Page 26 of Stone Cold Alien

I stepped past him before he could reply. The bond between us seemed to warm as I moved closer. My own body reacted too, remembering how his thigh had felt against mine.

This was ridiculous. I’d known him for a few hours. He was grumpy, stubborn and definitely not human.

None of that made him any less attractive.

Sten pushed himself upright and followed me into the bedroom. His injured wing trembled behind him. By the time we reached the sofa, the dark stone had spread across two of his fingers.

“Sit down.”

He obeyed without arguing. That worried me more than the petrification.

I knelt beside him and checked the bandage. The joint had swollen, and heat radiated from the base of his wing.

“You’re getting worse.”

“I am aware.”

“The blood might help.”

“No.” There was pain in his reluctance.

“You haven’t even let me offer yet.”

“I do not want your blood.”

His fangs were visible between his lips. Remembering how he’d watched my throat made his denial difficult to believe.

“Do you not want it, or do you not want to need it?”

“It does not matter. I will not exploit you like this.”

“Exploit me?” I echoed. “I’m… That’s not…”

I didn’t know what to say to that. All I wanted was to help. Yet he saw it as taking advantage of me?

It wasn’t that. Right? He didn’t have a choice over how his body was betraying him. He didn’t ask for this. Neither of us did. And yet we had to deal with it, somehow. And right now, there was only one way to stop him from turning back to stone.

I opened the first-aid kit and took out an antiseptic wipe.

Sten watched me tear open the packet. “What are you doing?”

“Cleaning my wrist.”

His nostrils flared when I wiped the skin. “That smells terrible.”

“It’s necessary. I’m trying to avoid an infection.”

“Why would you get an infection?”

“Because I’m about to ask you to bite me.”

“Even if I agreed to that, my mouth is clean.”

“So is mine, but I wouldn’t let a human bite me without disinfecting the area first.”

Sten’s eyes widened. “You allow humans to bite you?”

“No. That wasn’t the important part of the sentence. Rule one in nursing and life: better safe than sorry.”