Page 7 of Loved By the Alien King
“I’m not one to share all my secrets.”
“I see. But you’ll share the fact that you’re fucking Nera.”
I grinned. “With pleasure.”
Both the sharing and the actual fucking part.
“Why are you here on Klio-3? Did you come with Nera?”
“We came on the ship she stole from you,” I said, adding a smirk to salt that particular wound.
His eyes narrowed a fraction, the first show of emotion he might’ve ever given.
Poor Nera. What did she ever see in him? A frozen cardboard cutout of a man who’d likely kept her bed cold and boring. Goddess,Ihad more life in me as a dead king/Faid clone than he did. Who was really the android here?
“Interesting that she’d bring you along while on a mission for Earth Space Fleet. Also interesting that you have the gumption to surround yourself with Earth Space Fleet as a Faid.” He flicked up an eyebrow as he studied me. “Just how crazy are you?”
“I think you mean brave. It’s the size of one’s balls that truly makes the man.” I pointed between his legs. “Sorry for your loss. Was it Nera’s divorce that finally did yours in?”
He forced a sorry excuse for a smile. “You’re goading me rather than trying to kill me. Why is that?”
“Because Nera asked me not to kill you.” I took a single step forward, and his hand jerked behind his back, not for his daggers because Nera had stolen those too. Perhaps another weapon, then. That didn’t stop me from continuing my advance to drill my next few words right through his skull. “But if you touch her again, or draw another drop of her precious blood, or so much as breathe near her again, I will end you. Wholly. Gladly. My promise to her be damned.”
“You already broke a promise to her by pretending you’re something you’re not.”
That truth twisted into my chest with intensely sharp precision. He was right, of course. But I couldn’t go back now and keep myself from falling for her. She made it near impossible not to love her smile, her laugh, her humor, her thoughtful silences while she mentally stayed two steps in front of everyone else. Her body. Her heart. Her soul.
The entirety of Nera Cotrobin had wrecked me.
“That’s my burden to bear,” I growled.
“So it is.” A cold gleam lit inside his eyes. “Unless I tell her first.”
My stomach clenched when an icy ball of dread plummeted inside it. It would be so much worse if she heard the truth from anyone but me.
“And how would that benefit you?” I asked, my voice smooth but my insides shuddering.
“It doesn’t, but don’t you think she has a right to know everything about her current lover?” He shrugged casually. “She’ll find out eventually anyway when she learns that you’re here. As a prisoner. The one Faid we can’t kill, but Nera has never followed the rules. She might just kill you herself when she finds out who you really are.”
No, Nera was too smart to risk the resulting war. She wouldn’t let her emotions reign over her mind. Besides, we’d been through so much together, shared so much of each other, that I didn’t think she had the heart to kill me if she knew I was a Faid.
Did she?
Damn me and my stupid hearts. I should’ve just told her the truth right from the start. Should’ve kept my feelings for her bound and gagged in the darkest corner of my mind.
The last thing I wanted to do was shatter her after she’d already been broken.
“Well.” Mike lifted his brows. “I’ll leave you to your self-punishment. I’ll go find Nera, let her know that you’re here.” His mouth ticked into a mockery of a smile. “It’s the least I can do.”
My waning patience with this unfeeling plague sore snapped. I lunged at him, my fists flexing.
Alarm blazed in his blue eyes, and just as I knew he would be, he was hiding a weapon behind his back. He wielded it in front of him, a stun gun from the looks of it.
I ripped it from his grasp before he had a chance to aim it and knocked him into the wall, my forearm braced against his throat. “Iwill be the one to tell her. You hear me? Not the pathetic excuse for a man she gave up on years ago. What I am doesn’t concern you.”
“There’s…that Faid rage,” he choked out. “Is this how you killed Emjay?”
The question worked like a shock to my system, exactly how it was intended. I released him, blinking down at him as he dropped to the ground while sucking in ragged breaths and clutching his neck.
