“That turned out so well I could not have planned it better myself,” Ag’hana said cheerfully as she joined her at her side. “And everyone saw it! That deserves a very good midday meal provided by my brother’s zelbs.”
“Oh no, we don’t need to waste his money on something too fancy,” Charlie protested.
“Nonsense. He will be thanking me by the time everything is done.”
Rhyst didn’t thank anyone that night. Though Ag’hana was long gone by the time he arrived with food late into the evening, he said little as he entered and stepped out of the way of the orb’s projection on the white wall. Her eyes followed him, distracted from the program she’d been watching.
This was the moment she had been waiting all evening for.
Dropping the shawl low to show the sheer paja she wore beneath it, she stretched into what she hoped was a sexy reclined position. Her breath came out in short, eager pants as her eyes drank him in. She just needed to get his attention and then confess exactly how much she needed him. She would make him believe her even if it meant using everything in her arsenal.
A quiver stole through her as he approached. Her lips softly parted… and she jumped as Rhyst dropped a container of food on the table and walked away, not even glancing in her direction. Charlie gaped after him in bewilderment.
If word had arrived to him about their adventures, he said nothing about it. He took his food into his room, leaving her alone in the common room. Charlie’s heart sank as she twisted her eating utensil—a peculiar-looking spork—into the food. As with midday meal, the flavors burst over her tongue in an exotic medley, but somehow at the same time everything seemed to fall to ash in her mouth. Not one to waste food, she ate it despite the absence of her appetite. Disappointed sadness morphed into anger as she ate.
Maybe she was being too optimistic, thinking that there would be anything at all for them in their future. Well, if he isn’t gonna try, then fuck him! Turning back to her program, she forced him out of her thoughts and ignored the pain within her.
She would do what she needed to do and get back home. Never should have lost sight of that goal. She had other people she cared about and who cared about her there.
She didn’t need Rhyst.
And she knew she was lying to herself as her heart clenched painfully. She squeezed her eyes shut, pressing away the tears that threatened. This was worse than the pain of leaving home and leaving Earth. Worse than being stolen from the people she knew in the colony. She felt like she had lost something precious—and it was devastating.
Chapter 28
The second day of his meetings with the king was proceeding on a pleasant note that morning, to Rhyst’s relief. The day before, he spent hours reviewing the recordings of the lab from his orb and explaining to the best of his knowledge the activity of the humans he observed. The debriefing had stretched late into the night, and his worry about the king’s verdict made it difficult for him to even look into Cha’lii’s eyes when he returned to her with food in hand.
Instead, he had fled to his sleeping quarters and shut her out. He had scented her sadness, but he could not bring himself to stay when he had no comforting information to bring her. Not when every word spoken of Cha’lii in the palace was accusatory or suspicious to Rhyst’s ears.
The laser on the floating scanner snapped off, disconnecting from his orb, and drifted upward. He blinked, returning moisture to his remaining eye. Simultaneously, with the connection severed, the projection orb in the king’s conference room shut off. The king sat back in his throne, fingers drumming on the arm of the chair, a thoughtful look on his face. Rhyst continued to stand at attention, his eyes focused respectfully on the king. He did not allow even the smallest bit of apprehension he felt to surface.
He had good reason to be concerned. The information accessed that day concerned Cha’lii, and while much of it was unremarkable, seeing the way he had been looking at Cha’lii reflected back to him through the projection orb was far more intimate than he had realized. The only small comfort he had was that the orb could not access and transmit his private feelings and thoughts.