My Alien King (Paranormal Romance Aliens) (6 page)

And Cass… Her best friend who knew exactly how much talking about this with her parents bothered her. She’d gone and put her in this situation.

“You want to know why, Dad?” Mia asked. “You want to know why? If I
was
acting out, which, by the way, I’m not, it would be because of you. It would be because I spent my whole life trying to live up to the impossible standards you set for me. Because I couldn’t set one foot out of line for fear of how it would make
you
look. Because I basically didn’t have a childhood because I was afraid of what was happening to me and afraid of disappointing you and just afraid that I was going to be the thing that ruined all our lives. And you just let me feel like that.
Both
of you did. Neither of you ever thought that maybe things were hard on me or that I needed someone to talk to. Even if I had been making things up all those years ago, any
sane
parents would have seen it as a cry for help. But
no.
Not you two. No, you two were more concerned with how it would make you look if it got out that your daughter had something wrong with her.”

When she finished her rant, she was breathing heavily and running mostly on her anger. Her father’s face was slowly getting more and more red, and she’d never seen him look so angry. Her mother had a hand over her mouth, looking at her with a horrified expression, and Mia was just so done with the both of them.

“How
dare
you?” Her father demanded. “As if we didn’t work hard to provide for you. To put you in the best schools and make sure you had everything you needed. Why on earth would you need to cry for help? There was nothing wrong with you then, and there’s nothing wrong with you now.”

“I never asked for any of that!” Mia shouted. “To move schools because you’d found a better one. To have to look over my shoulder all the time and make sure I wasn’t doing anything that would embarrass you. You don’t listen to me, and you’ve never listened to me, and I am so
tired
of it. Only you know what the difference is now, Dad? Now I don’t have to take it. Get out of my house.”

“Mia!” her mother said, sounding shocked. “You can’t-”

“Yes, I can. This is
my
house that I pay for with
my
money, and I’m not going to have you here making me feel bad for something I didn’t do. Get. Out.”

Her father took a step towards her, and Mia’s eyes widened. They’d never used spankings or anything like that as punishment, usually they just sent her to her room or lectured her until she wanted to cry, but her father looked like he actually wanted to hit her now.

Before either of them could say anything, Asher was putting himself between them. “I think she would like it if you left,” he said in his quiet way, though there was nothing but firmness in his voice.

Both of her parents looked taken aback at that, but it only seemed to fuel her father’s anger. “How dare you? Do you know who I am?”

Asher blinked and then shook his head. “Not really. But I know you’re upsetting Mia. So you should leave.”

The living room was quiet for what felt like an eternity but was probably only a few minutes. Mia’s mother was making a soft sound of shock and disbelief, and her father just gaped. Finally he turned on his heel and headed for the door, and, after a moment, his wife followed him.

Mia didn’t move until the front door had closed behind them and then she could feel all the emotions hitting her at once. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she pressed her hand over her mouth and turned to flee into her bedroom.

The sound of the door slamming reverberated through the house, and Mia could hear Asher moving around in the other room. She threw herself onto her bed, feeling like a child for sobbing into her pillow over something like this, but at the same time, she was so hurt.

Cassie was supposed to be her best friend. She
knew
how her parents always reacted to things like that, so why would she tell them?

Why would she do that and try to pretend like it was her being helpful or caring about her when the way to care about her and be helpful was to
keep her mouth shut.

Mia groped for her phone in her pocket, wiping her eyes and she navigated to her messaging app and pulled up Cass’ thread. Of course the last message she had from her so called best friend was Cassie wishing her luck at the doctor’s office from a couple days ago. She deleted it angrily and then typed
I can’t believe you’d do that
before hitting send just as angrily.

Her phone got thrown onto the floor, and she couldn’t even bring herself to care if it broke or not as she buried her face in her pillow and sobbed.

After a moment, there was a gentle tapping on the door.

“Mia? Uh. Do you. Do you want to be alone or?”

She could hear the hesitation in Asher’s tone, but she appreciated him checking on her. He’d had to endure her parents’ grilling and accusations, and he’d handled it all with grace. “You can come in,” she said, lifting her face just enough so that he’d be able to hear her.

The door opened and he stepped in, a concerned look on his face. “Your parents left. I mean. I saw them drive away and everything. Are you…” he stopped. “Yeah, that was going to be a stupid question. Is there anything I can do?”

Was there? She didn’t even know at this point. The last thing she wanted was for him to see her looking so weak, but she couldn’t stop crying. “Can you just… sit with me?”

