“What?” I say defensively, knowing I’ve probably offended his hygiene-loving senses. Jerry is clean, though. I bathed him just this morning.
“Just wondering if I start chewing on things, you’ll do the same to me,” he teases.
“Oh please.” I roll my eyes. I’m not falling for that again. Sinath has made it quite clear how he feels about my mouth. “Let’s just take this stuff over to Liesje, shall we? Can we do it today?”
“If you like.” He’s still smiling, though he’s watching me closely. Maybe too closely.
I set Jerry on the floor and clasp my hands together, delighted. “It’s snowing. We have a tree and presents. I’m so fucking merry that I’m positively giddy right now, Sinath.”
He just grins, his gaze locked on me. “I’m glad.”
ChapterSeven
SINATH
Oh no.
I think I have a problem.
I might be falling for a human. Devin keeps surprising me, and I can’t stop thinking about her. For someone that hates mesakkah (and me in particular), she’s free with her caresses. I can only imagine what she would be like if she didn’t hate me. She laughs and smiles so much, and I’m obsessed with those smiles. I love hearing her talk. I like the way the snow dances against her tousled mane.
I might have even wondered what it would feel like to kiss her, and I hate kissing.
But I blurt out none of this, because Devin isn’t interested. So I shove it all deep down inside and try not to think about the dusky pink shade of her mouth and how her upper lip is tiny in comparison to her lower one.
We load the ornaments and decorations into the air-sled, and then I carefully settle the tree in the back. Devin grabs her poncho from inside and returns a moment later with a container of food and her damned rodent. I don’t say anything about it for once. Is she really so lonely—like Liesje said—that she lavishes a barn rodent with affection?
She’s all smiles as we start the air-sled and hover in the air. Her excitement is palpable. “I can’t wait to see the look on her face. She’s going to be so excited.”
“I hope so.”
“I know so,” Devin says, beaming at me. Her cheeks are ruddy with the cold, and the tip of her nose is even pinker than her mouth. It looks ridiculous and adorable all at once, and I want to stare at her instead of the controls of the sled.
“I’ve been visiting her this week,” I tell Devin as I cruise the sled away from her farm and in the direction of Liesje’s neighboring one. “The bots have her fields almost completely cleared and composted, and I’ve been working with her on tidying the inside.”
Devin gasps, and her hand covers mine on the controls. “You have?”
Her fingers are cold, but I can’t stop staring at her hand touching mine. “I have. She seemed like she needed some help.”
“But I’ve offered before,” she protests, and I can’t tell if she’s wounded that Liesje wouldn’t take her assistance or just bewildered. “She always chases me away.”
“What can I say? Sin has a way with words.” I grin at her, and when she sputters and breaks into fresh laughter, I feel like a high and mighty Homeworld lord. “Come on, Merry. Let’s go see what Liesje thinks of our tree.”
“I’m not calling you Sin,” she warns me again, but her voice is so warm with amusement that it fills me with pleasure.
Her refusal doesn’t bother me. “I’ll wear you down.”
* * *
When we coastto Liesje’s farm, I can tell right away that it looks better. The bots have been hard at work, tearing down the leafy remains of the harvested crops and mulching them. The fields are starkly brown against the pale white layer of snow falling, and the pristine snow probably contributes to a lot of the “less abandoned” look of the place.
I park the sled and look over at Devin. Now that the sled has stopped, her rodent is trying his best to get out of the vehicle, and so she’s having a difficult time holding him. “Before we go inside, I need to ask you something,” I say.
“What’s that?”
“She’s been doing some cleaning, but it might be messy inside again. Either way, don’t comment on it.”
Her lips part and she gives me a hurt look. “I wouldn’t insult her.”