Chapter Four

Gazing meaningfully into each others’ eyes was stupid. At least, Lian had always thought so. At the moment, she was starting to reconsider.

Anyway, this was glaring, not gazing. She absolutely hated this guy.

Still, the skin on her back was prickling with the best goosebumps of her life. They stretched down her arms and legs and even spread to that very special spot that hadn’t seen any action in a depressingly long amount of time.

Lust battling with her anger wasn’t surprising. He was tall, ripped, and she could totally get into that blue. What was weird was that he seemed to be having a similar reaction to her. It was like they didn’t know whether they wanted to fight or screw.

Fight. Definitely fight.

She hated him. He had destroyed her greenhouse.

It didn’t matter that he had a gorgeous jawline and was ripped and towered over her in a way that didn’t make her feel intimidated but was somehow unbelievably sexy. He didn’t seem put off by her temper or her mouth, either.

That last part was a little harder for her to dismiss. Most men would have run screaming to the hills by now.

“Excuse me,” Gary said, with the worst timing ever. “You might not know, but it’s considered socially unacceptable to touch a woman there. I mean, unless you’re…involved. And even then, you wouldn’t do it in public. Or with quite that technique.”

Lian slowly turned her glare on Gary.

“Are you finished?” she asked.

“I’ll…just be going,” Gary said.

He lifted his hand to wave, and Lian noticed blood running down his palm.

“Gary, what the hell?” She tried to walk away from Nuar, but he kept his grip on her wrist.

Fury rose up in her. She pushed as much murderous intent as she could into her gaze and said, “If you do not let go of me immediately, I swear to god, I will find a way to end you.”

Nuar’s eyes narrowed and his lips twitched at the corners.

Did he think her threatening him was funny? Everyone had been calling them Cygnian warriors, so maybe he considered that flirting.

Dammit, she shouldn’t care what he thought.

Nuar let go of her, leaving her spinning in her own thoughts. She pulled her attention to Gary and his mysterious injury.

“What happened?” she asked, heading over to him.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” he said. “I thought Ellie would like to be held by someone with arms since her parents have so many of them. Ed did not approve.”

“Ed did this?” Her stomach felt like it was flooded with ice. “I’m so sorry. He’s never done anything like that before.”

“It’s okay,” Gary said. “Ed is a good dog. He was just watching out for Ellie. I should have known better.”

“Still…”

Gary reached out with his non-bitten hand and cupped Lian’s elbow. “Really, it’s okay.”

“Well, this big blue guy says he’s a doctor and he healed me, so—” Lian turned to Nuar and her voice stuck in her throat.

The “big blue guy” had his head lowered so that he was looking at them from below his furrowed brow with eyes that were glowing very, very red. The air around him pulsed with a menacing vibration.

His upper lip curled in a snarl that revealed blazingly white and surprisingly sharp teeth. Were they kind of serrated?

A shiver passed through her as she imagined what it would feel like to have those teeth gently raked over her skin.

What the actual fuck, Lian? Get it together!

“It’s fine,” Gary said, backing away. “I’m just going to go wash it off. I’ll let it heal the old fashioned way.” As soon as his back hit the door, he fumbled for the handle to open it, then fled into the library.

Lian turned around and slapped Nuar’s chest. “What the hell is wrong with you?” she shouted. “You could have helped him.”

“He didn’t want my help.”

“Because you scared the crap out of him.”

“He should not have touched you,” Nuar said, a strange clip to the words.

“You don’t get to say that,” she said, mocking his cadence. “I don’t give a shit if you Cygnians are some kind of super scary alien badass warrior guys. You are not allowed to go around destroying buildings and intimidating people.”

He stared at her for a few moments, then said, “Badass?”

“Ugh. You’re impossible.”

She started to move away, and he grabbed her fucking wrist again.

It wouldn’t have been quite as bad if her body would stop sending her those freaking confusing signals. Another thrill shot through her at his touch, heat pooling low in her belly.

Not. Okay.

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly to calm herself.

“Nuar,” she said, forcing her voice to stay level. “I understand that you are from another planet and you do things differently there. We had a whole class on it.”

He actually smirked. She wanted to slap it off his face, but knew that would be both futile and counterproductive. She needed to model the behavior she wanted, after all. Which, unfortunately, meant getting her own runaway temper in check—something she was not very good at.

