Page 12 of Her Alien Soldier
He nodded. “We have been negotiating with them for a very long time. They have been understandably hesitant to put their people in danger.”
“Still doesn’t mean he was being honest. Every society has people who sabotage things. Maybe he’s on the other side, doesn’t think his people should get involved. Messing up whatever you have going on here could be to his benefit.”
“Exactly.”
She picked up her tea and took a sip, leaning back in her seat. The way they were sitting, his arm was behind her now, and he could feel her warmth against his forearm. The temptationto move closer, wrap his arm around her, and forget anything except her scent and the feel of her body against his was nearly overwhelming.
He tamped it down. Not the time.
Which led him to the next thing he needed to discuss.
“He did bring up a point, which I must admit is a valid one, no matter which side he is on.”
She turned her head and studied him, and it took everything in him not to bury his face against the side of her neck the way he’d been so tempted to earlier. Breathe in her scent, crush her body to his and not let go.
He cleared his throat. “He said I am too obvious. It is too clear that I am waiting for someone, and since my kind is rare here already, an Altarian waiting for hours on end for someone makes it clear that I am here for a matter of some importance. News has also spread about the damage an anonymous Paraxian did to the systems at the Redlian’s headquarters. It would not be hard to link the two. And spies abound. We know they use them. That is how their first attack on my people worked so well.”
Xarek watched her as she listened. The small, delicate nod. The way she pressed her soft lips together when she was thinking. Licked her lips when she was about to speak.
“You’ve been so focused on not missing the Paraxian you didn’t even think of that,” she finally said, meeting his gaze.
“No. That was foolish of me. So single-minded…”
“It’s important. But he’s probably not wrong. Though if he’s a spy it doesn’t really matter at this point, does it?”
He barely suppressed a snarl at his own stupidity.
They sat in silence for a few moments. He would have called it comfortable silence, except that when he was not thinking abouthow foolish he was, he was fighting the urge to pull her close and see what it felt like to kiss a human.
“Did he say anything else? Anything that might help us figure out whose side he’s actually on?”
He shook his head. “Some airheaded thing about how I should try to look like I’m actually here for rest and recuperation. That I should look like I’m having fun and relaxing instead of staring at the door to the bar for hours on end.”
“You are sort of obvious,” she said softly, and he narrowed his eyes and looked at her. She grinned, then laughed when he grumbled.
“If I were as obvious as that, we would be having a very different conversation right now, Maggie.”
He watched her, seeing the moment it registered. That gorgeous flush to her cheeks, the soft, shaky breath.
She was as affected as he was.
“He said I should spend time with you on my lap, as if I am here having a grand time during my recovery.”
“He said what?” she gasped, staring at him.
“He also said you probably would not mind it.”
It was almost comical, the way she opened and closed her mouth. Her blush deepened, and she gripped her hands in her lap.
“What an asshole,” she finally muttered.
He could not help laughing. He had heard her curse before, of course, joking with patrons in the bar.
“Would you mind it? Was he wrong?” he asked, even as he wondered what he was thinking, asking such a thing as if he was even considering it.
She just stared at him for a few moments. And then she surprised him by laughing, and he was lost. Her laugh was full, loud, as bright as a summer day on his home world. It made him long for things he hadn’t dared to even think of in a very long time.
He felt the corners of his mouth turning up, and before he knew what was happening, he was laughing too.
