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being in his arms. Between yesterday and last night, this was more contact with another person than she’d had in years, and Ali was eating it up like she was a kid in a candy store. Sure, somewhere in the back of her mind she knew it was taking advantage of the situation, just a little.
    But dammit, she was the victim here, right? Some horrible aliens had stolen her from her home and infected her with only God knows what, so shouldn’t she enjoy a little stolen comfort from her handsome rescuers? Alison could only assume that once they’d made it back home to Dolak that they would drop her off at whatever the equivalent to a “pound” was, or wherever they usually dropped off the lost-and-found aliens, and be on their way either back into space or off to find their fourth bond mate.
    She frowned to herself at the bad feeling that rose in her tummy at the thought of these males leaving her behind. Was she really that clingy? Gosh, she needed to dial that back if one night of sleeping in their arms was affecting her so much already. It was only occurring to her now that in all the years she’d been single, the simple things most people took for granted were the ones she’d missed the most. Like having someone there at the end of a bad day to just give you a comforting hug, or having someone to hold you as you slept.
    “What is that ?” she asked as Conn placed a plate full of black and grey on the table before her. “Is this your first time cooking or something?”
    He just laughed at her and gave her a wink as he brought his own fork up to his lips and took a bite of what she could only imagine was a completely charred piece of meat.
    “You aren’t the first non-Dolakian to find our food rather odd, Ali. On our planet, everything that grows on the surface tends to be black or grey, including our food,” he answered, still eating in between words. “Just try it. I’m certain it will surprise you.”
    And it did surprise her, as she took her first tentative mouthful only to be shocked at the flavor of something fruity hitting her palate. Alison realized then that she’d better learn to reserve her judgment on a lot of things, that and be ready to get surprised because she had a feeling there was going to be a lot of that happening in her life from now on.

Chapter Nine
     
    Conn could see Alison’s frame begin to tense as they’d reached the end of their meal, and she’d just finished helping him clean up the kitchen. He frowned to realize that she’d only been up for a few hours and already the previous contact from sleeping with Kal was wearing off. He hoped that her body would adjust over time and the effects would take longer to come back, or her new life was going to be full of limitations that would become tedious to anyone.
    “How are you feeling, Ali?” Conn asked as he came up to place a palm on her cheek. “Your skin is chilled. Do you need to rest?”
    She sighed and looked as though she didn’t want to admit the weakness to him.
    “Yes, I am getting tired and feeling a bit weak. But I just woke up. I don’t want to sleep right now.”
    Conn debated whether he should take her back to their room to Tannen or not, but he figured that he’d try to take care of her first and see if she needed further assessment.
    “I know just what we can do to rest then. Do you like vids?” he asked, sweeping her off of her feet once again and making his way to the observatory.
    It was a lounge, of sorts. The extended windows gave the best view of the stars in the entire ship, and they had comfortable couches and large viewing screens set up on the walls. Conn set her down on the low couch and then went to select the program on the viewer. He chose a program which focused on their home planet and its evolution to what it was today, hoping it would be less of a shock for her when they arrived on Dolak in the next couple of days. Clearly she came from a planet filled with color if her bright green eyes and soft