The apartment seemed to operate on a schedule. Not long after Esayr left all of the rooms began to slowly lighten until they were bright enough to navigate. It must be the start of the day cycle I guess.

The rooms were all modern, but relatively normal at least by human standards. I found myself lurking in the study. I stared at the bookshelves that took up most of one wall in the room. The spines of each novel had an odd script and I couldn't understand any of it, so I started pulling out books at random and flipping through pages. Most of the books were impossible to interpret with just pages upon pages of the same language filling the pages, but some had pictures.

For such an advanced race, you'd think they'd have less archaic forms of information. The perusal was interesting, though and I was happy that I took the time to lurk through some of the books. One of them had star charts. One small book had maps of what I could only guess was the Val'Dornn's home planet. Another book had old time looking drawings of two bodies with lines drawn connecting the two silhouettes. I was reminded of the drawings I'd seen representing the chakras.

I pulled out a small unassuming book in a black leather-like material. I was just mindlessly, trying to pass the time and wasn't really expecting anything interesting, but when I flipped through the pages I was struck by the images. They were dark black and white prints of couples. They weren't anything erotic, but all of them were holding each other in tight loving embraces. It was obvious that each image showcased Val'Dornn males with females of different races.

It's a chronicle of Temani Bercari's throughout history.

I flipped through the book with renewed interest, seeing different species of females the Val'Dornn had encountered. I was astounded by how human most of the species looked. The golden females with fiery manes and the wicked lines along their bodies looked like some kind of ancestor for Addric and Kados with their catlike eyes. The silvery white delicate females that looked like they'd fall apart like a snowflake had eyes that looked like mercury and they had to be some relation to the males like Vailen.

I don't know how long I stood looking at that book, but it was long enough to get so engrossed in the history of their searching that I didn't notice anyone enter the room.

"The Marin'Dar Temanin," Esayr intoned behind me. The words rolled off his tongue fluidly. They sounded exotic and beautiful.

"That's what this means?" I flipped the book over to showcase the script inlaid into the front of the book. I glanced back at him and noticed he stood at my back, not close enough to stress me, but close enough to feel a heat radiating off of his body.

"Yes, it roughly means Chronicling the Soul. It's an older Val'Dornn dialect, from a time when traditionally families created these archives to detail family lineages. Many families on the Aarond Form likely still have their Marin'Dar."

"Do you have one?"

"My mother does."

The news floored me. For whatever reason, it had never even occurred to me that he might have parents. I mean her certainly had parents, but the fact that they were still present was something that had just slipped my mind. It's probably because your parents passed when you were young. It hasn't been a consideration for you for too long. "I'm sorry....this is going to be a strange question, but you have a mother?"

He smiled and that smile turned into full-fledged laughter. It started as a dark rumble in his chest. He threw his head back and really truly laughed. I loved the sound of it.

"I mean obviously you have a mother. I mean just that...she's still alive." Despite the somberness of the comment, I couldn't keep the smile off my face.

"Yes, my mother and my father are both still living."

"I guess it just never occurred to me that you might still have parents."

"No?" He stepped up close behind me and looked over my shoulder at the book I'd been reading, the Marin'Dar Temanin. "Most of us still do, but a lot of parents stay behind on an older ship when a new Temani Bercari begins. Mine are on the ship, though."

"Why did they choose to come on the ship on this new...search?"

Esayr's hands touched mine as he pulled the book from my hands. He held it out in front of me. I was held in the circle of his arms as he flipped through the pages delicately until he came to the page he was looking for. On it was a male, holding a female close to his chest. She was all dark features just like Esayr, but she had a band of fabric tied around her eyes and she had motifs of dark swirls tattooed along her shoulders, "Empath's form remarkably close knit bonds with those they're close to. We don't like to be separated, even more so than others. My parents would have been unhappy knowing the distance that would have separated us if they had remained on the previous ship."

"This page is of the race you came from?"

"Yes."

"Why does she have a covering over her eyes?"

"She was a great huntress. She navigated and found her prey by the use of her abilities and not her sight. It is said that some hunters and huntresses permanently blinded themselves because it increased the gift. The tattoos are traditional and tell of the darkness of surrendering one sight for another kind of sense."

"That's so fascinating."

