Silas: Imperial Warrior (A Sci-Fi Alien Warrior Romance) by Ashley West Page A

the kitchen, asking about her inn and making sure she was still fine with him being there.
    But today was different. Today, she was off of work again, and she had promised that she would drive him out to the scene of his crash. Waiting for an entire week for her to have time had been hard, but he recognized that he had no idea where he was going and didn’t want to end up wandering around some strange city alone looking like he did.
    So far, he hadn’t gone out much. He was sure that Katia’s neighbors caught glimpses of him when he was out watching the sun rise and set each day, but she’d said that none of them had made any comments about the color of his skin. Which he appreciated. The last thing he wanted to do was cause some sort of riot or panic because he couldn’t blend in well.
    As anxious as he was to get going, he recognized the need for Katia to get some rest, so he tried to keep his pacing and anxious fiddling to a quiet minimum as the sun came up and then rose higher in the sky.
    She gets up every morning with the sun to work all day he reminded himself, telling himself over and over again to be patient.
    But being out of the loop and unable to do anything had never sat well with him, and he wanted nothing more than to wake her up and get the day started. He was just considering dropping something heavy on the floor just for the sound it would make when he heard the mumbling that accompanied Katia’s morning routine. It was followed by the sound of the shower coming on, and he sighed with relief.
    Of course that was short lived when a scream erupted from the bathroom.
    It was interesting how he didn't stop to think. All he did was react, moving faster than he'd moved since he'd come to this planet and actually vaulting over the couch. He pushed open the door to the bedroom, rushing through it without stopping to look at anything before he grabbed the handle of the bathroom door and pushed that open as well.
    "What happened?" he demanded.
    Katia was there, naked and wide eyed, and she jumped when she saw him standing there. "What are you doing?" she demanded.
    "You screamed," Silas said, as if it should be obvious.
    "So you come bursting in here!?"
    "You screamed," he said again, slower this time, in case she somehow couldn't understand why that might be worrying to him. "What happened?"
    "There was a spider," she mumbled, putting her hands over her face. Which...actually didn't do anything to cover her body at all. Silas tried hard not to look.
    "A what?"
    She pointed at the corner of the shower floor with one hand, and Silas leaned in to see a small insect like creature there. It was black with eight legs, and as he watched, it scuttled further away from the spray of the water.
    Imagine, screaming at the sight of something like that. The ones on his planet were much, much more frightening, and he let out a low breath, relieved that there wasn't a bigger problem.
    "Is that all?" he asked, leaning in and capturing the spider in his hands. "I thought you were hurt or someone had broken in."
    "Well, I'm fine," Katia said, bordering on hysterical. "So you can leave now. Okay. Bye."
    Silas chuckled. "My apologies."
    "Oh, right. You sound real sorry," she snapped. "Get out!"
    "I'm going," he said, and left the bathroom, closing the door behind him. He hadn't meant to, but he'd gotten a very good look at her naked body in there, and he had to let out a messy breath because he very much wanted to touch her skin and see if it was as soft as it looked. He had wondered at the extent of her sun spots, and now he knew that they went all the way down her neck and chest and then even further down. He wondered if her inner thighs were spotted. If they were warm and silken. How they'd feel wrapped around him...
    Silas shook himself. This was not what he was here for, and he still had the spider in his hand. Carefully, he set the creature outside and then went back to his waiting.
     
    "I really am sorry I walked in on you,"