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

by Ursa Dax

There was something distinctly hilarious about a guy as brooding and irritable as Garrek riding such an adorable mount with a pink heart on its ass.

She made the act of pissing sound pretty. How was that even possible? I’d let her urinate on me if she wanted to.

To think that this hulking alien rider, who frankly didn’t seem to like me all that much, had made note of something as unimportant and fleeting as the shadows cast by my eyelashes.

The man gave me major stressed-out-dad-who-regrets-bringing-his-kids-camping energy.

Romantic hopefulness was my default setting.

The realization that Garrek had a pretty big heart in there. And that big heart was a lot softer and squishier than I ever could have imagined.

I had to stop watching the two of them. It was making my lungs feel wrong. And I needed my lungs to get through the rest of this blasted journey.

I tried to ignore the fact that I was now rather pathetically envious of Killian, disappointed that Magnolia had not also referred to me as sweetened piss.

You can’t scare me when you’ve got a frown like the Old-Earth devil himself but the ears of a child’s plush toy.”

“Oaken has not even seen a female since childhood,” Garrek said, his tone flat. “You’ll impress him simply by breathing.”

There was something addictive in the pain of it. I hadn’t let myself want anything for so, so long.

I could not remember the last time I’d felt so catastrophically alive.

She was happy to see me, and her happiness punctured something in me. Letting light into places that should have stayed hidden in the dark.

She laughed, loudly and freely, and the sound was a pour of glorious heat over my skin. I wanted to catch the sound in my hands, hold it tight, keep it somewhere safe.

That little quirk in his mouth stretched and stretched until, holy cannoli, it morphed into a legitimate, bonafide, 100% authentic Garrek smile. I’d never seen it before. I wasn’t even sure the possibility of such a thing existed. It felt like a one-in-a-multi-trillion chance, like I was the only person in the known universe who’d ever witnessed such a thing.

“We could kill him,” Killian said suddenly. His eyes blazed in the low evening light. “She can’t go with him if he’s dead. And then she’ll need us. To keep taking care of her.”

“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!”

Oaken deserved a wife whose heart was free to love him. Mine wasn’t. Not anymore. Because mine, it turned out, belonged to a quiet, white-eyed child and the hard-jawed, scar-backed rider who took care of him.

“I tried not to love her.” I did not know what else to say, where else to start. “It didn’t work.”

“She does love you.” Oaken said from behind me. “I did not encourage her,” I told him. “She did it all on her own. And she can be very stubborn.”

“You are too reasonable. Can’t you at least hit me or something?”

He gawked at me. “What the blazes are you doing?” “Don’t say blazes. And I am doing a human hug.” He reared back in alarm. “To me?” “Yes, to you. Who else?” Killian made a show of looking around the place. As if there were someone else waiting just behind him, ready to receive my hug in his stead. “All you have to do is put your arms around me,” I told him impatiently. “And then what?” he asked suspiciously. “And then we just… stand there.” “Doing a hug.” “Precisely.” “That… sounds stupid.” “I know,” I admitted. “But somehow, it isn’t.”

“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.

“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.

I have clitohorses, nip-holes, and teats now. Learn something new every damn day.

A girl had to seize the moment… And the alien dick.

His firm, slick tongue found my clit so fucking fast that I silently promised never to get mad about him mispronouncing it again.

“I still can’t believe you’ve loved me for so long,” I whispered, wrapping both my arms around the one he held me with. “You did a hell of a job hiding it.” “Glad to hear it,” he said dryly. “I’ll have you know that trying to conceal my feelings caused me a significant amount of stress.”

Is this what mating could do to a man? By the blazes, it had taken me down like a drug.

And I promise Garrek isn’t all grumpy. He’s like… a toasted marshmallow.