She was already running to the house again by the time Gabriela climbed out of the car.
Gabriela glanced toward Broxen’s home, and his heart stuttered. That look lasted only an instant, but it affected him in ways he couldn’t describe—and she hadn’t even looked directly at him.
As Gabriela was walking toward the front door, she paused abruptly, opened her purse, and pulled out her phone. Within the first few seconds of her conversation, all the upset and sadness that had been on her face vanished. It was replaced first by shock, and then by a big, bright smile that made her eyes sparkle. She was far more animated for the duration of the call, nodding and grinning.
After dropping her phone back into her purse, she let out an excited squeal that he heard despite the distance and the closed window. Broxen couldn’t help but smile, too.
Composing herself, she straightened her coat, adjusted the strap of her purse a little higher on her shoulder, and tucked a few dangling strands of her long, black hair behind her ear. She turned her gaze toward Broxen’s home again.
It might’ve been a trick of the distance between them, but it looked like her smile widened just a little.
The tightness in Broxen’s chest intensified. No female, whether human or any other species, had caught his interest like Gabriela had. His past encounters with females had been brief, fueled by mutual lust and a desire for release. It was different with Gabriela. It was something…deeper, unlike anything he’d ever experienced.
And he might never have found her had things gone different. He hadn’t known this planet even existed until overhearing something in a seedy bar on the other side of the galaxy—that Earth, apparently, was a good place for a someone to go if they needed to disappear.
That had been exactly what Broxen needed to do.
Astius had been dead for two years by the time Broxen had arrived on Earth. Broxen had spent his first year and a half in New York City, refining the English language that had been loaded into the neural transceiver implanted in his brain. Attempting to absorb an alien culture. But he’d been without direction, without purpose, left on a strange world with strange people and their bizarre mannerisms. Between a mix of unofficial currency conversion and hacking, he’d been set up with more Earth money than he could ever spend, and yet…he hadn’t known what to do with himself.
Eventually, the crowds, the noise, the huge buildings, and the overwhelming smells had all become too much. He didn’t want to be reminded of his home city back on Turata—Nakonin—any longer. So, he’d wandered, trekking across the country until he’d finally found McCall, Idaho—a place where he could have quiet, if nothing else.
And it was only here, unexpectedly, that he’d found a reason to carry on, a purpose.
Watching of Gabriela and Ana, even if only from afar, had given him meaning. It had eased the disorientation of being on an alien world where he felt like he understood so little even if his neural transceiver could translate every word in any human language.
Gabriela turned her gaze forward and walked to the front door, which Ana had left open.
Broxen willed Gabriela to look toward him again. He wanted one last glimpse of her face, one last look into her eyes, before he’d have to wait until tomorrow to see her again.
Though the view from behind…he’d be lying if he were to say it was unappealing. It made him long for warmer weather, when she wouldn’t be wearing her big coat and boots. During the summer, she’d often gone outside in sleeveless shirts and shorts that showed off her shapely legs. A few times, she’d worn only a swimsuit that revealed every contour of her body as she lay in the sun, basking in its warmth while Ana played in a sprinkler on the grass.
Zorak akai, the way that material had hugged her full breasts, the way it had revealed her ass…
He groaned and gritted his teeth as his cock swelled, pressing against his jeans to produce a deep, throbbing ache.
Gabriela didn’t look back. She simply stepped across the threshold and nudged the door closed with her boot.
Broxen released a heavy breath through his nostrils. For several seconds, he stared at that closed door. Maybe she’d forgotten something in the car and would have to come back out. Maybe she would come over to set a time to get hot chocolate with him, or to