Deceit: BBW Alien Lottery Romance (Chosen by the Karal Book 1) by Harmony Raines

disgusting.”
    “I like it,” Elissa insisted. She wanted to use the stimulant to ward off the way he made her feel. It was down to his skin and the way he could affect her emotions; she was sure of it. If not, she was on dangerous ground, because she remembered when she first started dating Harri, he made her feel like this. It had left her open to his lies.
    With Marin, her stomach had butterflies every time he came near, and her body wanted to press itself close to his, to feel the colours of his skin. Last night she had discovered they gave a faint electric current across the new skin on her hands. It had made her attuned to him in a way she had never felt with a human. This was what frightened her so much.
    If she had been so deceived by Harri, whom she had thought loved her, but really only wanted to use her for the resistance’s work, then what chance did she stand against Marin, a man who could open her mind up to so much more? What frightened her most was what he could teach her about herself, feelings and desires she never knew she had. He had awoken something deep inside her.
    As he placed a hot pastry of some kind on a wooden plate, she breathed in with joy, and understood what he and this planet had given her. Hope. Mixed with wonder and a childlike need to explore its corners. On Earth, there was nothing left, nothing new. But here, she felt like a child, about to begin life, but with adult senses.
    Last night, in the garden, she had felt it. After she had buried the contraband, she had walked, letting her mind relax and take in the scents, the colours, so different to anything she had seen. Karal was truly an alien planet. Why she had expected it to be a clone of Earth she had no idea, but when she saw the two suns setting in the distance she had known she would not be happy shut away as a breeding female. She wanted to be part of this world. A part of Marin’s world.
    “Eat and drink, then tell me if you want the SimCoff.” He wrinkled his nose at the very thought of it.
    She picked the cup up, put off by the red liquid swirling around. “It looks like blood.”
    He laughed. “Just taste it. After all the garbage food I have had to endure on Earth, you can at least do me the honour of drinking this. It is fresh. Try it.”
    She took a tentative sip, ready to spit it back out. However, apart from burning her tongue a little, she found it delicious. Bitter, like real coffee. She had only ever experienced real coffee once, on her birthday, but the flavour had endured in her senses; making the synthetic taste of SimCoff impossible to ignore. Another sip and she felt a slight buzz, caffeine. Or something similar. Oh, was it good.
    “Not too much. It’s strong and you have to let your brain become accustomed to it.”
    “My brain?”
    He laughed. “Of course, it stimulates the senses. Some say the Karal have always drunk it and that is why our skin glows with colours.”
    “You are an amazing species. In that respect,” she added quickly.
    “It takes some years to control. There are many fights and much teasing over the colours that flash on the skins of children. But it is good; there is nothing but honesty between our offspring, because there is no way to deceive when your emotions are on show.”
    “Humans could learn a lot from you. Maybe you should export this … What is it called? … to Earth.”
    “Tole. It comes from the far side of the planet, where the suns heat the Karal until it is almost barren. Then the rains come and the Tole burst into life for only a short time. It is harvested and dried.”
    “Can I go and see?” She wanted to see the whole of his world.
    “Not today. The suns are at their fiercest, but there are other wonders I can show you.”
    “Yes, please.” She drank her coffee and then took a bite of her pastry, her mouth watering at the taste and texture. “That is divine. You know I have eaten more fresh food in the short time I have been here than I have in the