Page 31 of Alien Wants A Wife

“My favorite color is gold?—”

“Gold?” Lydia repeats, wrinkling her nose.

“Yes. My favorite food is fresh tehnad fruit, which we have to order from off-world. And…” The two truths were easy. The lie, less so. I search my thoughts, trying to conjure up something intelligent to say. “I wake up every morning before the sun has risen.”

“You try guessing.” Lydia points at Harlee. Although what she is guessing, I do not understand, considering I followed the instructions, speaking my truths first and my lie second, as the name of the game ordered.

“Umm…” Harlee worries her bottom lip, watching me.

Considering it isherattention that is on me, surely that gives me an excuse to shift my chair a fraction closer to hers. And my eyes… They do not want to stop staring at her lip, trapped between her blunt, square teeth. And, really, I have no excuse at all for imagining the way it might feel if I were to nibble on her lip for her, a hand on the curve of her waist, the other stroking her silken hairs.

“Your favorite color is gold—that’s the lie,” she eventually guesses, raising her brows of hairs.

“It’s not really a color, is it? That’s a metal,” Lydia slurs.

“Wrong.” I preen. “It is the most beautiful of all colors.”

“Since when?” Killan demands.

“Since yesterday. Since—”Harleeis what I had been about to say, but Lydia giggles, pointing at Killan.

“You don’t know your brother as well as you thought. Harlee, as punishment for thailin’— I mean,thailing, I dare you to… I know! I dare you to kiss Roan. In that cupboard.” And she points at the door that leads off the kitchen to Killan’s food storage.

“Wrong game,” Harlee says, grabbing the drink Lydia is making another go at reaching.

“It’s better this way. More flirty.” Lydia pouts, her gaze on the drink and then on me. “Two Truths and a Lie: Dare Edition.If you get it wrong, you’ve got to complete a dare. And I’ve just dared Harlee to kiss you.”

I do not know what akissis. And I still do not really understand all the rules. Did Harlee guess my lie wrong on purpose, or did she honestly not know which was which?

“Lydia—” Harlee warns. “We’re playing Two Truths. Not Truth or Dare. Not Seven Minutes in Heaven. Not… I don’t know. Catch and Kiss!”

“Catch and K-iss?” Interest piqued, I turn wide eyes on Lydia, thinking that of the two Females, she is more likely to answer my question.

“Catch and Kiss is where?—”

“Nope,” Harlee interrupts. “Don’t give them even more ideas for group tasks.” She takes a sip of one drink, and a shudder runs through her body. Standing, she grabs my hand, pulling me after her as she heads for the storage room.

“Seven minutes in heaven!” Lydia calls out after us. “Blow his tiny mind, Harlee!”

“You’re so going to regret this when you’re sober,” is Harlee’s reply, and she yanks open the door Lydia indicated, pulling me into the storeroom after her.

“What now?” With the door closed behind us and the lights off, it is impossible to see anything, but I widen my eyes, trying anyway.

“Now we wait. Thank God there aren’t any cameras in here…” Her voice trails off, and I search the darkness for what stole the end of her sentence.

Icansee something; I was mistaken before. Three red lights, barely larger than mere dots, are evenly spaced around the dark room. They’re not comparable with anything in Killan’s house from before LOVE GALAXY, and I’m immediately reminded of the red lights each of the cameras has to show that it’s filming.

“Do you think they can see us?” Harlee whispers, and I’ve got to strain to hear her over the pounding of my heart.

Yes,would be my answer, but I do not reach around her to turn on the light. I think she might be more comfortable in the dark, even if it offers no more privacy than a well-lit room.

Or mayhaps not turning on the light is me being selfish. In the darkness, it feels almost as if the rest of the world does not exist, as if it is just the two of us. I can almost pretend one of my brothers is not on the other side of the door. I can almost pretend LOVE GALAXY did not turn out to be a total sham.

“What isheav-en?” I ask, following Harlee’s lead and whispering.

“Something that doesn’t exist.” She exhales, her warm breath dancing over my scales.

“What iskiss-ing?”

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