A high-pitched ringing woke Zoey with a jolt. Her body jerked as arms — Ren’s arms — were yanked from beneath her. She opened her eyes to a flash of morning light, which was promptly snuffed out as the blankets were tossed over her head.

Zoey wrestled the covers and flung them aside to find a very naked Rendash prowling the room. The ringing continued.

“There is an alarm sounding,” Rendash said. “We must leave immediately.”

Trying hard not to look at Rendash — okay, so she totally peeked, and boy did he have huge morning wood! — Zoey swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood up.

The ancient digital clock on the nightstand read 8:23.

Ren stopped at the table near the door and leaned over it. Opening her purse, he reached inside and removed her phone, holding it between his finger and thumb like it was going to either bite his hand off or explode.

“It’s vibrating,” he said. “What is this device, Zoey?” There was a hardness in his voice she hadn’t heard since he’d first made himself known, and it was mirrored in his eyes.

He looked as though he expected a betrayal.

Despite the menace radiating from him, Zoey approached and held her hand out, palm up. “It’s my phone.”

His eyes shifted from her face to her hand, finally settling on the phone, but he didn’t hand it over. “What is a phone?”

The phone fell silent, and they both stared at the black screen. Within a few seconds, it started ringing again. It was probably Melissa; Zoey had told her to call in the morning, and Iowa was two hours ahead of Nevada.

When Rendash met her gaze, she thrust her hand forward, snatching the phone from his palm. She spun away from him and accepted the call.

“Melissa?” Zoey asked.

“Zoey! I’ve been trying to reach you since yesterday! Why haven’t you texted me back? Where the hell are you?”

Her stomach lurched; it wasn’t Melissa. It was Josh.

“Josh, it’s none of your—”

“Are you communicating with someone?” Rendash asked from behind her.

“Who is that?” Josh asked, voice low with suspicion. “Are you with another guy, Zoey? Who the hell is he? He better not have touched you!”

“Yes, it’s another guy,” Zoey said, looking at Rendash. “We slept together.”

“What the fuck, Zo?” Josh’s voice blared through the speaker loudly enough that she had to move the phone from her ear. She couldn’t deny feeling some petty satisfaction at his reaction.

Before she could respond, one of Rendash’s hands shot forward, and he plucked the phone from her grip with ease. His arm went up high. Her eyes widened.

“Ren, no!” Zoey thrust her arms out to stop him.

But it was too late. His arm snapped back down, and her phone hit the floor with such force that it shattered. As though that weren’t enough, he slammed his heel atop it, breaking it, somehow, into at least a hundred more pieces.

Zoey stared at the wreckage, stunned. She’d worked her ass off to pay for that phone, and now it was broken beyond repair on this ugly, forty-year-old carpet.

“Why did you do that?” Zoey demanded. Anger flared in her gut as she looked up at Ren.

“If it can transmit and receive, it can be tracked.” His tone made his displeasure clear, but Zoey didn’t give a damn.

She stepped forward, pressed both of her palms to his abdomen, and shoved. Despite what she’d wanted to happen, she was the one who moved. She stumbled backward, nearly falling on her ass in the process. That Ren caught her effortlessly with one hand on her arm and kept her upright only further fueled her anger.

She slapped his chest. It stung her palm. “Do you have any idea how many hours I had to work to pay for that?”

“If your people have such devices for communication, it stands to reason that your authorities are capable of monitoring your communications,” he said with infuriating calmness. “They will be searching for even the slightest hint of my whereabouts.”

“I don’t care! That was mine, and you destroyed it!” Zoey yanked on her arm, glaring at him, but his grip remained firm. For some reason, her vision blurred. “You had no right to do that.”

“I am sorry, Zoey.” He leaned down closer to her, and slowly, gently, touched the pad of a finger to her cheek, wiping away a bit of moisture. “What is this?”

Zoey only realized she was crying when she looked at the wet spot on his finger. “They’re called tears. They happen when people are really happy or sad, or very, very mad, which is what I am right now.”

Yeah, let’s go with very, very mad. That sounds a lot less pathetic, doesn’t it?

“Though it may not be easily done, your phone can be replaced. My life cannot.”

And now I just feel like a jerk.

She sniffled and looked away from him.

Gently clasping her chin, he guided her face back toward him. “You could have betrayed me. Could have left. But you did not. This is not easy for either of us, it is not convenient, but to keep both of us safe, we cannot leave such things to chance.”

“I know, and you’re right,” she said, meeting his eyes. She wasn’t sure which to focus on, so she picked the center pair.

At heart, she knew the phone wasn’t the real reason for how she felt — a big part of it, absolutely, but not the primary motivation. It had been Joshua’s voice that pushed her over. His lack of shame and guilt. The way he’d spoken like nothing had happened and then had the nerve to get mad at her for being with another guy. In his mind, Zoey was supposed to be grateful that he’d dated her despite her size. She was supposed to be the easily replaced one in their relationship, not him.

