Free Rystani Warrior 02 - The Dare by Susan Kearney

she’d been eating, Dora had noted how incredibly sensitive her lips were. Lips were a known erotic zone. To press them against Zical’s … oh, that would be a fine sensation.
    “Why don’t you at least plan to have a conversation first, then you can ask him if it’s okay before you kiss him,” Tessa suggested.
    “If I ask, he may say no. As for the conversation … I don’t know. Can’t I just kiss him hello?”
    “That is not Rystani custom. A hug would be more appropriate and you know it.”
    “Are you going to turn into my mother?” Dora asked with a twitch of her lip that she hadn’t intended.
    “Of course not.” Tessa took her hand. “But I’ve been human all my life. I don’t want to see you hurt. Or Zical hurt. Human relationships are trickier than they appear.”
    Dora could see that Tessa was fairly bursting to give her advice. “And?”
    “If I were your mother,” Tessa laughed, but her eyes were serious, “I’d tell you to start a conversation with Zical by asking about his work.”
    “I’ve been there with him every moment. There’s nothing he can tell me about the lack of progress on Mount Shachauri that I don’t already know.”
    “Except his feelings.”
    “He’s obviously frustrated. Won’t sex relax him?”
    Tessa threw her hands into the air, clearly unhappy. But Dora’s question was logical, wasn’t it? She’d spent years studying humans, and yet she trusted Tessa’s judgment. As a computer, Dora made decisions based on her ethical program, her data stream, and her personality. Now that she was in a human body, she didn’t have the same massive amount of input, but the process to make a decision should have been the same.
    Yet it wasn’t.
    Zical was the unknown factor, and for her to consider all her possible actions to create the reaction she wanted from him seemed impossible. If she’d wanted only an orgasm, not emotional connection, she could masturbate, but the idea of experiencing her first sexual pleasure with Zical was her first choice—but she had yet to figure out how to win his cooperation. Her eye twitched and her knee gave way. She stumbled and caught herself. She glanced at Tessa to see if she’d noticed her mistake.
    She had. When she caught Dora glancing at her, she wiped the frown from her lips. “You’ve done too much. You should rest.”
    “Let’s not start lying to one another.” Dora locked gazes with her best friend. “Okay?”
    “Okay.” Tessa didn’t mince words. “You shouldn’t be stumbling around. At least, I don’t think so. Why don’t we have a medical doctor—?”
    “Good idea.” Dora tried not to let her lower lips quiver. She’d known there would be problems. She would deal with them. Her eyes burned and water trickled down her cheek before her suit wiped away the moisture. Her nose became stuffy and her chest tightened. Even as she noted the uncomfortable physical reactions to her worry, she was realizing that becoming human was more difficult than she’d anticipated.
    She’d wanted a perfect body so she could entice Zical. But her beautiful body wasn’t in perfect working order. Her facial muscles twitched and spasmed, her joints gave out without warning.
    Miserable at what she perceived as her failure to adjust properly, she didn’t bother to wipe away her tears. “I don’t want Zical to see me like this.”
    Tessa embraced her. “Human babies crawl before they walk. You’re trying to do everything at once and you’re doing marvelously well.”
    “Thanks.” Dora sniffed, hating the clogged nostrils that made breathing through her mouth a necessity. “I’m being a big baby.”
    “No, you’re being human.” Tessa hugged her hard, then stepped back. “You’ve done the impossible, Dora. You’ve gotten what you wanted.”
    Dora hoped Tessa was correct. Her lack of medical knowledge bothered her. Since she’d had no intention of becoming a doctor, she’d limited her medical wisdom to first aid. Once