Page 5 of Matched to the Alien King
Awkward silence stretched through the room, tightly, weighted with all sorts of expectations. I didn’t want to talk to him. At the same time, I had one question. One question that tripped over and over onto the edge of my tongu—
“Did you hear music last night?” I blurted.
“What was that thing in the pool with Emjay?”
We asked our questions of each other in the exact same second, because of course we fuxxing did.
“I’ll answer first,” he said, baring his teeth in a fake smile. “No. No music. Why?”
I nodded slowly. “No reason. And no, I don’t know what that was in the pool with Emjay.”
“Huh…” was all he said as his green eyes narrowed quizzically on mine.
He didn’t believe me, probably because I wasn’t telling him the truth. He was too smart. Too smart for his own good. He’d likely noticed that the orange glob of Klio-3 indicating Faid locations that had been floating above the pool was gone when he and Nera came back last night from the crew’s beach house. Kind of a hard thing not to notice.
Ignoring his probing stare, I went back into the empty bedroom. I figured I had about two hours to grab some sleep before my own style team came with chains and whips instead of coffee.
Why chains and whips?
Because yesterday they’d tried nipple clamps and fuzzy wrist restraints.
It hadn’t worked out well for them.
Today,Pete,hostofAlien Love Island, kept his distance from me and my fist.
Smart man. Smarter bruise. It stayed mostly hidden underneath his Aviator sunglasses, which reminded me of Emjay’s mirrored eyes.
A shudder iced up my spine at the thought.
I sat in the hoverchair on the far end of the males’ side of the wooden platform, the best seat in the house to keep an eye on everyone. No one looked my way as they frantically prepared for the show to start. No one came at me with a dagger or nipple clamps either.
Things were really looking up.
Then, up the short flight of stairs to the platform, came Nera.
Thoughts stalled in my head. All languages ceased to exist. My pulse multiplied into a thousand beating points that ricocheted against my scales.
She was stunning. Breathtaking.
The ends of her long, sheer red dress breezed out to her sides and showcased much of her long, lean legs. Legs that had been wrapped around my hips while I’d thrust inside her only yesterday, but too long ago.
The dress’s neckline plunged all the way to her navel where a ruby crowned with diamonds cinched the fabric together. Her gilded skin glowed with the colors of the setting sun. Her long dark hair had been curled and glossed, and her face had been painted to highlight those big brown eyes that undid my soul every time I looked into their depths.
Like now.
Even though I don’t remember doing so, I’d stood to take all of her in.
She stopped at the top of the stairs, and when she smiled, the rest of the planet faded away. It was just the two of us, caught inside a moment.
Our moment.
“…any day now, you two. Don’t you want to know who our audience picked to stay or go?” Pete’s voice slowly filtered in, and he gave a nervous chuckle. “My face has already decided who it wants to go, but unfortunately for me, it doesn’t have a say.”
I shot him a look, which snapped his mouth shut, and sank back onto my hoverchair.
One of the other female contestants—June—tugged at Nera’s hand since she probably hadn’t heard Pete, and Nera plopped down in the seat next to her.
“Great. Grand.Finally.” Pete sucked everything in so he could button his skintight jeans. “We ready?”
