Page 43 of Tamed By Her Touch

Clair frowned.

“No, you haven't.”

He nodded.

“I have. You do not always arrive before I do.”

She stared at him.

“You've been making my coffee?”

He shrugged.

“Occasionally.”

“And you never told me?”

“You drank it,” he pointed out.

“Well, yes,” Clair said defensively. “But I thought I'd made it and forgotten.”

Come to think of it, it had seemed strange lately that the mornings when she dived right into her research there was already a hot mug of coffee at her elbow. But she’d always assumed that she’d made it herself while she was distracted with work. It was humbling to realize that it had been Kaelus fixing her a mug of her favorite brew exactly to her specifications.

And he didn’t even ask for any praise, she thought. If James ever did anything nice for her at all from making her a drink to loading the top rack of the dishwasher, he expected endless thanks and acknowledgement of what a “great guy” he was. But the big Hybrid had never asked for any of that—he just quietly made her a cup of coffee and put it where she would find it.

“Well…thank you,” she said at last and cleared her throat. “All right, my turn to learn about you. What's your favorite food?”

“Grilled thurin with root mash.”

Clair frowned.

“What's a thurin?”

“A herd animal raised on Tranq Prime,” he said promptly. “They have long, shaggy coats to enable them to withstand the intense cold and their meat is richly marbled with fat. It goes well with the root mash, which has a creamy texture when prepared correctly.”

“So basically alien steak and mashed potatoes,” Clair said, making a note.

He frowned.

“No.”

“Well it sounds like steak and mashed potatoes,” she pointed out.

“It is nutritionally superior to your human food,” Kaelus said.

“Of course it is.” Clair grinned. “All right, what do you eat for breakfast? I never see you eat in the morning at the lab.”

“Because I get up early to work out and I prepare my own First Meal,” he rumbled. “Usually it consists of six fluval eggs, a portion of roasted meat, and a large bowl of grain porridge with starflower honey and fruit.”

Clair stared.

“You eat all of that for breakfast?”

He shrugged.

“Yes.”

She shook her head.