Page 16 of A Ruthless Bargain
My world slipped sideways. An actual alien from another world stood before me.
What the actual fuck… I was right.
ChapterEight
“Why are you on Earth?”I demanded. My hand lifted like I wanted to touch his skin to see what it felt like. I flashed to last night and the silkiness of his cock in my mouth. Guess that wasn’t the result of a really good moisturizer. A shaky laugh erupted.
“I was pursuing a fugitive.”
Shocked, but encouraged that he answered my question, I stepped toward him. “Was?”
“I found my fugitive.”
“Where is he?” My vague recollection of bumping into another large man only yesterday popped up. “The guy I ran into the morning we… met.”
“Yes, him. He is no longer on this planet.”
I swallowed audibly. “What did the fugitive do?”
“He stole something he should not have.”
“Who did he steal from?”
“My boss.”
“Your boss is?”
Jax’s jaw clenched. “What are you doing in my room?” He reverted to his earlier question, then gave the plastic thing a shake. “Overall. Not related just to this.”
“I knew you weren’t a US Marshal,” I said, “so I was trying to find out the truth. Turns out the truth really is out there.”
“Now that you know?” An eyebrow rose above the rim of his sunglasses.
“What do I know, though?” I countered. “Yes, you’ve blown my mind with the news that you’re an alien from a planet named Brak. That’s beyond cool. You also said you were here tracking a fugitive who stole something from your unnamed boss. The fugitive who is no longer on the planet. But that just leaves me with more questions than answers.”
“Does it?”
His conversational approach was maddening. “Yes! I have so many questions.” I gestured at the bathroom. “Everything from why you have a giant box of baking powder by the tub to what happened to the fugitive.”
Jax tilted his head in an oddly human manner. “Baking powder added to the water creates a mixture more similar to the moisture on my home world.”
My jaw dropped open and I snapped it shut. “And the fugitive? Did you transport the fugitive back home? Or did you kill him?”
Jax released his clasped hands, allowing his arms to dangle at his sides. Something about the pose screamed menacing.
Fuck it. I tilted my head. “If I had to guess, you’re not law enforcement on your planet. Private security, maybe.” I scrutinized his body language on whether I was close, but he gave me nothing. A sigh slipped out.
“Is this boring you?”
“There are other reasons to sigh,” I retorted. “You’re frustrating. And terrifying.”
“How?”
“Really? You drop this huge bomb, and stop answering questions when we get to the good stuff.”
“Tell me why I should not just kill you for interfering.”
My legs turned to jelly, and I sat hard on the bed. Wide eyes stared at the giant before me. My thought that he could snap me in half resurfaced. “You could tell me everything I want to know, but then you’d have to kill me, huh?” I always laughed at lines like that in movies. After today, I never would. If I survived today.