How to Marry an Alien (15 page)

Lucy shook her head. "I think maybe we should
wait until it passes."

"I think we can brave the rain. What do you
say, Alex?" He tapped my shoulder and I turned away from the window
to look at him.

I shrugged. "Why not?"

I thought it would just be a slight drizzle,
but I didn't count on it to start to downpour as soon as we stepped
out of the restaurant.

"Ah!" I shrieked. My clothes were instantly
soaked as if I just jumped in a pool.

Ace took my hand, jumping over a puddle that
had already formed in a pothole. "A little water never hurt
anyone."

"Say that to the Wicked Witch of the West!" I
yelled over the sound of rushing water.

He jumped over another forming puddle,
prancing through the street like a little kid. It was the most
carefree I'd ever seen him.

"But we aren't witches, my dear!"

We stood in the middle of the street while he
spun us in a circle.

"You're crazy!" I yelled.

He stopped spinning and yanked me forward. I
fell into him, almost knocking us over. He laughed and gave me a
wet kiss on the forehead. "Crazy for you."

The rain dripped down his face; his hair
matted against his forehead like a cute, wet puppy. I leaned in
closer and kissed the raindrops off his lips. The desert rain
melted against his skin and tickled my nose, but when I took in a
deep breath the droplets got in my nostrils and I had to pull away
to not choke.

"Come on, you. Let's get you inside before
you melt." Ace took my hand in his, and we ran all the way from the
restaurant back to my dorm.

The water dripped from our clothes and soaked
the hallway like a big mop. We left a trail all the way through the
lobby, the elevator, and down the hall to my room. I closed the
door behind us, and Ace shook like a big dog, water dripping
everywhere.

"Ah, Ace, you are going to soak everything!"
I held my hands out.

He grinned, peering at me from underneath his
wet bangs, which were plastered to his forehead.

"Let me get us something to change into," I
said and walked to my closet.

My clothes felt like they weighed a hundred
pounds, sticking to my body and holding me down. I knew my clothes
wouldn't fit Ace right, but I grabbed two pairs of gym shorts and
some t-shirts from the closet anyway. I peeled away my wet shirt
and jeans, and tossed them into the hamper. Somehow the rain even
got to my bra and underwear. I really was a big sponge.

"Wow…"

I turned away from the closet and saw Ace
standing in the middle of the room in just his temperature control
suit, which magically stayed dry even in the rain.

"Wow, what?" I took a step closer. At that
point he'd seen me without a shirt a few times and a bra and
underwear weren't much different.

"You are the most beautiful being I've ever
seen." His eyes drifted down my body, taking in all of me.

"Seriously? I'm soaked to the bone and my
hair is all wet and nasty."

Ace took a step closer, putting his warm
hands on the small of my back, and pulled me against him. "I’m very
serious."

He leaned over and pressed his forehead to
mine. "I have never felt this way about anyone in my life and
seeing you this natural makes me want you even closer."

I shivered underneath his touch. Did he mean
what I thought he meant?

He slowly moved his hands from my back and
unzipped his suit all the way before peeling the top off, and then
slid it down until he stepped out of it completely. When we first
got in the room I was tempted to turn on the heat, but if he was
going to strip down, it was better to have the air on to compensate
his cold body temperature. He stood there in just his boxers. Why
an alien felt the need to wear boxers was weird to me, but he
always wore them.

I tilted my head. "Is there a reason that you
wear boxers? Wouldn't the suit hold that in?" I made a small circle
with my fingers in front of me.

He made a V with his hands and held it in
front of his boxers. "I like them. They make me feel like no one
else can see anything they aren't supposed to in my suit."

I shook my head. "You are definitely
something else."

"And you as well." He moved his hands to my
hips and pulled me against him. "That is why you will be the only
girl to ever have this part of me."

"Are you sure this is what you want to do?" I
whispered into his lips.

