Page 16 of Angel Condemned

A faint smile tugged up the corners of his lips, revealing a dimple in his left cheek and my heart sped up. “Like you can touch the sky. Do heights scare you?”

I tensed. My dodging around his questions earlier had brought me right back to my painful past. “Yes.”

“But you didn’t use to be?” He caught the hesitation in my voice.

I shook my head, squeezing my eyes shut briefly. Last thing I needed was to have a mental breakdown in front of this alien. “I-I lost loved ones in a crash.”

“Are they the reason why you stopped your medical training?” His soft voice was full of sympathy.

Damn him. I swallowed back the lump in my throat. “Yeah.”

“I’m sorry. Death is always hard…hardest when unexpected.”

And as much I wanted to hold the words back, keep myself hidden from him and play the part of whatever he wanted that would get him to impregnate me, the words tumbled out.

“My mom and Vivian, my sister.” I hiccupped a sob. “They were on their way to a beauty pageant. My younger sister was gorgeous and could sing any song in dozens of languages. Her voice was like an angel. And the insane thing was I was jealous of her.”

“Doubt she was as beautiful and smart as you.” His voice was sincere, but I couldn’t accept his praise.

I raked a hand down my face. “Things fell apart after that. Dad got real sick. H-He needs organ transplants, but his blood is odd, no one has the right match. Our only hope is mechanical organs, but they are wicked expensive.”

Why had I said that? He’d put it all together that I was here for a payout. I had to come with a lie he’d believe.

“A-and so I tried to rob the Roulex’s bank on Earth and got caught.” This time, I let the tears fall and the words caught in my throat. “Now with me here, there’s no hope for my dad.”

Our conversation was interrupted with the Roulex shoving our food trays for breakfast underneath the barred door.

I pushed one of the trays to Dilbert and kept one for myself. I chewed the bland piece of bread. My chest tightened with everything I’d shared with him.

For some reason, I found myself wishing that we weren’t locked in a cell together. That we had come together into a weird dating craze where we had to spend days alone and see if any sparks flew between us.

And from his kiss earlier, there most definitely were fireworks.

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