Stolen and Seduced - Christine Pope Page 0,302

Then maybe, just maybe, my sister, Asha, wouldn’t be trying to kill me with her penetrating gaze.

Tears well in her eyes again. I am surprised she has any left to shed, and the sight of my strong-willed, older sister on the verge of an emotional breakdown, is all it takes to unleash the icy grip over me. “I am genuinely sorry, Asha.” I fall to my knees beside her, holding her ever so tightly. She has lost everything, but I want her to know she still has me, and we are going to survive whatever obstacle comes our way. I am going to make damn sure of it. It is the least I could do after all I’ve done. “We are going to get through this, I promise.”

“How can you promise something like that?” she screeches at the top of her lungs. Her voice snaps everyone around us out of their daze. “My family is dead. Our planet has been blown to fucking dust. We are not getting through this. We are as good as dead!” Asha throws her body into me and stands up. Her eyes narrow. “Never speak to me again.”

My words get caught in my throat as she storms past the crowd, exiting through the chamber doors. Away from me. The doors seal up and it is as if they are closing over my heart. Soon everyone is wearing the same face of hatred. I have become the enemy. Heaviness consumes me as I fold into myself, the tears threatening my eyes. The person I look up to wants nothing to do with me.

Asha, I am so sorry. I hang my head in between my shoulders. I am trapped inside this sterile box with a group of people, and I have never felt so alone in my entire life.

I am unsure how much time has passed once I finally peel myself from the floor in search of Asha.

“Ash?” I call out in the corridor outside our assigned living quarters. Luckily, the guy I fucked last week was an astronaut. That is how we were able to get a spot on this ship.

No answer.

“Asha? Please, I’ll do anything. Just talk to me.”

“Ah, there you are. I’ve been looking all over for you.”

Speaking of a drunken night I’d like to forget. I pivot around and plaster on a smile so fake I think my face will break. “Hey, Carter.”

“Locked out of your room?”

I sigh. “Yes, Asha has both our room keys.”

“Well, looks like you are in luck.”

I raise an eyebrow. “How so?”

His smile accentuates his chiseled features. “I have the master key.”

Carter’s hooded eyes trail the length of me, smirking as if he is reliving a steamy memory. Don’t get me wrong, he was a good fuck, and he’s looking incredibly fuckable right now with his chocolate-brown hair slicked back and his black spacesuit outlining his taut muscles. Yet, the thought of how clingy he became after we were intimate puts a damper on the insatiable urge blossoming inside me; as a free-spirit, I’m not ready to settle down—a girl needs to have her options, you know?

He opens the door to an empty chamber with a single circular window. Ironically, our room has a view of where Earth used to be. The reality stalks me at every corner, I swear. I grimace as a bigger hole forms in my heart. I really fucked things up this time. Asha won’t be able to save me from myself.

“Hey?” His hand grazing along mine brings me back to the present. “Is there something going on between you and Asha?”

“She’s just having a difficult time.”

Carter leans against the door frame, folding his arms with a grim look on his face. “I can’t imagine...” His eyes close and he shakes his head. “Losing my family like that…” Carter is the most empathetic man I know. The poor sap was ready to marry me and dedicate the rest of his life to fixing all the problems I wasn’t ready to face.

God bless his soul.

Carter will make a woman extremely happy one day. That woman just isn’t me, and I feel I am doing him a solid for rejecting all his advances. I am a jaded bitch in a dark place—the last thing I want to do is ruin a good man like him.

I mean, Carter is an intelligent, good-natured soul who is easy on the eyes. And his softened blue-eyed gaze right now makes my heart strings tug a little.

“Yeah.” Guilt from what I’ve done