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Damn him and those long, muscly, not-at-all-potato-y legs.

“You could have waited for me,” he said on a quiet growl.

“I promise you, I wasn’t going to break my butt,” I sighed. “Can we get over this already? I am fully capable of jumping out of a wagon.”

“Your previous jump did not assure me of that.”

“That’s because your big foot was in the way!”

Warden Tenn inhaled swiftly, and looked like he was gearing up for some sassy reply, when the door to the cabin was flung open and a grinning, orange-limbed, blond-haired Fallon appeared.

“Welcome to our home!” Fallon called as the warden and I approached. Silar was unhitching the shuldu from the wagon, and Cherry appeared to be chatting his ear off about something as he quietly worked.

“Thank you, Fallon,” I said crisply. I wasn’t going to let his Old-Earth golden retriever act derail me. I’d already gone all mushy about Silar’s obvious devotion to Cherry and had basically already given him a pass. I needed to be alert to anything amiss. Darcy deserved it.

“There’s food!” Fallon said, grinning widely. “The warden told me you were on your way!”

Food. Oh, man. Food sounded really good right about now. Maybe that’s why I was so freaking hung up on potatoes a minute ago.

“Are they here?” came Darcy’s voice from somewhere behind the bulky body of her husband.

“Yes!” Fallon stepped out of the way, revealing a tidy sort of mudroom with a broom and a few spare tools and nicknacks that I didn’t recognize but that I could only assume were of great importance to an alien cowboy. Beyond the mudroom,another open door showed a bright and cozy kitchen. Savoury scents drifted out. As Fallon turned and bounded ahead into the kitchen, my mouth watered, and my stomach tightened.

Then, God help me, it growled.

I should have known better than to bother hoping the warden hadn’t heard it. Cherry hadn’t exaggerated about their hearing. And, frankly, even a human with ear plugs in probably would have heard my stomach just now.

“Did you just… growl at me?” the warden asked in astonishment. He’d apparently removed his hat a moment ago, and he held it in his claws now as he stared down at me, his sleek white eyebrows raised.

“I didn’t!” I protested, heat pouring through my cheeks. “My stomach did!”

“Yourstomachgrowled at me?” His intense orange eyes made an agonizing exploration down my neck, to my breasts, to my belly. Where it stayed.

“Stop that,” I cried.

“Stop what?” he asked, still staring at my stomach. I wondered if he could see the way it swooped so sharply beneath his gaze.

“Stop looking at me!”

“I am trying to ascertain,” he said grumpily – grumpily! The nerve of this man! – “why your stomach does not like me.” His gaze returned to my face, set and serious. “Do any other parts of you have a problem with me?”

I opened my mouth to tell him that oh, yes, other parts of me had a problem with him. Starting with my brain, thank you very much.

But, unfortunately, some other parts of me had decided to stage a mutiny of the highest order. My heart, nipples, and, Jesus fucking Christ, the tingling place between my legs,apparently had no problem at all with the swaggering, orange-eyed warden.

I glared hatefully at him, trying to remind my body that I was in charge and the warden was a lying… liar pants. He never told me about the histories of the men here. He didn’t even apologize for withholding that information from me. He was a scoundrel of the highest order, and he…

He had the cutest fucking ears I’d ever seen.

I gaped, forgetting the embarrassment of my stomach’s growling and the righteous anger I harboured for my body as it dared to feel any sort of attraction to this male.

“What is it?” he asked, appearing for the first time ever-so-slightly uneasy.

Yeah, not so nice when someone stares at you like you’re an alien. Now is it, Warden?

“Excuse me,” I said, trying to recover some semblance of professionalism. “I just wasn’t expecting your ears.”

The ears in question twitched. Holy Terra. They were so… perky! And round! Cutie-patootie little Old-Earth mousie ears!