Lainey waited another moment, her heartbeat pounding in her ears. She knew she should turn tail and go back inside the house. She could take a long, hot bath once Crystal was done and then tumble head-first into the plush bed she’d seen earlier.
But she wanted to see what color his eyes were.Neededto.
Besides, Lainey never did anything sheknewshe should do.
Except for when it came to her music, she had no discipline. She’d always assumed she’d used up all her discipline, sitting at her piano bench, practicing for hours and hours a day, perfecting every note until it rolled seamlessly into the next perfect note.
So really…who could blame her when she pushed away from the wall, emerged from the shadows, and crept three houses down?
Lainey’s heart was threatening to pound right out of her chest when she slowly stepped down the alley between the Ambassador’s house and the one right next to it.
Her skin felt flushed and her arms tingled, knowing that what she was doing was potentially risky and dangerous. She knew next to nothing about Luxirian males.
That thought almost made her pause, but something inside her, deep within her, forced her feet forward.
She had toknow. Butwhatshe had to know—other than the color of his eyes—remained a mystery.
A sense of foreboding rose in the back of her mind. Something Cecelia had told the group of women when she’d returned, with a new Luxirian mate in tow. Something about when she’d seen him for the first time, she’d felt…a pull, a weird sense of connection that hadn’t made sense to her at the time.
Lainey shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts, trying to bring her treacherous body back until control.
No, the whole ‘Instinct awakening,’ the whole ‘fated mate’ thing…it was ridiculous.
No, she thought, her body humming. This mysterious Ambassador was just the first Luxirian to tickle her fancy, coupled with the fact that she hadn’t had sex in almost two years. Her body wanted to end its dry spell and it seemed like her body had chosenhim.
That was all it was. Sexual interest and attraction.
Not that she would have sex with him. He could have a Luxirian wife and a baby on the way for all she knew.
She ignored the way her gut tightened at the thought.
No. She was simply…curious.
Which was what she told herself when she found herself slinking towards the back of the house like a total creep, briefly glancing in any windows she passed.
Wow, Lainey, she thought to herself,if only Mother could see you now.
The two windows at the front of the house revealed no one, so Lainey slowly approached where she knew the bedrooms were, if the structures of the houses were at all similar.
With her heart drumming in her chest, she peeked around the very last window into the house.
He was there.
He was undressing.
Lainey’s eyes went wide.
Throughout her life, she’d seen plenty of drool-worthy, sculpted, masculine bodies. Hell, all of her ex-boyfriends—though to be fair, she only had three—had spent at least an hour in the gym most mornings and got in their fair share of protein.
And Lainey had seen their guards shirtless at times, knew that the Luxirians she’d seen—including Vaxa’an—were absolutelystacked.
But this alien…
Nothing prepared her for how her body would respond. Underneath her ‘uniform’—what all the women called the grey, soft tunics they were given every morning—her nipples pebbled tight, goosebumps broke out over her skin, and her arousal revved up about 110%.
The Ambassador’s skin looked blue in the darkness, but she knew that Luxirian skin reflected light in a strange way. It was ever-changing. He was already shirtless and when he shifted, Lainey could see the small, metal bars that were pierced through his flat, dark nipples. Her mouth watered wondering how he would taste there. His pecs were perfectly square and led down to his taut abdomen, not an ounce of fat on him. Only muscle. Pure muscle and pure, uninhibited strength.
Dark horns, almost the exact color of the black mountain ranges she saw far in the distance, curled around the crown of his head, though the longer she looked at them, she noticed that they had begun to lift up and straighten slightly.
