Free The Alien Library by Maureen O. Betita Page B

and dove between them with his mouth. The book dropped to the floor.
    The first night was more of the day. When light filled the doorway, Cameron woke. She was mostly atop Tendar, who still slept. Daniel had disappeared. She carefully climbed from the bed to look for the bathroom. In the examination room, she saw Pindari leaving, Daniel lifting a cup of some steaming liquid to his lips.
    “Pindari?” Cameron called out. A head turned, but hurried away. Cam tried not to feel hurt. She joined Daniel at the breakfast. “Is she upset with me?”
    “Not at all. She leaves you in the care of her nephew. She loves you as her daughter, Cameron.” Daniel pulled her close and kissed her. “Tendar will sleep for several hours. He isn’t a morning man.”
    “He isn’t a man at all.” She snorted.
    “Semantics.” He shook his head. “Cameron. Tendar is working you through his system. Because at some point, likely the night he appointed you librarian, you infected him.”
    She swallowed, suddenly feeling lost. “Infection? I’m an illness? He’ll get over me? I’m just a fever?”
     
    Daniel was confused at the emotions he felt from her.
    Her eyes filled with tears, “Oh. All those soft words. Just delirium.” She turned away and actually ran for the door.
    He suddenly understood and dashed after her. He caught her at the doorway and pulled her back into the room. “No! It isn’t just that! If it were just an itch, he’d have seduced you months ago and moved on. Cameron! Quit fighting me!” He wrapped arms around her. “Listen!”
    “Why?” she all but yelled at him. “Rational for using me!? Fuck ‘em and leave ‘em? Just what I need!”
    “Oh, hell.” He sighed. “Listen and you’ll understand better.” He forced her back to the table where he’d examined her. She sat down, arms crossed, face furious and hurt. He sighed. This would be a difficult wall to break through. “Listen, that night, he was so delighted with discovering you. He had hosted his family and other delegates from the surrounding provinces. His troublesome brother was gone and there you were. He’s hoped, for two years, to rebuild the library, waited for a sign that the time had arrived. Mourned Justin’s loss, nursed Theo. His mother began the first library and he carries it on. You were what he needed.”
    She nodded abruptly. “Yeah? So?”
    “You oversaw the filling of his bath?” Daniel asked.
    “I watched the other two.” She took a deep breath and the tightness along her shoulders eased. He assumed her curiosity was taking over. “I didn’t help. I didn’t touch.” She swallowed, looked away. “Hell. A hair was blown onto the surface but I got it! I didn’t touch the water! That was all it took?”
    “Some part of that hair did. In the bath, I am very vulnerable,” Tendar answered from the doorway. “I opened to it, shedding the darkness of the visitors away. I was open, thinking of you and my pleasure at your intellect. Excited.”
    “I’m just an infection.” Her head hung. Her legs drew up and she clung to her knees. “I want to say it was worth it. I just want to say the hell with it. I can’t!”
    “Because it is more than that,” Daniel softly replied. “More than biology.”
    “More than biology.” Tendar strode into the room and simply lifted her from the table. He bent his face and brushed lips at her forehead. “Much more. It can be nothing but biology. If I had embraced you quickly and risked your life but I would not. I am strong. I am Kharmon. I do not harm humans.”
    She cried as he carried her back to the bed. Daniel followed and they drove her past the tears. She tried to leave the bed, fighting them with words. Words they countered with caresses, touch and kisses. Again, Tendar tried to offer her a gift. And yet again, Daniel stopped him with the word, patience .
    The room grew dark before they finally convinced her of the purity of Tendar’s feelings. He laughed and her heart