“We are not walking in darkness, female,” Vikan said.“We will find shelter and rest until the suns rise.”
Taylor bit her lip to keep from arguing, knowing that it was probably for the best, despite her impatience to get started on their journey.She could hardly see five feet in front of her and who knew what alien creatures lurked around.
So, she gave him a reluctant nod and then, without warning, he swung her up in his arms as if she weighed nothing more than a feather.She suppressed her surprised squeak and clutched his shoulders to keep from slipping when he jumped off the back of the hovercraft onto crunchy gravel.When she peered down, she saw it was white gravel, some pieces smooth, some pieces jagged.
Just for tonight, she’d let him carry her.Maybe along the way, she could find something to make shoes with.
And so, as if he knew the land, Vikan veered left, instead of heading straight, which had been the direction their hovercraft had been originally heading.
“Where will we find shelter?” she asked quietly, once she’d settled and they’d been walking in silence for a short while.She was still tense in his arms, trying to ignore his heat and his addicting masculine smell.
But it was hard.
“There should be caves not far,” he answered her.“If the Fates are with us, they will not be inhabited.”
Taylor couldn’t help but shiver, wondering about the animals and creatures that roamed Luxiria.
And maybe it was out of nerves or because she needed a distraction, but she commented softly, “You never answered my question about why you took me.I think I deserve to know why.”
“I did tell you why,” he replied, frustrating male.Vikan’s long strides didn’t even stutter as he murmured, “Vaxa’an was set to send you and the others females back to Earth.I could not allow that to happen.Not yet.It was impulsive and perhaps foolish, but I felt I had no other choice.”
“You said you wanted to know whether I was yours,” she noted.“That was your explanation.You honestly expect me to takethatas an answer?You don’t even seem that certain.”
A low growling purr started in his chest and she felt it against her side.“Iamcertain, female.”
“Then you’ve made a mistake,” she simply put, ignoring the way her heart leaped at his husky words.
“I cannot say I am happy about it,” he growled, getting all moody again.
Taylor sucked in a breath, feeling irritation and indignation rise.And a little hurt, which made absolutely no sense.
“Then great!” she replied, looking away from him, trying to hide her scowl.They’d just entered a forest of the long grassy plants she’d seen from the hovercraft.They towered over both of them and rustled as they made a path through.One curled edge of a shoot brushed her cheek and it felt like sandpaper.
He continued, “It does not change the fact that my Instinct has awakened for you.Regardless of what we both want, it is our duty to see if there can be something more between us.”
Taylor felt too many things at once as the words left his lips.But the most clear thing of all was that feeling in her dream.That complete and utter happiness, that trust and respect, and love.
She cleared her throat, suddenly feeling her throat stinging because she knew there was no way in hell she’d ever feel that for the alien male carrying her in his arms.It was almost like a loss.The male in her dreams had been…everything.Everything she’d wanted in a potential partner.
Vikan in real life?
His moods gave her whiplash, for one.One moment he was trying to seduce her, the next he was concerned for her, the next he was almost standoffish.
Not to mention the fact that he wasn’t even human, that he lived on an alien planet, when all Taylor wanted was to return to Earth.
“That sounds like a ‘you’ problem.It is notmyduty,” she said.“And even if your, um, Instinct is awake now or whatever, I didn’t ask for any of this.”He growled.“The only thing I want is to get back to the others and I want to go back to my planet.You’re not happy about being saddled with me?Fine.Then once I’m gone, you can go back to your life like I never existed.And I’ll go back to mine.”
Vikan stopped walking, his muscles tense and bunched.But Taylor didn’t look at him.For some strange reason, she was too upset to look at him.And why was her chest tightening at the thought of him being with her reluctantly?
It was ridiculous.
“Female,” he growled.
Still, she looked straight forward, into the endless sea of grass they were wading through.
“Look at me,” he ordered.
Taylor’s jaw ticked since her teeth were clenched tightly together.When she realized he wouldn’t start walking until she did as he asked, she slowly turned her head to regard him, but she made her reluctance obvious.
