How to Marry an Alien (10 page)

Hmmm, maybe that was why she was so angry all
the time. Being in the closet probably wasn't easy. No, I couldn't
sympathize with Riley. She was the one that gave me crap for being
a high school intern, and now she was dating someone only a year
older than me.

"And it doesn't bother you that she is so
much younger?" I pressed. I had to. I couldn't help but push
buttons.

She shook her head. "No, why would it? Yeah,
she is a few years younger, but when you have enough in common with
someone age or gender or anything else really doesn't matter."

That was not what she was saying a year ago.
I think she actually shrieked 'ew' the first time she found out I
was even interested in Ace.

"Oh, I was just curious. My fiancé is only a
few years older than me." More like a few decades, but she didn't
need to know that. That part of her memory was erased.

"I saw that giant rock on your finger.
Congrats on the engagement. From the few seconds I met Ace before
you two ran off, he seemed like a pretty cool guy."

Where the hell was the Riley from last
summer?

"He is pretty great."

"We should all totally go out and do
something. I know classes and stuff are crazy this week, but if you
all are free this weekend maybe we could hit up the bowling alley."
She finally shoved the piece of lettuce she had been holding in her
mouth.

Last time I went to a bowling alley with
Riley, her and Gavin, another intern, basically cornered me and
told me what a bad guy Ace was. In turn, it ended up being their
perception of him. It still left a bad taste in my mouth about
bowling alleys. I couldn't even go to my high school's charity
bowling event because I hated bowling alleys so much since that
night.

"Sure, we could definitely do something as a
group."

In her dreams…that hopefully wouldn't be
getting sleep creeped by an evil Caltian and ruining this new, sort
of likeable Riley.

I stayed way later in the cafeteria talking
to Riley about everything from life on campus to old Hollywood
movies. It turned out that Riley wasn't actually the monster I
thought she was. But since I stayed so late talking to her, by the
time I got to my room all I did was crash into my bed instead of
working on my assignment.

I was actually running early when I headed to
com and saw that there were a bunch of tables set up outside the
communication's building. On closer inspection I realized that it
was all posters that were stacked up on different displays. There
was everything from musical groups to the classical paintings of
Monet. I had some time to kill so I walked up to a table and
flipped through a big stack of prints. I should have been working
on my outline, but I could never resist a good poster.

At the first glance of a nylon clad foot I
knew it was the poster I wanted. I peeled the print out from the
bottom of the pile and held up
The Graduate
movie poster to
see it in all its glory. I was always a sucker for Dustin Hoffman
and
The Graduate
was my favorite, even more than
Tootsie
or
Rain Man
. Finally, I found something to
put on my wall to balance Lucy's tie-dyed tapestries.

"You know, I think we might have some other
older movie posters on this rack over here."

I looked up to see a very tall man with a
long white beard, wearing a trapper hat, complete with furry ear
flaps.

The only people I knew who wore winter items
in the summer, especially in Arizona were aliens and
oh
crap
…

The man's smile grew at least twice its
original size. "Say, you wouldn't happen to be the Bianchi girl,
would you?"

How the heck did every alien seem to know who
I was? Did I have some giant statue erected of me at Circe or a
premium spot in some alien tabloid?

"Yeah, that would be me, Alex Bianchi." I
forced a smile.

"I thought I'd never see the day!" He clapped
his big, furry hands together. "A real celebrity right here at my
poster stand. Proji told me you'd be here, but I never believe her.
She's always telling stories."

I had no idea who Proji was, nor did I really
care. I just wanted to get my poster and get the heck out of
there.

"Yeah, well, I'd love to stay and chat, but I
really have to get to class. How much is the poster?" I reached
into my messenger bag for my wallet.

"Oh, no charge for you. I wouldn't dare
charge a princess."

I snapped my head up and looked from my left
to my right, hoping no one had heard him. Was that really something
he should be talking about in public?

