Alien Warrior’s Second Chance by Sue Mercury
Chapter 12
“It looks like a pastry.”Zorras shot a quizzical look at his plate. He poked at the glazed donut and finally picked it up and took a large bite—chomping the donut in half. After he finished chewing and swallowing, he said, “It tastes like a pastry. Are you sure?”
“Quite sure,” Karla said before taking a sip of coffee. She placed the mug down and watched with amusement as he popped the remaining half of the donut into his mouth. “The secret is in the dough and the cooking method—donuts are deep fried. Trust me, I know what I’m talking about. I used to own a bed and breakfast and I did all the cooking on my own. I made all kinds of sweet treats for my guests, including donuts. Original glazed like the ones we ordered are my favorite, but cream-filled and raspberry glaze and powdered donuts are also pretty good. Oh and huckleberry donuts. Those are absolutely scrumptious.” As soon as she stopped speaking, she flushed all over.
What the hell was she doing?
They were on a date—a real date—and she was babbling about donuts as though they were the most fascinating topic in all of creation.
Well, at least Zorras looked interested in what she was saying, she decided after another glance into his sexy green eyes. He’d settled an intense stare upon her, rarely blinking, appearing to hang on her every word. Still, it was time to up her conversation game. But before she could think of something riveting to say, he beat her to the punch.
“I looked you up while I was on Earth. What I mean is, I typed your name into all the databases I could find. I know you owned a bed and breakfast—Karla’s Kove—which was located in a place called Montana. I saw pictures of it on your home planet’s internet.”
She stared at him in shock. Her first instinct was to berate him for snooping, but she quickly amended her opinion on the matter. If the shoe were on the other foot, she would’ve looked him up too. She remembered the days of her youth when people posted public dating profiles and had various social media accounts, making it easy to learn a great deal of information about a potential love interest.
“Is that so?” she finally asked, her stomach suddenly in a tight knot. She’d fled Karla’s Kove and Earth altogether after her ill-fated encounter with the raiders. What would Zorras think if he knew the full truth?
He nodded. “I spent time researching you, as well as learning more about human dating customs. I wanted to make a good impression upon my return to New Vaxx.”
“Um, what else did you find out about me? And how did you look me up in the first place? Who told you my last name?” She cringed inwardly, thinking of the news stories about Merle. He’d gotten himself arrested a couple of times during their marriage—for drunk driving and fighting in bars. Asshole should have been arrested and charged with domestic violence, but whenever the authorities showed up, he would slip them a bribe and they would go away. But his arrests had all occurred while he’d been on “work trips” and in those instances he hadn’t been able to pay off the local cops.
“Your full name and most recent Earth address are a matter of record in New Vaxx’s citizen database. Knowing that you reside with Axall, it was easy to look that up.” He started to reach for her hand, but quickly stopped himself and took a sip of his coffee instead. He placed the mug down and took a series of long, steady breaths. “As for what I discovered about you on Earth, I was disappointed that I could not learn more about you—I only found out the places you lived, what schools you attended, and that you’d been married once and your husband passed away after eleven years of marriage.”
Well, he must not have figured out the username she’d created for her social media accounts, otherwise he would’ve seen the story of her life through pictures—at least the story she had tried to present to the world. But she was glad he hadn’t found those accounts, because the girl who’d posted the perfect pictures all those years ago had never truly existed.
“You were only forty-one years old when Merle died,” Zorras said. “Why didn’t you ever remarry?”
She opened her mouth, prepared to give him a vague explanation, but his compassionate expression, as well as the intensity of his gaze, gave her pause. And she supposed if they were going to take their relationship further, eventually she ought to trust him with her secrets.
“Merle wasn’t a kind man,” she said bluntly. “He hurt me very badly. He-he was a violent drunk. Even when he was sober, he wasn’t much better. He cheated on me a lot too and always put me down, calling me names and telling me I was fat and ugly. I ran away once, but he found me and dragged me home. He threatened to kill me if I ever tried it again. After he died, it took me years to learn to trust again. Even now, I’m not quick to trust people. Anyway, I never planned to remarry because I didn’t want to risk getting hurt again. That’s why I’m still alone after all these years—it’s by choice.” Maybe she was oversharing a bit, but at least she wasn’t rambling about donuts. At least she was being honest.
Zorras’ eyes darkened, his muscles tensed, and he sat taller in his seat. “That vile nescuxxa. If he were still alive, I would pummel him to death with my fists. No female should be treated the way he treated you. What a fool he was—you are not fat or ugly. I know I said this before, Karla, but I swear on the Star God that you are truly the most beautiful female I’ve ever seen. Every time I look at you, I’m stunned by how lovely you are. It’s like witnessing the sun shining over creation for the very first time.”
She tried to respond, but her throat suddenly burned so fiercely, she couldn’t get any words out. She blinked back the moisture in her eyes as she remembered his sweet letter. He had prayed for another mate, for a second chance at love. He had specifically prayed to his Star God for a human soulmate. Maybe there was something magical happening between the humans and the Vaxxlians, maybe all the talk about soulmates was really true. Even if it weren’t, every Vaxxlian-human couple she’d run across in the settlement appeared deeply in love.
Karla, on the other hand, had never prayed for a second chance at love. She had prayed for healing and for the ability to forget. She had healed slowly over the years, as much as any person could heal from the dark experiences she’d suffered, but she still couldn’t forget the events she most wanted to wipe from her mind. But she’d gotten better at pushing them to the back of her thoughts, until days and sometimes weeks would pass without the darkness rising up.
But something amazing yet terrifying happened to her as she stared across the table at Zorras—she found herself longing for a second chance at love. A real chance at love—Merle didn’t fucking count.
Zorras reached for her hand, finally touching her, and she allowed him to lace his fingers through hers. “I would never hurt you, sweet beauty. If you become my mate—and I pray to any god who will listen that you will one day agree—my sole purpose for living will be ensuring your happiness.”
“But what could I possibly give you in return?” she asked before she even considered her words. A second later, shame washed through her. This was the old Karla speaking, the Karla who often worried no one would like her if she wasn’t perfect, the Karla who feared she was as worthless as Merle used to claim during his taunts. She shifted in her chair. “What I mean is—”
“You would give me the gift of yourself, my sweet beauty,” he said, interrupting her. “Being with you fills me with joy. If we became a mated pair, I would no longer wake up alone. Instead, I would wake up and see the female I cared about most in the universe beside me. You would be my lover and my companion.” He brought her hand to his lips and placed a feather soft kiss upon it, causing a pleasurable shudder to sweep through her body. “You would be my whole universe, Karla. You would be my everything.”
