1
GEORGIE
I wake up to find Vektal watching me sleep. Again.
I yawn, rubbing my eyes, and give him a sleepy smile. “Hey there. How long have you been awake?”
The big alien shrugs, his face inches from mine. I’m snuggled under the furs in the cave that’s now my home. As with every morning, I wake up with Vektal beside me, and he’s always watching me. It’s kind of cute. He reaches out and runs his big, blunt fingers through my tangled hair, pulling it forward over my shoulders and then sliding his hand down my arm. “I have been awake for some time. It is my custom to wake up before dawn.”
“Oh.” I grimace, because I’m guessing it’s later than that. “Am I keeping you from something?”
“No.” He touches my hair again.
“Then why are you staring?” I ask him with a chuckle as I settle back into the blankets, closing my eyes again. If we’re not being kept from something, maybe I can steal a few more minutes of shut-eye.
“Because I like to watch you sleep,” he says in that delicious, deep voice of his. “It is bad to watch you?”
“Not bad, no. I’m just not used to it.” I smile and slide a little closer. “Then again, I’m not used to sleeping with someone. Or this planet. Or any of this, really.”
Vektal wraps big arms around me and hauls me against his chest, tucking me against him and then stroking my hair. “Does this make you unhappy?”
I open my eyes, frowning into the pre-dawn darkness. That’s…a strange thing to ask. “Unhappy?”
“You do not smile like the others. You do not laugh with delight. I want to hear you laugh more, my Georgie.” He says my name carefully, doing his best to pronounce the hard G sounds. “Is something bothering you?”
Bothering me? Only a small something, really, and I feel too selfish to ask for it. So I just smile against his stomach and snuggle closer, looping an arm over his chest and tucking my cheek against his skin. I love to cuddle against his big, brawny chest. I don’t mind the thick plating that makes parts of him less-snuggleable, because the rest of him is suede-soft over rock-hard muscles.
I sigh with contentment and close my eyes, listening to his heartbeat and his khui as it hums gently in his chest. I’m a little sad that the sound of it changed. It took me a bit to notice it, but the sound of his khui changed a few days after I first got mine, and when I asked him about it, he told me that resonance had truly been fulfilled, and both our khuis were sated. It was surprising to me because I’d thought he’d gotten me pregnant right away, but I guess not. Sometimes I miss that wild, crazy beat of his khui, but I like the contented purring of today, too.
Vektal’s hand steals to my hair and he strokes it again. “Do you wish to stay in the furs this day, my mate?”
“I’m just being lazy,” I tell him, tracing a finger along his chest. “Give me a few more minutes and I’ll wake up for real.”
“Take as long as you like.” He strokes my back. “I enjoy holding you.”
Oh, I know he does. He’s by far the handsiest man I’ve ever met. He’s constantly touching me or caressing me, as if he needs to reassure himself that I’m here, and I exist. I understand it. After learning what I have of these people and of how few females there were until we came along? No wonder he’s so protective. I suspect if he didn’t have to go hunting he’d just sit around all day and watch me.
The thought of the big, fierce-looking Vektal sitting in a corner of the cave and watching me sew clothing by the fire as if it’s the most fascinating thing ever makes me smile. It’s been a few weeks since we arrived here but I’m not sick of him in the slightest. I worried that being the object of such attention might get tiresome, that he’d grow used to me or I’d get irked by his hovering, but if anything, we’re closer by the day. I love how attentive he is. I love how he’s fascinated by everything about me, as if I’m some sort of unique unicorn of a human instead of just an average-looking girl from Florida.
I’m not tired of him, either. Not in the slightest.
I press a kiss to his skin, running my fingertips along his sculpted abs. “So you’ve been awake for a bit?”
He grunts agreement.
“Any new resonances?”
Vektal chuckles, and I can hear the sound as it moves through his chest. “You ask that every day.”
“It felt like it was happening ever day,” I admit. We’re up to five now - mine, Liz, Marlene, Nora, Stacy, and Ariana. Most of them happened right away, but I’ve seen how the guys watch the girls and I know it has to be on their minds as much as it is on mine.