Page 3 of Healing the Leonid Doctor's Heart
Some stupid lustful urge welled up in him when he thought about how they would fit together—and that made him... confused. Angry with himself.
She was yourpatient!
Everyone on board this ship is your patient! That’s how it goes when you work on a long-haul ship that is required to have a medical officer, fool!
Why do I need to think these thoughts? I had a wife. A Queen of my own. I had a chance at a family. I’m not some young Knight. I don’t... I don’t need this.
Doesn’t mean I don’t get to want it sometimes, when I’m weak.
Abigail’s smile made him weak.
“Right, all of those findings mean Layla could use more help taking care of Alana and Chance. Layla says she’s crazy busy with people seeking information about the treatment program. Leonid families have been calling all week. Lots of people want your help, huh?”
“As the Information Officer, it falls on her to root through the inquiries. If this continues and surrogates can be lined up, it seems that we’ll be turned from a freighter to a medical ship. It’ll cost a stack of credits, but it’s a possibility in the not-so-distant future. As for now, Rupex has generously said theComet Stalkercan be a floating clinic if need be, even though there’s really no work. Yet. My treatment works with humans and, perhaps, infertile Felid Queens.Infertile—not sterilized.”
“I see.”
And that was it. Abi smiled and leaned her chin on her hand. She was content to sit in silence with him, like he’d been content to sit in silence with her, or to talk to her when she first came out of her neurosuppressed state.
“Sorry. Rambling on. All of this medical and logistical mess isn’t very stimulating conversation.” Marcus remembered his manners as he tore into hot and spicy goat curry, using millet flats to sop up all the broth. “Kamau can cook, can’t he?” His absent appetite returned with a vengeance. “This is the best of Servali cuisine right here.”
“I’m learning so much about all the different cuisines. Servali, Tigerite, Leopardine—what’s Leonid food like?”
Abigail changed topics easily. Their conversation always flowed, and that was dangerously delightful.
Someone you feel at ease with... It’s a gift the young ones don’t understand, Marcus thought, licking his lips free of the heavy sauce. “Simple but rich. Satisfying. Steaks, tubers, roasted meats, fish from the tropical waters near the Leonid moons, all that sort of thing.”
“Sounds delicious. Sapien-Three food is... Well. I don’t think I should tell you about it while you’re eating.”
He laughed. “I’m a medical professional. I’ve seen things that would make Rupex faint.”
They laughed together at that, imagining the fierce Leonid captain and King of theComet Stalkerfainting at anything.
“It wasn’t so bad in my case. I had a good job. Nice little apartment. I was near a shuttle point for the Milky Way Intergalactic Port, so that meant we had a lot of intergalactic and international cuisine. All in boxes and cans, of course, but I could usually buy the canned things, sometimes even the frozen things, not just the dehydrated bits.”
Marcus nodded, dipping a flat into the curry and pulling the thick, spicy mixture into its center, folding it so it formed a little shell of warm goodness. He held it out to her, belatedly realizing she didn’t have a plate.
“Ooh, it’s dripping!” Abi said, and before either of them could think of a Plan B, she was biting into it while he held it.
While he fed her.
Everything in him seemed to race, burn, and boil, and all he could do to let it out was to let his tail fly frantically back and forth as it hung down around his ankles.
He had done this with his Queen—his Kaya, the most beautiful Servali Queen in the universe. Surely feeling these feelings was wrong? His time with Kaya was so short. They were separated more than they were together; he with his position ona long-haul freighter ship, she staying put to help run the family business.
She’d fed him often, every time he stopped by the little restaurant her mother owned, a spoonful of something hot and spicy or warm and comforting. It kept happening, visit after visit, until he realized she was the hottest, most comforting thing there, and he wanted to make her his.
“Oops!” Abi caught the round as he dropped it from his paw, scrambling to get her hand under it as it splattered on the table and splashed her pink dress, dotting it with reddish-brown.
“I’m sorry,” he panted.
Why am I out of breath? I’m not exerting myself.
Bastet’s whiskers, am I holding my breath because I’m nervous? I thought I only did that during emergency surgeries these days...
“I should have let you rest. I’m so sorry,” Abi reached for a napkin and started to wipe her hands off.
“It wasn’t your fault. I’m not... I’m not tired. Today was hard. Happy, but hard. All the thoughts that you can’t quiet, you see. I lost my wife and cubs right at the beginning of the Queen Fever outbreak. I’ve told you?”
