Angela breathed heavily. She realized that in her tirade she had stepped over to where he stood and now glared up at him. Intense heat radiated off his body, seeming to soak into her skin.
“Jim!” her mother cried out in excitement.
Angela felt the woman move behind her and quickly pulled away from Vin to stop her from approaching.
“It’s me, Connie. How have you been? I was so sorry to hear about you and Sheila.” Her mother’s hands shook slightly as she held them out.
Vin arched a brow in confusion. Damn, if he didn’t look human.
“Mom, stop,” Angela tried to pull her mother back.
“I left money on the table for the bill, miss,” her mother answered, shooing her away.
“Mom, it’s me, Angela.”
“I left you a tip, even though the sandwich was cold in the middle. I know that was the kitchen’s doing, not you, dear,” her mother insisted, “but you should say something to your bosses and let them know it’s not your fault. A woman has to stand up for herself in the workplace.”
Angela felt tears burn her eyes, but nodded. “Thank you, ma’am. I will.”
Vin gently took her mother’s hands in his. “My name is Vin, not Jim.”
“Oh, excuse me,” her mother laughed. “I must have left my glasses at home. Of course, you’re not Jim.” She looked up at the man’s face. “But you are a handsome one, aren’t you?”
“Oh, gawd, Mom, don’t,” Angela said, hoping to stop her mother from flirting with the alien. It was bad enough Angela was attracted to him.
“Thank you, Connie,” he stated. “I think you are beautiful as well.”
“Not helping,” Angela said to Vin. He ignored her.
“Are you single?” her mother asked.
“I am trying not to be.” Vin lifted his eyes to Angela and winked. She shook her head in denial, wanting him to stop encouraging her mother down this strange path.
“Do you work?” her mother continued as if Angela was not there.
“Yes. I work in the ash mines, but I hope to open a business of some sort very soon. There is nowhere to go in the mines but deeper into the ground.”
“Hard work is good, but so is ambition. Do you dance?”
“Yes. I have been practicing the local dances. Would you like to see?”
Her mother nodded. Vin didn’t let go of the woman’s hands as he circled his hips and upper body in something akin to a male stripper on a stage.
Angela made a weak noise of protest. She had to stop this.
“Good,” her mother stated with a nod of approval. “A man should know how to dance. Do you own a suit?”
“This isn’t happening,” Angela mumbled.
“I own jeans and t-shirts. I am a working man, and that is what working men wear here.”
“Hmm, a man should always own at least one suit. But, that’s easy enough to rectify. You should buy yourself a nice suit.” Her mother’s voice dipped meaningfully as she added, “Women appreciate a nice suit.”
Angela grimaced. Was she really watching her mother flirt? She lifted up her hands to try to break into the conversation. She stepped closer to their joined hands. “Ok, let’s stop before she invites you to the High School sock hop. This is just weird.”
Vin gave her a stern look. The expression took her by surprise, and she stopped short of placing her hands on theirs to pull them apart. He turned his attention back to her mother.
“You have kind eyes. I’ve got a sense about these things. You should meet my daughter,” her mother offered. “I think you’d like her. She works too much trying to take care of me, even though I tell her I’m fine. She thinks I don’t know, but she has been going into the bank and paying my mortgage herself instead of taking the check I give her to the post office. She sneaks groceries into my cabinets, too. She’s a good girl but works too much. I’d like to see her have some fun before she’s my age.”
“If she is like you at your age, I think she would be wonderful to meet,” Vin said. It was a strangely worded compliment, but then what was normal about this situation?
“Not that it matters, but she is very beautiful. Here,” her mother lifted her hands and stepped back as if excited, “I have her picture in my purse. It’s an older picture, but you’ll see for yourself.” Her mother moved back toward her chair and picked up her purse. Setting it on her lap, she fumbled with the latch for a second before beginning to rock back and forth as she had been doing when Angela first walked in.
“Thank you for being nice to her,” Angela said. “I haven’t seen her that talkative in a long time.”
Vin nodded. “How long has she had the brain deterioration?”
“A few years. It’s become worse in the last six months. New therapies are being offered at Memory Meadows, but they’re expensive and, since they are experimental, the insurance company doesn’t want to cover it. They already act like they’re waiting for the perfect excuse to dump her as a customer.”
Angela looked at her mother. “I wish I knew what was going on in her brain. Is she happy? Is she scared? What does she need?”
“She is a mother,” Vin stated as if it were the easiest question in the world. “She needs for her daughter to be happy and safe. She said as much just now. She worries about you. You work too hard, and she’d like you to have fun.”
“She doesn’t know what she is saying,” Angela denied.
“You have to listen differently,” Vin said. He turned his attention to the older woman. “Connie?”
“Yes?”
“What are you waiting for?” he asked.
“The bus, silly. This is a bus stop. It’s been a long day, and I’m tired. I just want to go to bed,” she said.
“How…?” Angela looked at Vin in amazement. “How do you do that? I can’t get her to answer me.”
“I’m a new voice,” he surmised. “Perhaps I do not stir her memories like you do.”
It was true. She doubted her mother had ever heard an accent quite like Vin’s before.
