The Alien’s Seduction by Zoey Draven
Chapter Eight
Crystal jolted from sleep as if she was falling, flailing her leg out before pushing up from the cold, hard ground almost sheepishly.
Immediately, her eyes went across the now-dead fire to the Luxirian Ambassador—Cruxan.
He was watching her as he covered up evidence of the fire he’d built. It was probably what had woken her, but she was surprised to see the peach and grey streaks in the sky above them. In the near distance, she heard a cry echo around the forest. Like a bird…if that bird’s call was guttural and trilling and deep. She’d slept surprisingly soundly since she’d passed out the night before.
Her mouth felt dry and she immediately smoothed down her hair as she sat up, bones aching, a little self-conscious that he’d seen her sleep. She hadn’t meant to. She’d meant to stay up through the night with him, to make sure he kept his distance.
She was a little irritated with herself, if she was being honest. She’d put herself in yet another vulnerable position and she didn’t like it.
Crystal licked her lips and gave Cruxan a slight nod in greeting. She wanted to keep things civil and polite between them. She was relying on him to find Erin, after all. “Good morning.”
“Tev,” he replied slowly, looking up at the sky. “It is.”
Crystal blinked and most surprising of all was she felt a flash of amusement at his reply.
“Right,” she whispered, clearing her throat. It felt scratchy. “What’s the plan today? How are we going to find Erin?”
Cruxan’s lips pressed together for a brief moment. He seemed on the verge of saying something, but then after a long moment, said, “We will circle back around and I will track them. We need to be careful. I am not certain if the Mevirax have left.”
He’d mentioned them last night. He’d said they were dangerous.
“Who are they?” she found herself asking quietly, rubbing her arms with her palms. It was cold that morning, way more chilly than the mornings had been in the Luxirian city. How far away were they? “Why were they here?”
His lips pressed together again. A tell? Did he not want her know something about them?
“I don’t like being lied to,” she told him. “I can handle the truth.”
His gaze flashed, but then he said, “Jaxor’an implied he’d made a deal with them. He was going to hand you both over for something in exchange, though what, I do not know.”
Crystal swallowed thickly, bringing her knees up to her chest. When she felt something sharp prod into the back of her left thigh, she saw the dagger lying in the dirt next to her.
“They are a group of dissenters. Long ago. They live far away from the Golden City and keep to themselves, for the most part. But as of late, they have grown more bold. They have become a threat.”
Crystal nodded slowly, absorbing the words. Goosebumps spread over her arms but whether it was from the cold or how close she’d come to being sold off she didn’t know. Probably both.
Cruxan was studying her in that careful way. She was hyper aware of him and the sensation was a foreign one, not one she liked. For so long, she’d built a wall around herself. Ever since Leo, she hadn’t been around the opposite sex much. She’d barricaded herself in the safety of her art, her work, her—female—friends. She’d declined dates, avoided talking or even looking at men who’d made their attraction to her obvious.
It was safe. Her safe, little life.
Now, she was surrounded by alien males, twice her size and four times her strength, whose intentions and wants were unclear.
To say she was anxiety-ridden over it was an understatement. She’d only just started to get more comfortable around Vixron, the guard that had been with them the longest—
Her breath hitched. “The guards,” she said, jerking her head to look at Cruxan. “Our guards. Are they okay?”
Cruxan inclined his head. “Vixron and Horex? They will have recovered by now.”
Relief made her shoulders sag. The thought that they’d been attacked and harmed at their expense didn’t sit well with her.
A strange energy filled the small clearing and hesitantly, Crystal looked up at Cruxan, who was frowning. Instinct made her curl into herself a little more when he asked, “You care for them?”
Her gaze darted. A memory came back to her, one when Leo had been angry because she’d talked to guy when they were out at a party. Her fists squeezed at her sides.
Cruxan blew out a long breath. “This will be difficult to get used to,” he murmured, though it was almost to himself.
Without meeting his gaze, she asked, “What will?”
He stood from his crouched position. Her breath went shallow because he was just so big. Looking up at him, she was reminded how vulnerable she truly was.
“Jealousy,” he replied, though he seemed loathe to admit it. Surprise went through her. “I am not used to feeling it.”
“You—you don’t even know me,” she reminded him, her voice small. A shiver raced down her spine and she pulled her arms around her tighter.
His expression was almost sad…resigned. “That does not matter. My Instinct has recognized you. That is all it takes.”
Before she could reply—not that she knew what to say, given that rising feeling of panic again—Cruxan stripped off the black shirt he was wearing. It was thick and long-sleeved.
Crystal’s eyes bulged. “What are you doing?” she asked, her voice tight and tense.
“Out here, it will be cold this morning,” he informed her, dropping the shirt in her lap. It was made of a strong, durable material and felt like it weighed ten pounds. It would reach her knees if she put it on. “We cannot make another fire to keep you warm. We need to keep moving.”
“I’d—I’d really prefer if you kept your shirt on,” she said, trying not to look at him.
“We must move soon,” he told her again, ignoring her words, turning his gaze towards the forest, as if he was searching for something.
