Page 63 of Resisting the Alien Rider

Along with mine.

“I wasn’t going to leave your things there,” he retorted. “I’m not an idiot.”

“Killian.”

He glared at me as if expecting a rebuke.

“Thank you.” I opened my arms to him, holding them awkwardly out at my sides.

He gawked at me. “What the blazes are you doing?”

“Don’t say blazes. And I am doing a human hug.”

He reared back in alarm.

“Tome?”

“Yes, to you. Who else?”

Killian made a show of looking around the place. As if there were someone else waiting just behind him, ready to receive my hug in his stead.

“All you have to do is put your arms around me,” I told him impatiently.

“And then what?” he asked suspiciously.

“And then we just… stand there.”

“Doing a hug.”

“Precisely.”

“That… sounds stupid.”

“I know,” I admitted. “But somehow, it isn’t.”

Killian looked more thoughtful than was usually characteristic of him.

“I think Magnolia has done a hug to me before,” he said at length. “It was nice when she did it.” Then he wrinkled his nose at me, a look that clearly meant it would not be so nice if I were to do it.

“It was only a thought,” I said gruffly, lowering my arms.

“Wait!” Killian sounded absolutely affronted. “You can’t take my hug back now!”

“You never even let me give it to you,” I pointed out archly.

He stormed over to me, eyes crackling. First, he grasped my right hand, then my left, lifting them back up into the air the way I’d been holding them before.

Then he threw his arms around my waist and squeezed.

Thank the blazes my ribs were stronger than his grip. Otherwise, I likely would have died.

I lowered my arms around him, stiffly at first. But soon, I found natural places where my arms and hands seemed to fit perfectly around him. I rested my chin on the top of his head, returning his squeeze but with just a little less of that feral, bone-cracking force.

I assumed that Killian would get sick of me and slither out of my arms immediately afterwards, but he didn’t. He pressed his face into my chest and stayed that way for a long, long time.

When he finally did pull away, the room seemed darker than it should have been.

Astounded, I suddenly realized why.

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