“On Earth, in Harbor, we do not touch women’s breasts or…other areas,” she gestured vaguely, hoping he’d get the point, “without their express consent. That means you have to ask first and they have to very clearly say, ‘Yes, you may touch me there.’ And we do not grab people and force them to stay where we want them to be. Ask before you touch. We use our words.”

She tried not to sound too condescending with that last part and failed pretty miserably.

Nuar stepped closer to her. Her breath caught in her chest.

Normally, if a guy did something like that, she’d be freaked out and scared. With Nuar, she somehow knew he wouldn’t hurt her. That didn’t mean he wasn’t royally pissing her off.

To make things more confusing and irritating, part of her actually liked his proximity. A mindless, lust-driven, stupid part of her that she would have words with as soon as she could get some distance from this mess.

He let go of her wrist suddenly.

Stepping back, he bowed, and said, “For all of the lapses in my behavior, as well as the damage caused here, I am deeply sorry.”

“Wow, I was not expecting that.”

He didn’t seem like the apologizing type.

She glanced around at the mess, trying to decide what to do next. The silence started to get awkward. When she looked up at Nuar, he was smiling. The sight ticked her off.

Crossing her arms, she said, “So, what’s your plan for making it right?”

“First, I will ask for permission to touch you.”

Her eyes widened and heat rocketed right to her core. Again, that had not been what she’d expected.

“I was talking about the greenhouse,” she said, gesturing to the space.

“I have no idea,” he said. “But do I have permission to touch you while I figure it out?”

“What?” She wanted to take a step back, but her feet felt like they were rooted to the spot. “No.”

Well, that wiped the smile off his face. The victory felt hollow. Her skin tingled just from the thought of his touch.

“Look, we need to fix this,” she said.

“That’s what I’m trying to do.”

“Great. Then grab a broom.”

“What’s a broom?”

She scrunched her lips together to keep from yelling at him. Of course he didn’t know what a broom was.

She stalked over to the tool area and picked up a broom, then headed back to him. Before handing it over, she figured she should show him how to use the thing.

“You sweep the bristles like this to gather dirt and debris in one place,” she said.

“Then what do I do with it?”

“We’ll get a dustpan and probably put it in the compost.” She looked around at the broken plants, the damage hitting her anew.

So much loss. So much that they’d worked for just…gone.

Even with the Vegans’ technology, it had taken months for the plants to reach this level of fullness and growth. All that progress had been wiped out.

She looked over to where the bench had been and her eyes blurred as they filled with tears. That was the worst part of it all. The plants could regrow, but the bench…

“My dad and I built that bench together,” she said, her voice raspy. “The Vegans had just finished their last healing session with him. Before that, his arthritis was too bad for him to hold tools. He was so happy to be able to contribute something to the community. And now it’s gone.”

Why did she say that? She wasn’t the over-sharing type.

“I am truly sorry,” Nuar said, his voice tight. “Please. May I touch you?”

She gripped the broom with a white-knuckled grip. Dammit, it was so tempting. Too tempting.

She let the broom drop and turned to him, wrapping her arms around his waist.

Nuar was cooler than she’d expected. But definitely…firm. Very firm.

He’d said he wasn’t made of stone. As unyielding as his skin was, it felt like he was. She could also feel some sort of ridges along his spine through the thin fabric of his shirt and had to keep herself from running her fingers over them.

It was weird that he was wearing jeans and a T-shirt. The Cygnians must be trying to fit in. She wondered what was behind that.

She also wondered why he wasn’t holding her like she was holding him. The moment she’d wrapped her arms around him, he’d quickly lifted his hands out to the sides.

“Lian,” he said, his voice pleading. “May I please touch you?”

Oh wow. He was still waiting for permission. He had definitely taken her admonishment seriously.

“Yes, you may.” She quickly added, “Just this once.”

His arms wrapped around her, pulling her closer against his body.

How had this started? She couldn’t remember.

All she knew was the strength of his arms and how gently they held her, the feel of his palms on her back, the rock-wall of his chest. She had never felt so safe in her life.

And then the tingling kicked in.

More of those delicious goosebumps spread over her arms, her back, her stomach and chest and…other places. They went deeper than her skin.

Her body was alive in a way it had never been before. She felt it all the way to her bones.

She held him tighter, energy coiling deep in her belly, pooling between her legs. Her hands moved over his back, tracing the outline of his spine.

