by Cara Bristol
I stretched out my hand. “Please, call me Toni.”
“Toni. That’s much easier to say.” Still holding my hand, he grinned. His teeth were whiter than white in his milk-chocolate bronzed face, perfect, except for one snaggletooth, imparting a boyish, mischievous twist to his smile.
“Do you have a last name?” Gently, I disengaged my hand—and immediately missed the contact.
He shook his head. “Just Aton. Dakonians only need one name. You were hard to find even with two names.”
“Didn’t the Intergalactic—” I glanced at the eavesdropping security staff. My love life was none of their business. “Let’s talk in my office.” I motioned at the door.
“There is a female there who doesn’t like me,” Aton said warily.
I covered my smile with my hand. “Megan, my assistant. She’s very nice, really.” I led the way to the elevator. The light panel showed it had stalled on the sixteenth floor. I liked the building, but it had the slowest elevators in the entire city. And not enough of them.
“Why does everyone stare at the lights on the riding box?” Aton asked.
“To avoid making conversation with strangers,” I replied. Right now, people in the lobby were gawking at us. Haven’t you ever seen an alien before?
“Let’s take the stairs,” I suggested. “We can go up a floor or two and catch the elevator there.” It wouldn’t be any faster, but we would escape prying eyes.
“Sure,” he said.
We entered the stairwell. “Why don’t they want to talk to people?” he asked as we climbed.
“It’s what we do when we ride an elevator. When did you arrive from Dakon?”
“Yesterday.”
So he’d been on the second ship, the one arriving a couple of weeks after his original one. I let him climb ahead of me so I could stare at him. His buckskin tunic and leggings highlighted his backside to perfection. He had broad shoulders, a torso narrowing to slim hips, and powerful thighs. And buns of steel.
Preoccupied by his ass, I missed the exit to the hallway, and Aton forged upward. Midway up the second flight, he peered back at me.
“Keep going.” I waved him on. Seeing his muscles flex, his ass tighten and release—who wanted to miss that? I could use the exercise anyway.
Two flights of stairs—no problem.
The third flight made me realize I should have been working out at the gym. I always intended to, but by the end of the day I lost motivation, and before work, I wanted to grab every second of shut-eye I could.
On the sixth-floor landing, my thighs went on strike and refused to go another step. I hunched over, massaging my burning muscles. Only two sets of stairs remained, but it might as well have been a hundred.
Halfway up to the seventh floor already, Aton sprinted back down. “What’s wrong?”
“I need a breather.” I hated admitting how out of shape I was. This was embarrassing. Youth could carry you only so far—my youth had petered out at the sixth floor. Gym. Monday. No excuses.
“I will help you.”
He scooped me up into his arms.
“What are you doing?” I squealed.
“Helping. I don’t know how anyone could walk, let alone climb, in your footwear.” He bounded up the stairs.
“Yeah, I should have worn better shoes.” I wiggled my feet, shod in closed-toe slingbacks, and flashed the camera a thumbs-up in case security happened to be watching us and mistakenly thought they were witnessing an abduction. Aton could abduct me anytime.
Though I was built like a beanpole, my height made me no lightweight, but he loped up the stairs in nothing flat, and set me on my feet on the eighth floor.
My legs wobbled, but the weakness wasn’t solely due to hiking five flights on my own. I smoothed my skirt, and, with as much poise as I could muster, led the way to my office.
Megan jumped to her feet as we entered. “What are you doing here?” She glared at him.
He glowered.
I held up my hands. “There’s been a misunderstanding. Aton, this is my assistant, Megan.” Assistant, mother hen, and guardian dragon. I relied on her for a lot. “Megan, I’d like you to meet Aton. He’s my…friend.”
“Mate,” Aton said.
“Date,” I amended, unsure what to call him. I should have asked my sister for advice on how to handle this, but I hadn’t expected him to arrive at all. I was thrilled to see him, but the IDA needed to get its act together.
