“Reddix…” Nina wasn’t quite sure what to say.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “So fucking sorry I didn’t say anything about Tilla. I should have. I just…never thought you could care for me after what I did. I never thought I’d even have any kind of a chance with you, and I didn’t want to think about what was waiting for me here on Tarsia.”
Nina shook her head. “I don’t even know what to believe anymore.”
“Believe that I care for you, please, sweetheart.” He took her hand in his, and Nina let him hold it though she didn’t squeeze back when his fingers closed over hers. For a long time they stared into each other’s eyes, silver clashing with blue.
Finally, Nina sighed. “If you really feel that way, you need to tell Tilla,” she said. “It’s not fair to her otherwise.”
He nodded. “You’re right.”
Nina withdrew her hand. “I’d offer to stay with you and damp her emotions, but I think that would only make things worse between the two of you.”
Reddix nodded stoically. “I owe it to her to tell her face to face with no one between us. It won’t be very fucking pleasant, but I can manage.”
“You’ll have to.” Turning, she left the room, brushing past the very angry Tilla as she did.
“There she goes—there goes the alien whore,” the Tarsian girl spat as she walked past.
Nina looked back at her. “I may be a whore in your eyes,” she said calmly. “But at least he can touch me. At least he wants to touch me. That’s more than you can say.”
Tilla grew red in the face. “None of that matters because I have the right blood. Long after you’ve returned to your backwater planet, I’ll be the one standing by his side as wife of the OverChief—you’ll see.”
“Keep telling yourself how important your blood is then,” Nina said. “And go ahead—talk to Reddix. Try to convince him he wants you when he doesn’t. Have fun with that.”
Then she turned and walked away, leaving the Tarsian girl sputtering behind her.
But her victory felt like a hollow one. Inside she was wondering what was really going on. And who would Reddix really choose?
Chapter Twenty-nine
Nina wandered outside in a daze. The fight with Tilla, Reddix’s admission that he was in fact engaged to the skinny Tarsian girl, being on yet another a strange alien planet…it was all too much. She needed to get some fresh air…to breathe…to think.
Also, though she didn’t want to admit it, she wanted to get away from the temptation to listen in on Reddix’s conversation with Tilla. She had heard low, angry voices coming from the guest bedroom where she had left him, and she was dying to know what they were saying. But she refused to eavesdrop. Reddix could do what he wanted—he was a grown man, after all. If he truly intended to follow through on his word and end things with Tilla, he could come and tell her about it himself. In the meantime, Nina was determined to put the matter out of her mind as much as she could.
Reddix had a large spherical house built out of the same shiny black Lego-looking bricks as the other Tarsian homes she had seen, but it was located on the very outskirts of town. Nina wasn’t surprised about that—of course someone with his affliction would want as much privacy as they could get. She wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d chosen to live in a cave like a hermit. It would have been nice to see more of the town, but actually, Nina rather liked the remote location. The forest across from his home was huge and beautiful and looked like a good place to take her mind off her problems.
The trees on Tarsia were huge with thick, squat trunks. Their shapes reminded Nina of the time she had gone to visit a friend in California and had seen the giant redwoods. But the coloring was completely different. The trees all had green bark with dark orange and yellow leaves and some of them had purple and green flowers as well. The effect was of a forest in autumn back on Earth except there was no chill in the air. Nina wondered if the leaves were these colors all the time here on Tarsia or if they changed completely during the other seasons. If they had other seasons—did they? She really knew nothing at all about this world other than the fact that it was incredibly far from her own and it was Reddix’s home world.
“I wish I had a guide,” she said, half to herself. “Someone to tell me about this place.” She couldn’t ask Lissa or Saber anything—they were too busy preparing for the gathering that night. And of course, Reddix was busy with Tilla…No, she wasn’t going to think about that. She was putting it out of her mind.