Page 55 of I'm Not Your Pet

“For.”

“Coming.”

“Co…ming.” Roark blinked. “Thank you for coming.”

My heart thundered and I gawped, slack-jawed as Ushuu trilled happily and clapped his hands. His gaze slid over to me, a knowing look in his eyes as he turned his attention back to Roark.

“Better!”

Ushuu did not betray my presence.

They murmured back and forth in their native tongue for a few minutes. I wasentrancedat the sight of Roark flipping through the slides, making a few larger—large enough I could see them, even from this distance.

Reading glasses were settled over his snout—and he looked so ridiculous and gorgeous it made me ache. He squinted, said something in sharkish, and then waited.

“How are you?” Ushuu sounded out in answer to his question, far slower than any normal person would ever talk.

“How ahre yuu?” Roark repeated in butchered English.

“How are you?” Ushuu corrected.

“How…are…you?” Roark sounded unsure, but Ushuu’s applause made his spots flicker white, with what I could only assume was happiness. They murmured back and forth once again, and Roark snorted through his nose at something Ushuu said before he shook his head and gestured toward one of the images in the air with his large, clawed hands.

“I am good,” Ushuu said, just as deliberately as the first two times.

“I…um…” Roark shook his head at himself in frustration. “Am,” he corrected himself, “good.”

Again, Ushuu clapped.

Again, I stared.

Was he learning English?For me?

Is that what he’d been doing this whole time?

Suddenly things started to make sense.

It seemed after our run-in with Ushuu and what had happened in the hallway Roark had decided he’d had enough with our limited communication. This was…a gift I never would’ve expected. The amount of effort it took was astounding. Add on the amount of sleep he’d been losing, somehow fitting English lessons into his already hectic schedule—and I just…

God.

I was floored.

My heart was racing, my eyes damp as I watched the two of them for a few more wonderful minutes before I decided I’d seen enough. I still didn’t understand why Roark’s spots had been red the other night, but it was becoming obvious that I’d made a terrible mistake thinking the worst of him.

Here I was, assuming he was a cheater-cheater pumpkin-eater, when he wasactuallythe hugest fucking sweetheart in the entire galaxy. Pun intended. For so long I’d prided myself on my optimism, and yet…I’d given up on Roark so quickly.

What was wrong with me?

Dazed, I made my way back to our room. The door slid open with a quiet hiss but I barely noticed as I made a beeline for the bed and collapsed on the mattress. The stars on the ceiling sparkled above me. My lashes were cold and wet as I squeezed my eyes tightly shut and took a shuddering, steadying breath.

One of the nanobots beneath the bed turned on, a little buzzing sound echoing through the metal room as it spun around in an attempt to get comfortable and before going back into stasis.

On the days and nights I’d been alone, I’d been slowly but surely programming them into pets.

Assistants.

Assistant-pets.

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