There were definitely ridges there. They quivered beneath her touch.

Nuar groaned, his hands clutching her shirt in fists. Other parts of him became even firmer.

Holy crap.

Yeah, that was…impressive. But only a distraction from everything else she was experiencing.

Her chest felt over-full, like her heart was expanding to fill more space than usual. Like it was trying to reach out to him.

Ugh, when had she become so corny?

And yet…

“Lian,” Nuar said, his voice definitely raspy.

She looked up at him, blinking against the bright red light shining from his eyes.

“May I kiss you?” he asked.

No. Absolutely not. She hated him.

“Sure,” she said.

Stupid mouth! That was not what she was supposed to—

He captured her lips with his, and everything just melted. Thoughts, words, greenhouses.

It was just him and her and the heat of their mouths pressed together and she could never, ever get enough of it.

His lips were softer than she’d expected and he kissed her with a gentleness that was almost painful. His hands flattened against her back, pressing her closer to his chest.

Lian brought her arms to his shoulders, using her grip as leverage to kiss him harder. He growled, and she felt the low vibration through her chest.

She licked the seam of his lips, knowing she was playing with fire and not caring at all. He froze for a moment, then plunged his tongue into her mouth.

All the passion he’d obviously been holding back before crashed into her. His lips demanded more, his tongue sparring with hers, conquering.

Trying to, anyway. She hoped she was holding her own.

She let out a groan that would have mortified her with anyone else. With Nuar, she didn’t care.

He growled again, his hands sliding around to her ample backside and lifting her. She wrapped her legs around his waist, settling against him, pressing her hips against his dick. He gasped and moved his lips to the skin beneath her ear, then raked those sharp teeth of his along her neck.

Goosebumps on her goosebumps on her goosebumps. Every inch of her skin stood at attention, begging for more.

“Lian,” he said, a pleading note of his own in his voice. “Please…”

“Please what?” she asked, in a breathy voice she barely recognized.

“May I touch you?”

She actually let out a little laugh, but it turned into a gasp as he pressed his dick harder against her core. “What do you think you’re doing now?”

“I wish to touch more of you. All of you.”

“That sounds great.”

Except they were in a public space. A wide-open public space.

“Wait,” she said.

His fingers flexed against her ass and he held perfectly still. Very slowly, he pulled back to look at her.

God, those glowing eyes.

She licked her lips and his eyes glowed brighter, following the movement of her tongue.

I am so in over my head here.

“We should probably not be doing this here,” she said.

A sharp voice cut right through the fog of her lust. “You think?”

Lian’s gaze snapped over to the sidewalk in front of the greenhouse. To the group of people—the very large group of people—gathered and gawking at her making out with one of their new honored guests.

And, speaking of the Cygnians, four of them were among the group. The one in front, with his blue caveman beard, she recognized as Kral, the crown prince. He was sapphire blue, his hair a darker shade than his skin, and his eyes were glowing orange.

He did not look happy.

The warrior on his right had cobalt blue skin and yellow eyes. His dark blue hair hung in braids down his back, and he also sported a beard, but not nearly as cave-mannish as Kral’s.

The Cygnian on Kral’s left had sky-blue skin and hair so pale, it was almost white. His eyes were vibrant green and his slight smirk made her unsure if she liked him or wanted to smack him. Maybe both.

Another Cygnian with paler blue skin and whose eyes were almost lividly blue was regarding them with open curiosity. Only two of Kral’s prism were missing. The ones with indigo and violet eyes—who would from that moment forward be the only Cygnians Lian could make eye contact with.

Vay, the Sadirian cultural liaison assigned to help aliens fit in, was standing on the other side of Kral’s group. Her mouth was hanging open and her eyes were as wide as the flying saucers her people had arrived in.

Craig was in the back, one of his hands held over his face as he shook his head. His shoulders were jiggling, too, like he was laughing. The rat-bastard.

And in the very front of the group, her arms folded over her bright-green chest, was Azure, head of the Vegan contingent living in Harbor. The three-and-a-half-foot tall, emerald-green lizard person was somehow the most menacing of the group.

One of her brow ridges was arched high over her golden eyes as she regarded them, the bright sun glinting off of the metal bands of her super-high-tech exosuit.

“Oh shit,” Lian said.

In her sibilant, raspy voice, Azure said, “Yes, ‘oh shit’ seems about right.”