Page 12 of Taken By the Alien Merrow King

“Fuck. Don’t remind me,” she said, struggling to disentangle herself from the sheets so she could pull them over her head and block out the sunlight streaming in through the ridiculously large leaded glass windows. Who decided having such stupidly gigantic windows in a bedroom was a good idea, anyway? They needed to be taken out back and shot immediately. “And how are you so god-awfully cheerful right now? You drank twice as much as I did.”

“Well, I’m bigger than you and I’ve been doing this a long time.” He rubbed soothing circles over her back.

She pulled the sheet down to her nose and cracked open an eyelid to glare at him. “Don’t tell me you’re a morning person.”

“Yep,” he said, giving her a toothy grin. “There’s almost nothing better than getting up with the sun and going for a wild swim.”

She reburied her head under the covers. “I hate you so much right now. Leave me to die in peace, would you? Fucking golden retriever morning person,” she grumbled.

“Well, I don’t know what most of that means, but it doesn’t sound like much of a compliment. Surprising, considering what happened last night,” he said, peeling the covers back with a large finger. That damned gorgeous grin of his widened.

“What happened last night?” She narrowed her eyes at him as she picked through the haze of last night’s memories. Lots of dancing — reels and jigs where she whirled from Merrow to Merrow, their faces a blur, and slow dances with Des, pressed close to his hard body — and so much delicious food and drink. She pursed her lips, remembering some very drunken singing with a group of females. “Did you have to carry me home?” she asked.

“Indeed I did,” he said with a regal nod. “Do you remember trying to seduce me?”

“Oh, god.” She smacked a hand over her face, her cheeks flaming as the later portion of the evening swam up from the depths of her memory. She wished it had stayed in the darkness. “I did, didn’t I?”

He brought her back to this lovely cottage on a promontory and she was a drunken mess, slobbering all over him, trying to take off his shirt and pants, demanding to get a look at his scales and other bits.

“I didn’t take advantage, if that’s what you were wondering,” he said softly, his hand making lazy circles over her back.

“I know you didn’t, Des. Even if I didn’t actually remember the utter humiliation of me throwing myself at you, you’re not that kind of person. I know I tend to jump to the worst-case scenario first, but not about that. You’re kind and caring and far too good to ever take advantage of someone as incapacitated as I was last night.” She bit back a moan. It hurt to talk. Hell, it hurt to think.

“Well,” he said, clearing his throat as a faint tinge of pink shaded his cheeks. “I’m not that good. I did sleep in this bed with you last night.”

She raised an eyebrow. She remembered. The warmth of his body curved around hers. The way he nuzzled her neck. The satisfied sigh he expelled when she finally relaxed against him. She remembered all of it. But His Royal Pain-in-the-Butt Sunshine had earned himself some payback. “You what?” she asked, like it was a bad thing. Like she didn’t have the best sleep of her life wrapped in his arms. It was the waking up part that was a challenge.

“I didn’t do anything inappropriate, I swear.” He held up both his hands in surrender. “I wanted to be nearby, in case you needed me.”

“You just didn’t want to sleep on that short couch in the other room,” she said with an exaggerated sniff of disdain. “And keeprubbing my back. It’s making me feel better.” May as well take advantage while she could, right?

Instead, he jumped to his feet and grabbed something off the tall chest of drawers opposite the bed. “I have something even better.” He thrust a small glass of ominously bubbling red liquid under her nose. “Drink this.”

“Des, if I drink anything right now, I’m going to vomit,” she said, making a face. She pushed herself into a seated position with a groan and crossed her legs, wrapping the soft sheet around her like a toga.

He pushed it towards her. “This will make everything better.”

He looked so sincere, so eager to please. She took the glass with a sigh. “You promise?” At his encouraging nod, she took a deep breath, pinched her nose, and downed it, the bubbles tickling her tongue. “Blech. What was that?” Disgusted, she handed him the glass back and put a hand on her churning stomach. “Let me guess. After last night, you decided humans are more trouble than they’re worth, so you’re disposing of the most annoying one and pretending we don’t exist.”

“See, there you go with the worst-case scenario again,” he said with a disappointed tsk, the corner of his lip quirking up. “I’m going to have to start calling you Negative Narwhal instead of Astra.”

“That’s a terrible nickname,” she gasped, smacking his thigh playfully. “I’ll have you know I’m a pragmatist who believes in hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.”

His brows shot up to his hairline. “Is that so? Well, now that you’ve ingested my poison,” he rubbed his hands together and gave an evil cackle, “Why don’t you tell me how you feel?”

She opened her mouth to give him a sassy response and noticed her head no longer had someone driving nails through her temples. Come to think of it, her stomach had settled,too. She gave him a suspicious look. “What exactly was in that ‘poison’ of yours?”

“Why?” he drawled, planting his elbow on his knee and resting his chin on a fist. “Could it be because you feel one hundred percent better because you trusted me?”

“Well. Maybe not one hundred percent better,” she said with a toss of her hair. “But I’m definitely not about to keel over and die anytime soon.”

“Excellent!” He bounced off the bed, planted a kiss on her forehead, and opened the door. “Now go take a shower because you smell like you drank your weight in beer and it’s emitting from your pores.”

“Nice,” she said, throwing a pillow at him. “Here’s a helpful tip: never tell a woman she smells bad if you ever hope to kiss her again.”

He clutched a hand over his heart. “Darling, I’d never lie to you. But you do have the most glorious case of bedhead I think I’ve ever seen, outside of my own, that is.” He blew her a kiss and closed the door behind him.

“Jackass,” she called after him.I really like him. A lot. She ran a hand over her hair, an untameable smile spreading across her face.I might even be falling in love with him.

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