by Anna Zaires
“Emily…” Zaron didn’t know what to say. In many ways, her loss had been infinitely greater. He had been an adult, and as much as he’d loved Larita, he hadn’t depended on her the way a child depends on her parents. “I’m so sorry,” he finally said, his heart aching for the human girl. “Who raised you after that? Was it these foster homes you mentioned before?”
She nodded. “Yes. Well, and my aunt Wendy, I guess—my father’s sister. She took me in right after their death. Neither of my parents were from a large family, so she was the only close relative. I lived with her for eighteen months before she realized she was ill-equipped to deal with a traumatized child and put me in the foster system.”
“She gave you to some strangers to raise?” Anger churned in Zaron’s gut as he remembered Emily saying that there hadn’t been enough food at one of these foster homes. How could her aunt have done this? What kind of monster gave away her own flesh and blood? Krinar orphans were extremely rare in modern times, but if such a misfortune did occur, any relative, no matter how distant, would gladly take on the responsibility of caring for the child; anything else would be unthinkable.
A faint smile appeared on Emily’s lips. “Yes. It wasn’t too bad, actually. I preferred it that way. Aunt Wendy wasn’t… great with kids. It was a relief to be out of her house.”
Zaron’s blood ran cold. “Did she hurt you?” He leaned forward, covering her wrist with his other hand. He’d seen these types of stories on the human news, and the idea that Emily could’ve been abused… “Did she do something to you?”
“No.” Emily shook her head. “Nothing like what you’re imagining. She would occasionally punish me by locking me in my room, but she never did anything else to me. Neither did anyone else at any of the homes I stayed in. I was very lucky. Some of my foster parents were indifferent, but usually they were decent people who truly wanted to help—and who needed the extra money the government paid them for our upkeep.”
“Wait a minute,” Zaron said slowly, latching on to her throwaway comment. “Your aunt locked you in your room? Is that why you don’t like being indoors?”
Emily bit her lip, looking uncomfortable all of a sudden. “Yes, probably.” She pulled her hand out of his grasp, leaving him strangely empty without her touch. “It’s not a big deal. Like I told you, I just need to go outside on a regular basis.” Holding his gaze, she added quietly, “I don’t do well in captivity—but then again, I don’t know many people who do.”
Zaron felt an unwelcome pang of guilt, followed by an irrational spike of anger. Slowly, he rose to his feet, his hands gripping the edge of the table. “I already explained why I have to detain you for a little while,” he said, carefully enunciating each word. “You’re the one who insists on making this into an ordeal. All you have to do is stay with me for the next fifteen days. Why is that so hard for you?”
She got up as well, her eyes narrowing. “Because I have a life out there.” Her sharp tone matched his. “Because I can’t stay here, having sex all day and night, while the career I worked so hard to build gets completely derailed. I’m not an animal that you can rescue and keep as a pet, Zaron—I’m a human being—and your so-called fear of exposure is nothing more than an excuse to deprive me of my freedom. You know as well as I do that I could run around Times Square screaming about aliens at the top of my lungs, and nobody would believe me—”
“Whether they do or not is irrelevant,” Zaron interrupted, stepping around the table. With her eyes flashing with fury, Emily looked so adorable that he felt his own anger fading, chased away by a familiar surge of lust. There was some truth to her words, but he refused to dwell on that now. Stopping in front of her, he clasped her face in his large hands and stared down into her stormy gaze. “I will not risk breaking the mandate at this point. Not even for you, angel.”
Her slender hands came up, her fingers curling around his wrists. “Zaron, please,” she whispered, and he could hear her breathing hitch as he pressed his growing erection against her belly. “This is not a good idea—”
“On the contrary…” He bent his head, his lips hovering inches from hers. “I think it’s an excellent idea.” Cradling her face between his palms, he kissed her, reveling in the way her soft lips clung to him. It was as if she couldn’t get enough of him either. Talking about Larita and learning about Emily’s past left Zaron feeling unsettled, strangely vulnerable and hungry for something he couldn’t define, even to himself. For a moment, he was tempted to take the girl again, but he controlled himself. As much as he wanted to stay in bed with Emily all day, there was work to be done—and he had to make allowances for the fact that his guest was, indeed, human.
Lifting his head, Zaron reluctantly lowered his hands and took a step back, ignoring the urgings of his throbbing cock. “I have something I need to take care of,” he said huskily, staring at her flushed face. “But I’ll be back in a few hours, and we’ll go for a walk, I promise. Are you going to be okay on your own for a bit?”
“Um, yeah, sure.” Emily blinked, the glow of desire slowly fading from her cheeks. “I’ll be fine.”
“Good,” Zaron murmured. “Then I will see you soon.”
Before he could get tempted again, he walked out of the room, heading for another virtual meeting in his office. There was a lot that needed to get accomplished in the next few days.
The main ships would be arriving shortly, and Zaron needed to make sure everything was ready.
Chapter Twenty-One
After Zaron left, Emily went back into her bedroom. To her relief, the wall entrances between the rooms now worked for her, opening and closing at her approach. Zaron must’ve adjusted the door settings at some point, giving her greater freedom to roam around the house. The outside wall didn’t budge, of course, but she hadn’t expected it to. Like it or not, she was stuck here for the next two weeks—with a gorgeous, insatiable alien who expected her to warm his bed for the duration.
