Page 60 of Claimed by an Alien Warrior

If she got intimate with him, it would open her up for a whole new kind of pain. There was no way she could have sex with Ren and not grow even more attached than she already was.

“Ren,” Zoey said, exerting gentle pressure to push his face away, “we need to stop.”

He furrowed his brows and finally lifted his head. “Why do we need to stop?”

“Because I—”

Just lie!

“—don’t want this.”

Bullshit. You’re so revved up that if he so much as stuck out the tip of his tongue you’d jump his bones and screw his brains out. He cansmellyou, remember?

“I just got out of a relationship, and we’re…we’re two different species,” she said.

“Different species, yes, but both thinking,feelingbeings with many similarities.” The confusion on his face only deepened. “And your reactions—”

“Are natural, as you said. But they’re not voluntary.” Zoey cringed. That hadn’t come out right.

God, I hate myself right now.

Rendash clenched his jaw and averted his gaze for several seconds. His breathing was slow, deliberate, as though damming some immense reservoir of emotion. Finally, he pushed up off her chair, breaking all contact with her, and returned to his own seat.

She felt like a complete ass. She hadn’t meant for the words to come out like that, hadn’t meant to hurt him.

“I’ll let you finish the movie while I fix us some dinner,” Zoey said, standing.

“You said I had to make my own next time,” he replied. There was no hurt in his voice, but there was no joy, either. Was he truly unaffected? Had she…made the right choice?

Without another word, she left him, softly closing the media door behind her. It was too late to put distance between them to protect herself from hurt. Stinging tears brimmed in her eyes as she walked to the kitchen, and her legs were so wobbly that she had to lean on the island counter until she regained her composure.

She’d already let him get too close.

Shortly after she finished making dinner — elk steaks, canned corn, instant mashed potatoes, and more of the biscuits he liked — Ren emerged from the media room. Zoey set a large plate on the counter in front of him, offering a smile.

“Hungry?” she asked, hoping to diffuse the tension in the air.

“Yes.” He set into the food slower than normal, as though his usual appetite was diminished.

Zoey picked at her own meal.

They ate in silence. Zoey missed the sound of his voice, missed their playful banter.

Isn’t this what you wanted? Distance?

Appetite having fled, she scraped her leftovers into the trash and cleaned her plate.

Time to put that final nail in the coffin.

“I’m going to sleep in the master bedroom upstairs,” she said. “You can stay in the room down here, if you want, or pick one of the others.”

His hand stilled midway between his plate and his mouth, a skewered piece of elk steak quivering on his fork. “Why?”

“Why not? There are so many beds here, and so much space. Might as well put it to use while we’re safe.”

Rendash’s jaw muscles bulged, and his nostrils flared. A hard light entered his eyes — hard, but somehow vulnerable. When he lowered his fork, he did it with enough force to clank on the plate, and she jumped. He flattened his other hands on the counter and pushed himself to his feet.

“Even when we had two beds, you wanted to sleep with me. Why do you want space now? Why are you pushing me away? Explain it, human, in a way I can understand, because it makes no sense to me!”

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