by Tasha Black
Solo
Stargazer Alien Mail Order Brides (Book 12)
Tasha Black
13th Story Press
Copyright © 2018 by 13th Story Press All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
13th Story Press PO Box 506 Swarthmore, PA 19081
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Contents
Tasha Black Starter Library
Solo
Solo
Drago (Sample)
Tasha Black Starter Library
Intergalactic Dating Agency
About the Author
One Percent Club
Tasha Black Starter Library
Packed with steamy shifters, mischievous magic, billionaire superheroes, and plenty of HEAT, the Tasha Black Starter Library is the perfect way to dive into Tasha's unique brand of Romance with Bite!
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Solo
This special effects artist is a master of illusion. But her alien intended is determined to solve the mystery of her past.
Cecily Page makes movie magic with special effects and make-up. Her wild creations and fun-loving personality give her a sought-after status in the movie industry, and a rock & roll lifestyle that has her traveling nearly every day of the year – just the way she likes it.
Solo has arrived on Earth with only one mission. He must use his movie star good looks and skills in bed to win a human woman as his life mate. But although he lost his heart to Cecily the moment before he met her, he can see she is determined not to abandon her independent lifestyle, in spite of their intense attraction.
When Solo learns of a mystery in Cecily’s past, their road trip to the Glacier City Comic Con turns into a race to unravel the threads of a riddle that will land them with information neither of them could have imagined.
When the truth comes out, will Cecily be ready to open her heart? Or will Solo be so lonely forever?
Solo
1
Cecily
Cecily breathed in the delicious air of the meadow.
She knew she was dreaming, but the details seemed more real than any dream she’d ever had.
Crystal drops of dew sparkled on the leaves of the ancient maples and oaks surrounding the clearing, and a low mist clung to the ground as it always had at dawn.
Cecily hadn’t been in the glade since she was a child. She and her friends had played here often, pretending to be the Knights of the Round Table.
It was certainly the children’s kingdom. The only other regular visitors were the Quakers in town, who used to come for their outdoor weddings. Cecily and her friends would sneak up and watch through the trees as the women in white cotton braided their long hair with ribbons and flowers, and the shirtless men danced and played their guitars under the afternoon sun. The most interesting part had always been the kiss at the end of the ceremony.
Though her mother called the Quakers hippies, Cecily herself couldn’t imagine anything more romantic. It was half Shakespeare, half King Arthur.
Cecily had always imagined she would have her first kiss in the meadow.
It hadn’t worked out that way, of course. Her actual first kiss had been at the town pool on a blisteringly hot day, with the scent of chlorine thick in the air. It hadn’t been particularly romantic.
She’d always wanted a second chance at a first kiss in the glade.
But that could never happen. Aside from the obvious fact that her fist kiss was more than a few kisses ago, her Aunt Stacy told her the woods behind the high school had been leveled to make a parking lot for the new shopping center.
Of course, anything was possible in a dream.
She took a few steps forward. A rabbit hopped into the trees, but otherwise it was perfectly still, nothing but birdsong and the rustle of the breeze through the grass.
Cecily found that odd. There should be sounds coming from the shopping center, it couldn’t be more than a couple of hundred yards away.
She closed her eyes and listened, but there was no hint of car engines or any other human interference.
The breeze caressed her hair like a lover and she opened her eyes again.
She wasn’t alone anymore.
A man stood at the center of the glade. He was built like a god, tall, with broad shoulders, dark hair and piercing blue eyes.
There was something familiar about him, but she knew there had never been anyone like this in her hometown.
His hungry gaze beckoned and she went to him without hesitation.
The dewy grass tickled her bare toes as she closed the distance between them. The air seemed to hum with electricity.
He lifted his hands, palms outward as she reached him and she placed her hands against his, knowing instinctively what he wanted from her.
The air around them swirled and out of the corner of her eye Cecily saw ghost images, like a sped-up special effect, herself and her friends as children, the weddings, the rabbits and the squirrels, the dawning and setting of a hundred translucent suns.
At first she was frightened, but the man sent waves of remembered comfort through the place where their hands touched.
And then it was something more than comfort.
The rush of memories receded as she looked up into his ocean blue eyes and lost herself to the agony of longing she saw there.
He leaned down slowly, as if afraid she would startle like one of the rabbits from her memory.
But Cecily had never craved anything more than this man’s kiss.
When he pressed his mouth to hers, she saw a universe of stars spread out before her and heard the sound of distant chimes.
Flames of desire licked her insides and she kissed him back greedily, tasting the starlight of distant planets, feeling crystalline sand between her toes.
She was there and she was not there.
