Page 25 of Tempted By the Alien Warrior

My heart aches for him, for the little boy he used to be who just wanted to be enough for his father. Who just wanted to matter. I want to reach for him. I want to touch his arm,his shoulder, anything, and comfort him. But I don’t, because I sense that if I did, he wouldn’t appreciate it.

“You’re not a tool, Vrok. You never were. And real love doesn’t look like that. It’s not about controlling someone and shaping them into what you want them to be. It’s about accepting them as they are. Trusting them. Choosing them. Not because they fit a role, but because they matter.”

“You speak like someone who’s lived that,” he says.

I nod, swallowing hard as emotion tightens my chest. “I have.” My voice falters, but I push through. “My grandparents raised me from the time I was eleven years old. It was the first time I felt like I was enough. Like I didn’t have to earn their care.” I pause as the lump rises again in my throat. “And my cousin, Lily, is the closest thing I’ve ever had to a sister. We’ve always had each other’s backs, no matter what.”

My hands tighten their grip in my lap. “She’s the reason I’m here, risking everything. That’s what love is. It’s putting someone else ahead of yourself. Even when it terrifies you.”

He doesn’t respond right away. His expression goes back to being unreadable, but this time, I don’t think it’s because he’s hiding. I think it’s because he’s processing everything I’ve said. Turning my words over slowly and cautiously. Like they’re something he wants to believe but doesn’t quite know how.

Finally, in that quiet, growly voice of his, he murmurs, “Maybe I have more to learn from humans than I thought.”

8

Emily

I wake with a gasp,my heart racing as the vivid remnants of my dream cling to me like a second skin. It was so real. Too real. Beneath my dress, my body is flushed and overheated, and my thighs are pressed together in a futile attempt to settle the pulsing ache between them.

Vrok’s mouth had been on my neck in the dream, hot and insistent, as his tongue traced over my skin before he sucked hard enough to make me whimper. His hands had gripped my hips, holding me completely still while he ground the thick, rigid length of his cock against my core. Even through the frustrating barrier of my clothing, I could feel the sheer size of him, and in the dream, it only made me writhe harder underneath him, desperate for more friction, more pressure, more of him.

But it wasn’t just the way he touched me, it was the way he commanded me. His voice was low and rough, and every word he uttered was a demand that left me gasping.

And I had listened to every word that fell from his lips without hesitation. I’d obeyed every command, every order until I was trembling with need.

Even now, awake and drenched in sweat, my body reacts like he’s still touching me, still demanding more of me. I can feel how slick I am and how tight and aching my nipples are beneath the fabric of my dress.

I turn my head, glancing to see if Vrok is awake, and I freeze.

I’m not lying a few feet away on my own sleeping mat like I was when we fell asleep. At some point in the night, I must have drifted over to Vrok’s side of our little camp, and now, we’re just a couple of inches apart.

His big body is a furnace beside me, all heat and ridged muscles, and his hand is so close to me, it’s almost touching my waist. His spicy scent wraps around me like a blanket, and all I can think about is the feeling of his hands on me. His mouth on my chest. And his cock grinding against me in slow, torturous circles.

Before I can scramble away and pretend none of this ever happened, his deep voice breaks through the silence.

“You said my name in your sleep.”

I go still. “I… what?”

“You said it more than once.” His tone is quiet with curiosity.

Embarrassment slams into me like a punch to the throat. My cheeks blaze with heat.Fuck.“I had a dream,” I mumble, grasping for the easiest lie. “Probably a nightmare.”

There’s a beat of silence. Then, he says, “You don’t smell like you had a nightmare.”

I blink my eyes in confusion. “I don’t…what?”

Vrok shifts just a little closer, and suddenly all I can see is his bare chest and his silver eyes watching me. Studying me. His nostrils flare wide as he takes in a deliberate breath before he releases it in a deep exhale.

“Fear smells bitter and sharp,” he says. “That’s not what I scent on you.” He meets my eyes, and his voice lowers to a rough growl that sends a shiver through me that ends at my clit. “Your scent is thicker. Muskier.”

I make a noise in my throat—something between a squeak and a choke—and my entire body locks up. My face feels so hot with embarrassment, I start to worry I might actually combust. Spontaneous human combustion. That’s a thing, right?

Because of course this giant alien warrior has the nose of a bloodhound. Of course, he can tell I was aroused in my sleep, and of course he can smell it on me.

And now he’s analyzing it like he’s a biologist who’s cataloging a new species.

I want the ground to open up and swallow me whole. Something, anything, to escape this awkward, mortifying moment.

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