Page 47 of Chieftain
Claire and Jamie are wildly attracted to each other—check, check, and double-check.
Compelled to marry out of necessity, Claire and Jamie fell head over heels and crazily in love.
Oh crap!
I can’t actually be falling for Khaion. We’ve only kissed, for heaven’s sake, and even that was just for instructional purposes.
Wasn’t it?
It doesn't matter that he's my alien version of Jamie Fraser and kissing him turned my bones into hot butter. Falling forhim would be crazy… one of those love-at-first-sight kinds of moments.
You wanted him from the second you woke up in his arms.
True, but I thought I was dead. Similar to an insanity defense, a person shouldn’t be held accountable for their thoughts and emotions when they believe they are dead.
I've never experienced love at first sight. Honestly, I'm unsure if I experienced love at second or third sight.
Rick and I dated for six months before we were intimate and another two years after that before deciding to walk down the aisle. I clearly remember standing at the entrance of the first Methodist Church of Atlanta, my father at my side, sweat dripping from my hands, and realizing that I progressed down the aisle out of obligation rather than inclination.
Maybe somewhere deep down inside, I knew Rick wasn’t the one. I certainly wasn’t the one for him. During our divorce, I discovered his infidelity inherent throughout our marriage, beginning the night of his bachelor party with the sister of one of my bridesmaids.
I do believe in love at first sight. I saw the remnants of it on the faces of my friends Willa and Daisy and their husbands when telling the tales of how they met. I witnessed the resounding grief the two women suffered when they lost those loves. Grief so deep it reverberated in their bones, causing physical manifestations that took years to overcome.
My divorce had been nasty… hateful. The kind of divorce that ends up an episode of Law and Order. I’d been acrimonious, furious, and vengeful, but not a single time did I genuinely grievehis loss. I wanted to hate Rick, but I couldn’t, not completely. Because of him, I’d become a mother, the purest form of love I’d ever known. A part of me even felt sorry for Rick. He could have chosen an intimate, deep, connected love with me, but instead, he’d gone through the motions in our marriage, choosing a revolving door of strangers instead of commitment.
But Khaion?
He looked at me like nothing I'd ever experienced—like I was everything he desired, all wrapped up in a pretty bow. He fulfilled all the criteria of a perfect partner—devotion, gentleness, trustworthiness—like a Bride's magazine checklist.
I wanted him. It was already too far gone to deny that looking at him created a monsoon in my panties.
Love him?
The logical, legal part of my brain I'd relied on all my life, denied the possibility. Things like this didn't happen.
My heart was harder to convince, and it scared me to death.
He was a decorated Vaktaire warrior and chieftain of the Bardaga, responsible for protecting all of Earth’s inhabitants, not just me. Being protective was part of his DNA. Granted, Khaion asked me to teach him to kiss and not one of the many human females he’d helped in the last one hundred years.
Me!
And either I was an exceptional teacher, or he was the best student ever because of how his mouth moved over mine….
My shiver shook the mattress, the movement banishing the last vestiges of slumber from my brain. My eyes blinked at the dusky light the Bardaga used to simulate morning. Of course,I was alone—it was just a dream. With a sad huff, I threw back the covers, freezing at the sight of my naked skin.
I never slept naked. Rick thought it untoward, and after being abducted—one never knows when you might have to run for your life in the middle of the night. It meant nothing. I soaked in the bath to relax and probably was so drained afterward I flopped into bed and drifted off to sleep.
Of course, that doesn’t explain why the pillow beside me held the imprint of a head or how the spot on the mattress beside me was rumpled and slightly damp.
That’s crazy. The beds just messed up because you were having a very wild, very enjoyable sex dream.
I slung my legs over the side of the mattress, instantly recognizing a slight soreness in my thighs as though someone had held them tightly. My nether regions tingled with remembered attention, and I spotted a faint bruise over my left nipple. I remember Khaion nipping me there; pleasure and pain were delicious sensations.
No!
It was only a dream. All the physical manifestations were my body acting out the fantasy. I probably rolled around the bed like a woman possessed all night, pinching myself as I dreamed about Khaion’s attention to my breasts.
I couldn't explain the sight of the crumbled tunic lying on the floor at the end of the bed. Slowly, as though approaching a wild animal, I shifted upon my knees, crawling to the end of the bed and plucking the silky piece of black cloth from the floor.
