Stolen - Nhys Glover Page 0,7
in love. Until I saw him with another girl in the library. And he wasn’t showing her where to find a book in that darkened aisle. Not unless that book was in his pants.
I’d been pissed, seriously pissed. But I hadn’t wanted to create a fuss in the library in front of everybody. It would have been too humiliating, so I’d snuck away to lick my wounds. And gone out that night clubbing with girlfriends in an attempt to get even with him.
But looking back at that scene now, I realized I was not heart-broken by Toby’s behavior. I was just humiliated. I’d been in love with the dream, the HEA. His was the most appropriate head to put on my cutout picture of my future groom. His last name seemed like the perfect replacement for plain old ‘Smith’.
Up until I met Rian I’d been determined to get back to Earth and patch things up with Toby. After giving him hell for his betrayal, of course. Now… Now I knew Toby had never been what my heart wanted.
My heart wanted Rian! Oh, God, I was falling for an alien, who was little more than a child. Yeah, he had a man’s body. Oh, boy, did he have a man’s body! But he had almost no life experience. Experience was what made a person an adult, not the size of their body. Right?
Arghh!
I pulled an alien weed from the ground with more force than necessary.
“That’s actually a really lovely flower,” a Danan voice said from behind me.
I looked up to find the subject of my unsuitable fantasies watching me work with rapt attention. I’d noticed that about him yesterday, the way he seemed to bring his whole attention to anything he was doing, even if it was watching someone, like the boys or Piety. Or me. It was oddly flattering to be the focus of that attention.
Now I studied the bedraggled purple seedling I’d pulled up. How did I tell him that even a beautiful flower from this planet didn’t belong in the Earth Garden? The whole point of this small space was to capture the feel of home. If alien flowers began to infiltrate, no matter how lovely, it would stop being ours.
I smiled and handed it to him. “Maybe I’ll start a garden elsewhere and plant it there.”
His expression darkened a little. “Are even beautiful things rejected because they’re Vargan? I don’t remember it being like that when I was growing up.”
I grimaced, sitting back on my heels. “The women abducted for the Lyation Breeding Farms aren’t like us. They saw Danans as their rescuers. Even if they were raped, it wasn’t by Danans. So, even though this garden was created by those women, it wasn’t as important to them as it is to us. The other women like me see this as being all we have of home. We feel like we’re being kept prisoner by the same people who hurt us. Yes, we know it’s not the same as with the renegades. That we’ll be sent home when we’ve had a chance to heal. But all we see is an alien world so far from home it seems impossible to imagine ever getting back where we belong.”
I paused to draw breath, wanting to explain well enough that he’d get it. It was essential that he got it.
“And we’re different to those first women. Most of them saw this world as a step up from what they had back on Earth. Jade was a street kid, for goodness sake! But we recent arrivals all had good lives back on Earth.”
I stared up at him, pleading for him to understand.
For a panicky moment I thought Rian was going to turn and walk away. The threat of rejection hurt more than it should have.
But after a few long moments of indecision, he gracefully lowered himself down onto the grass beside me, sprawling out like he didn’t have a worry in the world.
Letting out the breath I didn’t know I was holding, I smiled softly at him.
“I try to put myself in your place,” he mused. “Maybe I haven’t had enough life experience yet, but I can’t seem to do it. However, I understand a little more why you need this garden to stay wholly Earth-like. Even though I struggle to see the advantages of green grass. Purple is sooo much more appealing.” He threw me a cheeky grin as he extended the word ‘so’ that revealed those very erotic fangs.
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