Sighing, Emily sat down on the bed. She couldn’t pretend, even to herself, that she was anything but willing. She’d never had sex like that before, had never even dreamed that such ecstasy was possible. With Jason, they’d had fun in bed, but it had never gone beyond mild enjoyment for Emily. Still, her ex had at least known how to bring her to orgasm. With Tom, her boyfriend in high school, she’d never been able to come at all, their encounters ranging from painfully awkward to somewhat pleasant. But with Zaron, it was an experience unlike any other—at least as far as she could recall.
Why was last night so vague in her memory? The thought bothered Emily to no small degree. Zaron had deflected her question this morning, and she realized now that she was still completely in the dark. Was it possible that he was manipulating her mind somehow? Maybe with the help of the nanocytes he’d used to heal her?
The idea was so frightening that cold sweat broke out all over her body. Could Zaron do something like that? And more importantly, would he? He clearly had no qualms about keeping her captive for two-plus weeks, but taking away her freedom of thought was a different matter entirely. It would imply a complete and utter disregard for her as a person, and Emily didn’t want to believe that of him. Sure, he could be incredibly domineering, riding roughshod over her objections to their affair, but he didn’t treat her like she was less than human. On the contrary, she got the impression that he didn’t often speak about his wife’s death, yet he had opened up to Emily, trusting her with a subject that clearly pained him.
Forty-four years. He had been with his wife for forty-four years. The incredible longevity of the Krinar was still shocking to Emily. The only humans she knew who had been with their spouses that long were well into their sixties—and Zaron was clearly a man in his prime. If she’d met him on the street, she would’ve guessed him to be in his late twenties, never dreaming that he was old enough to have lived through the Renaissance.
She also wouldn’t have guessed that he’d had such tragedy in his past. Emily’s chest ached at the thought o
f what he must’ve gone through, losing his beloved partner of forty-plus years. Could that be why she was so drawn to him? Because she’d sensed that he was like her in that way: a survivor, someone who had also known suffering and loss? The fact that she’d felt so comfortable talking about her parents to Zaron seemed to indicate that. She rarely broached the subject with anyone who was not already a good friend, yet it had been the most natural thing in the world to share that experience with Zaron. In a weird way, she felt closer to him after three days than to Jason after three years.
If he were human, it would be easy to love him.
The thought came out of nowhere, shocking Emily with its stark clarity. Getting up, she began to pace, a cold pit of despair growing in her chest. As much as she wanted to deny it, she knew she’d hit upon the crux of the matter. This was why she tried to resist this attraction, why she felt so uneasy at the impact Zaron had on her senses. It wasn’t because she was being smart and cautious.
It was because she was afraid.
Afraid to fall for a man with whom she could never have a future—a man who could leave her in pieces if she let him.
The pull she felt toward Zaron was more than sexual. She knew that now. Everything about him intrigued Emily, and it wasn’t simply the fact that he came from another world and could tell her things no human knew. No, as fascinating as she found his alienness, the knowledge she craved was both simpler and more complex. She wanted to know his innermost thoughts and feelings, to delve into his memories. She wanted to see him smile and laugh, to banish the shadows she’d glimpsed in him today. And even though she resented being kept prisoner, she couldn’t truly hate him for that—not when he had saved her life.
She was already falling for him, and there were still fifteen days left on her captivity clock.
No. Emily sat down on the bed again. This was insane. She couldn’t—wouldn’t—get attached to Zaron. That way lay a world of hurt. She needed to formulate a plan of escape, and she needed to do it now.
By Emily’s calculations, it was already Saturday, which meant that she had missed her morning flight home. At some point this evening, Amber would come by to bring back Emily’s cat and catch up, and she would get worried when she couldn’t reach Emily. And Emily’s interview with Evers Capital—the interview that could influence the entire course of her career—was this upcoming Thursday.
Frustrated, Emily reached for her damaged phone, picking it up off the floating plank next to her bed. She’d put it there after Zaron had returned it to her, though she didn’t know why she’d bothered keeping it. The thing was completely dead after its swim in the river. Removing the still-damp protective case, Emily shook the phone, then tried to turn it on again. Unsurprisingly, the screen remained dark.
Setting the phone down, Emily began to pace again, too wound up to sit still. One way or another, she needed to figure out a way to leave before her fifteen days were up.
Her career and peace of mind depended on it.
Chapter Twenty-Two
When most of the remaining logistics were decided on, Zaron dismissed his team for the day. Only one member, Ellet, remained in the virtual meeting room at his request. A biologist like him, she’d chosen to specialize in Homo sapiens in recent decades and was considered a rising star in the Krinar scientific community. She was also someone Zaron thought of as a friend, even though he’d only known her for the past twelve years.
