Page 11 of The Alien Who Saved Christmas
She wanted to continue with this ruse? Fine. He snatched the key from her.
And she let him.
Any other being on this planet would have known better. They would have left him in shackles. But Sadie-Mal-Own, stood there while he freed himself. Yes. He was assuredly imagining all this. …How in the netherworld could he imagine someone who smelled as good as her, though?
Aggravated with life, Xane dropped the chains to the purple ground, shifting his neck to work out the kinks and stretching out his arms, at long last. Sadie-Mal-Own’s gray eyes were apprehensive, but she didn’t flee in terror. It reinforced his idea that she was hopelessly dim.
“Feel better?” She asked guilelessly.
“You’re an idiot for releasing my bindings.” He told her in way of an answer. “I could now kill you, rape you, hide your body, and escape.”
“Why would you do that? I just let you go.”
Xane scoffed at that obvious lie. No one ever released a slave, unless the slave was wounded or old, and costing them money. “Why would you purchase me, only to release me the same day?” He demanded, answering her question with his own.
She shifted, looking uncomfortable.
He waited, studying her for some hint of her hidden plot.
“I didn’t want you to die.” She finally muttered.
“Why?” Anyone else would have rejoiced.
Sadie-Mal-Own gnawed on her lower lip, and his gut clenched in inconvenient desire.
“You have nice eyes.” She whispered, like the revelation embarrassed her. No doubt because it was a transparent falsehood.
“You spent a fortune for no reason, except myeyes?This is what you claim?”
She slanted him a glare, not appreciating his skepticism. “It’s not a ‘claim.’ It’s true!” She insisted again. “And it’s Christmastime. People are supposed to do nice things at Christmas.”
“What is Christmas?”
“It’s a holiday where people send cards and spread freaking kindness. They buy stuff too.” She sniffed. “Youwere kind of an impulse buy. Like when you’re in the checkout line atthe supermarket and know you shouldn’t buy the Milky Way, but somehow you end up with three of them in your basket.”
“You speak of that backwards galaxy in the middle of nowhere?”
“What?”
He made a frustrated sound at how hard it was to communicate with the tiny creature. He’d never spent any time conversing with a female. They were scarce and protected. But they couldn’tallbe this troublesome. It had to be her. “Is your translator broken?”
“No, I don’t think so. The thing is just a piece of crap. Either that or you’re getting all mixed up, because I have no idea what you’re talking about half the time.”
“Nythtar Omega.” He bypassed his own translator to pronounce it. “My translator says the galaxy’s name is ‘Milky Way’ in your dialect, but…”
“You know where the Milky Waygalaxyis?” She interrupted, her invitingly plump lips parting in surprise. “That’s what you’re saying? Oh my God, that’s incredible! That’s like my neighborhood!”
Beingslivedin that awful place? Impossible.
“Do you think you could draw me a map?” The female bounced up and down on the toes of her strange shoes, excitement evident in her lovely voice. He couldn’t see most of her body, but he sensed the intriguing movement of her breasts under the robe. “Once I get the ducklings, I can show them the route, and I’ll be home!”
Xane hated himself for wanting to give her whatever she wished, just to keep her smiling up at him. Sadie-Mal-Own wasa Weakness. He had not anticipated that, but he suddenly knew it was true. He could already feel himself falling under her spell of madness and lust.
Like all Weakness, she needed to be stamped out before she took root.
Xane forced his attention away from her luscious pink mouth. “No.” He told her firmly. This possibly-imaginary woman’s charade would not pull him in. He wouldn’t allow it.
“No?” She blinked at him and stopped bouncing. “No, you won’t draw me a map?”