"It pleases me to know that my ancestry interests you."

I could feel a warmth, again, in my chest that was unfamiliar but comforting, "So, you and your parents are close?"

"Yes, very."

"Then...if you don't mind my asking. Why weren't they there in that room yesterday when you were waiting to meet me? This...you've said this whole thing between us is important, but you only brought your friends with you to meet me." The idea that he didn't want his parents to meet me felt like a blow, but that couldn't be right because I didn't want this to be an actual relationship in the first place. But, try as I might I wanted him to want his parents to meet me.

"We are in our Temanus Ilharus. Traditionally the Val'Dornn permit a certain period of time for bonding between mates before the couple yet again join their society. It allows for undivided attention to be lavished between the couple. The sole exception being one's Riniere. A Riniere is an extension of one's being and traditionally the Riniere's of both the male and the female will come and give their well-wishes to the couple before they go off on their bonding."

"A Honeymoon. On Earth, we have a similar kind of thing. After a couple is married they'll go on a trip together and enjoy each other's company for a little while before coming back to their homes and their work." And they fucking bone.

"Traditionally, parents will meet the mate of their child once they have completed their Temanus Ilharus. If you wanted, however, I could take you to meet them now. They would be...very happy to meet you."

Nerves and embarrassment sent my cheeks to flaming, "I wouldn't want to intrude. Also if it's traditional for afterward, I wouldn't want your mom to get the wrong idea, y'know, that we'd...y'know"

"That we'd bonded? Or simply that we'd shared our bodies?"

Suddenly he was too close. The heat radiating off his body stroked against my skin causing it to tingle. I was hot and bothered standing in the circle of his arms. Just as I began to think about running, as I began to think it was too much he retreated.

"Addison, can I ask you a genuine question?"

"Yes." My voice was breathy.

"What is more of distasteful to you? The thought of being bonded to me, or the thought of having sex with me?"

Neither. "I-i don't know." The thought of having sex with you was the farthest thing from distasteful and that thought terrified me because I had no idea what to do. I haven't had the time to fumble around under some dark sheets to figure my way around a man's body. Hell, I barely knew my way around my own. I didn't know how to be sexy or anything and the idea of trying to figure all of those things out with a man who looked like a burnished god of sex was overwhelming. "I think I'm just scared."

He smiled at that and it wasn't the response I was anticipating, "I will endeavor to put your fears at ease then."

"You, do you really want me?"

Esayr stopped and stared at me, "Do you want me to list all the ways that I want you, Addison?"

I don't know. "I don't know."

"I want you. I want to see the kind of laughter in your eyes that I saw in the picture you took at the Genetics Lab. I want to hold you while you cry and shoulder some of your pain. I want your anger as we learn to navigate our lives together when I've done something to bother you. I want to taste your lips more than anything I've ever eaten in all of the time I have been alive. I want to run my hands down your body and feel you shiver because you want me there and not because you are afraid of me. I want to look at your body --all of your body-- in the streaming lights of this room and not have you shy away from me. I want to worship that body and kiss my way across all of that unmapped territory until none of it is uncharted. I want to worship you and whisper old and sacred vows to you while you call my name like an oath. I want you softly. I want you under me quick and fast. I want to wear your passion between my shoulder blades and I want your taste on my tongue. I want your everything anyway I can have you. But I only want it if you will give it to me. So, between that time and now I intend to show you how to be comfortable around me." He gestured to a place on the floor of the room, "I asked my friends for insight on how to block me from their minds and they've given me some ideas. We will start by creating a wall and will build it from there."

He promptly sat on the floor as if he hadn't just said some of the dirtiest things to me out of anyone I'd ever encountered. How am I supposed to sit here with him after he's made a declaration like that? I can barely even look at him.

"Addison?"

I snuck a glance at him and I met his gaze, he looked like he was working through some kind of math problem, puzzling it out right in front of me, "Yes?" I averted my gaze quickly.

"Are you a virgin?"

*****A/N*****

I'm having so much fun typing up this story. It's really been a joy to just let go and stop worrying about having the perfect story flushed out and just really focusing on writing and getting it out there. Truly, thank you to everyone who has taken the time to indulge my fantasies for a time. It means so much to me.

Dare to Dream,

Layla