Desire: Ten sizzling, romantic tales for Valentine’s Day!

by Opal Carew

  “Report him to Human Resources,” Charlotte said at once, when I finished the near-miss-stapler-to-the-head story for the second time.

  I sighed. “We’ve been over that—you know I can’t! His uncle and father own the company. Human resources isn’t going to do jack shit about it!”

  “Zoe…” Leah didn’t like harsh language.

  “Sorry, Leah but you know it’s true. I just—”

  Suddenly I heard a strange gurgling coming from the stall beside me. Uh-oh—was someone in there? Specifically, was Mindy the office tattletale taking notes?

  “Hang on a minute, guys,” I told my friends in a low voice. “I’m not sure I’m alone in here.”

  “Uh-oh,” Leah whispered.

  I risked a glance down but didn’t see any feet at the bottom of the stall. My heart, which had started to pound, slowed a little. Whew—all safe, I had the bathroom to myself to bitch!

  “Everything okay?” Charlotte asked.

  “Yup. All clear.” I sighed again. “Look guys, I know I complain about my asshole boss—sorry Leah—all the time but this is the first time he’s actually thrown something at me. I swear I don’t know what is wrong with him!”

  “He’s a jerk,” Charlotte said bluntly. “And he shouldn’t get away with it.”

  “Right,” I muttered. “And he wouldn’t if I had the guts to quit. But I need this job too much—I’ll lose my apartment if I walk off now.”

  “How about that law firm downtown?” Leah asked. “I thought you were going to put in an application there.”

  “I did,” I said. “But they aren’t hiring right now. So I don’t—”

  Suddenly the gurgling sound in the stall next to me started up again. Only this time it was louder—so loud in fact it sounded like the toilet was overflowing. And then I heard this weird music—kind of like a trumpet blast only louder.

  “What the Hell?” I muttered, pushing open the door of my stall. What was going on in the stall beside me? Was someone flushing the toilet and playing a trumpet at the same time? And if so, who was doing it? As far as I knew, we didn’t have any budding musicians at Lauder, Lauder and Associates. Or if we did you wouldn’t know it—I swear working at that place smothered every spark of creativity. Still, I decided to check out the noise. When I bent down, I still didn’t see any feet.

  “Zoe? What’s going on?” Charlotte asked.

  “Yeah—what’s that music?” Leah chimed in. Geeze, was it really so loud they could hear it on the other end of the phone?

  “I don’t know,” I said. “But I’m going to find out.”

  Which was absolutely the stupidest thing I could have done. But of course, I didn’t know it at the time. This being pre-abduction, as I said before.

  Carefully, I tented my fingers and pushed lightly on the stall door. It swung open slowly revealing…nothing. Just a handicapped stall with railings on one side of the toilet and a sink with a mirror over it.

  Wait…maybe not nothing.

  The mirror over the sink was doing something weird. And by weird, I mean it wasn’t reflecting what I expected it to be reflecting—namely my reflection. Instead, it had a swirling pattern going on—a whirling ring of colors that spun outward from a single point. It looked like one of those hypno-gifs you see sometimes where you’re supposed to stare at it for two minutes and then close your eyes and look away and you’ll see something you’ve never seen before.

  Well, I was about to see something I’d never seen before—and it was going to change my life—only I didn’t know it at the time.

  Like a fool, I moved closer.

  “Zoe? Zoe?” the voices of my two best friends pulled me back to reality. I looked down at the phone in my hand and realized I was just holding it limp at my side. When had I taken it away from my ear? And how had I gotten so close to the swirling mirror? I was standing right in front of it, almost close enough to touch it.

  “Guys?” I started to lift the phone to my ear and that was when the swirling stopped and a face appeared.

  Not my face—that would have been normal.

  No, it was another face—an alien face—and it was staring at me, right out of the mirror.

  I wanted to scream but all of the air seemed to have left my lungs somehow. What the hell was going on?

