Chapter 18
Daisy followed Zil out of the small shelter they took refuge in. Truth be told, she was quite reluctant to leave it. Although it wasn’t even a shack, and lacked every conceivable comfort, the fact that it was the place where they had made love gave it a certain charm.
Made love.
She wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry.
She wasn’t a virgin by any stretch of the imagination.
Though she had no desire to be pampered doll for one of the wealthy sons her father frequently tried to persuade her into accepting, she’d had sex many times over the years.
Some were casual encounters with handsome men groomed to attract a wife from a family among their peers, but most were nameless men among the lower citizen classes who were willing to keep things simple and themselves just looking for a good time with an unknown woman.
She had fucked. She had never made love. She had never been in love.
Until now. And she had broken one of her cardinal rules—never get sexually involved with someone under her employ. It complicated things.
She shook her head at herself as they headed away from the residential area and back into the operational district of the mining village. How could she have let herself fall in love with an employee? That was a guarantee of heartbreak.
Her eyes followed Zil, skimming over him longingly.
Fuck, she was stupid. He was not only her employee but an alien.
Her father and grandfather would both be pissed.
Not only because she had “sullied herself” with an alien, nor because the fines that they would have to pay would be astronomical, but because their family would become a subject of gossip and mockery among their peers.
Daisy couldn’t care less about that. Of course, they could lock her up in an attempt to avoid the rumors, but what was the worst that could happen if she managed to escape?
They would cut her off? Big deal. She had a substantial inheritance of her own that she had long ago shifted off Earth and into the intergalactic banking system without their knowledge.
She had been considering settling on Galaxoros and had been using her proposed “vacation” to scout out her new home.
Now, however, she felt very little excitement at the prospect.
She could avoid her father’s demands that she return home once she was recovered from the planet—credits greased palms in all sectors of space, not just that of mercenaries—but idling her days away on Galaxoros no longer had much appeal. It sounded... boring.
It struck her that her life over the years had become exactly that.
It had all been fun when she was young and fresh out of university with money to spend and places to see—outside of the obligatory picture-perfect family vacations which were always more about social connections and showing off to their friends as well as establishing new connection in society.
She had even become bored with her lovers, hadn’t she? How long had it been before Zil?
She didn’t even remember. The last few years had blended together in an endless stream of social obligations and work-related galas.
The last several days stranded on the planet had been some of the most miserable—and most incredible—of her life.
Never in life did she want to be stranded on a barren wasteland of a planet, and yet she would do it all again to enjoy every moment with Zil.
It wasn’t that she wanted to seek out adventures necessarily—although she was getting a certain charge out of it—but she wanted to be right by Zil’s side, experiencing it together. Did he feel the same way? Or did he regret what they did?
She glanced at his profile and promptly tripped and tumbled forward. Zil’s hand shot out, catching her, his red eyes narrowing with the intensity of his focus.
“Have you harmed yourself?” he demanded.
Her heart melted a bit as his eyes raked over her with concern. Stop it! He is probably just worried about a reduction in pay. Her silent reprimand to herself hurt, but it was a necessary warning to her heart not get too carried away by a fantasy.
“Don’t worry, I am not going to fine you for bruises,” she teased. Physical bruises or invisible ones to her heart.
Damn. She was going to be one of those tragic heroines in the alien melodramas pining for the hero from afar. With nothing to comfort her but her wealth, she would simply exist, lonely and heartbroken.
An annoyed look crossed his face. “I am not such a male as you are making me out to be,” he growled stiffly.
Daisy blinked, brought back to herself, and stared at him, dumbfounded.
She’d been so certain that he would have laughed with her.
She had even thought she might catch a look of relief cross his face.
Instead... he was mad. She was still scrambling to mentally catch up with the situation when his jaw tightened at her silence, and he turned away to study the largest buildings in front of them.
Without warning, he headed to the left where a cluster of slightly smaller buildings sat, leaving her to scramble behind him.
“Wait! Wait up,” she panted as she hurried after him.