I gave the Poltien a side-eye. “And we’re not the stars of the show any longer, right?”
It grinned. “Exactly.”
“Thank you so much for everything,” I said as we reached the end of a long line of women waiting to go home. “I know I wasn’t the easiest bride to assist.”
The Poltien gave a shrug, its nose-braid swinging with the motion. “It was lovely to work with you. Be careful on the way home.”
I waved as Thorvid left, then leaned back against the wall and closed my eyes.
I’ll be home soon.
Relief swept through me, and I blew out a relieved sigh.
My eyes were still closed a moment later when a whisper went up among the women who surrounded me.
What now?
I saw him as soon as I opened my eyes. There he was again—the bright red warrior who had been stalking through the crowds of women backstage during the pageant.
He wore one of their skimpy kilt-like uniforms, including a sash across his chest covered in Khanavai text. His dark hair stood out against his cherry-colored skin and his silver eyes almost glowed. He paused in the hallway, lifting his nose into the air again as if catching a familiar scent.
Crossing his muscular arms over his chest, he scanned up and down the line of women as we stared back at him in wide-eyed wonder, falling silent, none of us daring to make a sound in the face of that intense stare.
His gaze swept across the line of women waiting to enter the shuttle. I froze, terrified, feeling like a small forest creature hunted by some giant, monstrous animal.
Before, I had thought he reminded me of a wolf, but his motions were more graceful than that, smoother—he was definitely stalking his prey, but more like a big cat than anything lupine.
He moved toward our line, his long, loping steps bringing him inexorably toward me.
I knew it the moment he zeroed in on me, too. His gaze snapped to my face with an intensity like nothing I had experienced before.
My entire awareness narrowed down until everything around us seemed to fall away. It might as well have been just the two of us standing in that hallway outside the landing bay.
He moved in until only inches separated us, my eyes level—barely—with his chest. I tipped my head back in time to see him bend down to wrap me in his arms. “You’re beautiful,” he whispered.
His scent, masculine and spicy, something both exotic and familiar, enveloped me, and I found myself drawing it into my lungs as if the smell of him were oxygen—like I needed to breathe in his particular aroma in order to live.
Without my volition, my eyes closed, and I tilted my lips toward his. He claimed my mouth fiercely, hungrily, teasing my lips open and thrusting his tongue inside as if he were staking claim to me.
A tiny moan fluttered in the back of my throat. At the sound, the muscular red alien literally swept me off my feet, scooping me up with one arm behind my knees, the other supporting my back. I wound my arms around his neck, weaving my fingers into his hair, my involuntary response half-terrified and completely passionate.
My entire body ached to get closer, as if he were a safe harbor in the storm that was my life.
As that thought crossed my mind, I remembered the life I needed to return to.
Josiah.
With a gasp, I pulled away from his kiss.
“Put me down,” I urged him breathlessly.
With a strange kind of pop, the world came rushing back in.
All around us, the women standing in line were shouting and cheering.
The red alien leaned his forehead against mine. “I’ve been looking for you.”
“No.” The word snapped out of me by pure instinct. “I’m not who you’ve been searching for. You made a mistake.” I began to struggle, and he placed me gently on my feet.
“Why are you standing in this hall?” His imperious tone left me blinking in surprise, but I answered him, anyway.
“I’m getting ready to leave. I’m going back to Earth.”
His eyes widened as he glanced around at all the other discarded brides. “Absolutely not. That cannot happen.” His voice rang with authority.
Who was he to say what I could or couldn’t do?
“It’s happening. I’m going home.” I fell back against the wall, retaking my spot in the line—but also using the inner hull of the station to support me, disguising the shaking of my knees.
“We’ll see about that.” He frowned and glanced around as if trying to find someone in charge. “You.” He pointed at the nearest Poltien, who was standing wide-eyed, holding a compad with a passenger manifest. “This woman. What is her name?”
“I can answer that for myself,” I announced. “I’m Mia Jones, and I am going back to Earth.”
The Poltien looked back and forth between the alien and me and shrugged. “It’s not up to me.”
“I am Commander Eldron Gendovi. And Mia Jones is going with me.”
Panic began crawling up my throat. “I am not.”
The shuttle bay door opened, and the line of women began moving steadily inside, streaming into the bay to board the shuttle.
The commander reached down and took my hand, managing to hold it lightly but also firmly. He raised his other wrist to his mouth and barked out a code into the wristcom. “This is Gendovi. Get Vos on the com, please.”
This cannot be happening. I have to get home to Josiah.
My stomach twisted at the thought of staying here any longer than I already had. But if I caused a scene, it might raise even more questions than were about to be leveled in my direction.
Oh, God. What do I do?
My lips still burned where the commander had kissed me, and part of me wanted nothing more than to throw myself at him, ignore the world around me.
But I couldn’t do that. Not if I wanted to make sure no one figured out about Josiah.
Not if I want to make sure Frank doesn’t
