by Sue Mercury
Sweet Alien
(Reestrian Mates, Book 2)
by Sue Mercury
Copyright 2015 by Sue Mercury
All rights reserved
No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of Sue Mercury. All names, brands, characters, and settings, etc. are purely from the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to real people, real brands, and real locations is a coincidence. Contact: [email protected]
About this book:
Having sworn off all men after enduring an abusive marriage, Angie wants nothing to do with the huge aliens on the Raavika. Too bad it’s the only spaceship that will get her to Reestria in time for her friend Kira’s wedding.
When a Reestrian prince stops by her quarters, she takes one look at the tall muscular alien and faints. Except he’s there when she awakens and claims he senses her fear of men. He vows to protect her from the all-male crew, and though she knows she shouldn’t feel an attraction to him, she finds herself drawn to the powerfully massive alien hunk in every way.
Prince Joseph hasn’t desired a female since his mate died years ago, but just being in Angie’s presence has called up his long dormant mating urge. He can’t stop stroking her brilliant red hair, or staring into her gorgeous green eyes, or thinking about licking the cute freckles on her face. Then as the tension between them swells and his mating fever burns hot, a newly discovered race of aliens opens fire on their ship.
Even if she doesn’t choose to mate with him, Joseph plans to honor his vow to protect the beautiful human woman he yearns to claim…
Excerpt:
Joseph found he couldn’t force himself to leave her quarters. He wanted to spend every moment of this trip with Angie, and he wanted to know why she feared him. Or perhaps, he thought with a bit of clarity, it wasn’t just him she feared. Perhaps she feared all men. Male humans weren’t always honorable and from what Joseph had learned during his studies of Earth, it wasn’t uncommon for a male to be violent to a female, particularly a wife.
His gaze darted to her left hand and he spotted no wedding band, though her ring finger had a pale circle around it, as if she’d recently taken a ring off. She shifted on the bed and he sensed her heart beating wildly in her chest.
“Why did you faint, Angie?”
Her eyes widened and she glanced around the room for a while, until finally meeting his gaze again. She shrugged. “Space travel doesn’t agree with me, I guess.”
“I sense you are lying.” He stated this kindly, not at all angry she hadn’t confided in him. But oh how he wished she would trust him.
“Yeah, well, I don’t know you and you sort of just let yourself into my room. I’m feeling better now.” She blinked rapidly after a sheen of moisture appeared in her eyes. “How did I get in this bed anyway?” Fear tinged her voice.
“I caught you before you fell and carried you here. I also summoned a doctor who told me you had a panic attack and fainted, and he said you would awake soon. He also said you might be weak after you regain consciousness.”
“I’m not weak!” As soon as she yelled the words, she clamped a hand over her mouth and her expression became a mixture of fear and regret. When she uncovered her mouth, she said, “I’m sorry I yelled at you. Please don’t be angry. I’m sorry. Can you just leave me alone now? Please?” She retreated to the other side of the bed.
“I cannot leave you alone, Angie. I find I do not have the strength to leave this room.” His nostrils flared as he inhaled her intoxicating female scent. Flowers and grassy meadows and fresh air. He wanted to bury his face in her hair and her neck, all the while running his hands over every inch of her body. And he still wanted to lick her freckles.
Her lower lip trembled. “Wh-what do you mean?”
“I will protect you. You are afraid of all males, yes? The Reestrians and the human men on this ship?”
She exhaled a shaky breath and regarded him with suspicion. “How do you know that?”
“I sense your fear, sweet one. I believe you fainted because my maleness scares you, but I promise on my life I would never harm you. You are the dear friend of my brother’s mate, and I will stay with you during the trip to Reestria, and then I will personally deliver you to my family’s home where your friend’s human wedding ceremony is to take place.”
“Why do your eyes keep changing color?”
He froze and met her nervous stare. There was only one reason why.
His mating urge was coming upon him.
Chapter One
Angie stared out the window of her private quarters aboard the massive Reestrian spaceship, the Raavika. At any moment they would be leaving Earth behind, and nerves fluttered in her stomach at the thought. She had heard tales of Reestrian space folding technology, and although Kira, her childhood friend who had mated with a Reestrian from the Galattak Clan, promised their method of space travel was safe, that didn’t calm the worries whirling through her head.
She supposed she should be happy right now. She was one of few humans to be granted passage to Reestria. Most of her friends back in Florida envied her little adventure, but aside from her apprehension over space travel, she felt unsettled around the immensely tall Reestrians.
They looked human enough, but man oh man were they huge, and the knowledge that they experienced some sort of primal mating urge that bonded them to their females for life… well that scared the bejesus out of her.
She used to think marriage was for life, that wedding vows were sacred and never meant to be broken, yet the ink on her divorce papers was still wet.
A shudder ran through her and ice filled her veins as her ex-husband’s angry blue eyes flashed in her mind. She would have to change apartments once she returned to Earth. Greg had somehow tracked her down and had been leaving threatening notes on her doorstep. Again. For all the trouble she’d gone to obtaining a restraining order, it had done her little good. He kept finding her, and he kept harassing her, and he had promised to make her pay if she reported him to the police.