He moved his hands down my lower back,
drawing small circles with his fingers. "I've never been surer that
I will never love anyone like I love you. People can say whatever
they want about our relationship, but I know that none of that
matters. It never has. All I care about is how I feel about
you."

His lips met mine again, his tongue saying
what words couldn't say. He led me to the bed, letting the last of
our clothes fall beneath us. I'd never been so close to anyone
physically or mentally as I was in that moment. My body trembled
against his, but I never felt more alive with his bare hips pressed
against mine.

"This is all very surreal," Ace whispered

We lay on the bed with my head on his chest,
his heart pounding a rhythmic beat in my ears. The same beat,
moments ago, was pressed so very close to my own and was creating
the most beautiful song that was ever imaginable.

"What is so surreal about it?" I lifted my
head from his bare chest and looked into his stunning, black
eyes.

He ran his fingers through my hair, and then
pressed his hand to my cheek. "That we've become something so much
more. We are connected."

I took his hand and kissed it before lying
down on his chest. We were connected. It was more of myself than I
had ever given to someone and obviously more for him as well.

"Would it have felt the same if you were with
a Caltian woman or if I were with a human guy?" I asked.

He shrugged, and I felt his whole body shift
underneath me. "I've never exactly made love to either a Caltian or
a human guy so I wouldn't know those things."

I rolled my eyes, even though I knew he
couldn't see it. "I didn't think you would have done that with
anyone else."

"I just learned that it was even possible for
two people of the same gender to actually be together intimately.
Did you know Monte informed me he found this video online of two
women and they—?"

I lifted my hand up and placed it to his
lips, looking up at him. "Stop, I really don't want to know what
sort of videos he found on the internet."

"Are you sure?" He arched an eyebrow.

I rolled from my back to my stomach and
propped my elbows on the bed next to Ace. "I'm definitely sure. I
would actually appreciate it if you didn't talk about Monte when we
are in bed."

He nodded, turning to the side and pulling me
closer to him and wrapping the comforter around us. "Shall this not
be the first time I take the Caltian princess to bed?"

"You are ruining the mood."

"Sorry." He frowned. "Is there any way I can
fix it?"

"Hold me until I fall asleep?" I turned on my
side.

Ace put his arm around me, his fingers
falling on my bare back before he pulled me against him. "Does this
mean you want me to stay or leave once you have fallen into
slumber?" he asked.

"If I had it my way you would never leave," I
whispered.

"After this night we are one. I will never
leave you and I couldn't even if I wanted to. You are the love of
my entire existence and beyond." He lightly kissed my lips before I
nuzzled against him to drift off to sleep.

Ace left shortly after we woke up, knowing
that he had to work, and didn't want to give my dad the wrong idea
if he didn't see Ace at breakfast. Even though the wrong idea was
definitely what we were doing the night before.

I stared at the small mirror above my desk
after I got out of the shower. Did I look any different? Did
somehow Ace and I combine our genetic makeup and now I would turn
into an alien-human hybrid? I pulled down the skin below my eyes
and opened my mouth. Nope, nothing changed there. I still wondered
if anyone else could tell. Would I walk into the classroom and
suddenly have a new scent? Would the professor detect alien on
me?

It turned out I wasn't any different than
anyone else in the classroom that morning. I still had to sit
through everyone's speeches in com without anyone even giving me a
second look. Losing my V card definitely did not excuse me from my
first biology exam or from turning in my assignment on the
Iliad
for my online class.

"Hey, Alex, long time no see." Lucy smiled
from her desk when I entered the room.

"Yeah, someone didn't come home last night,"
I teased, dropping my bag on my bed and sitting down next to
it.

"Are you talking about me or you? Because I
didn't see you here either."

I cocked my head, kicking off my shoes. "What
are you talking about? Ace and I were here all night."

"Ah ha!" Lucy turned in her chair, clapping
her hands, and then pointed a finger at me. "You just admitted that
you and Ace were here, together, all night."

I could feel the heat creeping from my neck
and up to my face. Did she know? Not that I was embarrassed by it,
but I was hoping that my face wasn't a brighter red than Lucy's
nail polish.

