery. We go in and assess the discoveries of the machines. It takes a trained eye to determine if a seam will be profitable or should be abandoned.”

“Oh, I’m thinking of mines on Earth. They weren’t so great.”

“You worked in a mine?”

She snorted a laugh. “Not likely. They’ve all been closed for years.”

Faron touched her hand, and she felt a spark jump between them. “No, your skin is too soft to have been exposed to such labor.”

Kendra pulled her hand away. She’d done her share of hard graft when growing up. Some of her placements had expected her to clean the house and do the laundry as part of the agreement to stay. She’d learned to be adaptable to survive.

She traced a finger over a long, thin scar on Faron’s arm. “Even if what happened to you is considered normal, that doesn’t mean it’s right. It shouldn’t have happened.”

“It is our way.”

Kendra shook her head. She needed Faron to know she cared about what happened to him, that somebody cared and saw it was wrong. Beneath that rough exterior he held onto so tightly, he must have the same feelings and desires as her. They’d both been hurt when young. Although she hated to admit it, she hid her feelings. She hid the way she felt when she saw happy couples, couples doting over their children and showing their love without condition. Kendra longed for that but would never admit to it.

She’d felt lonely for a long time.

“People can change,” Kendra said. “I know it’s tough, but we don’t have to let what happened in the past hold us back from doing what we want now.”

His gaze grew molten, and her stomach flipped over. “What is it you want to do?”

A hot flush crept up her neck and across her cheeks. “Since we’re here, why don’t we really get to know each other? The more I learn about you, the more I realize we’re not so different.”

Faron straightened in his seat. “We are very different.”

“Different but the same in some respects. I’d like to explore those similarities.”

Faron nodded, a smile playing across his lips. “As you desire.” He reached across the table, yanked her off her seat by the collar of her jumpsuit, and kissed her.

Kendra squeaked in surprise as his tongue found its way into her mouth. Oh stars, this guy knew how to kiss.

As much as she knew she should, she didn’t resist. The camera bot would be recording this. Kendra could imagine Ivy jumping up and down in delight. More footage to feed to the fans.

Faron’s hungry growl shoved all thoughts of Ivy from Kendra’s head. In that second, all she wanted was to experience this mind-blowing kiss. She’d face the consequences later.