Page 44 of Alien Jeopardy
A faint buzzing sounds as a drone flies slightly closer.
I squint up at it.
Oh. That’s why Billie told him that—because she’s just as meddling as any producer on Earth’s reality TV. Well! I haven’tspent a lifetime watching reality TV to not know all the little games she and that Ayro are going to play with all of us.
“I will prove to you I am the best mate for you.” He thumps a fist over his heart, and my own heart beats faster in response. Whether it’s adrenaline or fear or good ole lust, I’m not sure it even matters any more.
“What if I don’t want a mate at all?” I whisper.
His hand stretches out, fingertips gentle against my cheekbone. “Then I would say it is because you have not yet spent enough time with me to know what you would be missing.”
My nose crinkles up as I smile, because damn it, that was really cute. I lean slightly into his touch because he’s right.
I have missed being touched.
Not even sexually, though my hormones are definitely all about that, but simply touched, like he is right now, on my cheek.
Like he cares about how I feel, not just that I’m some… breeder. Ick.
“You will let me try to… romance you?” he asks, derailing my train of thought.
“Romance me?” I echo.
“Yes,” he bobs his head, eyes eager on mine. “Romance you. Show you that you would like to be with me, after this is over? So that you do not let Billie separate us?”
I bite my lip, dropping my gaze to the thickly muscled abdomen in front of me, slightly shy. I want to tell him no because I swear, just being this close to him has me breaking out in a heat-induced sweat, and I’m afraid I’m not going to want to let him go just because of whatever chemicals are currently having a rave in my bloodstream.
Yeah, a full-on hormone rave, glowsticks, EDM, and a bass that would probably be perfectly timed to some perfectly aimed hip thrusts.
“Why did you sign up for this show?” I ask him. One million and three points to me for asking a coherent question instead of impaling myself on his disco stick.
He tilts his head, gazing into my eyes for so long I wonder if he’s heard me at all.
I could just kiss him again.
It would only take the slightest of movements to close the distance between our faces, to tilt mine up and press my mouth to his.
“I did not sign up for a mate either,” he says, the words heavy and unexpected, falling like a hammer on my ears.
I blink. Translator problem?
“I did not think about having a mate,” he continues. “I volunteered because my planet is not… it is not a good place sometimes.” His eyes narrow, and his orange gaze slips to the drone still buzzing overhead.
Oh. Oooooh. He’s afraid someone will hear him trash-talking his planet. Interesting.
Also, concerning. The last thing we need is some political interest in this show. There was a season of WME where one of the contestants trash-talked the Earth Federation. By the time the dude was off the show, his life was in shambles, and there had been so many hit pieces on him that I can’t imagine he was ever able to find work again.
“I have a chance at a home and a place in the new colony on Sueva, and that was enough to entice me.”
I nod slowly because I didn’t even know what the reward is, but a fresh start sure as shit sounds good to me too. I hold his gaze because I want him to know I mean what I’m about to say.
“I want to win.”
“I want you,” he says at the same time.
“What?” I sputter.
“I didn’t want a mate, that’s not why I signed up—” He pauses, a grin pulling the corner of his mouth up, making him look ridiculously handsome. My heart swells. “Until I saw you, standing there in your strange human outfit, the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen in my entire life. And when you chose me?”
