Page 78 of Secretly Married To My Monster Alien Boss
“I need to tell you something,” they said at the same time. Then laughed in tandem, even though it sounded a bit on edge.
“You first,” Rynar said.
“No, you go. I think you beat me with like a quarter of a second. Damn your fast Deruzian reflexes.”
Rynar tilted his head toward her. “I insist.”
“Okay.” Alissia rubbed her hands together at the same time that Rynar tucked his into his pants’ pockets. So they were both feeling a bit jittery and trying very hard not to show it. He was handling it better, she’d give him that.
“Damian stopped by,” she said finally, trying to sound casual and failing. “He liked Zinny. And he found the contract.”
No point in staving off the inevitable.
Rynar’s eyes widened. “How?”
“I took it out of the safe, it’s a long story.” On cue, the long sleeves of the robe covered her palms again. Traitors. “And he asked me something very important related to you. Something I’d tried very hard not to think about.”
“That is strange. Because Yakirian just confronted me with something I stupidly refused to realize about you.”
Well, that was…vague. Alissia licked her lips, mouth suddenly dry. This conversation could go either very well or very badly.
“Before I tell you what he asked me and what I told him, I need to know some things.” She tilted her chin up. “I accidentally found the hologram of your place on Deruzia.”
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Rynar said with a soft smile that melted Alissia’s heart. “But I have to ask, once again,how?”
“I was trying to listen to your message. Phones are a thing by the way, and–” She shook her head. That was not important. “Anyway. Zinny told me you want to move there. With him, of course. Kept going on and on about climbing trees.”
Rynar frowned. “I hadn’t really truthfully considered that option, but, yes, I would like to move there–”
Alissia’s heart dropped. Then soared with his next words.
“–when I am nearing the end of my existence. I enjoy your planet, but it is so unbearably cold sometimes. Our bones turn frail as we age.”
And her heart kept on soaring. This couldn’t be good for her cardiovascular health. “So sort of retiring there? You don’t plan on going back home in, say, the next couple of months?”
“I need to go back to Deruzia, but only to resolve some issues. Once I have the seal, I will be able to enact a plan I have that will protect the valley from floods. And I need to do it quickly, because the storm cycle will reach its most active point in the next few years. But those will be more similar to what you humans callbusiness trips. And yes, I promised Zinny he could come along and climb the plants there. The small, non-carnivorous ones, of course.”
Alissia exhaled in relief. Okay, so he wasn’t planning on disappearing on her.
“And I would love it if you’d consider joining me,” he went on, melting her heart completely. “It would be my honor to show you the world I come from.”
“I’d…I’d love that, too,” Alissia said past the sudden lump in her throat. “But…that’s in the future.”
“Yes, it is.” Rynar took a determined step toward her. “And I would very much like to talk about said future with you.”
“First, we have some things left to discuss from the present.”
“Yes, you wanted to know about the wings,” Rynar said quickly. “All Deruzians have them, but we were instructed not to let humans know about that particular ability. Our elders feared the information would make humans weary of us. Which they already are, but a promise made is a promise kept. I didn’t purposefully keep that from you, it was a planetary secret.”
“I get it.” The wings were just part of Rynar. And besides the fact that they could fly on a date or something, it didn’t really change anything about them. “And what about–”
“The golden veins, you asked about that, too. That is more difficult to explain.” Rynar gulped and began to pace. Then paced some more.
Was it really that awful? How could something so beautiful be negative? “Okay, the more you walk, the antsier I get, and–”
Rynar suddenly stopped, spearing her with his gaze. Alissia sucked in a breath at what she saw in his dark eyes. Vulnerability, almost pleading to be understood.
“It was a sign. One which I chose to ignore,” he began, now talking slowly. But he wasn’t as calm as usual.
