Devotion (Chosen by the Karal #5)(23)

“Yes. It’s early evening, so I think it will be safe to carry Charlie inside without anyone seeing.” He held out his arms and she let him take the sleeping boy from her. She was grateful to him because her arm had gone numb, and her legs were so tired she doubted she would be able to stand with the added weight of Charlie in her arms.

Following Okil down the exit ramp, she made sure she had picked up all of Charlie’s toys; he still had the scruffy teddy bear clasped to his chest. When the cool evening air hit her, she had to stop and breathe it in so deeply, she thought her lungs would explode. So this was what clean air smelled like.

Standing still, she looked all around her, at the two suns setting in the distance and the flowers in Okil’s garden, the fragrance sweet on the breeze. “It’s wonderful, Okil.”

He smiled, looking tired, yet the colours leaped across his skin. Tikki longed to touch his face and feel the electricity skimming his flesh and let the sensations travel through her body. She could not believe she was finally here, and felt the need to pinch herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming.

But then if this was a dream, they would not have so many problems hanging over their heads.

“I’ll show you the house,” he said, which she took as his polite way of saying they could not stay out too long with Charlie so visible. This would be their lives, too, from now on. Their happiness at being together would be tainted by the ever-present fear of someone finding out about Charlie.

Tikki could not let that spoil her happiness. For this one night, she was going to pretend that everything was good, that Okil was her prize and the Karal had welcomed her with open arms. First, they had to put Charlie to bed.

“I thought he could sleep in here,” Okil said, leading her to a room at the back of his house. “It’s where my child, our child, will one day sleep.” If that happens now, that was the message her eyes read in his face. “If you go into the sitting room, you can fetch the cushions from the sofa and he can lie on those. Tomorrow I will see what I can scrounge.”

“OK.” She found her way to the small sitting room. There she carefully removed the large cushions and took them back to the bedroom. Placing them on the floor, she watched Okil carefully lay Charlie down.

“I’ll fetch him a blanket and a pillow,” Okil said, and while he was gone she smoothed Charlie’s hair back from his head and kissed him goodnight. She only hoped that they had found a sanctuary here, that they were safe from whatever, or whoever, hunted them.

Okil returned, and they lifted Charlie’s head and placed the pillow under it, and then wrapped the blanket around him. Charlie didn’t stir; he was so tired he was oblivious to everything, and Tikki didn’t think that was bad at all. Let him sleep a dreamless sleep where no one hunted him, no one told him to be quiet or to hide.

“Come,” Okil said and he offered her his hand, leading her from the room. She thought he might take her straight to the bedroom, but she was grateful he went to the kitchen first. Her energy was so depleted; she needed to eat and to drink. And then … well, what happened, happened.

They faced each other across his kitchen, both suddenly nervous. This was not the way she had pictured it, not how she had thought they would spend their first hours on Karal. But her heart swelled with love for this man, this alien, who was risking everything for her and a boy he didn’t know, and had no responsibility for.

“I’m so sorry, Okil,” she began. “I know you have waited your whole life for a mate, that your prime is slipping away … you have done so much for the women on Earth already, I wish this had been straightforward and easy.”

“It doesn’t matter,” he said, coming to her and taking her in his arms. “You are the only woman I want, Tikki. I cannot fall in and then out of love with you just because it is not easy. Maybe humans can do that, but I cannot.”

“No, you are behaving just like a decent human would.”

“Then we are not so different, our two species.” He looked down at her, his face infused with yellow, soft like the sun at dawn. “Can we put this aside for now? Do you think we could spend this night in each other’s arms just as we dreamed, and not think of tomorrow or what may happen?”

She smiled at him, touching his cheek and seeing the yellow turn to a burning amber and then red as the fire inside him ignited. Moving her hand to the nape of his neck, she pulled him towards her and kissed him, feeling that fire in his lips, sending its message of need through her skin, deep into her core.

“All I can think of right now is you. All I want to feel is my love for you. Let’s enjoy now. Pretend that I came here as we planned, and that all there is in our world is hope.”

He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, burying his face into the crook of her neck. “You are the air I breathe, Tikki. I would rather you were here, like this, with all the uncertainty that lies ahead, than for you to be still on Earth with no hope of us ever being together. I swear, whatever happens, we will face it together.”

With that, he picked her up and carried her to the bedroom, laying her down on the bed. She reached out, hooking her fingers around the hem of his T-shirt and lifting it up. He helped, taking it over his head and then discarding it. She gazed upon his body, she knew it so well, but now, here on a strange planet, it was as if she looked upon his for the first time. He allowed her to stroke his skin and he freed his emotions, letting them skim across his skin in reds and blues, a rainbow exploding when she leaned forward and kissed his chest, her tongue licking his nipples.