A Soldier in Love (17 page)

“I thought they had
left you there,” Serik added quietly.

Michelle shook her
head. “No, I told them to go ahead of me.”

Serik’s eyes widened.
“Why? And why would they ever comply with such a request?”

Michelle shrugged her
shoulders despite her heart feeling heavy. “They were out of ammo and I
wasn’t.”

“But there wasn’t
something else they could do?”

Michelle shook her
head. “We didn’t know what to do so we shot.”

“I don’t understand you
Earth people,” Serik sighed.

“What do you mean?”
Michelle questioned.

“You don’t all fight
together? You leave one to die?” Serik replied.

Michelle narrowed his
eyes at him. “I am soldier and it is my duty to protect others. I had ammo left
and they didn’t. They would have all surely died if I wouldn’t have stayed
back.”

“And you surely would
have died…” Serik began.

“If you hadn’t come to
my rescue,” she interrupted. “Thank you again. You are truly a hero,” she added
softly.

Serik shook his head. “No,
Michelle, you are one brave little female.”

Michelle rolled her eyes.
“Serik, I’m not little. I’m not brave either. I’ve just somehow cheated death…
more than once.”

“Again, I don’t
understand you Earth people,” he grinned.

She let out an
exaggerated sigh.

He ran his finger tips
over her right ear. He ran something cool over her ear. She felt a slight
stinging sensation. “What was that?”

“It is a numbing and
disinfecting solution,” he replied.

“Oh, I didn’t need my
ear numbed,” she said furrowing her brow.

“I told you I wouldn’t
hurt you,” he said as he put the chip in what looked like a gun. She was amazed
he didn’t drop the tiny silver bud with his large hands.

“Take a deep breath
in,” he instructed.

Michelle sucked in a
large breath of air as he had said to do.

“All done,” he replied
with a smile.

“But I didn’t feel
anything,” she said with a look of bewilderment.

He grinned. “I know.”

Michelle ran her
fingers over her right ear and felt the coolness of the chip in her cartilage.

“Wow, it’s really there.
Thank you, Serik,” she said in amazement.

He held up what looked
like a mirror and she studied the chip in her ear. She nodded and he put the
mirror in a drawer.

“How do I get it to
work?” she asked.

“It just will,” he
replied.

Michelle really enjoyed
Serik’s cooking. He served her noodles almost every day for breakfast or
first meal
as he called it. They
reminded her of Ramen noodles on Earth. Well, gourmet Ramen noodles, if there
could be such thing. They were rich and delicious.

She was perched by the
bar as he prepared their next meal.

“Serik?” she called out
softly.

“Yeah, baby?” he
answered. He had been calling her baby since she had gotten well enough to
carry on a decent conversation. It was a little strange at first but she had
grown to enjoy it. She didn’t know if it was a Baat thing but it felt good. He
was very affectionate even beyond his terms of endearment. He held her when she
needed to be held. He was gentle and kind. She had never experienced anything
like it in all of her life.

“Will you teach me how
to cook your food?” she said looking closer at the stove.
 

He grinned. “Of course
but I’m almost done with this so next meal, OK?”

She nodded. “What are
you making anyway?”

“
Tois
berries and vegetables,” he called out.

Tois
berries were from
Baat,
Michelle remembered Serik had made them before.
 
They were berries but they tasted more like roasted
chicken. They were scrumptious. The vegetables that he made were often exotic
in color and texture, yet they tasted remarkably similar to root vegetables on Earth.
He had served something between a yam and radish with their last meal. Everything
was rich flavorful. She could feel the food here gave her more energy she had
never felt better in all of her life. The foods he made had to be chocked full
of vitamins and nutrients. She wondered if that’s how people on Baat got so
large and strong.

“Here,” Serik said
holding out a small purple fruit.

Michelle took the fruit
into her hand. She hesitated for a moment studying its soft texture. She slowly
brought it to her mouth and chewed.

She savored its taste.
It reminded her of strawberries but it was sweeter and richer than any
strawberry she ever ate on Earth.
 
“Serik,
that’s good.”

He grinned and handed
her a few more.

“So, is it true that on
Earth you eat the eggs of your fowl there? The membranes covered by shell.”

“Yes, mostly from a
bird called a chicken. I haven’t had any eggs in years because of the food
shortages but they were delicious,” Michelle reminisced.

Serik made a disgusted
face. “I don’t understand how you could eat such a thing. It sounds revolting.”

“Well, on Earth the
food wasn’t all the same. I thought a lot of other cultures on my planet had
strange food customs,” Michelle replied.

“Like what?” Serik
asked.

“I guess a lot of
things sound strange when I think about it. Like sushi, have you heard of
that?”

Serik shook his head.

“It was raw fish, sea
creatures, rolled in a sticky grain called rice.”

“They were alive?” Serik
exclaimed.

Michelle laughed. “No,
no it was just uncooked. It was delicious. I don’t know,” she shrugged her
shoulders. “On Baat, do you cook all of your meat?”

“On Baat, we don’t eat
as much meat but we have far more protein sources there than you did on Earth.
I will tell you
Yegrek
meat is delicious and yes we
cook it.”

“Well, if food tasted
like this on Earth we probably would have eaten less meat. What is a
Yegrek
?”

