Day #2: 12 Days of Alien Romance 🎄
Dec 15, 2022 2:53 pm
Hi !
The 12 Days of Free Alien Romance Giveaway is here!
What's in this email? Keep reading for...
- At least one totally free book from a fabulous sci-fi romance author
- A chance to win a cute custom sticker from yours truly
- The latest episode of my holiday alien romance, All I Want for Christmas is Everything about an alien biker and his human crush
Quick correction before I get started: Yesterday, the link to Bella Blair's reader magnet was not working. The correct download link for her book The Barbarian's Captive is here: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/a1ylfw4kbv
To celebrate DAY 2 of our giveaway, I'm thrilled to share a free book from Ivy Knox, Saving His Mate!
Sold at auction on an alien planet, Chloe assumed death was around the corner. But she found love instead.
Dumped by her longtime boyfriend, Chloe decides to embrace spinsterhood by adopting one (or five) dogs. Those plans are squashed when she's kidnapped from Earth and shoved into a glass cage with two other terrified human women on an alien planet. How could it possibly get any worse?
The three women are sold at auction to the highest bidder, who happens to be a seven-foot-tall alien named Varrek, with shimmering gold skin and muscles for days. He recognizes Chloe as his fated mate, but he knows he can never have her because of a tragic past he continues to run from.
Varrek takes her back to his home planet of Oluura and vows to help get her settled in the enchanting village of treehouses he shares with his clan. He'll keep her safe, and ensure she’s sheltered and fed. That's it.
But the closer they get, the stronger their bond becomes. And the harder it is for Chloe to imagine ever going back to Earth. Chloe has found the kind of love she’s always wanted, but will Varrek’s dark past tear them apart?
WANT TO WIN A CUTE STICKER?
You'll be automatically entered to win a sticker featuring the couple from Stolen by Starlight if you click the free book link above! You don't have to download the book to be eligible. You'll be notified at this email address if you're a winner!
And now for the story...
🎄 All I Want for Christmas is Everything🎄
Content warnings: Catching a cheater, respectful stalking, alien NSFW scenes
Missed an episode? The entire story will be available to download as an ebook in my Facebook Reader Group on December 25.
EPISODE #
2
Looping her bags over one arm, Ivy slung her purse over the other shoulder and grabbed a bottle of tequila from the bar cart by the door. If there was ever an excuse for day drinking, this was it.
She’d forgotten her jacket, she realized when she was halfway down the hill. She was in such a state that she hadn’t even noticed. Oh well, at least her ugly Christmas sweater was thick and warm. She slugged some of the tequila, letting the burn in her throat warm her and give her an excuse for her watery eyes.
When her vision cleared, she noticed Tairon was still sitting there on the corner, watching her, looking…sympathetic?
“You knew.” Her voice cracked.
He gave a single nod. “I saw them drive up together. Not for the first time.”
“So the ride you offered—that was…pity?” Of course, he wasn’t flirting. He was just sorry for the sad sack who lived up the hill. Could this day get any worse? More tequila. This could only be solved by more tequila. She gulped as much as she could get down, and her nose started running.
His breath caught. “No. That’s not it. Listen—where are you going? Let me take you.”
“The car rental center,” she snuffled into her sleeve. “Don’t worry about it. It’s only a few blocks.”
His mouth quirked up as he eyed the tequila bottle she was strangling by the neck. “I don’t think driving is a good idea right now. I can give you a ride to wherever you’re going.”
Ivy didn’t have the strength to protest or even worry that she was putting him out. Exhaustion slumped her shoulders, and she let him stow her belongings in all kinds of secret compartments on his motorcycle. He pried the liquor bottle out of her chilled fingers and tucked it away, too, before sliding his leather jacket off. She couldn’t help admiring how his biceps flexed, stretching his rolled T-shirt sleeves as he wrapped it around her shoulders.
“I can’t take your coat,” she protested, starting to shrug it off, but he held it firmly around her until she slipped her arms into the sleeves. They came down below her fingertips, enveloping her in his body heat.
“I insist. You’re cold, and I’m Draakish. We can adjust our internal heat, no problem.” His yellow eyes seemed to glow momentarily in the winter gloom, reminding her that, despite his chivalrous manners, he was far from human. It was easy to forget when the Draak had integrated so easily into Earth society since they sought refuge here five ago, picking up human habits and language with seemingly no effort.
