Chapter Fifteen

Mmm… Drifting in a semi-somnolent state midway between consciousness and sleep, relaxed and cozy, I hugged my heated body pillow tighter. I needed to use the bathroom but hated to leave my nice warm bed. I’m snug as a bug in a…

Safe house. I shot from sleepy to alert in the time it took my eyes to spring open. I felt a faint steady drumbeat against my palm, which pressed against a muscular downy man chest. My head rested on a broad shoulder. My leg had insinuated itself between masculine thighs. The weight of a heavy male arm had been thrown around my shoulder.

What an ass! Or, as a Copan would say, what an ishta! With two other bedrooms and four other beds to choose from, he’d picked mine? Was that why he’d suggested I take the room with the big bed? Of all the nerve. What is he trying to pull?

I inhaled. God, he smells good. Sleepy warm man with a touch of alien spice. I discovered I was unconsciously caressing the hard muscles of his pecs. My stomach fluttered with sensual awakening, my heart thudded with alarm, and my brain chewed my ass. I must have lost my mind. It was a toss-up who deserved a slap upside the head more—him or me.

Maybe both of us. Him for his audacity and the assumption he could share my bed. Me for my foolish reaction.

And yet I still lay here.

Move, move.

I’d have to climb over him to leave. Unless…wasn’t there a sliver of space between the foot of the bed and the wall?

I eased my leg from between his then wiggled out from under his arm. I rolled away and then got to my knees. Victory! I crawled toward the foot.

A hand closed around my ankle. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“What are you doing in my room?” Had he been awake the whole time I’d been trying to extricate myself?

“Keeping an eye on you.”

“What are you afraid of?”

“Nothing—because I’m keeping an eye on you.” He sounded amused.

He still had a hold of my leg. “Let go of me,” I ordered.

He complied, and I jumped from the bed, smacking into the wall with a thump. “Sonofabitch.”

I spun around and bumped into a bare chest. “Are you all right?” he asked.

“Peachy. Get out of my way.” I wasn’t in the mood to be nice or polite. I felt grouchy.

He gripped my upper arms, and I became aware of the strength and gentleness in his big, five-fingered hands. Half human. I was disgusted with myself for missing one of the most obvious visual clues.

“Where are you going?” he demanded.

“Geez. To the bathroom, all right?”

He moved out of the way as much as he could in the modest-sized room with the huge bed. In the darkness, I saw his hulking form reach for the lamp on the nightstand. The room flooded with light.

I didn’t wait around to chat but stomped out. Why did I feel so flummoxed? So discombobulated? We’d shared a bed. Purely platonic, plus, I’d been unaware of it for most of the time. I’d been sleeping.

Outside the bathroom, I discovered he’d followed me. “You are not coming in with me.”

“I hadn’t intended to. I’ll wait in the hall.”

“Fine.” I went inside, shutting the door harder than necessary. I did my business, washed my hands, and ran a comb through my hair, wishing I had more to do so I could make him wait longer. Petty, but the small act of rebellion allowed me to feel like I had some control in a powerless situation. And it gave me time to get my racing heart under control.

Out of ways to stall, I reentered the hall.

“I’ll just be a minute.” He brushed past me.

So you trust me that much? I retreated to the bedroom and the inevitable. He wasn’t going to let me out of his sight for more than a minute. I have to pick my battles.There’s no sense antagonizing him.

I crawled into bed and scooted to the far side. I could smell him on the sheets. I resisted pressing his pillow to my face. Pathetic much? He’s not a kidnapper, he’s LOP—I’m 99.99 percent sure. Call me a protectee, but if I’m not free to come and go, I’m a prisoner.

I empathized with Maxx’s mother. She’d made the best of a bad situation, but I knew exactly what she’d gone through. Been there. Done that. Forgot to get the T-shirt.

I guesstimated Maxx to be in his late thirties or forties, since his mother had been abducted fifty years ago. I wished he’d given me her surname so I could look her up on the census report, see if she was still listed. If trafficking had been occurring for at least five decades, how many people had vanished during that half century?

The census was not correct. There was no telling how many people had been lost. And Araset was in danger, too, about to be invaded. What would happen to Holly, Millie, Kat, Prince Aeon, Prince Lomax, Nadir, Queen Citrine, and King Saar? Imana would target the palace first. Giselle and Joule were LOP agents without a home base and wouldn’t be directly impacted by an invasion, but since they were on the anti-trafficking task force, they’d get drawn into the battle—if it occurred.