Perhaps she should’ve filed a police report each and every time he came within a hundred feet of her or left a note on her doorstep, but she had been too afraid of his reaction once he made bail. He had plenty of money to spend on bail and fancy lawyers, while she was barely scraping by. At least he wouldn’t be able to bother her during her time on Reestria. She smiled at that thought, and some of the coldness left her.
She tried to visualize her future once she returned to Earth. She definitely needed to leave Florida. She wished she could stay with her parents in Ohio, but that would be an obvious place for Greg to find her. Plus the more she thought about it, she didn’t really want to live with her parents. They had offered her a room, but they’d done so reluctantly after repeatedly suggesting she try to work things out with Greg.
Work things out, my ass.
Her parents had never seen the damage Greg could inflict after flying into one of his rages, and her mother once quipped, ‘it’s not like he’s ever put you in the hospital.’ That little comment had burned in her mind for weeks and Angie frankly didn’t understand why she hadn’t cut ties with her parents after that.
They were her parents. Weren’t they supposed to protect her? Weren’t they supposed to take her side over Greg’s? He’d beaten her brutally countless times, even knocking her unconscious and leaving her so bruised she had to call into work for a week. She’d been too afraid of what he might do if she went to the hospital. By some miracle he’d never left her with a broken bone, though his cruel verbal attacks had left her feeling utterly shattered inside.
There were days she still couldn’t believe the man who�
�d once seemed so charming and loving was actually a monster. Greg hadn’t shown her his malicious side until after they were married and living far away from her parents. She used to berate herself for marrying him so quickly and getting trapped in a horrible relationship, but she’d finally moved beyond the embarrassment and the immense guilt she used to feel on a daily basis. She refused to berate herself for one more second when she didn’t deserve an ounce of the blame.
As she leaned against the window and stared at Earth, she came to the life-altering decision to cut all ties with her parents. Their treatment of her during her abusive marriage was almost as unforgivable as the abuse itself. They had always worshiped the ground Greg walked on, and they continued to do so even though he wasn’t their son-in-law anymore.
Suddenly it felt as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She could breathe a hundred times easier.
Now she just had to get through her trip to Reestria and avoid Reestrian males as much as possible. After confessing her trepidation about spending time around the large aliens to Kira, her friend arranged for her to have private quarters on the spaceship even though the trip to Reestria wouldn’t take more than an hour once they completed the first space fold. Except she’d been in this room for two hours already and she still had a clear view of Earth from her window.
Why hadn’t they departed yet? Unease spread through her. What if they had a technical problem? What if something bad happened and she ended up stuck on this spaceship for days? About a dozen other humans were traveling to Reestria too, but they were all government officials who knew one another. Men, all of them.
Her heart pounded. This was a mistake. A horrible mistake. She was the only woman on this ship with dozens of Reestrian males and a dozen human males. A wave of dizziness assaulted her and she stumbled to a nearby chair and gripped the back of it for support.
She touched her head as black spots dotted her vision, and she blinked hard and fought to stay conscious, hoping her panic attack would pass quickly. Fuck, she was about to swoon and all because she couldn’t turn her brain off and quit thinking about Greg and those ridiculously large Reestrians.
A noise sounded behind her and she spun around, her eyes wide and her pulse quickening as her terror deepened. A light above the door flashed and she heard the noise again, a ringing sound that could only be a doorbell.
She tried to speak but the words became stuck in her throat. Her mouth went completely dry. Ring ring ring. The light kept flashing. Ring ring ring. Whoever it was they were persistent. She took two steps toward the door but froze when it whooshed open.
The tallest Reestrian she’d ever seen stood there with his gaze riveted on her.
If she could’ve taken in air, she would’ve gasped.
Instead, her panic and dizziness escalated, the walls started closing in, and she began slipping to the floor as blackness consumed her.
* ~ * ~ *
Joseph rushed forward and caught the petite human woman in his arms. He lifted her and peered down at her with concern. As he carried her to the bed, he summoned a doctor through the ship’s comm system. He placed her atop the covers and smoothed her wild red curls from her face.
But instead of backing away and waiting for the doctor, he kept a strand of her soft hair between his fingers and stroked the silky lock as he gazed at her. Though her eyes had only been open for a second before she’d collapsed, he’d glimpsed the most unique shade of green he’d ever seen in a human or a Reestrian. And her hair. He couldn’t stop staring at it, or touching it. Everything about her was unique and soft and feminine.
Who was this female who meant so much to Kira that the new princess had refused to have her human wedding ceremony until her Earth friend arrived on Reestria to bear witness? All Joseph knew about her was that her name was Angie, and she had refused the language chip that had been offered to her when she arrived on the ship, before she made a hasty escape to the private quarters Kira had arranged for her rather than join the other humans in the passenger section near the bridge.
Had she fainted because of his arrival in her quarters? Or was she ill?