“Come on, Mom, ah, Connie. Time to sleep.” Angela pulled the covers down on the bed. It was a small feat, but Angela felt like it was a giant win. Her mother was waiting at the bus station so she could go home to bed. To Vin, she said, “Could you wait outside? I’m going to help her change her clothes.”
Vin nodded and left. Angela stared after him for a long moment. Suddenly, the fact he was an alien didn’t matter. In a few minutes, he’d made more progress with her mother than any of the doctors for the last six months.
“I always liked that boy,” her mother said.
“Me, too,” Angela answered. “I think I like him too.”
Chapter Nine
“What’s with the chains?” Angela’s soft voice drifted in from somewhere behind him. Vin had waited for her on the front step of the old building as she tended to her mother. “Don’t tell me you were arrested a second time.”
“I will not tell you that.” He lifted his wrists to look at the heavy shackles. “My brother tried to keep me from running off, so he had the Galaxy Alien Mail Order Bride people chain me to the bed and inject me with something to get the ice cream out of my system.”
“Why don’t you melt them off?”
“Alien metal.” He shook his wrists to make the chains clink before dropping his hands. “I tried, but they’re stuck.”
“Let me see. Maybe I can pick the lock or at least pry it open.” Angela stepped before him and took his hands in hers. She examined his wrists. The darker light was pierced by the glow from a streetlamp. It illuminated the top of her head. In the distance, the sound of traffic reminded him of how much life this planet carried on its back. “There isn’t a lock, not even a seam. How did they put them on you—”
When she lifted her face, Vin kissed her. Her lips were parted in speech, and he took advantage of the opening. His tongue brushed along her mouth, dipping inside. To his surprise, she didn’t back away. When he finally pulled back, sh
e was holding onto the front of his shirt and breathing hard.
“You’re very warm,” she whispered. “Is it normal for you to be this warm?”
“This planet is very cool,” he said. “Normally, I am warmer.”
“How are you here?” She didn’t let go of him. “Why? How long have your people been here? Does the government know? Are you in trouble? Are you safe? Are you…?”
“I understand you have questions.” Vin would rather have kept kissing her. “I came to Earth by spaceship. My cousin signed us up for a service to meet women who may become our wives. None of us wish to mate with the women on our planet. We are not technically related to everyone, but it is a very small gene pool and…do you understand?”
“Of course. Over time, intermarriage within a village could cause harm. I remember reading something about that in my anthropology class before I dropped out of college and got a job.” She pulled away from him. “So you’re just here to marry anyone who will have you?”
“I am here for the free vacation that signing up allowed us to take.” He grinned. “I did not expect to meet anyone like you. I thought the Galaxy Brides Corporation was a joke, but perhaps they know something I don’t. They might even employ psychics.”
“So, you just arrived here?”
“Me, yes. Others have been visiting Earth since the beginning of your time, from what I understand. Officially, your people as a whole do not know aliens are real, and no first contact has been made. However, the public being unaware is not the same as the secret governmental groups being uninformed of life in other universes. Someone sold you the technology to create cellular phones and computers. I only wish they would have given you the more modern version, not the primitive stuff you all carry around.”
“What you’re saying is terrifying, but logically I know today is no different than yesterday in the fact that life is what it is and we’ll continue to go on.” She glanced up at the building to where her mother’s room was. “And none of that changes the fact I need to find a second job to pay for Memory Meadows.”
“Would it help if I let you arrest me again? Would that make this an easy day instead of a hard one?” He held out his hands, willing to let her take him back to the cage. “Would that get you the promotion?”
“No. At this point, I think that would just make things worse. You’d have to explain how you escaped. There would be more charges. Or my supervisor might become angry over the fact I took matters into my own hands and arrested you without his permission or authority. No charges are pending for you, so you’re free to go.”
“Are you free to go with me?” He smiled and tried gallantly to hold out his arm as he’d seen on the transmission waves.
She understood his gesture and slipped her hand onto his arm. “Are you asking me to go to your suite again?”
“If that is your wish, but I thought your mother told me I needed to take you out to have fun.” He began to walk the way he’d come, down the dark street.
She pulled his arm to stop him. “I take it this Skeeter guy isn’t waiting for you, is he?”
“No, he left.”
“I’m assuming you don’t have a car. How about I drive us?”
“Yes.” Vin smiled. “That will be much faster than asking people for rides. And I know the perfect place to take you for fun.”
Angela smiled. The glint in her eye was a memory he would cherish forever, regardless of which planet he ended up on.
He hadn’t known her for long, but everything about her was right. Right for him. The fact her mother was the center of her universe proved what type of the person she was—family oriented, kind hearted, sweet. And then there were her looks.
“Damn,” Vin sighed.
“What?” Angela looked into his eyes.
“Nothing.” Vin wanted to kiss her again, but he couldn’t stop admiring her. He raised his hands to touch her face but stopped when the shackles clanked. He found them mildly annoying. “Come. I know a place that will be fun.”
“I am hungry,” Angela confessed.
“Good.” Vin motioned at her to follow him as he walked away.
“Uh, my car is this way,” she called after him.
