Are We So Lucky?

Ex-soldier turned professional salvager, Daxilenus, is working on a solo gig, dismembering a spaceship wreck for spare parts. That’s the way he likes it best. People and noise are unwelcome reminders of the old wars he fought and of the soldiers he lost. Being alone means there’s nobody for him to lose. But right as he’s finally finding some semblance of peace, the dying ship goes haywire, accidentally teleporting a random human on board.

Lola isn’t entirely convinced she isn’t astral projecting. Surely that’s the only reasonable explanation for the alien towering over her, speaking a language she can’t understand. “Try meditation” her court-appointed psychiatrist had instructed. “It quiets the mind.” Now, as she tries to wake herself up, she’s faced with the startling possibility that her alien is real… And really grumpy.

Trapped in a dying spaceship with a smiling, sunny stranger who never shuts up is Daxilenus’s own hell—but not for the reasons he’d have guessed. It isn’t Lola’s constant chatter that’s driving him crazy; it’s his constant desire to touch her. Hold her. Protect her. She’s everything he’s not, and suddenly he isn’t dreaming of the war, but of Lola. And of everything he wants to do to her.

If he could bear the possibility of losing her, he might be tempted to keep her…But how could he be so selfish, after all the people he’s already mourned?

Short, sharp and sensual, this stand-alone novella is the perfect way to escape Earth, at least for a little while