Alien Romance: Alien Heart (Scifi Paranormal Alien Abduction Invasion Cyborg Romance) (New Adult Mystery Adventure Shifter Warrior Short Stories) (77 page)

Just off from his living room, she found his office. There was a large mahogany desk with a couple of computer monitors hooked up along with neat stacks of paperwork.  She decided it best not to snoop around there lest she shuffle the papers and cause the loss of important documents.

She was just about to settle in the living room and see what was on the television, but thought she’d give the upstairs a quick peek as well. Her investigation brought her first to a guest bedroom, which she determined as such only because the only items in the closet were spare bed sheets, a few boxes of labeled decorations, and an acoustic guitar.

Then she returned to the bedroom where she woke up. This was, without a doubt, Paul’s bedroom. The knowledge made her heart flutter. After all, he had a well put together guest bedroom, but had chosen to have her sleep in his bed. The next thought that struck her was that he had probably slept right next to her in that bed, his bed. It was enough to make her giddy.

“He slept right there next to me, didn’t he,” she asked Aspen, who barked an enthusiastic reply. Laura laughed with delight and shared Aspen’s excitement. “Let’s go for a quick walk,” she suggested, “and then we’ll see what’s on Netflix.”

***

Aspen let out a sharp bark before the door even opened to alert Laura to Paul’s presence. She paused the episode of
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
that she was on and followed the dog to the front hall to greet Paul. There he stood removing his jacket and the moment his eyes found her a smile spread across his face.

“I’m glad you decided to stay.”

“I didn’t think you wanted me to go,” she said as they crossed the distance to one another.

“I don’t,” he said as his arm slid around her waist.

In that moment she knew what was to come and tilted her head as their lips met in a kiss that felt like a jolt of electricity flowing through her. She wrapped her arms around him, feeling the longing he had for her in the way his lips crashed down on hers along with his grip around her waist and his fingers knotted in her hair.

Paul kept holding her closer until she was barely on the ground anymore. Then in one swift movement he swept her off of her feet and carried her up to the bedroom, his lips never leaving hers.

As soon as he laid her down on the bed, Laura’s hands began tugging at the green polo shirt, releasing it from the waistband of his khakis. Paul responded quickly and the shirt disappeared, revealing the body the she had dreamed about for months. He was just as perfect as she had imagined, his tanned skin rippling with toned muscles. There was a light dusting of blonde hair on his chest that condensed and darkened as it trailed down his abdomen.

Laura ran her hands over his body and reached up to kiss him again and pull him down onto her. His hands began to explore her as well, feeling her curves through her shirt and jeans. She wanted so badly for her clothes to disappear so that she wouldn’t have to unlock her lips from his.

Paul was the one who pulled away first, pulling Laura up into a sitting position on the bed. She reached for the hem of her shirt, but his hand caught hers before she could remove it.
“Wait, I-I have something to tell you first.”

Laura wasn’t sure how to react and silently looked up at him while he held her hands in his own, waiting for whatever it was he had to say.

“I think I love you,” he said and Laura felt her mouth fall open, but before she could utter a word he continued. “That’s why I have to tell you something, and you may not like it. I don’t want to lie to you though. I don’t want you to be upset either.”

A million worst-case scenarios ran through Laura’s mind all at once. Was it a disease? Was he already married? Was he secretly a con man? A hit man? All of these thoughts jumbled up inside of her, but when she opened her mouth all that came out was an intensely calm and decisive voice saying, “It’s alright, Paul. You can tell me anything.”

“Laura,” he stopped to take a breath, “I’m an alien.”

*****

Laura locked the door of her apartment behind her before falling against it and sliding to the floor. She wasn’t sure what had just happened, just that it left her shaken and confused.

An alien? Not only that, but he had gone on to call himself a cyborg, a hybrid of an organic life form with technology. She could have dealt with anything else, kids, ex-wife, current wife, even a communicable disease, but this alien nonsense was too much for her.

To begin with she thought that it was a joke. Then, as he continued to explain his “mission on this planet” she thought that maybe he was just crazy. But what she couldn’t shake was when he held up his left arm and it began glowing and calling up data and statistics at his command. In her mind this all had to be an elaborate hoax.

She shook violently as she remembered how he reached out to her when she excused herself and began to back away. He moved towards her and she made a dash for the door. Her keys were lying on the kitchen table and she grabbed them as she darted towards the front door, forsaking her shoes and jacket.

Paul was calling out her name as she wrenched the door open and when she slammed the car door shut behind her she looked over to see him coming out onto the front step.

“Laura.” He shouted and she was sure that all the neighbors were hearing and watching this spectacle. “Laura, wait.”

She jammed the key in the ignition and blew through more red lights than she cared to admit just in order to reach home, where she could safely have this meltdown and attempt to process what had just happened. Here she was, sitting in the entryway of her apartment sobbing violently and wondering why the universe had to be so cruel to her.

***

Paul couldn’t understand what it was that he had done wrong. According to his research, which consisted of a great many chick flick movies and daytime talk shows, being honest and upfront with a woman was supposed to be the best way to go. He felt sick in the pit of his stomach, as if someone had just punched him and knocked the wind out of him. He couldn’t seem to get enough air and he wanted to throw up all of his organs.

“What did I do?” he muttered to himself over and over. He could understand why she would have trouble believing him, but he didn’t know why she ran away from him. Hadn’t he shown her in all this time that he cared about her and had no ill intentions?

Paul sat in his living room, hands clasping his head, trying to figure out what had gone wrong. He was stupefied and this confusion slowly turned into a rage. His whole body began to shake until his emotions overflowed and he lashed out.

