Dating an Alien Pop Star
Page 5
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By the time we arrive back at the hotel, I’m exhausted. Somehow, it feels like I’ve been kidnapped by aliens for about two weeks, rather than less than twenty-four hours. I think briefly of my two jobs, of one cool and understanding boss and one very angry and red-faced boss; the latter has probably already fired me. I think of my tiny room in the apartment I share with four other girls and a blind Siamese cat. I think of my mother, who has never prepared me for an alien invasion.
If I call her, she’s going to panic and probably end up in the emergency room with an endless panic attack and heart issues.
The bodyguards spread out around the giant hotel suite, two of them remaining in the room that seems to be Griffin’s, and I cast a helpless glance around for Devon.
“Where am I staying?” I give in and ask.
“Dev’s got the other room; you don’t want to sleep with him. He snores,” Griffin says, peeling off the jacket.
“So I’m staying where…?”
“With me, of course. I need someone here with me, and it might as well be you.”
This isn’t the time to break out the whole ‘twenty-nine and eternally single’ thing, but it also kind of is. The last time I slept next to a male was three years ago during a camping trip with some friends, and the guy was Creepy Jerry. I’d only slept next to him because he’d squeezed in between my friend and me in the middle of the night.
“I think I should stay somewhere else,” I say, walking toward the bed while trying to calculate if I’ll be able to avoid touching him on a mattress that size. Of course, that will all depend on if he promises to remain on one side. And if he actually keeps his promise.
To be fair, the bed looks incredibly comfortable. It will probably feel like heaven. But that doesn’t matter right now.
Griffin raises a dark eyebrow. “Are you afraid of me?”
“I didn’t say I’m afraid!”
“But are you?”
“No!”
“Good.” He kicks off his shoes. “This will be a nice period of bonding for us, Wanda.”
“Why are you here?” I demand, sitting on the edge of the bed and crossing my arms over my chest. “You say you want to become the most powerful being on the planet with your music and all of that, but why?”
“It’s none of your business.”
“It’s my planet, so it is my business. You’re not planning to brainwash all of us, and then harvest our organs or something, are you? Keep our livers in jars in a spaceship somewhere? Burn the planet and then plant your weird medicinal drugs here?”
Griffin stalks closer to me with every word, until he’s standing directly in front of me, the glowing light in his eyes showing through the lenses. “And if I am, do you think you’re going to stop me?”
A shudder traces through me. I’m not sure if it’s because of his words or because he’s standing so close. “I’ll have to stop you,” I say in a very brave tone. Okay, actually, it’s not brave at all. More like a wheezy whisper. But Bjork or Kim Gordon wouldn’t just bow down to an alien invasion without at least attempting to protect their planet, and neither will I.
Before I can fully process what’s happening, Griffin’s pinned me down, holding my wrists against the bed under his hands. His body, though slight, feels substantial and warm against mine—simultaneously threatening and a bit of a turn on. “You don’t know me very well at all, do you, Wanda?” he whispers, and I want to correct him about my name, but I find it hard to say anything at all. “I would never come all the way to your planet just to enjoy the food and then destroy it. I’m not cruel!”
“I don’t know anything about you, other than your bad taste in clothes,” I say, but his weight pressed against my pelvis has my body pulsing and warm all over. Bad, bad, bad.
“Then look into me, why don’t you? You could see anything you wanted, if you’d just look. I’d let you.”
When I shake my head, he releases me, climbing right over top of me to take his place on the bed. I can feel the mattress shaking a bit, and I gather my wits enough to sit up and glance at him. He’s maneuvered his way out of the rest of his clothes, leaving only the underwear.
Thank God. Especially since my close proximity reveals he’s not doing too bad in that department. Even under a layer of fabric.
“Aren’t you tired, Wanda?”
Yes, I’m tired beyond the point of belief, but I don’t want to tell him that, especially while he’s stretching lazily on the bed as if he owns the city. “No. I’m going to sit right here in this exact spot all night.”
“No, you’re not. Get up here and go to sleep. Don’t you know you sleep better if you’re not alone?”
“Thank you, Cosmo, I’ve heard that one a few times.”
“Cosmo? Who’s that?”
“A magazine designed for women who are actually doing something with their lives, like working real jobs and living with men.”
“Oh. Sex.” Griffin shifts around a bit on the bed. “Speaking of sex…”
“No. No, no, no, no. I’m going to sleep in the bathtub, I think.”
“Wanda!” Griffin says, his voice incredibly stern. “Don’t be daft; you’re not sleeping in a bathtub!”
“It won’t be that uncomfortable, don’t worry. It looked big enough to fit six or seven people—”
“If I want to have a bath, I don’t want you in there sleeping!”
At this point, I consider opening the window and jumping out, but suicide is still a bit too premature. After all, Devon made it sound like once I’m done helping Griffin with his pop star nonsense, I can return to my normal routine. Back to my lovely bed in my… tiny room… to my two jobs… and…All right, so maybe it won’t hurt to spend one night in a big, comfortable bed with another person, since I’ve been kidnapped by aliens. These are definitely extenuating circumstances!
Right? Right.
With a bit of hesitation, mostly out of stubbornness, I crawl across the length of the bed and settle my head on one of the pillows. Griffin flops over to his side so he can smile at me.
“See. Isn’t that better?”
“You’ll have to shut up if I’m going to sleep,” I say, tugging at the covers so I can slip underneath. Immediately, I feel that magical sense you get when you’re in a really great, warm bed and your body tingles from pleasure at how wonderful impending sleep will feel. I let out a little sigh without meaning to, and Griffin moves closer until he’s straddling my hips.
“What was that sound?”
“What sound?”
“You just made a sound. What sort of sound was that?”
I should push him off, of course, but I can’t find the motivation to do it quite yet. “That was the sound of someone who’s spent all day running around 5th Avenue with an energetic alien who wanted to buy too many clothes.”
“Oh.” He pauses. “You didn’t make that sound because of me?”
I shake my head and think for a few seconds that he might try to kiss me or something, but he returns to his side of the bed.
“Someone turn off the lights!” Griffin says, and I remember all at once that we aren’t alone, thanks to the two scary bodyguard guys in the corner. One of them switches off the lights and plunges us into complete darkness.
“Goodnight.” I shift around, moving a bit further from Griffin. Hopefully, he’ll stay on his side of the bed so I can enjoy my side without fear of entangling legs, or something else equally troublesome, given the still-warm-and-tingly sensations racing through the lower half of my body.
“Tomorrow, we’ll get you some new clothes,” Griffin says quietly, just as I close my eyes and attempt to drift off to sleep.
“What’s wrong with my clothes?” I demand, fully prepared to smother him with a pillow if he says anything bad about my personal style, especially after what that condescending jerk at the store had said earlier.
“You can’t wear the same thing two days in a row unless you’re Karl Lagerfeld, which you ar
e clearly not. Besides, you’ve been really generous to show us around.” He pauses for so long that I think he might have fallen asleep. “And you said you don’t have a real job.”
I’m about to tell him that I actually have two jobs, and both are horribly real, but I decide against it. “Fine, I guess. It’s the least you can do since you kidnapped me.”
I wait for his response, but I never get one. Instead, a few minutes later, I hear quiet breathing noises like a kitten that’s fallen asleep on its back.