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She knew from first-hand experience what dogs human men and boys could be. If she had her way, Lindsey would move up to the Mother Ship permanently and find a Kindred warrior to settle down with. After she finished college, of course.
“So Lindsey’s okay with the di-vorce?” Thrax asked, bringing her back to the present. He pronounced “divorce” like it was a foreign word—which made sense, considering that it was such a foreign concept to the Kindred as a whole.
“Yeah, she’s fine with it. I think she understands why we couldn’t stay together. Though I don’t think the ‘open marriage’ thing is going quite like Brian expected it to,” Andi remarked.
“Meaning?” Thrax raised his eyebrows.
“Meaning there aren’t as many women lining up to date a scrawny, middle-aged man as he thought there would be,” Andi said with a grin. “From what I’ve heard, none of the girls at his office was interested in being part of his ‘open marriage’—what a shame.”
“Huh—I always thought your ex-mate was a fool,” Thrax rumbled. “Sounds like he’s getting what’s coming to him. I mean, why would he let a beautiful mature Elite like you go in the first place?”
“Aw, thanks partner.” Andi punched him lightly on the shoulder and grinned up at him. “You really know how to make a lady feel good.”
“I’m serious, Andi—you’re fucking gorgeous,” he growled, his golden eyes blazing. “Fuck your idiot of an ex-mate if he can’t see that!”
Andi laughed.
“That’s his problem—now that I’ve left him, nobody will fuck him!” But she appreciated her partner’s words more than she could say.
One nice thing about Thrax was the way that he gave her little compliments to boost her spirits. Also, he always chose to hang around with Andi, even on their off-time, rather than date other women. He didn’t have to—with his looks he probably could have gotten any woman he wanted—even if he couldn’t have formed a Soul Bond with any of them because of his Hybrid heritage. But for as long as they’d been partners, she’d never seen him even look at—or compliment—another woman. It was almost like she’d found the fidelity in her work relationship that her marriage had lacked.
Of course, Thrax might be seeing someone or maybe just hooking up with a woman without her knowing it, but Andi doubted it. Unless he was doing it with the blood donors he visited periodically to drink from. But if that was the case, he never talked about it to her.
He was sweet and caring too—though no one seeing his rough exterior would believe it. She still remembered the time she’d had an especially nasty confrontation with her ex and Thrax had comforted her.
She’d been feeling especially low that day after coming from dropping Lindsey off with Brian. This was just after he’d tried to get her to resume their relationship like nothing had happened and Andi had refused.
Her ex had said some cutting things—telling her she was a bad mother for refusing to come back to him and implying that she was never going to find anyone better than him because she was too old to start over and not pretty enough to find a man even if she wanted to.
“If that’s true—if I’m so old and ugly—then why do you want me back?” Andi had demanded, glaring at him. “Could it be that you’re missing having someone around to cook and clean and give you sex whenever you want it? Because maybe you should have thought of that before you decided you wanted an ‘open marriage.’”
“That was a mistake on my part, I admit that,” Brian had said stiffly. He was still trying to win her back in his own twisted way at that point. “But it’s in the past—it’s over. Now you need to come back—if not for me then for Lindsey’s sake.”
“Don’t you dare try to use our daughter to make me feel guilty!” Andi had snapped. “Lindsey is doing fine and you brought this separation on yourself.”
“How can she be ‘fine’ when you’re gone most of the time?” Brian shot back. “She needs her mother here with her—not flying around the galaxy with some big devil-looking bastard all the damn time!”
“Thrax and I aren’t just ‘flying around’—we’re doing a job,” Andi told him. “We locate missing Kindred warriors and bring them home!”
“Meanwhile, your own daughter is sitting here in our home, missing her mother,” Brian had accused her. “You need to come back, Andrea—your family needs you.”
The guilt trip was a good one—Brian was excellent at making her feel like shit. And though Andi had told him off and refused again to “come home” as he put it, she had gone back to her suite aboard the Mother Ship and cried about it afterwards.
It wasn’t that she missed her husband or the one-sided relationship they’d had—she really had done all the cooking and cleaning, despite the fact that she’d worked more hours than he did outside the home. It was the fact that she actually did miss seeing her daughter every single day. Despite the fact that Lindsey seemed to be thriving and was making good grades, she still felt like a shitty mom—which of course, had been her ex’s intention.
She had still been feeling bad when Thrax had come to her suite to ask her about something. Andi had nearly turned him away but the minute he saw her face he’d said,
“Hey, what’s wrong, baby?” in a surprisingly soft, gentle voice that completely undid her.
“Nothing,” Andi tried to lie. “I’m just…I’m kind of busy right now. Could you maybe come back later?”
Thrax had studied her face for a moment and then shook his head.
“Huh-uh. I don’t think you ought to be alone right now.”
Then he had pushed his way into her suite with Andi trailing behind him and protesting that she was fine, even though she wasn’t. He had taken a seat on her couch, right in front of the firewall, which was flickering with gold and blue flames, and patted the cushion beside him.
“All right—tell me all about it,” he said.
