getting a gourmet meal instead of the usual noodles and dried meat that I subsist off of. “A wedding day celebration meal?” I ask, taking another sip of wine.
Nassakth looks down at the platter of food in his hands, and his thick brows furrow. “Should we have had a celebration meal?” He sets the tray down and carves a piece for himself, and then a thick slab for me, piling veggies onto my plate. “I did not think of it. My apologies, Kim.”
“You eat like this every day, then?” I’m surprised.
He gives me a feral, toothy smile. “If I am to farm for the rest of my days, I might as well eat fresh food, yes?”
Hmm. Another bonus point to this man’s farm. Mine only grows noli, and I can’t eat those. I sip more of the delicious wine. “Now you’re just trying to seduce me with food.”
“Is it working?” he asks bluntly. “Because if it does, I will feed you like a queen.”
I blush. “I was teasing. But…I do appreciate the food.” I hold my glass up. “And the wine that I’m drinking far too much of.”
He grunts and refills my glass when I set it down. “It is for you to enjoy.”
The meat is delicious and fresh. It’s a little overly rare and crusted with herbs, but Nassakth mentioned that his people like that sort of thing, so I don’t comment on it. Even if it’s not a hundred percent to my taste, it’s still the most delicious thing I’ve eaten in ages. The veggies are seasoned, too, and delicious, and I nibble on them while the cat alien takes huge, gulping bites of meat and equally large gulping tastes of wine.
We both eat for a few quiet minutes, and then I glance over at him. He seems…nervous.
That makes ME nervous. “Is something wrong?”
Nassakth hesitates, then puts his wine aside. “I thought we could get to know each other over dinner,” he admits. “Speak of our pasts so we could learn what the other had gone through and understand one another. It would be good to give ourselves a place to start from and to go forward from there. But now I think perhaps that is not a wise idea.”
“I think it makes sense.”
His mouth flattens, and I can’t help but notice that he’s got the same “split” to his mouth that a house cat does, leading right to his prominent nose. Unlike a house cat, though, he doesn’t have whiskers, and his teeth are far larger than any house cat’s teeth. “I do not like the idea, Kim,” he admits after a moment. “Not after seeing the distress you were in earlier. I would not put you through that again simply to ease my own mind.”
“I appreciate that, but I really do think it’s important for us to acknowledge where we came from so we can move forward together. Even if it’s hard for us to talk about.” I shrug. “You were a slave. I was a slave. It’s not like we’ve lived untroubled lives. We need to understand one another or we might never learn to trust.” I know I’ll be able to trust him more if I know exactly who and what I’m dealing with.
Plus, I’m really curious about his past.
He sighs heavily, gazing at his wine goblet as if he wants to chug it rather than deal with this conversation. “My past is not a pretty one.”
“You think mine is? I don’t expect you to have a pretty past, Nassakth. But I need to know it before we can move forward as a couple.”
As a couple. Jesus, why did I say that? This is a marriage in name only, no matter the big pizza bed or how tenderly he takes care of me.
Or how much wine I drink. I take another sip, just because.
The whole “move forward as a couple” thing seems to do the trick, though. Nassakth nods. “Very well. Let us speak of my past.”
And he takes another huge gulp of wine to bolster himself.
21
NASSAKTH
I hate that I must tell Kim my past. I wanted to protect her from it, to parcel it out in small dribbles so it does not seem quite so…bloodthirsty. Humans are different than most races in the galaxy, I know. They do not have battles to the death. They do not encourage slavery as a way to toughen the race and cull the weak. I do not know if she will understand where I come from.