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  “Okay.” The big alien appeared to consider the options. “There are other ways. I can break his spine.”

  “What?” This was sounding more and more gruesome. My big protector suddenly seemed more like a mob hit-man than the sweet teddy-bear of a guy who had held me so gently after my awful shower experience.

  “Or I can just break his arms or his legs. Or both if you want,” Grav offered as though it was no big deal. “There are plenty of ways to do permanent damage—ways that he’ll be in too much pain to ever lift a hand to you again.”

  “You…you’re talking about maiming or disabling him permanently?” I asked, my voice a dry whisper.

  “Maiming—that’s an idea,” he said, nodding thoughtfully. “I can cut off both his hands, if you want. Do your people have the tech to grow back a major limb?”

  “No,” I said, feeling sick. “No, we don’t.”

  He nodded. “Maiming it is.”

  “Wait—no! I didn’t meant I wanted you to maim him!” I protested. “Can’t you just, I don’t know—scare him into leaving me alone?”

  “Scare him?” He frowned. “I punched him out and he still popped up mouthing off. A male like that won’t scare easy, Leah. And unfortunately, I won’t be here to watch over you forever—this is a temporary assignment. That’s why I haven’t given you my oath.”

  “Your oath?” I asked, shaking my head.

  “A Protector’s word is his bond,” Grav said seriously. “If I swore my oath to you, to never leave you and protect you forever, then we could get away with just scaring your mate. But that would mean I would have to stay with you, by your side, until one of us died. Do you understand?”

  He looked so serious I felt my heart squeeze in my chest.

  “I, uh, understand you’re not up for that kind of, um, long term commitment,” I stammered at last. “But you still can’t go back down to Earth and kill my husband. No matter how much he deserves it.” I had a sudden thought. “And I bet you could scare him into staying away from me. He hasn’t seen you like this—the way you truly are, I mean.”

  “Right.” Grav gave a short, barking laugh. “I forgot you Earthlings have never met anyone outside your own species. And I am one ugly son-of-a-bitch. Maybe I could scare him into submission at that.”

  “You’re not ugly,” I said, frowning. “You’re…different. And different is good.”

  Grav laughed again. “It’s all right, darlin’—I don’t mind not being the prettiest one at the ball. Ugly’s good in the Protection game. All right.” He sighed. “I’ll take you back to Earth and we’ll have a sit down with your mate. I’ll give him a good talking to.” His black-on-white eyes flashed for a moment. “But I warn you, if he doesn’t seem willing to leave you alone, I’m gonna have to break something. Maybe not his spine but at least his arms.”

  His big hand reached up and brushed against my bruised cheekbone—the touch as light as a butterfly’s wings.

  “It’s the very least he deserves after what he did to you,” he rumbled.

  My heart skittered in my chest. How could he talk about doing such violence and yet touch me so gently?

  “Fair enough,” I said. I’m not a violent person but I did think that Gerald deserved some kind of punishment, not just for the way he’d beaten me, but for the way he’d been making my life miserable ever since we had gotten married.

  And if I was honest, the abuse had started even before that. Only it was mental and verbal abuse then which was easier to ignore or excuse. I always told myself he was just having a bad day or a rough time at work. Now, light years from Earth, I had a flash of clarity—I had been unhappy with Gerald for years. It was time to end this and never see him again.

  Looking at Grav, I had no doubt he could help me make that happen. I was grateful that Zoe had sent me such a loyal and strong guy to protect me. If I ever did get to Eloim to see her, I would tell her so.

  But for now, I had to get home.

  “Look, I’ll go reconfigure the flight-path,” Grav said, breaking my train of thought. “It’s going to take it a little while to get the new destination calculated and moved into the algorithm. But in the meantime, I have last meal prepared. Will you eat with me, Leah?”

  “Oh, of course.” I smiled at him. “I’d love that.”

  “Thank you,” he said gravely and held out an arm for me. “If you’ll come with me, the food-prep area is this way.”

