by Tana Stone
Reina leaned one arm on the bar. “There have been occasions when brides have been given new matches. Very rarely, a bride refuses the concept entirely.”
“A Drexian has never rejected a match?” Katie asked. Her experience with men made that very difficult for her to believe. “They’ve always been fine with the human they’re matched with?”
“As far as I know. Duty and honor are very important to Drexians. I think it would be considered dishonorable to reject a match.”
Interesting, thought Katie. Aliens who made it a habit to kidnap humans but had a strong sense of honor. She’d have to be sure to touch on that in her exposé. “And the humans who refuse to go along with any of it?”
Reina bit the edge of her lip. “They’re housed in a separate section of the station.”
Katie nudged the alien. “I’ll bet it isn’t as nice as this, is it?”
Reina gave a furtive shake of her head. “I do not think so.”
Katie took another small sip, being sure to drink less than her companion. One rule for drawing information out of someone. Never be drunker than they were.
“Is it on the top level?” Katie asked.
Reina gave a tinkling laugh. “The top level? That’s where the bridge and officers’ lounge is. No, the section with the unmated tribute brides is one level above the staff quarters at the bottom.”
Katie made a note on the cocktail napkin in her lap with the pen she’d swiped earlier from one of the shops. “So like a cruise ship, with the fancy cabins at the top and the cheapest ones at the bottom?”
Reina wrinkled her nose. “A cruise ship?”
“Don’t you call this place the Boat?”
Another laugh from Reina. “You are right. The Love Boat was a program about a cruise ship.”
“True, but what does The Love Boat have to do with anything?” Katie asked, wiggling her toes and feeling them tingle.
“The designers of this space station used a lot of Earth media to inspire them.”
“And out of all Earth movies and TV, they settled on The Love Boat?” Katie threw back her head and laughed. “That explains a lot. When do we have shuffleboard on the Lido deck?”
Reina joined her in laughing, but looked confused. “I do not know this Lido deck.”
“Don’t sweat it.” Katie made a final covert note on her napkin, stood, and scooped up the bags before her liaison could protest. “I’d better get back to my suite. Those drinks pack a punch.”
Reina tried to stand, but ended up sliding and catching herself on the edge of the bar with her spindly legs splayed out in front of her. “Wait for me.”
Katie hoisted her up by the arm and plopped her back on her barstool. She caught the bartender’s eye. “Make sure she doesn’t leave until she can walk, will you?”
Reina lay her head down on the bar. “Maybe you’re right. I’m feeling awfully sleepy.”
Katie watched, as the blue-haired woman began snoring. She patted her gently on the back and glanced at the cocktail napkin folded in one hand with her notes. “Sweet dreams. Thanks for the info.”
She walked as quickly as she could, considering how tipsy she felt, waving her hand over the panel by her door and going inside. The sun had set and the room was dark, the only light coming from the moon outside and a few lanterns on the balcony. Katie dropped the bags on the floor when she didn’t see any sign of Zayn, and kicked off her shoes. She pulled off her dress and bra, stepped out of her panties, and walked to the far side of the bed—the side she always slept on—and tucked her cocktail-napkin notes into a drawer in the nightstand.
Her mind was reeling with everything she’d learned, but she was also worn out. Between being drugged and transported across the solar system, and walking around the massive space station, her body ached. She pushed aside the sheer netting over the bed and slipped under the covers, not caring that she was naked since she was alone in the room. She’d always slept naked, anyway.
Rolling over, she bumped something warm and big, and she froze. Her heart racing, she reached out and touched the side of a massive person. Further exploration by her fingers told that this person was a man and was also naked. She assumed it was Zayn, and she felt her irritation rise. Who did he think he was, getting in bed naked? She tried to ignore the fact the she herself was naked, reasoning that it was only because she thought he wasn’t coming back. Maybe he believed the same thing, she thought.
He started mumbling in his sleep, his voice agitated, and she jerked her hand away.
Katie sat up as he began crying out, thrashing in the bed. From the faint light spilling in from the balcony, she could see his face contorted in obvious pain. Was there an emergency call button somewhere? She doubted it.
“I’m coming for you,” he mumbled. “Hold on.”
More thrashing, followed by a keening sound that gave her goose bumps. She didn’t know what he was dreaming about, but he was clearly distressed. Did this have anything to do with the scars on his arm? She reached out and put a hand on his chest. “It’s okay. You’re dreaming.”
“I won’t let you kill him,” Zayn cried. Without opening his eyes, he grasped her wrist and flipped her on her back. His muscular body was pressed flush against hers, and she could feel his cock as it hardened between her thighs. He held her down, his weight pressing her wrists into the mattress and causing her to scream out in pain.
“Get off me!” She fought to pull free, but his grip was too tight.
His face was only inches from hers when he opened his eyes and blinked a few times. It seemed to take him a minute to determine he wasn’t wherever he’d thought he was, then all the fight left him and he went limp on her, burying his head in her neck and scooping his arms under her to pull her closer as he trembled violently.
Even though he was no longer flailing, his body shook as he held her against him, and Katie could still feel his firm cock between her legs. She could also feel her body’s traitorous response to rubbing up on him—her nipples were hard against his chest, and she was wet between her thighs.
