Tamed By The Alien Barbarian by Celeste King
Jaxil
When I awoke, the morning light spilled in like molten gold on the sheets. I quickly realized I was alone, though.
I lumbered downstairs to find Candi—that perfectly slim silhouette still clad in lingerie—making breakfast in my kitchen.
“That looks good,” I murmured, leaning on the counter and gazing briefly at the sizzling pan.
“Mhm,” Candi chirped and nodded. “The food doesn’t look half bad either.”
She giggled and peaked through her eyelashes at me. I let my eyes rest lazily on all of her curves. Her blonde hair was illuminated so perfectly in the morning sun, I almost didn’t notice when she started speaking.
I was too mesmerized by the soft heave of her chest to see those full lips forming words in my direction. My eyes wandered down to her thighs, so deliciously smooth and full. “Hello?” She said in exasperation, waving her hands in front of her face.
I became aware that I’d heard her voice, but I didn’t know what she had said. “Sorry,” I said, grinning sheepishly.
“Okay,” she broke out with a sigh, setting the spatula on the counter and leaning across from me. “We clearly need to talk.”
“Clearly,” I echoed. I tried to meet her gaze, but my eyes once again wandered south. She rolled her eyes, but bit her bottom lip in spite of that. I knew she couldn’t help herself. I felt myself getting excited all over again.
“We’re still business rivals,” she told me sternly, and for a moment I thought the playfulness between us might have evaporated. “Business rivals who have absolutely mind blowing sex,” she acknowledged, twirling her hair and smiling deviously. “But rivals all the same.”
I straightened up so my palms rested on the counter rather than my elbows. She stayed bent forward, looking up at me with questioning eyes. “Agreed,” I said softly. “We are business rivals, but there’s definitely something going on here.”
Something came across her face that I couldn’t quite recognize then. She spun on her heels, returning to the stove to finish cooking breakfast.
“There’s something else,” she told me; I thought I heard her voice shake ever so slightly.
I stiffened up. What else could there possibly be? Could this dynamic get much stranger?
“Okay,” I calmly beckoned for more information with that one word.
She didn’t say anything for a moment. She shuffled around at the stove and opened cabinets, searching for plates. When she found them, she split the breakfast into two portions, but she let the plates sit once they were loaded.
“Candi,” I cooed. I walked around the counter to be closer to her, placing my hands on her shoulders to stop her buzzing and asked, “What is it?
She turned to face me and I moved closer still, until her back was pressed against the wall. It was easy to forget how small Candi really was until I got this close to her.
She took an unsteady breath and spoke quietly, “While you were sleeping, I took some of your drool.”
I felt the laughter start to well up in my chest, but all I managed to say was, “Oh? So you got my genetic material after all.”
“My assistant, Mandy, stopped by earlier to get it for the genetic scan,” she confessed.
I couldn’t help but laugh then. “You didn’t want to invite Mandy to stay for a while?” I teased with a grin, placing my hand on the wall above Candi’s head so I could inch just a little closer.
Candi rolled her gem-like green eyes at me once more. She crossed her slight arms over her chest and raised one eyebrow at me before she ducked under my arm and walked to the other side of the kitchen.
“The results of the genetic scan are right here,” she told me, holding a sealed envelope between two fingers.
For some reason, my throat felt tight. I had to concentrate on keeping my expression blank. Did I really care what the results were? Was I hoping that Candi would be my match?
As she slid her tiny finger beneath the seal, I realized that the answer was yes: despite the odds, I was holding out hope that this unlikely creature would be my fated mate.
Candi walked to my side before she pulled the sheet of paper from the envelope. When she unfolded the results, we scanned them quickly in unison.
Then I saw the answer. We weren’t a match.
My stomach sank. I could feel my heartbeat all through my body as the anticipation of this moment started to wash away. I exhaled quickly to regain my composure.
I was sure that my posture changed, or that something in my body language gave away my disappointment, but I worked hard to hide it. Candi didn’t seem to react at all. I supposed she must have expected this news.
“So, I guess that’s that.” Candi said definitively. She turned to me with an expression that looked so blank I thought it must be artificial; there was something else playing behind her eyes, though.
I cleared my throat, nodding. “That’s that,” I said again, slowly and quietly. Candi’s gaze darted away and she pursed her lips.
I tried to shake the disappointment weighing me down, but I felt it settle in my bones. Candi, on the other hand, made herself busy cleaning up the kitchen.
“I’m not hungry anymore. Are you?” She asked, already halfway to the trash can with our plates of breakfast.
“I guess not.” I stood there silently for a few too many beats, watching her buzz around the kitchen once more. The light was still shining through the window, and I couldn’t help but watch the way she glittered, even though I knew it wouldn’t last.
She didn’t seem rattled. In fact, she seemed at peace.
Once she caught my gaze, she stopped moving so feverishly. She bounced all of her weight to one perfectly rounded hip and looked down at the floor as she said, “I guess I should get ready and get going.”
“Right,” I confirmed. “I’m sure you have a busy day ahead of you, trying to put me out of business.” I tried to smile—tried to bring back the same playful spark we’d felt just minutes ago, but it had been extinguished. The envelope still sat open on my kitchen counter.
Candi smiled a little in return, but she didn’t say anything. Instead, she shrugged in an exaggerated motion that made her chest bounce, then went to grab her things silently.
I followed, though I wasn’t entirely sure why. I got dressed alongside her, looking over often but failing to come up with anything to say. She shimmied on her coat, tying it tightly to hide the spectacular display of lingerie from the world.
It felt like hours before we were ready to walk out, but it must have only been 5 minutes. I opened the door for Candi and she turned back to face me.
The energy between us now couldn’t be more different than it was when I opened the door last night. She looked exactly the same—that same coat, hiding the same set of lingerie on the same perfect body. There was a different kind of tension in the harsh light of day, though.
“Bye, Jaxil,” Candi said sweetly, reaching her hand up and barely grazing my horn before she ran her fingers down my face. The same peculiar glimmer still played in her eyes; I wished I could decode it.
Just as she backed out the door, I bent to kiss her. It felt awkward and stiff. Nothing between us had ever felt forced—what was happening here?
I rested my hand on top of the open door and watched Candi click away in her heels.
“Bye, Candi Cassidy,” I said too quietly for her to hear. Part of me wondered if I’d see her again. A bigger part of me wondered why I cared so much.