  “All right.” Still feeling surreal, I took his arm and let him lead me out of the small, Spartan bedroom that wasn’t going to be mine after all.

  I felt a little twinge of regret at the thought. Part of me would have loved to go on an interstellar adventure and get away from it all. But you can’t run from your problems—they’re just there waiting for you when you get back.

  At least, that was what I told myself as Grav and I left the room and walked back down the long central corridor of his ship, my ridiculous shoes clumping on the metal floor and his muscular arm warm under my hand.

  Chapter Six

  Grav

  I was sorry she wasn’t coming to Eloim. Damn sorry. But it was probably for the best. I hadn’t even known her a whole solar day yet and already I was getting too attached to her. When I had talked about giving my oath, I’d actually had the urge to drop to one knee and give it to her right there!

  Which was fuckin’ crazy.

  I mean, you can put a time limit on it—in Teeny’s case, her grandfather had wanted me to give my oath only until she came of age. But when it’s given to an adult ward, the Protector’s Vow is almost always a lifelong oath. I couldn’t pledge my life to a female I’d just met—right?

  Right.

  This is temporary, I reminded myself again. It’ll be over before you know it. So just keep things cool, calm, and collected.

  But even as I lectured myself, I couldn’t help remembering the feel of her in my arms. The soft crush of her delicate body against mine. Her sweet, feminine fragrance and the electrical tingle I felt when we touched which meant she was, indeed, a La-ti-zal. Of course it also meant something else…but I pushed that thought away.

  Gods, she was gorgeous. And sweet and kind and caring, from the scenes I’d watched on the AMI. Was it any wonder I wanted to protect her? And to seriously fuck up the male who had dared to lay his hands on her?

  I cast a sidelong glance at her as we walked down the corridor, headed for the food-prep area of my ship. Her lovely face was still battered and the places that asshole had hit her were bruising up pretty badly. I wondered again if she would let me heal her.

  Sarden had told me that Earth males didn’t have the power to heal orally so she might think I was crazy if I asked. But damnit, I couldn’t help at least wanting to ask—she was so beautiful. I hated to see her beauty marred by that bastard’s violence.

  Better not, I told myself as we stepped into the food-prep area and I motioned her to have a seat. She’ll think you’re crazy or worse, looking to take advantage. She’ll heal naturally, even if it does take some time. She’ll be okay. Just leave it be. And then I heard myself say,

  “Leah, before we eat last meal, will you let me heal you?”

  I’m such a fuckin’ idiot.

  Leah

  “Excuse me?” I looked up at him, not understanding.

  The big alien was still standing in the doorway of the kitchen area, even though he’d motioned me in to have a seat at the tall, circular table in the center of the room. He looked uncomfortable, shifting from foot to foot but a determined look came over his face and he repeated himself.

  “I said, would you let me heal you? Your face, I mean.” He made a motion to his own face with one hand, as though to illustrate his point.

  “Um…sure, I guess,” I said, wondering if he had some special quick-healing alien medicine. If so, why he hadn’t offered up to that point? “But…how?”

  “Well…” He shifted again and cleared his throat
. “This might sound weird to you, but most males of the Twelve Sentient Peoples have evolved to be able to heal their mates, uh, orally.”

  “What?” I still didn’t understand him. “I’m sorry, I don’t get it.”

  He sighed and came to sit beside me.

  “We have healing agents in our saliva and other bodily fluids,” he explained. “We’re able to heal our mate’s cuts and abrasions.”

  “By licking them?” I asked blankly. “Is that what you’re trying to say? You want to lick my face?”

  His expression went hard.

  “Never mind. I know it must sound fuckin’ weird to you since your people can’t do it. Forget I offered.”

  “No—wait.” He had started to get up but I put a hand out to stop him, my fingertips lightly brushing his muscular arm. Again I felt the strange, electrical tingle between us and wondered what it meant.

  “Yeah?” He raised an eyebrow at me.

