Cutlass: Motor City Alien Mail Order Brides: Intergalactic Dating Agency Read Online Free PDF Page B

side, and my esehhnce happy. Not yet crooning, but in tune with Klow-ee’s. This might be a good match, after all. Perhaps Hohddshoun wouldn’t need to die.
    We had walked a short distance when Klow-ee turned suddenly and smiled at me with a look of joy on her face. I stood stunned for a moment, unable to pay attention to the fact that she was speaking. She took every ounce of my cognitive function away from me. Her beauty radiated in a completely arousing way. Her eyes bright and attentive, her smile wide and excited. A total trap for my senses. I wanted to stay in her presence, to absorb some of that happiness. To bask in the light of that expression.
    I wanted this little human in ways that were far too carnal for being in public.
    Her smile faltered, though, when I didn’t answer her. I nearly kicked myself—I’d totally lost focus and missed the conversation.
    “My regrets,” I said with a small nod of my head and slight baring of my teeth. “Your smile distracted me. What did you say?”
    Her head tilted, a wary sort of look in her eyes. My prey back on guard. “I asked if you liked scee-fued .”
    The translator core worked out the unknown word in record speed, not that it helped much. Scee-fued didn’t quite translate. The core filled my mind with images of various sorts—from small critters with multiple legs scuttling across the ground to large creatures with no legs, black eyes, and sharp teeth. Now those intrigued me. Great beasts who ruled the waterways on this planet would be a hard-fought prey, it seemed. I understood from my cultural training that I wouldn’t necessarily be hunting my own food here, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t enjoy the spoils of someone else’s hunt.
    “I’m curious about this scee-fued ,” I said. “I’ll try it.”
    With a shrug of her delicate shoulder, Klow-ee led us into a building with many tables and people all around. The volume of the chatter, the press of bodies in the cramped space, made the hunter in me nervous. I inched closer to Klow-ee, wanting to hold her sweet body against me. To keep her safe amid the chaos around us. To use physical connection to ground any worries she had. But Klow-ee didn’t seem worried. She stood tall and calm in the crowd of humans. Brave, my little female was.
    Looking around, I catalogued the various ways males and females interacted. All the computer-led cultural training in the world was no match for immersive education. Everywhere, couples stood together, some talking loudly while others silently looked at the communication devices they held. Still others touched and bared their teeth, obviously enjoying their partner. Those were the ones I watched the most, the ones I would imitate. They would be my teachers.
    I leaned closer to Klow-ee, ready to initiate the communication required to woo, but before I could say anything, a male approached her. A human male.
    “Table for two?” The male’s smile dropped when he saw me, and his steps faltered. There was even a bit of a nervous warble to his voice that denoted him as prey instead of predator. Good.
    “Please,” Klow-eesaid, sounding happy and relaxed in front of this other male. Perhaps not a direct threat, then. I followed Klow-ee as the male led her across the space.
    “I used to come here a lot when I was younger,” Klow-ee said as we sat at a table in the middle of the room.
    “This is close to where you grew?”
    “No, but my mom worked downtown, so we’d sometimes end up here on a weekend. This place was her favorite.” Her smile and her eyes dimmed. I reached across the table and grabbed her hand, ignoring Ampetheia’s advice to let her touch first. The look on Klow-ee’s face meant she needed comfort, and I would be the male to offer it.
    “Why are you sad?”
    She didn’t even bare her teeth at me as she wove her fingers through mine. “My mom passed away a number of years ago. It’s…still hard.”
    Passed away … The translator showed pictures