Page 26 of Wrong Bed Right Alien

His endtax beat too steadily for her. The desire to secure a mating bond was too potent for this attraction to be nothing.

She was his.

Twisting away from him, Kimber recoiled and held the sheet to her body. “What the hell are you doing in my bed?”

He lay still while facing her. She was already on edge, and he didn’t want her bolting into the darkness and hurting herself. Humans and their terrible night vision.

“You’re in my bed. You came into the wrong room.”

Her lips parted with a quick intake of breath. If only she could see him as clearly as he could see her. She’d see the want and need in his eyes. Would it scare her away?

“Oh my God, I’m in the wrong bed! I had to use the bathroom, and I heard something in the hall. I couldn’t remember which door was mine.”

Ethan was glad that he hadn’t shed his human hologram for the evening as he’d hoped to. Once he realized the door didn’t have a lock, he set aside the idea. His alien form was tiring of wearing the human hologram day after day. While his Luxx form didn’t require consistent sleep as the humans did, he’d become accustomed to the nighttime habit and used the time to shed his facade.

He might still be in his human form, but hehadshed his clothing before getting into bed.

Kimber gripped the sheet in both hands, her expression uncertain. She was frightened, but not by him. What had she heard in the hall?

“You’re welcome to stay.”

“Oh, I can’t. That wouldn’t be appropriate.” Hesitation lined her words. “Sorry for the intrusion.”

She sat up and scooted away from him. His first instinct was to stop her, to make her stay, but he would never urge her to do something she didn’t want to do. Thunder boomed around the castle, shaking the stones. She gasped and fisted the sheet again, no longer in a hurry to leave. Turing back to face him, she relaxed some.

“I wonder if the others made it inside or if they’re all passed out on the lawn.”

“I thought I heard voices coming from below as I was getting into bed. They must have come in.”

Kimber looked around the dark room, though he knew she couldn’t see anything. “Oh, good. That’s good. It’s nuts how they all ate that crazy fish, isn’t it?”

She was procrastinating.

“You humans are strange.”

She huffed a small laugh. “That’s an odd way of putting it, but you’re right. We are strange. Not me and you, though. We didn’t eat the fish.”

Lightning burst outside the window. Leaning forward to look, she seemed to search for something.

“What are you looking at?”

“It was the weirdest thing. I saw a purplish glow when I walked into this room. I thought it was from the lightning, but now it just looks normal.”

He must have lost his hologram as he fell asleep. He’d become so used to it, he let it slip unintentionally.

“I saw that, too. It was the lightning.”

“Weird.”

“Right?”

More tension deflated out of her. It pleased him she could relax in bed with him like this, just talking. For now. Silence fell between them, the seconds punctuated by the raging storm. Her breathing evened and grew shallow. He thought she might have fallen asleep, but her eyelids fluttered.

“Hey, thank you for coming here with me. Truth be told, I suspect Pel said I could bring a guest because he didn’t think I would know anyone who would come with me. He wanted me to come alone.”

“He did.”

Her lips skewed into a disgusted line. “You could tell?”

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