Drago: Stargazer Alien Mail Order Brides #13 (Intergalactic Dating Agency)

by Tasha Black

  And it was true. The scientists on Aerie had watched those Earth movies and then designed the men’s bodies to be irresistible to Earth women. Every cell of Drago was meant to entice her.

  She pushed the door open and went back into the room, determined to be ruled by more than her senses.

  Drago leaned on a stool, looking out the window.

  His golden hair shone platinum in the moonlight and the shadow in the room clung to his big muscular frame, making him look younger and more innocent for a moment.

  “Arden,” he said softly. “Look.”

  She went to him, her heart in her mouth. It seemed inevitable that they would be pursued. She wondered how many armed government agents were outside.

  But when she reached the window she saw nothing alarming. The storm clouds had moved on, and the landscape of the farm stretched out before her - row after row of trees and shrubs bearing all manner of delightful fruits. The whole scene was made ghostly under the gaze of the moon, whose own reflection seemed to laugh at them from the rippling pond.

  “It’s beautiful isn’t it?” Drago asked.

  “Yes,” she said. “It’s magical.”

  “And so are you,” he told her.

  Arden turned to find him gazing at her, a curious expression on his handsome face.

  “Thank you,” she said, feeling her cheeks burn.

  He hasn’t met enough real women to find one beautiful, she reminded herself inwardly.

  But her inner critic was temporarily silenced when he touched her cheek, his big hand so gentle.

  “Thank you for rescuing me, Arden,” he whispered.

  The familiar shiver of electricity that happened every time they touched licked white hot through Arden’s veins.

  “You are small, but you are so very brave,” Drago said, caressing her cheek lightly with his thumb.

  She resisted the urge to moan and instead pulled herself away from him.

  “I guess I should go to sleep now,” she said. “Wake me when you need sleep and I’ll take a turn on guard duty.”

  “I don’t need much sleep,” he said, turning back to the window.

  She went to the sofa bed and slipped off the robe as quickly as possible.

  She leaned over to drape it on the little bedside table but the slippery fabric slid from her grasp.

  “Oops,” she said, bending to retrieve it.

  As she straightened she saw Drago had turned and was watching her, a hungry look in his eyes.

  He had seen her bent over in this ridiculously tiny nightie.

  Arden wasn’t exactly slender, she knew she would normally feel embarrassed for someone to see her so scantily clad.

  But Drago must have liked what he had seen. He was practically licking his chops.

  She felt her nipples stiffen to attention under his steady gaze - a development that couldn’t be lost on him based on the way the fabric clung to her.

  “Good night,” she squeaked, hopping into bed and pulling the sheet up to her neck.

  “Good night, Arden,” he said.

  As she squeezed her eyes shut and willed her trembling body to go to sleep, she swore she heard him chuckling lightly.

  7

  Drago

  Drago stopped his work for a moment to take in his surroundings.

  Though he had been up most of the night on guard duty, he was bristling with energy today. He was beginning to think this human form of his might draw a certain amount of fuel from the light of Earth’s solitary star after all.

  Though he had been on the planet for months now, this was the first time he had spent more than a few minutes outside.

  The sky stretched out above him - cerulean blue as far as he could see. The berries in the basket he wore around his neck were an indescribable mix of midnight blues and purples.

  Beside him, Arden plunked berries into a similar basket around her own neck, wearing a pale blue t-shirt so snug he could see the outline of the garment beneath it that encased her breasts.

  “Are you okay?” Arden asked.

  The sunlight played in her hair, bringing out notes of chestnut and sand. He was nearly mesmerized.

  But her hazel eyes were concerned.

  “Just taking it all in,” he nodded.

  She smiled at him and popped a berry in her mouth.

  “Those don’t belong to us,” he said, feeling a little shocked. Arden was a great follower of protocol.

  “We get room and board,” she reminded him. “Board means food. And blueberries are about the least expensive food on this farm. Have some.”

  He hesitated and she came close, then plucked a berry from her bushel and popped it into his mouth.

  It took everything he had not to wrap his arms around her.

  Instead, he closed his eyes and concentrated on the fruit in his mouth.

  Its skin popped open on his tongue and the taste was a revelation - sweet and earthy, true to the character of the plant that had made it. It was hard to believe it had been produced on the same planet as the food he’d grown accustomed to in the lab.

  “Do you like it?” Arden asked.

  He opened his eyes and nodded, smiling down at her.

  For an instant her eyes twinkled and he might almost have believed she was going to lift another berry to his lips.

  Then her face went serious and she backed up a few steps.

  “I guess we’d better try and finish this row so we can join the others for lunch,” she said, bending to continue her task.

  He couldn’t help but notice how good she was at harvesting the blueberries. She had done two rows for every one of his.

  “Aren’t there more rows after that?” Drago asked, indicating the rest of the field.

  “Nope,” Arden replied. “The rest are for guests. That’s why Helen planted low-bush berries. Tourists come to the farm and they can pick their own berries if they want.”

  “Low-bush berries?” Drago echoed.

