Page 46 of Matched to the Alien King
Quickly, I jumped to my feet. “I’m much better now.”
Chapter sixteen
Nera
AfterMaxxtoldmeabout his ordeal, I took a leaf from the jungle floor and wiped his hand of all the blood just so I could hold it.
“Moral of the story, watch out for bright-orange sand circles and get better at science.” I nodded. “Got it.”
He laughed then, such an intoxicating sound that warmed my heart every time I heard it. “That about sums it up, yes.”
We started through the jungle then and back toward the stage, hand in hand, both of us sweeping our gazes for anything circular or orange or otherwise shifty.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” I told him.
“I’m glad you’re okay too.”
“Let’s try to have a normal rest of the day, just you and me and Pete and the rest of the contestants and the millions of people watching, okay?”
He smiled down at me, and I could practically feel it caressing my face. “I think that’s about as normal as we can get here.”
In the next nano-second, his smile evaporated, he whirled, and his hand flashed to the hilt of his machete. His whole body flexed, and tension vibrated the surrounding air.
I turned to face behind us too. “What?”
“I heard something,” he whispered. “A sharp snap of something like someone’s following us.”
We waited for something else to happen. Anything else. Maybe a panda bear offering us tequila shots and some fully loaded nachos. Seriously, what else could this jungle throw at us?
“Do you get the feeling that maybe we shouldn’t be walking through this jungle anymore?” I whispered when, unfortunately, there was no such panda sighting. “Maybe it’s trying to tell us this.”
“Maybe so,” Maxx muttered, his lightning-bolt eyes shifting over every detail of our surroundings. “But I like to make the same mistakes again and again, just to be sure.”
Trying to stifle a laugh, I bumped him with my shoulder. “Sounds like I’m wearing off on you.”
“Or I’m wearing off on you.” He tore his attention from the jungle to me, the corners of his lips curling. “How do we tell either way?”
“Kissing, probably. A lot more kissing.” I nodded, the decision final. “After we take showers of course.”
He hiked up an eyebrow as we continued onward, deeper into the jungle. “Just kissing?”
“Are you crazy? Absolutely not.”
Grinning, he reached out and joined our hands again, the simple touch like heated quicksilver through my veins. “You had me worried for a second.”
My whole body blushed at the way he was looking at me, at the throbbing ache between my thighs his words promised to ease. Even though I’d come more times here on Klio-3 than I had in my entire thirty-three years, even though we’d fucked almost all afternoon, I still couldnotget enough of him.
He lit my whole world on fire with just the deep, velvety sound of his voice. One touch, and I’d cordially invite him to fuck me senseless. One look, and I’d bow before my Xenoxx king and suck the scales off his cock. Reverently, of course.
But I needed to gird my loins for a second.
“Maxx, I…” How to say this without coming across as too nosey? “The more I get to know you, the more I feel like I also know your wife. What was she like? I mean, if you’re comfortable telling me. But feel free to tell me to fuck off. Or both, even. The choice is yours, and I—”
Shut it now, Nera. Oh my god.
His expression turned contemplative as he stared straight ahead, but I could still see the sadness around his eyes and delicately pinching his mouth. He went silent for such a long time that I felt like an idiot for asking.
“Her name was Bexx,” he finally began. “She was betrothed to my older brother by my father shortly before they both died.”
