Alien Romance: Snatched By The Alien: Scifi Alien Abduction Romance (Alien Romance, Alien Invasion Romance, BBW) (Celestial Protectors Book 3) (3 page)

The man released Jayden and smiled pleasantly.  “Well, I suggest you be on your way.”

Jayden seemed ready to say something but his mouth worked but nothing came out.  He gave the man a hate-filled glare and then slunk away like a scolded hound. 

Joanne watched him go with a mingling sense of relief and apprehension.  She suddenly realised she was now on her own with this handsome man.

Getting her nerves under control, she gave the man a shy smile.  “Thanks for that.  He’s harmless really, but he can be a real pain sometimes and I really need to get to work.”

“He’s no good for you,” the man said with certainty.  “You deserve much better.”

Joanne was struck dumb by his observation.  It was then that she noticed how strangely dressed he was. A checked overcoat that was two sizes too large for him covered all of his upper body underneath which were some odd-looking blue leggings and dark ankle boots. 

The overcoat was open at the throat, and she could see the elegant contours of his naked neck and the top of his smooth chest.  She tried to stop herself from fantasising about what the rest of him looked like.

“Um, well thanks for helping out,” she said, looking away quickly before she started blushing.  “I got to be going.  I’m going to be late for work.”

“Don’t go,” the man said quickly.  “I’ve come a long way to find you.”

Joanne’s eyes widened and she stiffened.  Suddenly, this gorgeous man had become rather sinister.  “I really have to go,” she said carefully, glancing around her for passersby. 

Unfortunately for her, the street was eerily deserted.  She took a few steps away from him and mentally calculated how far it was to the diner.

“Don’t be frightened,” the man said, moving closer to her.  “There is no need to be scared anymore.  I will protect you now.”

“I don’t need protection!” Joanne said sharply.  “Look, I’m grateful for you helping me out back there, but I really have to be going now.”

“Yes!” he said eagerly, an expansive grin of sparkling white teeth spreading across his face.  “We have wasted enough time on unnecessary chatter.  We will go back to my ship and I will take you to Prism Star as my love mate.”

“Oh geez!” Joanne cried out and bolted down the street in the direction of the diner, going as fast as her high heels would let her.  This was just typical for her.  Why did she always seem to attract such lousy men?

“Come back!” the man called out after her.  “There’s no need to run.  My ship will come to us.  Pero!  Stop her!”

She heard something flitter past her and glimpsed a golden light from the corner of her eye.  Suddenly, a small slender creature of shining gold with huge insect-like wings flew in front of her. 

Joanne let out a scream and nearly fell over.  The creature’s segmented eyes glittered with multi-coloured lights and she found herself compelled by a powerful force to look up into them. 

The radiant lights enveloped her and she suddenly felt very sleepy.  She was dimly aware of the man coming up to her side and taking her in his powerful arms before everything went black.

* * *

Joanne woke suddenly and sat up, staring round uncomprehendingly at her strange surroundings.  She was in what looked like a large room made of pink marble and studded with precious jewels and gold trimmings. 

She blinked as she stared at the room, her sluggish brain unable to process where she was.  Numbly looking down she found she was lying on an equally resplendent couch of white silk.

When she looked up again, the man who had saved her from Jayden was standing looking at her.  “Excellent,” he said, “You’re awake at last.  I’ve been waiting to talk to you.”

Joanne stared at him for a fraction of a second and then scrambled off the couch.  She bolted for the other side of the room.   With fluid grace he bounded over to her and reached out to grab her arm.

“Don’t be frightened,” he said in a soothing voice.  “I’m not going to hurt you.”

“Who are you?” Joanne yelled, jerking away from his touch.  “Where am I?  Why have you kidnapped me?”

“I have not kidnapped you, you silly girl,” the man replied, a laugh coming into his voice. 

“I have liberated you from your bland little world.  I have such wonders to show you.  Together we will travel enjoy all the eternal delights of the billion universes.”

Joanne stared at him, releasing he must be insane.  However, though he was physically more powerful than her he wasn’t openly aggressive at the moment so maybe she could talk him out of letting her go,
if
she was lucky. 

