Page 24 of Matched to the Alien King
“You should have told me,” I whispered.
He nodded without looking me in the eyes and then stalked toward the bed where he sank down onto it. Heaviness clouded the air around him. “I’m sorry.”
I opened my mouth to say, “It’s okay,” but I closed it because was it okay? If he’d kept that truth from me, were there other things he was keeping to himself?
“Do you know where this weapon is?” I asked instead.
Studying me closely, he spread out his hands as he leaned his elbows on his knees. “Axxel says it’s not on your ship. I assume whoever kidnapped us has it.”
“But why? Why not just steal the weapon and leave you and me alone?” I blew out a long, weighted breath. “Do you think it was the Bishops who stole it and kidnapped us?”
He shrugged. “They’re stealthy. They are bugs after all.”
I shuddered. “Gross.”
“But snakes don’t disgust you?” A half smile cupped his perfect lips.
“Snakes I can handle, except for those who slip between my legs uninvited during a swim at sea and bite me.”
He arched a brow. “AmIstill invited between your legs?”
“That depends.” I narrowed my eyes at him, wishing I could see the inner workings of his mind. “Is there anything else you need to tell me?”
His face shuttered again, going dark and unreadable, but in the next second, he whipped his head toward the front door.
“What?” I whispered.
“Someone’s here,” he mouthed to me as he moved toward the curtain over the bed.
Shit. Avery again for another dose of boob ogling?
Maxx flicked the curtain open with a long finger and then visibly relaxed his tense shoulders. “Your style team.”
He went to open the door to the flurry of energetic distractions, and that right there, my friends, paired with his non-answer, told me everything I needed to know.
Maxx was definitely still hiding something from me.
Chapter eight
Maxx
Allthatabouthelpingthe Bishops so they’d help me? Most of it was based on a true story.
The Bishops had come to me with an offer to draw out the Faid War as sort of a double agent—help the humansandhelp them.
I’d refused, despite what I’d told Nera. My loyalty was to the Xenoxx. Always. And the humans by default, since they provided the Xenoxx with wives in exchange for aiding their hunt against the Faid.
But everything else I’d said to Nera was a lie.
I could still taste the sour mess those words had left behind, trying to choke me so I’d shut the fuxx up.
I wasn’t proud of what I’d done. In fact, I hated myself so intensely that I wished molting was an actual thing Xenoxx did just so I could cleanse myself of this awful feeling. Who in the goddess’s name lied about their dead wife? Who lied to the woman who had grown my hearts so big that they were steadily crushing the rest of my body and I was too lost in her to care?
Me.
I’d lied, and that made me a monster. A deeply selfish one who only wanted one thing. Fuxx the consequences. Fuxx the rest of the universe.
Fuxx. Me.
