Chapter Eight

 

Alice wandered through the marketplace, oohing and aahing over everything. Soft, silky scarves, beautifully hand-carved pieces of furniture, toys, and clothing. She wished she could afford to buy something from each of the stalls, but she needed to make her few remaining credits last. Her most pressing need was clothing. Her clothes weren’t suitable for the hot temperatures here. Plus, they were old-fashioned and plain.

She wanted something pretty. Maybe even something sexy. She almost blushed at the thought. She had another date with Jaxan tonight. They’d been out every night since she’d arrived and she was growing more and more attracted to him. Not just that, though. This wasn’t just physical.

She cared about him.

Even though she’d only known him for a week, she knew more about Jaxan than she ever had about Frederick and she’d grown up with him.

She felt so sorry for the Zerconians. So many of them were searching for their mates. Humans brought hope, although things weren’t going very easily between the Zerconians and the women who’d arrived on the transporter. Many of the women felt fearful and unsettled. She hoped they gave the Zerconians a chance. It wasn’t their fault they’d been kidnapped.

She stopped in front of a stall with beautiful skirts on display. They were long, but loose and in a rainbow of colors. She fingered one. Silky and smooth.

“How much?” she asked in Zerconian.

“Ten credits,” the stallholder replied, picking out a light blue one. “This one will go well with your eyes.”

It would. But she only had forty-three credits left. Could she afford to spend nearly a quarter on one item? Yet, it seemed cheap considering the quality.

“I’ll take it,” she told him.

He smiled and bagged it up. Alice forced herself to leave the market, not wanting to spend anything more. She didn’t want to go back to Macon and Annabel’s place just yet. There was nothing for her to do there. Alice wasn’t used to having this much spare time on her hands.

She started to make her way down to the beach, deciding she’d go for a walk. In the flat area below, she spotted some Zerconian warriors fighting. She paused, worried until she realized that they were training.

Her breath caught as she watched them. They looked fierce, aggressive, savagely beautiful. Without realizing it, she moved towards them. The hill was considerably steeper than she’d first thought and her walk turned into a running slide down the hill. Then she hit a slick patch and went flying.

She landed heavily in a jumble of arms and legs, breathless and disoriented. She blinked up at the sunny sky. Suddenly, the light was blocked, and her body grew cold. At least half a dozen bodies surrounded her, staring down at her with a mix of concern and irritation.

Oh, sugar. This was embarrassing.

The ringing in her ears died down, just as she heard a roar.

“Alice!”

She winced at the familiar voice. One of the warriors above her was shoved to the side, and Jaxan appeared in her vision.

Great. Of course, he would be here. Because she wasn’t embarrassed enough.

“Alice, are you harmed?” He knelt beside her, running his hands over her body as though searching for broken bones. Nothing was broken. A little bruised and worse for wear.

“I’m fine.” She struggled to sit.

He grabbed her shoulders, holding her down. “Stay there. Racar is coming.”

“I’m fine. I just fell over.”

“You nearly fell into my warriors.”

She stared up into the face of a truly terrifying warrior. He was enormous. Surely the size of a giant. And he was scowling at her. Why was he angry at her? She was the injured party. She might have disrupted their training session, but if they’d just all go away, then she’d happily slink off, find somewhere to hide and stay there for about the next, oh, fifty years should do it.

“Jaxan, I’m fine. Please let me up,” she whispered.

He gave her a skeptical look but gently helped her sit. She stared, realizing that there weren’t just half a dozen warriors standing around her. No, it was more like a hundred.

“You can, um, go back to what you were doing.” She waved her hand like an idiot. They all stared at her.

Why couldn’t she have stayed at the market place?

“What happened, Alice? How did you fall? Could you not see? Do you not have your eye drops in?”

Racar had developed eye drops for her that lasted for twelve hours at a time. She was finally free from those hideous glasses.

Jaxan had inadvertently given her a convenient excuse. Only Alice couldn’t lie. She sighed. “No, I can see. I was just watching you guys train, and I wasn’t looking where I was going and all of a sudden, my feet were running away from me, and I slid over, and well, you know the rest.”

They all stared down at her incredulously.

“Jaxan, I need to stand up,” she whispered to him. “I need to get out of here.”

He frowned at her for a moment. He wasn’t going to insist on calling for Racar again, was he?

As though she’d conjured him up by thinking about him, the healer appeared.

“What happened? Is Alice hurt? Where is she harmed?” He knelt next to her but looked to Jaxan.

“Alice is right here,” she grumbled. “Alice can hear you just fine. Alice can talk just fine. Alice did not fall on her face.”

Thank goodness.

“Ah.” Racar looked from her to Jaxan.

“She tripped and fell down the hill,” Jaxan told him. “She says she is not injured, but I wish to be certain.”

“I fell over. It happens all the time. This isn’t the first time I’ve been bruised, and it won’t be the last.”

Jaxan scowled. “You will take more care. I do not wish you to be harmed.”

Racar ran his wand over her. It beeped in several places. “Alice is correct. Just a few bruises. She will be sore for a few days, but that is all.”

“See? Now, can I please get up? And can everyone stop staring at me.”

Jaxan turned and gave the warriors circling them a look. They drifted back except for the huge warrior, Jaxan, and Racar.

“You will not interfere with my warriors while they are training again,” the large warrior said.

“I didn’t mean to interfere with them now. My feet got away from me.”