  The alien face looked at me speculatively. It was male—that much was clear. Strong features and gold eyes with vertical pupils like a cat’s stared back at me. He had cheekbones sharp enough to cut yourself on and a nose that looked like it had been broken at least once. A neatly clipped mustache and goatee framed sensual lips that looked cruelly amused. He had dark red skin—almost maroon—I could see a lot of that because he appeared to be wearing a black, wife-beater type t-shirt that left his muscular arms bare.

  Actually, except for the cat eyes and red skin, he looked strangely human. Well, except for the horns.

  Did I mention he had freaking horns?

  Because he did—little short, sharp pointed ones, growing out either side of his forehead—right at his temples.

  I stared at them, dumbfounded, unable to speak for a moment. And that’s unusual for me because I’m almost always shooting off my mouth.

  All I could think was, the Devil. Oh my God, the freaking Devil was staring at me from the mirror of the handicapped bathroom at Lauder, Lauder and Associates and I had no idea what to do.

  My mind started going over all the things I’d done wrong recently. Okay, I might have fudged a little on my taxes. Using my laptop to check reports while I lay on the couch watching Sherlock reruns on Netflix counts as having a home office—right? And then there was the time I accidentally shoplifted a pair of socks. I forgot I had them in my hand and walked right out of the store with them. And then I was too embarrassed to bring them back so I guess I basically stole them but I didn’t mean to so—

  Suddenly, the Devil spoke, ending my train of thought as thoroughly as though it had run into the side of a mountain.

  “Yes,” he said in a deep, growling voice. “She is the one.”

  The one for what? The one to drag straight down to Hell and poke in the ass with a fiery pitchfork? Oh my God, was cheating on my taxes and shoplifting socks that bad?

  “I…I’m sorry,” I stuttered but just then another voice—a piping, high voice like a Disney animal—answered him.

  “If you are certain this female is the one Your Eminence requires, then I shall begin the transport at once.”

  Transport? What Transport? Instinctively, I began backing away from the haunted mirror to Hell but then the swirling started again. And this time there was a wind that went with it.

  A sucking, howling wind that dragged at me, pulling me towards the mirror.

  “Help!” I screamed, or tried to scream, anyway. My voice was lost in the vortex as I was pulled closer and closer to the mirror.

  My feet left the floor and I put out my hands, trying to stop my forward momentum. My phone clattered into the sink and I could hear Leah and Charlotte shouting on the other end of it but their voices seemed tiny and distant.

  My hand connected to the mirror…and sank into it. I gasped in fear as I saw first my hand and then my whole arm swallowed up in the swirling psychedelic colors. My other hand and arm followed and suddenly the mirror was right in front of my face.

  And then I felt myself getting sucked in completely. Lauder, Lauder and Associates disappeared and the last thing I heard was my two best friends frantically screaming my name.

  Then…nothing.

  Who knew the gateway to Hell was located in the employees’ bathroom?

  Chapter 2

  Zoe

  At first I couldn’t see anything but a hazy rainbow—maybe the after effects of the psychedelic bathroom-mirror-portal-thing I’d been sucked into. Then the swirling colors faded and I found I was looking up into five faces—at least, I thought they were faces. They certainly weren’t human faces though, that was for sure. Maybe they were demons? That would mak
e sense although they didn’t look like any demons I had ever seen. Also, the floor I was lying on was cold—like freezing. Wasn’t Hell supposed to be hot?

  I blinked groggily and had a blurred impression of dull silver metal walls surrounding me.

  “Where am I? Is this Hell?” I croaked.

  “The Pure One wakes,” one of them announced in the high, piping tones I recognized as the Disney character voice I’d heard before. Great, I’d been dragged into the afterlife by the demon version of Bambi. Or something that sounded like Bambi, anyway—it sure as Hell (pardon the pun) didn’t look like him. None of them did.

  Ten bulging purple eyeballs on long stalks studied me with apparent interest. The eyes were connected to long, slender blue bodies that looked like some mad scientist had decided to grow three foot long earthworms and dye them indigo. They weren’t completely worm-like though—they each had multiple pairs of arms with long, claw-like fingers.

  Fingers that were currently reaching for me.

  “No…no!” I gasped, trying to roll away from them. “Get away from me!”