Crystal knew that Luxirians were not shy about their bodies, by any means. Hell, their guards went shirtless half the time. It was simply…normal.
But seeing Cruxan bare-chested was another matter entirely.
Crystal peeked. She couldn’t help it. She was still a woman, despite her men-avoiding tendencies. Besides, he was distracted and wouldn’t even notice, right? No harm done.
Her mouth went dry at the sight he made.
I want to draw him.
The thought came from nowhere, but resounded strongly in her mind. She’d done more than a few portraits and she’d seen her fair share of nude models in her late-night art classes at the community college, but Cruxan was different. She’d never felt compelled to draw anyone. Not like him.
That need made her fingers twitch.
Her breasts suddenly felt heavy under her tunic and her heartbeat began to race. Her eyes drifted up the strong lines of his torso, his ever-so-slightly tapered waist, and over the flat slabs of his pectorals, grazing over the metal bars pierced through his nipples.
It was from their warrior training, she knew. It meant he’d completed it.
Her breath felt shallow as she traced the heavy ropes of muscles laid over his arms and his shoulders. Crystal had always had a thing for men’s backs—a little strange she knew—and though she couldn’t see his right then, she knew that it would be as equally magnificent as his front. His thighs were strong, solid, his limbs long, masculine.
He was a work of art, carefully honed and sculpted, marble made flesh, even the scars.
Stop, she told herself when she felt a delicate throbbing between her thighs.
With a startled breath, she looked up at Cruxan’s face to make sure he hadn’t noticed—
Only to find his gaze, those darkening blue eyes, fixed on her intently, those dark horns straightening.
Startled, flustered, her mouth parted to babble out an apology only to find that no sound emerged from her throat. Nothing. Zilch. Nada.
Cheeks burning in mortification—and perhaps arousal—she quickly tugged on the heavy shirt, simply to buy time, simply because she’d been caught checking him out and that frightened the living hell out of her.
Stupid, stupid, stupid!
His scent from the shirt registered too late. But suddenly, he was all around her, that heady, mind-numbing, addicting scent that was all male and all Cruxan.
Panic rose again, fluttering in her veins. He wasn’t her mate. It simply couldn’t be. That awareness that she’d felt the first time she’d seen him? It was passing attraction only. It would go away.
She sat, silent, unmoving, avoiding his gaze, his shirt still warm from his body and pressing heavily against her skin. A brand. A claim.
A door had been opened, she realized, resignation weighing her shoulders down.
She hadn’t been aroused by a male…since Leo. Even then, she’d only been deeply aroused by him in the beginning of their volatile relationship, before his true colors had started to show.
Crystal had feared that Leo had broken her. Broken a part inside her that could feel pleasure, the sizzle of arousal, the appreciation for men. She’d numbed herself for so long that she’d truly begun to believe it, had resigned herself to living a life without a family, without children, just her and her dreams and her art.
She’d accepted it.
But now…
A part of her was relieved that Leo hadn’t broken her after all.
The other part of her was terrified.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, trying not to look at him. “I didn’t…I didn’t mean to…”
“Did not mean to what?” he asked, though his voice sounded rougher than it had been a moment before.
Crystal swallowed, though it sounded more like a gulp to her ears. He wanted her to spell out that she’d totally been checking out the goods?
What she didn’t expect him to say was, “Sexual arousal for your male is nothing to apologize for, female.”
Her eyes bulged for the second time that morning, but she bit her lip, wanting the ground to open up and swallow her whole.
Your male, he said, as if it was a given that Cruxan was hers.
She didn’t want to unpack that at all. She didn’t want to touch those thoughts with a ten-foot pole.
“That’s presumptuous of you,” she rasped out.
His brow cocked and his arms crossed over the massive breadth of his chest, only further highlighting his muscles.
His nostrils flared and his voice sounded gravelly and strained when he said, “I know it because I can smell it. Males can scent when their females are aroused.”
Oh my God.
Oh my God!
The ground could not swallow her up fast enough. Of course. Just of course he could smell her. Her first time being aroused by a male in years and he had goddamn front row seat tickets.
Climbing to her feet, she thought avoidance and ignorance was the best response. She’d made a mistake, one she wouldn’t repeat if she could help it.
Without meeting his gaze, she said, her voice sounding a little too high-pitched, “W-we should go. The longer we’re here, the longer Erin is with him.”
Yes, remember your friend, Crystal? The one who was taken prisoner by a lunatic and you’re sitting here checking out a shirtless male like you’re at the damn beach.
She needed to get her priorities straight.
With that thought, she steeled her spine. Being with this Luxirian Ambassador was inevitable for the brief future. She had to rely on him to find Erin and bring them both back to the Golden City. Afterwards, everything would go back to normal. As ‘normal’ as her new ‘normal’ was, at least.
Crystal blew out a steady breath and met his gaze. She could handle him until then. She could ignore this strange attraction to him, this strange awareness that sent alarm bells ringing through her mind. She just needed to keep her distance.
She nodded at him. “I’m ready.”
