Cutie Pi (Holidays of Love Book 3)
Page 20
I’m not smart enough, witty enough, charming, pretty, otherworldly… That if I’d been as erudite as my sister, and as wild as my brother, he’d be here.
You’re being stupid again, Trini. Rising to my feet, I folded the blanket and glanced once last time at the stars. They’d never be the same to me again, but maybe that was a good enough gift from my adventure.
Clenching my fist tight around the disc, I walked to the door. It was time to change my life.
The damn lock stuck when Diego let it slam shut. I had to reach in with my fingers to try and jimmy it open. With both fingers pinched around the sides, I put all my arm strength into lifting the lock.
BOOM! A great blare broke from behind me. Yelping, I yanked so hard, I ripped the flimsy lock straight off my screen door and flung it into the air. The momentum sent me twirling around and an impossible sight dropped from the stars.
Sleek as a dolphin, a ship painted with a blue and purple swoosh plummeted from the clouds into my backyard. I stared, my jaw dangling as the purely round bottom opened and a set of legs dropped out.
Oh, no. My yard was too small to hold a spaceship! A crunching sound ripped through the once silent spring air as the landing gear obliterated my neighbor’s wooden fence. Maybe I could leave a note? Sorry about that. A spaceship dropped from lower orbit and shattered your fence. Totally believable, Trini.
As the ship stuck into the soggy grass, the engines kept rattling a whoom-woosh noise. I couldn’t hear anything beyond it, my senses filled with the twenty-foot-tall spaceship squatting on my garden patch.
A seam appeared inside of the purple and blue skin, circling up to form a door. I clung to my blanket, trying to not let my imagination take control. It could be anyone. Maybe the Galactic Bank with more paperwork. No reason to think…
The door barely opened before a head with black eyes and purple scales jutted out the hole. “Trini!” he shouted, one hand easing through the door to wave at me as if I wouldn’t see him.
I nearly broke into a run, but my last shred of self-esteem slapped me in the face. It’d been two weeks, and he owed me an explanation.
Planting my feet in the ground, I shouted, “Nolan, your ship is on my begonias.”
He winced and spun around as if he could simply lift a foot and get off of them. The door finished its incredibly slow opening to reveal him in the full. Instead of the old jumpsuit, he wore a decadent suit of cream and gold. Ivory leather stretched across his wide shoulders, while softer silk formed a single sleeve down his right arm. The left arm was exposed to reveal his glowing scales and a half cape of royal purple dangled off the shoulder.
He looked like a prince walking down the gangplank of a sailing ship for his princess. No. Still mad.
“It’s almost been a month,” I called over the gush of his engines.
“Sorry,” he said, “but it took me an excruciating age to get the paperwork through.” Opening his hand, he revealed a holographic screen filled with the alien symbols I still couldn’t read.
I took a step closer, my bare feet squelching in the cool mud. “What paperwork?”
Nolan’s skin lit brighter as he gazed down at me. “A permit. Proof that I can legally take one human off planet whenever I want. Whenever she wants.”
Oh, God!
I broke into a run, feet slapping into the ground. Nolan took one huge step down his gangplank and I leaped into the air. Warm arms swept around my body, the double joints safely holding me tight as he lifted me higher.
We met at the mind, our foreheads pressing together as we gazed into each other’s eyes. Those were the real stars I kept hoping to see every night. “Nolan, I…” I blubbered, my voice bursting from too much emotion slamming through me at once.
“I love you,” he said. “I want you. I need you. I’ve never needed anyone the way I want you.”
“Yes,” I shouted, my eyes awash in tears. With all my strength and heart, I pulled myself to him. Our lips crossed lightyears for that first touch. Soft and gentle, it flitted uncertainly as if worried the magic might have vanished. But, as he tipped his face and caressed against my cheek, the fire caught. My fingers rose from their lock around his neck to run between the dips of his head tendrils.
“Sweet shadows themselves,” Nolan gasped and I watched redness shimmer across the scales of his face.
“I love you too.”
“Be with me. Travel with me. Help me unravel all the scientific quandaries of the universe if you wish. Whatever you want to do,” he shouted at once as if he’d been working on this pitch the entire time he was forced to wait. After combing his three fingers through my hair, he locked his palm to the back of my head and pulled me to his wondrous skin. “Whatever it is, stay with me.”
“Didn’t I already say yes?”
He laughed, his lips quivering as if he’d feared he already lost me and this would all be for naught. Pressing his lips to my skin, assuring both of us that this was real, Nolan said, “Indeed you did.”
“But, I need to tell my family. See them when I can.” I didn’t want to give up everything in my life for this man from beyond the stars. I wanted him to grow with it and expand in my heart.
“Of course,” he said, his smiling lips pressing against my forehead as he repeated, “of course. I’m not certain if I can keep this pod on the planet long, however. Someone will spot it.”
“Then, let’s go.” I dropped to my feet and, taking the lead, started to tug him back inside the ship.
“What about your…you wanting to tell your family?” He pointed out the door even as he followed me.
Falling into the embrace I never wanted to leave, I brushed my cheek against his soothing scales and said, “We can do that tomorrow. Right now…” I slipped my hand under the hem of his shirt and caressed my palm over his belly. “I want to study alien biology with you.”
“Yes, ma’am!” he shouted, prodding at the controls that raised the pod back into the air. I began to stare out the windows when Nolan swept me up in his arms and kissed me for the entire climb to the stars.
THE END