Page 40 of Tempted By the Alien Warrior

I lean back, crossing my arms over my chest as if the gesture can hold everything I’m feeling in.

“Next time, wake me. We’ll go together,” I say quietly.

Emily furrows her eyebrows like she’s about to argue, but then she shakes her head and sighs.

“Deal.” She picks up a handful of berries and offers them to me. Her lips curve into a wry, irresistible smile that draws my gaze again.

I reach out and the moment my fingers brush against hers, something happens. A jolt shoots through me, sharp and electric, as if a spark has leapt from her skin to mine. My breath catches and my cock responds instantly, aching with a hunger that has nothing to do with food. For a heartbeat, I forget the dull throbbing in my side and the weight of everything that’s happened.

Her eyes widen and her breath halts mid-inhale.

She felt it, too.

Clearing my suddenly thick throat, I sit down on the floor of the cave beside her, forcing my limbs into motion as I try to pretend I felt nothing.

The berries are sweet, their juice bursting over my tongue, but the taste is distant, like I’m eating through a fog. I barely notice it. All of my attention is fixed on her. On Emily.

I find myself staring at her mouth. At the way her tongue flicks out to catch a drop of juice from her lips. And I can’t stop myself from wondering if her lips taste as sweet as the berries. Probably sweeter.

My gaze traces over the line of her delicate jaw, the slope of her cheek, and up to her eyes. There’s something flickering in her gray gaze that looks a lot like curiosity as she glances up at me.

We eat in silence, but it doesn’t feel awkward. It feels easy and comfortable. The distance between us feels smaller, as if the storm washed away more than just dust and fallen leaves. It’s left something softer in its place.

A subtle charge hums between us, and a fluttering sensation stirs in my chest, so faint I almost miss it. It feels like aninsectoid set free inside of me, buzzing softly against my ribs. Could it be my second heart?

No. No, that can’t be right.

I scoff silently to myself, forcing down the absurd thought. Notme. The amoris bond is for better males. Worthier males. Warriors who haven’t been accused of plotting against their own tribe. Not traitors. Not outcasts who have no home.

And yet, I can’t ignore the sensation.

I can’t ignoreher.

My gaze lingers on Emily’s soft features and her golden hair that seems to shine even in the dim shadows of the cave, and I find myself wondering about the words left unsaid between us.

She’s done so much for me. More than anyone ever has. She cared for me without hesitation, without asking anything in return. She stayed when she could have left. But more than that, she’s never once asked if I’m guilty. If I truly betrayed my tribe and my people.

I don’t know why it matters so much, but it suddenly does. I should be relieved she hasn’t asked if I’m guilty. Sard, I’ve had enough eyes on me, filled with accusation and disgust. I should be glad she hasn’t looked at me that way.

But the absence of the question hangs in the air like smoke after a fire, impossible to ignore. I can’t let it go. It gnaws at me, forming a new wound deep inside my chest where that strange fluttering sensation was. It’s gone now, and in its place is an aching stillness.

I glance at her, the words building inside me until they burn inside my throat and I can’t hold them back.

“You haven’t asked me,” I say, my voice rough and low.

As I meet her gaze, I feel vulnerable in a way I’ve never felt before. In a way that makes me itch beneath my skin.

She tilts her head. “Asked you what?”

“If I’m guilty of what they say I did,” I say flatly. “If I betrayed my tribe.”

There. It's out.

The words drop between us like an anuroi landing in the middle of a clearing, and I brace for it—for her to flinch, to pull away, to look at me differently. I’ve seen that look before.

She watches me in silence, and for a heartbeat, I wonder if she’ll pretend she didn’t hear me. My pulse pounds in my ears so loudly it sounds like two heartbeats. I want to retreat into the dark shadows at the back of the cave where it's safe. Away from her searching gaze. Away from the disgust I know she’ll feel for me.

But then she speaks, and I can’t tear my gaze from her.

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