Riv's Sanctuary: A Sci-fi Alien Romance, A.G. Wilde [phonics reading books TXT] 📗

the one who bought a trafficked being. She’s coming back to you.” He cut his gaze toward the main room. “Better you take the female than those creeps at the exchange.”

“Y-you brought the human to the exchange? Y-you can’t. She’s prohibited goods. They could have caught her!”

Riv paused and blinked. “Right. I know that now. Thanks for the heads up, by the way.”

“She was smuggled in from a Class Four planet,” Geblit continued.

“Riv, I…Cargga will kill me if the human returns. I can’t keep her.”

“Well,” Riv let out a breath. “I can’t keep her, either.”

“What? Why?”

It became all too clear at that moment exactly what was happening to him.

After all this time alone, after all this time without contact, he’d thought he was stronger. He’d thought he could remain unaffected.

It was clear he’d been wrong.

Possibly, all the time alone had made him weak. Lack of contact with others hadn’t strengthened his resolve—it had created a vulnerability within his defenses.

Had he forgotten already? Had it been so easy for him to forget?

Life wasn’t rosy for him.

It had never been and it never would be.

Without a word, he ended the comm link.

Whatever this was that was happening to him, was why he had to nip it in the bud.

No more.

Lauren leaned against the kitchen counter.

She’d heard Riv on the comm unit with Geblit. Heard him telling the four-eyed male that he should come get her. Heard Geblit begging him not to bring her back.

Folding her arms across her chest, she looked at the cup of water she’d woken up to get.

From investment banker to outcast.

In one year, her life had changed so much.

She was trying her best, though. She’d worked all day and if she hadn’t proven it to him, she sure as hell had proven it to herself—she wasn’t a deadweight.

What the hell did Riv have against her, anyway? Was she really that offensive?

And maybe she was an idiot or something, because his constant displeasure with her should make her hate him. But she harbored no ill-feelings at all.

Instead, whenever he wasn’t wearing his shades and face-covering, she found it was difficult not staring at him. And even when he scowled, something told her the scowl was only a mask hiding something else.

He didn’t scare her.

If anything, he made her curious.

Tell her a year ago that she’d be thinking a big blue guy was attractive and she’d have been like “um, no.”

But the Scowlmaster was.

His piercing green eyes were like beacons against his blue skin.

When he wasn’t glowering at her, which was scarce to be honest, he had that intensity in his eyes that made a girl think about being beneath him. Those eyes would render her motionless while he did what he wanted to do to her body.

Yea…she was obviously ill.

Had being without anyone’s touch for a year made her this…needy that she’d take the first male that had been even mildly nice to her?

It was funny how needy she was.

Back on Earth, she hadn’t needed anyone. She’d been self-sufficient living on her own.

No boyfriend. A few girl friends.

She’d lived far from any blood relatives but she’d keep in contact when she could.

Point was, she’d never realized that she craved touch.

It must be a human thing.

Humans craved touch and, for one whole year, she’d had no one touch her in any real way.

Fast forward to now and suddenly there’s Riv.

She still had the memory of his strong hands against her when they’d gone to the market.

But it wasn’t just that. There was something about him that caught her attention and drew it. Like she was an ant and he was sugar.

Ha.

It seemed fate was going to mess with her, though, for after a year of wanting company, this was who she got.

He hated her. For reasons she didn’t know, he hated her.

Maybe he found her disgusting to look at? She didn’t know.

Still, she liked it at the Sanctuary. Spending the day with the animals had caused her to realize life could be good there.

Truth was, she didn’t want to leave.

Setting her shoulders, she clasped her hands, wincing slightly at the blisters that were forming there.

She’d just have to get used to them.

She’d rather deal with blisters than the alien dicks she’d seen at the market any day.

Easing off the counter, she headed to the bathroom.

She needed to urinate before bed and then she was going to collapse and sleep her worries away.

Tomorrow was a new day to make more mistakes.

23

It must have been tiredness or maybe she was just engrossed in her thoughts because she opened the door to the bathroom, stepping in without even knocking.

It took her only a second to realize what she’d done when her eyes fell on a glorious blue naked ass.

His glutes were taut, the firmness looking as if it was carved with precision.

There was a stump there too, at his tailbone, and her eyes fastened on it even as she heard a growl in the small space.

Before she could even think about where she was and what she was doing, Riv moved and she was against the wall, pressed into it by the sheer force of his presence.

“La-rehn,” he growled and it must be the steam in the room or something else but she was suddenly very hot. Her hands were clammy, and she was finding it hard to breathe.

He was naked. She’d walked in on his shower.

He was frickin’ naked and he was so close that the water covering his skin was making her clothes wet.

She could feel every muscle in his chest, even the muscles in his thighs and remembering her thoughts from earlier about this very position beneath him, Lauren swallowed hard.

“S-sorry. I—”

“I cannot even wash in peace? Must you permeate every inch of my space, my mind, my solitude?” Riv growled low, his face centimeters above hers.

Lauren swallowed again.

She didn’t know what he was talking about. She was only five foot seven.

She wasn’t permeating any space.

Did he have to be so intense?

For it was intense.

She could hardly