And then, it was time to start dinner. I busied myself preparing a large bracku meat roast, along with roasted vegetables, pickled items, cheese, eggs, and more bread with fruit preserves. It was more variety than I’d usually serve in one meal. When Xennet or Dorn (or both) came here to eat, I usually served them something far simpler.
But they were not Shiloh. I did not yet have a good sense of her palate. She’d eaten a little of the eggs and other items at breakfast but had had no lunch, choosing instead to nap. So I wanted to make sure there was plenty for her to choose from.
And I wanted to impress her. To show her what I could do. That no matter what she wanted, what she craved, I could find a way to provide it for her. I did not have a herd, but I had thissaloon, I had my other animals, and I could cook. Hopefully, that might mean something.
Tasha and Warden Tenn remained all day as well, and gave every indication they would spend the night again. I was not sure if this was good or not. I was certainly glad to have them for the insight and expertise – especially Tasha. I would not have known what a migraine was without her, or what to do about it. It was not listed in the book she’d written that we had studied at length with Warden Hallum.
But I also wondered if it meant that they did not want Shiloh left alone with me.
Maybe it was Shiloh herself who did not want that.
And I tried not to let that puncture anything too vital inside me. She had only just met me. Only just arrived. And unlike the first brides of the program, she knew about my past. My convictions.
And she had come here anyway. She’d slept in my bed, eaten my food, and taken my arm when I’d offered.
All day, I’d felt her touch on my skin. The silken warmth of it.
That simple touch, combined with her beauty and what I was already beginning to sense was a calm, kind, elegant sort of demeanour in her, would mean that whichever man she married would be the luckiest blasted male within a hundred spans.
If she does not choose you, there may yet be other women, I reminded myself as I basted the roast with sizzling butter. But that thought brought me no comfort. No small amount of cautious hope where it might once have.
Because now that I’d seen her, I was not sure how anyone else would possibly compare.
Perhaps this was unfair to the rest of the female human population that existed out there beyond this world. Shiloh was only one woman. Only the second human female I’d ever seen in person.
But whether it was fair or not, that was how I felt. And there seemed to be very little I could do about it.
Other than make one blasted good meal for her, I supposed.
My efforts in that area, at least, paid off. When I pushed through the kitchen door into the dining room, the other three were already gathered there. Despite all of their gazes upon me, I only watched Shiloh as I carried the roast and vegetables into the room and set the large tray down on the central table.
Shiloh’s eyes went big and round, and she gave a small gasp that, bizarrely, I felt more than heard. And I felt it in rather unmentionable places.
Like my cock.
“This looks incredible,” she breathed, clasping her hands below her chin and gazing down at the food like it was something to be worshipped. “It looks even better than it smells! And I didn’t think that would be possible! I am so glad I had that nap and I’m still feeling better! Not having an appetite to eat some of this would be a crime!”
She seemed to catch herself then, darting a glance my way at the word “crime.” As if she worried how I’d react. I was not sure what she expected of me, so I merely went to retrieve the side dishes. As I moved back into the kitchen, I felt strangely buoyed along. My steps light with…Well, I was not sure precisely what it was. But it made my entire body hum and glide the way I sometimes did in very good dreams. Dreams where I was back on Zabria, skating on a frozen pond with the other children in the village.
I’d never felt like this as an adult before. Not while awake, anyway.
It was rather addictive.
That floaty feeling remained with me, intensifying as Shiloh once again exclaimed over the other items I brought out.
“This fruity stuff,” she told me as I put down the plates with the bread and fruit preserves, “is incredible. I finished that plate you brought up to the bedroom. Where do you get it?”
“I make it.”
Once again, those very big eyes. I wondered if eyes getting bigger was similar to a Zabrian’s eyes getting brighter. I knew my own were bright white. They had been since the moment I’d walked into the room with the roast and had seen her. Thank the empire, it did not seem to be hurting her now. Outside, the sun had already set, and the only light besides my eyes came from the fire in the dining room hearth and a few candles someone else had lit.
This low, warm light did lovely things to Shiloh. Though I doubted one as beautiful as her would find any sort of light unflattering, there was something special, something that made my breath catch almost painfully in my throat, about her in the firelight. Her skin and hair gleamed. Her eyes were dark luminescence.
“You make it? Amazing,” she said, moving her head up and down in that human nod. The one I knew meant agreement or satisfaction.
She liked my answer. She liked what I made.
I could have levitated right off the floor.
