Page 22 of Alien Jeopardy (Mated & Afraid #1)

CHAPTER

TWENTY-ONE

Ellison

The effort to keep from laughing makes my shoulders shake. I bite my cheeks but as he prances around, head bobbing, I can’t help it.

A laugh peals out of me, and then I’m lost to it, wheezing.

A mating dance?!

A mating dance.

He thought me miming what I was saying to him, acting it out, was a mating dance. It shouldn’t be so damned cute, but he’s so earnest about the whole ridiculous thing.

I cackle, going limp with laughter.

It’s nice to feel something besides horny and scared. Rex smiles at me, then lets out a laugh of his own, joining in until we’re both breathless from laughing.

“Come on,” I tell him, wiping an errant tear from my eye. “Let’s get cleaned up and eat.”

He nods, and I take his offered hand as I get up from the weird chair, feeling lighter all over.

Maybe this whole thing isn’t as dramatic or ridiculous as I’ve worked it up to be in my head. We’re just two people, er, a human and a Draegon, partnered up in a reality show. And they want us to fall in love.

That’s not so different than my favorite Earth reality TV shows. It’s just like… a weird mix of World’s Most Eligible and those awful survival shows where they force contestants to eat half-gestated eggs while they get eaten alive by tropical bugs.

This isn’t so bad.

I grin as Rex opens the door to a sumptuous spa-like bathroom.

As I sink into the hot water a few moments later, alone and finally getting clean, I can’t help thinking that we got this.

It’s gonna all work out.

It only takes me about a day to regret thinking that.

Famous. Last. Words.