“Oh.” Vin stopped and started walking backward. Angela laughed.
Chapter Ten
Angela pulled the car into the all-night diner parking lot and glanced up at the giant ice cream cone blinking on the neon sign. “I wonder what made you pick this place.”
“There is something appealing about it, and it looks fun.” Vin grinned as he reached to open his door.
“I’m not taking you in there,” Angela stated. The drive had been surprisingly pleasant, and the conversation between them flowed as if they had known each other for years. Some of his assumptions about Earth culture were hilarious, but it was easy to see he had a positive outlook and enjoyed life. Maybe his attitude was because he’d worked so hard in the mining business, which sounded about as safe as being trapped in the Monongah, West Virginia coal mines at the turn of the twentieth century. Hard manual labor could often equal hard play.
He shut the door and stayed in the car. “But, what about the fun?”
She again looked at the neon sign. The reminder made her feel like she was harboring a fugitive. Fine, the escaped ice cream bandit was hardly on America’s Most Wanted list, but still. “I don’t think ice cream is the best idea for you. I saw what happened last time. I arrested you last time.”
His smile fell some. “But I enjoy ice cream. The sugar makes me tingle.”
“I’m sure it does,” she laughed. “You kind of remind me of a little kid who’s given it for the first time, eats too much of it, and then runs around on a sugar high like a screaming maniac before crashing.”
“I don’t like the crashing, so I eat more.”
“Exactly my point.” She frowned. “Wait, have you eaten anything else since you’ve been here?”
Vin shook his head in denial. “Sev said the food here was too colorful, so the waitress suggested we have a milkshake that was white. I did. Sev did not. Then I had another. Then another. Then the boy at the counter told me I could have a chocolate one. The girl said I should try the special. It was a beet kale health shake smoothie and tasted awful. I found out it didn’t have ice cream in it. So, then I had a strawberry ice cream shake before trying a soft serve ice cream cone. Then—”
“I’m getting the picture,” Angela interrupted. “Listen, ice cream is well and good in moderation. But how about we get you something else to try? Maybe a nice, healthy salad?”
“I don’t think I like healthy. That beet kale was not nice.”
“All right, then a burger and fries?”
“My cousin likes triple burgers,” Vin said. “All right. I will try that. Kal and I like many of the same things.”
“Not healthy, but not sugar, so we’ll call this a win,” Angela mumbled to herself, wondering if she was the right person to ambassador an alien around town. Looking at him, it was easy to forget he wasn’t from Earth. She had to keep reminding herself of that fact. “Listen, before we go in, I wanted to make sure I thanked you for being nice to my mom. Some people get uncomfortable around the sick. She doesn’t smile a whole lot anymore, and you made her smile. That means something to me.”
“Why wouldn’t I be nice to her? Connie is a nice lady,” Vin said. “Plus, she thinks you should be with me.”
Angela laughed. “I hardly think knowing each other for such a short period of time can equal marriage. It normally takes years to get to that step.”
“Why?” Vin looked confused. “If I know my mind, and you know your mind, then what is the issue? I know plenty of happy Killian couples that knew each other mere hours before marrying.”
“I don’t think Earthlings work like that.”
“Killians do, and you are humanoid like me.” He turned to face her, lifting his leg up slightly onto the front seat. “Close your eyes and listen to your feelings. Sense them rad
iating out of you and then follow where they lead. Love and marriage and life are not complicated things to figure out once you accept that nothing is perfect. It starts with feelings and then ends with a decision.”
Angela hesitated, not sure she wanted to try his experiment. “I understand your point, but how do you know you’re not going to marry someone who beats you or cheats on you? Or has some secret foot bondage fetish? Some things only time can tell, and so time must be taken.”
“Why would a person beat or cheat?” Vin frowned. “I know of this concept, but I don’t understand it. Why decide to marry and allow yourself to love if you plan on betraying that? Love is the simplest of things, and the most beautiful. I think you are complicating it too much.” He reached to touch her inner thigh. Her breathing deepened, and she stiffened at the acute awareness she felt at his touch. The heat from his finger seemed to sear into her skin, not hurting but definitely noticeable. Responsiveness coursed through her, heating her blood with the promise of sexual release. “You let your thoughts swim around too much in here.”
Angela glanced down at her thighs.
“This is where the Earth humanoid brain is, right?”
Angela couldn’t help the small laugh. She took his hand in his and drew his fingers to her forehead. “Close, but my brain is here.”
“Strange. A woman on the street told me men think with their penis heads, so I just assumed the human brain was between the legs.” Vin sighed. “Though, that is good. It appears our biology is closer than I thought.” He touched his chest. “But I was trying to make a point. When I look down, I see my energy reaching toward you like tiny fingers floating in the air. I feel it coming out of me, and I feel it being returned by you. It is lust, yes, but it is stronger than that. I’m looking at it right now. The Reticulan medical missionaries said that I have a genetic anomaly for our kind that allows me to visually detect radiation and energy more vividly than others. Our energies blend well.”
Flame: Galaxy Alien Mail Order Brides (Intergalactic Dating Agency) Page 6