Alien Captain's Bride - Scarlett Grove Page 0,56

to know what he means. I feel it will only tear apart what we have just brought back together. But the other part of me, the larger part, needs to know the truth.

He turns to me and places his hands on my shoulders. He can barely meet my gaze. His lips tremble, and he grits his teeth. “My love. Please forgive me.”

He collapses into a chair and pulls me in beside him. Then with the flick of a finger on his wrist device, he causes a video to play on the large screen on the wall. I instantly recognize the room. It’s me back in the bridal house in the bathroom of my suite. The images that play on the screen make bile rise in my throat. And I don’t want to see it. I don’t want to know. I stand and start toward the door.

“Please let me explain,” he says.

“I can’t believe I gave myself to you.”

“Doris.”

I storm out into the new day, the ocean wind whipping through my hair. It tangles around me like red and copper threads twisting and turning and tying knots as tight as the one around my heart.

Jaxxo hurries after me and grabs my shoulder.

I whirl around, anger and longing warring inside me. “How could you watch me? Why is there even a camera in the bathroom?”

“It’s only for a bride’s match. So we may observe for better understanding of her emotional needs during courtship. It’s purely scientific. But I realized it was unethical.”

“But you watched anyway.”

“You must feel the pull to be together.”

“Why? Why do I feel such lust for you? I have come to have strong feelings for you, Jaxxo, I won’t lie. Perhaps it really is even love. But it is only clouded by my intense need to have you inside me.”

“We were both injected with a serum that enhances our pheromones so that our reaction to each other is heightened for the purpose of better genetic expression. I have spoken with the council and our scientists about this issue.”

“Did they see me masturbating also?” I ask, incensed.

“No. No. No one but me had access to those feeds. I swear to you. But when I watched them, I had no choice but to pleasure myself at the sight of it.”

I glance away, hands on hips, staring out at the sea. The idea of him masturbating to the sight of me sends a thrill down my spine. My pussy throbs, and I want to push him back into the cabin and tear his clothes off. I sigh, closing my eyes and gritting my teeth.

“I need to think,” I say, starting back toward the main house.

27

She has every right to be angry. I knew she would be. And I feel as if I have been in a constant comedy of errors. I only hope that I may somehow learn from my mistakes. If she will allow me near her again.

I called for my vehicle to fly over to the cabin, and we rode home in silence. She did not insist on returning to the bridal house, to my relief. But she has locked herself in her rooms and has not responded to my messages all day. She has taken her meals alone and has even asked the housekeeper to leave them outside her door.

I grip my scotch glass and stare out at the fading twilight over the sea. If I could somehow take back what I had done, I would. But at the same time, I am glad that it has come out. It has been a weight on my shoulders I knew I could not bear much longer. She knows the truth. All of it.

What happened at the council meeting was a momentary indiscretion caused by pressure from my peers. But watching the video of her pleasuring herself was a choice I made again and again. I deserve whatever punishment she sees fit. I will gladly take it if it will bring me back into her good graces.

I am up late drinking scotch and unable to sleep. Deep in the night, there is a ping at my door. The AI informs me that it’s her. I rush to open it. She stands on the other side wearing a pale-pink robe and matching flats on her dainty feet. Her hair is piled on top of her head, and little ringlets tumble around her face, having escaped the hasty hairstyle. There’s something about the imperfection of it that is so beautiful, it makes my