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Asher was aware of a few distinct things as he dragged himself from the arms of sleep. Marissa was near—he’d sense her anywhere. He was in a soft, comfortable bed. And the fragrant scent of a home cooked meal wafted over him.
The last thing he remembered was shifting from his dragon form in front of a cabin. What the hell? How’d he get to a bed? He’d clearly been out to it for far longer than the minute it took for his body to usually recover. But then he had pushed himself way too hard before he shifted and knew recovery time might be compromised.
All he’d wanted was to get Marissa to safety first.
His eyes flickered open and the first thing he saw was Marissa’s beautiful, and very much relieved, smile. He stared up into her sea-green eyes, his heart aching with emotion. “How did I get here?” he croaked.
“I dragged you inside.” At his shocked intake of breath she added, “It took some doing, but I managed. And you woke long enough to climb into bed before flaking out again.”
There was nothing he could say. She’d be lucky to be five-foot-five in stacked heels and he was almost six-foot-six. He couldn’t even comprehend how the hell she’d found the strength to drag his big ass body even a few yards let alone right into the cabin’s bedroom. “I’m impressed.”
She smiled. “You’ll be even more impressed with my cooking skills.” He sat up in the bed, for the first time noticing she held a tray. She placed it on his lap, and he breathed in the rise of steam from a chalk-white bowl.
Her smile deepened. “I thought you’d appreciate me filling your belly with calories. I found some steak strips in the freezer and some noodles, not to mention a microwave. It was easy enough to whip up a half-decent broth.”
She’d had that much time to cook? “How long have I been out to it?” he asked.
She shrugged. “Twenty minutes or so.”
“Fuck.” He shook his head. “That’s never happened before.”
“Then you must’ve badly needed the extra sleep.”
He squeezed his eyes shut for a second. “A sleep that would’ve been fatal for us both had the Tantonics been behind us.”
She shook her head. “I’m thinking your instincts knew the Tantonics weren’t nearby or you would’ve woken earlier.” She clapped her hands. “But enough talk. You need to regain your strength.”
His lips twitched. “Have I ever told you bossy women turn me on?” Before she could answer, he lifted the bowl to his lips and drank the broth down in just a few swallows. He sighed, literally feeling his whole body soak in the nutrients.
Her smile widened into a grin. “You know you’re supposed to chew the steak and noodles, right?” She giggled. “Don’t worry. I made a big pot of it so you won’t be left hungry.”
His whole body tingled with warmth that seemed to radiate from his chest. “You know me so well already.”
“I saw how much your strength was depleted. I want to help build it up again.”
As king of Riddich, many of Asher’s people had done things above and beyond their duty. But for this beautiful stranger to somehow drag him inside and then feed him ... it warmed his insides in a way that surpassed even his dragon heat.
She took his bowl and headed out the door and into the kitchen, singing out, “I’ll be right back.”
In the end he polished off seven bowls of the glorious broth before his belly started to rebel. He rubbed his abs with a sleepy smile. “That hit the spot, as you humans say.”
She giggled. “Are you sure you’re not from Earth? Because you certainly sound like a native.”
“That’s good to hear. My crew and I lived and breathed Earth languages and behaviors on our journey here so that it would become more natural for us before we landed.” He shrugged. “It’s those little things that can mean the difference between living and dying.”
She took his bowl, but her hands were clamped so tight her knuckles looked as white as the porcelain. “Don’t you ever die on me, Asher.”
He blinked at the drastic shift of mood, and said softly, “I won’t.”
She looked ... stricken. But then the dark shadows under her eyes and her air of fatigue should have occurred to him earlier. They might only have known each other for a day, but it’d been a full-on twenty-four hours and she’d been lucky to have even an hour’s sleep amidst it all.
He shuffled across the bed and patted the mattress. “You should get some sleep too.”
Her eyes met his, and the air fairly vibrated with awareness even before her voice came out husky. “I’m betting sleep will be the last thing on our minds if I joined you in bed.”
His mouth moistened, molten heat flooding through him. “And that’s a bad thing?”
She pushed a strand of flame-red hair from her face. “I hardly know you.”
He couldn’t deny it. Before today they hadn’t even met. “Yet it feels like we’ve known each other forever.”
She closed her eyes, as though fighting for composure. When she opened them again, she whispered, “Being with you feels right ... too right.” Her stare shimmered. “I couldn’t endure losing someone I cared for all over again.”
