Page 107 of The Alien Warrior's Vow

“Then tell me, my heras.” He caught a sparkling tear with his knuckle. “Unburden yourself so you do not have to live with this crippling guilt any longer.”

She opened her mouth and sucked in a big gulp of air.

Her fingers trembled.

Her chest heaved.

Lans felt powerless as his mate struggled to unveil herself to him. This moment was far more intimate than when she had opened her legs for their first mating. He wanted to pull her closer to himself, but she was already bundled up against his heras. He wanted to climb into her head and give her peace, but he could only signal his concern through their shared neural connector.

Eema’s voice sounded husky and broken when she finally spoke. “A long time ago, I… met someone. We weren’t serious about each other at all. He was just some guy at a party who gave me some attention and I—I slept with him.”

Lans hold on her tightened.

Eema squeaked out. “And I got pregnant.”

Thirty-One

Emma

She’d been stupid.

That was all there had been to it.

She’d been stupid, young and drunk.

The guy wasn’t even cute. She remembered that much. He’d had shaggy brown hair and brown eyes and a slightly crooked grin. His breath had stunk of whiskey. He’d been standing a little too close and touching her a little too much.

But she’d been eager to feelsomething.

Anythingother than the disdain her mother piled on her head everyday.

And here was this guy telling her that she was cute.

Her.

Boring, plain ole Emma.

So she had settled herself around the beer kegs and allowed him to keep her cup filled. The music pulsed around her and through her, but she didn’t understand what it said. The cheers and smiles of her classmates flashed before her but it all looked hazy.

And thenhestarted rubbing on her.

He whispered in her ear.

He touched her wrist, her hands, her hips.

He made her feel like she was the only girl in the world.

And, somewhere in the back of her head, she knew that it wouldn’t last. She knew what the guy was really after. But the beer made the voices of reason get really, really quiet. And the way her body responded to his touch made her concerns really, really small.

Because nothing else mattered.

Nothing but the moment.

The temporary.

The fleeting, fluffy feeling of being loved.

Even if it was only a ploy to get between her legs.