Alien Romance: Stranded With The Alien Assassin: Scifi Alien Abduction Romance (Alien Romance, Alien Invasion Romance, BBW) (Celestial Mates Book 3) (6 page)

He paused. “What, you mean ‘us’ like you and me?” D’Anil asked. When she nodded a second time, the man scoffed. “Who said I was going with you?”

“So I’m supposed to navigate through the desert by myself?” Jayne asked incredulously. When he’d given his “permission” to let her run away, she thought that meant he was going to help her. She cursed herself for being that surprised, for forgetting what he did for a living and who he was.

“Oh, and I’m supposed to risk my life for you? You getting home is not my problem.”

Jayne stood up from the table. “
You
brought us here! So, yeah, it is your problem!”

D’Anil didn’t stand up with her, like she expected he would. She expected him to try and overpower her, intimidate her. And, well, he did, but somehow he managed to do it while still seated and dipping bread into soup.

“Are all the humans on Earth actually this whiny?” D’Anil asked, sounding bored, “Your planet has a reputation, but I was willing to be a little open-minded.” His bread was dripping with broth, dribbling into his beard as he finished it off. After cleaning himself up with the napkin, he stood up slowly, pushed his chair in, and looked at his dish expectantly. Jayne flushed with heat as she remembered this was the time where she would take it to the sink.

“You’re just as bad as the rest of them, aren’t you?” she asked, egging him on. She shouldn’t have, she knew. Truthfully, Jayne was a little scared of pushing him too far. Because if she did, he could take it all back. He could make her stay. Or even worse, she could end up like Meta…
No, he’s not like that
, she thought to herself reassuringly,
The worst he’ll do is gag me
.

When she didn’t take his dishes, he walked over with them to the sink. “I’m a different breed from them, Jayne,” D’Anil answered slowly, then turned around to look at her, leaning against the counter, “I’m not one of your damn smugglers, so you can toss whatever revenge plot out that you have for me.”

She shook her head. “I don’t
have
a revenge plot.” It was a lie. She had one. But it wasn’t like what he was implying. Jayne intended to be the one laughing at her abusers in the end, though it involved just a little more patience. And a way to get off the damn planet. “I just want to go home.” Jayne paused crossing her arms and switching her wait to her left hip. “And if you’re not a smuggler, then
what
are you?”

“Just… Not a smuggler.”

“Why were you with us then?”
Who are you
? It wasn’t the first time she silently asked D’Anil this. He was private, never giving up much of his details. Jayne didn’t know him any more than she knew him at the auction, not about his past anyways.

She knew little things, like his morning routine. How he was an early riser and moved so quietly as he got ready for his day that she never heard him, only saw him.

Jayne knew what he liked to drink and was even beginning to tell just how strong to make it based on the expression he wore when he finally sat down to try and relax at home. But she didn’t
know
D’Anil. She knew nothing of his past or his family, hardly even of his friends besides the couple at the auction. He was a stranger, and he was right. He really didn’t owe her anything.

The brown-haired man followed her posture and crossed his own arms. “Consider it security detail.”

“You’d be perfect, then, for helping us!”

“Yeah, but you’re not paying me, are you?”

Jayne pursed her lips.
Right
. There was one thing she knew. D’Anil liked money. Well, he liked
making
money. His apartment was nice, but it was nothing extravagant. And he rarely went out to eat,
never
socialized with anyone, be it co-workers or family or friends. It wasn’t because he was poor though. He just never did anything with his wealth.

“How much?” she asked.

Amused, D’Anil smirked. “More than you could afford.”

Jayne tried her question again. “
How. Much
?”

His smirk died as he looked at the seriousness in her eyes. Suddenly interested, his body straightened, hands dropping to his sides. D’Anil pursed his lips in thought, while Jayne tried to maintain eye contact instead of looking at the way his lips puckered. She’d had a hard time with that for the past month, not staring at his mouth, and she needed to focus now. He exhaled through his nose. “1,000 imdallions,” he said, “That’s what they paid me to do the job in the first place.”

“Who?”

“No questions,” D’Anil replied, now looking more serious than Jayne did, “If I do this, you don’t get to ask any questions.” After all, it was going to be the only way that his planet still ended up being saved. He was never the one to play politics, but he told himself that in this situation, it had to happen.

