“I…I don’t understand.”
“You have a bruise here and you took a couple of nasty spills.”
I hadn’t even noticed the bruise or paid much attention to the aches. “And you basically ate my energy or something?”
He grinned. “That, too.”
Well, he definitely had no shame. “It’s—I’m fine.”
There was a pause. “You could’ve died.”
“It’s really not important right now.”
A second later, I felt his warm breath along my cheek as he spoke. “I know you have more questions.”
I turned my cheek away from him, unnerved by how close he was and how he moved without making any noise. Heat crept over my cheeks when two cool fingertips pressed under my chin, and with surprising gentleness, Hunter guided my eyes to his. Our gazes locked. There was something in those unsettling eyes of his, a gleam of compassion that lurked under the coldness of the unnatural color.
“Ask,” he said, not looking away.
“So…you guys put me within spitting distance of a group of aliens that may want to kill me if they find out I’m here?”
“They won’t find out.”
I started to pull back, but his hand left my chin, curving around the nape of my neck. The grip wasn’t tight, but it was commanding. There was no moving away, no escaping what he wanted. His skin was cool and the pads of his fingers were rough, as if he used his hands a lot.
Hunter leaned in again, bringing our mouths within kissing distance. Restlessness unfurled, spreading through my veins, spiking my pulse. I froze.
“The senator obviously has a lot of contacts. Someone in the police department most likely sold you out, but you’re safe from them here.”
Those rough fingers slipped back around, trailing down the side of my throat. They stopped over my wildly beating pulse. I sucked in a breath. Hunter smiled, but there was no real warmth behind it. Heat, maybe, but it was lacking any sort of emotion.
I didn’t know what it was that made every cell in my body stand up and take notice —him touching me, or maybe I just wanted him to remove his hand.
His gaze dropped to my lips and his powerful body coiled tight. The milky blue hue of his eyes churned sudden flecks of dark azure. Tension seeped into the air, heavy like a well-worn blanket. The room cooled as if the air conditioner had kicked on and was cracked high. The room darkened, but over Hunter’s shoulder and beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows, bright light basked the outdoors.
Tiny goose bumps shot across my skin.
Every instinct kicked into gear and was screaming at me to run—run as fast as I could. This inherent, very human warning system was blaring against the unnaturalness settling over the room.
But I couldn’t look away from his eyes. There wasn’t warmth in them, but there was a primal heat, and my body responded even as it tried to shy away.
Then Hunter removed his hand and sat back, popping the sucker back into his mouth and he waited. The spell was broken. Sucking in several deep gulps of air, I realized I’d held my breath.
My hand fluttered to my throat as I swallowed a few times. Throat dry, I reached for the glass and finished off the rest of the wine. The liquid burned on the way down.
“Am I safe from you?” I asked.
He didn’t answer.
I looked at him. “Hunter?”
“I’m not going to lie and say I’m not dangerous. I am. In a way, I’ll be more dangerous to you than any Luxen will be,” he said, looking me dead-on. “I’m not the good guy here. I’m not the hero. My job is to keep you alive and I’ll do my best, but I can’t and I won’t make any promises.”
Wasn’t the most reassuring thing I was looking for , and frankly it made me want to run screaming from the room, but I nodded. He still had that damn sucker in his mouth, twirling it with his fingers. My body reacted in a surprised, fiery rush that I desperately ignored.
But no man should look that good with a sucker.
“How do you look so human?” I blurted out.
A small smile played across his lips. “Our DNA melded with human DNA. Same thing for the Luxen. I could go into detail, but it will probably bore you to tears. We may look human and even act it at times, but don’t ever forget that we are not human.”
My heart turned over heavily. “Are you trying to scare me?”
Hunter arched a brow. “I’m just telling you the truth.” Biting down on the sucker, he held the now empty white stick. “It’s probably a wise thing that you’re scared. Would you like another drink?”
I nodded, relieved when he got up to retrieve the wine bottle. Without him beside me, the air felt less tense and thick. I wished he’d put a shirt on. “How did I even get here?”
Hunter placed the refilled glass in front of me, and I grabbed it like a wino. “You’ll be happy to know it was a very human method of traveling. Drove your car to a private hangar and placed you on a plane.”
I took a healthy drink. “My car is still at the hangar?” The thing wasn’t a luxury vehicle, but I couldn’t afford a new one.
“Yes. It will not be touched there.”
I relaxed a little. “Will you tell me about what you are?”
“Already did that.” Hunter tossed the white stick from his sucker into the trash, then propped a hip against the island.
My gaze dropped to the glass between my palms as I smiled a little. “You’ve hardly told me anything about that.”
“I think the less you know the better.”
Something in his voice caused ice to drench my veins. As I took another drink of the wine, my throat tightened. The pressure spread to my chest. A new threat appeared. “I can’t be the first person to accidentally find out about aliens. Not even Mel.”
“Nope.” He took a drink. “Humans probably find out all the time. Either they are very smart and keep quiet or…”
“Or what?” I whispered.
Hunter’s pale eyes pierced me. “Or they disappear.”
“Is that what’s happened to me? I’ve disappeared?”
“Not yet.”
Again, what he said wasn’t the most reassuring thing. So many emotions beat at me like a violent riptide threatening to drag me under. I stopped myself from going for more wine. “What is that supposed to mean?”
He regarded me coolly. “You really want to know?”
I shot him a look. “Yes. I really want to know. I want to know
“The DOD may say one thing, but I know differently. The only reason you’re alive right now is because the Luxen stepped around the DOD and went after your friend.
Wherever there’s exposure, they are required to report it. They didn’t. That ticked the DOD off, and then when they issued a kill order on you, the DOD stepped in just to prove a point. And they want to know what the boys were fighting over.”
I wished he’d stop saying “kill order.” “I don’t know what they were fighting over.”
“You don’t?” He didn’t sound like he believed me.
“No.” I tugged a hand through my hair. “What are you really saying?”
“I think you know.” There was a pause. “The DOD’s protection of you is their way of giving the middle finger to the Luxen—and being nosy. It’s like a parent taking away a toy from an ill-behaving child. It’s not because they want to protect you. They are just proving a point. But if you prove to be too much of a risk, they will turn on you faster than you could blink.”
A few moments passed as I watched the heavy branches swaying in the breeze outside. I worked at getting that plug of emotion down my throat. My life wasn’t in my hands anymore, wasn’t even guaranteed. How was I not
