by Julia Sexton
Lackadaisically, Vincent tucked himself back into his boxers and trousers and slumped in his chair.
Genevieve folded her arms over his knees and rested her chin on one forearm. Vincent stroked one hand over her hair in idle, distracted motions.
“So,” she began after a moment, tone conversational, “what am I to you?”
For a few seconds, the only answer she got was panting breath, but finally Vincent managed to find his voice.
“My mate,” he answered.
“It’s a ‘soul bonded, mates for life’ sort of thing. We just kind of know when it happens.”
“Is that how you see me?” Genevieve coaxed.
Vincent nodded slowly.
“Yeah,” he replied. “Yeah, it is.”
“Good.” She nuzzled her cheek against his leg.
“I can live with that. And I won’t be running away again.” She smiled up at him. “It’s a promise.”
“I’ll hold you to that,” he replied.
He tipped her chin up with two fingers and drew her upwards, until she was standing and leaning over the chair. One hand closed over the back of her neck and he pulled her in for one more kiss.
PREVIEW OF ‘ABDUCTED BY THE ALIEN’
Chapter 1
For years, Mariah had worked at The Red Lagoon. She had been one of the first employees, hired on when she was barely old enough to bartend, and she had been there from its humble beginnings as a fairly standard bar to its journey to find itself with a playful tropical theme.
She knew all of the regulars and she had the entire roster of drinks memorized. She had even been allowed to add her own specialty drinks on the nights she was behind the bar (which was most of them). Mariah loved The Red Lagoon, and now that she was twenty-six, it was as much her home as her actual apartment.
Considering how much time she spent there, it was probably good that she was as fond of the place as she was. There were a lot of days where she came in when it opened at five o’clock in the evening and stayed until it closed at two o’clock in the morning.
It was tiring, but she liked to stay busy. Besides, the bar was where all of her friends were. Not her boyfriend, though. She didn’t have one, and she didn’t really have any plans on getting one.
She had tried in the past, sure, but it had never turned out particularly well. Not that it really mattered. With her fifty-four hour workweeks, she didn’t have time for a boyfriend. That was what she told herself, at any rate.
Occasionally she was lonely—she had been an only child and her parents had passed a few years ago in a car accident, so of course she lived alone—but only occasionally. She could deal with it.
“Last call!” she called into the bar as the night—well, morning—was drawing to a close.
“If you’ve got a drink, finish it! If you want a last drink, you better come get it now!”
Three people moseyed up to the bar to get last drinks, and the door opened with a creak as a band of half a dozen young men stumbled outside.
The six of them loitered in front of the door, presumably waiting for a cab. Mariah didn’t pay them much attention, instead focusing on her small line of customers.
With the customers taken care of, she set about cleaning the bar. Soon enough, the lights returned to full brightness, and the customers left in clusters. As the bussers came out to clear the tables, Mariah tossed her apron aside and stepped out from behind the bar.
“See you all tomorrow, guys!” she bid as she headed out the front door, followed by a chorus of ‘goodnight’s.
Mariah absently tightened her short, dirty blonde ponytail as she turned down the sidewalk and headed for the bus stop. It wasn’t until she turned the corner that she realized footsteps were following her.
She slowed and looked over her shoulder, and her pale, mist grey eyes narrowed when she saw the gaggle of six drunken men from before.
“Can I help you?” she asked flatly, putting as much ice into her tone as she could manage.
One of the men, the one who looked like the leader of the bunch, laughed.
“Sure you can!” he said, and Mariah swore she could smell the alcohol on his breath from several feet away.
“You wanna give that ass a shake for us?” he asked, leering at her in a way that he probably thought was alluring but was mostly disturbing.
“Come on, I bet the entire sidewalk would shake with you!”
Mariah rolled her eyes, turned, and very purposefully began marching away, her back straight and her head held high.
She could hear them following her, though. She picked up her pace.
“Aww, come on,” a second one crooned.
“Maybe just hitch your shirt up, then,” he suggested with a laugh, “and let us see what sort of suspension system you’ve got going on under there.”
Mariah sped up further, so she was nearly jogging, but still they dogged her.
“Not even a hug?” a third one slurred with a pout in his voice.
