Chapter 12

CHAPTER TWELVE

KENZIE

A very bare-chested Kobrik carries me behind a large metal wall of a building to shield me from the fire that continues to rage. I guess he anticipates another explosion, though there doesn't seem to be anything left of the ship.

"Did the grud get out before it exploded?"

His face tightens. "No. I'd left him there. Unconscious."

"I'm sorry, Kobrik."

He stares at the blaze. "We needed him alive. I've failed."

"It's not your fault. You were going back for him." I lean my head against his warm chest, not sure how to console him.

Kobrik picks me up again and carries me the entire way to my apartment, a full two miles, without stopping to rest. He never once complains about how heavy I am or that he lost the grud he'd been searching for.

When we reach my apartment building, he sets me on my feet. I pat my jacket, looking for my keys, but Kobrik swings the door open, while he scans the street. That's when I notice the lock is melted as if struck by lightning.

"When did that happen?" I ask aloud.

"I used my blaster to get in, to see if you were here."

"Oh."

We climb the stairs. I'm sore, tired, and possibly in shock. As a nurse I should know for sure, but this has been one hell of a day. I just want to sleep.

"And I broke into your apartment, too," he adds after one flight.

"I'm glad you're on my side."

"I nearly got you killed."

I stop on the stairs and turn to him. "How can you say that? You saved me!"

"You were in danger because of me."

"Don't you think for a damned minute that any of this was your fault. Yes, they took me to get to you, but that's on them. And me."

"You?" he asks, his face troubled.

"This is a dangerous city. There are basic precautions I need to keep in mind no matter where I am, including a friend's house. I let my guard down."

"You cannot deny you're in greater danger because of me. I will stay with you until I can repair the building lock and your door."

I step down to his level. "And then what? You plan to leave me? Forever?"

"I wish to stay. But your safety takes priority."

"Which is why you should stay." I grip his arms to balance myself on the steps as I push up to kiss him. His tongue takes control and before I realize it he's exploring my mouth and pressing my back against the railing.

Hell, if I was in shock, that's no longer the case. I'm acutely aware of every spot where his body touches mine. My nipples turn achingly hard and I'm hungry for more with him.

"I should not have done that," he says as his lips ease away.

"Yes, you should." A girlish giggle follows which is so unlike me. Something about Kobrik makes me all giddy inside, as if this is my first kiss. Pure, unbridled excitement strikes me each time I touch him.

I swipe back the hair falling in his face and immediately recognize the stickiness of blood. I turn him so I can see his arm where I'd been holding him.

"You're injured!"

"It's a small wound."

"Small, my ass."

Large hands grab my ass. "Not small, but perfect. Enough flesh to hold while fucking."

My mouth drops open at his brazen humor, especially given the six-inch long gash on his forearm.

He traces the inside of my bottom lip with a finger. "Another invitation? I accept." His hand glides down the side of a breast, over my ribs and hip to my lower half where he lightly caresses my lady parts.

Oh, my, he's stoking a fire within me, but I have to treat his injury before anything can happen between us. "Come on, big guy. Let's get your wound cleaned and stitched."

"A bandage is enough."

"I'm the nurse here. I decide what you need."

He stops on the first landing. "What if I need you?"

Deep blue eyes don't waver. It would be so easy to lose myself in them, especially since I see something in Kobrik that I've never seen in another man. More than honesty and genuine goodness. Sincerity and a true desire for me. All of me. Beyond the physical.

Or perhaps that's wishful thinking on my part.

"I'm highly attracted to you, Kobrik, but we only just met. I think we're both exhausted. Let's get you taken care of, and then?—"

"Then I will take care of you ."

I nod, not sure what he means. I have a bump on my head, but nothing that needs attention. When I extend my hand, he accepts and we climb the second flight of stairs.

My apartment door is wide open, the lock dangling from splintered wood. "Did you kick it in?"

"Yes. Easy. Thin door. You need better security."

"That's why I have you, right?" He's so easy to flirt with, especially when he grins at me like now.

