Aliena Too Read Online Free Page B

astonishingly, helped.
    Now she too slept.
    Hours later she woke to find him looking at her in the continuing daylight. “You are an appealing woman.”
    She knew that her hair and makeup were a mess from her sleeping, and her glasses were askew. “Thank you. But of course you are conditioned to find me so.”
    â€œI am. But I am thinking beyond the physical. You held my hand. You answered my questions. You sang to me. You slept with me. I know that you did not want to do these things, but you did them. I am in good limbs with you. This is what appeals.”
    Limbs? He meant hands. Again, what could she say? “You are welcome. They are only the beginning of what I will need to do for you. I will do my best.”
    â€œThat will surely suffice.”
    â€œWe left the others without much warning. We need to see to them.”
    â€œYes.” He sat up, at last releasing her hand.
    â€œAfter we clean up. You—we will be living together as man and wife. Those roles require us to be open about private things. You are familiar with the process of—of elimination? That is, like urination?”
    â€œI have learned how to do it in this host.”
    â€œThere is one toilet connected to this master bedroom. We will take turns using it. I will do my hair and face while you use it, then you will shape up your hair before the mirror while I use it. I have just one request.”
    â€œWhatever you wish.”
    â€œLeave the toilet seat down.”
    He did not smile, missing the humor. “I will.”
    So she explained it. “Men commonly urinate standing up, so they put the seat up so the way is clear. Women urinate sitting down, so they put the seat down. When they do it at night, in darkness, they don’t like to sit and discover that the seat is up, so they land in the bowl, maybe even the water. It can be a contentious thing.”
    â€œI appreciate that. Is it permissible for me to urinate while sitting?”
    â€œIt is. At least while you are at home. In a public facility it will be another matter. You may have to use a urinal.”
    â€œThank you for clarifying that.”
    â€œThere are jokes about it. Naughty humor. If a man makes a remark, you should laugh.”
    â€œThis is something I must learn.”
    â€œYou don’t know how to laugh?”
    â€œI don’t.”
    She hesitated. “We’ll work on that too, in due course, then. For now, the bedroom routine will do.”
    They went to the bathroom, taking their turns, as she had with Quincy. She felt guilty for glancing at him in the mirror when he took his pants down, but reminded herself that such views were nothing to a married couple. She wasn’t seeing anything she hadn’t seen a hundred times before. Still, it felt awkward.
    When she sat, she knew that he could see her in the mirror, too, as she pulled up her skirt and drew down her panties. He was seeing something new. That couldn’t be helped. They had to maintain the forms of the marriage, or the whole thing could be given away prematurely. Gloaming needed to be comfortable as a human man before he “came out” as the alien envoy. It was her job to make him so.
    He hesitated before they left the bathroom. “There is something I do not understand.”
    She intercepted it. “When you saw me expose my bottom?”
    â€œYes. It stirred an interest. Something other than the function of urination.”
    He really didn’t know. It was her job to teach him. “When a human man sees certain parts of a human woman, it can arouse his sexual interest in her, especially if he hasn’t seen them before. Your brain is your own, but there are reactions that originate outside it. Your human body saw my human body and wanted to have sex with it. But this is not the occasion for such an interaction, so that reaction is best suppressed for now.”
    â€œWhat is the occasion for it?”
    â€œAt night, in