  “Be cautious! The Pure One is agitated!” Bambi squeaked and the worm-like demon creatures slithered hurriedly out of my way, obviously not too eager to be squished into worm pâté.

  Suddenly, I saw the Devil again. He leaned over me and I froze at once, startled to see his handsome, horned face staring at me upside down.

  “Be still,” he commanded. “Tazaxx doesn’t take damaged goods and I’ve already spent most of my reserves buying your ridiculously expensive hide. I can’t afford another Pure One.”

  “Another what?” I demanded, trying to sit up.

  “At least you look the part,” he remarked, his golden eyes roving over my body. “Those curves—Gods, no wonder the Ancient Ones wanted your pitiful little planet protected. You’d have been raided eons ago if every female on your world looks like you.”

  “I…my…what?” The way he was looking at me made me feel naked. Then I looked down and realized I was. I was completely nude—butt-nekked to borrow a phrase from my very Southern grandma.

  Not only was I naked, I was lying there on display like some kind of pale freckled, red-headed buffet for the Devil and all his minions to feast on. Well, if he was the Devil. Some of what he’d been saying had penetrated my foggy brain and I was beginning to have my doubts about that, despite the red skin, golden eyes, and horns.

  I had no doubt about covering myself, though. I pulled my knees up to my chest and crossed my ankles tight. I own my curves but I’m still shy about showing them off in the nude—especially to a Devil-looking man who had just dragged my ass through a mirror and was eyeing me like I was some kind of Victoria’s Secret angel sent just for him.

  “There’s no need to hide yourself,” he remarked sarcastically. “I’ve already seen it all—you’ll be most pleasing to Tazaxx. To any male, for that matter.”

  “What are you talking about?” I demanded, lifting my chin.

  He seemed awfully tall and big but maybe that was just because I was huddled on the ground and he was looming over me.

  “Are you the Devil? And is this Hell?” I asked, needing to make sure. “Because if it is, I swear I didn’t mean to take those socks. If you’ll just return me to my home I promise I’ll dig them out of my sock drawer and take them back right away. I’ll pay double what they cost—triple even.”

  The Devil frowned at me, his luscious, cruel lips twisting with the expression. Which raised yet another question—was the Devil supposed to be hot? I mean, in the sexy sense—not the actual temperature sense like all of Hell was supposed to be hot. Oh God, I was rambling, even to myself. I was in so much trouble here…

  “What is she talking about?” he asked someone I couldn’t see. “She’s not making any sense.” He stabbed a finger at one of the blue worm-like creatures. “You told me the transfer process wouldn’t hurt her mental ability. I need a perfect specimen. Tazaxx won’t trade for an idiot—not even a fucking gorgeous one.”

  “I believe, Master, that the female is referring to an Earth religion,” a crisp voice that put me in mind of a proper English butler, stated. “The religion says that those who do evil are sent to a region called ‘Hell’ after death to pay for their sins. There they are persecuted by a fallen deity who torments them forever in a lake of fire.”

  “I would hardly call shoplifting socks ‘evil’,” I protested. “I mean, wrong, yes but evil—no. At least, not enough to get dragged down to Hell. Which I’m guessing this is not?” I added hopefully.

  The Devil—(or not-Devil? Now I didn’t know what to call him)—rumbled laughter.

  “No, little Pure One, this is not your Hell. Look around—do you see any lake of fire?”

  “N-no,” I admitted.

  “Then what would make you think this is your version of damnation?” he asked, his deep voice sounding genuinely confused.

  “I believe, Master, that would be due to your…ahem horns,” the proper butler voice said.

  I looked around—where was that voice coming from? There appeared to be a tiny golden insect sitting on the not-Devil’s broad shoulder. But could such a tiny thing speak?

  “My horns? You have a problem with my horns?” The look on his chiseled features darkened—the amused expression sliding away from his handsome face. His cat-eyes glowed an even more brilliant gold for a moment and he seemed to get even bigger somehow. His skin got even redder and the scowl on his face made him look absolutely terrifying.