“Fine.” She extended her hand out. “Shake on it, and it’s a deal.” She didn’t know how she would get the money for him, or even how much imdallions were in comparison to a U.S. dollar. But there would have to be some reward money, surely, for helping them out.
If he
does
help us out
, Jayne thought,
Just because he’s not a smuggler doesn’t make him any better. He still helped
herd
a bunch of women through a desert just for cash
.

Something flickered across his face. Jayne thought it was confusion, thinking maybe it was just that shaking hands wasn’t a Drunae tradition on deal-making. But she’d seen people shake hands at the marketplace. Still, there was something… Confused, almost. If she didn’t know any better, she’d say he looked wounded. “You’re getting what you want, aren’t you?” she asked, “Money?”

He took her hand and shook firmly, both ignoring the urge to pull the other closer. “Fine, it’s a deal,” D’Anil said resolutely, “I’m going to bed. We’ll get your friend in the morning,” he said resolutely, retiring to his bedroom. The door slammed shut behind him before Jayne’s motor mouth could even try to argue with him some more.

She just stood there in the kitchen, the pot of soup still on the stove and the dishes in the sink. There was something changing about their relationship now, and Jayne wasn’t sure if she liked it. As fake as it was, they had had a dynamic before.

One that was almost like friends. Now they were business partners, and the part of her that was actually truly interested in getting to know D’Anil could feel any chances of getting behind that façade of his slipping away.

Chapter Six

He told her to dress nice, that she would need to blend in. “And you
can’t
talk,” D’Anil advised, “You’re a slave. That means-“

“That I don’t matter and I don’t have an opinion?” she offered, finishing for him. He sighed as they stood in her bedroom, him leaning against the doorframe with a look of disapproval. Jayne smiled softly. “I was kidding. I did fine when we went to the market, didn’t I?”

They had several trips to the market, and each one turned out fine. At least, there was nothing that Jayne could see went wrong, no funny looks. In fact, people hardly looked at her, which D’Anil explained to her at the time as them trying not to acknowledge what she was, an illegal import. They just kept their eyes on him, their smiles directed at
him
.

“Taking a politician’s slave is different than
buying
tonight’s groceries,” D’Anil replied dryly.

Jayne pursed her lips, running her hands over her dark blue dress, liking the feel of the cool, silky fabric. There were shorts on beneath it, something more suitable for running through a desert. D’Anil told her to dress for function beneath, but to try to look as pretty as a trophy wife on the surface.

Unlike him, who always wore leathers, and he hardly groomed his hair back or combed through his beard. He looked more than ready to travel through a desert. In fact, it looked like he already had. “
This is what’s normal for me
,” he explained when she first questioned it.

“You know, I’m going to find out whoever it is that bought her. You won’t be able to hide that from me when we get there.”

“Yeah, we’ll see about that,” D’Anil mumbled.

Jayne smirked softly. There was a vehemence in his tone, and she didn’t doubt that he would try to conceal it as best as he could. Is that what made him as terrible as the rest of them? The fact that he tried to hide their crimes, that he helped them and would let it continue if he could?

It was hard to condemn D’Anil while he was helping her, but she had to keep something straight in her mind, her promise to Sophie to get everyone out of this and to punish those that made them go through it in the first place. Whether it was his friend, an ex-lover, or a family member, the only thing that mattered was that he was protecting them.

She slipped on her shoes, simple slippers. D’Anil told her not to pack an extra pair. It would only be two or three days of a trip to the abandoned military base, where they were headed. And the light fabric would do her well in the hot sand. Once finished, Jayne walked to the door where he leaned, their eyes meeting. The woman tilted her head down to her outfit. “Do I get the ‘okay’?” she asked.

D’Anil straightened, looking over Jayne’s appearance, to make sure her traveling clothes were well-hidden, and that what she was wearing would be good enough for what they were planning to. She found herself almost embarrassed under his gaze, as business-like as it was supposed to be.

Her mind wandered briefly to the fact that this was still more of her body than he’d seen when they spent the night by the fire. Her white gown then had been so boxy and unattractive, like a hospital gown. This dress fit much more to her curves, the high waist accentuating her breasts and the hem falling gracefully over her backside and down to mid-thigh.