When they were finally alone in the room, Ellet walked over and sat down on the float next to Zaron, crossing her long legs in an unconsciously sensual gesture. A classic beauty, she was rumored to have been involved with Councilor Korum in recent months. Some of Ellet’s detractors even said that Korum was the reason she’d gotten a spot on the settlement preparation team—a highly coveted position among human biology experts. Zaron didn’t know if that was true and didn’t care. For all of her ambition, Ellet was one of the nicest individuals he knew, and he genuinely liked and respected her.
“So how is life?” she asked, watching him with her large hazel eyes. “Do you like the jungle better than the cities?”
“I do, actually,” Zaron said with a smile. Ellet had been the one to advise him to build his home near their future colony, and he was grateful for her suggestion. Even before Emily’s arrival, he had found a measure of peace in the forest, his senses resting from the overwhelming noise and crowds of human settlements. “What about you? Are you still enjoying Rio de Janeiro?”
“I am.” She grinned, her teeth flashing white. “It’s warm, and I blend in well. Whenever I go somewhere in public, humans ask me if I’m related to Gisele. Apparently, she’s a local supermodel.”
Zaron laughed. “Good for you. Sounds like you have indeed found your niche.”
“Yes, for now. I can’t wait for the Centers to be built, though. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the human appliances. Can you imagine having to manually put clothes into the washer?” She shuddered dramatically. “My apartment is so primitive it might as well be a cave. I wish I could build a normal house here, like you did, but it’s too risky in a big city—too many humans, too much chance of exposure…”
“Right, of course,” Zaron said slowly, wondering how to best broach the topic he wanted to discuss. “Speaking of exposure, I may have done something a bit… unusual.”
Ellet arched her dark eyebrows. “Such as?”
“I brought a human into my house.”
She blinked. “A human? Why? You don’t usually study them, right?”
“No, I don’t.” Zaron tended to focus on other animal and plant species. “I didn’t bring her in to study. I took her because she was dying, and I wanted to save her.”
“She?” Ellet asked delicately. “Are we talking about a young woman here? Perhaps a pretty young woman?”
“Perhaps,” Zaron conceded, a smile tugging at the edge of his mouth. Emily was more than pretty, but his colleague didn’t need to know that.
“Okay, I think I’m beginning to get the picture,” Ellet said, her eyes gleaming with amusement. If she was shocked by his admission, she hid it well. “I assume you did manage to save her. What do you plan to do with her? Does she know what you are?”
Zaron nodded. “She does. I’m keeping her with me for the next two weeks, until we go public.”
“I see.” Ellet regarded him curiously. “And have you already taken her blood?”
“Yes, once.” Heat rippled over his skin at the memory. “And I want to do it again. Ellet, there’s something I want to ask you about that…”
“You want to know about blood addiction,” she said, her expression turning more serious. “That’s why you’re telling me about this, isn’t it? I’m guessing you’ve done some research yourself?”
“I have, and there isn’t a lot of data on this.” Zaron raked his fingers through his hair. As a scientist, he hated not having all the facts. “I know it’s not advisable to take blood from the same human with any significant frequency, but most of the information on the network seems anecdotal at best. Have you looked into this? What are the true limitations?”
“Well,” Ellet said slowly, “I have looked into this somewhat. Like you said, most of the evidence is anecdotal, and we’re just starting to run simulations, so there is no definitive answer. What we do know is that humans get addicted to the experience overall, while we get addicted to the blood of a specific human. I would be careful if I were you. Let at least a couple of days go by between each session—maybe even a few days. With humans, there’s so much variability… You don’t want to get addicted, trust me—nor do you want her to become addicted to you.”
“Yes, of course.” Zaron had known about this phenomenon for a while, and he’d been careful to avoid taking blood from the same human more than once. It wasn’t difficult; there was no shortage of willing sex partners in large cities. When he’d lived in Los Angeles and Miami, he’d enjoyed a different woman every night, easily picking them up in bars and clubs. For
some reason, though, the thought of being with anyone but Emily turned his stomach now. “I’ll be careful.”
“Good,” Ellet said, getting up. “If there’s anything else you need from me, please don’t hesitate to ask. I’ll be in Costa Rica at some point in the next couple of weeks, so maybe we’ll be able to meet up in person.”
“That would be great.” Zaron rose to his feet. “You are more than welcome to stop by and enjoy some home comforts here.”
“Thank you.” Ellet smiled at him. “I might take you up on your invitation. Maybe you could even introduce me to this human girl of yours. She sounds quite special.”
“She is,” Zaron said, smiling back. “I’m sure she would enjoy meeting you as well.” With that, he exited the virtual environment, reality shifting and distorting in front of his eyes.
When his vision settled, he was back in his office, the bulk of his work finished for the day.
Chapter Twenty-Three
By the time Zaron came back, Emily was ready to climb walls. Her claustrophobia was back in full force, her throat tight as she paced in circles around her room. Aside from her worry about the interview, what bothered her the most was the blurriness in her memory. The missing hours weren’t a total blank—she had vague recollections of intensely pleasurable sensations—and that concerned her even more.
It was exactly as if she’d been drunk or drugged.
“What happened yesterday?” she demanded as soon as Zaron stepped into her room. Her tone was overly sharp, but she didn’t care. She had to get some answers before she went insane. “What did you do to me to make me forget?”