  “Yes, most blueberries on commercial farms are high bush berries,” Arden explained. “They can be more than twelve feet tall. But guests think of low-bush when they think of blueberries, because the low bushes grow in the wild. And besides, I’m sure Helen didn’t want farm guests climbing on ladders.”

  “You know a lot about blueberries,” Drago said, impressed.

  “I studied botany at college,” Arden said.

  “This is the study of plants,” Drago said. He’d done his best to familiarize himself with the various fields of science on Earth after learning that much of the scientific knowledge presented in the movies he’d watched had been faulty, at best.

  “Yes, it’s plant biology,” Arden said. “I love it. It’s actually really fun for me to get to work on the farm.”

  “It’s fun for me too,” Drago told her.

  She laughed.

  “I’m serious,” he told her.

  “I know,” she said. “It’s just a funny idea. Here we are, fugitives from the law, forced to pick blueberries to keep a roof over our heads, and both of us are having fun.”

  “I always have fun when I’m with you, Arden,” Drago told her. “Even in the lab. Seeing you was always the brightest part of my day.”

  She cleared her throat.

  “Are you uncomfortable thinking of me pleasuring myself?” he asked. He knew that such acts, although perfectly normal, were thought of as embarrassing by many humans.

  Her face went pink in acknowledgement.

  “That wasn’t what I meant when I said it was the brightest part of my day,” he said. “It was seeing you, your kind smile.”

  “Uh, thanks,” she said, ducking out of his view.

  He could hear blueberries dropping into her basket.

  He had made a mess of this conversation. It was hard not to become disheartened.

  She had brought him the films herself each day, silently instructing him what to do next without any signs of embarrassment. She had even waited outside the curtain yesterday, as
if to participate in his experience.

  Yet speaking of it aloud seemed to be distressing to her.

  Drago chastised himself for not understanding the nuances of this strange culture. He vowed inwardly to do better.

  He did not wish to cause Arden any distress. On the contrary he wanted her to feel safe and cherished whenever he was near.

  “Lunch,” someone called from across the field.

  Arden popped up from behind her blueberry bush.

  “Go on,” Drago told her. “I’ll finish up here.”

  “Thanks,” she told him with a grateful smile. “I just want to get cleaned up before we eat.”

  He watched as she jogged down the row, her dark ponytail swinging in a curving pattern against her back.

  Drago wondered what she would look like if she let her hair down.

  8

  Arden

  Arden chased the last bite of potato salad around her plate as she listened to Tansy and Sage next to her, arguing pleasantly about whose turn it was to go into town for supplies.

  The breeze whispered in the wide branches of the magnolia tree that formed a canopy over the picnic table. Close by, fields of berries spread out like a quilt below them. Beyond that, the land rose slightly and opened into the peach orchard and the rhododendron hedge that marked the boundary between the farm and Dr. Bhimani’s land.

  The three aliens sat across from the women, eating silently and with great gusto. Arden was glad they had worked so hard this morning. Hopefully Tansy and Sage wouldn’t fear they would be eaten out of house and home if they decided to let them stay on another day.

  “If I can borrow a car, I’ll go into town,” Arden offered, eager for any opportunity to prove herself useful to their would-be hosts. The sisters had kindly agreed to let them stay on for another night, but Arden wasn’t sure how much longer their hospitality would last.

  “I will accompany you,” Drago added.

  “What if someone sees you in our car?” Sage asked.

  “They’ll tell them that they’re working for us,” Tansy replied. “People are going to see we’ve hired seasonal help at some point.”

  “Hmm,” Sage said.

  “We won’t get into any conversations,” Arden said, not pinning her hopes on Tansy’s use off the word seasonal. “And if you want, we’ll go to Brownfield instead, just to be extra careful.”

  “No,” Sage said at once. “Brownfield’s too far. We want our money’s worth out of you here. Just don’t waste a lot of time. And he can go with you, but he needs to wait in the car. No mixing with the people in town.”

  “Fine,” Drago said.

  “Sure thing,” Arden agreed.

  “Here’s the list,” Tansy added, pushing it across the table to her.

  “Give him these,” Sage said, plucking Tansy’s heart-shaped sunglasses from her face and handing them to Drago.

  Arden watched as he put them on.

  Impossibly, he looked deadly cool in Tansy’s pink specs.

  Arden wondered if there was anything the gorgeous alien could wear that he wouldn’t look good in. She pushed the thoughts aside before mentally dressing him could give way to her increasingly frequent habit of mentally undressing him.

  “Ha,” Riggs laughed as Sage looked over at him with a contemplative half smile.

  Drago grinned at Arden and she smiled back, unable to help herself.

  Burton winked at Tansy, who hopped off the bench and began gathering plates hurriedly.

  “Let us help you clean up,” Drago said politely, getting up with his own plate.

  “Easy, Lolita,” Tansy said. “You guys are going into town. Take off now so I can get more work out of you before dusk.”

  “Yes, brother. Besides, I will help,” Burton said.

  Drago shrugged.

  Sage stood, slid a set of keys out of her pocket and handed them to Arden.

  “It’s the blue pick-up truck in the barn,” Sage said.

  “Thanks,” Arden replied.

  She headed down the dirt path to the barn, Drago following beside her.

