Once in her room, Eden pulled up her recent calls.

Darak. Again.

Sweat prickled under her arms, and she contracted her knees up against her chest. Why didn’t he give up? Lips tight, she tapped out a message.

Please stop calling me.

Just give me a chance to explain, came the quick reply.

There’s nothing to talk about. Go away, Darak.

I miss you.

She hated herself for the thrill of pleasure this gave her. You mean you miss sleeping with a girl stupid enough to buy into your lines.

Buy into my lines?

She stared at the screen. All those times she’d thought he was being funny, he just didn’t know the vernacular.

Her phone rang and her breath stopped. She’d let it go to voice mail. She’d… “What do you want, Darak?”

“Eden!” His voice rang with relief. “Look. I know I messed up. I’m sorry. I didn’t expect things to go the way they did.”

“I’ll bet you didn’t,” Eden said through clenched teeth.

“That first night I just thought you were sexy and fun, and I’ll admit I was looking for someone to have sex with.”

Her heart sank. “Well, you found her.”

“I was given six months on Earth before I had to go home and work for my dad,” he went on. “I was on a—what do you call it?—road trip when I met you.”

“Why didn’t you say who you were when I told you who my dad was?”

“Why didn’t you tell me how young you were?”

“I was only eight months off,” she shot back. “Besides, would you have stopped?”

“Probably not,” he admitted. “But you lied to me too.”

“That’s a stupid argument, and you know it. Look, Darak, it’s over. I can’t deal with this, too.”

“Why? What else is wrong?”

She hated the concern in his voice—hated how much she craved it. “None of your business.”

“Maybe I can help.”

She laughed bitterly. “Speaks the mighty Krinar.”

“I’ve been nothing but nice to you,” he came back, a new edge in his voice.

“All you wanted was a piece of ass. Everything you did, you did because you wanted to get off.”

“So that’s it? That day in the clearing—that was just me trying to get you to have sex? I could have done that without climbing a damn mountain, and you know it.”

“It was you tricking me into believing things that weren’t true. I was just a toy to play with, an Earth girl to pass the time until you had to go home and get real. Did it ever occur to you that Earth girls have hearts? That you were hurting me?”

“I never meant to do that. I would never—Please let me make it up to you.”

“It’s too late.”

“Will you just listen to me?” he demanded. “I’m not evil. I’m just a guy in love with a girl.”

Her heart leaped, but of course he was lying. “You’re not a guy; you’re a Krinar.”

For a moment there was silence. “And you’re a racist.”

Shock filled her, and before she could think of a response to that, the line went dead.

* * *

A racist? The Krinar weren’t even human. They were like…like intelligent cats.

She was not a racist. She was just angry. They invaded our planet. Then again, a little voice whispered, after the initial shock of their arrival, terroristic attacks practically never happened. The bees were back, and the rape of the rain forests had all but ceased.

She loved Darak so desperately she could barely breathe, but he wasn’t even real. The whole week had been nothing but an illusion.

Is sex like that with human boys? She pictured that guy from the kayaking trip and cringed. She couldn’t imagine pressing herself against anyone but Darak.

Besides, even if he weren’t a K, letting him in now would be the ultimate dick move. To have to see the look on his face when he found out about the cancer would kill her.

Well, the “human” Darak. The one that didn’t exist.

Staring at the ceiling, her eyes dry and unblinking, she swept her hair back from her face.

Dying of cancer scared her worse than going through life alone, but losing the man she thought she loved still sucked big hairy donkey balls.