into the kitchen, where he poured himself a glass of orange juice. It was one of the many sweet, flavorful Earth beverages he’d come to enjoy, and it was always particularly refreshing after a brutal round of exercise with the grav generator.
Heat coursed just beneath his skin, sparking a series of mild itches throughout his body. Despite the physical exertion and the burn in his muscles, he still felt unfulfilled, still felt as though he were missing something. His heart had not yet slowed since completing his workout.
It is merely the aftermath of my exercise. It has nothing to do with my thoughts of her.
Zevris lifted the glass to his lips and drank as he walked to the sliding glass doors near the dining area. Perhaps it was merely warm in his dwelling. There was a breeze outside today that bore a taste of autumn crispness; allowing some of that air into the house couldn’t hurt.
He opened the sliding door a few inches and leaned a shoulder against the doorframe as he sipped at his drink. The breeze flowed in through the screen door, carrying the mingled scents of the grass and flowers in his back yard and those of the lush trees beyond his rear fence. A bit more muted but impossible to miss were the smells of someone roasting meat on a grill…and Dexter.
Before his thoughts could leap back to Tabitha, Zevris dumped the remaining orange juice into his mouth, gulped it down, and hurried to the sink to rinse the glass. His tail swished behind him impatiently.
Did she like the gift? Did she understand my intent?
Another pulse in Zevris’s groin made his fingers tighten around the glass. He froze, jaw clenched and arm trembling. Perhaps he’d been mistaken in assuming he had overcome the effects of that scent.
Or, perhaps, he’d been mistaken about the true intensity of his desire for Tabitha.
Zevris placed the glass in the dishwasher as delicately as he could before hurrying upstairs. He didn’t allow himself any hesitation in placing the grav generator on the bathroom counter, undressing, and getting into the shower.
As he washed himself, he steered his thoughts toward mundane subjects—the items he would need to purchase during his next trip to the grocery store; which of his numerous unfinished projects seemed to be the most inspired; whether he’d received this month’s bill from his internet provider. But his mind repeatedly found its way back to Tabitha.
What would it be like to have her hands running over his skin like this? How would it feel to have her soft, voluptuous body tucked against him with this hot water cascading over them? To have her arms and legs wrapped around him as he pounded into her?
“Karak’duun,” he spat, halting his hand, which had been sliding down toward his hardening shaft. He forced that hand forward instead, grasped the shower control handle, and cranked it all the way to cold.
Zevris slapped his hands on the wall and leaned into the frigid water, ignoring the icy burn as it battled the heat roiling inside him.
I am on a mission that may save my people.
I am an althicar, one of the most disciplined, effective, and feared special operatives in the known universe.
I am in control of myself—body and mind.
He wasn’t sure how long he stood there before his blood finally cooled and his arousal faded, but he fell into a sense of clarity that was welcome after the lust-addled fog of the last forty-or-so hours.
His desire for Tabitha was undiminished; he was determined to make her his. But he could approach that matter from a rational position and figure out the best way to woo her without losing control, without going mad with lust, without taking rash action or acting on impulse. The unexpected effects of that scent had ruined his first attempt at traditional human courtship, but that did not mean all was lost.
He finished his shower, and as he dried off and combed his hair, he formulated a strategy. Would the droves of books, articles, and videos on the internet related to picking up females offer any help? He’d found no success with such techniques thus far, but could that simply have been a matter of unpracticed or improper application? Which information was genuine, effective, and honest?
No. He knew that his lack of success had little to do with those techniques. None of the females he’d attempted to form a relationship with had ignited a spark in him like Tabitha had. He’d never looked