  “Tell me more,” I said softly. “I mean, you said your people can heal their mates. But, um, you and I are definitely not mates. I mean, we just met. So how could you—?”

  “You feel that tingle when we touch?” he asked, his deep voice slightly hoarse.

  “I did. I was just wondering what it was.”

  “It tells me two things.” Grav held up two long fingers. “One, that you’re a La-ti-zal—a female gifted with extraordinary powers by the Ancient Ones—like I already told you.”

  “Right,” I said, though I didn’t feel especially gifted and thought he might be mistaken about that. “And what else does it, the uh, tingle, tell you?”

  “That we’re sexually compatible.” Grav held up his hands in a don’t shoot gesture. “Which doesn’t mean I’m gonna try anything because I’m not. I’m not that kind of male.”

  “I believe you,” I said quietly, and I did. For all his huge size and immense strength, I got the distinct feeling that he wouldn’t hurt me. “So then what…” I cleared my throat, feeling my cheeks get hot. “What does it mean that we’re, uh, sexually compatible?”

  “Means my body would treat you as a potential mate and make healing compounds for you if you let me heal you,” he said gruffly. “That’s all.”

  “So…you’re asking if you can heal me before you send me back to Earth?”

  He nodded. “It’s true what I said in the fresher—that you’ll heal in time. But it’s gonna be a long and painful process. I can heal you almost immediately and painlessly. Plus, I don’t want that bastard to have the satisfaction of seeing what he did to you when we confront him.” His face grew dark and a low growl rose in his throat—clearly he was remembering the way Gerald had beaten me.

  I took a moment to consider. Did I want to let this big alien get that close? Close enough to “heal” me?”

  You’ve already been that close, a little voice in my brain reminded me. He held you naked in the sonic shower—remember?

  Yes, but that had been different. Grav had been holding me because I would have fallen otherwise—and also because I was freaking out. He’d clearly just wanted to calm me down. Now with all this talk about us being “sexually compatible” the idea of getting close to him again, close enough to let him actually lick me seemed both embarrassing and intriguing at the same time.

  “Do it,” I heard myself saying, the words coming out of my mouth before my mind had completely decided. Why had I said it? For whatever reason, it was too late to take it back now. “Do it,” I said again. “I…I want you to. Please.”

  “With pleasure,” Grav rumbled.

  Leaning forward, he cupped my cheek between his big hands with surprising delicacy. And before I knew it, I found myself staring into those strange, alien eyes.

  I meant to shut my own eyes—the same way you do before someone kisses you. It’s just too awkward, too intimate to look at someone you don’t really know that closely. But somehow I found I couldn’t look away. As strange and frightening as Grav’s eyes looked from a distance, up close they were absolutely gorgeous.

  I know that sounds strange but it’s true. The black that surrounded his irises wasn’t just black—now I could see that it had a kind of rainbow sheen to it—the same way you see rainbows on a puddle that has oil in it. And the white irises were a deep, snowy hue with just the very faintest tinge of pale, pale blue, almost like a Husky’s.

  “Oh…” I whispered, unable to help myself. “Your eyes…”

  “Yeah, I know they’re not what you’re used to.” He sounded roughly apologetic.

  “No…they’re beautiful.” I meant it. Grav had labeled himself “ugly” and it was true that his features were rough—in fact, I thought his face looked a little like some careless sculptor had carved it out of granite and not bothered to finish it up. But his eyes…they changed everything.

  “Yours are pretty fuckin’ amazing too,” he murmured, a small smile playing around the corner of his mouth. “Never seen anything like ‘em. Brown eyes—who would’ve ever thought?”

  “They’re very common on Earth,” I told him. “In fact, I think brown is the most common color there.”

  “Bet it doesn’t look half as good as anyone else on your planet, though,” he murmured.

  I could feel my face getting hot at the intense way he was looking at me.

  “Thank you.”

  “Well…” He stroked my cheek gently. “Guess I should stop talkin’ and start healin’.”

  “Oh, uh…” I became suddenly aware that we had been sitting there, lost in each other’s eyes for well over a minute.

