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The journalists rose, crowding around Darcy, as if they could smell blood.
“When did you meet Mr. A'Cryth?”
“What’s it like to kiss an alien?”
“Did you begin a relationship with himbeforeyour employment at Alien Inc.?”
They stopped short of asking her if she’d fucked her way into the job.
“I don’t need a relationship to get a job. And Ireallydon’t want to discuss this with you,” Darcy managed past the lump in her throat. The entire room was filled with shouts and mayhem.
The glare of the cameras blinded her. The people kept closing in, caging her.
Darcy rose, but she had no way to escape.
“Let me through,” she said, hoping she didn’t sound as desperate as she felt.
But they didn’t budge. They just kept asking about her kissing Nazyn and how it felt. She was trapped.
Then a blur parted the crowd around her. With his Deruzian speed, Nazyn broke through the throng of hungry reporters, coming to stand between them and Darcy.
“That is enough,” he rumbled, towering over them. “You will leave Ms. Taylor alone.”
Then he turned and placed a protective hand against the small of her back. Through the cameras, the incessant questions, the shouting, and the malicious whispers, he guided her out the door.
Darcy’s chest felt impossibly tight. They could leave this room, but the chaos would still follow them. Perhaps forever.
20
NAZYN
“That was a shitshow,” Kiara’s hologram said as she rubbed her temples. “I’ve gotten fifty-three calls in the last half hour asking for an official declaration from Alien Inc. about your relationship.”
Nazyn growled for what must have been the tenth time since this conversation began and continued pacing. On the other end of their room, Darcy did the same thing, eyes downcast.
“The videos from the conference are already going viral. Hundreds of comments flooding in,” Kiara went on, each word sounding a bit more panicked. “Did you really hit one of the reporters and call him a waste of good oxygen?”
“Sadly, no,” Nazyn said. “Violence wouldn’t have helped the situation.”
“Okay, so I need to shut that rumor down real fast. I don’t think anything would’ve helpedthatsituation, to be honest. Guys, you were supposed to go there and schmooze with boring executives and old scientists,notbe at the center of a PR nightmare,” Kiara lamented. “What the hell happened?”
Honestly, Nazyn didn’t know. This felt deliberate.
“Richard Dyson happened,” Darcy said. Those were the first words she’d spoken since they’d left the conference and barricaded themselves in their hotel room. Darcy needed a quiet moment after all of the wretched events of the day, and Nazyn needed to not do anything that would jeopardize Alien Inc.’s future on Earth even more–like actually choke Richard.
Kiara frowned. “The Archam Tech guy?”
“Yeah,” Darcy said, her voice small. “My ex-boss…and ex-boyfriend. And a good friend of Intelligent Inquisitor’s editor-in-chief.”
“Oh.” Kiara’s eyes went wide. “Well, that’s…messed up.”
“I know, I’m sorry,” Darcy mumbled. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. I didn’t know he was going to be here or doanyof this.”
“No, it’s messed up that he tried to get revenge by doing this,” Kiara said. “Alien Inc.sodidn’t need this right now.”
“There’s an easy fix,” Darcy said. The sadness in her voice made Nazyn want nothing more than to embrace her until all her worries vanished. But he didn’t know if she’d welcome his touch right now. “I can quit, if that would make things easier for everyone.”
“No,” Nazyn said sternly. He’d seen how much Darcy enjoyed working in his lab, even for a few days. He would not let Richard taint and take that away from her.