He nodded eagerly and came to sit down on the edge of her bed. After a moment he extended a hand. It hovered awkwardly for a moment, but then his fingers were stroking through her hair with a gentleness that made her lean into it immediately.

“Thanks,” Mia whispered. “I don’t… I’m sorry you have to see me like this.”

Asher shook his head vehemently. “If anyone should be sorry it’s them. For treating you like that.”

“It’s been like that my whole life,” Mia explained. “My dad’s a politician, so it’s always been about him and his image and how I have to behave in order make sure his image doesn’t get messed up. I just… I can’t believe Cass would tell them. She knows how they reacted the last time I told them, and I just…” She let out a heavy sigh. “I thought I could trust her.”

“I’m sorry,” Asher said, stroking a lock of her hair behind her ear.

Mia sighed. “Who do I have now? My parents drive me insane, my best friend basically betrayed me. What’s the point anymore.”

Asher was quiet for a moment, seeming to weigh a decision. When he spoke, it was in a rush. “You could have me. If you wanted. My Uncle… he wrote something in his book that might help you. If you feel like… like this planet is too small for you.”

It was odd wording, and it made Mia lift her head to look at him. “What do you mean?” Abon had written about her? About her and Asher? The blush on Asher’s cheeks was very telling, and she peered at him closer. “Tell me.”

“He thought… He thought that maybe you’d like it on our planet. That maybe you’d like to go there with me.”

Mia gasped at that. Go to another planet? Leave this one behind? It seemed like the kind of decision that shouldn’t be made on the fly, and yet Mia couldn’t deny that it was tempting. There was very little left here that she cared about. Her job was important to her, but it wasn’t anything that she would feel overly bad about leaving behind.

Asher’s expression was so open and earnest, almost eager, and it was clear that he wanted her to come with him.

Could she actually do that, though?

Just leave?

The more she thought about it, the more she
wanted
to. It would serve them all right if she was just gone. If she went to find her own happiness and stopped caring about how other people felt.

“You don’t have to decide right away,” Asher said quickly. “I mean, I know it’s a big decision, and you probably don’t really want to go with
me
even if you do want to leave, but it’s just. An option. My Uncle thought you might like it where we’re from. He thought you might want an escape or something, and it’s totally fine if you don’t I just thought I’d mention it.”

He was talking so fast that Mia couldn’t get a word in edgewise, but she ended up smiling. Something about Asher always made her feel better, and she couldn’t put her finger on what it was, but him just being there had already made her stop crying.

She sat up and wiped her eyes, feeling suddenly giddy. The answer was right there, on the tip of her tongue, and she sort of couldn’t believe that she was about to say what she was about to say.

“Yes. Yes. I want to go with you.”

Asher’s eyes went so wide as he looked at her. “You… are you sure? You can’t really… It wouldn’t be like a vacation or anything. You could probably come back here eventually, but you couldn’t go back and forth. You’d… you’d have to choose a place.”

And even with that stipulation, she still wanted to go.

“I don’t care. I don’t need to come back here. I want to go with you.”

The brilliant gold of Asher’s eyes was even brighter as he looked at her, and before she really knew what was happening, he had tightened his fingers in her hair and was pulling her forward into a kiss.

Asher had never really kissed a girl that he wanted to kiss like this before. He felt like a child, trying to figure out where to put his hands, and eventually he settled on placing them at Mia’s waist, fingers digging in just a little.

It was still early in the day, but he felt like so much had happened, and he wasn’t really sure how to process it all. All he knew was that he was kissing Mia, and while she wasn’t kissing him back with the same enthusiasm, she’d hadn’t slapped him or pushed him away yet, so maybe that boded well for how this might go.

By the time he needed to breathe, Mia was pulling away, and there was a light in her eyes that hadn’t been there before.

“Don’t do that,” she said, and her voice sounded unsteady.

“...what?”

“Don’t… you can’t just kiss women out of the blue like that. I mean. Some of them might not want to be kissed, you know. It’s polite to ask, especially if you’ve never kissed that woman before and aren’t dating her. Or… or whatever.”

Asher blinked. She wasn’t saying for him not to kiss her, just to ask first? “I’m sorry,” he replied, licking his lips and thrilling at the fact that he could still taste her there.

“It’s okay. Just. You know. Wait for me to give you permission before you kiss me.” The room was quiet and then Mia smirked. “This is me giving you permission.”

It took him a second to work out what she was saying, but when he did, he grinned at her. One of his hands came up to cup the back of her neck, and with a hum of contentment, he pulled her closer once again, going slower this time.