"We were just hanging out," I squeaked.

"Hanging out doesn't involve your squeaky
voice." Lucy put her hand down and stood up from the chair. "Did
you at least put the sock on the door, so I would have known?"

Now I knew my face had to be beat red. It
felt like it was on fire.

"Dude, I'm sorry, is it too much?" Lucy
asked, sitting down on the bed next to me.

I shook my head, looking down at my nails.
"No, it's not that."

"He's not into any weird stuff that's
bothering you, is he? Because if he is beating you during sex, or
something, just tell me and I'll make sure that he's never seen
around these parts again."

I smiled, letting out a breathed laugh. If
she only knew that Ace was a trained fighter who has killed humans
and other aliens with his bare hands.

"No, he's not into that. Well, not that I
know of. We lost our virginity to each other last night."

"No shit, seriously?" I looked up to see
Lucy's eyes had widened to be about the size of Easter eggs.

"Yeah, I didn't want to say anything, but now
it's kind of out there in the open." I moved my arms out to the
side, and then let them fall flat on the bed.

"I'm sorry, dude. I didn't know. I wouldn't
have made such a big deal out of the whole sock thing if I did,"
she said, looking down at her hands.

"Don't worry about it. It's not a big
deal."

"Not a big deal?" She popped her head backup.
"Losing your virginity is totally a big deal. You just shared a
part of yourself with someone else. It's like the biggest thing
that you could give someone."

"Well, when you put it that way." I bit down
on my bottom lip.

"It's not how I put it. It's how it should
be. All this crap with people just sleeping with anyone that looks
at them across the bar; that's not what sex should be. It's the
closest that any two people can be to each other, and it's
definitely a big deal."

I looked at Lucy's smiling face. She was
deadly serious and making more sense than anyone I had met. My mom
and dad and health class teachers could preach to me all they
wanted about safe sex, but when she put it into those terms, there
was no way I could deny the gravity of what happened with Ace and
me. Not only would he always be mine, but now we would always have
a part of each other that could never be taken away.

"Was that what it was like for you? I mean,
your first time?" I asked.

"Ugh." She shook her head, sitting up and
putting one knee under her before sitting back down. "I wish it was
something special. I ended up getting drunk at a party at the
beginning of freshman year, and just figured it was time I give it
up. I thought maybe it would somehow make me not a lesbian
anymore."

She tugged a piece of hair behind her ear and
looked out the window, as if she was taking her mind away to
somewhere else. "So now some douche who wore a backward visor and
went by the name DMac has my virginity. There was no special
moment. No waking up the next morning in the arms of someone who
would tell me that they loved me. All I got was a sore hymen and a
hickey the size of a baseball on my neck that didn't go away for
days."

"That sounds awful. I'm so sorry." I put my
hand on top of Lucy's.

She squeezed it, turning back to me with a
tight-lipped smile on her face. "I'd say its fine, but it's really
not. I gave it away without actually thinking of the consequences.
I'm just glad that you were able to share it with someone special,
someone who loved you enough to give you his in return."

"Thanks, Lucy, I appreciate your insight.
You're like the cool big sister I never had. Well, besides Jen, the
girl I did my internship with. But you two can both be my honorary
big sisters."

She leaned forward, squinting and tilting her
chin down. "But, I'm the favorite big sister, right?"

I knew how jealous Simone got whenever I
would talk about Jen, but I it was different with Lucy. She didn't
have any agenda to destroy Ace's and my relationship. Even Riley,
who hated me a summer ago, was supportive of me.

"The favoritiest of them all, but we can't
tell Jen." I puckered my lips and squinted my left eye. "We don't
want her to get jealous of our sisterly love."

Lucy made the same face at me and held her
three middle fingers up and crossed her pinky and thumb over her
palm. "Scout's honor."

I laughed and Lucy joined, falling back onto
my bed and kicking her feet up in the air. "Lady, you are too much
for me sometime."