"Why do you not have a security fence?" It seems like a basic need to me, given how dangerous this galaxy can be for humans. And Lucy is not stupid. She is well aware of the danger.
"I thought I was safe enough, close to town. And…" She gives me a wry, hesitant look. "I was saving up."
"For?" I prompt. Surely a security fence would be the thing someone in her position would need the most.
Lucy hesitates, running a slim finger along the edge of her mug. Human fingers are so delicate compared to mesakkah, and I find myself staring at those five slender digits, comparing them to my four. "You're going to think I'm stupid."
"I won't."
She pauses for a moment longer and then gives me a small smile. "A baby." Her tone is reverent. "It's lonely out here, you know? My closest neighbor only shows up twice a year, and even going into town doesn't do that much when no one else goes in very often." She shrugs and looks down at her mug again. "I've always wanted a family, and I'd love to not be so…alone. I would love someone to take care of. I thought a baby might solve some of those needs, you know?" She shrugs her shoulders. "Lord va'Rin's wife has a doctor that can help human women get pregnant. Just shoots them up with fertility hormones and then they can have half-alien babies. So I was saving up for that."
Hot, hungry need sweeps over me. Lucy wants a baby?
I want to be the one to give her that baby. My possessive mesakkah instincts kick in and I clench my fists, trying to remain in control. Every bit of me wants to grab her and throw her down on the bed. Rip her clothes off of her and sink deep, filling her with my seed. Possessing her. Claiming her as mine.
I want that so badly, and yet I cannot have her. The universe is cruel.
24
LUCY
Today is not going like I planned. I thought I'd get Rektar to come out to my house and seduce him, but I'm too rattled to do any kind of seduction at the moment. Someone really is stalking me, trying to sink their dirty mitts into my farm…or me. I'm a woman that always has a plan, but right now, I honestly do not know what to do. Nothing in my plan involved getting stalked.
To make matters worse, I'm pretty sure Rektar isn't interested in me at all. He won't look at me half the time, wouldn't come inside until he saw me crying, and tries to keep a distance between us. It's distressing, because if I had a guy like him as my mate, I wouldn't be scared of anything. Instead, it looks like that will never happen, and I'm going to have a hell of a lot of trouble on my hands.
"What do I do?" I ask Rektar again, worried.
"We will help you, of course. The port authorities will not allow you to be harassed." His answer sounds stiff and rehearsed. "I will look for this Mezzak Sta'Iq and bring him in for questioning."
I stare at him. It's like we're speaking different languages. "And then what? Questioning him isn't going to scare him off."
Rektar seems momentarily puzzled, as if it hasn't quite occurred to him that sometimes the bad guys won't listen to reason. "I shall…tell him…to leave you alone…" Then he lets out a heavy sigh. "You have a point. I could arrest him for trespassing, but it won't stick. Someone will claim that his DNA landed in your barn by mistake—a stray hair blown in the wind, perhaps—and he'll be free and back on the streets."
I hug my arms over my chest. I've dealt with a lot since being kidnapped by aliens, but this is probably the most utterly alone I've ever felt. "Then you can't help me. No one helps us." I think of my neighbor—the woman who lived there before Tessa. I met her twice before news of her murder went around Port. She'd been killed by land squatters, who think that us human women are a mere deterrent, nothing more. Or heck, not even a deterrent. All someone has to do is throw his weight around and convince some frightened, unprotected woman to marry him and then the bad guy gets the farm AND a fuck toy. The human either gets to put up with her new husband or she gets murdered. It's an ugly situation, and I've been so, so lucky to avoid it thus far. "I'm a sitting duck out here."
"I will not let you be a Doug," Rektar says fervently. He jumps to his feet. "Not on my watch."
Gone is the awkward, oversized giant who wants nothing to do with me. In his place is the Rektar I've been longing over for the last few months. His eyes glitter with determination, and his mouth is set in a firm, unyielding line. He looks over at me and there's an expression of such ferocious protectiveness that something inside me clenches. "I'm going to protect you, Lucy. You will not be a Doug if I have anything to say about it."