According to Maxx, this next large-scale abduction would enable the LOP to crush the cartel. The LOP had raided slave ships before. What was different about this time? It was so frustrating to get only part of the story.

I feared the traffickers would elude the galactic authorities, and the captives would vanish, never to be seen again. If the league hadn’t been able to quash the slave trade in five decades, why would they be successful now when the problem had mushroomed? It wasn’t that I didn’t trust the organization, more like I lacked confidence in their abilities.

It had been King Saar who’d rescued the Star Cross passengers. The LOP had swooped in shortly thereafter, but the king’s men had gotten there first.

But some indefinable quality made me think I might be able to trust Maxx. Maybe because he was half human and his mother had been abducted, he would be more apt to have empathy for our situation. This wasn’t just a job to him. He had a personal stake. He’d been willing to share information, albeit less than fully. He’d rescued me from the thugs. He could have let them keep me.

Trust was as much a decision as it was a feeling. What I knew for sure was this problem was far bigger than what I could handle. What if it was bigger than what President Stadler could handle? Disappearances had occurred under her watch for seven years, and under her predecessor’s watch for eight. And before that… Nobody on my planet had had a clue what was going on right under their noses.

Maxx returned. With the light on, I could see the short, fine silky fur covering his chest. I remembered how soft it had felt against my cheek. My gaze traveled downward to the form-fitting leggings outlining an impressive package. He’s not hard on the eyes. My stomach fluttered with a kick of arousal, and I averted my gaze. The mix of genetic material had produced a fine specimen of a man. Human DNA had softened the heavy, blunt features just enough to make him ruggedly masculine without being forbidding.

Wide awake, I doubted I’d get back to sleep now. “What time is it?”

“Almost dawn.”

“That’s not a time.”

“I didn’t look. Maybe six o’clock. We should still try to get some sleep. We didn’t go to bed until late.” He switched off the lamp, plunging the room into darkness, except for two glowing green dots high on the wall. Like old Earth, New Terra had a single lunar satellite, which could be very bright during a full moon. But no moonlight spilled in through the frosted window, signifying two things. First, New Terra must be in a new moon phase, and second…

“We’re not anywhere close to the capital, are we?” I asked.

The bed compressed. Starting to slide into him, I clung to the edge of the bed.

“Why do you think that?” His growly voice, disembodied by the darkness, sent tingles through me. I’d always been a sucker for men with deep voices. His body heat and enticing musk drifted over me.

“It’s never fully dark in the city. There’s no light coming in through the window.”

“Good deduction,” he said.

“The green lights,” I said, gesturing at the dots although he couldn’t see my hands. “Those are some kind of sensors, right?”

“The green lights indicate the doors are secure.”

A reminder I couldn’t leave.

The details he’d shared about Princess Imana’s plans for galactic domination made crazy sense because it explained so much. Furthermore, my gut kept insisting he was one of the good guys. I considered myself to be a calm, rational, logical person, not prone to impulse or rebellion just because. Based on the assumed facts and a leap of faith, I’d decided to trust him.

“I won’t try to escape,” I said. “I’m going to stay out of it and let you and the LOP handle this.”

He chuckled. Damn, he had a sexy laugh. “You’ll forgive me if I don’t accept your assurance at face value.”

“I wouldn’t expect any different.” I closed my eyes and listened to his quiet breathing, absorbing his warmth, inhaling his masculine, alien, clean scent, smelling of the same bath gel I’d used.

The people of Nomoru were hydrophobic. They avoided water with a vengeance. They drank it, but bathe in it? Never. To get clean, they stepped into ionizers, which whisked away dirt, sweat, dead skin, and fur cells. New Terra didn’t have ionizers. “Do you dislike water as much as other Copans?” I asked. I breathed in his scent again.

“Why do you ask?”

“Just wondering.”

“I don’t like it, but I don’t hate it as much as other Copans. My mother’s influence, I think.”

“Do you think it’s biological or behavioral?”

“Never thought about it. Could be either.”

Suspicion and animosity had shielded me from his charm, and his masculine physicality. When I’d let them go, I’d left myself vulnerable to his magnetism. He’d stirred a yearning that was more than physical. Was this how it had started with Holly and Aeon, Millie and Nadir, Kat and Lomax, Giselle and Joule? Except they had been able to build a future together.

