Page 21 of Chieftain (The Outlander Book Club… in Space! #1)

My fingers trembled against his skin, and I jerked them away.

Damn, this twenty-something body with all its urges!

Although, honestly, I couldn't remember being this lusty when I was twenty-something the first time.

Those years were spent up to my neck in books, studying while trying to pass law school and the bar exam.

I'd been cute but downplayed the fact to avoid the opposite sex.

My father was a cop and worked two jobs to put me through college—making him proud was the most important thing.

Other than my piece of crap ex, I only had one other serious boyfriend, and I didn't remember either of them making my body hum as Khaion did with a simple touch.

I focused on the wound, cleaned it thoroughly, and found something in the Medical kit that looked like a clear plastic Band-Aid to cover the area. Once adhered to the skin, the bandage transformed, edges sizzling as it melded to the wound.

“You are doing well. Were you a healer on Earth?" Khaion glanced over his shoulder, brow cocked.

"Healer," I snorted with a roll of my eyes. "No, but I raised two boys, so I know my way around a bandage. I was a prosecutor on Earth. I’ve put people in prison for doling out wounds far less serious than this.”

“Prosecutor?” He said the word slowly, tasting every syllable. A deep furrow grew between his bronze brows.

“Do you not know that word?” I guessed at his expression. Since Khaion's English came from study rather than an implanted translator, his vocabulary might be limited.

"I do." The broad, muscular shoulders tensed fractionally. I thought at first it was from the discomfort of the bandage melding to his flesh until he added, "Aren’t those who prosecute deemed evil on your world as on mine?”

My hands fell away from the ministrations to his wound.

Immediately there was an inch at my fingertips, a faint tingling sensation I knew would abate if I touched him again.

I clenched my hands into fists, ignoring the feeling, and focused instead on the idea that Khaion thought I was some kind of villain back on Earth.

“I think you’re thinking of persecute .” I guessed. “On Earth, a prosecutor works for the justice system and punishes criminals," I told him, replacing the Medical kit in the leather pack and taking a spot beside him on the bench.

"Ahhh." A look of relief flickered over his face. "I understand the difference now. “The gold eyes narrowed on me appraisingly. “So, you are a peacekeeper like me.”

“Sort of.”

Khaion stretched, the muscles in his back rippling. He still issued a grimace of pain, but it wasn’t as severe. “My back feels better, thank you.”

I'd never been one for self-deprecation, but his expression of gratitude, the way his golden eyes swept over me, and the smile that curved his lips made me squirm.

How he looked at me like I was a combination of priceless treasure and decadent dessert made my skin tingle.

It also made other things tingle, but I wasn't ready to admit that.

"You got stabbed protecting me. It was the least I could do," I said nonchalantly.

"It's not like I can charge the Kerzak with aggravated assault. "

Khaion shifted, which drew him nearer. He was in a relaxed pose—I was glad he didn't feel further discomfort. His broad, muscular chest looked inviting, and I could imagine sliding over a few inches to curl against him...

Good God, Emmy, get a grip!

“I am ashamed to admit, in my studies of your planet, I did not read much about your justice system—since in space, all are subject to Alliance law." At least Khaion didn't have his mind in the gutter like me.

“Well, on Earth, peacekeepers like you are called the police.” I crossed my arms as a signal to my body to behave.

“The police catch the bad guys, and my job as a prosecutor comes in afterward. Even the guilty can present their side of the story in our justice system. I work on the police side and argue that the bad guy should be in jail for their crimes.”

“You argue for your job?” One dark brow rose slowly.

“I guess you could put it like that.”

“And you received payment for it.”

“Yes, I did.”

“You must be very wealthy on Earth.”

My mouth fell, and I considered begin offended until I saw the twitch of full tan lips trying to suppress a smile.

Laughter bubbled out of me—a sound that encompassed my whole body. I couldn't remember the last time I laughed this deeply. “Did you just make a joke?”

Khaion’s smile widened, making him somehow more handsome. "I like to hear you laugh; it is musical.”

He likes to hear me laugh. This gorgeous Greek god of an alien who got stabbed trying to protect me from a talking grizzly bear likes to listen to me laugh.

"How are you not married…. Or mated?" I hadn't meant to ask the question aloud, but it was in the open now, and I honestly wanted to know.

