Page 26 of Protected By the Alien Commander

Olivia

The next day,I looked up at the alien I had grown to have very strong feelings for. "Do you know where we landed? Is it near where we were before?"

Why did I ask such a stupid question? How would he know that? Nothing on the ship worked after it had gone dead. It was just bad luck that this ship died right as we were about to get into space.

Doshax’s hand was warm and gentle as he rubbed his thumb along my shoulder. I couldn’t help but smile as tingles simmered throughout me at his touch. Even though he was just rubbing my shoulder, nothing sexy at all, I wanted to take him back to our room and explore his body.

"I was busy landing the ship, and we were going too fast for me to recognize any landmarks.”

Yeah, I felt like an idiot. Of course he couldn’t have seen anything. "Do you think it’s strange that the ship died? Just like ours did?” I pushed my hair out of my eyes.

Doshax paused, as if trying to figure out how to word something. My stomach twisted. It had to be bad.

"Just say it, and don’t sugarcoat it for me. I want to know how things really are."

“What does sugarcoat mean?”

“To make something not sound as bad as it is.” I chewed my bottom lip. I didn’t really want to know how bad things were.

"I think there is something about this planet that is causing the ships to lose all power. I do not know what it is, though. Any rock that is magnetic or even with unusual properties would not have been able to make our ships fail in space, no matter how close we were to the planet.”

I looked down, trying to process what he had said, but I got distracted by the rippling muscles on his chest. We needed to find him a shirt, or I wouldn't be able to think around him.

“I am going outside to check the area around the ship.”

I followed him out of the medical room and down the corridors to the outside door. He tapped the vidscreen, then tabbed through the menu system until he found one that showed a wide-angle view of the outside area around the door. There were tall trees with gnarled, twisted limbs like the shorter trees we had seen before. The trees were taller than the ship. If there were this many tall trees, there had to be water, right? I mean, you couldn't have too much water. Not when you were on an apparently uninhabited planet.

I tried not to think about what it meant that there was something on the planet preventing us from leaving. Surely when our ship had been so close to breaking into space, the on board emergency beacon would have alerted someone, like Doshax had said. Someone had to be coming for us.

Doshax turned around and faced me and my friends, who had joined us. "I am going to walk the perimeter around the ship. Do not come outside. For anything."

I reached out to him. "But what if something out there attacks you? Like those giant lizard things? You need protection of some sort.”

He smiled, placed his hand under my chin, and rubbed my cheek with his thumb. I melted into his hand. I hoped I wasn't blushing.

"I have my blaster and scope. I will be fine." He leaned down, gave me a quick kiss on the lips, then turned and walked out of the ship.

I leaned against the wall, my lips still tingling from his kiss, not letting my eyes move from his figure on the vidscreen.

My friends moved up to stand next to me. Miranda spoke first. "So, he just kissed you on the lips."

I ignored her.

"You weren’t gone very long from when you left our ship. But you're already in a relationship with an alien?"

I huffed and turned to her. "He saved my life twice from two different types of bitey animals. Then he made a shelter and gave me his jacket to keep the UV rays from burning me any more than they already had. Doshax is the nicest, most caring man I have ever met.”

Miranda squeezed my arm. "I'm not judging you." She was totally judging me. "I'm just surprised. You have never gotten into a relationship this fast. And, he’s an alien."

"Like I said, he’s the best man I’ve ever met. And he’s a commander in the military with his own squadron.” I pushed my hair back. “I know you’re looking out for me, but I don’t need your approval.”

"I know,” Miranda said. “I remember when you introduced him but—”

Ava interrupted the awkward moment. "Miranda, you don't know what happened out there, and it's none of your business what Olivia decides to do."

Wow, I did not expect her to stand up for me.

Miranda turned to Ava with a frown. "Hey, I'm just looking out for her, all right? I mean, we know absolutely nothing about him or his alien species, and she just met the guy, what, two days ago? That's moving really fast."