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

by Ursa Dax

I was about to marry an honest-to-goodness alien fucking cowboy.

I stared in silent confusion at this little female rattling off all the ways she planned to make my life better, as if she somehow owed me anything. As if she had to earn her place here, such a pure little thing among the rejected males of our Empire.

Empire help me, I did not deserve her. I was going to do everything in my power to keep her anyway.

Her words twisted through me, the oddest sensation of pleasure and pain. Pleasure that she might think me honourable. Pain that it was not true.

I watched her face, illuminated with the silver-white glow of my eyes. I did not dare to blink. That new, tender pain got suddenly sharper. Like a beautiful blade, sliding from my throat to chest. Cutting me open and claiming everything.

“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.”

That was the last glimpse I had of him that night. The image I carried with me all the way back. The image of Silar bending, then crouching, silently gazing upon his new little sapling of a cherry tree.

“But I will do better,” he promised. “I will haul my heart up into my mouth for you, Cherry. Let you hear it. See it. Hold it in your hand. You’re the one who taught me I still have one.”