She opened her mouth, but there was no answer waiting for her either.
“You…” She started, stopped, pursed her lips, then glared at him. “Dang it. Now you’ve gone and ruined the moment. I have to go look up why my blood is red and why yours is gray.”
“Is it really so important?”
“No, but now it’s going to bother me. Besides,” she pulled back detaching herself from him with a long sigh. “It’s obvious that you’re still having issues with the whole intimacy thing. I’m not going to throw myself at a guy I don’t know for sure would catch me.”
“I would catch you,” he said, confused about the sudden change of topic.
“Figuratively, not literally.” She put a finger to his chest and pushed. “Oh, but I do need to inspect the goods before we get down to business.”
“Please stop speaking in metaphors, I have no idea what you’re saying.”
She sent him a wicked grin before running that finger down his chest. She hooked it around his belt and tugged ever so slightly.
“I mean, I want to do a dick inspection before I let you inside me. I need to see the barbs and make sure they’re not going to shred me internally.”
“I already told you they would not,” he grunted, the dick in question starting to perk up at hearing itself being addressed.
“And you know what they say: Trust, but verify.”
“Who says that?”
“Humans, apparently. I’m sure in Rik-Vane they’d say something like ‘trust no one’ or ‘trust is for children’ or something like that.”
“Trust is for fools, actually.”
“Called it!” She laughed, pulling her finger back. “You’ve got some emotional hangups to work through. I’ve got some anatomical hangups to work through. So, let’s leave the aggressive flirting here today, and revisit this topic at a later date. Sound good?”
“I get the feeling you’re not actually asking for my agreement.”
“You haven’t told me to stop yet,” she smirked.
He had no response, and she laughed.
“Called it again! See you later, boss man. Don’t work too hard yourself, you hear?”
Chuckling to herself, she tapped her cleaning machine on the side and set it to follow her back to the lift and down.
Tanin watched her go, unable to tear his eyes away. Even once her head disappeared below, he kept staring in the spot where she had been. Frowning. Thinking.
“I’ll admit, I’m surprised.” Alred popped up, standing beside him.
“About?”
“You. Of course. I didn’t think you’d ever choose a female.”
“I still haven’t chosen a female.”
Alred scoffed. “Please, don’t take me for an idiot. I may not have the functioning parts anymore, but I was once bound to my sexuality as well.”
“Do you even remember your biological life?”
“The memories are in my core. I can remember them whenever I want. That’s not the point. Are you really going to let this happen?”
Tanin said nothing for a long moment. “It would be foolish.”
“Why?”
