by Magan Vernon
How to Marry an Alien
Magan Vernon
How to Marry an Alien: My Alien Romance Series, Book 3
Copyright © Magan Vernon, 2013
www.maganvernon.com
Smashwords Edition License Notes
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from the author or publisher.
First Edition: November 2012
Cover art by Steven Novak.
http://novakillustration.com/
First edition edited by H. Danielle Crabtree
http://www.hedanicreations.net/freelance-editor
For Baby Vernon No. 2,
I knew I loved you before I met you. Sometimes you just know.
Acknowledgements
The first day I took my daughter to daycare, I cried. It was like I was losing my days with her, but I wasn't. The My Alien Romance series is like that. Though this is Alex's final chapter in the story, this isn't the end. This is just the end of their chapter and it's on to the next.
First off, this series would be nothing without GP Ching, my mentor, my confidante, and most of all, my friend.
To Dani Crabtree, thank you for saving this series when it needed an editor SO badly.
To Steven Novak, somehow you took a vague idea of what I had for a cover and rebranded my series so fully. I don't know what I would do without your constant support and your way with graphics.
To Kelsey Ketch and Eryn Rask, thank you for reading this story in its beginning stages and giving me the pointers to make it better. I value both of you as critique partners.
To Angela Carlie, thank you for helping me out with all things vegan.
To Jennifer Wells, thanks for helping me out with Arizona info, turns out that Northern Arizona isn't actually in the desert, they have trees! AND SNOW!
To Bobby Jolley, Connie Mchenry, Nancy Bryant, and Dianna Davis. Not only do you all provide remarkable customer service, but you can help a crazy little processor write a great accident scene.
To Adam Viel, thank you for not talking to me like an idiot when I asked about aviation.
To Karen Hooper and Susan Kaye Quinn, thank you for pushing me to finish this story and even helping when my alien romance scenes went a little too Fifty Shades.
To the Indelibles, thank you for supporting the weird alien girl, no matter what.
To all book bloggers, I heart you. You are the reason my books sell, because you are all the sprinkles on my ice cream and make my books look better.
And to you, the reader who picked up this book, thank you for taking the chance on an indie author.
Chapter 1
There are two days that every girl looks forward to: her wedding day and the day she finally gets out of high school.
I had been waiting for graduation day ever since I first set foot at Winnebago High School and after the past year I had with evil aliens trying to kill me and controlling my classmates, it was about time.
“I am so proud of you, Alex,” mom gushed. “You’re a high school graduate!” She was always the drama queen. Like a high school diploma was that big of a deal anymore.
“You did great, kiddo.” Brian, my stepdad, patted me on the back.
The late spring sun shone down on us in the parking lot, and I could already see the perspiration bead on his big, bald head. I never remembered it being so hot in May, but I chalked the weather changes up to global warming and hoped I didn't have a big wet spot on my gown from my sweaty back.
I still couldn’t get over the awkwardness of having my entire family in the gym, watching me walk down and get my diploma. I mean my ENTIRE family. My mom and her parents where there. It was always awkward having grandpa around since he believed that he knew my boyfriend, Ace, from somewhere. Okay, so my boyfriend may or may not have flown with him during World War II, but thank goodness grandpa was old enough that I could just say he was senile. Brian and his parents came along, of course, and even though I thought they were a little off their rocker, they always gave good Christmas gifts and I couldn't exclude them. Elijah, my little brother, loved my step-grandfather. In fact, he sat next to him the entire time during the graduation and told him every detail of the bugs that gathered on the back window. Then there was my dad and his parents. They all sat just a row above mom and Brian's family with the same Italian glare pasted on their faces. This blended family thing never got easier.
Mom, her parents, and Brian and his parents stood in a small circle in the parking lot outside the gym doors and dad and his family stood at least twenty feet away. I even think my nona called my mom something mean in Italian under her breath. Dad rarely saw my nona and nanu anymore since he was busy working in an alien operations center, but every time they came in from Chicago they acted like it had only been a few minutes since they last spoke and went back to talking about the same story they had the last time they were there. The story was always about food. I never knew where it was going, but they still kept going on about it.
At least Ace was there to pick me up and twirl me around as if I were lighter than air. My black gown swished around me. Having my alien there was enough to make me forget about my fighting family and just enjoy the fact that I was finally out of high school and would soon be on my way to Northern Arizona University.
“What was that for?” I looked up at him once he sat me down.
He had a giant grin spread across his face. There was absolutely nothing that I didn’t love about his smile or the way that he could just pick me up so effortlessly. In his baby blue sweater and beige trousers, he looked more like a model than my alien boyfriend, which was a good thing if he was going to keep his identity as an alien hidden.
“Can’t I just enjoy this moment with my favorite valedictorian?”
I rolled my eyes, pulling the itchy square cap off my head and smoothing out my hair. “Oh please. I’ve done way cooler things than be valedictorian.”