It was also sleeveless, unlike her last dress, and as she watched his brown eyes move down to the hem, following up to her hands that played with the end of the fabric, all the way back up to her shoulders and exposed collarbone, Jayne wondered if he was thinking the same thing too. Or if he could see that her skin was starting to flush.

He didn’t say anything for a long moment, before giving a single nod. “You’ll do fine. If you can remember the ‘no talking’ thing.”

Jayne rolled her eyes and shoved past him.

Dlahik was a beautiful city, if someone based it purely off the underground part. And if they didn’t know the things that Jayne did about this place, how corrupt and vicious it truly was. The streets were cramped and crooked, like the old cobbled streets Jayne read about hundreds of years ago in Europe. Her feet carefully avoided any cracks or breaks in the stone, trying not to trip, and she watched as the locals, including D’Anil, moved about with complete ease.

To make it even harder, since they were underground, it always looked like it was nighttime. The lanterns hanging on the tall lamp posts did their best to illuminate the streets, people even hanging lights from their doors to help further.

“Keep your eyes on the ground,” D’Anil ordered, his voice low. They stood close together so as not to lose one another, and he kept a protective hand pressed against the small of her back to guide her. He had always done it before, the times they’d been out in public, but that was to stop her from escaping.

Now they were both on the same page, him helping her with doing just that. Jayne didn’t know if he was doing it for show or if he simply was used to doing it by now.

“Why?” she asked, looking at him instead, but he stayed staring straight ahead, like he’d never said anything at all.

But she could hear the building irritation in his voice when she didn’t listen to him. “Because you’re a slave and you’re beneath everyone here. So act like it.”

The words stung. Even when she knew she was just playing pretend, it felt degrading to listen to him, to look down at her feet and the broken pavement of the street, and not because she was watching her step, but because she was ordered to do it, because no one thought her good enough to look at
them
. “I don’t remember your friend’s slave having to look down in the auction house,” Jayne muttered, her eyes lowering.

“Phreema?” D’Anil asked, still so quiet that only she could hear. Did people think that masters didn’t engage in conversation with their slaves? Or was it normal practice just for her to wait in his bed with her legs open for him at all hours of the day? “She’s not a slave. She was- isn’t anymore. Kani freed her.”

“From who?” He made a low noise in his throat, a growl. Jayne sighed.
No questions
, she reminded herself. “Sorry.”

She couldn’t see his face, but she felt him tap her back lightly. Whether it was as reassurance or as a reminder of there being a punishment, she couldn’t say. “Just stay quiet. We’re almost there.”

The lower half of the capitol building was much different than the top half. In fact, she had seen it before, when she first entered the city. It was the thin, glass tube that would take them to the giant pyramid.

As they got closer, she tried to get a better look through the glass of the shaft itself, but never saw anything. Not before she was caught with her eyes off the ground, D’Anil tilting her head back down with another warning. Now that they were in the lion’s den, he was even more adamant that she play her part as an already-claimed lamb, him as her lion.

Walking through a set of doors, the two entered an elevator-like contraption. It made more noise than Jayne was used to, though, the pulley system running on metal chains instead of the strong cables and cords that made for a smoother ride. Instinctually, her fingers grasped onto D’Anil’s forearm, nails digging into his warm skin. He looked down at her. “Don’t have these on Earth?”

“We do,” she replied through grit teeth, “Just… A little less bumpy.”

She could hear the smirk in his voice. “Well, we’re only going up a few more floors.” Jayne didn’t let go of him the entire way, a breath of relief escaping her as the contraption lurched to a stop. “We’re here. I really mean it this time. Be quiet, look at the ground, and don’t go poking your nose around, got it?”

Jayne nodded just as the doors opened. He moved his arm away from her hands and put it back around her waist possessively. She kept her eyes concentrated on the floors. It was dark, no indication of what time it was outside. The pyramid above-ground didn’t shimmer at all.

In fact, it looked like the only thing unaffected by the sun, still stuck in darkness even as the beams hit it. She tried to get a good indicator of what room she was in, how many floors she had gone up, to try and narrow down where she was, but she’d lost count as soon as that elevator started to shake, and even now, she wasn’t able to see anything.

