Freeing Luka: The Clecanian Series Book 2 Victoria Aveline (story read aloud TXT) 📖

me in more ways than one at the outpost. I was drugged, nearly out of my mind, but present enough to dimly understand what they were doing to me. If my foggy memories are correct, she was kind when she didn’t have to be. And brave. There aren’t many people who can boast that kindness and strength. My mating instinct may have drawn me to her initially, but she’s the only reason I was able to survive in that place. She tied me to my sanity. Gave me a reason to keep fighting. If she never wants to see me again, I’ll understand, but I’ll never stop wanting her.”

Jade stared at Luka, a wide grin on her face. “Just tell her that. Easy-peasy.”

“What?”

“That was a great little speech.” She counted off on her fingers. “You like her for who she is. You’re insanely attracted to her. You’ll work hard to win her over, but you won’t try to force her to be with you if she doesn’t want to.”

“She’ll be satisfied with that?” Luka asked curiously. “She won’t want gifts or a demonstration of my abilities or my grades?”

Jade glanced toward Theo pleadingly. He took a seat near her, sighing. “We’re going to be here all day, aren’t we?”

***

As Luka left the medbay Theo had escorted him to, he reflected on what Jade had told him. If she was right, Alice wouldn’t need the showmanship that normally accompanied a courtship.

Her descriptions of a human relationship were too good for Luka to believe. Constant affection? Shared bed for sleeping? Luka had never in his wildest dreams thought those things were possible, even if he found a cure for Clecanian infertility.

In order to have all that Jade had told him, though, he’d need to redeem himself to Alice.

He’d learned that his ankle, now fully healed, hadn’t been broken. The slender bone directly above his ankle, however, had been. When the doctor had examined him, he’d been surprised to learn Luka had not only been dealing with the pain for over two hours, but had tried to walk on the injured limb.

Holding his guest pass ball tightly in his hands, he stared across the water at Alice’s small floating house. Anxiety made his heartbeat quicken and heat crept up his collar. Luka frowned.

In his world, he excelled at almost anything he tried. If he set his mind to something, more often than not, he succeeded. Feeling anxiety wasn’t something he was used to.

Whenever he’d interacted with females before, he’d been either charming, as his studies had taught him, or uninterested. He’d made it to the testing phase of the ceremony twice now, but had always refused to participate to avoid being chosen. He knew himself, and he knew what he wanted. A temporary wife was not that. Anytime he used what he’d been taught in school to charm a female, it’d always been with the direct and outspoken goal of having sex.

As Luka felt his palms grow damp with sweat, he realized it was different with Alice. He cared if she liked him. He wanted her to like him. To seek him out for conversations. He wanted to be a person worthy of her attention, and right now, he didn’t feel that way.

He set off, relieved when he found the platforms appear under his feet as he walked to her home. How soon before Metli deactivates the pass? Being stung by bilom would only send him back to the medbay and away from Alice once again.

When he reached her door, he took a moment to compose himself, then knocked.

A small voice sounded from behind the door, “Hello? Who is it?”

“Luka.”

He scowled when his reply was followed by silence. Just as he was ready to speak to her through the wood rather than in person as he’d hoped, Alice opened the door.

His breath was temporarily stolen at the sight of her and the exposed skin of her arms and shoulders. She was no longer wearing the sweater from earlier.

After holding his gaze for a moment, she stepped to the side of the doorway. “Would you like to come in?” she asked, her lips thinned.

This must be an Earth custom.

He decided it’d be rude to turn her down, even as he cringed to think of other males she may have innocently invited into her home. An invitation into the house of a Clecanian female was usually a signal that she was interested in sex. The way Alice’s eyes kept straying around the room nervously told him she, unfortunately, didn’t intend the same.

Now within the bright, cool confines of her home, he set the ball near the door and studied her again. Silently, he thanked the unseasonably warm weather for the glimpse of her exposed shoulders and the low dip of her neckline.

She cleared her throat, and his eyes snapped back to hers. He clenched his fists in frustration. At his first opportunity to make a better impression, he’d been unable to keep himself from ogling her.

A pale pink spread over her cheeks, drawing his attention away from his aims yet again. Would her cheeks flush like that after a vigorous bout of fucking, or would her skin pinken everywhere?

“Can I help you?” she said without meeting his eyes.

Get ahold of yourself! Luka cleared his throat. “I’d like to apologize for embarrassing you before.”

Alice raised a delicate brow. “You’re apologizing for embarrassing me?” she said slowly.

“Yes, I—” The burning look in her eyes gave him pause. “I didn’t mean to speak to you like that in front of everyone.”

“Oh!” she laughed. “Did you mean to speak to me like a dick in private?”

“No…” he began but struggled to clarify.

Alice held up a hand. “Luka, I really don’t know what you want from me. I’m sorry we’re in this mess and that you feel