Page 10 of Kailirex (Brides of the Mylos #6)

CHAPTER 10

STELLA

When the rear door opened and the two Mylos we were mated to made their appearance, all I could do was stare. I’d seen posters of them my entire life, watched tall human actors portray them, and seen actual Mylos in news clips and so on. I’d never seen one in person until now though, despite some of them visiting the city for business and tourism. I’d known they were big. But somehow, I realized I'd been caught in one of those moments where I had seriously misjudged just how large they were.

“Objects in the rear view mirror may be larger than they appear,” I said faintly, paraphrasing.

My brother snorted. “Yea. I have a feeling Jack Reacher would look short next to them.”

I nodded numbly, hell, these guys made Loris look small and he had a good foot over Eric. It wasn’t just their physical size either, that was intimidating. They had a presence about that that made them seem well, larger than life.

“Hello, Stella,” Kalirex said in a growly voice that melted my panties right off of me.

“H…hi.”

“And helllooooo there,” Eric said in the most flirtatious voice I’d ever heard him use. “You must be Piloris, and I’m Eric. He took a step forward towards Piloris, whose own deep voice rumbled something or other. I didn’t notice what was being said because all my attention was riveted on the god of a man who’d stalked right over to me.

He raised his hand to my cheek, the back of his fingers hovering just above my cheek. Oh, yeah, please. I definitely wanted his hands on me. I leaned into his touch and I heard us both sigh in satisfaction.

“Your picture did not do you justice,” he said. “You are magnificent.”

I stared up at him in amazement. Those mating pheromones had definitely messed with his mind. Me, magnificent? I was all of five foot two inches, had wide hips and a butt too big for my skinny legs, and my boobs were at least one bra and cup size too small to help me look at least symmetrical. And my hair was plain old brown. Maybe he really liked my eyes? They were a nice shade of blue, I’d always thought, which is why I always wore sapphire blue mascara to make them really pop.

His hand dropped as his expression grew suddenly stern. “I can see you do not believe me.”

“I think you’re seeing me through mating fogged glasses.”

He shook his head at me. “My skin has barely begun to heat and itch. What I see is you. Unafraid to come as yourself, proud, and despite looking at me as if I was intimidating when I first entered, willing to trust me enough to get close and touch you.”

Well, hell, what did a gal say to that? I went with, “Okay.”

He snorted. “I’ll convince you that you are the most desirable female in the universe to me.”

Yup, definitely mating pheromones and all that jazz but hello, it was what I’d signed up for. Perfect matches, so yeah, I really probably was his favorite flavor of catnip. Alien-nip. Whatever. He certainly was more than a tall drink of water for me, too. He was an entire chilled pitcher of the world’s finest margarita.

“Is that all you two brought with you?” I heard Piloris say right next to me, startling me. I hadn’t even been aware of him and my brother moving in so close after Eric had crossed the distance to greet him.

“Yes, just the two suitcases. In case we didn’t get matched, we didn’t want to be hauling a bunch of stuff.”

I laughed. “Though we also packed up half the apartment, just in case.”

Piloris chuckled. “I see. Well, if Loris will give us the keys to one of the vehicles, we can take it to your apartment and bring anything you want especially right away. Tomorrow a crew will come down and arrange to bring everything up.”

“Of course,” Loris said, opening a desk drawer and passing him a key fob.

“Excellent. We’ll be a couple of hours as we promised our pilot that we’d all go with him to get hot dogs.”

“You did?” Eric asked, looking and sounding as surprised as I felt about the revelation.

“Yes, he’s a fan of food trucks and stands and heard about a hot dog cart in Central Park that apparently has the best hot dogs in New York.”

“You mean Billy’s?’ I asked.

Now it was their turn to look surprised.

“You’ve heard of it?” Kailirex asked me.

“Hell, yeah. He’s famous.”

“If we’re going to the apartment to grab a few boxes and then to Central Park, it’ll be more like four or five hours with traffic,” Eric said, looking dismayed.

“Well, I packed my essentials and can wait until tomorrow for everything else,” I declared.

“Same.” he glanced at his mate. “Can we still go get some hot dogs, though? Something hot and filled with protein sounds good after nothing but coffee, donuts, and water.”

Piloris looked at Kailirex who nodded.

“How long do you think it will take now?” Piloris asked Eric.

“If we go straight there, eat, and come back. Max of an hour, hour and a half if we take our time eating. You know people are going to stare at Kailirex for being green, right?”

I licked my lips nervously. Maybe going to get hot dogs was not such a great idea after all.

“How about we eat once we get up to the Fleet?” I asked nervously.

“Would you prefer to wait with me in the shuttle?” Kailirex asked, his tone gentle.

I nodded. “After everything that’s gone on recently, yes. Most people will be surprised, because no one has ever mentioned or shown that Mylos can be green, but won’t be mean about it, just curious. But there are some who will be nasty and with Humans First being so active and some of the ones who did that kidnapping still on the loose-”

He bent down and pressed his lips to mine, silencing me.