Alex lifted her head slowly. A kink of pain shot through the back of her neck. How long had she been out? At least she hoped she’d been unconscious and was now waking up, instead of dead.

She turned her face to one side, then the other. She appeared to be strapped inside the safety of her ship. There wasn’t a single light left blinking on the dashboard. It was dark, with some places melted from the fire that had ignited before everything went black. Most of the damage on the actual dash looked cosmetic. She prayed she was right.

As her eyes adjusted and focused on the large window in front of her, she noticed the tangle of shrubbery the ship rested in. She took a small breath and released it.

Okay, so she was still alive. Surely she wouldn’t take Promise with her into the afterlife. Then again, it was the only constant in her life.

She pulled the oxygen mask off and let it bounce back into its holder above her head. Alex pressed the button on the seatbelt still strapped tight around her, but it refused to come undone. Every single circuit had fried, and now she was trapped.

“Great,” she whispered. Not only had she crash-landed somewhere she didn’t recognize, but the cargo Sackor hired her to deliver wouldn’t make it in time.

Alex pulled her left wrist up to her face, her heart hammering like crazy. According to her watch, there were only three hours left for delivery.

The gods weren’t smiling on her today. Hell, what was she thinking? Alex didn’t even believe in any gods. There were planets, space stations, and whole sectors dedicated to ancient deities and even made up ones. She tried to stay clear of those places, though she did accept jobs distributing religious memorabilia. Only a month before, she’d delivered a multitude of gold-plated Aphrodite statues to a planet filled with people who worshipped everything about the goddess of love. Those people conveniently used her worship as an excuse to walk around naked all the time. And to engage in any and every sexual fantasy that struck with whoever was closest at the time.

Alex had little understanding of why a society so loose with their morals even needed the statues. Until her customer gave her one of them, and showed her the real purpose for it. Santhia was a pervert. Alex should’ve known the statues were really battery-operated toys.

She hadn’t used the contraption, but still had it somewhere within the ship. Though now, she doubted she’d even be able to find her clothes.

As hard as it was to reach her boots with the hard edge of the belt cutting into her neck, Alex dislodged the small pocket knife she always kept there. After several agonizing minutes, she managed to slice away the taut fabric enough that it snapped off. She sighed in relief.

Alex sheathed the knife and stood up. Her head spun a little, but she anchored herself by spreading her legs a bit wider. She lifted her arms up as far as she could and stretched her spine. As she surveyed her surroundings, her stomach sank at the damage. She didn’t have the kind of credits it would take to fix the interior of the ship, let alone whatever had happened to the exterior, if it could even be repaired. 

This ship was the only reminder she had left of her father. Louis hadn’t been an honest man, but he always took great pains to care for his daughter. She became his everything. It was what he’d say to her every night before he tucked her into bed inside the small cot at the back of the ship. The one she kept bare and unused. There were too many memories in that tiny room.

He may never have told her he loved her, but what he did say was enough.

Alex reached for the necklace Ulric had given her, but even that was gone. She’d left her lucky charm behind. No wonder everything was going wrong.

She sighed.

Memories filled her mind.

When her mother forced her onto planet terrain, Alex wasn’t allowed to see her father. She’d assumed he was dead, either killed by her mother’s guards or by one of his dirty business partners. The last time she’d seen him was when he’d snuck into her room to give her the keys to Promise and tell her where he’d hidden it for her.

That was over ten years ago.

Not knowing if he was dead or alive hurt more than she imagined it would. That had been her first mission. A kid out in space, a runaway searching for her father in the places she knew he frequented. It was how she stumbled into the courier business, after hanging around those dirty bars so much.

How she managed to hold onto her innocence way into her twenties was always a mystery to her.

A tear slipped down her cheek, tickling her skin.

Alex had to get out of here. No use crying about what had happened to her while staring at this mess. She was on a planet. There had to be some sort of village or city, maybe even a spaceport. Somewhere to find a mechanic, anyone qualified to take a look at her ship and confirm the bad news.