She was lost and found, tangled in the arms of this strange prince, in the enchanted glade of her childhood, panting with lust and yet transported beyond the confines of her body.
“Please,” she whispered, not sure what she was begging for.
His mouth smiled against her lips and she felt the press of his big body more firmly against hers. For all his gentleness the evidence of his own need pulsed hard and huge between them.
He pulled away slightly to look at her.
She had the feeling again that she knew him, but his identity was just out of the reach of her lust-addled mind.
“Cecily,” he said softly.
She searched his face for clues.
“Cecily,” he repeated, louder this time.
The glade began to fade away.
There was a knocking sound.
“Cecily,” Kate’s voice said.
Cecily turned and found she was in her bed, tangled in the sheets, gray dawn filtering through the blinds.
“I’m up, I’m up,” she called to her roommate.
“Awesome,” Kate called back. “We’ve got to get on the road soon. The guys are grabbing coffee.”
The guys.
She knew who the mysterious stranger was now, of course.
She couldn’t escape him, even in her dreams - Solo, the tall, dark and handsome, the gentleman, the alien. He was her ceaseless companion by day and her reckless lover by night.
Well, in her dreams at least.
Though she had every intention of resisting the attraction in real life, in these moments between sleep and waking she wondered how long she could realistically hold out.
Cecily stretched and unw
ound the sheets from around herself.
There was no point worrying about it today. Today was the day they all piled into the rented RV and began their journey west. She wouldn’t be thrown into any dangerous scenarios for the duration of the cross-country road trip. She and her two roommates, and the three aliens they had taken in, would be thrown together twenty-four seven. They wouldn’t have the time, or the opportunity, for any fooling around.
It was still unbelievable to Cecily to learn that there was life on other planets, let alone that she and her roommates had taken in three fugitive aliens. When the other two women began falling in love with the massive, hunky men, Cecily had decided to steel her heart against the temptation.
She lived a wonderful, carefree life, traveling the country to do make-up and special effects. She had a community of close colleagues, no shortage of friends with benefits when she wanted them, and zero intention of pinning her hopes and emotions on a man. Her mother had allowed herself to be hogtied by love and Cecily saw where that had gotten her.
So Solo was hot, so what? Cecily could have nearly any guy she wanted. Solo’s impeccable manners and kind-hearted smile could make someone else happy. Cecily was her own woman.
Though the thought of Solo and another woman did give her a pang, Cecily would get over it. She always did. She had a handful of ex-friends-with-benefits who had settled down. There had been no hurt feelings or jealousy on her part. Hell, she was “Aunt Cecily” to one or two of their kids. Solo would be no different.
Solo needed more than a fling. He needed to find a woman to click with so he could become permanently human and thereby cement peaceful relations between Earth and his home planet, Aerie.
Maybe she could help him pick someone nice, someone who would appreciate him.
The thought troubled her somehow, and she pushed it aside, grabbing her robe and heading to the shower.
Hopefully, a hot shower and an even hotter cup of coffee would tame her wild emotions.
It was going to be a fun day - she was sure of it. Cecily had always loved road trips.
2
Solo
Solo carefully placed the last of Beatrix’s belongings on the sidewalk near the recreational vehicle Kate’s agent had rented for their journey.
He paused for a moment, stretching, trying to think of any reason to stall.
He had moved all of his own and his brothers’ things down, and then all of Kate’s and now Bea’s.
The only thing left to do was to load Cecily’s things.
But Solo couldn’t risk moving them.
“Is that everything?” Beatrix asked. She had been loading bottles of water and cans of soda into a cooler next to the vehicle while Solo ran up and down.
“It is nearly everything,” he told her politely.
“What’s left?” she asked.
“Just Cecily’s things,” he told her, trying not to wince. There was no way he could explain his hesitation to her, and he hoped she wouldn’t ask.
“Oh,” Bea said, sounding surprised.
Solo could hardly blame her. Bea had recently been mated to his brother Buck. And Kate and Kirk were together as well.
It was hard not to imagine that everyone was looking at him and Cecily and wondering when they would bond. They were the only ones left.
For his part, Solo wanted very badly to take Cecily as his mate.
But his intended was a puzzle. She was kind and lighthearted, and yet she slipped through his fingers each time he tried to connect with her more deeply.
Solo would not rush their mating, not until he understood her through and through. And he refused to use his gift to aid their connection. It seemed like a betrayal of sorts, and that was no way to begin a relationship. Everything with Cecily must be just right, which meant Solo had to be patient and let things happen in their own time rather than use his power to provide a shortcut to a connection.
This decision made him feel content in his good manners.
But it made helping her move her things… complicated.
