In a downtrodden domed city on the icy moon of Titan, Jaxon Hadis loves playing human and enjoys his job as a gigolo. His fun is interrupted when his father sends him on an important mission for their people. This puts him in the path of Zyrina Gray...
Jax wakes the next morning in the hospital, alive and still in human form. Groggy from both the waning anesthetic and the medical procedure, he quickly acknowledges a sharp pain in his chest, thinking, damn that hurt.
He looks around the room, starting with a large window, showing a spacious domed view of The Heights just outside of it. He gazes at the monitor along the wall, blaring a recap of last night's events, shown from every camera angle, except the first-person perspective he experienced. He finally comes to rest his sight on the woman who stood by him through this ordeal, the woman who was there from the moment he closed his eyes, until he opened them again. "Zyrina," he breathes.
"Bastard," she weeps by his bedside, thankful that he's awake.
"Please don't cry, Leannán."
"I'm not crying," she poorly deflects. "You're still groggy and misinterpreting my face."
He smiles at that obvious lie, asking, "How long have I been out?"
"All of last night and most of today."
To him, that time was instantaneous. "Where is that maniac?"
"Tucked away in Titan City's holding cell," she says, "About to be transferred to the penal colony on Callisto. We all may be in The Heights, but he is safely away from us, on the other side of it," she breathes in relief. "Harbin has always been a little off, but I never knew he was concealing such blind rage."
"There was never any indication, that he was obsessed with you?"
"As a woman in this line of work, you meet all types, with all sorts of issues," she recognizes. "He may have mentioned the word Angel to me at some point, but I honestly thought nothing of it. It's no different then what I'd hear from any client: Honey, Sweetie, Baby, or Bitch. Until yesterday, Harbin was never threatening, so all I ever did was walk past him."
He exhales, easing a bit in his harshness, "Thank the Waters on Tethys, that he didn't hurt you."
"You're the one in the hospital," she points out, wrinkling her brow. She is unable to hide her emotions and speaks softly, "Mo cheann... I thought he killed you."
Studying her face, he reassures her, "No. I made sure to move—" he pauses to change his words. "Yes, I was very lucky that his aim was so bad."
Zyna wipes a tear from her cheek.
He watches her closely responding with a subtle smile in between his pangs of discomfort, "It would seem, that I managed to sneak my way into your heart after all, making this lingering pain, absolutely worth it."
She turns from him, concealing her own smile to whisper, "You arrogant—"
"What? What is it?"
"Um...Well, I asked Eddie, my mother... stepmother, and—" Hesitating for just a moment, she blurts out. "We've made up the guest bedroom if you'd like to stay at my place to recover."
The largest grin beams across Jaxon's face and he quickly responds to the invitation, "I could always stay in your room, in order to be a far more agreeable house guest."
She smiles at him, "Pfft. You must be feeling better, because there's that charisma of yours rising to the occasion."
"Don't discount the power of charisma," he insists, "It got me a room in your house."
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