Alex Wales: Promise

“Well, we did hide from my mother for a while…but he didn’t give me the key until just before I ran away from her planet.” When she saw his concerned face, she shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. It’s a little complicated. We’ve got a very dysfunctional family unit.”

“Your father is the only one who knows for sure. Is there any way to contact him?”

“Well, considering we’re on a planet, which according to youhas no form of communication, and I haven’t seen my father in over ten years, nope. I’d say I can’t contact him.” She looked away. “I don’t even know if he’s alive.”

“I’m sorry.”

She heard the sheets rustle and felt his warm fingers on her chin. He lifted it, and she couldn’t help but stare into his beautiful eyes. “Talking about Daddy always makes me sad. He risked his life to give me back mine…”

Damon kissed her lips, just a light caress. His green eyes stared into hers, and the compassion inside them made her stomach flip. He seemed like such a complicated man. Someone who on one hand was gullible enough to believe in things like magic, but on the other hand, had enough sense to research his own leader because of a simple question.

“I think your father tried to protect you even when he wasn’t with you.” He took the key and leather cord from her hand. “I think this was always meant to be more than just a key to your ship.”

She nodded. Of course, that sounded like something her father would do. Teaching her how to use a blaster, how to navigate Promise, and becoming familiar with the controls by the time she was 13 had all been part of the same plan. How long had he known that Lorraine would chase after them when she wanted something?

“I want to continue what he began. I want to take care of you, Alex.” Damon held the key in one hand and pressed the other against her cheek.

She closed her eyes at the heat surging from his touch. “Damon, I don’t need you to take care of me. Besides, we just met-”

“I know. This seems very strange to me, too. I’ve never connected to a woman on this level before.”

She opened her eyes and stared into his.

“Alex, I’m not going to lie to you. I enjoy sex, a lot. I’ve never shied away from it and have had many lovers since my sexual awakening, but I’ve never had this sense of wanting to look after them, to be with them constantly, and protect them.” He paused, releasing a breath. “From the first time I saw you, I felt it. I know you don’t want to believe in magic, and maybe that’s not even the right word for it. For all I know, and like you’ve pointed out before, there could be a scientific explanation for all of this, but I only know it as magic. It’s what I feel when I’m with you. The explosive climax you drew out of me is still rolling around inside me. That’s not a reaction I’ve ever felt after a sexual encounter with anyone.”

All she could think to do was lean over and kiss him. She pressed her lips against his, as his hand slid from her face to caress her hair. He could never understand what he’d done to her by admitting this. It’s exactly how she’d lived her entire adult life. After she lost her virginity-just shy of turning 20-she hadn’t been able to stop. It was the only way she’d ever felt close to someone, even if only for that one moment. To know Damon had lived the same way made something inside her calm down and feel connected to him.

All the worries and knots Ulric’s admission and suggestions had caused her had smoothed out, finally.

“I’m not making you a proposal or pushing you into a commitment, because we need to get to know each other first, but I do want you to know that I reallyenjoy being around you.” He kissed her lightly. “I would love to do more of what we did earlier today. I can’t lie about it.”

Alex nodded. “I can definitely live with that.” Although, she had no idea how thatwas going to work out. She still had no intention of staying on this planet.

I can think about that when the time comes.Right now, she’d finally met a man who wanted exactly what she did without acting like he owned her, or she owed him something-which had been a constant problem with the string of lovers she’d accumulated along the way. The only time she hadn’t encountered a problem was with one-night stands, but if she intended to hookup every time she was in their area, they’d soon start getting possessive. Not in the way Ulric had-by foolishly admitting love-but just a sense of ownership she found suffocating.

“Good.” He kissed her, again. “As much as I would love to lie you down right now, I think we’ve got some other things to discuss first.”

Before he could ask her any questions, she beat him to it. “Yeah, speaking of which, did you find out anything else about whatever killed those people?” Changing the subject seemed like a safe choice. So far, everything they’d thrown up in the air made her uncomfortable. Discussing Ulric wouldn’t help, but Damon didn’t know what she knew. Though, one look at the other books he’d piled at the end of the bed told her he had his suspicions.

“Nothing yet, but I have been reading about werewolves. Have you ever heard of them?” He sat back, watching her face.

She shrugged. Everyone had heard some version of the story at one time or another. Actually, her father used to tell her a bedtime story about a little girl who wore a red jacket and the werewolf that stalked her, until one day she figured out it was actually her grandmother. The story freaked her out when she was a kid, but never induced nightmares, so she’d asked her father to tell her many times.

Ulric would definitely induce nightmares, though.

Would his condition have any physical effect on her? Sure, she was totally protected against pregnancy and every sexually-transmitted disease known to humans, but did Ulric’s situation surpass the procedure she’d endured? Like most responsible adults in the galaxy who wanted to have sexual relationships without killing themselves, Alex had paid a hefty fee to have a microchip embedded into her wrist. I hope that’s enough protection.

“I know they’re both human and animal,” she said.

“Did you know most werewolves change with the phases of the moon?”

She shook her head. “What’s the moon got to do with it?”

“According to the book I read, every satellite affects a werewolf differently. In some locations, they won’t ever change, but other places can drive them batty and force a change so violent, they lose total control of themselves.”

“Oh.” She peered out the window and could see the huge orb of the moon already out and shiny. “Does your moon change phases?”

“No, it’s always full, which is the other peculiar thing. According to legend, that’s when a werewolf changes from a man into an actual wolf.”

“Yeah, very peculiar.” She refused to concentrate on the fact that Ulric lived inside a space station situated nowhere near a moon. How long had he been hiding this secret from her? “So, how do you think any of this relates to what you saw in the girl’s head?”

Damon shrugged. “I’m not sure. This is folklore, and I didn’t actually see the creature change into anything. I’d assumed the killer was just an animal.”

“Then, why are you reading about werewolves?”

“It was just something Elroy said.”

Uh-oh. If that bastard suspected something, did it mean he knew? Had Elroy actually seen Ulric change like she had? She bit her lip. As much as she wanted to keep what she knew from Damon, for fear of implicating herself, she had to admit what little she knew. The last thing she wanted was to cause a rift of mistrust between them.

“Does he know something you don’t?”

“Elroy always thinks he knows something the rest of us don’t.”

She looked at the key in his hand. “So, what should we do with the key?”

Damon handed her the photo and the leather choker. “Why don’t you put them away in your