"Um, are you sure? Really I'm just a normal
girl and I can pay for my own poster," I said, pulling out a
ten-dollar bill.

"Your money is no good here." He held his
hands out in front of him, his palms facing out at me. "The higher
ups would ring my neck if I charged you for anything."

"Okay, then." I slipped the money back in my
wallet and rolled up the poster. "Thank you very much, sir." I
would have argued more, but I was late for class and really I
couldn't refuse a free poster.

"Oh, please, the pleasure is all mine." He
slid his hands into the pocket of his large hoodie. How no one else
found it weird that the guy was wearing full on winter clothes in
the middle of the summer in the desert was beyond me.

I waved and then ran into the building as
fast as I could. I got into my seat just before the professor
started class. Thank God.

"Okay, before we get back to working on your
outlines, I am going to pass around this sheet of paper." Professor
Johnson held up a plain piece of notebook. "And I want all of you
to write your name, your speech day, and what your speech will be
about."

Crap
. I still didn't have my speech
topic. Stupid Riley had foiled me again. Maybe her niceness was all
just an act. I told her plenty of times that I had to get back to
my homework, but she kept me down there in the dining hall. I knew
it was too good to be true.

I was the first one to get the sheet of
paper. I couldn't leave it blank and everyone was waiting for me
before we got into groups with two new people to discuss our
outlines. I looked down at my rolled up poster and scribbled down
the only thing I could think of before passing it to the next
person and heading over to the new critique group I was working
with.

Dang these kids were smart. Mila, with her
bright green eyes and wavy hair, was going to speak about the
dangers of plastic toys for infants. Marcos, with his long brown
hair and almond-colored eyes, was going to give a speech about
Mexican drug wars. And me? The girl with the thick glasses and
giant ring from her alien boyfriend, well she was going to be
speaking about Dustin Hoffman's early movie career and how it
shaped his future roles.

Lucy wasn't home when I got there, and it was
probably a good thing. I had one more day to cram together an
outline and practice a speech before the next morning. I wasn't
even going to eat dinner until I had the entire thing written out
on note cards and ready to go for the next day.

"Dustin Hoffman started his acting career in
the 1960s…"

Crap
. We were supposed to use at least
five sources, and I had one that was also not a very reliable
internet source.
Double crap
.

Frank Sinatra crooned
Fly Me to the
Moon,
and I turned to the source of the music. A picture of
Ace's beautiful face popped on my phone. It was hard for me to
ignore his picture with the raised eyebrow and cockeyed grin. I
unlocked my phone and slid it up to my ear.

"Are you trying to distract me, Mr. Ace?" I
did my best sultry voice.

"Only if you'd like me to," he purred. He was
way better at the sultry voice than I was. Everything he said came
out husky and with a tinge of what sounded like an English accent.
If he was a phone sex operator, he would get a lot of calls.

"I do have to finish working on a speech for
my class tomorrow." I sighed.

"Okay, don't let me disturb you," he
said.

"But, I could use a break, and Lucy isn't
here if you want to beam in for a bit."

I waited for a response, but instead a stream
of brilliant blue light showered down from my ceiling to my bed and
when the light disappeared there stood my alien.

"What took you so long?" I locked my phone,
setting it down on my desk before I stood up and slinked over to my
bed.

He looked like a male model. If he was human,
he probably could have been, except for the fact that he had
permanent black lines around his eyes that looked like guyliner. I
guess he could have been a rock star model.

He sat down on my bed, and I took the spot
next to him. The cold of his body instantly radiating through his
temperature control suit, jeans, and sweater and hit my skin. It
jolted me awake from the lull I had put myself in by looking up
different Dustin Hoffman facts.

"I see you decorated?" He leaned back against
the wall my bed was pressed against and stared up at
The
Graduate
poster.

"Yeah, some alien dude was selling posters
outside of my com class. I feel like everyone on this campus is an
alien and all of them seem to know me," I said, scooting next to
him.