“Your date? But…it’s nine o’clock.” Megan drew up my schedule and peered at the color blocks. “You’re expected in court at 10:00 a.m.”
“I didn’t mean date, like right now.”
She arched her eyebrows, and I could read the unvoiced question. So, why is he here?
“I don’t have any other appointments between now and ten, do I?”
She squinted at the computer screen, as if hoping a meeting would materialize. “No.” She sighed.
“I’ll be in my office. And thank you. I meant to tell you I was expecting someone, but I forgot.” The fib came easier than the truth, which I still didn’t understand. The IDA had seemed quite clear Aton wouldn’t be arriving.
Inside my office, I gestured to a guest chair and sat in the other. “Please, sit.” Heat crept up my neck, and I got tongue tied now that the excitement had settled, and we were alone.
Truth? My outgoing personality was an act. By nature, I was shy, although my family interactions and education had taught me how to fake confidence. For my clients, I fought hard. For them, I pretended to be Antoinette Sutterman, attorney-at-law, “killer in the courtroom” as the press had dubbed me. I mean, I was that person—I had the law degree and the case wins—but inside I was still “Skinny Stutterman” whose mother secretly had sent her to speech therapy and told everyone she’d gone to day camp.
I’d been hiding my shyness my entire life. Imperfections that couldn’t be eradicated had to be concealed. Skinny Stutterman lived in awe of her siblings, a brother who naturally did everything perfectly, and her older, bolder sister who blazed her own trail and didn’t give a flying flip what anybody thought, least of all their hypercritical mother.
Because I’d been so afraid of disappointing everyone, particularly my mother, I’d let a bad relationship not just drag on, but move forward. My one act of courage had been to break my engagement and join the Intergalactic Dating Agency.
I hadn’t envisioned my dating match would be so…hot. He was heart-palpitating, swoon-worthy sexy. My stomach fluttered in awareness of his buff, hyper-toned muscular form, his dark, piercing eyes and rough features, his white-white grin, and charming snaggletooth. I rubbed my palms on my knees, wanting to run my fingers through his hair.
He’d bounded up seven flights—two sets of stairs carrying me—without so much as a huff or a puff.
No, I hadn’t expected manly perfection—then again, I hadn’t expected Aton at all. “I guess you got your visa situation settled after all. They told me you weren’t coming.”
“Earth visas are meaningless when the Fates have chosen one’s mate,” he said. “I got on a different ship. I couldn’t let anything stop me.” His eyes blazed, and those leathery horns seemed to swell and pulse. He leaned forward and clasped my hand in his warm palm. His skin was callused, his fingernails jagged, such a contrast to Phillip’s soft, smooth, pale fish-hands. If fish had hands.
Flustered, and not just a little aroused, I couldn’t think straight.
“Once I knew you existed, I had to come to you. Did you long for me, Toni?”
“Yes,” I whispered, remembering the fantasies I’d spun while waiting for him to arrive then the acute disappointment when I’d been informed he wouldn’t. He caressed my palm with his thumb, sending zings of pleasure zipping from synapse to synapse. I’d never experienced such a deep and immediate attraction to a man in my life.
Not that there had been many. I’d had a couple of boyfriends in college, on
e during law school, and then I’d been introduced to Phillip. Good men, aka guys willing to commit, were almost as rare as the energy-laden rock Earth imported from Dakon. What a coincidence Dakon was rich in the two commodities in short supply on Earth: illuvian ore and husband material.
I swallowed, staring into Aton’s eyes, before shifting my gaze to his full, soft lips. We should be talking, exchanging information about school, jobs, family…my body swayed toward him—
“Toni?” Megan’s voice boomed through the comm system.
I jumped and yanked my hand back. “Y-yes.” I cleared my throat and smoothed my hair. “What is it?”
“Sorry to interrupt, but you told me to let you know if Jessie Hancock called. She’s on line one.”
