Page 16 of Protected By the Alien Space Guardian

“And that’s where you’re wrong.” I flared, pointing at the lines. “I didn’t ask for this. I have as much right to find out what it means as you.”

This time, his grunt reverberated all through his chest. He didn’t like the idea of me going with him, and that… hurt.

“I’m sorry that whoever or whatever has fated you and me. I’m sure you would have preferred somebody other than me…” I broke off because yes, saying those words did hurt. Not like getting the damn soulweb things tattooed into my skin, but painful nevertheless. It wasn’t just my pride either. It hurt my heart in ways that should have only been possible when a husband of twenty years or more told you he was leaving you because he met someone else. Totally illogical. But there it was.

His fingers brushed under my chin and lifted it gently. “Is that what has you so upset? You think I don’t want you?”

I nodded miserably, letting go of the last hold of my pride and hating that my eyes moistened.

“Fuck,” he exhaled hotly. “You’re gonna make me say this, aren’t you?” He looked decidedly put out, and I shrank a little further into myself.

He closed his eyes like someone might who was about to deliver the worst news to another person. I braced myself, balling my hands into fists. This would not hurt, it would not. I’m not that desperate that I fell for an alien after having the greatest sex of my life. This will not hurt!

“I wanted you the instant I entered the fucking cells and saw you. I got wounded.” He rolled his shoulder to indicate where I had sealed his skin. “Because I was distracted by you.”

He didn’t look happy confiding this to me, but my heart let out a little stutter of hope.

“When we fucked, it was the most intense moment of my life. But it wasn’t just the physical aspect of it. I felt connected to you.”

My breathing shallowed, and my heart beat a little faster.

“Is that enough?”

I shook my head.

“Of course not. I didn’t think you were one for simply sticking a knife in. You have to twist it as well.”

The image he invoked made me grind my teeth harder to keep the more than inappropriate chuckle at bay that was rising in my throat. I pulled my lips in when they began to curl upward and bit on them for good measure.

“Don’t look so pleased,” he grunted, but a small smile curved his lips as well.

Adeep sigh escaped me. The female was making me bleed, forcing me to bare my soul to her. Fine. I had done worse things than that.

“It was torture to run to your cabin once I felt the tug to go see you. With every step that brought me closer, my urgency grew. Just the thought of you not being near me is… painful.” I downplayed it. A male could only give up so much of his soul.

My words seemed to please her, and that pleased me, and I hated it. I hated the way my own well-being was suddenly dependent on the emotions of another. I wanted to push her away, but at the same time, I knew I couldn’t. For better or worse, it seemed our destinies were irrevocably intertwined.

I supposed I could have done a whole lot worse than having her for my soulbond, but part of me mourned the loss of my individuality and independence.

“I’ll go with you then,” she said, forcing another sigh from me. She kept twisting her knife in my heart without giving me any indications of her emotions, and I hated that I wanted to know. Needed to know.

“For what it’s worth, when you came looking for me, when you held me, you soothed my pain.”

It was but a crumb thrown at me, and I should have resented it, yet I lapped it up as if it were a piece of the finest meat and I a starving animal. I was not a starving animal. I was a predator. A predator that fed when it was hungry, not when someone decided to throw it a treat.

I growled from deep within my soul.

Her eyes looked alarmed at me.

Good. She should be alarmed because I would show her right now who was in control here and who threw crumbs at who.

First, I gave her my best practiced smile. There. Her pupils dilated. She wanted me too.

Then I, ever so carefully not to touch her skin, pushed a strand of hair from her face while looking up and down its lengths. Studying its silkiness as if it were a fine-honed sword.

I lowered my gaze to her tits and noticed the hitch in her breath before I danced the tips of my fingers over her soulweb marks. Her skin pebbled, and satisfaction rushed through me for being the cause of it.

Her head rose, her lips puckered, and her pupils dilated further. I denied her the kiss. Instead, I trailed my lips down her throat and rejoiced in the dry swallow from her that followed.

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