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He smiled a little. “I know. But I’ve heard of some humans reproducing while traveling to other planets.”
She blinked, leaning back into her seat. “Oh, that’s true. I didn’t think of that. But yeah, I was born there.”
He nodded. “When did you leave?”
That question made her hesitate. She looked away from him, her hands tightening around her menu enough that her knuckles turned noticeably white. An uneasy feeling grew in Grux’s stomach. Had something terrible happened to her that had forced her to leave her home planet?
Scarlett was saved from his further questions when the waitress came over and interrupted them to take their orders.
When she relaxed back into her seat, she looked at him again.
“What about you? It seems you’ve been on an extended vacation. How long are you planning on staying here?”
“Trying to get rid of me?” he teased.
She laughed and waved her hands. “Not at all. I’m just surprised that you came to this planet for a vacation. It’s not exactly, uh… a sought-after destination.”
He wanted to snort at the truth of that statement. This place certainly wasn’t the tropical destination his brother was currently residing in, that was for sure. “I suppose I’ll be here as long as I want in order to avoid my responsibilities back home.”
She leaned forward, putting her arms on top of the table and folding them together. “And what kind of responsibilities might that be?”
That made Grux pause.
Not only did he have PAPS—their private investigation firm—to deal with, but ever since Kozien had stepped down from his role as next in line, their father had started putting the pressure on Grux’s shoulders. As suddenly the next in line to inherit the throne, he’d never expected or prepared himself for the quick change in power.
He had no idea how to be a king, let alone someone that Lorr depended on for everything. He’d never been groomed for that kind of life and had always lived contently, watching his brother stumble through it from the sidelines.
When he was younger, of course, he’d been jealous of the attention Kozien constantly received from their father. But now that they were older and he was experiencing it firsthand for himself, he knew how burdensome it was.
“I guess… it’d be rather complicated at the moment.”
She nodded. “I’m kind of in the same boat.”
He smiled a little, knowing exactly what she was talking about even without her saying so. “Avoiding responsibilities as well?”
“I guess you could call them that. More like I’m trying to get away from something that I was forced into. Now I’m trying to create my own destiny.”
Her own destiny. To him, that sounded way too naive and childlike. Wanting to follow far-fetched dreams or goals had never appealed to him before. Though maybe that was because he hadn’t allowed himself to think that way in the first place.
It made him wonder what kind of dreams his younger self would’ve had if he’d been a regular Lorrian and not a prince.
Would he still have ended up in the same place he was now? Running PAPS and sitting in a seedy diner with a pretty Terran girl talking about the future neither of them had?
“Do you have dreams, Grux? About what you want to do with your life?”
He stared deep into her eyes, a weird pit forming in his stomach. She had such beautiful and captivating eyes.
“No. I don’t.”
She tilted her head. “Do you want them?”
He swallowed, that tightness in his chest returning, much like when he’d witnessed her being harassed the first day they met. That protective instinct came out, roaring to bash in the heads of those who demeaned her and treated her poorly.
He wondered for the thousandth time since stepping onto this planet just what the hell this Terran woman was doing to him.
“Yeah. I guess I kind of do.”
Chapter 3
