Page 56 of Alien Protector's Mate

“We’ll figure it out together,” he promised. “There’s no rush,kelarris. We have time. That’s if?—”

He broke off, and she looked up at him, allowing herself to relax against his larger, harder body. He held her so gently that she was still half sure this was a dream, but she didn’t care. If this was a dream, she’d happily never wake up.

“That’s if, what?” she prompted as he lifted a big hand to tuck a loose strand of her hair behind her ear.

“That’s if you’ll let me court you,” he murmured, pinning her with his gaze.

She nodded, watching as he leaned down until her eyes crossed.

“Good,” he murmured against her lips. “Because I’m going to kiss you again.”

Her breath caught in the back of her throat as he claimed her lips. It was soft and tender, as though he was scared of hurting her. Breaking her. Spellbound, she froze, marveling atthe feeling of his lips moving against hers. He moved to pull back, and that shattered the moment. With a gasp, she pressed forward to kiss him, parting her lips in invitation.

He froze for a second, and she thought he was going to pull back. But then he growled and drove a big hand into her hair. It was her only warning before he drove his tongue past her lips.

It wasn’t a kiss. It was a claiming, and she whimpered as she clung to him, fisting her hands in the leather of his jacket as she kissed him back. Heat swept through her, burning through her veins as she pressed closer. Needing to touch him. Be closer to him.

He broke the kiss with a gasp and rested his forehead against hers. His big body shuddered as he admitted in a rough voice, “We can’t do this. Not here, not yet. You only just came out of surgery.”

She bit her lip, watching him as he eased her back down to lie against the pillows. Leaning over her, he smiled as he smoothed her hair back from her face. “Rest,kelarris, so I can take you home quicker.”

S’aad pacedthe length of his quarters, long strides eating up the distance between the walls.

“I’m telling you, Z’yan, the woman we have hereisJade Ashton,” he insisted, his voice low with frustration. He ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know who these Morgans have, but it’s not Jade.”

The security chief’s gravelly voice crackled over the comm. “Are you certain? We should report it, and there will be consequences for meddling in human matters.”

His gaze drifted to the viewscreen, the feed locked on to Earth below the station. Somewhere on its surface were the people who had hurt his Jade.

“I’m sure. Jade told me everything about her life, about how the Morgans treated her and her brother.” His fists clenched at his sides, anger simmering just beneath the surface. “It was barbaric. No one should endure such cruelty.”

He took a deep breath, forcing himself to relax.

“There’s more,” S’aad continued, his voice dropping to a near whisper. “Jade said she was entered into the system as a ‘package’ rather than a mate potential. I think someone in the LMP offices is trafficking women instead of signing them up. I want it investigated, Z’yan. Thoroughly.”

A heavy silence fell over the comm, broken only by the soft beep of an incoming message on S’aad’s personal device. He glanced at it. It was a message from Maax.

“I’m going to have to go,” he said to Z’yan. “Let me know what you find.”

“Absolutely.”

Z’yan cut the comm, leaving S’aad free to open the message from Maax. It was a vague message about identifiers in the code that he was tracking down. There were no more details than that, and he was about to open a comm channel to Maax to ask him what the hells he was going on about when the door to Jade’s bedroom slid open with a soft hiss. He turned, the words dying in his throat as the universe ground to a halt.

Jade stepped out of her room, no longer disguised as a boy but dressed as the woman she was. The Latharian gown he had chosen for her flowed like liquid starlight over her curves, the soft fabric clinging in all the right places. Her golden hair, finally freed from the ratty cap she’d been wearing since he met her, cascaded over delicate shoulders in gentle waves.

He stood, utterly transfixed, his mouth suddenly dry. His comm unit chirped at him, reminding him that he’d opening a channel but hadn’t specified a recipient, but the sound came from lightyears away. All he could focus on was her, his beautiful little mate… on the way she moved as she walked toward him.

His eyes traced the soft curve of her neck, following the elegant line down to her collarbone, exposed by the neckline of the gown. It hugged her waist, accentuating the feminine swell of her hips, and his fingers twitched at his sides, aching to explore those curves, to feel the warmth of her skin beneath the silky fabric.

She was so beautiful. The most beautiful female he’d ever seen. Her features were delicate and otherworldly. He was fascinated by all the little details he’d never noticed before… the way her eyelashes fluttered when she blinked and the small dimples at the corners of her mouth as she gave him a nervous smile.

Her eyes met his, and he saw a flicker of uncertainty in them. She raised a hand to her cheek, her voice soft and hesitant. “Do I… do I have something on my face?”

In a heartbeat, he crossed the room in long strides. He towered over her, trying to be gentle as he cupped her face in his large hands. Her skin was so soft it almost derailed him for a moment.

“No,” he rumbled in a deep voice. “You’re perfect, absolutely perfect.”

A blush crept up her cheeks as she looked down. His heart swelled, and he’d never been more grateful for anything that he’d heeded Vaarn’s advice and gotten her pretty things for when she came out of the medical bay.

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