Jessie…Jessie…oh! The Intergalactic Dating Agency match coordinator. “I’ll take the call. Thanks.” I inhaled to calm my flustered emotions. If not for the interruption, I might have laid a lip-lock on Aton.
“It’s the dating agency,” I said to him. I moved to my desk and picked up the phone. “Hi, Jessie!”
“You sound cheerful!” she said. “You must be having a good day.”
“I am.” I smiled at Aton.
“Well, I have great news to make you feel even better. Your match has arrived!”
“I know. He’s here.” I wanted to tell her how wonderful he was, but it seemed awkward to gush over him when he could overhear.
Aton lounged, a picture of relaxation, his long legs stretched out in front of him, arms folded across his broad chest. His eyes were alert as they skimmed over me, and the smile playing across his lips sent tendrils of heat curling through my body.
I should have kissed him.
“What do you mean?”
“He’s here—in my office.”
“Already? That’s a violation of the rules.” I could hear the frown in her voice.
I stifled a grin. Aton had lived up to his personality assessment as a rule breaker. Right now, he didn’t look like such a badass—he looked yummy. I wished I’d gotten in that kiss before Megan had buzzed me. I’d spend all day fantasizing about what might have been.
Kissing him now would require a conscious, deliberate act on my part, and courage deserted me. I could decimate a male opponent in court, but when it came to making the first move in the romance department, I tended to hang back.
“The ship only landed yesterday. Before meeting Earth women, all aliens are required to complete an assimilation class—which doesn’t start until tomorrow,” Jessie said.
“Oh. I hope this doesn’t get him into trouble.” He’d had a hard enough time, first with his visa being denied then getting Tasered by security.
“Earth is a big culture shock for aliens, many of whom have vastly different courtship and mating rituals. The class eases the transition and increases the match success rate. I’m supposed to report all infractions, but I don’t want to get him into trouble, either—not after we weren’t able to come through for you the first time. I know how disappointed you were after the whole visa snafu. Would you pass on a message? Tell him he has to complete the class. No exceptions. You can date each other, but attendance is taken at every session, and they’ll notify me if he’s not there. Okay?”
“Sounds fair. And thank you for everything. I couldn’t be more pleased with my match. You did a great job.”
“You’re welcome. We have a 75.8 percent long-term success rate in our matches. One hundred percent might not be possible, but I’m shooting for at least 90 percent. If I can help nine out of ten women meet their Mr. Right, I’ll be thrilled.”
We hung up. I leaned against my desk. “You weren’t supposed to come to see me yet. The rules say you have to attend the Intergalactic Dating Agency assimilation class.”
He shifted in his chair and smiled wryly. “I broke the rules a little.”
Chapter Four
Aton
Toni strode briskly down the busy street. I followed at a distance close enough to protect her, but not so near as to be noticed. After the call from the Intergalactic Dating Agency, she’d informed me she needed to go to court to work. She gave me the location of her hut and asked me to meet her in the evening. After the difficulty finding her, I couldn’t risk not being able to locate her again, so I decided not to leave. Besides, I wished to learn everything about her, including what she did for employment.
On Dakon, we worked. We hunted kel, tanning their hides for clothing and bedding, trapped phea, cooked, chopped firewood, dug up and broke stone to build huts, and crafted bows, arrows, and other tools. No one paid us for working; the fruit of our labor was our payment. If we produced more than we needed, we traded for something we didn’t have.
I’d only been on Earth for a little over a day, but from what I could tell, most people worked by sitting at tables and staring at glowing flat boxes. I was curious to see if court was any different.
“You can check into the assimilation class while I’m in court,” Toni had said before she’d left.
Much of what I had observed on Earth thus far mystified me—the class would be very useful.
Except, I couldn’t attend because I wasn’t supposed to be here. After being escorted off the Earthbound spaceship and being told my admission had been denied, I’d sneaked aboard another craft.
