Educating the Alien: Raedyn (The Azurite Series Book 1) by Sara Hotchkiss

good for dinner with my mother.”
    Raedyn nodded. This was the only night they would be on Earth and while he would rather spend the time alone with Lexi, he understood the human culture of sharing a meal was an important one, as well as meeting the parents. Not that they were a couple. He was just starting to get used to the way Lexi touched him absently, no longer flinching any time her hand was placed on his arm, shoulder, or knee. She was so different from Lae though, soft where Lae was hard, sweet and kind where Lae was rough and demanding. His vision of the perfect woman was turning into a vision of Lexi.
    “I have two meetings, but should be done by 1800.”
    Lexi nodded. She was worried about the dinner with her mother and she nibbled on her thumbnail nervously. Raedyn reached over and pulled on her pinky, popping her nail from between her teeth.
    “Why do you do that?” he asked, watching her mouth.
    “It’s a nervous habit. Don’t you have any of those?”
    His eyes widened at her curt reply.
    “I’m sorry. I’m worried about dinner with my mother. I feel I should warn you. She will think we’re a couple. Even though we’re not. She wants grandchildren and I’m her only child.”
    He smiled at her concern. Earth busybodies were not so dissimilar to Azurite ones. Speaking of mothers.
    “My mother would probably do the same. It’s no problem. Trust me, she’ll probably seem like a lamb next to the piranha my mother is.”
    “You do that very well. Have you been studying? It’s funny to hear such Earth language spoken in Azurite.”
    “Well, if I had said your mother would be a flu’lithho’d compared to the glo’ksh’iha my mother is would you understand?”
    Lexi wrinkled her nose. “Did you just compare my mother to the sweet smelling pollen of a type of flower that Azurites use for cleaning toilets?”
    Raedyn shrugged, “Hey, your people eat bee vomit.”
    Lexi couldn’t argue with that.
    The transport to Earth was as quick as the one to the Fier’the’yi Fho’rd had been, though for Lexi, less traumatizing. She and Raedyn parted ways as he headed for meetings and she to explore, promising to meet back up before riding together for dinner.
    Lexi didn’t want to tour the city without Raedyn, having lived here for the majority of her adult life, instead choosing to hunker down in the park with a book, eating lunch from a cart stand and enjoying the beautiful day and trying not to think about the dinner ahead. She should give Raedyn more credit. He was turning out to be a great friend. He was loosening up his rigid ways and she was starting to see the humanity inside him, as much sense as that made.
    She was still struggling with the decision to take the job as colony representative. But, if she could find a man like Raedyn to call her own, the choice would be simple. Where had that thought come from? Sure, he was tall and handsome, ripped and kind, not to mention well hung, but she didn’t consider him anything more than a friend. Not really. Yes, they had shared a very intimate moment when he was ill, but he was practically comatose.
    And there was the list.
    She found herself scanning the news reports daily, obsessively waiting for the announcement of his name to the partner list and subsequent match. It was silly really. She had seen the way other women looked at him though when he was playing in the sports arena. He was a very nice specimen of Azurite male. The apex between her thighs pulsed when she remembered cleaning his most private parts. Caressing the stubble on his cheek. Wondering if he, too, would someday let her rub oil over his body. His muscles twitching under her touch, his firm and sinewy body, lithe and…
    Lexi shook her head. It had been too long since she had been with a man if she was imagining herself with one that could barely tolerate her touch. She didn’t know what she would do.
    ---
    Amazed. That was the only word that could come to mind as Lexi reviewed