“Trying to show off for me, now?” He raised his eyebrows and pulled up the sleeves of his sweater ever so slightly.
Even though the temperature was probably approaching the eighties, Ace still had to wear long sleeves no matter how hot it was. He needed something to cover his temperature control suit, so he was better off looking like the weird guy in long sleeves than the guy in the silver jumpsuit.
“Yeah, it’s kind of my thing. I’m a show off.” I bounced on the balls of my feet. Mom might have made me wear a dress, but there was no way I was wearing heels for the occasion. Last time I wore heels, I was attacked by an evil alien trying to kill me and that would hopefully never happen again.
Hopefully.
“Well I have something to show off for you.” He reached out for my hand. I took it and arched a brow, looking behind us as my family just watched from their respective sides.
“What is going on?” I asked.
“You’ll see.” He pulled me through the parking lot, pushing past the groups of people huddled together.
My classmates were lined up all over, taking pictures with their friends in their gowns or just screaming in general. God, was I happy to be getting out of that place. The only pseudo friends I had at the school were the ones that only liked me because they were under the influence of an evil alien. Ugh, why did I always just attract evil aliens and not enough human friends? First Ace's mom, the queen of Calta, came after me and then some psycho ex-girlfriend. It was no wonder that dad kept sending me
pepper spray guns for holidays.
Ace stopped next to an all-black SUV with tinted windows and rims that probably cost more than my entire car. I swore it looked like the same vehicles the president's secret service men drove in. I hoped there wasn't some sort of secret Circe mission I would have to go on and explain it to my mom.
“Uh, why are we stopping here?” I asked.
Ace just smiled and pulled out a set of keys from his pocket, pressing a button and unlocking the doors of the shiny car.
“No freaking way! This is your car?” I looked from Ace to the car and back to Ace.
“No.” He took a step closer, removed his hand from mine, and dropped the keys in my palm. “It is actually your car.”
“WHAT?”
“Just a little graduation gift.” He smiled as I took another step toward the car.
“You have got to be kidding me.”
“Nope.” He shook his head. “I couldn’t let you drive that thing you call ‘The Pox’ to Arizona.”
I opened the door to be greeted by the new car smell. Not just new car smell, but top-of-the-line new car smell. The interior was decked out in plush leather with all the bells and whistles: navigation system, heated seats, DVD player, and a blue box sitting on the passenger seat? That couldn’t have been included.
“What is this?” I picked up the box and held it in my palm as if it might burn me.
Ace took the box and got down on one knee in front of me. I realized that my family were only standing a few feet away. Somehow in all my excitement, I didn't realize they came over. I looked past my mom's cheesy smile and also saw that half the town was looking at us. I could already feel the heat creeping up my neck and looked back at Ace.
He opened the box and a silver ring with a giant diamond the size of a cheese ball looked back at me. “I figure we should do this the right way,” he said with the smile never leaving his face. “So, Alexandra Bianchi, will you do me the honor of marrying me?”
I was speechless. We agreed in front of the alien world that we would someday get married, but I wasn’t expecting a human proposal. I looked around at everyone’s eyes on us. Even stupid Gemma and her rugby cronies stood with their mouths wide open. Then I looked down at the only person that really mattered, my alien. After the events of the past year, there was no one else I wanted to be kneeling in front of me.
I felt the tears well up in my eyes. Not tears of sadness or of pain, but of pure happiness. I swooped a finger underneath my eye and hoped the pound of mascara on my eyelashes didn't all drip down my face.
“So is that a yes?” He arched his eyebrows.
I let my hands lay on either side of his statuesque face. His body was as cold as ice and even with his eyes dark and calculating, the way he looked at me made every single hair on my arms stand up and made me shiver in all the right places.
“It is a definite yes.”
Chapter 2
My graduation party quickly turned from being about my last days of high school to being about my engagement.
“So when are you due?” My great-aunt Cici stared from my giant ring to my stomach. Aunt Cici wasn’t one to hold back her feelings, and I guess she was saying what everyone else was thinking.
“Um, what?” I blinked, pulling my hand away from her wrinkled old lady hand and moving my arms around my stomach. I thought my black, one shoulder dress actually made me look slimmer—guess I was wrong about that one.
Aunt Cici’s lips formed into a tight smile, her wrinkles pulling at the edge of her tiny mouth. “You know, the baby? Why else would a girl your age be getting married?”
I let out a breathed laugh. There wasn’t much else I could do when someone questioned my and Ace’s relationship. It wouldn’t be the first time, but at least Aunt Cici wasn’t trying to kill us because of it. “We are just engaged, for now. We're waiting until I’m done with school before we decide on any sort of a wedding date.”
“Oh, well then, there is always time.” She patted my shoulder before walking toward the kitchen, muttering something that I couldn’t decipher.
“Don’t mind her. She did the same thing when your mother and I got engaged,” dad whispered behind me before I turned to face him.