Zoey didn’t doubt he was upset about her potentially spending money on another man, too. Even though she’d been the sole source of income for the last several months, Josh had a knack for viewing it as his money. He only called it theirs when she pressed him on the matter.

“You are also right,” Ren said. “Even if the human method of toiling endlessly to meet basic life needs is foolish and cruel, I should respect your investment in that barbaric system.”

The corners of Zoey’s lips twitched. “It is pretty barbaric, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” he replied, and whatever smile he might’ve offered her faded with his next question. “Who was that male you were speaking to?”

“My boyfriend. Well…ex-boyfriend.”

“You will have to explain. I was taught a great many words in your language, but that teaching did not extend to what many things are named.”

“Um, a boyfriend — or girlfriend — is someone you’re dating. A male friend, but someone you want to get closer to and have a relationship with. If you find the right one, you might end up marrying that person.”

“You are speaking of mating?” he asked. “Of sex?”

Zoey’s cheeks burned. “Well, yeah. That’s usually part of being in a relationship.”

“And your relationship with him ended?” His frown deepened. “Was it because he cheated in a game?”

Zoey’s brows furrowed. “Cheated in a game? What are you talking about?”

“When you were stopped and questioned, you said your boyfriend was cheating on you.”

Realization dawned on her; he’d heard her tell off Officer Asswipe. “Oh… No, it wasn’t a game. He cheated on me. He slept… He had sex with other women.”

Rendash’s eyes darkened, and his muscles tensed. She was suddenly reminded of how close he was, of his hands on her, of his heat and scent.

“But you were mated,” he said, as though that made the whole situation too ridiculous to have been real.

Zoey’s eyes burned, but she shrugged nonchalantly. “It didn’t mean anything to him.”

“So he is a human without honor,” Ren said, baring his fangs. “Is our current course going to bring us near him?”

Strangely, she wasn’t frightened by his show of teeth. His anger wasn’t directed at her — at least this time. “No. I left him. I’m driving away from him.”

Rendash made a sound that was part grunt, part growl. “Unfortunate. I would have gladly spared some time to teach him the meaning of honor.”

Zoey was somewhat grateful Rendash wouldn’t be meeting Joshua. As hurt and angry as she felt, she didn’t want to have Josh’s blood on her hands, even if Rendash only meant to rough him up a little. “I don’t think he has an honorable bone in his body. I would rather just forget about him.”

“So…” He trailed his palm down her arm and covered her hand with his. Her skin tingled under his touch. “Being beyond his communication is a good thing then, isn’t it?”

“Yes, but don’t think you’re off the hook for destroying my phone,” Zoey said, shooting him a glare. “That was still mine. I could’ve just turned it off.”

“We cannot risk it,” he said, “just as we should not risk remaining here much longer. I sense we’ve a long way to travel, and we are far too close to where they must be searching.”

Zoey looked down at his hand. It was so large compared to hers, the green of his scales accentuated against her pale skin. She dropped her gaze farther, and her eyes widened. She cleared her throat but couldn’t look away from the massive erection between his legs.

“Yeah, well, it’s probably best not go anywhere until we get you some clothes. Wait…” Her brow furrowed as she tilted her head back to look up into his eyes. “Were your arms around me this morning? Did you pull me closer last night?”

He grinned knowingly. “I cannot say for certain. I was asleep.”

Despite everything, Zoey laughed. “Oh, my gosh, you cheeky bastard! What was all that about honor?”

“I was protecting you. You were so close to the edge of the bed, I didn’t want you to fall and get hurt.”

Zoey snorted and rolled her eyes, but something warm sparked in her chest. “Right. Protecting me from the big, bad, ugly floor.” Smiling, she stepped back, and Rendash released her. “While you’re battling the carpet, I’m going to get dressed. After that, I’ll run out to find you some clothes.”

He titled his head and narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean you’re going to run out?”

She swept her arm across the room. “There are no clothes for you here. To get those, I need to go to a store and buy some.”

“We do not need to delay for that. I will bring one of these cloths,” he gestured to the crumpled towel on the floor beside the bed, “and cloak myself as necessary.”

“Yeah, that’s not going to work.” She bent down over her suitcase and rummaged through her clothing. “I won’t be long.”

“I am not comfortable with this. You speak as though this is not like your trip to…to the drink machine, or whatever it was you visited last night.”

“Because it’s not.” She stood and walked past him. Plucking the remote off the nightstand, she turned on the TV and offered him the control. “You’ll be fine. No one knows you’re here, and we have until eleven to check out of this room. I’ll be back long before then. I promise.”

She grabbed his wrist, raised his arm, and placed the remote on his palm. He stared down at it dully.

“Don’t break that,” Zoey said. “It just changes the channels on the TV.”

Rendash looked up at her with a scowl. “And who will protect you, if I am not near?”

She arched a brow. “I take care of myself. I haven’t had anyone protecting me for a long time.”

His scowl shifted into an unhappy frown. “I will accept your word, human. You leave me little other choice.”

Zoey smirked. “Doesn’t feel so great, huh? And note that I didn’t even strangle you or anything.”