“
Ahh
,
hmm… like your
Cervidae
,” Serik replied.

Michelle thought for a
moment,
Cervidae
? What the heck is that?

“
Cervidae
?”
Michelle questioned out loud.

“Ah, let’s see it is a
grazing animal it runs quickly,” Serik explained.

“Oh, like a deer!”
Michelle guessed.

He nodded.

“Tell me more about Earth
food. What kind of foods did you like?”

“When I was a little
girl me, my sister, and my mom used to bake cookies. Chocolate chip ones. It
has been many years since I’ve had them though,” Michelle said as she thought
fondly of those warm days in the past. The rush of memories she had experienced
had made her sentimental.

“Cookies?
This is Earth meal?” he asked.

“Not a meal but a
dessert, well, I guess you make a lot of meals that remind of me of desserts.”

“Michelle, forgive me
but is it also true I read you boil a snapping crustacean to its death and eat
it.”

“Ah, sounds like lobster.
Yes, that was also an Earth delicacy. I guess a lot of things sound strange now
that you mention them. Remind me to never ask what you what we are eating or
where it comes from.” Michelle grinned.

“I’m going to have to
tell you if you want to learn how to cook,” he responded.

Michelle sighed. “I
guess you’re right. I just don’t want to eat any bugs.”

“I promise I won’t feed
you any insects. My people also find them revolting,” Serik chuckled.

Michelle said moving
closer to the stove like contraption. There was a giant microwave type device
as
well,
it was what Serik used to make their
first meal
every morning. She watched as
he poured and measured different foods into a mix and prepared their meal.

“You are very thin,” he
said.

“I know we had to
ration food,” Michelle replied quietly.

“Not here you
don’t.
I have plenty and I
want you to eat. Now that you are feeling well enough, I want to make you a
special dinner tonight.”

Her emerald green eyes
met his blue and golden gaze as she smiled.

“I’d like that but
everything you’ve made has already been incredible,” she replied.

He shook his head.
“That stuff was nothing. Just wait ‘til I cook you an actual meal.”

“Serik, I feel bad. I should
help you with the cooking,” she protested. She felt a tinge of guilt that he
had been so incredibly generous to her and expected nothing in return.
 

“You can… but let me do
this for you first,” he smiled.

Michelle smiled back
unable to refuse his offer. She knew it was strange to feel so strongly about
someone she barely knew but she had never experienced anything like it before. Despite
Serik’s giant stature and rough exterior he was gentle. He was gentle yet
strong, loving, patient, intelligent, and not to mention an amazing cook. His
touch was comforting and his words were kind.
The way he
cared for her and nursed her back to health.
The way his strong muscular
arms felt around her body at night.

I have to stop. I can’t feel this way about him. I
barely know him.

But part of her didn’t
want to stop. It was a good feeling and she didn’t want it to end.

“Here you go, baby,” he
said breaking her train of thought as he placed a bowl in front of her.

“This is delicious,”
Michelle said after taking a few bites.

Serik smiled and continued
to eat. He knew it was only a small offering but he loved that he was able to
please her with his cooking.

“Everything you make is
delicious and smells amazing. Actually, you smell really good too. I’ve been
meaning to ask are you wearing cologne?” she said sniffing the air.

“What is call-all-alone?”
he asked raising an eyebrow.

“It is something we had
on Earth. It is a product you put on to make yourself smell good,” she answered
smiling.

“No, we don’t have that
on Baat,” he replied furrowing his brow as he tried to understand the purpose
of call-all-alone.

No, no, that’s impossible. How can this be? How can
she smell me? Only females that are attracted to you can smell
your
mating scent. No, she must
be
smelling
something else.

“If you’re not wearing
cologne that must just be your natural scent. Too bad my natural scent doesn’t
smell as good as yours,” she added.

He gave her a serious
look. “But it does.”

She shook her head and
smiled. “I’m sure it doesn’t. I’m sure I still smell like the dust from Redex.”

“You don’t, you smell…
well, to be honest I’ve never met a female who had a better scent than yours.”

The truth was her scent
drove him crazy. It filled his nose and went straight to his head making him
feel somewhat intoxicated at times. It then traveled lower to make his shaft
throb with need for her. He wanted her badly but he knew he couldn’t. He just
couldn’t. He was meant to be alone. He was bad luck and the sooner she got away
from him the better off she would be, no matter how much he enjoyed her
company. The little female was fierce, she was brave,
she
was a fighter. In all of his life he had never met anyone like her. She had
been through much pain and suffering. He just wanted her to be happy. As long
as he was with her he would do everything in his power to contribute to her
happiness, she deserved it.

He enjoyed just being
with her. Her soft voice, her stories of Earth, her scent, those things somehow
worked around the wall he had built up around his heart. He thought of the way
her emerald eyes seemed to sparkle. It was both torturous and heavenly having
her with him. He loved sleeping next to her each night, especially when her
small feminine body was pressed up against his. It felt good, it felt right. It
was torturous because he wanted her badly, no not badly, worse than anything
else he had ever wanted in his entire life. Heavenly because when he could feel
her small warm body next to his; it felt like she was his. It felt real, even
though he knew deep down it was only temporary. Deep down, he knew she would
hate him if she knew.

Everything in life is temporary,
he reminded himself.

Not her,
a
small unknown voice called out to him.