Page 21 of Bound to the Tiger Scout
Shittin’ fuck, that sounded like I could be on a whole other planet by the middle of next week. Me! On an alien planet! I couldn’t help laughing like a giddy kid about that.
“Come here, Squire,” Layleen said with a tablet in her hands. “See what I’m going to do now.”
I stifled my giggling and went over to sit on the arm of her chair. She showed me how she was contacting the captain of theShendo-kine, letting him know to get underway as soon as possible. That she was basically texting the captain of a whole other ship on the other side of the galaxy was just mind-blowing. That she had to translate what she wrote for me was a problem.
“Don’t worry,” she said quietly since the others were chatting, “there’s an immersive program you can do to learn to speak and read Norlish.”
“I’ve never tried to learn another language.” I’d wanted to learn Spanish once, but Mama’d had some racist thoughts about that.
“It’s much easier than English,” Layleen said, “so I think you’ll pick it up quickly.”
“Do I go to a class or something?”
“Oh, no, you’ll learn on a tablet like this one. I’m having one sent to your room right now.” She changed a few screens and said, “Here’s how I ordered that.” And she went through the steps to get stuff delivered. It’d be way easier to do once I could read Norlish, but the doing of it looked about the same as any online shopping.
“You’re going to be an excellent assistant,” Layleen whispered up to me, “because you love him. That’s the only type of assistant who succeeds.”
Because I loved him. She could see it, so maybe it was true. I’d never been in love before, but it had to be showing for her to say that so confidently.
I loved Ghosha.
CHAPTER 11
SQUIRE
I’d never been great in school, but as I started learning Norlish, I realized what had stopped me up in school had been the performing. Like getting called on and having to explain what I’d learned just boom on the spot. I’d forget everything, clam up, and sweat like a sinner at confession. Everyone thought I was stupid. But then I’d take the test, all alone with no one demanding a performance, and I’d get high marks every time. No teacher ever stopped calling on me, the sadists, but I wasn’t dumb. I just couldn’t handle being in the spotlight.
Learning to understand verbal and written Norlish was a whole different thing. I could sit in our room with my new tablet and interact with a computer-generated human who figured out how I learned best and helped me through the lessons. Just me and her practicing speaking and reading words and phrases like learning was a game I could play. And I was getting pretty good at it!
I heard the littledingof Ghosha coming home and put my tablet aside. Even though it felt like a performance, I’d been practicing with my little assistant and I trusted Ghosha not to tease me if I got something wrong. So as soon as he walked in, I said in Norlish, “Welcome home, my mate. How was your day?”
My nervousness evaporated when he slowly grinned until he was beaming at me. “My day is better now that I am home with you,” he said as he set down his things and came over to me.
“I understood all of that!” I bounced a little on my toes.
“Goddess, your accent…” Ghosha cupped my cheeks and kissed me.
“Is it bad? The assistant on my tablet hasn’t said anything about it.”
He rubbed the pad of his thumb across my bottom lip. “It’s adorable.”
I rolled my eyes. Well, at least it wasn’t terrible.
“Have you learned the word for this?” he asked before he kissed me again.
When he lifted his head, I shook mine and licked my lips.
“Caros,” he said, and then he kissed me deeper, his scratchy tongue teasing into my mouth. “Caros aterra.”
“Caros aterra,” I repeated dutifully, guessing thataterrameant deep or thorough or maybe just fucked.
He gave me another plundering kiss, and I realized a reward system with new vocabulary was just about the best thing to help me learn. I could talk about drinking from a cup all day long, but sucking on his tongue while he unbuttoned my tunic was way more engaging.
Ghosha slid my tunic off my arms, and I let it hit the floor at my feet. While his big hand held my head exactly where he wanted it for all thecaros aterra-ing that he could get, his other hand smoothed down over my back and across my waistband to palm my ass.
“Ipia,” he said against my lips and squeezed one cheek.
I nodded and pushed up for more kissing, gripping his tunic to try and pull him down.
