Page 6 of The Alien's Major Dilemma

He pulled her out of the seat, set her on her feet, and leaned her against the car. She couldn’t see what his hands were doing but the rush of blood and oxygen through her system when the blanket fell away nearly drove her to her knees. With one hand on her shoulder, Cooper pushed her against the car and held her there until the world stopped spinning.

The urge to vomit rose and fell and she closed her eyes to fight it while she took deep breaths through her nose. When she felt safe, she opened her eyes and looked straight into Cooper’s worried gaze.

“Are you alright?” he asked and eased up on the pressure holding her up.

Marissa nodded, then pitched forward and vomited on his boots.

Chapter 3

Cooper was torn between the urge to apologize and gloat. He hadn’t realized the side effects of being released from the stasis blanket would be so pronounced, but he was gratified to be proven right after she discounted his warning. Since he couldn’t do either, he gave her the privacy to take care of what she needed while he changed his pants and cleaned off his boots.

He found himself amused at the fact that she mumbled to herself throughout the entire process. Her balance was still precarious because now and then she’d catch herself against the side of the truck and curse.

By the time he was done cleaning himself up, she had stopped cursing and he hoped she was feeling better. They weren’t far from his ship but it would be better if he didn’t have to wrap her in the blanket again. He came around the truck to find herleaning against the door, her uniform as neat as it could be in the circumstances and her hair cleaned up.

“Are you feeling better?” he asked.

“I am,” she said with a nod. “The world spins a little more than I’d like it to but it’s getting better so I assume it will stop soon.”

“It should,” Cooper said. “Honestly, I didn’t think it would be this much of a problem when I wrapped you up.”

“That blanket was designed for Chelions, right? Not humans? Unless you tried it out on a human first, you wouldn’t know how it would affect me.”

“It was designed for Dragor,” he said. “And adapted to Chelion and Ranel. There are modifications for each to avoid causing the problems you had. I should have known using it at max stasis for a Dragor would be dangerous for a human.”

“And now you know,” she said. “So obviously you’re not going to do the same thing you did last time.”

She was right but he didn’t think she’d care for the solution as much as she thought she might.

“You’re right,” he said. “Unfortunately, it limits my options a lot.”

“Oh? I’d think it would give you more options.”

“Are you willing to sit in the passenger seat and do nothing but talk until we reach my ship?” he asked.

“Of course.”

“Are you a Marine who’s trained to fight, evade, and escape capture?”

“Yes, I am.”

“And what would you consider this? More to the point, what will your superiors think if you come along quietly? If I don’t treat you like a captive, that makes you AWOL rather than captured, right?”

“Technically, yes,” she said. “But since I don’t know where the fuck we are, it’s in my best interest to get somewhere I can call for help or resupply so I can be more sure of my escape.”

Cooper shook his head. “You’re still unsteady on your feet and I know you’ve been trained to fight while sick, tired, and injured. If you’re not running now, it’s just because you didn’t think you could get away before I caught up to you with the blanket and incapacitated you.”

“How much do you know about my training?” she asked.

“Not as much as I know about mine,” he answered. “But enough to know that I don’t want to be on the receiving end of your attempts at violence. I’d be forced to defend myself and we’d both be hurt.”

“My ‘attempts’ at violence?” Major Ozark asked, and he knew he’d said the wrong thing.

He opened his mouth to explain and she exploded at him in fury. His assessment of her steadiness had been accurate, and his body moved in ways she didn’t expect when he dodged her blows, but he didn’t want to hurt her and that was a disadvantage in this kind of fight.

Eventually, she landed an elbow strike to the side of his head that made his ears ring and knocked her on her ass. She curled up and grabbed her head while he blinked and waited for his vision to clear.

“What the fuck?” she demanded when she could talk.

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