Oh, leaping gods! Bill was going to kill him!
“Pepper?” Her father’s voice sounded closer, as if he’d pressed his lips to the crack between the door and the wall. “You okay?”
“I’m fine!” She leaped out of bed, but Aelyx didn’t give her exposed body the slightest glance. He was too busy scrambling to find his own shirt. Curse it all, where was it? “I just fell asleep.”
“Where’s Aelyx?”
Their eyes met in panic from opposite sides of the bed. “Uh,” she stalled, pulling her sweater over her head while he snatched his shoes from the floor and crammed his feet inside. “He’s right here. We were studying and we dozed off.”
“With the door locked?” Bill turned the knob with more force, and Aelyx thought his heart might actually beat out of his chest.
Cara hurled his shirt at him, and he pulled it on with one hand while helping her smooth the comforter.
“Cara Mary-Katherine Sweeney,” Bill said in the most bone-chilling voice Aelyx had heard in two galaxies, “open this door now!”
While Aelyx fluffed the pillows, Cara Mary-Katherine Sweeney faced the mirror, frantically finger-combing her tangled hair.
“Okay, Dad.” She tried to use a carefree, singsong voice, but it cracked on the last note. “Coming.” She turned to scan the room one last time and flinched, pointing to the bedside table and silently communicating with her widened eyes.
Glancing down, he noticed her tank top, but when he tried to snatch it off the table, he wound up knocking it to the floor with his trembling fingers. Kicking it under the bed, he nodded for Cara to open the door, and then he leaned casually against the far wall, trying to look like he’d just been doing homework.
Cara opened the door, and Bill glowered from the other side, his body stiff and trembling with all the pent-up rage of a bull ready to charge. He stepped inside and scanned the room, taking in the rumpled bed before his burning gaze settled on Aelyx.
“Fell asleep studying, huh?” The control in Bill’s voice brought chills to the surface of Aelyx’s skin. This wasn’t a man who’d lose his mind and attack in the heat of passion. He’d premeditate the murder and carry it out with a steady hand and clocklike precision.
“Yeah,” Cara said. “We’re homeschooled now, remember?”
Bill swept his hand toward the polka-dotted comforter, crooked and draped across the mattress at an odd angle. “Where’re your books?”
“At school,” Cara said without missing a beat. “We used the Internet.” Thank the gods she was such a skilled liar, because his own tongue had decided to play dead in the interest of self-preservation.
“I see.” Bill walked slowly to Cara’s dresser and leaned on the edge, folding his arms as the pine creaked under his weight. Even the furniture feared this man. He studied Aelyx for a few interminable seconds before asking, “Do you usually study in bed? With girls?”
Still unable to speak, Aelyx shook his head.
“Da-aad!” Cara charged ahead, standing toe-to-toe with her father. “Leave him alone. You’re making a big deal out of nothing!”
“Fine.” Bill’s voice was smooth as cream, but he couldn’t conceal the redness rising up his neck and seeping into his cheeks. “Just two questions and I’ll go.”
Cara gripped her hips, mirroring her father’s stubborn stance.
“First,” Bill began, “what were you studying?”
“The periodic table.”
“And second.” He stood, rising to his full height like an angry bear and flicking the tag that protruded from the front of Cara’s sweater. “Why’s your shirt on inside out and backward? "
Midtown’s debate champion couldn’t produce an explanation for that. As Cara would say, they were busted.
“I’m calling your mother.” Bill stalked to the door and paused, glaring at them one last time. “You two stay in your rooms until she gets here. Your own rooms.”
Aelyx and Cara shared a commiserating glance, and then he joined her father in the doorway. Bill stepped aside, barely allowing Aelyx to pass, remaining close enough for him to feel the heat and scarcely contained rage rolling off his body. Slowly, Aelyx made the walk of shame to his room, closing the door behind him and leaning against it to steady his breathing.
Sacred Mother, short of Bill catching them “making out,” that couldn’t have gone any worse. But despite the heaviness in his lungs, a smile spread across Aelyx’s lips, and he pressed a hand over his mouth to muffle a laugh. He didn’t understand his body’s reaction—there was no humor in this predicament—but his smile wouldn’t fade.
Two hours later, he wasn’t smiling as he sat beside Cara on the living room sofa facing Bill and Eileen, who’d perched atop chairs they’d brought in from the kitchen. Aside from Sharon Taylor’s absence, the scene reminded him of their weekly interviews, minus the friendly banter. Minus any banter, actually. The only sound in the room was the distant hum of the refrigerator and occasional laughter from the soldiers stationed outside.
Finally, Bill broke the silence. “How far did it go?”
“Gross, Dad!” Cara covered her face with one hand. “This is sick! I’m not discussing my sex life with you!”
Bill shook an accusing finger at his daughter. “There better not be anything to discuss!”
“I’m practically an adult, and it’s none of your business what I—”
“Stop.” Eileen held one palm forward, and Cara clamped her lips together. Resting her elbows on her knees, Eileen spoke to her daughter in a firm but gentle voice. “It doesn’t matter how old you are. You’ll still be our little girl when you’re eighty.”
“Nothing happened, Mom. And even if it did, this isn’t just some hookup.” Cara linked her arm through his, and Aelyx noticed her father’s grip tighten on his chair’s wooden armrest. “We love each other.”
“Okay,” Eileen said with a nod. “But it has to end sometime, and then what? I don’t want to see either of you get hurt.”
“But it doesn’t have to end.” Cara turned to him and whispered, “Can you tell them?”
Nodding, he entwined their fingers in a show of solidarity. He wanted to send a clear message to Cara’s parents that this was no game—he’d chosen their daughter to be his l’ihan, if she’d have him.
“It’s true,” he said. “If the Elders approve the alliance, we’ll recruit colonists. Then Cara can come be with me on L’eihr.”
“Wait.” She stiffened beside him on the sofa. “L’eihr? I thought you’d stay here.”
“On Earth?” he asked. And spend every moment of his life guarding against attack? Out of the question. “No, they want to set up the first colony on our planet.” Her stunned silence told him this wasn’t welcome news, so he added, “But we could visit every couple years.” That didn’t seem to help, either.
He glanced at her parents—Bill, whose flushed face drained of color right before his eyes, and Eileen, who’d frozen in place with her head tipped in contemplation. The idea of losing their only daughter to a foreign galaxy obviously disturbed them, and he understood. He couldn’t bear parting from Cara, either.
“W-well,” Bill sputtered, “we’ll talk about that another time. She can’t even go until she graduates. Till then,” Bill continued, “no fooling around in my house. Are we clear?”
“Of course, sir.”
As Bill and Eileen returned their chairs to the kitchen, arguing over which of them would be responsible for supervising “the kids” during the day, he studied Cara’s blank expression and tried to discern her thoughts.