Kissing was somewhat instinctive, and that was good for him. He knew how to follow his instincts. Asher leaned into her, letting his lips move with hers, in no hurry.

She was kissing back this time, and it sent heat shooting through him. Her kisses were just like the rest of her, bold and beautiful, and Asher didn’t want to stop. He wanted to touch her and make her feel good, but he wasn’t going to push for that. Not now. Kissing was more than enough, and he let himself sink into it.

When she panted for breath and broke away, he watched her with wide eyes.

“I didn’t expect you to be so good at that,” she murmured, licking her own lips, and Asher smiled at her in return.

“Hidden talent, maybe?”

She grinned brightly and pulled him down until they were both lying on the bed, him on top of her. Her hips bucked up, and she rubbed against him a bit, making him gasp softly.

“You… do you…” The words were somehow stuck in his throat, and he couldn’t push them out for fear of what would happen if he was interpreting this wrong. They were so close right now, and the last thing he wanted to do was ruin it by jumping the gun.

But Mia was wonderful, amazing, and a million other synonyms for being more than he deserved, and the look she gave him was full of heat and the answer to his question.

“Do you?” she asked, arching an eyebrow and biting her lip.

Asher couldn’t nod fast enough. Saying that he wanted to have sex with her was something of an understatement in this case.

She reached up and brushed some hair out of his face, sliding fingers down his cheek. With a grin on her face, she moved lightning quick, flipping their positions so he was flat on his back blinking in surprise with her straddling his hips.

“Creators,” he gasped at the picture she made, grinning and bracing herself above him.

“Just Mia is fine,” she teased, dipping down to kiss him deeply.

Asher was more than content to let her be in charge if that was what she wanted. He pressed up into the kiss and gave as good as he got, though, unwilling to lie there and be completely passive.

It didn’t take long at all for them to be shedding their clothes, and Asher watched as Mia pulled her shirt over her head, revealing her body to him.

She was beautiful, every curve and dip in her body drawing his eyes and making him want to spend time just touching her and kissing her all over. His approval must have shown in his eyes because she was blushing lightly under his gaze, averting her eyes for a moment before she smiled and slid her hands up his chest.

They had to separate in order to take off their pants and underwear, but it was momentary, and no sooner had they gotten themselves naked than they were coming right back together, hands moving over warm skin and mouths moving together.

When Asher tentatively slid his tongue along the seam of Mia’s lips, she smiled against his and parted them, letting him inside.

It only took minutes for her to up the ante, though, breaking away from the kiss and kissing her way down his body, lingering at his neck and collarbones before continuing to his chest, circling each nipple with her tongue.

Asher gasped and arched, heat rushing through him like nothing he’d ever felt before.

Of course, that was nothing compared to how it felt when her mouth moved lower, skimming up the shaft of his rapidly hardening erection before sliding over the head of him with precision.

“Holy
crap
,” Asher groaned, and then followed it up with some explosive swearing in his native language just to make sure he got the point across that what she was doing was very good. He’d never had a mouth
there
before, and the slick, wet heat was so amazing that he was shuddering and gripping the covers in his hands.

He didn’t want to come like that, though, in her mouth while she didn’t get anything out of it, and he said so with the little bit of breath he was able to draw. “I wanna make you come,” he panted.

Mia pulled off of him and smiled. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” he replied, nodding earnestly.

And for someone with no experience under his belt, he made it work. He changed their positions on the bed, and loomed over her, pressing inside of her slick heat with slow precision.

Every little sound she made for him was amazing, and he was determined to get more of them out, determined to make her feel just as good as being around her made him feel.

In the end, it was all instincts. He rolled his hips, watching her face for any sign of discomfort, and when all he saw was pleasure, he kept going, moving faster, pumping into her with an almost desperate need to be closer.

“Asher,” she moaned, clinging to him, and there wasn’t anything better than that. Than hearing his name on her lips as she trembled under him.

Her hips lifted, meeting him thrust for thrust, and it was all ragged sighs and mingled breaths, the two of them trying to kiss and breathe and touch each other at the same time.

When she came, she went tight around him, and Asher shuddered, following right after and burying his face in the crook of her neck as he tried not to make too much noise. It felt amazing, warmth and bliss floating through him as he laid there on top of her.

“You’re heavy,” Mia said, voice a bit raspy.

“Sorry,” Asher panted and rolled off her, pulling out carefully and flopping onto his back. “That was…”

There was a smile in her voice when Mia spoke. “Are you going to do more of that when I go with you to space?”

Asher was pretty sure life didn’t get better than this.