Page 74 of Married to the Alien Mountain Man

“I don’t want the new part.”

Oaken’s fingers twitched, then tightened on mine. I reached up with my free hand, laying my palm – the palm that Oaken had painstakingly wiped dust and dirt and sweat from – against his cheek.

“I don’t want to leave,” I said. “I decided that even before I thought theLavariyawas lost.”

Here we go. No turning back now.

“I love you. I want to stay with you. As your wife.”

Oaken’s eyes burned a whole through my head.

He said nothing.

“Oaken? Did you hear me? I said-”

“I did hear you,” he croaked. “Forgive me, Jaya. Your words… I have waited so long to hear them. I have spent so many nights dreaming of them. I have fantasized so vividly, and so often, that I worried… I worried that maybe this wasn’t real.”

“It’s real,” I whispered. “I’ll say it as many times as I need to. I want to stay with you. I want to remain your wife.”

“I love you,” Oaken said in a heated rush. His free hand went to my throat, his palm sliding against my throbbing pulse. “I’ve never felt anything like what I feel for you, Jaya. It’s why I gave up on ever marrying again after you left. Because no one would ever be able to fill the gaping hole you left behind.”

He loved me. He really fucking loved me.

“But you never… You never said anything! You never asked me to stay!”

“How could I have?” Oaken asked gently. “When I knew how much you wanted to leave? When I knew how much your ship meant?”

“TheLavariyastill means a lot to me,” I admitted. “I can’t tell you how grateful I am that you found her and brought her back. But when I think of leaving now, I don’t feel excited at the prospect of that freedom. I just feel…”

“What?”

“Lonely.”

“I never want you to be lonely,” Oaken whispered. He lowered his head.

I chuckled against his mouth.

“Well, it’s a good thing I have a husband now, then, isn’t it?”

That husband drew me closer, and in the perfect light of the setting sun on Zabria Prinar One, he kissed me.

26

JAYA

ONE MONTH LATER

“Are you sure you don’t mind me doing laundry here?” Magnolia asked, balancing a basket of clothing on her hip as she stood between theLavariyaand the open kitchen door.

“Of course not! Seriously, come anytime. Laundry, shower, a cup of chai. Whatever you want,” I called over from the house. I was currently standing in the kitchen, under its newly repaired roof, putting together a picnic lunch to take to Oaken.

We hadn’t stopped at putting a roof back on the kitchen after the tornado. We’d actually extended the roof all the way out to theLavariya, making a sort of open-air hallway between the house and the ship. Now, theLavariyawas as much a part of the main structure as the cabin was. The perfect addition to our home.

I had been worried, for a bit, that the warden wouldn’t let me keep her. He and Tasha showed up a week after the disaster to survey the damage, help with repairs…

And deliver the sonic recalibrater.

I’d told him to send it back.

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