The warrior grunted and turned away as Jaxan helped her stand. A shiver of arousal ran over his skin at his touch. Her need for him seemed to grow with every day. She lay awake at night, aching, her skin highly-sensitive. Having others touch her was growing increasingly painful. She was starting to think she’d have to give up the self-defence lessons. Wearing long clothing protected most of her skin, but every so often someone would touch her hands or face, and she’d nearly start screaming.

“I will leave you both. Take care, Alice.”

“Thanks, Racar. Sorry, you got called out here for nothing.”

He smiled at her. Such a nice man, unlike some of the other Zerconians who were still scowling at her. She resisted the urge to frown back at them. Perhaps they were just tired after their long work out.

“I am used to it,” Racar told her. “I am thinking of assigning you your own healer.”

She glared at him. Maybe he wasn’t as nice as she’d first thought.

“Come. I shall escort you home.” Jaxan clasped hold of her hand and started back up the hill at a fast pace.

“But I’m not going home. I wanted to go for a walk along the beach.”

He stopped so abruptly that she nearly tripped again. A low growl came from his throat. “You need to rest.”

“I’ve never rested so much in my life. I’m used to hard work, Jaxan. I’ve slept past sun rise every day since I came here.”

It was sinful.

“Do you know anywhere I could get a job?” That would solve her credit problem.

“You are not here to work, Alice. You need your rest. You were kidnapped and shot, and now you are bruised and sore. You will go home and rest, not walk along the beach.” He paused, staring out at the ocean. “I do not think it a good idea for you to go down there alone.”

“Why not? Is it dangerous?”

“Not for anyone else. For you, probably.”

She groaned. “Are you making a joke?”

His eyes widened. “I do not joke.”

Great. So he was serious.

“Just because I’ve had a few little accidents—”

“A few accidents? Alice, you nearly fell down a flight of steps yesterday.”

“The key word is nearly. I didn’t fall.”

“Only because Macon caught you.”

“I told Macon to keep that to himself. What a tattletale.”

“Tattletale?”

“It’s someone who tells on other people. He should have kept that quiet.”

“No, he did the right thing telling me. You are my mate, Alice. It is up to me to keep you safe.”

“I’m not a child. I can look after myself,” she said, disgruntled.

“I also have to keep everyone else safe from you.”

“What?” Her jaw dropped. “I would never harm anyone.”

“You nearly shot Safan.”

“He was walking too close to my target. That was his own fault.” Annabel had been teaching her to shoot a blaster. Hitting the target was more difficult than she’d thought it would be. “And I don’t think it’s fair that the other women still get to practice and I don’t.”

“Dex banned you from blaster practice to keep you and everyone else safe. You can still participate in the self-defense lessons.”

“I guess so.”

He cupped her face with his hands, sending light shivers through her blood. “Alice, I have just found you. I could not bear to have something happen to you.”

She smiled up at him, her temper appeased by the worry in his face. “I know. I’m sorry if I’ve worried you. I don’t mean to, you know.”

He sighed. “I know you do not.”

“It’s just I feel so free here. I don’t have all these rules and restrictions. I can just be myself.”

He ran his thumb over her cheek. “I am glad. I want you to be happy here, Alice.”

“I am. I’m the happiest I’ve ever been. And I promise I’ll take more care. Do you think I should apologize to that big warrior again? He was kind of angry that I interrupted your training.” She glanced up at him, trying desperately not to linger on his muscular chest. Why did they train with so little clothing on? As much as she tried to keep her gaze on his face, it kept dropping down to his wide shoulders, muscular arms that trim waist.

“Toriq was not angry that you interrupted training. He was worried because you may have gotten hurt.”

“I don’t see why he’d be worried about me. I fell. I have a few bruises, but I’m fine.”

“You will still take more care.”

 

Jaxan gave Annabel a firm look. He had never been as scared as he had been this past week. He had spent the entire time on edge, waiting for another report of her antics. Not that she was doing this on purpose. Oh no, his little mate had no idea of the stress she caused him. He had barely slept a wink. Keeping one small human female safe did not sound like a difficult task, but it was turning out to be a nearly impossible task.

“Don’t worry, I will be much more careful from now on.”

He wished he could believe that.

“I’m looking forward to tonight.” She gave him a shy look. “I even bought a new skirt. Oh, drat. I must have dropped it when I fell.” She started back down the hill.

He grabbed her arm, gently pulling her back. “I shall retrieve it for you. After I return you home.”

“But it might be gone by then.”

“Then I will purchase you a new one.”

The worry in her gaze puzzled him. It was just a skirt.

“All right, thanks.”

They walked up the hill, and she turned to the left.

“Alice, where do you go?”

“To Macon’s house.” She looked up at him, puzzled.

“Macon’s house is this way.” He pointed in the opposite direction.

“Oh, right, of course, it is.” She laughed.

“Did you have such problems with direction when you lived on Earth?”

“I don’t have any problems with directions,” she told him. “It’s just that everything looks the same around here. It might be easier if all the houses weren’t white.”

As he led her to Macon’s house, he wished she lived in his house, under his protection. He understood that she needed time, but he did not know how much more of that he had to give. Already, he could feel himself growing more aggressive. His reactions were sometimes extreme when they would normally be tempered.

He wanted her with a desperation that grew every hour. But he also wanted to give her what she needed—no matter what it cost him.