Keen by Viola Grace Read Free Book Online

You woke up clean, correct?”
    “Yes.”
    “Then, they were at work last night. They seek out movement or anything different and make it tidy or repair it. I am guessing that your suit is in the wardrobe, just not in the precise configuration you remember it.”
    She blinked. “They took it apart?”
    “More than likely.” He entered a kitchen area and set the parcels down on the kitchen table.
    Prepared foods, meal packs and meat and vegetables in a raw state were all unpacked and put away. He moved around the kitchen with ease.
    She had a thought and she expressed it. “Why did you go to sleep?”
    He turned, lifted one of her hands and pressed his lips to her palm. “I was waiting for you.”
    Kee blushed, “I doubt that.”
    He gave her a serious look and led her back into the library.
    Humming to himself, he sought out a book and brought it to the desk, still holding her hand. He flipped through the pages and opened it. “Read it, please. It is in Common so you should be able to.”
    She started to read and took a seat when she got to the point about the mates dreaming of each other. Her memories of the few dreams she had had as a teen had always involved a dragon flying in a violet sky. Her dreams had ceased when she was an adult. She didn’t have time for them.
    The next step in Drai courtship was the song. He stood with his hands on her shoulders and the song rose again in her mind.
    According to the book, the song confirmed that she and the Drai in question were compatible on the psychic plane. The physical union was up to the two beings brought together by their connection. Psychic nature could only take things so far.
    Kee kept reading, unsuccessfully ignoring the neck rub that Jherin was giving her. A physical union would cement the link they had in their minds and speech would be possible without words.
    “What does that mean?” She pointed to the sentence in the book.
    “Precisely what it says. Our minds can already work on the same frequency, so when we mate, they mesh a little. It grows with time, but you will be able to chew me out immediately when we fly together.”
    She chuckled and leaned back into his hands. He was very good at working out the knots that hunching over books generated.
    Her stomach growled, and she looked up at him. “Was that food for eating?”
    He laughed and nodded. “I believe your first meal of the day is overdue.”
    She smiled and got to her feet. “That sounds like a wonderful idea. Tell me, what else do the nanites do?”
    Jherin put a hand at the small of her back and gave her a list of the capabilities of the tiny housekeepers that she could not see.
     

Chapter Seven
     
     
    After a meal of fruit and pastry, she asked him, “So, when do I return to the city? That archive is calling to me.”
    He cleared his throat. “The entryway is being repaired for the next week or so. There is no way for you to get into the archive, even if you were in the city.”
    The shredded metal came to mind. “Right. So, when do you begin your work?”
    “I already have. They have been receiving requests for additional colonists for the last two centuries. I am looking over the species who are applying for space.”
    “Can I help?” She bit her lip. She didn’t know anything about the species herself, but she could access the Alliance information with a thought. That had to be useful.
    “Certainly, you can access breeding rates when I list a particular species.”
    She perked up. “I can do that.” And she did. For five hours, they sat in the library and went over the species who had applied for the population expansion. Once they had chosen species that would not outbreed their space, they went for ones who did not have a history of attacking neighbours over territory.
    Jherin used a data pad; his clawed finger flicked the pages and rotated the display with dexterity.
    “You could look this all up yourself. Are you just humouring me?” For the first time in her life,