“Hey can you help me with this?” Cecily asked breathlessly.
He turned to see that she had come out of the lobby behind him, her arms full of even more belongings.
Spilling out of her bags were notebooks, a phone cord, and her laptop case.
He couldn’t safely touch any of it.
Solo opened his mouth and closed it again.
“Here you go,” Buck said from behind him, jogging up to take the bags from Cecily’s hands.
Solo thanked his lucky stars.
At least his brothers understood his situation.
Kirk caught up to them, a tray of coffee in one hand, a box of doughnuts in the other. He winked at Solo and seemed to be laughing at him.
Sure, it was easy for Kirk to laugh. He had his smiling mate warm in his bed every night. His troubles were few and he had someone to share them with.
Patience, Solo, he told himself. Everything in its own time.
“I think this is everything,” Kate said, coming out of the lobby with an enormous stack of Beatrix’s things.
Solo nearly did a double take, then he remembered that she had likely received his brother’s gift when they mated. Kirk could manipulate gravity - making light things heavy or heavy things light.
Now it appeared that Kate could do it too. She looked enormously pleased with herself, though Cecily stared at her in abject wonder. If Kate had shared Kirk’s gift, she hadn’t told her friends about it.
Solo wondered if Cecily might share his gift when their time came to be mated.
The idea brought him no joy. His gift could just as well be called a curse. He had no wish to burden her with it.
“Are we ready?” Kate asked, sounding excited.
“Yeah,” Cecily said. “I’ll take the first shift driving, if you want.”
“Sounds good,” Kate said, tossing Cecily the keys. “Solo will sit shotgun and keep you company.”
“Are there many predators?” Solo asked. He had not expected they would be traveling through dangerous territory, but he was prepared to defend their group if the need arose.
Cecily began laughing almost immediately.
Kate looked back and forth between Cecily and Solo.
“Shotgun,” Cecily gasped between giggles. “You told him to sit shotgun.”
“Is the shotgun seat not the position for the party member whose job is to prevent attacks by animals and outlaws?” Solo asked.
Cecily began giggling again.
Solo was not in the least embarrassed. If his failure to understand amused her, he was at her service. He loved the carefree sound of his mate’s laughter.
“I guess that is the reason for the term, but we normally just mean the front passenger seat these days when we say it,” Cecily explained. “We don’t expect to bump into any outlaws.”
“Excellent,” Solo said. “But if we do, I will be prepared to protect you no matter which seat I am sitting in.”
“Thank you,” Cecily said sincerely.
“It is my pleasure,” Solo told her slowly, enjoying the way her cheeks tinted pink before she turned away.
Kate and Bea were still giggling behind his back.
He turned and winked at them.
“Let’s get this show on the road,” Cecily said.
He could tell by the triumphant note of her voice that she was looking forward to their journey.
And if she had fun, so would he. Her joy already brought him joy, and they were not yet mated.
Solo slipped into the shotgun seat, armed with only the hope in his heart.
3
Cecily
Cecily had just begun to settle in and enjoy the road. Getting out of the city during her first hour of driving such an enormous vehicle for the first time had been a little hairy.
Solo seemed to know instinctively that the best thing he could do was to stay quiet and attentive. His big, silent presence was somehow comforting.
&nb
sp; Thoughts of his big body led Cecily down a path she didn’t want to explore. She fixed her gaze out the window at the cars on the highway. They looked so small from up in the RV’s driver’s seat.
“This is truly an efficient vehicle,” Solo observed, his deep voice sending a little shiver down Cecily’s spine.
“I don’t know if I would call it that,” she said, ruefully studying the fuel gauge. “We’re going to burn through a lot of gas on this trip.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean efficient as far as fuel consumption,” Solo said. “I meant the efficiency of having everything you need in one place - sleeping quarters, bathing area, food storage and even games, all inside your vehicle.”
“Well, no one would want to live in this thing for long, but we do have a long distance to travel,” Cecily said. “It’s nearly three thousand miles.”
“Wow, that is an unbelievable distance,” Solo said.
She heard the smile in his voice and saw that he was smirking at her.
Oh.
“Yeah, I guess you’ve traveled a lot further than that, huh?” she asked.
“We did,” he allowed. “Designing a craft that would get us here and still accommodate the needs of our human forms was a challenge.”
“But you guys were up to it,” Cecily said. “That’s pretty amazing.”
“I helped to design that ship,” Solo told her. “It was great fun to solve the puzzle of how to accommodate for waste and nourishment. Humans are very adept consumers and producers. It’s tricky when there is so much time and distance involved.”
“You designed that ship?” she asked.