“Zayn,” she whispered. “If you’re okay, would you mind letting me go?”
His arms stiffened, and he pulled away from her, looking down at her naked body and his own and rolling off her and out of bed.
Katie pulled the sheet up to cover herself, watching as he whipped a towel off the floor and wrapped it around his waist. But not before she got a glimpse of what had been pressing against her leg—thick and long enough to make her mouth go dry.
“I’m sorry,” Zayn stammered. “I didn’t mean to…I didn’t know…I never would have…”
As he disappeared into the bathroom, Katie wasn’t sure if she was more curious about what he’d been dreaming about, or what was beneath his towel.
Chapter Nine
Zayn stumbled into the bathroom and leaned against the marble sink, his breathing jagged. He looked at himself in the mirror and flinched. His hair was wild, his body glistened with sweat, and his cock stood out ramrod straight from his body. Balling his fists, he fought the desire coursing through him.
What had happened out there? How had she ended up in bed with him? The better question was, how she’d ended up naked and pinned underneath him.
Zayn dragged a hand over his face and turned from the mirror. He couldn’t bear to look at himself. Had he really been so out of it that he’d nearly taken her without even being aware of it? He squeezed his eyes shut as he thought of her terrified expression when he’d finally realized where he was, when he’d looked down and seen her naked breasts, with her hard, pink nipples, and felt her slick thighs enveloping his cock.
He groaned and crossed to the shower, turning on the water to cold and plunging himself under the bracing flow. His breath caught in his throat as the icy water hit him, but after a few gasps he welcomed the relief as his body cooled. His cock, however, would not obey the rest of his body, and Zayn knew it was because of her. He couldn’t get the image of her out of his mind—
her full breasts, her narrow waist, the swell of her hips. He also couldn’t dismiss the way her body had reacted to his, even as he tried to suppress the feeling of her wet heat.
“Stop it,” he said to himself. He couldn’t let himself get distracted by a female, no matter how alluring she was. He needed to focus on uncovering the truth behind why he was here and not back out in the field.
You know why, he thought, as he pressed both hands against the glass wall of the shower. Images of the human female left his mind to be replaced by flashes of his fellow warriors falling around him. Bile rose in his throat as he replayed the scene in his mind. No matter how many times he tried to recreate the battle in his head, his friends always ended up dead. No matter how often he reviewed the scenario, it was always his fault.
He turned off the water and stepped out, toweling off and getting into the drawstring pants he’d left on the counter earlier. The soft fabric was a welcome change from his usual stiff military pants, even if they left little to the imagination.
Returning to the suite, he chanced a glance at the bed. Empty. He felt his stomach clench. He hoped she wasn’t running around the station wrapped up in a sheet screaming about the maniac who’d attacked her. Not that he didn’t deserve it, he thought.
Zayn walked out onto the balcony where the holographic moon shone high in the night sky, illuminating a flat-topped tree. Even if it wasn’t real, the grass rustling in the soft breeze and the caw of a distant bird made his shoulders relax. He knew the holographic environments were modeled after places on Earth, and if that was true, the planet his people protected must be worth defending if it was filled with such a peaceful place. He leaned his forearms on the wooden railing and rubbed a hand absently over his scars.
“So those are the famous nodes?”
Her voice from behind startled him, and he spun around to find her nestled in one of the wood-and-canvas lounge chairs, wrapped in the blanket that had been draped across the foot of the bed. Her mane of curls cascaded down her shoulders, the moonlight reflecting off it. He stared at her for a moment, expecting her to begin shouting at him or at the very least to ask him to leave. “What?”
She pointed at his bare back and he twisted his neck to look at himself. “Oh, my nodes.” He brushed one hand over the bumps that ran all the way down his spinal cord.
“Interesting. Is it ever uncomfortable to have bumps on your back?”
Zayn was glad the lighting was dim and she couldn’t see his face warm. “Only when they harden and heat, but that’s only uncomfortable if I can’t…”
“Oh,” she said, a small smile playing around the corners of her mouth. “So, not so different from humans, after all.”
As her eyes went to his back again, he concentrated on not getting aroused by breathing in the cool night air and blowing it out through his mouth. “I owe you an apology,” he said, the words tumbling out in a rush.
She motioned to the canvas lounge chair next to hers. “For pretending to be sleeping so you could jump me?”
“No.” He sat down, angling so he faced her. “I was sleeping. I didn’t know—”
“Relax.” She held up her palms. “I’m teasing you. Trying to make light of the situation so it isn’t so awkward that we almost, well, that you almost sleep-fucked me.”
Zayn cleared his throat and looked down. He didn’t know human females talked like that. “Is that something that happens on your planet?”
“No.” She laughed. “I mean, maybe to some. Not to me, though.”
“Are you a typical Earth female?” he asked. Since he’d never applied for a tribute bride, he didn’t know much about human females. Even without knowing much, she wasn’t what he’d expected. “I have never seen hair the color of yours. Or skin so pale.”
She laughed. “Yeah, I’ve never had a tan in my entire life. Most humans aren’t as pasty white as I am, but we come in lots of different shades.”
