Gabe: Scifi Alien Invasion Romance (Hell Squad Book 3) Read Online Free

life. He and the rest of the squad, injured, on the run behind enemy lines, and he’d had no idea if Emerson was alive or not.
    Until he’d seen her on her knees in the dirt before a raptor commander.
    But Hell Squad had kept fighting, and Gabe had gotten her out. He hated seeing a woman’s tears, and Emerson’s heartbreaking sobs that night had almost broken him.
    Yeah, he knew what he was good at. Killing. The United Coalition Army had made sure of that. First with his training, and later with the experimental enhancements they’d made to him.
    He also knew he wasn’t good with people, especially women. In the past, when he’d needed one, he kept it to a hard, fast fucking and then he left. Most people knew he was dangerous, sensed it the way small animals did when a predator was around, and he was fine with people avoiding him.
    But Emerson had never looked at him like that.
    He thought, for a minute, about pulling her close in his arms and sleeping beside her. Maybe talking a bit.
    But he knew he couldn’t do it. He let her go and slid out of the bed. He was dangerous, and anti-social. She didn’t need him messing up her life. If he had real balls, he’d not sneak back into her bed again. As he dressed, he felt her gaze on him. He didn’t say anything. What was there to say? It was safer for her if this…entanglement didn’t get worse.
    He shouldn’t come back, but he knew he couldn’t help himself. When that ugly ball of pain in him got to be too much to bear, when it was choking him, he always ended back here. In her arms.
    He turned to leave.
    He heard her sigh. “Gabe.”
    Gabe hesitated, then he walked out. He wouldn’t stay. Couldn’t stay.
    Besides, it wasn’t like she ever asked him to, anyway.
    ***
    Emerson lay in the dark, still naked, the scent of sex clinging to her skin and Gabe’s seed drying on her inner thighs. She heard her front door shut and she closed her eyes.
    She felt… God, she didn’t know how she felt. Sad, angry, confused.
    Sex was a biological function. But she knew it gave people much more than that. Since the invasion, people’s attitudes toward sex had changed. Casual sex wasn’t frowned upon. It was a way to feel close to someone, especially when most people had lost their loved ones. It was a way to cope with the stress of their lives, and a way to continue the human race. Not that she had many pregnant women. Most were too afraid to bring a child into such an unsettled world. But soon the contraceptive implants most people had would start to wear off. It was up to Emerson to devise a way to replicate them, give people the choice if they wanted to start a family in the middle of an apocalypse.
    She sighed and rubbed her face. Gabe was just coming here for a release. That much was obvious. It was clear he didn’t even want to talk to her.
    And just because she was confused and feeling upset about it wasn’t his fault.
    She sat up and spied something on her bedside table. A single flower. A beautiful white lily.
    Oh, Gabe . God, the man confused her. She picked up the flower and breathed in its scent.
    Not relishing another night of raptor-induced nightmares, or sensual dreams about a man who was close but at the same time so far out of reach, she got out of bed.
    Her desk was waiting and she had work to do. And it helped her ignore the raw pain inside.
     

Chapter Three
    “Hey, Bryony. Nice shirt.” Emerson smiled at the young girl and waved her into the infirmary.
    The ten-year-old shot her a shy smile. Her dark hair was cut very short due to the fact that the raptors had shaved half her head and drilled into her brain. But she was recovering nicely. Her shirt was olive-green with Hell Squad stenciled on the front of it.
    “Cruz got it for me.” The girl turned her head to look up at the man behind her.
    Cruz shrugged a shoulder. “Wouldn’t fit me.”
    The woman standing beside him snorted. “That girl has you wrapped around her teeny tiny finger, Ramos.