Sohut's Protection: A Sci-fi Alien Romance (Riv's Sanctuary Book 2) A.G. Wilde (best way to read an ebook TXT) 📖

gaze traveling down her body and she realized he could see much better than she could in the dark.

She still couldn’t make him out properly but it was clear he wasn’t having any trouble seeing her with the lack of light.

“You cut the vine,” he repeated when his eyes met hers again and Cleo swallowed once more.

“I didn’t.”

“You phekking cut the vine.” A sound like a huff of a laugh caught her ear and she’d have thought she was mistaken if the alien didn’t lean his head back and actually laugh.

He was laughing?

“You cut the vine,” he repeated. “I really didn’t think you would do something like that.” He paused, looked away, and she couldn’t see his eyes anymore.

“I didn’t cut the vine.”

“Why are you lying? I saw you with your blade.”

Cleo opened her mouth and paused. “I always have my blade. It’s the one thing that got me out of trouble in the first place. I don’t let it out of my sight.” She paused again. “Ever.”

The alien grunted.

“I’m being honest. I think…I think the vine broke because you were too heavy for it. Or maybe it was a combination of both our weights.”

When he said nothing, she continued.

“I’m sorry you fell.”

“You should be,” he glared at her then. “I fell hard.”

The way he said it made her want to chuckle and she chalked that up to the village idiot living within her.

She didn’t dare to laugh.

This was serious.

“I saw you fall. I thought you were…” She trailed off. “I want my life to return to what it was before, but I didn’t cut the vine. I really didn’t.”

She couldn’t really tell what mood he was in or if he believed her.

One moment he seemed like he was trying to hump her and now he was laughing at what happened to him as if it hadn’t been serious.

“And it took phekking long to find my way back here.” He turned to her fully then. “But you know what annoyed me the most?”

Should she answer that? It sounded like a trick question.

“What phekked me off the most was that I had to climb this Raxu-forsaken rock with my bare. Phekking. Hands.”

She had the feeling he was showing her his hands. Maybe he didn’t realize she couldn’t see shit with this lack of light.

Even with her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she could hardly make out any shapes.

Wait. His words hit her. He what?

No one could do that. That’s why her cave was such a great hiding spot.

Muttering something she didn’t catch, she felt him move off the bed and then she heard the tinkle of metal.

In a short moment, the cave was filled with light from his light disk thing and Cleo audibly gasped.

He looked terrible.

There were bits of twigs and leaves stuck in his hair, his hard previously-unmarred chest had all sorts of scrapes and cuts and when he turned to rummage in his satchel, a whole host of what looked like brown sea urchins were stuck in his flesh.

Ouch!

Her face must have been scrunched up at the sight because when he turned and looked at her, his green eyes bore into hers like yes, this is your fault.

Obviously, he still believed she’d cut the vine on him.

Ignoring her, he continued searching in his satchel.

“Only a few things didn’t fall out,” he muttered. “The phekking tracker is still here but all my sluu dough is gone.” He turned his accusatory eyes on her. “I shouldn’t have fed you any.”

Cleo flattened her lips and averted her gaze from his.

The food he’d fed her had been delicious. She too felt loss at the thought of them being lost.

As the blue alien moved, his tail swung lazily behind him and it too was filled with the urchin-like burs.

They looked like they hurt. But he didn’t seem nearly as angry at her as he should be. Well, he had been angry at first but not nearly enough and she didn’t know how to process that.

As he moved over and grabbed his blade from his satchel, he made it a point to look at her sharply as he took up the weapon.

“Like the handiwork of your evil scheme?” he asked before moving to a space near the entrance of the cave.

Cleo huffed out a breath. “For the last time, I didn’t cut the vine. And you can understand me. How?”

“I installed your language while you were restrained.”

Cleo let that information sink in.

He could understand her all that time?

Frowning, she tried to remember if she’d said anything that she didn’t want him to know.

It was only then that she noticed he was crouching slightly. He was too big for her small living space and that made her realize that he seemed to fill the entire small cavity.

“Why did you come back?” She spoke to his back.

He’d been far away and he was injured. Instead of finding help for himself, he’d returned.

“And leave you here? So the Gori can send some other idiot to find you? They’d torture you.”

He must have seen the blood drain from her face because his gaze softened a little.

“So, you came back so they wouldn’t torture me?”

“Yes,” he said, “I came back so they wouldn’t torture you. I’m much too kind to allow that to happen.”

She should feel relief at those words. Instead, there was a sort of dread as if there was something she was missing.

“So you came back because you want to…save me?”

The alien’s eyes met hers again and something passed behind them—something that reminded her of the few moments before when he was pressing against her with his body.

“Oh, Cluu,” he used the name he’d given her and she was surprised he’d remembered it. “Do I have to spell it out for you?” His face became serious. “I came back because I have plans for you myself.”

15

Fucking.

Grout.

After dropping that line that she was currently tiptoeing around, trying not to detonate, the grout in the cave began to stoically ignore her.

It was as if she