Page 50 of Loved By the Alien King
Nera’s eyes flew wide open in alarm, and we stared at each other, frozen, while whatever was happening gradually worked through our shock.
Then I put a finger to her lips. “Stay there,” I whispered.
Still nude, I leaped to my feet, grabbed my machetes from the bedside table, and stalked toward the door on silent feet. My ears burned to hear anything else other than my wild pulse, but there was nothing. Slowly, I opened the door, saw nothing out of the ordinary, opened it a crack wider.
Blood streaked across the teakwood porch toward the Killian. He leaned against the wall of the bungalow, his hand pressed to his shoulder, crimson trickling between his green fingers.
Alive. A strange sense of relief nearly dropped me to my knees.
I was about to go to him, but he shook his head, hardly a movement at all. His green eyes were bright with pain and shock, and he ticked them toward the jungle beyond the sliver of beach. They were out there. Earth Space Fleet.
And they’d just shot Miekil.
I began to close the door, trying to convey to him to wait and not die with one look. With my palms pressed against the wood, I turned to Nera, who’d gone an alarming shade of white in her tense position on the bed.
“Miekil’s hurt. Get your gun,” I told her in a low voice. “You’re the distraction while I get him inside.”
With a snarl, she tore herself out of bed, took her gun from the bedside table, and charged toward the door with the ferocious tenacity of a Xenoxx warrior. And completely naked.
If I had been anyone else, I would have been afraid. If it had been any other time, I would have found this fuxxing sexy.
As soon as she threw open the door, she started firing toward the jungle while taking cover behind the wooden posts of the balcony. This gave me plenty of room to maneuver the Killian inside.
I rushed toward him and hauled him upright, using his good side to prop against me. He didn’t even protest or groan in anguish, but I was sure that bullet wound hurt like a buxxen horn skewered into a kidney.
With Nera still firing into the jungle, I dragged him toward the bungalow.
Once he was safely inside, I shouted, “Nera, get in!”
She backed up quickly, her shots aimed at various points in the jungle in no particular pattern. Out of breath, she slammed the door behind her and then whirled on the Killian who leaned precariously against the bedpost.
“Are you all right?” she asked, sweeping toward him.
He offered her tight-lipped smile. “I’d be a lot better if Maxx put his junk away. No one wants to see that.”
I was already in the process of dressing, the shite, and yes, I noticed that he hadn’t complained about Nera’s nudity, but I kept my mouth shut.
Nera yanked the sheet from the bed and handed it to him. “Use this. Press it hard. Maxx, they’ll be here any second.”
Still doing up my pants, I strode toward the bookshelf with no books but a hell of a lot of vases on it next to the door. I tipped it over with a loud crash so it blocked the door.
The Killian heaved a shaky laugh. “I think we’re going to need a better plan than that, Your Highness.”
“I can throw you back out there if you want.” I was only half paying attention to him as I bent toward the rug in the center of the bungalow.
“Nah, it’s cozier in here, but thanks.” After a short beat, he added, “And thanks for rescuing me.”
“You were guarding us,” Nera said. “We should be thanking you.”
“And what a fine job I was doing guarding you by getting myself shot.”
“That’s not your fault,” Nera assured him.
I threw the rug to the side and found our way out. A trapdoor led to the clear-blue ocean below the bungalow with little glimmering fish darting over the dancing coral.
Nera sucked in a breath as she yanked her dress up over her glorious breasts. “What about hungry caterpillar number one?”
“He’ll be fine,” I assured her, peering down through the trapdoor for any poisonous water snakes.
