Page 42 of The Alien Who Saved Christmas
Some random alien with droopy ears and a fancy tunic wandered past the opening of their alleyway. Without even looking the guy’s way, Xane’s bound hands lashed out and grabbed the big-eared being by the collar. Half a second later, he’d bashed the alien’s head on the side of the stucco building, and the well-dressed stranger was unconscious on the ground.
Sadie blinked in astonishment.
Xane muttered an alien curse, like he hadn’t expected the guy to pass out so easily. He stooped down to pluck a pouch from the man’s belt and plunked it into her hand. “I found some money.” He said, not quite meeting her eyes.
Well, no wonder he’d worried about scaring her. He was capable of knocking someone out cold with a flick of the wrist. It had all happened so fast and with so little effort that nobody else at the casino had even noticed. If Xane wanted to hurt Sadie, she’d be dead in an instant.
Luckily, that was the last thing the big guy wanted. He was pessimistic and grouchy about everything… except their marriage. Being her maybe-husband lightened his perpetually grim mood. But when she’d backed away from him, he’d let her retreat from the kiss without question. Keeping Sadie safe was all that mattered to Xane. She suddenly and completely believed it.
“Good job.” She told him.
He shifted a shoulder in an uncomfortable motion. Frustration radiated off of him in waves. “Violence is an innate skill of my people. Even for those of us who prefer ranching.”
“I meant with the kissing part. I think it might be another of your innate skills, because you did a super-good job at it.”
Turquoise eyes slammed into hers in surprise.
Sadie smiled at him. “I could never be afraid of you.” She reiterated. “Rtaharions are innately skilled at violence, but never towards their cute human teammate. Admit it. I’m right.”
He exhaled heavily, not adjusting her pronunciation. Either she’d finally said the word how he liked, or he was beyond correcting her. “Rtaharions let our actions speak, not our words. But I will admit that you’re partially right. I could never harm my cute humanwife.”
Sadie arched a brow, flirting a little bit herself. “Maybe-wife.”
Something warmed in his expression. Something that she couldn’t quite decipher, but it made her insides flip. “Only-wife.” He murmured.
Chapter Eleven
Food pills roasting on an open fire,
Snake monsters nipping at your nose.
From “An Interstellar Christmas Song”
A Christmas Carol for Non-Earthlings by Sadie Malone
Sadie was stuck wearing her stupid, stolen Kris Kringle robes, which started everything off on the wrong foot.
If she’d had an awesome, Bond-girl dress, the plan would have come together way better. Just abouteveryplan would go better when you wore an awesome Bond-girl dress, but it was downright essential when doing spy-stuff at a casino. Granted, the “casino” really,reallylooked like a Christmas market. And an awesome Bond-girl dress would have been difficult to find on Planet Craphole. And her overall plan was sort of sketchy to begin with. But, still… her clothing was ahugeissue.
Even her skating polar bear sweater and jeans would have been preferable to the baggy robes. They were totally useless when it came to bamboozling a bad guy and distracting him with her femme fatale glamour. Unfortunately, Xane refused to see reason and that’s why everything went to hell.
He’d thrown a big, alien fit at the idea of Sadie “revealing herself as a female.” She’d pointed out --pretty logically-- that three-headed snake guys most likely weren’t attracted to human women, anyway. In fact, Elf might not be able to tell that she evenwasa woman. It was a sure bet reptile-girls looked different from mammal-girls, after all. It was probably a non-issue.
Xane had stared at her like she was crazy, “Every male in the universe is attracted to you. Keep those phlarging robes on, unless you want a phlarging war in the phlarging streets!”
Sadie wasn’t a hundred percent sure what “phlarging” meant, but context clues and his increasing volume strongly hinted that it was bad. “Don’t use that kind of language on Christmas.” She’d sniffed.
But she’d kept the phlarging robes on.
Pointedly ignoring Xane, who was brooding a few steps behind her, she approached the booth where Elf stood. Sidling up next to him was harder then she’d like to admit. The massive, multi-headed monster seemed even bigger up close.
It didn’t help that one of his heads was snacking on a squealing piglet-unicorn. Sadie cringed as he chomped off the adorable creature’s skull and then spat it onto the ground. He drained the tiny pink body into hisleegosglass, giving the concoction a swirl. Blood and chocolate mixed in a whirlpool of ick.
“Bets!” The armadillo-alien running the game called. “Place your bets.”
Elf slapped a metal chip onto a blue circle on the counter.
Sadie frowned and glanced over her shoulder at Xane. Maybe she should have asked him how to play. Raising her shoulder, she tried to convey how utterly lost she was about the rules.
