“Xylo!”
Chapter Six Selena
Warmth engulfed me in the darkness. Arms surrounded me, pulling me against a familiar, soft, cloud-like body. A head snuggled the top of mine, breathing in my scent.
“Finally! I’ve been waiting days for you to come to me. I was worried. Tell me you’re okay,” rumbled a raspy voice I knew.
I closed my eyes as memories of our night together returned.
“You never came back for me. You promised, but you never fucking came back. The ship was attacked and nearly exploded before I could get to an escape pod. I could’ve died. I almost didn’t get away... even finding the escape pod, it was sheer luck I was found...”
Forcing myself to stop babbling, I took a deep breath. I tried to pull away from his smothering embrace.
I refused to give in to him.
A low growl in my ear—his arms tightening, refusing to let me go—stilled my struggles.
“The Yaarkins backed out of their deal. They were supposed to turn you over to me the following day. Instead, they demanded more credits. They fucking knew how interested I was in you. I refused to let them take advantage and returned as soon as I could assemble a fleet. No one backs out of a deal with me!” His arms tightened in anger. “We trapped and surrounded the Yaarkin vessel, but by the time we destroyed the Yaarkin threat and boarded, it was too late. I couldn’t find you anywhere. The only assurance I had you still lived was a tenuous sense through our connection. I’ve been waiting to feel you fall into our dreamscape so I could join you.”
“Well, your plan failed—and you nearly killed me. After all the years you’d been visiting me, even after our night together...” I nearly drowned in the emotion choking me, my voice raw. “You’re still hiding from me. After all our time together in the dreamscape, I trusted you. I didn’t question why you wanted to keep the lights off and remain hidden. I was wrapped up in being with you in the flesh, but you didn’t trust me with your identity—even now you don’t. And now you tell me you were going to buy me? Property—traded from the Yaarkins to you? I don’t know what you want from me... I don’t know if I can continue to do this.”
His confession both hurt and confused me. After spending so many years together in our dreamscape world, I’d thought our connection was special. That I meant more to him than a piece of property to be purchased.
The world spun as I was flipped around to face him. I gasped, and my eyes flew open. His amethyst eyes locked onto me as he grabbed my face in his smoky translucent hands.
A loud growl rumbled from him, and I shivered.
“You are my Nova. The light in my darkness. I’ve only withheld my identity to protect you. If someone discovers our connection before I have you by my side, it could be disastrous. Please, have patience. I promise to reveal everything once I have you with me. No more secrets. Please, my Nova,” he begged, brushing my hair back.
“I don’t even know your name. You can’t even trust me with that—not even a nickname. Okay, the Yaarkins backed out of the deal, but you never returned to our dreamscape! Nine days I waited and nothing. I can’t keep living a dream. I have a chance for a new start now. I need to face this new reality and make it work.” My voice shook as tears streamed down my face. “Goodbye—”
“Don’t leave!” He grasped my shoulders with hands that shook. “You just got here. We need to talk about this...”
I turned my head away from his intense stare, closed my eyes, and shuddered as I let him go.
“I have to go. I can’t stay here. With you. Not now.”
I gasped as I shot up in bed, looking around frantically.
The lights in the room were dimmed. A blanket covered my body. I was alone.
Xylo must have left after I’d fallen asleep.
Tears slowly dried on my cheeks as I sat in silence. The ship’s hum was comforting, and it grounded me in the present. I rubbed my face to clear the last of the tears, releasing a frustrated sigh.
My emotions were all over the place. I felt raw.
My need to be wanted and my desire to be trusted by him battled the betrayal I felt. I worried about what might happen to Xylo if the man from my dreamscape found us. I owed Xylo and his crew after their rescue.
And I feared what would happen if he found out about the courting bond with Xylo.
A bond I was feeling a growing desire to explore. Xylo had been nothing but caring and forthright—it didn’t hurt he was gorgeous. I wondered if the Yaarkins had triggered something in me to awaken this need, or if the night I’d lost my virginity had awakened some biological urge to be physical with another. I barely knew Xylo, but I couldn’t help picturing what being with him would be like—learning everything about him and his body.
I’d always dreamed about what it would be like to grow up and live planet-side with a large family, surrounded by people I loved and who loved me back. Romantic stories were all I’d had. I’d yearned for that closeness, but it had always seemed so far out of reach in my hellish reality.
I’d always known it wasn’t the same as having real relationships, but I’d been somewhat jealous of the other human females aboard the Yaarkin vessel. At least they were never locked alone in their room. At least they were able to seek comfort in the physical, to be wanted. I’d heard stories about customers having favorites and spoiling them with trinkets, so surely there was some feeling?
The nights with him had been the highlight of my life.
Even
