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

by Ursa Dax

“I started making my way back towards you the moment you said my name.”

“Garrek?” Magnolia said, squinting in the darkness as I abandoned my hiding place and approached them. “Where the heck did you come from?” “The Empire of Zabria,”

She was right. I did not give out compliments often. To anyone. And yet I had dozens, hundreds of them lined up and waiting for her.

“If you’re ready to give me any useful suggestions instead of saying nonsense words like cucumboner, I’m listening.” “That isn’t even what I said!” I cried, face flaming. Cucumboner? Fucking really? “Who’s saying nonsense words now!”

“He’ll fall,” Garrek repeated with disappointed impatience, as if he couldn’t even believe that I was pressing him on this, “but it won’t matter.” “How can that not matter?” “Because,” he said slowly, his whitened gaze boring into mine, “I’ll be there to catch him.”

I looked down to see that it wasn’t just a random scrap but the shredded remnants of the vest’s pocket. And from that ruined pocket tumbled a little pink half-moon. Soap. It was soap. The one I’d made for him. “Like I said,” Garrek grunted, bending to retrieve it. He snatched up the soap and left the leather on the ground. “I saved what I wanted.”

“Compared to all that,” Garrek said, a weary sort of irony colouring his voice, “the ear drops should be easy.”

“You think that I am happy?” I snarled. “You think that I want to give her up? When I said no to the bride program, I had no idea it could be her. If she were any other woman – any other woman, Killian! – I would not feel like my heart is being ripped up and out of my throat every time I so much as look at her!”

‘This is someone beloved by Garrek. This is someone precious to the only family I have left. This is the wife of the person who saved me.’ And I loved her then, instantly, as I would love your wife and nothing else. I do not think I am even capable of wanting her as my own wife, now. Because from the first moment that I saw her, I thought of her as yours.”

“I want to marry you,” he said. “I want to build a life with you. Family. With you and Killian both.” My battered heart took flight. “I’m not Oaken. I’m not the man you came here for. But I can be the man you need. And I’ll work every day to be the man who deserves you.” His jaw flexed. His eyes searched mine. “If… If you’ll have me.” “Why, Garrek,” I murmured, happiness warming every inch of me, “Are you asking me to marry you?” “Asking. Pleading. I’ll beg you if I have to,” he groaned. “Get down on my knees and… Wait. I am already on my knees.”

“I learned,” he huffed on a hoarse breath, “about mating positions. And female erogenous zones. Like the clitohorses.” Clito-what-now? My finger paused in its languorous exploration of Garrek’s silken tip. “The what?” “And your nip-holes.”