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“I... no.”

Her heart clenched. “No! You can’t tell me I don’t have some effect on you. Even if you don’t find me that attractive and can’t see us as a couple, at least let me work with what you’re offering.”

“I’m not offering anything.” A muscle twitched in his jaw. “And you affect me greatly, but it’s still not appropriate.”

“To have a relationship?” She arched an eyebrow. “You’re not into commitment, is that it? Are you pulling away because you figure I want a ring on my finger and a picket fence? If that’s the case, then you’ve got me all wrong. That’s not my deal.”

“It’s not about committing to you, or fences.”

“I don’t believe you.” Sloane bit her bottom lip, an idea forming. “We could just start with sex. I can see you want that from me. Even if your amazing brain doesn’t find me that appealing, your body does. We could use each other to get some much-needed relief. It’s been a long time since I’ve had any pleasure.”

“I... I don’t want that.”

“For me to get no pleasure?” She threw up her hands. “Help a girl out. What do you want?”

“I meant, I don’t want you to be with anyone else. I don’t want you to get your pleasure from someone else.” His words came out low and growly.

“That’s hardly fair. You don’t want me, but you don’t want me to be with anyone else.”

“I didn’t say that.”

She cocked her hip and rested a hand on it. “You kind of did. Every time I make a move on you, you say you can’t be with me.”

“Because I’m not the alien for you. Why can’t that be enough of a reason to stop this?”

“Why aren’t you? Because you’re a bit different to other Apexians?”

“I’m a lot different,” he muttered.

“Not to me. It doesn’t matter that some of the experiments you went through didn’t turn out right.”

“Right! They broke me.”

Her voice softened, and a little of her frustration faded. “No, they changed you, but you’re still you.”

Dallin’s hands flexed. “We don’t have time for this. We have a poison to find.”

Sloane huffed out a breath. Why couldn’t he see he was a good alien and she wanted him, weird brain chemistry and all?

“We’ve only been wasting time because you freaked out and refused to get off the ship. I thought I was helping you.”

“You weren’t. You made things worse.” Dallin strode away.

Sloane blinked back more tears, but this time they were tinged with anger. Was she wasting her time with Dallin? Should she give up and try to figure out a way to move on without him?

The thought sent a shard of pain into her heart, but perhaps it was a pain she’d have to learn to live with.