Page 56 of Alien Rescue

“You are not to walk around on your own.” He kept pace with her. “You are little and someone can run away with you.”

She ignored him and kept going. Little? She’d show him little. And did he really think she’d allow anyone to just walk off with her? She’d made love with him, sat around a table and ate the food he’d provided. What did that make her? The way he’d talked to that man. She clutched her arms around herself. Is that what he thought of her, too? That she was a mere human and had to take his orders and bow and scrape to him?

“You are not to walk away from me like that,” he said and caught her arm to hold her still.

She tried to jerk away, but he wouldn’t let go. “Why, because I am a mere human and don’t know my place?”

He stared down at her. “You are a breeder—you have the best place.”

Unbelievable. She took a deep breath, clenched and unclenched her hands. “Let’s just go and find that submarine. The sooner we finish this assignment, the better.” If she was lucky, maybe one of the scientists would have the antidote for the nanos. “We should’ve asked that man where exactly in the river the submarine was.” She could’ve bitten off her tongue the moment she said it. She didn’t want Zanr shaking the poor man again. Or worse.

He grabbed her and went back to the building. “Hey, I’m not a doll you can cart around.” He kept going and she sighed in relief when they found the building empty, all the people gone. Rose bit her lip to hide her smile. It would make their search more difficult, but she was glad they got away before Zanr could hurt the man for more information.

They got on the hoverbike and she rested the tips of her fingers on his shoulders. But the arrogant alien reached behind him and put her arms firmly around his waist. “You will hold onto me and sit close to me, like you did before.”

She scooted forward. “Fine.”

They started on one end of the river, and even though they followed the path of the river for miles inland, they didn’t find any trace of a submarine.

They returned to the tent and Rose jumped off the bike before he could help her and stalked into the tent. He was right on her heels.

“You are beautiful when you are angry,” he said.

Rose stopped and turned to face him. “What?” Surely, she didn’t hear him correctly.

“You are beautiful when you are angry,” he said in a weirdly even voice. Then he grabbed her and kissed her.

Rose kicked and struggled and bit down on his tongue. At last she managed to free herself. So angry she could barely speak. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“There is nothing wrong with me. I acted correctly.”

Rose clasped her braided head. “Kissing me when I’m mad at you is not acting correctly. Telling humans that you are above them is not acting correctly.”

“When a woman is mad, her warrior has to tell her she is beautiful and then take her forcefully into his arms and kiss her.”

What? Maybe the nanos were messing with her mind because he could not have just said that. “Why exactly would you think it’s all right to behave like that?”

“Because, exactly, I did my research,” he said.

Rose closed her eyes for a long moment, gathering her patience. She opened them and fixed him with a glare. “What research?”

“I watched the educational files on your human TC. The facts are clear on how to treat angry females.”

“Which files exactly?”

“The romance and relationship files.”

Rose stared at him. He’d watched romances and thought that was how he was supposed to act in real life. She shook her head. “I can’t deal with this now. I’m going to shower and change.”

She went to have a shower. Standing under the warm water helped calm her a little. She even laughed about his idea of how to treat an angry woman. It had a lot of hysteria in it, but at least she didn’t want to commit a murder anymore.

He had the food ready by the time she came out of the bathroom, and she ate in silence and afterward went straight to bed. She had no idea how he cleaned the dishes they used. Mostly they just seemed to disappear. She glared at him over her shoulder when he joined her in bed.

“I’m so mad at you,” she said and faced forward again, her back to him.

The bed dipped with his considerable weight as he got in on the side she faced. He pushed her back to make space for himself. He kissed her and she forced herself not to kiss him back, to push him away.

“I’m still too mad at you.” She turned onto her other side, her back to him again. “And leave my hair the hell alone.” She waited for him to make a move, but he only drew her closer to his warm body.

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