Page 56 of Love Galaxy

“You are hurt,” I almost drop the knife in my haste to help, but she waves away my concern.

“How about we take a vote?” She perks up at the sound of her own suggestion. “That’s actually a great idea. All for murder,raise your hand. I mean, hands.” And she lifts her right arm into the air.

Roan and I both copy, raising two right arms each. Then, for good measure, I raise my left arms too. The tip of the knife’s blade scrapes against the ceiling.

“Do I get to vote?” John Smith demands, but nobody pays him any attention.

Rather, Killan grabs Roan’s raised hands and yanks them back down. “Scudding fools,” he snaps. “Do you really think nobody will notice when the director of the most popular reality TV show goes missing? They will come asking uncomfortable questions and disrupting our business.”

“You are still thinking about the farm?” Roan yanks his arms free of Killan’s grasp and moves to stand by my other side. As he passes John Smith, he knocks the Drah’os Male with his shoulder.

“Yes,” Killan straightens to his full height. The tallest in the room, he is trying to cower us. “Someone has to think about the farm. Someone has to think about all of you.” He sweeps his lower arm in an arch, gesturing at Briar, Roan and me. “You do not really want to kill someone. You, Sorin, are angry because your Mate was threatened. You are not thinking clearly. By morning, you will realize what you have done, and you will hate yourself for it.”

“Party pooper.” Briar crosses her arms too, jutting out her lower lip. “We also might wake up tomorrow morning and feel really fucking proud of ourselves.”

He gives her a long, hard look.

She does not quite meet his eye.

“Briar,” I step in front of Killan, blocking him from her line of sight. “I will do this for you if?—”

“No.” She is reaching for me before she has finished speaking her denial. She wraps her arms around me and presses her faceto my chest. The curtain of her hairs falls forward, hiding her expression, and I tuck some stands behind her ears, trying to glimpse her face.

“No?” I whisper the question, not wanting anyone else to hear.

She sighs, and I feel rather than see some of the fight drain out of her muscles.

“I wanted to pretend for a moment that we might really do it,” she confesses into the broad expanse of my chest.

I wrap my arms around her, holding her close. “Me, too.”

Silence fills my kitchen, then Briar is pulling back a little way so she can more easily tilt her chin up to see me. “I honestly don’t care what happens to Mr. Smith. I care only about you. So, so much, Sorin. I want you to be happy,” she confesses. “Killan’s probably right: murdering Mr. Smith isn’t what’s going to make you happy.”

I drop the knife, and it skids along the floor, stopping at Roan’s feet. My brother picks it up, his eyes narrowed, but before he can do anything, Killan wrenches the knife from Roan’s grasp and drops it into the sink.

“This is what is going to happen,” Killan tells John Smith, pointing a finger at his face. “You will finish filming LOVE GALAXY. You will show the universe how my brothers have fallen in love with their Females. You will advertise our farm favorably. And youwill”— his voice drops as he glares at John Smith with so much hatred I am surprised the Drah’os Male is still standing under the weight of such emotion—“return Lydia to her home planet.”

“Briar, too,” I hasten to add. “If that is what she wishes.”

“It absolutely is not what she wishes.” Briar shakes her head, her hold around my waist tightening. “I’m not leaving you, Sorin. Not ever. I’ll be like a bad smell you can’t get rid of no matter how much you try.”

“Briar—” I start, confused as to why I am trying to convince the Female of my heart to leave me, except that I cannot imagine asking her to do anything she might regret.

“You don’t want me to stay?” She raises her expressive eyebrows in … confusion, I believe, releasing me and taking a step back.

Immediately, I miss the feel of her against my scales.

“No. I mean, yes. I mean—” I take a deep breath. “I want you to—”stayis what I had been going to say—“be happy,” is how I finish the sentence instead.

“I am happy.” She smiles, then winces, touching a hand to her bruised cheek. “I don’t think I’ve been happier in all my life. Well, being abducted wasn’t much fun. And I didn’t enjoy having to wear the same uncomfortable cocktail dress for two days straight, but still I’m?—”

“Cock’s tail?” Surely I would have remembered Briar wearing a cock’s tail… “Whose?!”

“What? No!” She hits me lightly on the arm. “Gross. Well, maybe… No. Well…” She shakes her head. “That’s not the point of this conversation. What I’m trying to say, you big idiot, is that I love you.”

I freeze.

Surely… Did she really say… Does she mean…

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