Page 30 of Alien Jeopardy
Heat sizzles through my veins.
I refuuuuse to give in to it, though, even if the evidence of the damned heat is soaking into my pajama shorts after I swipe my sweaty palms against them.
“Welcome to the inaugural season ofMated and Afraid,” the Roth at the front of the stage booms out, his voice amplified by some technology that I can’t see. “And welcome to our first challenge!”
Unease threads through me, and as if he can sense it, Rex leans low, murmuring words I can’t understand against my ear.
A shiver of something I don’t want to put a name to goes down my spine.
Lily catches my eye, and we share a nervous glance even as Poppy beams into the crowd of assembled aliens.
Maybe Poppy knows what all the challenges are already. A scowl furrows my forehead. I love Poppy, but damn, I’m not real happy with her at the moment.
“We will begin the challenge by letting you each randomly select your event.”
My scowl turns into a cringe, because if there’s random chance involved in these events, that means some of the choices will, without a doubt, be absolutely horrific. Will we be forced to eat larvae? Swim blindfolded through a cave? Go skydiving naked?
Rex’s wing rustles near my face, and I mentally cross out naked skydiving because I don’t think the Draegon would find that anything but commonplace.
Probably even the naked part.
Something under the stage squeals, and I jump back in surprise, Rex’s arms tightening around me as a gap opens up in the platform.
I squint reflexively as lights flash from the object now being raised onto the platform, and then my jaw drops open.
It’s a wheel—one of those multicolored carnival-style wheels, designed to spin on a selection. Each different segment contains two types of writing—English, and what I can only assume is written Draegon scrawled above it.
Resolve tightens my chest.
I really, really want to win this damn thing.
Rex murmurs something unintelligible—because everything is unintelligible when you don’t speak the same language—his fingers and talons lightly stroking the skin on my hip. The dual sensation sends goosebumps skittering over my skin.
If this were one of my fanfictions, we would fall madly in love after he saved me from some disaster, and then I would be rewarded for my bravery in kissing an alien with the best orgasm of my life.
Call me delulu, because part of me wants that to be true-true. Or, more accurately, call me in heat, because my libido is out of fucking control.
I shift nervously, trying to ignore the way Rex’s sniffing my hair is making me even more hot and bothered.
This isn’t a fanfic, and I didn’t sign up to go into heat, and I’m sure as shit not going to get distracted from the grand prize by something as fleeting as an orgasm.
I clear my throat, the noise high and squeaky.
Poppy’s gaze flits to me, and there’s worry in her big blue eyes. She bites her bottom lip nervously, then grins as the big red Draegon behind her tugs it out of her grasp.
A strange ache rolls across my chest, and I rub at it, then startle as I realize the Roth host is gesturing Rex and me forward.
“Approach and spin the wheel,” the mechanized translator announces.
Rex pulls me close to him, practically carrying me over to where the host has indicated. He’s still mostly blocking me from the view of the all-male Roth and Suevan audience, and the view of whoever is watching at home.
Huh. I peek out again—why aren’t there any Draegon in the audience? Weird.
His wing moves, and my temporary view is obscured. Considering I’m still wearing my jammies and a bit worse for wear after our jaunt here, I’m not even a little bit upset about it. Likewise, considering I’m a complete horndog, I might even relish it.
My nose scrunches up, and I try to distract myself by staring up at the flashing monstrosity of a game show wheel and reading the descriptions in the segments.
That’s the ticket; I need something to focus on.