His gaze traveled the length of her body. She wore a modest but pretty light blue dress that fell just below her knees. The neckline of the dress was high, though tight enough for him to glimpse the outline of her full, large breasts. Freckles covered her arms and most of her face, and he found himself wanting to lick each and every tiny spot.
The doctor strode into the room with a medical bag, interrupting his unexpected lustful thoughts, and immediately set about scanning Angie.
“Did you find her passed out, Prince Joseph?”
“No. She passed out after I arrived at her quarters. I rang the bell several times but she didn’t answer, so I opened the door to see her standing in the middle of the room. Then she collapsed. Is she sick? Will she be all right? I needn’t remind you this woman is a dear friend of Princess Kira.”
The doctor performed several more scans before putting away his medical equipment and giving Joseph a pointed look. Joseph had known the doctor for years and trusted the elderly Reestrian, and he was now grateful for his presence on the Raavika.
“She’ll be fine. It appears she had what humans call a panic attack. It’s rare to faint from a panic attack, but this human woman did. She will wake shortly and might feel weak, but she must remain calm. I trust you’ll see to it that she stays relaxed.”
“Why did she have a panic attack?” Joseph tucked a strand of her brilliant red hair behind her ear.
“She was afraid of something. She could’ve been thinking about something fearful, or perhaps your arrival in her room terrified her.”
It was hard not to take offense to the doctor’s diagnosis, but Joseph didn’t argue. Perhaps this little human still wasn’t used to the idea of aliens existing and working closely with humans. There had been a mass panic on Earth after the American president announced the existence of Reestrians.
He hoped once she spent some time around him she wouldn’t be so frightened anymore. He also wanted her to open those gorgeous green eyes of hers again so he could peer into her soul for longer than one second, and he wanted to know her fears and help her conquer every last one of them.
He swallowed hard and backed away from the bed. What was happening to him? He hadn’t felt an attraction to a female in years. Not since his mate died.
“Are you all right?”
Joseph glanced to the doctor. “Yes, I am fine.”
But he wasn’t fine. He was suddenly sweltering in his uniform.
“I needn’t remind you, Prince Joseph, that experiencing your mating urge a second time in your life is much different than the first time. It comes almost without warning, and you must consummate with a female soon, sometimes the very day it occurs, lest The Madness claim you. Can I scan you?”
“I know all of this,” Joseph said, his agitation rising. “No, you may not scan me. I am fine. You are dismissed, doctor.”
The elderly Reestrian stood, picked up his bag, and walked to the door. But before he left the room, he said, “I suggest you locate an acceptable female mate upon our return to Reestria.”
Joseph’s hands curled into fists as he watched the doctor leave. A wave of guilt descended upon him. Geeia. She’d been gone for so long and he was so lonely, but he hadn’t ever thought he’d recover from the shock and pain of losing his dear mate. She had died of a rare illness not long after they first mated, but at the time he’d felt like his soul had been violently ripped from him.
Yet now as he gazed upon the slight human female with the hair like fire, he felt long dormant urges struggling to rise within him.
Lust and tenderness and a fierce desire to protect Angie.
Too bad the woman he wanted feared him so much she’d fainted after setting eyes on him. He unclenched his fists and sat on the edge of the bed, deciding to keep vigil until she awoke. He had to make sure she was all right. He couldn’t just leave her alone.
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He wondered how long until the Raavika’s repairs were complete. If his mating urge came on before they reached Reestria, this little human would be his only option. While he felt like swooping her up in his arms and carrying her to his private quarters, he refused to frighten her so. She would awake only to faint on him again.
Before he had time to ponder what to do with this beautiful female any further, her striking green eyes fluttered open and immediately locked with his.
He held his hands up in a human gesture of surrender and gave her a warm smile. “I won’t hurt you. I promise on my honor to protect you and deliver you to your friend, Princess Kira, once we reach Reestria. Please do not be afraid, Angie.” He liked the feel of her name on his lips and he ached to say it again, but he kept his distance and held his tongue as he awaited her response.
She sat up against the pillows and looked at him hesitantly. The strand of hair he’d tucked behind her ear fell loose and brushed across her cheek. “Who are you and what are you doing in my room?”
“I am Prince Joseph, the oldest brother of Prince Alex, the one who is mated to your friend Princess Kira.”
“Okayyyy… but what are you doing in my room?”
“The Raavika’s propulsion system needs repaired, and we cannot complete the first space fold until we are a certain distance from Earth. It may take a few hours, and I wanted to make sure you were aware of the situation. It’s nothing to be alarmed about, we will still reach Reestria in time for the human wedding ceremony.”
“Oh.” She looked like she wanted to say more. In fact, she looked as if a thousand questions rested on her tongue, but she remained quiet. An uncomfortable silence stretched between them. When she didn’t ask why he had a human name, as most humans on Earth had after first meeting him, he supposed she’d heard that human names had been ever popular on Reestria for years. He wondered exactly how much she knew about his kind.