“Look,” she said, struggling to keep her voice calm, “I’m not interested in enjoying the eternal delights of the billion universes.  I like my bland little world and I want to go back to it.  Please, just let me go and we’ll say no more about this.  If you don’t, you’ll be in big trouble.”

The man snorted.  “Big trouble?  How come?”

“I’m going to be missed when I don’t turn up for work, my friends and boyfriend will soon call in the cops,” Joanne warned.  “You seem like a nice guy, despite what you’ve done, just let me go if you know what’s good for you.”

“You only have two people who you class as real friends and they live in another state and your boyfriend, your ex-boyfriend is probably getting drunk and the feeble law enforcement officers of your world won’t be able to pursue us into deep space.  Sorry Joanne, nobody is coming for you.”

Joanne glared at him.  “How do you know my name and so much about me?  And what are you talking about deep space for?  What’s with all this crazy sci-fi stuff?”

“We’ve gotten off to a bad start,” the man said.  He eased away from her and sat down on the couch.  “Let me explain.  My name is Tamas and I am from another planet.”

“You got that right,” muttered Joanne, glancing round the room.  As far as she could tell there was no other exit save for an archway directly behind where Tamas was sitting.  She’d never get to it without him stopping her first.

“I’m being serious,” Tamas said patiently.  “I belong to an extraterrestrial race called the Raadians.  We are going to my world right now.  It is called Prism Star, though technically it is a collection of worlds connected together but you’ll see what I mean when we get there.  Needless to say, we are vastly more advanced than Earth.”

Joanne eyed him suspiciously.  There surroundings were certainly nothing she’d ever seen before, and now that she thought about it there was a strange hum vibrating beneath her feet, as if they were above some kind of powerful engine. 

She suddenly remembered the strange golden creature that had appeared in front of her just before she passed out.

“You don’t look very alien,” she said warily, not wanting to believe his story.  This room and the thing she’d seen could easily have been faked, but for what purpose?  He didn’t need to go to such extraordinary lengths if he was an ordinary kidnapper.

“Actually my people and yours are close relatives,” Tamas said.  “The Raadians lived on Earth several million years ago, but our colonies were attacked by the Reptilian Empire. 

We fought a long and terrible war against the Reptilians and eventually we had to retreat to the furthest edge of the solar system.  Later on, we built Prism Star and now we travel to different universe as we see fit.”

“Well, you certainly have a vivid imagination,” Joanne said, pursing her lips.

“I’m telling you the truth,” Tamas retorted, an impatient frown creasing his handsome face.  “Why don’t you believe me, I thought you have an open mind?”

“There you go again, saying stuff about me that you can’t possibly know!”

“I just read your blog,” Tamas replied.  “Many of your articles provide some very intelligent articles on the existence of other life beyond your own planet.  I was actually incredibly impressed.  You possess a most well developed mind.  You’re almost as smart as my own people.”

The astronomy blog, Joanne thought a light bulb going on inside her head.  So that was why he had come after her.  For a space nut like him, she must have come across as a kindred spirit. 

It explained how he knew her name, and she kicked herself for putting up her identity and what she looked like online.  She hadn’t put up any personal stuff though, like Jayden and where she lived and worked, but he could have probably have found that out quite easily if he tried hard enough. 

It made her feel queasy that he’d been stalking her, finding out stuff about her and probably spying on her.

“Thanks for the compliment,” she said sourly.

Tamas shot her a frustrated look and opened his mouth to say something else when the golden creature that had accosted her flittered into the room. 

“We are approaching Prism Star, Tamas,” the creature said.  “You wanted me to tell you when we were about to dock.”

“Excellent,” exclaimed Tamas clapping his hands and jumping to his feet.  He grinned at Joanne.  “Now you’ll see and believe me.”

Before she could react, he grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the room.  Unable to put up a resistance, she went along with him dreading what was coming next.  Her eyes were fixed on the golden creature as it fluttered ahead of them.  Now
that
certainly looked like something from outer space.

“What is that thing?” she asked cautiously, nodding toward the creature.

