Page 18 of An Alien for Her Heart

Varek hops out of the truck, heading around to my side and I realize he’s going to open the door for me. The thought of being so close again makes me try to open the door myself, but there’s no lever or button. It opens a short moment later as Varek saves me the embarrassment of fumbling with the thing and I hop out beside him.

“Well then,” I start, forcing a smile to chase away the thoughts that feel like dark wisps of smoke threatening to pull me under.

“I’ll unload the supplies and get to work.” His directness makes my mouth fall shut and I press another smile on my face. Giving him a nod, my gaze shifts to the trunk of the vehicle.

“Need help?”

Varek’s expression is unreadable. When he turns to look at my cottage, I realize I’d missed that the Raki had arrived for work and is tending to the roof.

Varek makes a sound in his throat that’s awfully close to a growl. One you’d expect something like a lion or bear to make. His gaze could cut steel as he glares at the Raki.

“No, thank you, soft female. Thatpilkrawill only hinder me.”

I open my mouth to tell him I was referring tomehelping him, not the Raki, but my mouth slams shut again at how easilyhe just called me a ‘soft’ female. At how easily I’m reminded of how hard he was against me. He was like muscle and steel.

He shuts the truck door, still glaring at the Raki as I force my thoughts away.

“Alright, I’ll just go change and I’ll be right out to help you.” I duck away before he can say a thing, and even with my focus forward as I head to my cottage, I can feel his gaze burning into my back. A tense smile at the Raki on my roof and I hurry into the cover my cottage provides. Once inside, I release a breath that had been paused in my chest.

I don’t even allow myself to think. To unravel whatever is causing these new emotions. I head to my room and I change. I tie my hair up again, I set down my very empty tote bag, and I square my shoulders.

Taking a deep breath, I step back outside, blinking in the bright sunlight. The Raki is still on the roof, carefully mending the damaged sections, while Varek has already begun unloading the supplies from the truck with an intensity that borders on aggression. His muscles flex with each movement, and I can see the strain in his jaw. Even from a distance, the tension radiates off him like heat from a furnace.

He’s angry. Probably because of what happened in the town. I crossed a line, even one of my own lines, clinging on to him like that. He said he doesn’t have a mate, but that really is no excuse for what I did. Only, how do I apologize for something we both seem intent on ignoring.

“Where do you want me to start?” I call out, walking towards the truck.

Varek glances over at me, his expression unreadable. For a moment, I think he’s going to tell me to go back inside, to leave the heavy lifting to him. But then he nods towards a stack of smaller boards.

“You can start by carrying those over to the perimeter,” he says, his voice gruff. “I’ll need them to patch up the holes.”

I blink at him, but he’s already heading to the barn with a massive beam balanced on his shoulders.

The perimeter? As in the perimeter fence? I thought he was only helping with the barn. My focus shifts to the Raki. I’d intended to ask him to do all the repairs, but he’s so slow. Maybe it would be better for me to pay Varek to do it instead. That is, if I can smoothen things out between us.

“Look, Varek.” His name on my lips seems to make him freeze. Bracing the large beam on his shoulder, he turns to look at me and I’m forced to continue down the track I started on. “About what happened in town—”

“It won’t happen again.” He heaves the beam, balancing it across his shoulders with an ease that makes my eyebrows rise. “I will not touch you again unless you ask me to, Catherine.”

What now?

I’m silenced, his words turning over in my head as he walks toward the barn to set the beam down.

“It was my mistake.” It comes out as a whisper I’m not sure he hears because he’s almost at the barn now. With a sigh, I take in a deep breath as I reach for the small boards. They’re light, easy to carry and I get to work, grateful for the distraction. Grateful for something to do with my hands, something to keep my mind from wandering down dangerous paths.

We work in silence for a while, the only sounds being the grunting of the oogas in the field and the occasional hammer strike from the Raki on the roof. It’s hot, sweaty work, and before long I can feel my tunic sticking to my back, my hair plastered to my head. My back aches even though the planks aren’t heavy, and

I might be permanently folded at a right angle from my waist. But it feels good, too. Feels good to be doing something physical,something real. Feels good to be working alongside Varek, even if we’re not speaking, even if the tension between us is thick enough to cut with a knife.

By the time I finish unloading the planks, he’s already done moving the beams and the roof fiber. Only the box of fruit is left and I look at it wistfully, my mouth watering a little before I turn away. The barn roof is about three times as high as the cottage’s and Varek uses a black square similar to the Raki’s to get on top of it. I watch him work for a bit. Watch as he begins measuring things…or maybe I’m just watching how the sunlight plays on his scales.

I have to pull myself away. There’s not much left for me to do out here. I might as well go tidy the house. So I focus on that. I head back inside and I don’t allow myself to think. I focus on the house. I wipe. I clean. I make the interior of the little cottage as good as I can make it. It’s my home now and, as the only thing I have control of on this farm, I focus on trying to personalize it as much as I can. The New Horizons Representative, Xarion, had been kind enough to ask what color of linen I preferred for my curtains and sheets. So now, the whole place is purple. My favorite color.

As the day wears on, as the sun begins to sink towards the horizon and the shadows lengthen across the grass, I find myself stealing glances out the window. Not at the view. Not at the work going on outside. At him. I find myself watching the alien with the iridescent scales, something strange yet deeply familiar swirling in the depths of my gut. Something I don’t want to even acknowledge.

He works fast. Much faster than the Raki, stripping the entire roof in the little time he’s been out there. Another lump forms in my throat as I watch the way his body moves, the way his hands grip the tools with sure, steady strength.

Each hammer that he lays down, my body jerks a little with the force of that strength. A man like him could do real damage to a woman like me in bed. I blush at the thought, partially horrified I’m even thinking it. Even more horrified that it’s risen in my mind at all.

---