"Well, we are the Caltian royal couple." Ace
stretched one arm above his head and looped the other around my
waist to pull me closer.

"Does this mean I'm going to have alien
paparazzi following me around? Should I start dressing better so I
don't end up on some Martian version of Fashion Police?" I asked
half-serious and half-wondering if any of what I said could have
actually been true.

"You look fine in whatever you wear,
Princess." Ace's warm fingers trailed the line of the v-neck of my
shirt. "Don't worry about what any other alien thinks. I like what
you wear and that's all that should matter."

"You're not so bad yourself. Even if you do
let Jen pick out your clothes."

He smiled before his fingers moved from my
shirt and through my hair. He stopped when he reached the end of my
hair and his hand rested against my back. "I really don't want to
keep you from doing your studies." Ace took my left hand in his,
brushing my knuckles with his lips. "I don't want this ring to just
represent an engagement forever, and without a degree the Circe
treaty says our marriage cannot happen."

"So, if I end up failing out of college
because I can't write a decent speech, does that mean we will never
get married since that is what the treaty says?" I arched an
eyebrow, genuinely curious.

"There are always loopholes. You and I proved
that when we broke the age-old tradition that humans and aliens
cannot be together." He pressed his hand against mine, cupping his
long fingers over mine.

"How do you always know the right things to
say?" I asked.

"Because you, my dear, are my inspiration.
Your beauty puts the words in my heart and your voice brings the
words to my lips." He smiled, bringing out the Grecian look to his
face. Who could resist a guy that was that gorgeous and had a way
with words?

I leaned over, covering his smile with my
lips and pulling him into a kiss. He released my hands from his and
pulled me closer. His warm palms pressed against my lower back
where my shirt didn't meet my jeans. The heat from his fingers
against my exposed skin made me let out a muffled moan beneath his
lips.

With my mouth slightly pulled away, he
nibbled on my bottom lip, his hands trailing up and under my shirt,
spreading the heat throughout my body. I pressed myself closer
against his chest. The cold ripple of his defined stomach combined
with his warm hands felt like ice cream in the summertime—a
refreshing combination of hot and cold.

Ace moved his lips from mine and let them
linger from my mouth, up my jaw line until he reached my earlobe.
"I love you so much," he whispered.

"I love you too," I whispered back before
rolling my head back while his lips trailed down my neck. With all
of the frustrations with school, Riley, the accident, Ace had been
there with me through them all. I loved him with my very being. He
was the only one who was there for me no matter what happened. I
even caused him to end up in the infirmary for a few days and get
ostracized by his planet, but he still loved me. I couldn't even
say that about some of my family members.

I wanted to take my chance. I never wanted to
feel like I did the day of the car accident. I didn't want to lose
him forever without him having all of me. I pulled back, looking
down at his endless black eyes. Slowly, I reached for the hem of my
shirt and tugged it over my head, tossing it to the side of the
bed.

Ace didn't say anything. His eyes trailed
upward from my stomach and all the way up to my black, lacy bra. He
reached his hands up and brushed his fingertips against the
underwire as if it were a delicate flower instead of something I
found in the clearance bin at Victoria's Secret.

"I don't understand this contraption." He
tilted his head. His fingers circled the underwire of my bra.

I held back a laugh. "You mean you don't
understand my bra?"

"Is this what a bra is?" He widened his eyes,
his fingers moving in semi-circles around the bottom cup. There was
nothing sexy about it. He looked like a little kid with a new toy,
not a man trying to arouse me.

"Yes, Ace, this is a bra. It keeps my goodies
in place so they don't flop all over." The moment was gone just as
soon as it came.

"Goodies? I thought they were breasts?" He
looked up at me with puppy dog eyes.

I rolled my eyes. "Same thing."

"This is fascinating." He grabbed the entire
cup in his hand, yanking it toward his face and pulling me with
him.