Silas: Imperial Warrior (A Sci-Fi Alien Warrior Romance) by Ashley West

feel like you can trust me enough to stay here.”
    He looked surprised himself at her words. “You’re trusting me in your home while you’re at work,” he countered.
    "That's true. I am." Katia took another sip of her tea. "But you seem like you need someone to be there for you while you're here. Since you're a stranger in a strange land, and all. And I've never met anyone from another planet before. Call it curiosity."
    Silas smiled, and if anything, it made him more attractive. Katia averted her eyes. This was not the time to be feeling the years she'd gone without being with someone. As soon as a hot alien landed in her lap, she wasn't going to go all goo goo eyed over him.
    "Then I'm grateful for your curiosity. As soon as I can figure out how to get a message to my Empress or to anyone else in HIMA, then I'll no longer be your problem."
    "Don't worry about it," Katia said. "I'll just go grocery shopping on my way home tomorrow evening. I don't think I have enough food in my house to feed someone your size."
    He laughed at that. "Do you work every day?"
    "Every day but Saturday," she replied.
    "What day is it today?"
    "Sunday."
    "Hm. Your days are named oddly."
    Now she was intrigued. One of the coolest things about having an alien in her house was probably going to be getting to know the differences between his culture and hers. "What are your days called?" she wanted to know.
    "Kas-ar, Sin-ar, Dorn-ar, Ult-ar, Ilk-ar, Torrind-ar, Samul-ar, and Felst-ar," Silas explained.
    "You have eight days in a week?"
    He tipped his head to one side. "I guess so. Ilk-ar, Torrind-ar, Samul-ar, and Felst-ar are at the end, and no one gets much done on those days, really."
    "Four weekend days? Lucky." Silas smiled again, and Katia made herself more comfortable. "Will you tell me more?" she asked.
    "About my people?"
    "Yeah. And about you. If you're going to be staying here, then there's no reason why we should be strangers, right?"
    He inclined his head, clearly in agreement. "Right. What would you like to know?"
    "Well, for starters, what's HIMA?"
    Silas began to explain, and Katia hung on every word.
     

Chapter Six: Progression
    Even though he was on Earth and not on Gathra, Silas' built in need to wake up with the sun was still something that happened. As soon as the sun rose over the horizon, his eyes snapped open. It was still an adjustment, knowing he wasn't on his home planet, knowing that his friends were far away, his Empress, his team.
    Were they worried about him? Had they given up hope? Did they assume he was dead or worse?
    Thinking about it just hurt him, so he pushed it out of his mind and got himself up. Every morning, he walked out to the front porch and watched the sun rise properly. The sky was streaked with colors, and it was actually quite beautiful.
    Earth was a lot better than anyone he knew seemed to give it credit for, and the people were better as well. At least Katia was. She'd been so kind to him over the week that he'd been there, buying him food and new clothes and waving away his assurances that he didn't need anything and would be fine with what he had.
    His clothes, his uniform, was ripped and bloody, and Katia had told him that she'd rather just get him some other things to wear than watch him walk around in his bloodstained clothes all the time. She assured him that she hadn't spent that much on his things, and he was relieved that they fit, at least. Silas hadn't thought that humans came in his size, but apparently sometimes their clothes did.
    It had only taken him two days to get Katia's routine down, and so he did his part by making sure her coffee was ready for her when she finally came out of her room dressed and showered.
    The way she smiled at him when she came into the kitchen to see a steaming cup of coffee waiting for her made it all worth it.
    And Silas didn’t want to examine why he wanted her to smile at him so much.
    Instead, he made small talk with her while she flitted around