Page 56 of Across The Stars
“Kalaha,” I said to her. “The outside is nearly as soft as the inside. You may eat the whole thing. Especially after it’s been steamed.”
I continued to watch Innifer in my peripheral as she took a bite of fruit. She seemed timid, but once the sweet flesh hit her tongue, her eyes lit up.
“Holy shit,” she said. “It tastes like strawberries and mango had a baby.”
“What?” Salukh said with another full mouth.
“It’s good,” Innifer simplified. “The fish, too.”
“You already tried it all?” Sam said.
She shrugged. “I’m hungry.”
“It could be poisoned.”
“Why would it be poisoned?”
“It’s not,” I said calmly, popping a whole kalaha in my mouth.
“Why would we poison it?” Salukh asked, staring blankly at Sam’s scowling face. “I’m eating it.”
“Yeah, and you’re an idiot,” she said. “Or you’re immune to the poison and we’re not.”
“How dare you… on my planet? You’re calling me names?”
Innifer and I both found ourselves staring at the two while they glared at one another, trying to figure out the tension between them. Salukh had been putting up with Sam’s moods since we’d arrived. I suspected he was about to snap at any moment. She’d already thrown up on him and now she seemed like she was trying to rile him up. He had an easy temper, but even I could see his jaw flexing.
But that was his issue. Mine was Innifer because some itching feeling in me was still considering the idea of keeping her away from the Nexus. It seemed a waste to let her go since I’d surged. Kasiri was right on many levels when it came to that. Could another valerian not surge with her? Did it have to be me?If she could react that way with me, could she react that way with another? Would she want to? Was it right to even ask?
Innifer let out the smallest sound of pleasure as she took another bite of the kalaha fruit and I couldn’t help that my eyes were drawn to her for it. I glimpsed her lips as the pinkish juice made them dark and glossy. And when her tongue darted out to catch a small drip, I felt my hearts skip. All those things stored in my paetal were moving through me, making me feel a way I hadn’t in a very long time and it was because of Innifer. The blue-haired, talkative, oddly beautiful female licking kalaha juice off her lips.
I realized then that I didn’t want her to surge with another. The idea of another male wanting her like I did and acting on those desires made my muscles taught. The idea that her eyes could turn and she’d want someone else made my teeth grind. I wanted her to wantme.
Ak’suk’kaan help me, those were thoughts for prospective mates. I was plotting as if I wanted to pursue her and court her.
Innifer stopped chewing, slowly raising her eyes up to meet mine like she could sense my thoughts. Eventually, Sam and Salukh began arguing about something, but I could not make out what they were saying. I didn’t care. It was in the background and Innifer was the target of my focus. I couldn’t look away and it seemed she could not either.
We were doomed.
28: Innifer
I was so consumed by how good the fruit tasted and how hungry I was that I didn’t catch Vahko staring at me. When I finally did, it wasn’t because I noticed where he was looking. It was something else. Something inside me said to look up like a little whistle in the distance. And when I did, those gorgeous, odd eyes were staring deep inside me. I couldn’t tell if it felt good or bad to be looked at like I was cut wide open, but I couldn’t turn away. My heart started to race and suddenly hunger was the farthest thing from my mind.
Vahko was beautiful in an otherworldly sense. He looked downright enchanting. And I was pretty sure we were sharing a moment. Damn those high cheekbones. That flawless skin. The slant in his hypnotizing eyes. I knew why I couldn’t lookaway from him (at least I thought I did), but why couldn’t he stop staring at me? I wasn’t anything incredible. I wasn’t a supermodel or a celebrity or one of those perfect, altered girls on billboards. I was Innifer. I had blue hair with split ends. I never altered my eye color so they were dull in comparison to others. I was practically an orphan with no real, standout qualities and plenty of people in my life had reminded me of that fact. Jason. My mother. Every friend before Sam. Every boyfriend.
But Vahko looked at me like I was the only star in a night sky.
“Hello?” Sam said. She snapped her fingers at me, making me blink profusely to escape the trance. “What’s wrong with you two? Jeez.”
“Nothing,” I said. “I’m tired. I’m spacing off.”
“Uh huh,” Sam said, disbelieving.
I could feel my face flush with heat and quickly looked down at my food to concentrate my thoughts elsewhere, but to my horror, my plate was almost empty.
“So?” Sam spoke up. “You guys don’t use translators. How do you know English?”
“We know many of your languages,” Vahko said. “Your people might have made a home in space some years ago, but we’ve known about Earth far longer. And many of us dedicated a great deal of time to studying you.”
