Page 45 of Gemini
Nitochi frowned. “Alien?Youare the aliens here, not us…”
Tamara’s eyes widened. “Men? As in…Plural?”
Oh. Right. “Gemins men share a soul,” I explained. “From what I gathered, the other species are just…I mean, there will only be one man.”
“The Virgons’ bride will have two males too,” Baelor pointed out. “But you are to marry a Canco.”
And that was the end of his explanation…Tamara looked even more confused. “What he meant was that you will only have one husband,” I reassured her. “Filbur, if I heard his name correctly.”
Baelor nodded. “You did.”
“Oh,” Tamara said, awkwardly playing with her fingers. “I wasn’t given his name yet. Thank you.”
I grabbed her arm and pulled her with me through the corridor, toward where John said the cafeteria was. Although I thoroughly enjoyed Gemin’s food, I did crave some human pastry and John mentionedlemon cakes.
Yum.
“So, are you nervous?”
Her features hardened but she forced a smile. “Not really. I was when I thought it would betwomen, but I’ve made my choice.”
Her choice? Could she be any more cryptic?
“Where are you from?”
We took a left. Then a right. When we reached the door of the cafeteria, she still hadn’t given me an answer.
“If you’re not comfortable talking about something, just tell me. I’m here to answeryourquestions, I was just curious.”
The door slid open. “Thank you.”
The next ten minutes were awkward as hell as we sat in silence, her sipping a cup of tea and me munching on a lemon pie—no cakes today, I nearly cried. Baelor and Nitochi remained silent, sitting farther away and not drinking or eating anything, worried it wouldn’t be edible for them.
“Do you ever regret?” she finally asked.
Does she?“I don’t. I was happy on my planet, but I’ve never felt like I belonged more than I do with them,” I confessed. “When they offered me to join the program, they said I was one hundred percent compatible. I didn’t understand what it meant at that time, but I do now.”
I looked at them over my shoulder. Baelor smiled. Nitochi’s look was more…hungry. Yeah,you and me both,habanshi…
“And I don’t know if they told youhowI arrived, but it could have goneverywrong.”
“They did. You must have been terrified…”
“I was. But my big and scary dark knight saved me,” I said, pointing at Nitochi over my shoulder. “I don’t know how the Cancos are, but if your man is anything like these two, prepare for the Princess treatment.”
That brought a real smile to her face. “I guess I’ll see.”
23
I want to put our babies inside her right now.
Wendy
Tamara had seemed incredibly nice, but our meeting left a sour taste in the back of my mouth—and no, it had nothing to do with the three lemon pies I had eaten.
No matter what her story was, it felt like her being here wasn’t an easy choice. Maybe she was running from something. Maybe she was here to start over after something bad happened to her.
Anyway, she was a rock and I hadn’t been able to get a single clear answer from her.