“And hair colors?”
“That, too,” she said. “Everything from black to blonde to gray. Even more with dyes. I’m what we call a strawberry blonde.”
“Strawberry blonde,” he repeated, staring at her curls. “It looks like fire.”
“Thanks, I think. I got called Little Orphan Annie a lot.” She pulled at one of her curls and it sprang back as she released it. “I’m more strawberry than blonde, which does not make it easy to blend in.”
“Is it typical for humans? The others I’ve seen don’t have it.”
She shrugged. “I don’t know if there’s such a thing as a typical woman. We’re all pretty different. I guess as far as American women go, I’m not the norm.”
“No?” Zayn leaned forward. “Are you abnormal?”
Another laugh, and she pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders. “Not physically. But let’s just say I had an unusual childhood. There was no white, picket fence or dog named Spot in the world I came from.”
He wasn’t sure what any of that meant, but before he could ask, she shook her head like she was trying to dislodge something.
“What about you?” she asked. “Care to tell me why you have such wild nightmares?”
It was impossible to deny, since she’d seen him as he’d been reliving the horror in his sleep. Despite replaying the battle again and again, it was hard to find words to explain it and explain why it haunted him. But he knew she deserved some explanation, and her soft voice, which held no trace of blame or anger, made him want tell her the truth.
He cleared his throat, and it felt like sandpaper. “I led a high-level military unit. We’d been together for years.”
“Like the Navy SEALs or Delta Force?”
“We didn’t have a special name, but our job was to take out high-priority targets and gather information from places that were difficult to get into. The Kronock are notoriously paranoid and xenophobic, so gathering useful information was a challenge.”
“Those are the aliens who tried to invade Earth, right?”
Zayn nodded. “Their main goal seems to be to invade a planet, strip it of its resources, enslave or assimilate its people, and move on. We’ve battled them all over the galaxy.”
Katie shuddered. “So you were trying to find out what they were up to?”
“We suspected they’d been making advancements in their technology, but we didn’t know how, or what they were. They didn’t demonstrate any changes in the ships that engaged ours, but we’d intercepted chatter about a lab. It took us months to determine where it was and gather enough intelligence to get close.” He took a shaky breath. “Since it was such a crucial mission, we all went in.”
Zayn closed his eyes as he remembered the shouts of surprise and the smell the burning flesh as his team was ambushed. “They knew we were coming. It was a trap we never anticipated. Everyone on my team was killed except for me. Me, they kept to torture.”
He felt her hand close around his. “I’m really sorry.”
He didn’t meet her eyes. “I was the leader. I should have known better. I should have protected my team.” He stood abruptly and let her hand fall from his. “It’s my fault they’re dead.”
“I think you’re being too tough on yourself.”
“I was their leader, and I didn’t protect them. My punishment is having to hear their screams in my head every time I close my eyes, but still, it isn’t enough.”
Katie stood and joined him at the railing, touching one of the faded slashes on his arm. “You were tortured. Don’t you think that was punishment?”
“I took their torture gladly, hoping it would one day kill me, and I could join my team.”
She gave a low whistle. “That’s pretty hardcore. You never talked?”
“They never asked me,” he said. “I always thought they would, but they never did. They seemed to torture me for the sport of it.”
“Harsh,” she said under her breath.
He twitched one shoulder up. “Their torture is nothing compared to reliving my friends’ dea
ths. And now the High Command won’t let me return to the field where I belong. They’re punishing me, too.” He swept an arm wide. “This is part of my punishment.”
“So that’s what you were talking about earlier. You never wanted any of this. This whole tribute bride thing was as much of a shock for you as it was for me.”
“Perhaps a bit less for me since I knew tribute brides existed. I just never desired one for myself.”
“Really?” She backed away from the railing. “You’re trying to tell me you don’t desire me?”
He heard the mocking in her voice. It would be foolish to deny that he was attracted to her when he’d been lying on top of her with a rock-hard erection. “It’s not that I don’t desire you, but you’re too beautiful for someone like me.”
“Someone like you?”
“I’m damaged.” He slammed a hand on the wood rail before turning to face her. “A disgraced warrior.”
The blanket slipped down, exposing one alabaster shoulder, and she smiled at him. “You don’t look so damaged to me, and I’ve always been a sucker for an underdog.”
As he watched the soft light silhouette her body, Zayn couldn’t speak.
Chapter Ten
Katie padded back into the bedroom, glancing over her shoulder at the big alien on the balcony. The moonlight bounced off his muscular body, and the outline of his broad shoulders and narrow hips made her pulse flutter. She squinted in the dark, her heart clenching as she turned away.
She’d been honest when she’d said she always liked an underdog. It was why running cons had been so hard for her. She had a tough time working marks unless she thought they deserved it. Nothing her father had said had made it any easier, either, which was why he’d rarely used her in his long cons. She didn’t have any issue conning a bad guy, or someone who had it coming. Cheating the slumlord who’d been screwing over his residents, or tricking the man who treated his wife badly? It hadn’t bothered her one bit when her father had lightened the pockets of those people, but this guy wasn’t bad. She could feel it. He was just hurt and a little lost. Like her.