AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Deal.” We shake on it, his large green hand engulfing mine. It lingers just a beat longer than necessary and I feel a strange little flutter in my stomach.
Must be all the paint fumes.
We load up the cart with gallons of Mystic Moonbeam and so many other supplies the cart can barely hold them. As we navigate the chaotic checkout line, Zylus leans down to murmur in my ear.
“Not bad for our first shopping trip together. We only had, what, a dozenarguments?”
I elbow him lightly in the ribs. “Excuse you, I believe the term is ‘spirited debates.’ And I totally won most of them.”
“Sure you did.” He looks like he’s barely holding back a laugh. “Keep telling yourself that while I repeat two words—Mystic Moonbeam.”
I sniff haughtily and turn away to hide my grin. Who knew home renovation could actually be kinda… fun?
As we load the hover-truck with our haul, I catch Zylus watching me with an odd expression. Softer than his usual smirk.
“What?” I ask, suddenly self-conscious. “Do I have paint in my hair or something?”
He shakes his head. “No, no. I was just thinking… we make a pretty good team.”
I blink, surprised. Then I give him a tentative smile. “Yeah. I guess we do.”
Maybe this whole partnership thing won’t be such a disaster after all.
But I’m still not letting him pick the bathroom tiles.
Chapter Six
Zylus
After three hours at the cafe, and the shopping trip to Astro Build, I couldn’t come up with any more excuses to stay away from Zo’rel Place. It’s ridiculous, really, that I’m terrified for us to live together under the same roof.
You’d think a male my age would have lived with a female before, but it just never seemed like the right person or the right time. That was no hardship. I stayed busy with my construction business as I socked away credits to eventually buy Zo’rel Place.
Now I’m going to be co-owners with Misty. We’ll have to get things finalized with an attorney, but we hammered everything out at the cafe. We’ll spend the first year of operation living at the B&B as she calls it, taking tiny salaries, and saving every extra credit.
Hopefully, at the end of the first year, one of us will be able to buy the other out. I doubt she’ll like it in our small town. She described living in a large city back on her home planet.
I’m going to expect her to pull her weight with the renovation. After months of swinging a hammer, she’ll probably be all too eager to fly off the planet and let me buy her out.
We’ve structured the deal so that whoever gets bought out will get a small percentage of the profits in perpetuity. It should be equitable. She’ll walk away with a decent number of credits, and I’ll finally have the old family house, as well as a good income stream. Both of us will win.
“I didn’t sleep well last night,” Misty says, a shadow of worry crossing her face. She holds up the bag containing the clean sheets we collected when we detoured to my apartment to collect my things. Before turning in, we did a quick clean of the two bedrooms we’ll be using. “Here are your sheets. I’m going to make my bed and turn in early.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I see her swerve to the enormous fireplace along the far wall and grab a fireplace poker. Does she think she needs to protect herself from me? I’m hurt, insulted she thinks I might be a threat. Then I realize it’s smart. Although we’re partners in this venture, she barely knows me.
I chose the room farthest from hers, so we’re at opposite ends of the second floor. As I make my bed and put my clothes away, I can’t keep hiding the truth that is shouting in the back of my mind.
I’m attracted to Misty.
It’s been easy to avoid getting close to females in the past. I’ve always been so focused on my end goals, I never allowed myself to stray off the path I’d set for myself.
Misty, with her short, curvy body and long, brown hair, makes it impossible to do that. She’s fun and laughs easily at my jokes. At the cafe, she made several self-deprecating comments I think were designed to put me at ease, though I hadn’t thought my discomfort showed.
She has an easy way about her. While I was eating my sandwich, she cocked her head and focused on my mouth so sharply I quit chewing. Then she apologized with a laugh and a toss of her hair.
“I’ve never known anyone with fangs before. It’s interesting to see how you manage without cutting your lips to ribbons.”
If I didn’t know better, from the way her face flushed and her pink tongue flicked out to lick her plush lips, I would swear she was wondering how I would manage tokisssomeone without cuttingtheirlips to ribbons. But it’s crazy to think that. She couldn’t be interested in an Astralite like me. Right?
