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A little giggle rises from her throat. “I panicked,” she admits. “They’ll go back to the barn. I just…” she sighs. “I was so fired up to defend them from you that I wasn’t thinking straight. That you’d be mad at me for not being the right kind of farmer and then we’d have a fight and you’d leave and I’d be all alone again, and I’d be fine with that because being alone is easy. Lonely, but easy.”
I’m silent, because I understand. Just because something is easy, though, it doesn’t mean you have to do it.
“But I thought about that,” Tabitha says, voice soft as she gazes down at me. “And I don’t want easy. I want you.”
“Good, because I want you, too.” I grimace as the creature continues to nibble on my mane. “And I want this thing to stop eating me.”
Tabitha giggles, the sound light and carefree. She leans in and kisses me, and there’s so much relief on her face that I pull her against me into a hug.
We fall back onto the floor with her atop me, and I hold her close. “I’m obsessed with you. You’re my mate. You know that, right?”
“I love you, too,” she whispers. “Help me get our new pets back to the barn?”
“With pleasure.”
Fifteen
TABITHA
An hour later, the cattle are safely back in the barn and we’re washing up to eat the dinner he brought. My tears have dried and I’m left feeling vaguely foolish and warm at the same time. I freaked myself out, thinking I’d drive him away, because for some reason I’ve gotten it into my head that things between us have to be hard. That life has to be miserable.
And yet Jrrru makes it easy all the time. He’s easy to live with. He’s neat and tidy, never complains if dinner is uninspired, and wakes me up with kisses. He brought dinner tonight. He helps with the cleaning and always makes me laugh. He’s perfect and wonderful and I think it scares me a little. I’ve been holding back, content to only let him into my life in small bits and pieces. For six months he sat on my porch, never asking for more. Even now that I’ve had him move in, we’re still crammed together in my tiny bed and we haven’t had full-on sex. It’s like part of me is still holding him at bay, afraid I’ll get hurt.
I’m tired of protecting myself from the universe. And if anyone is going to catch me if I fall…it’ll be Jrrru.
I glance over at him as I dry my hands on a kitchen towel. “Thank you.”
His ears flatten against his head. “What are you thanking me for?”
“For being you. For being easy to live with and easy to love.”
Jrrru snorts. “Have you met my brother? He might have other things to say about that.”
“I think they’re just thrilled you’re no longer on the couch,” I point out, my heart feeling lighter. “And if they say anything bad about you, I’ll refuse to believe it.”
He pauses and leans against the counter, regarding me. “I know it’s out of your comfort zone, but would you like to meet them soon? I know they’re dying to meet you. I haven’t shut up about you since we met.”
The look he gives me is warm and intense, and makes me blush with a shy pleasure. Does he talk about me to them a lot, then? Has he told them all my idiosyncrasies? That I’m a weapons enthusiast with a penchant for drinking tall glasses of water and not leaving a drop behind? That I’ll finish off Jrrru’s drink just so it doesn’t get wasted? “Uh oh.”
“I told them you smell more delightful than anything I’ve ever imagined, and that you’re not easy to get to know, but the reward is incredible.”
“I’ll take it.” It’s probably the most flattering description I’ve ever had. Even back on Earth I wasn’t all that friendly, come to think of it. “And if you want me to meet them, I will.”
“I would love it, but only when you’re ready,” Jrrru says, his tone easy. “There’s no rush. I’m not going anywhere.” He wipes his hands on the towel next and then turns to me, a dark, delicious look in his eyes.
I shiver, arousal pulsing through my body at that look. “Soon is fine. Tomorrow, even.”
“Tomorrow, then,” Jrrru agrees, still eye-fucking me. His tail is perfectly still, with that little curve at the end that says his mood is relaxed. Content.
I won’t think about it too much, because then I’ll get nervous. “We’ll go over there, I think. What should I wear?”
“Now or tomorrow?”
Confused, I pause and study him. “Wait, what do you mean now or tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow, you can wear whatever, because you’re beautiful and you smell gorgeous.” He stalks toward me like I’m his prey. “Tonight, I’d like for you to wear nothing.”
