A space cruise with her bestie seems like the vacation of a lifetime until Holly Winters gets abducted by aliens and finds herself on a slave ship. When the ship’s AI goes haywire and accidentally releases the prisoners from their cells, she makes a break for it—only to be kidnapped again by a huge horned and hairy alien. Aeon claims to be a prince, but he acts like a royal jerk and refuses to let Holly go. But she’s determined to locate her friend and somehow get home to New Terra. Prince Aeon of Araset is enjoying his last breath of freedom from royal duties when he’s accidentally ensnared by slavers trafficking in alien species, including the protected, but despised humans. At the first opportunity he escapes in a tiny evac pod and lands on the nearest inhabited planet. In an impulsive act of sympathy, he takes a human female with him to save her from a fate worse than death. Now he’s stuck with the talkative, conspicuous nuisance. For her own safety, he can’t release her. At odds at first, Holly and Aeon quickly discover that on a hostile, dangerous planet being friends and working together offers more benefits than fighting. But when friendship turns passionate, emotions remain guarded because both know they are *loving* on borrowed time. Upon their rescue, Holly must return to New Terra. A human would never be accepted on Araset, and Aeon must bond with a royal of his species to inherit the throne. Can two lovers from different worlds defeat the forces against them and find happiness together?