That she admitted caring for him shouldn’t make him want to do a silly little jig. Instead a smile split his face before the seriousness of the conversation reined in his joy. “I understand, more than you know. Nothing in life is guaranteed—not even life itself—but I’m sure as shit not going to give up on living.”
“You have all the right answers, don’t you? I can see why you were king.” She sighed. “But that doesn’t change the way I feel. There’s two bedrooms, I’ll sleep in the other room.”
He frowned. He’d never had to beg a woman to sleep with him and he sure as shit wasn’t going to force her into bed with him. He was smart enough to know their attraction was mutual. He was also smart enough to know Marissa didn’t yet trust him.
She clicked off his light and said softly, “Goodnight.”
He managed to say the same in return, but it felt all kinds of wrong when she wasn’t within touching distance to him. He thumped back onto his pillows, his heart thudding dully in his chest. He expelled a jagged breath. There was no way in hell he’d fall back to sleep.
The thought no sooner formed before he was back in a place where he found himself time and again. A part of his subconscious knew he was dreaming, even as cold fingers of dread slid down his spine.
He stood at the top floor of his palace, surrounded by thick stone slabs and the smoother-panes that allowed him to peer into the huge courtyard below. Utter carnage. His soldiers barely held back a relentless wave of Tantonics who marched forward in their weird, shuffling gait.
Although most of his soldiers had reverted to their dragon forms, there were too many of the lizard-men to extinguish. The Tantonics didn’t care if they died, there were plenty more of their race to continue the lineage. In fact, death in battle was an honor to these armored freaks.
Baron put a hand on Asher’s shoulder. “There is nothing more you can do. Our last stronghold is now taken. Our kingdom is lost.”
Asher only distantly heard his captain’s comment. Dahlia had her hands pressed against the smoother-pane, tears streaming down her face at the hell unfolding below. Their beloved people died one after the other under the merciless hands of the Tantonics.
Asher had never felt so powerless. But he forced his gaze to look at his people below one last time, imprinting the scene in his mind. He would never forget what they had done so that he and his sister might live, along with their future children.
A huge gray-green dragon roared as he released a plume of fire at yet another advancing line of Tantonics. The aliens’ ear-piercing shrieks continued until their flesh melted into grisly steam.
Goose bumps rippled up and down his arms as more Tantonics marched forward, stepping on their dead and dying comrades. Before the same dragon could release another torrent of fire, a trio of Tantonics shot ice-vapors into his chest. The subzero mist seeped past his scales and immobilized his inner fire, disabling his ability to move; to fight.
“No!” Dahlia croaked, as frozen as the dragon below.
Asher pushed away from the smoother-pane. His duty to his people was now to escape from this marshaling area with the select Riddichians who had a fair chance to colonize another world, and continue their species.
“We have to leave,” he said to his sister, drawing on all his inner strength not to surrender to his dragon with the hate and fear trying to rise up and overtake him. At the loud crash below, he said hoarsely, “Now!”
She nodded jerkily, and he turned to the seventy-three strong crowd of Riddichians who waited tensely for his orders. “You all know what you’ve got to do. Our crafts await us at the launch pads. Good luck my friends, may peace and harmony become our new lives!”
All seventy-three men and women raised their fists into the air and roared agreement. But it was a scream that jerked him from sleep and back to the present.
He sat into the early morning gloom, blinking and disorientated. But all he heard was the ticking of an Earth clock, which sounded absurdly loud in the silence.
“No!”
Marissa’s strangled shout had his feet hit the ground and running before he’d even contemplated how he’d defend her from the Tantonics. Except when he burst into her bedroom there were no Tantonics. Nothing but Marissa curled into a fetal position with the sheets a tangled mess around her.
She muttered something, and cried out sharply in her sleep.
His heart twisted. Evidently he wasn’t alone when it came to nightmares. Except as he climbed into bed with her to comfort and soothe her back to sleep, the adrenaline that flooded his system didn’t dissipate, nor did his heart rate slow back into a normal rhythm.
Not when her naked body moved against his in a tangle of arms and legs, her breath shuddering against his chest. He barely stifled a groan when her breasts scraped his chest, her cool hands sliding down his torso.
But even as his cock jerked in reaction, he knew taking advantage of her in such a vulnerable state was nothing short of a crime. Withholding another groan he wrapped his arms around her and waited as she subsided back into a dreamless, sound sleep.
He drew in a ragged breath. Goddess help him, it was going to be a long, sleepless few hours. He only hoped she was an early riser.