My place remained here, while Maxx belonged among the stars, fighting for a safer galaxy. There would always be threats. Even if the LOP succeeded in vanquishing the Copan-Cerulean Cartel, new villains would arise. The battle for safety, prosperity, and peace would never end. Only eternal vigilance would prevent us from falling victim to those who would do us harm.

“How long have you been with the LOP?” I asked.

The bed shook as he rolled to face me. “You’re not going to sleep again, are you?”

“Doubtful. Are you tired? I’ll shut up.”

“I won’t be able to sleep again either. I joined the LOP as soon as I was old enough.”

“How old was that?”

“Twenty is the minimum age.”

“And that was how long ago?”

“Are you asking how old I am?”

My lips twitched. “Yeah.”

“I’m thirty-five. How long have you been with the State Department?”

“I’m thirty-one,” I replied.

He laughed. “I really was asking about your job.”

“Eight years. I got a degree in governmental policy and joined the State Department right out of school. On Earth, the bureau served as a liaison to foreign entities. New Terra is a single nation, so there are no other countries to work with. However, our inaugural government had anticipated alien encounters. Nobody realized the encounters would be abductions or that there was a League of Planets that had outlawed open, honest contact with New Terra.”

He ignored the dig and asked, “So, what does your department do?”

“We advise the president on public policy matters. I’m the deputy secretary of state, but it’s a loftier title than I deserve since the entire department consists of seven people: three analysts, two administrative assistants, me, and my boss.”

More and more, I began to believe Garrison was aiding the cartel. How ironic the secretary of state who would have negotiated with aliens had been abetting the slavers. It was vile. And it felt personal. Garrison had allowed me to go on the Star Cross space cruise, aware I would be abducted. I’ll bet I shocked the hell out of him when I showed up at the office.

“Garrison is involved in the trafficking, isn’t he?”

“No.” The quick, definitive reply confirmed my worst suspicions. He didn’t ask who Garrison was. I’d never mentioned my boss by name.

“Now I know why Garrison forbid me to go to the president.”

“I said he’s not involved.”

“I don’t believe you,” I said.

“Didn’t you promise to stay out of it?” His lips quirked with humor. The fact I could see him made me realize dawn had broken. Pale-pink light filtered in through the frosted glass, coloring the room with a rosy hue.

“I’m staying out of it. I’m just asking questions.”

“I told you as much as I could last night.”

“Okay, so, different topic…have you ever been bond-mated?”

He blinked and then laughed. “I think I prefer the other line of questioning.”

“Okay, about Garrison…”

“No.”

“No, you won’t talk about Garrison, or no, you’re not bond-mated?”

“No to both, but I meant the bond-mating.”

“Your job doesn’t allow for relationships,” I guessed.

“I’m not often on Nomoru, and females aren’t interested in someone who looks like me.” He rolled onto his back to stare at the ceiling.

“What do you mean, someone who looks like you? They don’t like ruggedly handsome men?”

He turned his head.

Heat flooded my cheeks. Thank goodness for dim light. My face was probably bright red. “Objectively speaking.” I squirmed.

“Objectively speaking, my mixed genetics don’t meet Copan standards. Females don’t want a half-breed bond-mate.”

Arasetans and Copans didn’t mate out of their species. Hell, they didn’t want to breed with each other, and they were the same species. It was like a blond rejecting a brunette.

“You must meet a lot of female aliens. Aren’t they more open?”

“Most are not biologically compatible. Of the ones who are—” He slid out of bed. “How about some breakfast?”

“Wouldn’t want a human?” I guessed. Nobody wanted a human, except for the slavers and their buyers.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t wish to insult you.”

“I’m not insulted. If they don’t see our worth, that says more about them than us.” If the slimy, tentacled grayish blobs of the galaxy looked down on us, well, fuck ’em. We could live a happy life just fine without their approval. Our worth did not require external validation. “I’m sorry for you,” I said.

He shrugged. “It hasn’t been an issue in the way you’re thinking. The vast majority of people have no idea what humans look like, so they don’t see me and think oh, he’s half human. Most don’t even realize I’m not fully Copan. Only Copans and Arasetans recognize I’m not a pureblood, but they have no personal association with humans, so they don’t know what I’m mixed with. As I’m seldom on Nomoru, the subject of my parentage rarely arises. However, if I did get involved with someone, I would need to disclose my genetics.”

He opened the door. “I’ll fix us some breakfast.”