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

by Ursa Dax

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

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.”

I was going to keep this thick-skulled child alive even if it killed me.

What in the great, dusty blazes had my life turned into? My brain was melting into a perverse sort of soup, and now I was arguing not only with a child, but with a shuldu who could not even speak.

I wasn’t spying. I was supervising.

when I first saw her on Fallon’s ranch, I felt every single particle of my being shift, minutely, but enough to tell me nothing would ever be the same.

“I’m going to use it-” he swished it around experimentally, “-like a net.” “Like a net?” I asked in disbelief. “After that child just jumped clean over your arms like a cat spooked by a cucumber?” “I don’t understand a single thing you just said,” Garrek grumped, clutching at his crappy towel-net defensively.

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.

it felt so good to see him. Scary, good. Scoop-of-your-favourite-ice-cream, good. First-sunny-spring-day-after-winter, good. I will never love anything like I love the face before me now, good.

He leaped out of his spot, putting himself between my chair and Oaken. “If you try to take her from us,” Killian said, his eyes massive and murderous white, “I will kill you. And no one but Garrek will ever know because they’ll never find your body.” “It’s a little scary how much I actually believe that,” Oaken said, regarding Killian warily.

“Do you know what I thought when I first saw her?” “No.” “I did not think, ‘Oh, what a beautiful female. How I desire her!’ Of course, she is beautiful. But I noticed it in such a distant sort of way. Because the only thing I could really think when I saw her was, ‘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.”

“Now that he knows you don’t plan to steal Magnolia away from him, he’ll love you,” I told him. “And he’s ferociously loyal to those he loves.”

“It was only a thought,” I said gruffly, lowering my arms. “Wait!” Killian sounded absolutely affronted. “You can’t take my hug back now!”

Garrek came all the way into the room and sank to his knees beside the bed. Oaken discreetly got up and moved away. Or, he would have been discreet if he hadn’t hopped and hobbled and nearly knocked over the chair, swearing under his breath the entire way.

“So it really is a ship,” Killian said, his tone sour with disappointment. “Of course it’s a ship,” I said with a chuckle. “I told you it was a ship in a bottle. What else would it be?” “Don’t answer that,” came a stern voice.

I was feeling so much better. Today had been a turning point. I probably couldn’t get on top of him and give him the energetic cowgirl-style ride I’d fantasized about countless times already, but I could at least get nakey and touch his dick a little. If he let me.

“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.”

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

crazy!” Garrek groaned. “Why am

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!!!

OK, fine. Maybe not a toasted marshmallow. More like a marshmallow somebody dropped in the fire. Burnt to a blackened crisp and more than a little dusty, but still ooey-gooey and sweet on the inside. There. Does that work?