“All right,” she says in a shaky voice, and I notice she doesn’t lower her hood.
We’re silent as the sled approaches to move alongside ours. I don’t slow my speed to encourage the visit. Don’t have to. I know from a glance whose sled it is. Amanast has the flashiest air-sled this side of the galaxy. It’s a bright, impractical red that sticks out like a sore thumb and is just begging to get scratched up.
He cruises up alongside us and tips his hand at his horns in greeting. “Emvor! Sanjurel said you’d be coming out for this gathering but I didn’t believe him. Said we’d never get that old codger out of his cave unless they were handing out more land.” He gives his belching laugh, grinning so wide it seems like he’s all teeth. “Heard that you had company visiting, though, and thought I would introduce myself. Who’s your friend?”
I glance over at Nicola and she’s got her head down, carefully hidden by her hood. Her hands are tucked away, as well. I glance back at Amanast and notice that his gaze is focused on her breasts. Keffing bastard. He shouldn’t be ogling her. “Company,” is all I say. I should tell him more, tell him that she’s looking for a husband, but I can’t force the words past my throat.
“Looks like female company to me,” Amanast says, and I can practically feel Nicola trembling at my side.
I should introduce the two of them. Amanast is young. He’s got money. I imagine he’d be good to a wife. Don’t think he’d care if she’s human. He’d probably like the attention she’d bring him. But then he gives another one of those jarring laughs. I imagine that braying face moving in near Nicola, braying at her while she sleeps. Braying at her while he mounts her—
My hands tighten on the controls of my sled and I grind my teeth. I want to tell her it’s going to be okay. That I know she’s scared but I’ll protect her. Of course, how can I say that if I don’t intend on keeping her? Do I even have the right to be mad at the thought of who’s gonna touch her if it’s not going to be me?
I reach over to pat her knee and instead, she puts her hand in mine and gives it a little squeeze.
She’s reassuring me. Gods damn it, she’s breaking my keffing heart.
I look over at Amanast again, at his eager, open face. He wouldn’t be bad for her, no…but I ain’t giving her up. I can’t. She’s already in my blood. Should have known the first time I saw her that I’d be keeping her. Don’t matter that she’s not strong and fit.
I’ll just buy a few of the damned mechs for the farm after all and keep my pretty wife occupied in my bed.
The thought feels so right that I chuckle to myself. Dunno why I’ve been fighting this for the last week when I could have been exploring Nicola’s curves. I’m just a stubborn fool, I guess.
“Going to introduce me?” Amanast asks, leaning in.
I look over at him. “Nope.”
And then I put my sled in reverse and careen backward, away from Amanast and his shiny sled and his obnoxious laugh. I cruise in reverse for a few, and then turn the sled around and head back toward my home at high speed. They can just miss me—miss us—for another gathering. No one will care much. I don’t really care if they do.
“What’s wrong?” Nicola asks after a moment, clutching her hood about her face as the wind whips around us.
I glance over at her and her sad eyes that seem so big in her small face. “I’m keeping you.” When silence meets that statement, I begin to slow the sled down, just in case she wants me to go to the gathering after all. “Unless you don’t want to be kept—”
Nicola flings her arms around my neck and the sled wobbles off to the side, careening over one of my fields. I don’t much care about that, because all I can think of is her soft body pressing up against me and the way she keeps pressing her mouth to my cheek and jaw, over and over again. She makes a sound of pure delight and snuggles up against me like I’m the best thing that’s ever happened to her.
I pat her shoulder awkwardly, trying to right the sled before we crash into all the crops. Not really sure what to say now that I made my big declaration. I clear my throat. “Should probably save all the face-tasting until we get back to the farm.”
“Face tasting?” She giggles and runs her fingers down my cheek in the same spot where she had her mouth a moment ago. “I’m sorry. I forgot the mesakkah don’t like to be touched like that. Hygiene laws.” She sits back in the sled next to me, letting her hood slide away from her hair. “I won’t do it again if it bothers you.”