Rogue Alien's Escape: Alien Abduction Romance

Chapter Three

Andie washed, and when she was done in the tiny shower stall, Xandr took her place. He took much longer than she had and she wondered how long it had been since he'd truly had the chance to be clean. She also realized he was trusting her for the moment. Trusting her not to run away, not to go find the guards and bring them down on him while he was naked and trapped in an interior bathroom. Though it wasn't like she'd risk going out at night, and she didn't have her communicator, so there was no easy way to call for help. All of that had probably occurred to him, so his shower was probably more of a calculated risk than a true act of trust.

She found two sleeves of old crackers in a cupboard. They were covered in dust, but when she tried one it didn't even taste stale. Their last meal hadn't been that long ago, so Andie put the food aside in case they needed to keep it for later. She tried not to imagine what Xandr would look like in the shower. Was he that same purple color all over? Were there markings or scars that his clothing hid? And what about there? He looked sort of human, two arms, two legs, one head, the right proportions, and she couldn't help but wonder if he'd look human in that way as well. It had shocked her when she first met aliens just how many were capable of having sex with humans, but after six years in this alien land, she'd learned to accept their similarities along with their differences.

And she wasn't going to dwell on either of those right now. Yes, she'd agreed to go with Xandr to get out of the city, but she still wasn't sure that he wasn't going to betray her once they made it past the gates. She had no business thinking about him as anything besides a means to an end. It didn't matter if he made her heart pound and her body ache. He'd kidnapped her, and even if the situation had changed since then, she couldn't let herself forget that, not if she wanted to survive long enough to get back home.

The water stopped and Andie looked around the old apartment, trying to find something to do. She settled on an old couch, but there wasn't anything to read or an entertainment system. By the time Xandr opened the door from the bathroom, she was staring out at the lights of the city and pretending that her mind was far away, even as she was highly attuned to the man just across the room from her. She counted down from three in her head before turning to look at him, totally casual, as if he hadn't completely taken over her thoughts.

"There's not much food, but we won't go hungry." She nodded to the crackers she'd left on the table beside the kitchen.

Xandr moved where she'd pointed and gave her a chance to study him. The light in the room was dim, and with his coloring he seemed to blend into the blue shadows all around them. But Andie could still make out the wet drops falling from his dark hair and she traced a rivulet of water that fell down his neck and disappeared under his top.

She had to get control of herself. This had to be some kind of survival response to all of the crap that had gone on during the day. There was no way she was actually attracted to a freaking murderer.

"Who did you kill?" The question just sort of popped out, somehow evading the survival filter that she'd developed to stay alive on Ixilta.

Xandr froze, cracker held in the air. He turned slowly towards her and raised an eyebrow. "Is that really a question you want answered?" He set the cracker down and left them on the counter, crossing towards her and taking a seat on a chair beside the couch.

Andie wasn't sure whether she was grateful or disappointed that he kept the space between them. "I think I need it answered," she replied honestly.

Xandr wouldn't look at her while he spoke. "He was a member of my crew. We came here to do a job, had just picked him up when we needed the extra body." He clenched his hands and stared at a seam in the tile underfoot as if it offered all of the answers to the universe.