Part 24 (1/2)
Cameron steered around the counter and joined them. ”Your mother needs a few hours away from me. Drew agreed to join us or your mother wouldn't go.”
”Well, what am I, chopped paow steak? Not that I mind Drew having lunch with us, but I'l be with you.”
”We thought you might have some things to do this afternoon, too,” Cameron said. ”I shut down the console. Since Tasha isn't here, we'l just close the office for the afternoon.”
”No, we won't. I don't have anything else to do so I'l come back here.”
”Well, darling, you never know what might pop up,” Catherine said. ”Now, are we all ready?”
Leith meekly followed along as they shut the office and left the building. Drew drove them to a restaurant not far away, and they enjoyed a leisurely lunch. Every time Leith tried to ask questions, either her father or mother turned the conversation in another direction. Finally, she gave up. They would tell her in their own time.
At last, Catherine got up and kissed Leith's cheek. Leith watched the gentle kiss and subtle touches her parents shared before her mother left. It was difficult to believe they had been married for almost twenty-five years. They acted like newlyweds. It was the kind of relations.h.i.+p Leith always wanted and probably the main reason she had never taken casual lovers. She wanted a deep, lasting relations.h.i.+p like her parents had.
What she yearned for with J'Qhir.
Tears burned her eyes as she looked at her father. ”Is there something you haven't told me about your condition? Is that what this is all about?”
”Of course not, Leith,” he said, but he sounded tired. ”We haven't been keeping anything from you about my condition. Besides, your mother wouldn't have left if there was anything to tell you.”
Leith nodded. ”All right, then. Are you ready to go home, Dad? You've done quite a bit for your first day out.”
”I'm fine. Actually, I was thinking of a walk in the park, if you two don't mind.”
”What about Mom?”
”She'l meet us there later.”
Leith sat quietly in the vehicle while Drew drove them to the park, found a parking s.p.a.ce, and helped Cameron out. Beads of perspiration broke out on her skin immediately. In late July, in the mid-south, the heat and humidity was almost unbearable. By the time they entered the park, she felt as if she were wrapped in a layer of damp cloth.
”Are you sure you're up to this?” Leith asked. ”We can do this another time, when the humidity isn't as high. The air's no cooler beneath the trees.”
”I'm fine.”
Leith glanced around the park, wondering what this was all about. Very few beings were out and about in this heat. A group of young Peridots crawled over the play area. Two Hykaisites performed battle exercises to a small group of interested humans. A few others walked here and there under the shade of the huge, sprawling trees.
Leith stopped when she saw the robed being standing a dozen meters away. His long, dark gray robe had blended so well within the shadows she had missed him the first time her gaze swept the park. Her heart thudded erratically. J'Qhir.
She glanced down at her father.
Cameron smiled. ”It's up to you whether you want to see him or not.”
She looked at J'Qhir again and said stupidly, ”I already see him. Why didn't you tell me?”
Cameron cleared his throat. ”J'Qhir explained that this is the way it's done, according to custom. I saw nothing wrong with it as long as he understood that if you turned around and walked away, then no one would stop you. It's up to you.”
”Why couldn't Mom be here?”
”According to their custom, only male family members are allowed and the meeting place must be neutral ground. I told him Drew was like a member of the family and he agreed.”
”And the purpose? I can't believe everyone went to all this trouble just for him to say h.e.l.lo.”
”That's for you and J'Qhir to discuss.”
Cameron would say no more.
It was what she had dreamed of, J'Qhir coming to her. She took one step then another and as she approached him, he turned away from her and moved deeper into the trees. She noticed he still walked with a limp.
She drew in a deep breath and followed along behind.
J'Qhir was all too aware of Leith's delicate stride behind him. When he first saw her as she entered the park, he could barely restrain himself from rus.h.i.+ng to her and embarra.s.sing himself into self-imposed exile. He wanted to hold her and kiss her there and there and there, carry her away to lovemake with her until their bodies ached sweetly with the spending of their pa.s.sion, as Leith called it.
Pa.s.sion, a wondrous Terran word. The Zi equivalent did not lend itself to such a meaning. He was pa.s.sionate in his desire to save Zi, but he was also pa.s.sionate in his desire for Leith. The two feelings were distinctly different. The Zi word did not extend to the intense physical need and longing he had for Leith.
The pattern of her walk was different, as if her center of balance had been altered. Did she reel with emotion at seeing him again? And which emotion? Excitement or displeasure? Each could cause the same response. She had not smiled when she found him beneath the tree. She had not appeared angry, but she had not seemed happy either. He knew well her happiness from their time on Paradise.
He had wandered through the park earlier and learned the many paths. Cameron had explained few others would be about because of the heat. The air here was damper than that of Zi, but he was quite comfortable even with the formal robe. Today, he was not the Warrior and gladly left his war attire behind.
Leith's steps quickened and she drew nearer. ”J'Qhir...”
He stopped at the sound of her voice, as he should. For him, the bonding ritual had begun.
”Do you have to walk so fast? I can barely keep up.” She glanced around the dense foliage. ”Where are we going?”
”We are there,” he said without turning to her.
She was silent a moment, not comprehending then discarding as unimportant. ”J'Qhir, it's good to see you again. I tried to get in touch with you, but I was told you had left Zi.”
Something swelled within his chest.
”I don't know what my parents have told you-”
”Cameron ha.s.ss told me all that I need to know. We have been communicating sssince my return to Zi.”
”Oh.”
Did he detect disappointment in that one small sound? Why should contact with her father disturb her? Of course, she didn't completely understand the bonding ritual. Perhaps he should have allowed Cameron to explain the process, but he wanted her reaction-good, bad, or indifferent-to be uncontrolled by forethought. It was critical to his peace of mind that she answer spontaneously.
Even so, he must diverge from the proper script. The demands the Council arbitrarily placed upon his position changed the procedure.
”The Council-” he began then cleared his throat. ”The Council ha.s.ss decreed the Warrior mussst be bound. They have chosssen a lifemate for me.”
Leith made a very small, strangled sound-he barely heard it-but when he turned, her face was as non-committal as before.
”I told them I would not bind with one they chossse. I would choossse my own.”
”And...have you?”
”Yesss. If ssshe will agree.”
”She would be a fool not to.” Liquid shone in her eyes, but she quickly blinked it away.