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“Oh, no—we eat it. We just call it lunch.”
“All right. Will you have ‘lunch’ with me?” Slade asked her.
Brandi giggled and when he looked at her questioningly she shook her head.
“Sorry, the way you said that—it sounded so formal. Yes, I’d love to have lunch with you but I’m afraid I left my purse back at the bank, so I have no way to pay.”
“Pay?” Slade frowned. “Of course you’re not going to pay! You’re my mate—I’ll pay for any and all expenses anywhere we go.”
“Hey, now…” Brandi frowned at him. “You sound like some kind of a caveman! Don’t your people believe in going Dutch?”
“I don’t know what ‘going Dutch’ is but if it means that the female pays, then no—we don’t,” Slade said shortly. He frowned. “But since I didn’t think to bring any Earth money with me, I’m afraid we’ll have to have ‘lunch’ up on the Mother Ship.”
“What? No!” Brandi exclaimed at once. “No, I’m not going back up there! I got into enough trouble last time. And besides, I have to be on time to pick up my daughter from after-care.”
“What is after-care? Care after what?” Slade wanted to know.
“After Pre-K—her school.” Brandi sighed. “I have her in a nice private one—it’s pretty expensive but the public schools near my house are just…” She stopped abruptly. “Sorry, I don’t know why I’m going on about this to you.” A little self-deprecating laugh escaped her. “There’s nothing more boring than hearing about other people’s kids—at least, that’s what my cousin, Crystal is always telling me.”
“I don’t find your worry for your daughter boring,” Slade said honestly. “If you’ve been blessed by the Goddess with young ones, they have to be protected and provided for. And Emmie-bear…is that her name?”
“Just Emmie,” Brandi spoke carefully, as though she wasn’t sure she wanted to discuss her daughter with him too much. “Short for Emmaline.”
“Emmie, then. She seems like a very intelligent child,” Slade said.
A reluctant smile broke over Brandi’s face, turning her from pretty to absolutely gorgeous in Slade’s estimation.
“You’re just saying that because she took to you so fast.” She shook her head. “I’ve never seen her go to anyone right off the bat like that before! She’s usually so shy—I don’t know what got into her.”
“We have a saying on my home planet,” Slade remarked. “If you want to know a male’s character, observe his interactions with young ones and animals.”
“That’s exactly what my Grandma Ida used to say!” Brandi explained. “She always said ‘if a man is good with kids and critters, you can trust him.’” She laughed. “That was just her way of talking but she was almost always right.”
“It sounds like we might not think so differently after all,” Slade murmured. “Listen, if you don’t want to go to the Mother Ship, this shuttle is equipped with emergency stores. We can park somewhere and eat here if you want to.”
He nodded at the back of the shuttle which had a living area complete with food cubes, a re-hydrator, and a small table with two seats.
“Um…emergency rations sound…nice,” Brandi said carefully, but he could hear her wondering what alien food might taste like and if it would be like the MRE meals her own country’s military served to soldiers. She’d tasted one of those once and it wasn’t great…
“Don’t worry,” Slade told her. “I’m pretty sure there are some Earth food cubes mixed in with the Kindred meals. I’m sure I can find you something better than that MRI meal you tasted.”
Brandi’s cheeks went red.
“It’s MRE—meals ready to eat. And do you have to keep eavesdropping on my thoughts like that? It’s really embarrassing and I can’t always help everything I think. What if I think something bad about you that makes you upset?”
Slade frowned, seeing the image in her head of himself going into Rage—his eyes glowing red as he hoisted her disgusting boss up by the neck.
“If you’re worried that I’ll hurt you, don’t be,” he said shortly. “Kindred don’t beat or hurt their mates—ever, no matter what the provocation. Females are to be cherished and protected.”
Brandi looked surprised. “You really mean that, don’t you?”
“Of course I do.” Slade shot her a glance. “You can feel the truth of what I say to you through our link if you try.”
She frowned. “I don’t know if I’m quite ready to go feeling around in your head.”
Slade thought but didn’t say that she had seemed perfectly willing to go “feeling around” in his trousers so he didn’t see why looking into his head to see his true intentions was a problem. But Brandi seemed to catch his thought and frowned.
“Hey—I heard that! If you start slut-shaming me I’m leaving this car or whatever it is and walking back to the bank.”
Slade looked at her, surprised.
“I’m sorry—I thought I was thinking that privately. It seems we need to work on building a mental barrier between us.” He shot her a look as he pulled into a darkened parking garage and looked for a spot out of the blistering Florida sun. “And I wasn’t trying to shame you. I was just as hungry for our sexual encounter as you were—more probably. I hadn’t been with a woman in six solar years and my old mistress had me injected with eroto-lust enhancer to force my sexual reactions.”