Everything with Kobrik is easy. Talking, thinking, just being. While I want to look pretty for him and be the reason he smiles, I don't feel the need to primp and fuss over clothing or be someone I'm not.

That's when I realize I'm covered in dirt, paint, and blood, and I'm still wearing an old grud uniform. Will he be disappointed when I clean up and he sees the girl beneath the costume?

Those fears remain present until his hand on my lower back guides me inside and positions me to stand away from the door. Like Hercules, he lifts my sofa as if it weighs nothing and places it upright against the door.

"You shouldn't be lifting anything with that arm."

"The sofa is light."

"It is not light. It took three men to carry it up here when I bought it."

"Not as light as you, but still light. You hired weak men."

Not as light as me?

With one finger beneath my chin, he closes my jaw. "You really want me in there, don't you?" That devilish grin of his has butterflies dancing in my stomach. As if I weren't already under his spell, he bends down and kisses me.

I sneak one hand between us and push him off. "Stop distracting me." I point to the kitchen chair. "Sit."

"You're bossy."

"Only when my patient keeps me from doing my job."

Deep blue eyes laugh as he sits. That's when I see his horns move .

Nope. That can't be. I'm so fricking tired that I'm imagining things.

"Don't worry, Kobrik. I've treated worse injuries than this."

Once I grab my emergency kit from beneath the sink, I spread out what I need and get to work. As I irrigate the wound, my thoughts wander. He risked so much for me tonight. If he hadn't carried me off that ship… I shiver, and immediately he's on his feet, wrapping his arms around me.

"You are safe, my sweet Kenzie. No one will harm you ever again."

I needed to hear that from him. Nothing feels as perfect as being wrapped up in Kobrik and all those muscles. I haven't felt this safe since I lived in my parents' home, surrounded by family.

"I'm fine. I flashed back to the ship exploding."

"You're not used to combat."

"I should be. I see the results every day in the E/R."

"That is not the same as being in direct danger. You were very brave."

A chuckle escapes me. "Hardly. What kept me from melting into a puddle of useless quivering goo was that knife you gave me and the fact that I was pissed off at being kidnapped."

"You've mastered how to use your anger. True warriors learn to use their emotions, to control them so they do not control us."

While I clean his wound with antiseptic, he contacts the major he spoke with earlier on his comm and updates him on the grud and the explosion. I wonder if Kobrik is military intelligence, an agent from the Department of Alien Affairs, or works for a secret agency.

Either way, he's one of the good guys. That's all that matters. That, and how much I care about him.

As he finishes his discussion, I use a special glue for sealing superficial wounds. Not that this wound is shallow—it's fairly deep—but I don't have a needle and thread to stitch him up.

"The bleeding has already stopped, so I'm hoping this will hold," I say as I bandage his forearm.

"You are a skilled medic. The wound will heal."

"Are you always so confident?"

"I do not worry about what I cannot control." He rises from the chair. "At least not as far as my own safety is concerned."

"Meaning what?"

"This building, this room is not secure for you. I will find you another place to live before I leave Los Angeles."

My heart sinks. "You're leaving?"

"Soon. My mission is complete. Since I failed to capture the grud, there is nothing more I can do here."

"What about the other guy? Nelson?" As I tell Kobrik everything that happened to me earlier, especially about the grud's human partner, his face sours. I run my hand down his arm. "You did everything you could. Don't beat yourself up about the outcome."

"I'm warrior trained, and yet I've made too many mistakes."

"Warrior trained? Are you part of some group like the green berets or army rangers?"

"I'm not familiar with those groups."

"They were special military forces before the invasion."

"Ah. In a way, yes. But warriors work for many law enforcement agencies across many planets in and outside the Galactic Alliance. Ultimately, we take our orders from the ZDC."

My mouth drops, but this time he doesn't make a joke. It finally sinks in.

The horns that I swear moved earlier, the face paint that never smears no matter how many times I kiss him, and then there's the knife wound. Not a speck of that blue paint wore off or washed away despite his injury. No paint would withstand all that.

"You really are an alien."