  “Do you know how to operate a motor vehicle?” he asked her.

  “Yes,” she said. “Of course.”

  Drago nodded, looking satisfied.

  “Do you know how to operate vehicles?” she asked him.

  He shook his head.

  “Each of us was taught certain tasks in order to survive our journey,” he told her. “Riggs learned to operate the ship. To him, your motor vehicles would seem primitive.”

  “What about you?” Arden asked.

  He frowned.

  “I guess you would call me a cook,” he said at length.

  “Oh, you can cook?” Arden asked. “Wow.”

  “Not really,” Drago laughed. “I understood the chemistry behind nutrition for the human form. But nothing I prepared was pleasant for consumption. We did not learn the pleasures of eating until we arrived here.”

  “No blueberries on Aerie, huh?” Arden teased, unable to keep her mind from the way her fingers had grazed his lips as she’d fed him the fruit.

  He grinned and shook his head.

  They reached the truck. It was a compact pickup, probably twenty years old, although it looked like it might be a hundred.

  Though it sported a thick coat of road dust, the tires had good treads. Helen had taken care of it.

  Drago stepped over to the driver’s side door.

  At first Arden thought to correct him. Then she saw he was holding it open for her.

  “Thank you,” she said, surprised to find how much she appreciated the charming gesture.

  He smiled and closed the door for her, then went around to his side.

  When he was seated, she turned the key in the ignition.

  The little truck coughed once then purred like a kitten.

  Arden carefully pulled out of the barn and onto the gravel road that wound between the trees, then past the berries and out onto the paved county road.

  “We’re free,” she joked.

  But as soon as the words were out, the reality hit her.

  Drago was little more than a glorified political prisoner. And she was his warden.

  Tears prickled her eyelids and she had to concentrate to see the road through her blurred vision.

  “Arden, are you okay?” Drago asked.

  She nodded, unable to speak.

  “Arden,” he repeated helplessly, touching her shoulder.

  The jolt of awareness at his touch took her by surprise.

  One moment she was driving down the road, fighting back tears, the next she was pulling over to the dirt shoulder, brakes squealing, flowing out of her seat and into his arms.

  He froze for one instant. Then his arms were around her, his mouth warm and firm against hers.

  Arden was lost to the sensation of his body against hers. She had longed for this forever, but she had never imagined him like this - so real, so steeped in the things she loved most. He smelled like sunshine and rich soil.

  The sound of honking and jeering as another car thundered past them roused her.

  She pulled herself from his embrace and leaned back against her seat, panting and mortified.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, looking down at her own hands on the steering wheel.

  “I’m not,” Drago replied. “I’d been hoping you would do that for a long time.”

  “I know you might think you like me,” Arden went on. “But you’ve been locked up in a lab ever since you got here. I’m one of the only women you’ve ever seen.”

  Drago laughed.

  “Why are you laughing?” Arden asked, forgetting her embarrassment and turning to look at him.

  His cocky smile sent bolts of desire through her all over again. Had she really just been kissing those lips?

  “I am your mate, Arden Green,” Drago said. “There is no other woman for me. You should know that by now.”

  Arden opened her mouth and closed it again.
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br />   “I chose you the moment I laid eyes on you,” he continued, his voice a husky purr. “Will you accept me?”

  “I-I can’t,” she spluttered, thinking bitterly of Dr. Bhimani’s demand that she keep the experiment going.

  Don’t get involved with your subject, Arden, she warned herself.

  “What do you mean you can’t?” Drago’s eyes flashed icy blue. “Does some other male have claim to you?”

  “Uh, no,” she said. “But my job is to help you. Becoming your… mate isn’t part of it.”

  For an instant, his normally confident expression wavered and something like pain haunted his eyes.

  Then he set his jaw and nodded. “Understood,” he said lightly.

  “I’m really glad we got to leave the lab,” Arden chattered, trying to fill the awkward void in the air as she pulled back onto the roadway. “It was a perfect day to pick blueberries. You must be glad to feel the sun on your face.”

  “Yeah, it’s good to get outside,” Drago agreed.

  “Did you spend most of your time outside on Aerie?” she asked. She already knew the answer, but wanted to hear him talk about it.

  “Yes,” he said. “But it was different from here.”

  “Brighter, right?” Arden asked. She knew Aerie was closer to the stars.

  “Yes, though I didn’t perceive light in quite the same way,” Drago said thoughtfully. “It was less alive, that’s the main difference.”

  “What do you mean?” Arden asked.

  “I look out the window of this car and I see so many living things,” he said.

  “Oh, I see,” Arden agreed, “like people, birds, squirrels.”

  “Yes, but also the trees, the flowers, the grasses,” Drago said. “This whole planet is teeming with life. You’re never alone here when you’re outside.”

  “I’ve often felt that way,” Arden replied, gratified. “Not many people see nature as company.”

  Drago laughed.

  “Did you have plant life on Aerie?” she asked.

  “Very little,” Drago said. “Some microscopic varieties, but mostly just something like lichen, and in limited amounts.”

  “Lichen can be very beautiful,” Arden said. “Do you have to tend to it, or is it native?”