“What?  Oh, that’s Pero my sylph.  He’s not important,” Tamas replied briskly.  “Why are you interested in him?  You’re here with me.”

Joanne was struck by the edge of insecurity in Tamas’ voice.  Despite his physical strength and bravado he had an air of a lost little boy about him.  She couldn’t help but find that strangely endearing.

“A sylph?” she repeated.  “Is he a Raadian too?   Why does he look so different to you?”

Pero must have heard her question because he glanced back at them and let out a loud snigger.  Tamas shot him an angry glance.

“Of course he isn’t a Raadian.  Sylphs are advanced computer simulations that we created.  They’re our servants, nothing more.”

“Advanced simulations,” Joanne said in wonder.  “You have the technology to do that?”

“Oh yes, you will be amazed at what we are capable of,” replied Tamas, squeezing her hand.  The casual intimacy she was suddenly sharing with him made her pulse quicken.  Now divested of that horrible checked coat, the sleeveless blue tunic he wore underneath showed off the firm contours and hard muscle of his body.  Her gaze lingered over his toned arms with their firm biceps and a tingle of pleasure pulsed through her. 

Angry with herself for letting her feelings get the better of her, she pointedly stared straight ahead.

They came to a circular door that irised open when Pero swept his hand over it.  Joanne could feel the excitement radiating from Tamas as they followed the little sylph through the door and into the dome roofed compartment beyond.  When she had entered this new room fully and looked around, she became equally excited.

A fantastic array of advanced computer equipment covered the lower part of the room, all seemingly functioning autonomously. 

The dome above her head was completely transparent and showed the endless void of space.  Joanne was dwarfed by the immensity of the solar system and its radiant stars but it was the object directly ahead that truly took her breath away.

They were moving toward a huge, unimaginably beautiful structure suspended in space.  It spread web like across the stars, a cluster of delicate multi-coloured tubes that connected to glittering rainbow bright pyramids. 

At the centre of the structure, and serving as its hub, was a marbled sphere made of a pristine white metal and studded with yellow lights and communication arrays.  The ship they were one navigated through the web of tubes toward this central hub.

“What do you think?” Tamas asked after a while, breaking the silence that had settled over the compartment.  He shot her a cocky smile, knowing full well how utterly amazed she was.

“I’ve never seen anything so beautiful,” Joanne replied candidly, unable and unwilling to hide her feelings.  “I just can’t take it in.  Is this Prism Star?”

“It is,” he said, “though on Earth you’ve taken to calling it the Travis Conundrum for some reason.”

The Conundrum!  Now it started to make sense.  “So this is what the Conundrum really is, and I’m the only person on Earth who knows the truth!”

“You must feel pretty special, right now,” Tamas said, clearly pleased by her reaction.

“You don’t know the half of it.  I’ve always known in my heart there was intelligent life out there in the cosmos, but I’d always been cautious not to build my hopes up. 

I wondered if advanced civilisations had been wiped out by some disaster and that there was only life at a bacterial level out there.  I’m so happy to finally know that you are out here!”

“I’m glad you are so happy,” Tamas replied, “though technically we’re only visiting this universe.  Many of the advanced races outgrew conventional space travel and now transmute to other dimensions.”

Joanne didn’t even pretend to fully understand what he was telling her.  She was still overwhelmed by the grandeur of Prism Star and was dying to get see what it was like inside.  She would soon get her wish as a doorway opened in the side of the sphere and the ship headed towards it. 

“This is the nexus of Prism Star,” Tamas said, “the very heart of our domain.  Most of or cities and living accommodation is situated here, including my palace.”

Joanne gave him a wide-eyed stare.  “You have a palace?”

“Naturally,” he replied cheerfully.  “I am a prince, after all.”

“A prince, huh?” Joanne replied.  “Do you want to be just a little bit more smugger about it?  I don’t think we’re quite getting exactly how much you are pleased with yourself.”

A confused look broke the expression of self-satisfaction on Tamas’ face, and he frowned at her not quite comprehending her sarcasm.  She noticed Pero quickly hide his smile and make a show of monitoring the computer panels.