Page 22 of Her Alien Beast
Chapter 14
AMIRA
I can’t remember having ever criedso much in my life. My mother won’t let me out of her eyesight, which is awful because I hate crying in front of an audience, even if it is my mother. To make matters worse, relatives and friends call every couple of minutes to welcome me home. Most call via our house video comm, but some stop by in person, and it’s all I can do to make it through each awkward social interaction. Each conversation leaves me an emotional wreck.
The guilt is almost enough to break me.
Not only did I run away to avoid marrying Gregory Whitworth, but I’m lying to everyone about what happened as well. I did just as Vlann suggested in anger—declaring I became lost in the woods during an early morning hike on the morning of my wedding. Lying hadn’t been my first intention, but the untrue words had come rushing out before I could find the courage to speak the truth.
I’m not brave. I’m a coward. And I’m a liar.
As far as Gregory and everyone else knows, getting lost on my wedding day was pure accident. And staying lost was pure accident as well. I tell everyone I survived on protein bars and that a fellow hiker gave me a lift home.
Just as I disconnect from a video comm call with my aunt, my father bursts into the sitting room. “Amira, sweetheart, I need the name and comm number of that hiker.”
I panic. “Why?” I ask, fearing the worst.
“Your mother and I wish to pay the reward out to him, even if he didn’t know about it.”
My stomach twists. Why Vlann had refused the money, I’m not sure. Obviously, I’d angered him enough to not want the reward. I had sensed his anger when I announced I was ready to go home, though I can’t claim to understand it. If he harbors feelings for me, as confident as he always seemed, I had assumed he would say something. Yet he hadn’t.
“I told him to come in, but he refused,” I say. I’m not sure what else to say. Admitting my knowledge of the reward would be stupid. It will only get me caught in the midst of a great lie. I’ve already screwed up enough. I don’t want my parents to know how awful I am. I’m not sure I could bear their disappointment.
My father sinks into his favorite chair. “It’s a sixty thousand galactic credit reward, Amira. Your rescuer deserves to receive it.”
Rescuer. I cringe. If my father finds out about my deal with Vlann, I will be shamed beyond imagination. And if anyone learns about the passionate days I spent with the sexy bounty hunter, I’ll never be able to show my face in public again. Vlann is a virtual stranger…yet I’d fallen hard and fast for the handsome older alien.
The last thing I need, besides a fiancé I despise, is a bounty hunter who’s more than twice my age. But he’s the one person I can’t stop thinking about.
And he’d walked away from a huge reward. But why?
I don’t love him. Not really. I don’t.I don’t.
But the guilt from this lie reverberates in my chest, right beside my remorse over the many sins I’ve committed.
My mother emerges from the hallway, all smiles and red lipstick. “Gregory’s here,” she says, beaming and pulling my father from the room. My stomach flips. Oh God.
While today is my first day back home, I haven’t just arrived. I’ve been home for hours by now, and I know my father called Gregory earlier on his wrist comm. I heard them talking, though during my eavesdropping I hadn’t been able to make out what Gregory said. Is he happy I’m back? As long as it’s taken him to arrive, I had started to hope that he might not come.
I glance up as he strides into the sitting room, a bouquet of flowers in his hand. He leans down to kiss my cheek and place the bouquet in my lap.
Like the pushover I am, I return his smile and mumble my thanks for the flowers. So much for being brave. I should have stayed here and married him sooner, just to get the dreaded deed over with. I take a deep breath and search my feelings. Do I harbor any affection for Gregory at all?
I don’t. How can I, when I don’t even respect him?
“I heard my little treehugger got lost in the woods,” he says, not unkindly. But the veiled insult isn’t lost on me. He always tears me down with secret words and a smile, and no one else ever notices. My parents love him, believing he’s the most thoughtful young man they’ve ever met. It makes me sick that they can’t see the man behind the mask. My frustration over my forced relationship with Gregory is what drove me to run away in the first place.
“Well?” He sits in a chair facing me, a dark gleam suddenly entering his eyes. “Don’t you have anything to say to me?”
“I’m sorry.” I place the flowers on a side table. “I-I guess I missed our wedding.”
“Well,” he says, squeezing my leg, a bit too hard, “I hope you won’t miss it two days from now.”
“What?” I’m shocked.Please, not so soon.Not so soon after Vlann.
He stands up and takes a seat next to me, wrapping an arm around me before kissing my cheek. His touch repulses me and it’s all I can do not to shudder. But I know better. A good girl wouldn’t spurn the advances of her fiancé. And he’s still my fiancé, as far as I know. I haven’t had the courage to tell him it’s over between us. Will I ever?
“Our families have been anticipating our marriage for years, Amira. I don’t think we could hold them off for another week, even if we wanted to.”
