Mia shrugged. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.” She didn’t want to think about children right now. It was the one thing guaranteed to spoil her good mood. The DNA differences between humans and Krinar were too great to allow for biological offspring – a fact that made sense but was still agonizing to dwell on.
“Anyways,” Mia said, wanting to change the subject, “how about you and Edgar? How serious are you two getting?”
Jessie’s smile was as bright as the sun. “I met his parents last week,” she confided. “And next week, I’m taking him to meet mine.”
“Wow . . . Jessie, that is big!” As far as Mia knew, this was the first time her friend was going to have a guy meet her family. Although Jessie’s parents had been in America for a long time, they still retained some of the traditional Chinese customs and attitudes. Bringing home a boyfriend was a serious matter, and the boyfriend in question had to be ready to answer some very probing questions about his career and future life plans.
“Yeah,” Jessie said wryly. “I warned Edgar that he’s going to get grilled, but he’s cool with that.”
Suddenly, Mia felt a light touch on her bare arm. “May I buy you ladies a drink?” an unfamiliar male voice asked, and Mia turned her head to see an attractive dark-haired man who looked to be in his late twenties.
“We’re here with our boyfriends,” Jessie said quickly, an anxious note in her voice.
“Okay, no problem,” the guy said, and disappeared into the crowd.
Mia looked at Jessie, eyebrows raised. Her friend had just been uncharacteristically rude, and she couldn’t figure out why. And then she saw where Jessie was looking.
Korum was staring in their direction, his jaw tightly clenched and his eyes a bright golden yellow. Mia smiled and waved to him, wanting to diffuse the tension. She knew he didn’t like any man touching her, but the guy had been harmless.
“He’s not going to flip out again, is he?” Jessie sounded scared.
“What? No, of course not,” Mia said automatically, and then she remembered Korum telling her something about an incident at a nightclub in the early days of their relationship. He’d said that she and Jessie had gone out on their own, and some guy had kissed her. Based on Jessie’s reaction, Mia guessed that Korum had downplayed his own response to that.
“Uh-huh,” Jessie said doubtfully.
“He won’t,” Mia said with confidence, looking directly at Korum. She knew perfectly well that he could hear her.
He stared back at her. His eyes still had those dangerous golden flecks in them, but one corner of his mouth tilted up, a ghost of a smile stealing across his face. Mia continued looking at him, her own eyes narrowed, and the smile became a full-blown grin, transforming his features from merely gorgeous to out-of-this-world sexy. Then he turned away and continued speaking to Edgar, as though nothing had happened.
“Holy shit,” Jessie breathed, her eyes huge. “You did it! Mia, you fucking did it . . .”
“Did what?”
“You tamed a K.”
Chapter 20
Another two weeks passed after the New York trip. Mia found herself loving her new life . . . and contemplating not going back to finish her last year of school.
Lenkarda was as close to paradise as she could imagine. Summer was the wet season in that region of Costa Rica, which meant sunny mornings and tropical rain showers in the afternoon. As a result of all that rain, everything turned lush and green, with the waterfalls and rivers full to bursting. Mia often spent her mornings exploring the woods nearby, taking pictures of the local wildlife, and the second half of the day working in the lab with Adam.
Haron, the mind expert from Arizona, had agreed to take over Saret’s lab as a temporary solution to keep the place open. Too much important research had been going on there to simply shut it down. Mia had first met the K during their brief trip to Arizona and she wasn’t sure she liked him that much. She got the feeling he regarded her as something of a medical curiosity, due to her condition. Nevertheless, he didn’t mind if she continued working in the lab, and he mostly left her and Adam alone – which suited Mia just fine.
With each day that passed, Mia became more and more entrenched in life in Lenkarda. Her friendship with Delia continued to develop,
and the two girls often went swimming and snorkeling together – something that eased the minds of both of their cheren. “At least Delia can call for help if anything happens and vice versa,” Korum said one evening while they were lying in bed. “And she knows which areas to avoid.”
Korum’s overprotectiveness drove Mia insane. When she complained about it to Delia, the older girl laughed. “Oh, just get used to it. Arus is the exact same way, believe me. You’d think after centuries together he’d realize I’m capable of taking care of myself, but no. If he had his way, I’d never leave the house without him.”
“How do you cope with that?” Mia asked, studying her hands. She knew about the tracking devices there, and she really hated them. When she’d found out about the shining – after questioning Korum as to how he always seemed to know her exact location – she had been furious and insisted that Korum remove the devices. He refused, explaining that he needed to know that she was safe. They ended up having a long argument that culminated in Korum taking her to bed. The devices were still there for now, but Mia had every intention of removing them at the first opportunity.
Delia shrugged her slim shoulders. “I don’t know,” she said. “I know that Arus loves me and that he’s afraid of losing me. I’m as necessary to his existence as he is to mine – and I try to make allowances for that. Over time, both of us have learned the value of compromise, and you and Korum will too.”
Having Delia for a friend was like having a mentor and a girlfriend all wrapped up in one graceful package. At times, she was as wise and mysterious as a sphinx, but, other times, she was just like any other young woman Mia’s age, acting as playful as a teenager. This unusual personality mix was relatively common among the Krinar, Mia discovered. They lived for a long time, but they never felt old. Their bodies were as healthy at ten thousand years of age as they were at twenty, and everybody around them shared their longevity, so they rarely experienced the types of losses that an unusually long-lived human would.
“You know, you don’t fit the stereotype of a brooding immortal at all,” Mia told Korum once, after a particularly fun play session in their zero-gravity chamber. “Shouldn’t you be all moody and hating life instead of enjoying it so much?”
Korum grinned in response, white teeth flashing. “How could I hate life when I have you?” he said, lifting her and twirling her around the room.