  What’s wrong with me? I asked myself. I just met him—not only that, I’m a married woman!

  Not a happily married woman, obviously, but still… I’m Baptist. Not just regular Baptist either—Southern Baptist which means Hellfire and brimstone and plenty of guilt to go around. I didn’t judge the people around me by the way I had been raised but the memories were still there. It was myself I judged by those beliefs and the idea of not cheating on your spouse, no matter what, was a deeply held one.

  “I’ll just…let you get on with it,” I told Grav, closing my eyes firmly.

  “Mm-kay,” he rumbled. “Just hold still—shouldn’t take long.”

  He started at the cut above my eyebrow—I wasn’t exactly sure how that had happened. Maybe from Gerald’s wedding ring? He was left handed, so that was how he punched.

  Thinking of that made me sad. I’d never dreamed the day I slipped it on his finger that my husband would use the ring I’d given him to hurt me. That he’d—

  Then Grav’s warm tongue connected with my skin, driving every other thought out of my mind.

  Despite the fact that his breath was warm, the healing tingle I felt running through my torn flesh was cool—refreshing somehow. His breath smelled faintly of spearmint, although I don’t know how that was even possible—spearmint and some exotic, alien spice I couldn’t name.

  But it wasn’t the closeness of his big body to mine or the delicious scent of his breath or even the cooling tingle of his tongue healing me that bothered me.

  It was the fact that when he started licking me, I started tingling in, shall we say, other places. Other places that had never tingled before.

  The tips of my nipples got hard under the thin white schoolgirl blouse and then I started feeling tender and pleasurably irritated between my thighs. What was going on? What was happening to me?

  What is this? I asked myself. I’ve never felt this way before! I knew I should probably ask the big alien to stop but somehow I couldn’t. It felt too good, even if it was a strange sensation.

  As Grav finished with the cut above my eyebrow and started on the bruise on my cheekbone, the sensation intensified until I had to press my thighs together tightly and stifle a moan.

  And then he started on my lip.

  Tender and swollen, it was cut from where Gerald had punched me. I winced back at first from even the lightest brush of the big
alien’s tongue. But then the healing tingle began and with it, the tingling between my legs intensified until I could barely stand it.

  Grav seemed to feel it too. He growled softly and then sucked my bottom lip gently into his mouth, laving it teasingly with his hot, wet tongue. The action seemed to send me into overdrive. Before I knew it, I was reaching for him.

  And then I was no longer sitting passively, letting him heal me—I was in his arms, kissing him. I felt his tongue in my mouth and welcomed it, enjoying the delicious taste of him which was hot and sweet and slightly minty.

  I wanted to put my hands in his hair but it was too short to really thread my fingers through. Instead my seeking fingers found his horns—those curling, black ram’s horns that had seemed so strange and alien when I first saw him without his disguise. Wait—that had been less than two hours ago.

  What are you doing? screamed a little voice in the back of my head. You just met this guy! And you’re married! What are you doing kissing him and petting his horns! Oh my God, you’re kissing a guy with horns! What is wrong with you???

  Somewhere inside I had to acknowledge that everything the little voice said was true. What I was doing wasn’t right—wasn’t even safe or sane. Yet I couldn’t seem to help myself—when Grav healed me, the cool tingle that ran through me seemed to change into another tingle—a much hotter one that I couldn’t deny. It made me want to be closer to him—much, much closer. In that moment, I didn’t care about anything. When the big alien kissed me, I felt a passion stirring inside me I’d never felt before—not with Gerald or any man I’d ever been with.

  This must be what they’re talking about! I thought, thinking of all the romance books I’d ever read. This must be the feeling everyone gets so worked up about—that makes people do crazy, stupid, irresponsible things and fall head-over-heals in love.

  You see, I’d never had that feeling—that physical passion—ever before.

  I know it sounds strange to admit—I had trouble admitting it to myself—but I’d never been sexually aroused before that moment, not really.