Page 40 of Resisting the Alien Rider

I’d never seen it before. I wasn’t even sure the possibility of such a thing existed. It felt like a one-in-a-multi-trillion chance, like I was the only person in the known universe who’d ever witnessed such a thing.

The expression transformed his entire face. His fangs gleamed, his eyes lit with a soft, warm white, and, Jesus Christ on a cracker, did the man have a fucking dimple?! And only one little dimple, on one little side, because his smile was so unfairly crooked and cute?

He was already good-looking when he was being his usual frowny self.

A smiling Garrek was absolutely lethal.

I stared at him, blinked, and then stared some more. Distantly, I was aware that my mouth was hanging open, doing its most attractive impression of a Terratribe II pond fish.

I finally gathered my wits about me enough to slam my mouth closed. It took effort, though. Garrek’s secret weapon of a smile had absolutely fucking scattered them to the Zabria Prinar One breeze.

“Stay there,” I ordered him. “I’ll be right back.”

I went into my tent and grabbed my med kit. It was right at the top since I’d just put away the antibiotic drops for Killian’s ear. I brought it out and plopped myself down on the ground in front of Garrek.

“What are you doing?” he asked. His smile had faded, replaced with a much more familiar look of skepticism. I leaned into the closed-off safety of a grumpy Garrek, pushing that world-tilting smile as far from my mind as possible.

“I’m getting antibiotic ointment for your wounds. Then, I’m going to check if you need sutures.”

“I don’t need sutures.”

“I’ll be the judge of that, thanks. Considering I’m the trained medical professional here.”

Garrek watched me with heavy-lidded eyes as I disinfected my hands and pulled out a multi-species antibiotic ointment.

God, he must be exhausted.

Not too exhausted to completely throw me offbalance, apparently, which he did with his next question.

“Why did you leave?”

“Pardon?” I asked, mid-tube-uncapping.

“Why did you leave your position as a medical professional and come here to marry?” His tired eyes searched my face. “Why choose a Zabrian outcast when you could have had any male you wanted from your homeworld?”

I snorted at that.

“I’m sorry, but have you met a human male?” I asked.

“No.”

“Of course you haven’t. Forget I said that.”

“My question stands. You also said you had siblings. Family. Why did you leave?”

I bit my lip, squeezing antibiotic ointment onto my finger and then beginning to dab it into the ragged wound on Garrek’s chest. It was deep, but miraculously, it appeared to have stopped bleeding some time ago even without sutures. Zabrians had to have had some impressive blood clotting abilities.

“It’s a long story,” I said, hoping he’d leave it at that.

“Well, if you’re going to keep me awake for all this unnecessary wound-tending,” he said dryly, “you could at least entertain me.”

A laugh bubbled out of me, and I shook my head, dabbing more ointment onto his chest. I was very close to him, kneeling between his splayed thighs.

“Fine. Alright. Where to begin…”

“At the beginning.”

I laughed again.

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