A fourth man laughed.
“Fuck that, you wouldn’t be able to get your arms around her!” he said.
“Show us your belly, let’s see it.”
A hand caught the back of her t-shirt and tugged, but with a jerk, Mariah hopped forward a step, pulling herself free. She rounded on them, her hands clenched tightly into fists at her sides to keep them from shaking.
“Don’t touch me!” she demanded.
The looks they were giving her made them look…hungry. Mariah didn’t wait for them to react or say anything else.
She simply turned and took off at a sprint, but still they followed her, loping after her and laughing like hyenas.
“Leave me alone!” she shouted over her shoulder as she ran.
“We just wanna talk to you!” the leader laughed.
Mariah felt a hand at her waist, and it was only luck that let her dodge out of his grasp. She could already feel herself slowing, though. An Olympian she was not.
Suddenly, there were lights ahead of her, so bright that she stumbled to a halt and covered her eyes. She heard a moment of the men screaming, and then the world went fuzzy and seemed to tip sideways, and everything went dark.
Chapter 2
Awareness returned in fits and bursts, and Mariah opened her eyes slowly. The world still seemed fuzzy at the edges, but she couldn’t decide if that was because she was still dizzy or if it was just because of the rooms bright white lights, which were so garish that they made her look even paler than she already was.
Slowly, she sat up on the cot she had been draped over and looked around. The walls were white. The floor was white. The ceiling was white. The cot was white.
Everything but the cot had a faintly reflective quality to it, which did nothing to soften the light. All it did was make her eyes hurt.
She had to get out of the room. She shoved herself to her feet, wobbled, and caught herself against a wall. She heaved herself away from the wall and towards the door. It had no knob, but it slid open soundlessly as she got closer to it.
In the hall, everything was just as white and just as bright, and she had to hold in a hysterical giggle as she thought, ‘I actually need sunglasses inside.’
There were no windows and no identifying features. With no idea of where she was going, she went for the first door she saw. It slid open before she could even lay a hand on it, and when she stepped through, she gasped at the sudden cold.
She found herself standing on a balcony, just as white and gleaming as everything else, and it was snowing. Mariah crept over to the balcony’s railing, and in all directions, she saw ice coated mountains.
“You should not be out here.”
Mariah barely managed to hold in a shriek at the sudden voice, and she turned so quickly that she slammed her elbows into the railing.
There was a man standing in front of her, dressed in a white button down shirt and pants with pale grey boots and a vest. To say he was tall was an understatement, as he had to be at leas
t six and a half feet tall.
He was so pale that he made Mariah look tan, and rather than blond, his hair was an unusual, gleaming magnesium white. His eyes were a peculiar orange shade, and everything about him seemed oddly angular.
He looked…intriguing was probably the best word to describe him.
“It is too cold for you to be out here,” he stated, and Mariah couldn’t help but notice that his eyeteeth seemed a bit too long and too sharp.
With one arm tucked behind his back, he gestured with his other hand towards the door.
“Come back inside.”
His voice was reasonably placid. Polite, even. But there was an undercurrent to his words of something intense, and Mariah found herself obeying him and stepping back inside. He followed her in, and the door slid closed behind them.
Mariah sighed out a slow breath and leaned back against the wall opposite the door, hugging herself, her arms held tight to her chest.
“Where am I?” she asked, her voice coming out stronger than she felt.
“Why did you bring me here?”
“This is my research lab,” he answered calmly.
“Isolation is best for my purposes, should something go wrong, so the mountains seemed ideal. I brought you here after I saved you from a band of barbarians.”
“What did you do to them?” she asked warily.
He tipped his head to one side slightly.
“It is of no importance, Mariah.”
She went rigid. “How do you know my name?” she asked slowly, her hands curling into fists against her forearms.
“I looked at your license,” he answered, as if it was the most obvious thing (though Mariah supposed she should have expected that answer).
That, at least, was something normal and was almost reassuring. It made it slightly easier for her to convince herself that he had just knocked the thugs unconscious before he spirited her away.
“Why did you bring me here?” she asked.
Seeming even the least bit imposing, as it turned out, was a bit difficult when she had to lean her head back to look at him.
“You will be my mate,” he informed her plainly.
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