  I gave a little squeak and scooted away from him as well as I could. Unfortunately, my bare butt seemed frozen to the cold metal floor so I didn’t get too far. What I wouldn’t give for some panties—even some big old cotton granny panties would do. In fact, they would be great—they would help me slide instead of sticking to the damn floor! Okay, my mind was going on a tangent again. This was bad. Really bad.

  Calm down, Zoe, I told myself. Keep it together, girl. It’s going to be okay. This is probably just a bad dream. A really, really vivid nightmare and you’re going to wake up any minute.

  I hoped, anyway.

  “Master, I could be wrong, but if I read the elevated heart rate and respiration of the female correctly, I believe you are frightening her,” the proper voice said. “Quite badly in fact.”

  “H-he’s right,” I whispered, trying to make my voice sound normal and failing abysmally. “Y-you’re scaring the ever-loving crap out of me, to be honest.”

  “Forgive me.” He straightened up a little and his eyes stopped glowing. “I thought you were making a reference to my parentage. I forgot—you know nothing of my kind, just as we know almost nothing of yours, as your world has been isolated for so long. Very well then, little Pure One. I am not a fallen deity. Or a deity of any kind. I’m just a half-breed smuggler who picked you from the AMI.”

  “The…the AMI?” I asked, feeling my heart rate start to go back to normal now that he wasn’t glaring golden daggers at me.

  “The AMI—The Alien Mating Index,” piped up the worm creature I had dubbed Bambi. “We are an agency that specializes in finding and procuring only the most elite females. Only those that were seeded with hidden talents by the Ancient Ones are found and taken. Our database has millions of candidates on Earth alone and is growing daily as new abilities are being discovered and new and luscious females come of age to be harvested. Males come from all over the galaxy to see what we have to offer and—”

  “Wait a minute, wait a minute.” I said, holding up my hand. “Stop the sales pitch. Did you just say you’re running some kind of an alien dating agency here? Because I don’t remember signing up to be matched with any kind of alien, okay? So there must be some mistake—if you’d kindly just take me back to Earth—”

  “Impossible,” twittered Bambi in his high, squeaky voice. “You have been chosen as the prime candidate by his Eminence, Lord Sarden. He has commanded that you be transported and has paid your contract price in full—we never remit such a paym
ent unless just cause is found.”

  “Lord Sarden?” I said, staring up at the not-Devil guy again. “Lord of what? Lord of who?”

  He shrugged, his impossibly broad shoulders rolling with the motion.

  “Don’t pay any attention—that’s just how the Commercians talk. Obsequious little bastards, always looking to turn a credit.”

  “But Master,” interrupted the proper butler voice. “You would be Lord if you would claim your rightful place. If you would only—”

  “That’s enough, A.L.,” Sarden snapped.

  “Forgive me, Master.” The golden insect on his shoulder—which looked a little like a dragonfly—fluttered its glittering wings in agitation.

  “Forgiven. Just keep your mouth shut.” Sarden looked back at me. “Basically what they’re saying is that I paid for you and you’re not going back.”

  “What?” I demanded, sitting up straighter. Forgetting I was naked, I put my hands on my hips. “You paid for me? You can’t do that! I’m not for sale!”

  “You most certainly are—this whole planet is. Now that the lock put on your world by the Ancient Ones is being dissolved, your entire world’s female population is fair game.”

  “Lock? Ancient Ones?” I shook my head—I was getting more and more lost.

  “The ones who seeded your planet millennia ago,” Bambi said helpfully. “They traveled across the universe, planting the seeds of life on only the worlds they considered the most deserving. Their DNA lives on in many sectors but only on a few, rare, specially selected worlds has it been preserved in its purest form.”

  “And the ‘lock’ they put around your planet is what I believe you Earthlings refer to as an ‘ozone layer,’” said the proper butler voice, which seemed to be coming from the golden dragonfly. “Now that much of it has been removed and your planet has begun to heat, outside investors are free to harvest Earth’s females. Females such as yourself, who are most valuable because they have not bred with any of the other peoples of the known universe. This is why we dub you ‘Pure Ones’—because you have only the pure blood of the Ancient Ones running through your veins.”