The smile faded. “When a Vaktaire accepts a position as Earth guardian, we do so with the knowledge that our home world and the ability to find a mate is forever left behind."

"Wait a minute." I shook my head, making sure my ears were functioning. "You give up your home and the ability to find a wife… a mate, and a family to guard people you don’t know?”

Khaion nodded.

“That’s… that’s amazing." I was breathless, a wad of emotions I wasn't sure I wanted to untangle coiled around my heart.

A faint breeze stirred the curls about my face, and birdsong was distant and pleasing.

I knew it was fake, but I could pretend it was real.

I could pretend Khaion, and I were in our little garden of Eden. .. all alone.

“Our species is bred to protect the weak and innocent. There are few in the universe weaker than humans.” Golden eyes swimming in a sea of cobalt met and held mine.

He was so freakin sexy at that moment; my toes curled. Literally. The bending joints made my feet shift painfully in the leather boots.

“If you were on Earth, you would have a line of women trying to be your mate.” And I would hate every single one of them.

“Charick said he knows what you are doing when you compliment us –he calls it flirting." Now said gorgeous, sexy alien was trying to affect a pout—which was adorable.

"I'm being honest." I gestured down at my body and felt every point his eyes touched.

"I doubt my flirt muscle is what it used to be.

" His eyebrows shot up, and I countered with an eyebrow raise of my own.

True, I'd flirted with his council to get them to look for my friends, but that didn't count.

It was a means to an end that I'd gladly do again.

Besides, it wasn't that much flirting. I didn’t have to bat my eyelashes a single time.

"Didn't the Garoot Healer restore your flirt muscle?"

God. He was so stinking cute that I could hardly stand it!

"It's not a real muscle. Flirting is a behavior," I giggled. "I know it's hard to believe how I look now, but I'm sixty. I have two grown children and was married—mated for almost thirty years. So, I hadn't used my flirt muscle in a long time."

The hand lying atop the back of the bench lifted, and the tug of his fingertips on a strand of my hair tingled straight down to my vajayjay. "What did you look like before you went through the Garoot Healer?”

"Old," I snorted. "Old, and my hair was shorter.

" When I lifted a hand to indicate the top of my shoulders, he grimaced and buried his fingers deeper into my curls.

“I wasn't gray, but my hair was lighter, almost blonde, and I had wrinkles here and here.” My fingertips lit on the side of my mouth and eyes.

“My body wasn’t as pert and tight as it is now.

Gravity definitely took its toll." Especially on my boobs.

After nursing two children, Rick complained they looked like deflated balloons.

Not anymore. The boobies were as pert and sassy as ever.

It was almost a shame Rick couldn't see me post-alien.

I had exactly the type of body he liked now…

and when he wanted me, I could suggest he kiss my ass—and not in a good way.

Khaion watched me for a long minute; his features studied. "On Earth, were your eyes still this sparkling shade of green.”

“I guess,” I sputtered, and he smiled.

"Did your smile light up your face as it does now?" The hand that caressed my hair found its way to stroke along my jawline.

"I guess. Why?" My voice was breathless, and I felt Khaion’s warm breath wash against my cheeks, carrying a distinct scent of wine and dark chocolate. God! He not only looks delicious, but he smells that way too.

“Then you were still beautiful.”

His voice was husky, and the way his fingertips moved on the underside of my jaw, traveling to the curve of my neck, turned my bones the consistency of soggy jelly.

I’m not a teenage virgin with stars in her eyes.

I'm a grown-ass woman—mentally and emotionally, I'm practically a grandmother, for heaven's sake.

But this damn twenty-something body has a mind of its own… and only one thing on it.

Khaion.

I couldn't take my eyes off him, his thick bronze hair, golden suede skin, muscular body, and those eyes…

golden orbs swimming in a sea of cobalt.

I felt myself slide closer, magnetized by his presence.

It's been years since I had sex. Even in the last years of my marriage, sex with Rick was more duty than pleasure.

The gold in his eyes darkened when his gaze met mine, and I sighed despite myself.

I tried to ignore how the air around us thickened with moisture and heat.

My heart hammered in my chest to the point I felt dizzy.

I tried to ignore the way his gaze felt like a caress.

I definitely tried to ignore the urge to crawl into his lap, wrap myself around him and kiss him senselessly.