Alien Knight Blind Date Disaster

betrayed her trust at the first opportunity, she realized that she’d just been a job to him. A stopover on his mission. He didn’t care what she wanted. He didn’t care about her story, her investigation into this Blood Market, or her desire to protect her friends. People were disappearing off the streets. Good people. But that was irrelevant in the world of Falden and his king. The truth was, if he hadn’t been injured, he never would have stayed with her. Never spoken to her.
Never touched her.
Why did that thought hurt so much?
The room spun for a moment, and she swayed on her feet, hiding her weakness by grabbing the back of the sofa.
“I want to talk to him.” Her chest ached from breathing too hard, too fast, and her head was spinning its way down to her stomach. With every breath she took, nausea rose and fell like a tide with the moon. “You won’t know what to ask him. You don’t even know who he is.”
The headache she’d been holding at bay settled into a pounding hum in the background of her mind as she fought back the wavy lights that her rage had brought to life in her vision. Curling her free hand into a fist, she pressed it to her temple and took a deep breath. “He won’t talk to you. He won’t talk to any of you.”
“He will.” The grim determination in Falden’s deep voice made her tremble. There was resolve in his tone. “I promise you, he will tell me everything.”
Spinning to face him, she lifted her chin to stare up into his ice-blue eyes with every ounce of fire she could muster. She would not back down. Not about this. “Did you know about the Blood Market?”
“On other worlds, yes. But not here.”
“So, what is it? How do we shut it down? I have to tell the police. Or the government. They can’t just take people and eat them. Vampires aren’t real, Falden. Aliens, fine. But vampires? Why do they want human blood?”
“That information would place you in even greater danger, Bella. I cannot say.”
“Can’t? Or won’t?” Good God. More secrets. More bullshit. More proof that he didn’t trust her, that he didn’t feel the same way about her that she was afraid she was feeling about him. One more person in her life who didn’t find her worthy. Who would use her and throw her away. Why had she hoped for more? “Fine. Keep your secrets and get out.”
Even as the words left her mouth, her body screamed a denial. Her heart broke as if someone squeezed the fragile organ in an iron fist, ground it into mush with no strength and no form. There were no broken bits or shattered pieces. Only pain.
He stepped closer. “No. You are in no condition to be left alone. I will summon a doctor and stay until she arrives. You swayed a moment ago. Your headache is worse than you are saying. I can see the pain in your eyes.”
“You see nothing, Falden.” With a sigh, she turned away from him, unwilling to continue the fight now that she had realized exactly how little she meant to him. “Absolutely nothing.”
Her denial only fueled his frustration. Seeing her shoulders slumped, her skin flushed, the stark lines of pain around her eyes, stirred a protective instinct within him the strength of which he had never dealt with before. He protected the royal Lumerian bloodline. He’d done so his entire life. But this was different. Darker. Irrational.
And only for her.
Something deep within him stirred, hungry and feral and completely lacking in reason. An irrational part of him wanted what he could not have, a full bonding with her, a mate. He wanted the soul-searing experience of a full Lumerian Yielding, yet knew that was not his fate. Not ever.
Still, he wanted her. Naked. Exposed. Submissive. He needed release, and she was the only one who could ease his suffering.
There was much to do, and no time to care for her properly, her body or her heart—yet the thought of leaving someone else to tend to her made him ache to kill the very doctor he planned to summon. What the fuck was happening to him?
Had he finally gone mad? What was he now? An animal?
“Isabella.” Her name came out a plea. His hand was on her shoulder before he registered the move, his thumb running along the tender curve of her spine in desperate need to offer comfort. To touch her. To feel her softness. Afraid she would refuse him, he was prepared to argue, to caress, to seduce. He was even prepared to beg.
He was not prepared as she launched into his arms and claimed his lips. Unprepared for the ferocity of her attack. She clung to him, wrapped her legs around his hips and devoured his lips with a need as fierce as his own. Triumph, swift and fierce, raced through him. The instinct to possess her, take what she offered was too powerful to resist.
He flipped them around so he could place her back against the door they’d just walked through as she tore at his clothing, her lips never leaving his.
“Isa—”
“Shut up and take your clothes off.” She took advantage of the brief break to pull her shirt off over her head and drop it on the floor. If this was the last time she was going to see him, she was going to make the most of it. “Now. I want you inside me now.”
He didn’t need to be asked twice. The tone of her voice allowed for no denial. She needed. He would provide. Anything. In that moment he would have given her anything that was his to give.
Jerking his shirt off over his head, he lowered his pants to free his aching cock. He didn’t have time to step free of the clothing before she leaped into his arms, naked except for her bra, the remnants of her pants and