She wasn’t pretty, she was beautiful.

And for the life of him he couldn’t figure out when that’d happened.

He remembered when she first came on board, he’d thought she was nothin’ much.

He had watched her at first cuz he didn’t trust her, now he watched her ‘cuz he couldn’t stop himself.

Jus’ now he sat at the table in the common room, watchin’ her fix supper, and suppressed urges he’d never thought to have.

He broke her down in his mind, still trying to figure out what was so different, what held him so strongly.

Long thick brown hair, it was straight and clean and shiny but still nothing special.

A common color.

Her face was full and round, with plump checks that dimpled when she smiled or laughed, a nice enough nose, and wide hazel brown eyes that crinkled at the corners.

She had cute little ears, small, well shaped, something tantalized him about them, maybe it was because when she pulled up her hair she always covered them up with soft sweeps of hair?

Her figure was average, she didn’t have the type of curves that he’d always preferred in his women, but hers were enough to make him stand up and take notice.

His Ma'd 'ud' said she was well enough. Damning with faint praise that was, she weren't plain enough for it to be remarked on, but in no ways pretty. T'was what he'd thought when he first met her, now...

Now he was ignoring the desire to go over there and pull her against him, revel in the feel of her ass pressed against him, massage her breasts and trail kisses along her neck to her ear. He let the fantasy play out, felt his body start to react as he imagined the sounds she would make when he traced her ear with his tongue, imagined how it would feel to grind her against himself, to capture her lips with his and…abruptly he stopped the fantasy.

He’d all but stopped going to the cat houses, they weren’t as satisfying anymore. Oh they released the hunger, but they didn’t satisfy some inner part of himself.

Doing for himself worked better than going to them anyway, though not by much so he might as well save the coin.

Course it bothered him that he had to think of her the whole time, that his magazine ladies weren’t enough anymore.

She tapped lightly on his head interrupting his introspection, he looked up into her smiling face and wanted to crush her to him and kiss her until she didn’t know up from down. Instead he took the pile of plates she handed him and smiled back wishing she weren’t so damned pretty.