Afterwards, when he observed the damage he felt ashamed. Tables were turned over, chairs broken, art ripped from the walls, and ceramic sculptures smashed into a million pieces. At least the damage was contained to his living and dining room area. His loss of temper scared him, and he accepted the mild comfort that at least Laura had not seen this lapse in his self-control.

Aspen peeked out from the doorway of the office to see if the wave of destruction had subsided. Paul caught sight of the dog and was momentarily choked up.

“I’m sorry,” he said to the canine. “I’m so sorry.”

Slowly Aspen was coaxed into coming out of the office and towards Paul, but he was clearly still frightened and unsure about the state of his owner. Sitting back down on the couch, Paul extended his hand outwards to pet Aspen and felt a pang of guilt when the animal flinched away from him.

“I’m sorry, boy.” It seemed to be the only thing that he could say, but his repeated apologies did not seem to be doing much in the way of making amends.

Sliding down from the couch, Paul knelt down before the dog and held out his hands as a plea for his forgiveness. Slowly, Aspen stepped forward and placed his head into Paul’s outstretched hands. The broken man began to sob, burying his face into the dog’s long golden hair. Over and over again, all he could say was “I’m sorry,” until finally he fell asleep, leaning against the couch with his arms still wrapped around Aspen, who sat diligently keeping watch over his master.

*****

Two weeks had gone by since Paul had revealed to Laura the nature of his being. Two weeks since she had run away from him in terror. For the first whole week Paul had refused to even check in with his commander or to go into his mundane accounting job.

When he did finally return to his Earth job, it was under the pretense of having been sick. His excuse to his commander was a system malfunction that had knocked him offline for a while. In either case, he couldn’t admit that his absence was because the first woman that he had fallen in love with had run away from him as if he were a monster from a science fiction movie.

In that time, he had come to appreciate Aspen as more than just a piece of mission equipment. He discovered that it was time that he acknowledged that the dog was a living creature, same as he was, and deserved affection. Through this reformed bond with Aspen, Paul discovered that he could receive unconditional love from this animal. Also, being a dog, Aspen didn’t care if parts of his owner were technological implants and physical enhancements.

The nano tracker he had implanted in Laura still sent him information on her and Paul reserved himself to quietly watching over her at this point in time. She had made it clear that she did not want to be near him. This did not mean that he had to dismiss his feelings for her.

Every morning when he woke up and got ready for work he would check on her, sleeping safely in her bed. Then in the afternoons he would check again to see her moving vitally around the park, walking all of the other neighborhood dogs.  And once more, he would check in the evenings, to make sure she was getting home safely from class.

She went about her days routinely, and as far as Paul knew, she was moving on without him. From his limited insight, she appeared to be doing just fine without him.

***

Every day was painful for Laura. She physically ached from her emotional pain. It was little help either that she still worked in the same neighborhood where Paul lived and would have to pass by his house nearly every day.

It also did not help that when she did pass by his house, sometimes she would hear Aspen barking for her, or catch a glimpse of him peeking over his backyard fence if he was outside. It made her heart ache so much that sometimes she considered stopping by, just to check on Aspen, but she knew that it would be too much for her.

Sometimes she would wake up from dreaming about Paul, and sometimes she could still feel the ghost of his embrace wrapped around her, the memory of his lips pressed to hers. It was always the worst in the mornings when she’d awaken to find herself alone in her room. The second worst was in the evenings when her mind pondered whether or not things could have turned out differently.

As if they could sense that her melancholy was due to a break up, her sleazier classmates had started to flock towards her like scavengers to a fresh kill. They would catch her before or after class in the hallway or the parking lot with the worst attempts at gaining her attention, much less affection.

Laura would shy away from them and do her best to deflect their advances. Still, her resistance did nothing to deter their attempts.

It had been two weeks that Laura had held out on making a  decision. She had run away from Paul and she knew there was no easy way of returning, even if she wanted to. Despite the madness of his claims, as the days passed she began to think more about the month they had spent together and all of the wonderful things he had done for her.

At the end of the second week, Laura received a letter and she immediately recognized the handwriting. It was from Paul.

Laura, I know I must have freaked you out with everything about being-well not being who I have made myself out to be. I’m sorry, truly. I don’t expect you to forgive me, much less to want to be with me, but I would like the opportunity to fully explain myself to you. I will meet you after your classes tonight. –Paul

Her heart ached just at the sight of his handwriting and thinking of all of the other little notes he had written for her. She didn’t know whether she desperately wanted to say “yes” or “no”, but it did not matter either way what she wanted because his note had not really given her an option.

*****

Laura was slow to gather her books after class. She hoped that everyone would leave quickly so that none of them would have to witness her meeting with Paul. She silently willed them all to disappear as she slung her backpack over her shoulder and headed towards the parking lot.

As she walked out the door she scanned the lot for Paul and found him on the far side of it. When he caught sight of her he waved and she had to ignore the painful flutter in her heart. She half-heartedly acknowledged him as she headed towards her own car.

While she was unlocking the doors, she heard a gravelly voice behind her.  “Hey there, baby doll, what are you up to tonight?”

“Nothing,” Laura answered, without even turning to face the guy.

“Why don’t you come out and have a drink with me,” he suggested, “and maybe afterwards we can have some fun.”

“No thanks.”

She unlocked her car door and was about to get in when the guy jerked hard on her backpack. “What’s your problem?”

Laura turned to face the man, he was middle aged, at least 40, with a receding hairline and tobacco stained teeth. “I’m tired,” she said in a flat tone, “and I want to go home.”