Married to the Alien Cowboy (Cowboy Colony Mail-Order Brides, #1)

by Ursa Dax

I didn’t know how to be a husband to a human. But I knew how to work. That much, I could promise.

“I also have a wagon,” he added in a sudden rush. “Just… So you know.” “Oh! Well… Good! I love wagons!” I’d never been on a wagon in my entire fucking life.

“Upset him? Silar? Empire, no,” the warden said, looking both surprised and amused. “You just knocked that boy’s boots off, is all. He’s likely gone to sort himself out before the ride home.”

Silar was a big, strong, golden-skinned cowboy with livestock and a house and a career. And a wagon! Couldn’t forget the wagon.

“Don’t need experience,” he said gruffly, immediately hoisting himself up onto Tarion’s back behind me. He reached around me from behind, grasping at brown reins, his arms enclosing me in an intimate circle “You’ve got me.”

I wondered if humans only ever did the kiss ritual at weddings. I did not see how we could have another wedding so that I could repeat the experience. But maybe they also did the kiss thing at other important ceremonies, like funerals. I found myself rather foolishly hoping that someone might die soon so that I could find out. Maybe Zohro. No one would miss him. It would be worth it.

Loneliness when you’re surrounded by people feels different than loneliness in the empty quiet.

I’d lived in silence for cycles. Never before had I thought that silence might be the death of me. But I thought so now.

He didn’t say “Goodnight, Cherry.” He didn’t say, “Goodnight, human.” He said, “Goodnight,” – a hushed pause – “wife.”

“What do the teerz mean, and how do I heal them?” “Heal them?” His tail lashed the floor, leaving a streak of dark blood on the boards. “Yes. I brought you in here to check you for injuries. The teerz are the most obvious and must be dealt with first.”

“Don’t say sorry,” Silar said, the words sounding like they were ripped from somewhere deep in his throat. “Not to me, Cherry. Never to me.”

“Definitely prettier than me.” Fallon looked like I’d just about blown his Zabrian mind. It was kind of fun seeing how absolutely banana-pants excited he was getting. So fun I almost missed Silar’s quiet, incredulous growl of, “Unlikely.”

“Oh, my sweet summer Silar,” she sighed. I frowned. “I was born in winter.”

“You don’t need the book when you’ve got me.”

The image of Silar bending, then crouching, silently gazing upon his new little sapling of a cherry tree.

“I may not have come here with the sole reason of getting married, no. But I need you to know that, from the moment I first saw you, I knew that I was lucky to be marrying you. When I saw you treat Tarion so well through the window when you thought that no one was watching, I thought to myself, ‘That is a good man.’ And I also need you to know,” I added fiercely, cupping his hard jaw with my hands, “that no matter how things started between us, my feelings for you, here and now, are real. Everything I said to you earlier tonight is true. I’m in this for the long haul, Silar. I’m in this forever,” I gulped. “If you’ll have me, that is.”

“All I care about is that, if you are running, I’m the one you run to.”

“Run your way down any road you wish to, Cherry. But I’ll always be the one standing there at the end of it.”

“Every credit to my name,” he said gruffly, “every piece of this property, every store of my strength, every beat of my heart… It’s all for you, Cherry. Everything’s for you.”

“I told you last night. I cannot live if you are not alright.” “It’s not like I’m going to fall off!” “Not with my tail around you, you won’t.”

“I’m staying, Silar,” I whispered between the frantic meeting of our hips. “I love you. And I am staying with you.”