Getting here had been the easy part. Finding Toni had been much harder, but as soon as I saw her, recognition settled over me as if I had known her my entire life. Every nerve ending had tingled, my horns had swelled and pulsed, and my manhood had hardened. Arousal continued to course through me as I followed her, enjoying the sway of her backside.
She was taller than most Earth females, although not as tall as a Dakonian. When I’d carried her up the stairs, she’d weighed nothing at all. A strong gust of wind could topple her. I’d always envisioned my female as hefty and stout, but after meeting her, I realized she was everything she needed to be.
Mine.
Toni strode into a tall stone-and-glass building and entered a gauntlet. She had to present her bag for inspection by uniformed people with weapons. They motioned her through a whirring machine. She emerged on the other side and collected her bag before striding to a riding box. I joined the line to pass through to the other side. An armed female eyed my horns with suspicion. Not everyone on Earth was friendly, I had discovered. “What’s your business here?” she asked.
The Fates whispered an admission I’d followed my mate would not yield a good result. “Uh…I’m going to court.”
She motioned for me to pass through the whirring machine.
I emerged on the other side to see Toni enter the riding box. The doors closed. I glanced back at the guard. “Where is court?” I asked.
“Civil or criminal?”
I found it hard to imagine my mate worked with criminals, so I took a stab at the other choice. “Civil.”
“Fourth floor,” she said as she peered into someone’s bag.
I entered the stairwell and bounded up the steps until I arrived at the fourth level and exited onto a crowded hallway in time to see Toni emerge from the riding box then disappear through two thick double wooden doors.
* * * *
The silver-haired man hated my mate. He looked as if he’d swallowed something foul whenever he glanced in her direction. “I’d like to call my next witness, Miss Angie Brett,” he announced.
A female, one arm bound to her chest by bandages, limped to the front and climbed into an open box next to a robed tribe leader.
Another female approached her. “Do you promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?”
“I do,” Angie said, and sat down. Frizzy, blue-pink hair the same color as the drawing on her arm, dangled in her face. She tucked it behind her ear as the silver-haired man approached. He smiled reassuringly, his manner so different from the way he’d been scowling. He and Toni had spoken only to the female tribe leader and the people who
got called to sit in the box, but despite their lack of interaction with one another, I sensed a familiarity between them. His animosity struck me as personal.
“Can you please tell the court what happened on the morning of March 8?” the silver-haired man said.
“I’d gotten my aid payment, so I went to Shop-Mart to buy groceries. We were out of soda pop and ramen noodles, and my little boy needed his favorite cereal, Sugar Crunchies.”
“Did you get your groceries?”
“No, sir.”
“Why not?”
“I was injured in the store.” She lifted her wrapped arm.
“I’m so sorry you were hurt. Can you tell the court how it happened?”
“The aisles were so cramped and narrow, I could hardly get my shopping cart through. I was reaching for the Sugar Crunchies when the shelf fell on top of me.”
The poor female. I sympathized with her, but when I glanced at Toni, she didn’t appear to be moved by her plight.
“Were there any store clerks around?”
“No. There was a big crash when the shelving collapsed on top of me, but it took a long time before another customer found me and called for help.”
“How badly were you injured?”
“My arm got broken in two places. They had to put in metal pins to hold the bones together. Then it didn’t heal properly, and I had to have a second surgery.”
It would be hard to care for a kit with one arm.
“How has being injured in Shop-Mart affected your life and livelihood?”
“Well, before I got hurt, I had a great job lined up that I was sure to get, but I couldn’t accept it because I couldn’t do it with one arm. I’ve been in constant pain. It keeps me up at night. I can’t give my little boy the attention he needs. It’s so hard to feed, bathe, and clothe him with one arm. My sister helps me as much as she can, but she has a job.”
“Thank you, Miss Brett.” The man looked at the tribe leader and said, “No further questions.”
“Your witness, Ms. Sutterman,” the tribe leader said.
