Resisting the Alien Rider (Cowboy Colony Mail-Order Brides, #3)

by Ursa Dax

Against the wall of the kitchen, in Oaken’s bedding, Killian was curled up into a tight little ball, fast asleep. The ship in a bottle was tucked beneath his chin, held with both his hands.

“Sorry, Oaken,” I said on a hush. “You keep losing your bed!” He turned his lovely smile on me. “I’ve been alone here a long time,” he said. “I find that I don’t mind so much.”

“What do you see,” I asked, “when your eyes do that?” “This,” he gestured at his face, “does not change what I see. It’s what I see that changes me.” And he saw right now was… Me.

“But I do know that I’m no longer the man I was before you. And I believe it is the same for Killian.” “He’s not a man yet,” I pointed out. “No,” Garrek agreed. “But he will be soon. And he’ll be a better one for knowing you.”

And if that ardu bite had taught me anything, it was that life is short. A girl had to seize the moment… And the alien dick.

🙂↕️

“None of that, now,” I told it firmly. “You just settle down.” I wagged my finger at it, and it promptly snapped its lithe, wiggly form around it, like a very weird, full-finger ring. “Are you,” Garrek panted, “talking to my cock tail?”

“You never need to beg me for anything, Magnolia.” It was a stoic, sacred vow. “Never.”

“No,” I groaned, covering my face with my hands. “I feel so bad! I can’t believe Killian thinks I’ve been calling him that kind of pee this entire time! Why didn’t he say anything?” “He doesn’t care what the words mean,” Garrek said. I could feel the rumble of his smoky voice vibrating against my back. “He only cares about what they mean to you. He knows you care for him. That is enough.”

Ugh. I’ll find a picture to show him on my comms tablet. Poor kid.” “Poor? No. I think he is very fortunate.” Garrek’s chin bumped the top of my head. His tail snaked possessively up my calf. “I think I am fortunate, too.”

“I will blame it on you,” he retorted darkly. “You and Killian. I never felt as if my heart was going to give out on a daily basis before I met the two of you.”

Killian glared, aimed a hostile tail-tip in the general vicinity of my covered genitalia, and imperiously sniped, “Absolutely horrendous.” Then he positively careened out of the cabin, the soles of his boots smacking the wood before he leaped out into the grass and disappeared.

Her eyes opened, and they were so beautiful, so lit with mirth, that I could already feel the hardness I’d tried to maintain in my expression melting away. Like I’d been frozen for cycles and her joy was a tiny but unrelenting flame.

“I don’t think you’re horrendous,” she said sweetly. My ribs ached.

That was like a hot coal dropped through me. She loved me. That was a sacred revelation I still was not sure I was worthy of.

Outgoing Tablet Communication Magnolia Jones: OK. So… Here’s the thing. I’m actually not marrying Oaken after all… Incoming Tablet Communication Cherry Dawson: ??? Incoming Tablet Communication Darcy Dubois: OH MY GOD I FUCKING KNEW IT!!!

Incoming Tablet Communication Cherry Dawson: Don’t feel bad. Darcy didn’t know either. She messaged me all panicky about it. Incoming Tablet Communication Darcy Dubois: BECAUSE I NEEDED TO KNOW WHY FALLON KEPT GETTING DOPEY FUCKING FLASHLIGHT EYES EVERY TIME HE LOOKED AT ME!!! I THOUGHT SOMETHING WAS WRONG WITH HIM!!!

“What is it?” I asked, laying a hand on his hard jaw. “I woke and you were gone,” he said, his breath sawing in and out of him. “I woke and thought…” “Thought what?” “I thought you’d changed your mind.” My throat went hot and achey.

“It’s what I was telling you about before. The stuffed animals. It was a while ago now-” “I remember.” Garrek wasn’t looking at me, but at the round-bodied beaver sitting its fat little butt in the curve of his upturned palm.

His jaw ticked as he looked down at his pocket, and he reached in, rearranging, until the beaver’s big, shiny eyes were poking out. “There,” Garrek said. I perked up, thinking he was about to say something else to me, but then just about dissolved into a puddle of goo when I realized he wasn’t talking to me at all. “You’ll be able to see the wedding better like this.”

he’s so babygirl 🥹

“Ah! There you are, Warden!” Oaken said with a broad smile. “Well done, Killian. You’re like a little data tower!” Killian’s chest puffed up, clearly feeling quite proud of the importance of his new job as the wedding-tablet-holder.

“These are the same flowers that…” “That saved your life,” Oaken confirmed. My heart nearly stopped. They looked just like… Magnolias.

“Thank you, Oaken!” I gasped. I threw myself against him in a sideways, one-armed hug, not wanting to upend my bouquet. Oaken stiffened, and I could feel him looking over my head at Garrek for instructions on what to do. “It’s called a hug,” Garrek said. “You’re meant to do it back.” Oaken mirrored my pose, putting one arm around me and leaving the other dangling awkwardly at his side. He wasn’t currently holding his crutch, but he didn’t seem to understand that he was allowed to use both arms.