CHAPTER 3

Bean

“N iela!”

Trixie heard the frantic call but couldn’t see where it was coming from. There was blackness all around her, as if someone had blindfolded her. The sound was muffled too, as though it came from a distance, or she had cotton stuck in her ears.

“Please, niela .”

This time around, she could tell the voice belonged to a man, and it no longer sounded far away. Trixie willed her eyes to focus, to distinguish something amid the endless black surrounding her –

There! Light up ahead was swallowing more and more of the dark as she looked. Simultaneously, sounds came rushing in: the flap of wings, the whoosh of air, the soft murmur of a man’s voice right next to her in a foreign language. Sensations came back to her as well: big hands holding her, a hard surface against her side, warm skin under her cheek…

“What the fuck?” she heard herself croak.

“You’re awake! Thank the Goddess.”

Trixie looked up and, finally, the blackness was gone entirely, allowing her to see the man with the alluring voice. Only, he was no man.

Four sharp horns – two small ones at the front and two long ones behind them – pointed straight up from a black-haired head. A green face loomed over Trixie, complete with darker-green lips and ears pointed like an elf’s. Eyes as green as the fresh grass of spring studied her under a pair of expressive black eyebrows, one bisected by a sexy scar. As their gazes met, those plush lips stretched into a tentative smile.

It all came rushing back: her standing at the exit hatch, the excitement, the anticipation, the first glimpse at her fated mate, the shock… Then nothing.

“What happened? Where…?” Trixie was so confused.

“You lost consciousness, niela . I’m flying you to the medical bay.”

“I fainted?” Wow . Way to make a good first impression. She should die from embarrassment–Wait, did he say flying ?

Trixie took in her surroundings. Now those sounds and sensations from earlier made sense. She was in her mate’s arms, pressed securely against his hard chest as he carried her like a bride. His majestic green wings were taking them fast down a tube-shaped corridor of silvery metal. Gaenthians and other aliens pressed themselves to the rounded walls to stay out of his flight path. No one looked shocked or unhappy about it, which meant this was a regular occurrence on the station.

It was no regular occurrence for Trixie, though. Had she known this would happen, she would have fainted on purpose, embarrassment be damned. She was in the strong arms of the most gorgeous male she had ever seen! They were flying! Could things get any more romantic?

“We’re almost there. Have no fear,” he said, determination etched into his striking features.

Okay, perhaps things were not entirely romantic: he was taking her to the medical bay. “The only fear I feel in your arms is of the doctor, Vrixiel,” she told him. “Can’t we not go?”

He stopped flying so abruptly he startled her. “You do not fear me?”

Trixie blinked. “Should I?”

“No, of course not, but… you lost consciousness upon seeing me?”

“Oh, that.” Her embarrassment returned with a vengeance. The poor guy thought she had fainted at the sight of him. Well, Trixie sort of had, but not out of fear. He was so spectacular he had taken her breath away, literally. Although, there had been shock involved at the realization how big her fated mate was in person: tall, broad-shouldered, heavily muscled... How were they supposed to fit ?

“I don’t fear you,” she said, patting his uniform-clad pectoral. “I was simply overwhelmed, I suppose. But now I’m good.”

Vrixiel’s tentative smile from earlier returned. “You’re okay?”

“I’m okay.” She patted his hard chest some more. “You know what will make me feel even better?”

“Name it, niela , and it shall be done,” he said, all serious. His guttural voice sent pleasant tingles down her body.

Trixie looked at him from under her lashes. “Being flown to the altar. The wedding altar.”

A beaming smile emerged on his face, so handsome her heart did a little somersault. “Your desire will be fulfilled, you have my word. But may you please wait for a few hours, my lady? The altar built on the station for the observation of Terra’s wedding traditions is currently being used by another couple.”

Trixie snickered. She had been joking about the trip to the altar. Her friends on Terra would never forgive her if she held the wedding without them. “I shall wait, I guess. But only if I do the waiting in your arms.”

A pleased rumble sounded from deep inside of him, and his green eyes flashed. “I intend never to let you go, my special bean.”

“ Bean? ” Her eyes narrowed at him, and his wings paused mid-flap, leaving them in the same spot in the corridor. “Are you making fun of my size, Vrixiel?”

“What?” A crease formed on his green forehead.

“Because I would not tolerate that. I’m a pocket-sized babe and proud.”

“ Niela .” Now he was the one acting offended. “Never would I make fun of you. Ever.”

Oopsie . Trixie might have overreacted. “Why bean, then?” she asked, patting his chest the way he seemed to like.

His tentative smile came back. “Beans are my favorite food from your planet.” Then the spark in his eyes reignited, and Vrixiel added, “And the sight of you makes me hunger, my lady.”

Trixie bit her lower lip. Good thing he was carrying her, because she would have gone weak at the knees. “Well…” She twirled a curl around her finger and gave him a coy look. “We better not keep you hungry. Will you take us home for some… bean tasting?”

He went as rigid as a rock.

Ugh . That proposition did not sound as hot as it did in her head. Had she ruined the moment with her flirty ways? Broken his prudish Gaenthian mind?

He spread his wings and took flight so fast that a passerby grumbled. Vrixiel kept going, unperturbed, a determined look on his face. A look she imagined a soldier wore right before throwing himself into battle .

“Hope you’re not taking me to be checked for brain damage,” she half-joked. “I’m unapologetically direct like that.”

“No doctors,” he said, voice husky. “Just you and me, bean. Home.”

Trixie rested her head on his chest, suddenly lightheaded. When a red-blooded male said things like that, and in that deep voice, and he was not a character in one of her books but a real person focused entirely on her… She just might swoon.

Was she truly ready for whatever naughty plans he might have for their first night together? She was about to find out.