The months away from him and Circe aged him even more than when I first saw him on base almost a year ago. Back then, I thought he was starting to look like an old man, but now he was really getting into geezer territory. Before I knew it, his dark circles would be even darker and he would be sporting some white Velcro tennis shoes instead of his usual wing tips.
I shrugged. “At least you and mom are supportive of this whole thing, and I guess Brian is too.”
“Yeah, your step-dad does seem to enjoy Ace…” Dad let his words trail, taking a sip of whatever brown liquid was in his crystal rocks glass before looking over at Ace and Brian.
I didn’t actually think my step-dad liked Ace that much, but now he always bombarded him every time he saw him and pretended to be best friends. They were sitting on the leather sofa and Brian kept getting that stupid donkey laugh and throwing his head back like Ace was the funniest guy in the world.
Ace looked up from Brian. When his eyes met mine, I still got the same warm chill that I did the first day I saw him, the day he saved my life, and now, not just the alien world, but the human world knew that we planned to spend the rest of our lives together.
Dad cleared his throat, and I snapped out of my dream world and back to him.
“I know I’ve known about you and Ace for a while, but now that it’s out in the open, I just wanted to say congratulations. You two really are great together.”
I smiled. “Thanks, Dad. It would have been nice if Nerses came, but I can understand.”
Dad just nodded, his eyes darting to the ground. I might have been ready to show my alien to the world, but I guess dad wasn’t ready for that one yet.
I felt the cool breeze from Ace’s body before I saw him. I wasn’t sure if anyone else could feel the cold that seemed to radiate off him, but whenever I felt a gust of cold air it always made me think of him.
“Well, since your fiancé is here, I’ll let you have some time together.” Dad forced a smile and then headed for a small group of people.
“Having fun?” he asked.
I turned to Ace who already had his eyebrows raised in expectance of my answer.
“Ace, this really is too much. I mean first the car, and this ring had to cost a fortune! You didn’t need to do all of this.”
I stared down at the giant rock on my hand. I had no idea how all those celebutantes could walk around with such a big piece of jewelry on their fingers. I felt like it was going to fall off and knock out a squirrel.
Ace shook his head. “Alex, you shouldn't worry about these things. Besides, diamonds are as common as rocks on Calta, so I have plenty of them. But I saved the best one for the future princess.” He winked.
I put my hands on my hip. “So you picked up a rock from the ground to give me? Unacceptable!”
He shook his head and then slinked his arms around my waist, pulling me into a bear hug and kissing the top of my head. “Only the best for you.”
"And there is the happy couple now!" I heard my mom squeal before I saw her.
Ace released the hug, but kept an arm around me as we turned toward my mom. She stood grinning from ear to ear with two glasses of champagne in her hands. "A toast to the newly engaged couple!"
She handed the two glasses to Ace and me, while I eyed her skeptically. "Uh, ma?"
"Honey, it is a special occasion; we need to toast!" She threw her arms up in the air, gathering the attention of the family members assembled throughout the living room and kitchen.
Ace shrugged his shoulders and looked at me. "She does have a point."
Mom grabbed her half-empty glass from the table and everyone raised theirs above their heads before yelling, "Salute."
The last time I really drank anything was when I didn't know the egg nog
was spiked at Brian's family Christmas party. I ended up spending the rest of the night lying on the bathroom floor. Hopefully a little celebration wouldn't make me end up in the same place.
Chapter 3
Even in the dark, the floral wallpaper of the guest room stood out like a big neon sign.
"Ace? Are you awake?" I whispered, trying to tip toe into the room, but hitting my foot on the dresser near the door. I bounced up and down, grabbing my aching foot. I tried not to yell and bit down on my bottom lip and closed my eyes. As I finally opened them again, I watched the form of Ace's body stir under the giant blue quilt.
"Acccce, it's me, your fiannnceeeeeee." I crawled into the bed, wobbling a bit as I tried to gain my footing and lay down next to the Ace pile.
Ace poked his head out from under the blanket. I could just make out the outline of his jaw. He had an amazing jaw line. It rivaled any statue and even David Boreanaz's amazing mandible.
"Alex, what are you doing?"
"What? I just came to see you." I tried to prop my head up on my hand and ended up just falling back onto the pillow.
He turned his head toward the clock on the wall and then looked back at me. "It is two in the morning, and your mother and Brian are right next door."
"Sooooo?" I slinked closer.
His face scrunched. "How much did you have to drink?"
"What? I'm fine!" I protested, trying to scoot closer. Truth was I lost count after a few glasses of champagne, and my counting skills went with my ability to reason.
Ace sighed. "Princess, understand that I love you, but I'm not going to do this while your family is in the next room and especially not when you are inebriated."
"Oh, come on. I know you want to at least cuddle." I burrowed under the covers and pressed my body to his. I was hoping he would be sleeping in just his boxers like he did at Circe, but I could feel the leather-like material of his temperature control suit against my bare legs.