His scent wafted up from his jacket, warm leather and toasted caraway seeds and a hint of bitter chocolate, along with awareness that she’d never been close enough to Tairon to smell him before. There had always been a counter between them, ensuring a polite distance. It was a good thing, too, because he smelled delicious, like all the things she liked best. The sudden urge to lick him was so strong that she doubted she could have controlled herself, even at work.
He reached down, palm up and fingers slightly curled, and instinctively, she arched her hips toward him, totally shameless. He huffed a laugh into the frosty hair, gripped the bottom edges of the jacket, and zipped her up. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“Oh god,” she moaned, completely mortified. “I thought you were going to—you know what? Never mind what I thought. Let’s blame the tequila.” It hadn’t been long enough for the alcohol to hit her bloodstream, and she knew it. He had to know it, too.
He hummed from somewhere in his chest, proffering the extra helmet again.
“Convenient.” Maybe the tequila had taken effect, after all. That could explain the little jealous worm at the bottom of her stomach.
“What is?”
She turned the helmet over in her hands. “That you take human girls out on rides all the time, so you have this handy.”
His eyes narrowed, and the scales on his biceps raised slightly, stretching the edges of his T-shirt sleeves, making him look even more dragonish than usual. “It’s new. I got it after you said you’d never been on a motorcycle before. I offered you a ride, remember?”
A vague memory flickered in the back of her mind, a laughing conversation at the bakery on a beautiful, sunny morning. Their teasing banter had been studded with a few nuggets of personal truth, like chocolate chips in a cookie, unexpectedly rich and rewarding. She’d never ridden a motorcycle before. He’d never visited Silver Falls. She said it was gorgeous in the fall when the leaves started to turn. He offered to take her on the back of his bike to see it.
When she rang him up, they’d lingered an extra second to make eye contact, acknowledging the exchange. “That was over a year ago!”
“I’ve been waiting for you to accept the invite.”
“Oh.” He’d been carrying around the helmet this whole time? Even if he was just saying that, it made her feel good. She bit her lip, a smile stretching her cheeks as she slid the helmet on and took the seat behind him. She left some space for the curve of his tail, but he twitched it to the left, wrapping its flat heft around the small of her back to pull her comfortingly close. It felt like the hug she desperately needed and made her eyes water.
“Where to, beautiful?” he tossed back over his shoulder.
She gave him the cabin coordinates, and the bike roared to life underneath them, launching forward as a few tiny snowflakes dusted the dark folds of the jacket’s leather sleeves.
It’d be a white Christmas.
How perfect this weekend could have been, she reflected as they zoomed through town. Too bad it had all gone to shit. Then she remembered that it never could have been a happy holiday. James had booked the cabin because it had two bedrooms. He’d known when they planned the getaway that it wouldn’t be kisses under the mistletoe. When he’d stowed his grandmother’s ring in his sock drawer, he planned to give it to Chelsea, not her.
What a giddy fool she’d been. He’d let her prattle about the hot tub, buy edible massage oil and a new board game to bring. Let her build a whole fantasy that their relationship was getting “back on track.” But it hadn’t really been on track, not for a long time. There was no track to get back on. No resuscitating something already in rigor mortis, as he’d put it.
The bike hit the curving highway that wound through the foothills, and the cold wind sluiced over her, creeping down the gap between her helmet and the collar of the jacket. It made her skin tighten into goosebumps, sharp points of awareness as she saw the last six months for what they were—an inevitable end, even if it had been stretched out by James’s cold planning.
Rather than feeling sad, she was strangely comforted by the realization. She didn’t have to cry all Christmas or try to come up with ways to win James back. She could stuff her face with carbs and hang out in the hot tub and enjoy this long-overdue motorcycle ride without a speck of guilt. Her only regret was that she hadn’t accepted Tairon’s invitation earlier. Even in the frigid weather, it was exhilarating. She was glad she’d said yes to his offer.
It was a little ironic that, while James had been patiently waiting for her to realize their relationship was over, Tairon had been patiently waiting for her to wear his spare helmet. Carrying it around with him everywhere, hoping.
Had he really been hanging onto it for almost eighteen months? As if in answer, his back radiated extra heat, and she gave in, pressing the side of the helmet against his spine and her palms against his back until she could feel the texture of his scales through the thin fabric of his shirt.
Was it her imagination, or did his tail squeeze her a tiny bit closer?
TO BE CONTINUED IN THE NEXT EPISODE...TOMORROW!
Lots of love,
