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“I don’t know what you’re going on about. You have nothing to apologize for. Please, get up.”
When his gaze met hers again, Kendra was shocked to see pain simmering behind those normally serious eyes. “It is my weakness. You are ashamed to be seen with me.”
“I’ve not seen any sign of weakness from you. You’re the size of an ox on steroids. You could crush me if you wanted to.”
He lowered his head. “I am bringing your family name into disrepute because you are entertaining me.”
“My family name? They won’t care who I go to dinner with.”
He looked up at her. “Is that true? Why do they have no care who you spend time with?”
Kendra sighed. “I’ll tell you but only if you get off your knee and sit back in your seat like a normal person. And tuck yourself away. I can see inside your thong.”
Faron grunted but moved back and sat in his own seat.
She glanced over to see the camera bot still hovering. Dammit, it had caught everything. Ivy would be having kittens. She’d be so thrilled with that bit of footage.
“Your family,” Faron said, “they do not care where your attention is focused when it comes to finding a suitable mate?”
Kendra played with her cutlery, taking a moment to line everything up. “My family is complicated.”
“Most are.”
“I mean to say, I don’t really know who they are.”
“Everyone knows their family.”
“Not everybody. I know a bit about my biological mom but nothing about my father.”
“He is dead?”
“Most likely. He might as well be. I’ve never met him.” A shiver of pain ran through Kendra. It still haunted her that she’d been given up so easily by her parents.
“What of your mother?”
“She’s a drunk and a drug addict. I was taken into care when I was six months old. I’ve had lots of temporary families since then. None stuck around for long.”
“You were an abandoned infant?” His gaze shifted over Kendra. “Because of deformities I cannot see?”
She sighed. “You’ve got to quit it with your obsession with deformities. It’s not cool. Difference isn’t a bad thing.”
He rested his cybernetic arm on the table. “Some think otherwise.”
“Then they’re idiots.” Anger flared in Kendra’s eyes. “If your family thinks you’re somehow less because you injured your arm, then that’s their problem. You’re fine as you are.”
His eyes tightened. “You do not understand my family.”
“Clearly not, but the way you get stressed when you talk about them, they seem like assholes. They didn’t lose a son when you had that accident.”
Faron grunted and sat in silence until their food arrived.
Kendra studied him as she picked up her fork. There was something about this mountain of an alien that intrigued her. Sure, he was gruff, rude, and straight to the point, but that was refreshing. He wasn’t trying to sweet talk her and tell her what he thought she wanted to hear.
Faron grabbed a chunk of steak with his fingers, tore it to pieces, and shoved a lump in his mouth.
Kendra grinned. “When you’ve finished devouring half a cow, why don’t you tell me more about your family?”
He swallowed his food and licked his fingers clean. “My family is the Tiket clan, one of the most high-ranking on my home planet. They have great status and wealth.”
