Page 13 of Hooked on the Otter Doctor
I met his gaze briefly. “Yes.”
“Well,” he said brightly, “then there’s also the pleasure to be had with our mates. A compatibility of the mind is excellent, of course, but of the body?” He made a loud purring noise and smirked at me.
I couldn’t help but chuckle at him. “Yes, that’s working out very well.”
“There,” Ghosha said as though we’d solved everything. “Your Tobias will happily leave Earth behind.”
I wasn’t so convinced, but I had more to mention once I did manage to bring up the subject of our future together with Tobias. Perhaps the promise of adventure was enough. It wasn’t as though we were leaving any time soon, or that we couldn’t return to Earth at some point as well. We would be free to do whatever was needed by the delegation.
Or I could quit all of this and start anew.
I flinched in my seat as it suddenly occurred to me thatImight be the one to change everything about my life instead of him.
CHAPTER 7
TOBIAS
Ishould’ve known we’d end up back in the boat the next day. Pabbi missed the point entirely that theonlyreason we got paid like we did for that catch was because someone literally put fish in our net. He honestly wanted us to coerce Halaby into doing it again! And Pabbi wouldn’t hear a word about how that wasn’t fishing like we’d been doing for six generations either. Not even when I’d said it was like taking a handout.
I hadn’t told anyone about Halaby and me yet because I knew they’d want to meet him. Meeting him would mean my own father could pin Halaby down and get him to bring more fish to us. I didn’t want to put Halaby in the position of making him work for us out of some sense of obligation to me, so I kept my mouth shut.
With them, anyway. I totally spilled everything to Svein.
“Give me a number,” he said over the phone. “Come on.”
I was at the wheel driving us out into the harbor with Helli out on the deck—wearing a life jacket, thank fuck—so I knew she couldn’t hear me. She might wonder why my face was bright red, though, since she was still slowly drying out her guitar at home and didn’t have a distraction.
“Svein…” I dodged, half tempted to pretend my earpiece had fallen out and I couldn’t hear him.
“Tobias, seriously, it’s for research. I sucked off a delightfully fluffy gray wolf last night and Ichokedon him. You know I never do that.”
I groaned at having to say something, but I was also kind of proud. “I didn’t measure him?—”
“I’ll take a good guess.”
“—but I’d say at least nine. Maybe more.”
Svein cackled over the line like a supervillain. “Yes! Thank god for the Norlons. They’re turning our dating pool into an ocean!” He giggled before sighing in what sounded like relief.
He wasn’t wrong about Kleifar getting an upgrade in the dating pool now that the Norlons were here. We had a decent showing of queer people, but it was practically getting incestuous at this point because we’d all hooked up at least once. The Norlons seemed to have an easygoing attitude toward sex with whoever—like maybe they were naturally pan or something—so the possibilities had been exciting before I ever met Halaby.
“I do need to tell you,” I said before clearing my throat. Would he think it was weird? Too fast? Well, committing to Halaby in under an hourwastoo fast. No denying that.
“What?” Svein asked.
“Um, the guy I met?—”
“Pardon me, thedoctoryou met.”
“Yes, right, the doctor I met… Um, well, he’s my mate.”
“Okay,” he said like he didn’t get it, but then he hollered, “Oh my god! Are you serious?”
“Yes?”
“Oh, fuck me, you absolute bitch. How? How did you manage it?” I could hear a lot of shuffling paper noises before he said, “And I’m taking notes, so don’t miss a detail.”
Now I felt even more embarrassed. “I, um, didn’t do anything really.”