D'Anil left her side. She could hear him talking to someone and only lifted her gaze slightly. He was talking to a pretty blonde sitting behind a desk. It was the same blonde that had taken Sophie down from the stage at the auction.

The way she looked at D’Anil made Jayne feel uneasy. It was like she was asking him for something,
begging
, and he wouldn’t oblige her. Was she in love with him? If she was, what did the receptionist think of
her
? Just as she thought it, the woman looked over at her, and Jayne immediately cast her eyes back down.

“Is that… One of them?” she asked him, as if Jayne was some sort of weird science project.

“It doesn’t matter,” he answered gruffly, “I asked you where he was.”

The blonde shook her head, “I just… I didn’t think you… You were interested in that market, D’Anil,” she tried to explain. Her voice sounded so nervous that Jayne almost pitied her. But there was also this unexplained hatred for her, purely by the fact that she thought she knew him.

Jayne had only known him for a month, and she would never go so far as to say she knew D’Anil. But she knew enough about him, enough that she knew no one would ever truly get to the bottom of him and his mind. He was too withdrawn, and he liked it that way. “After all, you don’t like when women stay-“

“Amara, is he in or is he not?” D’Anil interrupted. Jayne smiled to herself with satisfaction.
See
? she mentally asked the woman behind the desk,
It’s all business with him
. She couldn’t blame the girl, though, remembering when she’d watched his eyes rove over her and feeling that same feeling, that she meant something, or was something. That he actually
liked
having his eyes and hands on her. Maybe even his lips and his body, not that Jayne
wanted
him to admit that or anything.

“Oh, um, right! Um, no. He’s not in. He always has these days off for his family, remember? Cassila has her dance lessons-“

“Thank you, that’s enough.” He was keeping the conversation short, keeping the details away so that Jayne couldn’t narrow down who it was. “I was told to drop this one off for him at his private quarters.”

There was a pause. Jayne couldn’t help it, looking back up. The blonde was actually smiling now, her eyes lit up with realization.
Of course
, she thought,
Now that she thinks I’m not
his
.
Was this someone in D’Anil’s life that mattered to him? Was she part of what he meant when he asked Jayne if she really expected him to lay his entire life on the line for her?

“I see,” Amara nodded. She still sounded nervous, but she was happy as well. “It’s strange. He hasn’t had a slave since, well, Phreema, and that was years ago. And now two?”

D’Anil shrugged. “I don’t ask him about his personal life. I just drop it off.”

“Right, well, he still has the other. She’s in his private chambers now. I can take you two down there.”

“That’s fine,” he said, “You know how I like working alone. I can drop her off myself. I’ll just need to have you unlock it while I’m down there.”

“Okay… But you’ll have to be quick. I’m not really allowed to unlock the door at all, not when he’s not here.”

D’Anil chuckled. “Yeah, well, I chased this one down in the middle of a desert, and I’ve seen the other one. They wouldn’t stand a chance against me.”

Jayne almost opened her mouth right then. She wanted to tell them to stop calling her “this one” or “it” or “that” or “one of them.” She wanted to tell Amara to mind her own business and to quit smiling. She wanted to argue with D’Anil and remind him that she had almost gotten away from him, had gotten the farthest besides Meta, and he’d been just as out of breath as she’d been by the time they crashed on the sandy floor.

But she was so close to Sophie. She could feel it, and she wouldn’t ruin the chances of saving her friend purely for pride and anger, though it was really starting to feel like jealousy. Jayne couldn’t admit that she was jealous, though.

So, she stayed quiet as Amara tapped away at something on her desk. She stayed silent, playing the perfect slave, and waited until D’Anil came up behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Come on, we’re going,” he told her, tone rough.

“Yes, sir,” Jayne replied in her meekest voice. She knew it surprised him more than anything, D’Anil almost stopping his walk entirely before he realized himself and guided her back to the elevator. 

The second part of the ride should have been easier, given the fact that Jayne knew what to expect, but she realized too soon that she
didn’t
know what to expect still. That realization came when the elevator lurched sideways.

There were tunnels all around the pyramid. She laughed softly despite her fear and the nausea twisting in her stomach. It was getting harder to look down the higher they climbed, being able to see the entire shaft beneath her feet.