She walked further into the ship. The damage as she moved along the tight corridor leading to the sleeping quarters wasn’t so bad. Alex grabbed her backpack and filled it with some water, a few energy bars, several pieces of clothing, tools, and a few assorted blades, plus her ID. Who knew what waited for her once she left the safety of her ship? She’d need credits to pay her way out of this mess.

Alex slung the bag over one shoulder and took a last look around. The only picture she had of her with her father caught her eye. After a second’s hesitation, she stuck it into the side pocket of her backpack. He’d always insisted that a paper picture was worth more than the digital kind.

She headed toward the side door and pushed it open. The metal still felt hot to the touch from entering the atmosphere. A rush of cool air struck her face, and she enjoyed the way it caressed her curls away from her face. The sweat that had built up beneath her clothes cooled her as it dried.

For a second, she cursed herself for being so stupid. She’d opened the door without a moment’s hesitation. What if she’d needed an oxygen mask on this planet? For all she knew, there could have been some poisonous gas in the air.

She shook her head, disgusted at her absentminded manner.

Alex stepped outside but couldn’t find firm ground below her feet. She tumbled forward, flying through the air as her hands clawed to grab at the branches that struck her face and body on the way down.

When she finally landed, it was on top of something that made a sound and collapsed beneath her.

Alex felt the undeniable beating of another’s heart as she scrambled to lift her body upward with both hands. Her eyes met the blazing green ones of a dark-haired man who lay underneath her. Alex had his hips pinned with hers as her legs straddled him. Their noses were only centimeters from touching as the stranger stared at her with wide eyes, and so many questions buried in that one single look.

His hands held her arms down.

“Sorry,” she whispered.

“You fell out of the sky,” the guy returned. He seemed amazed, as if a miracle had just occurred. “Were you sent to me by the Almighty?”

“No, I was sent to you by the tree.”

“What do you mean?”

Alex lifted her chest off his and sat back on his hips to gaze down at the man. His hands slipped off her arms as she took in every detail. He was muscular, in the same athletic way as Ulric. Muscles bulged from his arms like he spent hours at some sort of gym. Though, by the looks of the jungle around them, Alex wondered if this was some sort of rural civilization. Maybe his muscles were from manual labor, a thought that surprisingly aroused her.

Think of Ulric, she told herself. With this hunk stuck beneath her, there was no way she could think about anyone else.  

“I fell out of the tree,” Alex finally answered. “My ship’s up there. I crash-landed here.”

His eyes were shiny. “I watched the fireball descend, but wasn’t sure if it was a ship or a meteor. We rarely have any visitors here.”

“Where is here, by the way?”

“Welcome to the planet of Eden.”

“Eden? I’ve travelled through space all my life and have never heard of Eden.”

“No, you wouldn’t have. We’re a planet hidden behind the moon called Paradise. No one ever notices our tiny planet long enough to think about landing here.” The man’s facial bone structure was amazing. The chiseled jaw, high cheekbones and narrow nose were very impressive.

Alex couldn’t stop looking at him. He was exquisite.

“I need someone to take a look at my ship,” she said after she shook her mind loose of his appeal.

His eyes darkened, but he didn’t answer.

“You do have mechanics on this planet, right?”

“Yes, we have mechanics but not the sort who can fix a… spaceship.” His voice was low, eyes scanning the tall trees above as if he were trying to locate her ship.

“You do have ships here, don’t you?”

“Not exactly.”

“A shipping dock?”

He shook his head. The longish hair curled behind his neck and rubbed against the dirt beneath him. For the first time, she wondered if he was comfortable. Alex had him pinned with his arms at his sides. He’d actually broken her fall. How bizarre!

“How do you people get in and out of here, then?”

“We don’t,” he answered.

Her eyes narrowed as she glared down at him. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that the people of Eden don’t get visitors, and we don’t visit anyone.”

“Then how am I supposed to get out of here? My communication radio’s fried, like pretty much everything else on the ship. Do you at least have that? Some sort of communications device I can use to call someone off this planet?” Alex felt as if she were falling into a very dark tunnel. A tunnel that had her lost forever inside this strange out-of-the way planet. Although it was with a very hot man, that wasn’t much consolation.

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