Bond: Stargazer Alien Mail Order Brides (Intergalactic Dating Agency) Read online

  She tried not to notice his rippling muscles, his dark hair hanging a bit too long over his forehead.

  “We’re alone,” he pointed out.

  “The others are right downstairs,” she told him, pointedly studying her cheese again.

  “We haven’t been alone since that night,” he said.

  Georgia felt herself get all trembly again remembering the exquisite feeling of being swept up in his arms. At the time, the sensation had felt like flying.

  Obviously, she’d been in shock.

  He had carried her to a karaoke bar. Not exactly the most romantic first date.

  “Yeah, it’s been super busy, hasn’t it?” she asked brightly.

  “That’s not what I meant,” Rocky said.

  Of course it wasn’t. But he was only trying to be polite, trying to find a way past her armor when he didn’t really want one.

  If she pushed him away enough he would stop trying. And then she could go back to school, and he could go ahead and fall in love with Rima.

  “Georgia, is everything okay?” Rima asked breathlessly from the doorway. She must have dashed up the stairs after the two of them.

  Rocky glanced over at Rima and they shared a knowing smile.

  Adorable.

  “Everything’s fabulous, an alien just fell in love with our best friend,” Georgia said sarcastically.

  “I know,” Rima smiled dreamily.

  “Magnum will fall in love with you too. He will not be able to resist your charms,” Rocky assured Rima ardently.

  Rima laughed awkwardly and looked at the ground.

  It was all Georgia could do not to stomp her foot.

  “Let’s get this stuff downstairs,” she said crisply.

  Rima grabbed the bottle of wine and headed back downstairs, and Georgia moved to follow her.

  Suddenly Rocky’s hand shot out to block the doorway.

  “Hey,” Georgia said.

  “You pretend to be fierce, Georgia Taylor, but you are afraid,” he said, a half-smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

  “I’m afraid I’m going to dump this tray on your head if you don’t get out of my way,” she said, shoving his chest playfully.

  Oh god, his chest was so muscular. All she wanted was to drop the cheese tray and rub her hands all over him.

  Down, girl, she told herself.

  He leaned in.

  “I’ve let you have your space,” Rocky murmured into her ear. “But make no mistake, you are my woman. And your time of pushing me aside is coming to an end.”

  Georgia felt like she might melt under his ticklish hot breath.

  But he was already straightening and heading down the stairs, even as she swooned helplessly against the doorframe.

  Damned sexy alien.

  ***

  Thanks for reading Bond!

  Keep reading for a sample of the next Stargazer Alien Mail Order Brides book: Rocky.

  Or grab your next book right now:

  http://www.tashablack.com/rocky.html

  36

  Rocky (Sample)

  1

  Georgia

  Georgia Taylor had one hand on her sidearm, and the other on her police radio.

  The call was probably nothing. The anonymous tip was most likely the handiwork of a teenaged prankster or a lonely old person with lousy vision and an active imagination.

  So when she grasped the dusty window frame to lean out of the abandoned warehouse and she spotted a man perching on the stone gargoyle of the church rooftop a few feet away, her breath caught in her throat for a moment.

  “Sir, my name is Georgia,” she called to him, recovering a little as her training kicked in. “I’m not here to cause you any harm.”

  The police academy had prepared her for exactly this situation.

  But why couldn’t she remember who had taught the course, or anything else she was supposed to say or do?

  She had a feeling of mental vertigo for a moment.

  Why couldn’t she remember anything about becoming a cop?

  But there was no time to fill the strange gaps in her memory. Whatever she had forgotten, it must have been impressive. Only the best officers were privileged with offering jumpers a second chance at life.

  The cold air swirled, and for a moment she thought what she saw was just the man’s clothing blowing in the wind, but he was actually moving - leaning toward her. He reached for her with one hand, as if to caress her cheek.

  He was handsome, almost obscenely so. His dark hair was a bit too long and half-covered one of his large dark brown eyes. He was dressed simply, but she could see the lines of his muscular build through his clothing - strong arms, wide chest, narrow hips.

  It was the expression on his face that brought a haunting beauty to his otherwise masculine looks. The man gazed at Georgia in open adoration, as if she were an angel.

  And the expression was familiar…

  If only she could remember.

  “Georgia,” the man whispered, barely audible above the wind.

  The sound of his voice brought it all crashing back.

  Rocky. What was he doing up here?

  For that matter, what was she doing?

  She wasn’t a police officer, at least not yet. And she certainly wasn’t trained to deal with this.

  He leaned further toward her, but the space between them was too far. He was going to fall.

  She heard the revving of engines in the distance, growing louder. Someone was coming.

  “Rocky, please,” she began, “help will be here soon…”

  But Rocky was not going to wait.

  He moved toward her, lifting one foot from the gargoyle.

  The stone creature groaned and shifted in place, sending several ancient roof slates clattering down the side of the edifice. They were so high up that Georgia couldn’t hear them hit the sidewalk below, but she could picture them - slate one moment and dust the next.

  “Hope is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, And sings the song without the words, and never stops at all,” Georgia heard herself say.

  In her despair, she had forgotten everything and was reciting an Emily Dickinson poem she had memorized in high school when she was at a low point. It was the time when she realized her parents didn’t love each other, and it didn’t matter if they got divorced or not- their hatred for each other would trump their love for her, and she was no longer a treasured child, but a pawn in a game whose rules she didn’t understand.

  Rocky, seemingly unmoved by the poetry, stepped off the gargoyle completely.

  No!

  Instead of falling, he walked carelessly across the nothingness between them to wrap his large hand around Georgia’s cheek.

  The final piece of the puzzle fell into place and Georgia realized she was asleep, she was dreaming.

  There had been no call, and there was no danger. This version of Rocky wasn’t even real - though she could taste his lips, and feel the warmth of his hand against her face.

  Rocky…

  She woke up moaning into her pillow.

  Georgia was no stranger to nightmares. That was what happened when you went to college all day and then worked the night shift as a security guard, grabbing sleep between rounds of coffee and studying. It was normal. It had to be normal.

  But she hadn’t been to class, or work, in weeks.

  She sat up, hoping that if she woke up all the way, she wouldn’t plunge right back into the dream when her head hit the pillow.

  That was when she heard it. The engine noise. That hadn’t been part of her dream. Something was happening outside.

  She grabbed her robe, slid her feet into her slippers, headed out into the common room and began banging on Posey and Rima’s bedroom doors.

  The three best friends had been recruited to donate eggs at a clinic in Stargazer, Pennsylvania. Only when they had arrived, they found out that they had actually been recruited to mate with aliens who were on Earth in human form.
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  At least, Georgia and Posey had found out at that point. It turned out that Rima had known all along - her mother was the scientist running the project.

  In spite of what Georgia considered serious odds against any of the couples falling in love, Posey had clicked with Bond pretty much immediately. It was kind of hysterical, seeing as Posey was the suspicious type, always thinking everything was part of some big cover-up. For once, Posey had been right, but she’d fallen in love anyway.

  Rima had been matched to Magnum, the leader of the alien boys and a total snooze fest of a guy - gruff, macho and humorless. Georgia couldn’t understand how sweet, winsome Rima could spend so much as half an hour with someone like him. But Rima was dedicated to the mission of being an ambassador for Earth, and probably wouldn’t have cared if Magnum had looked like Jabba the Hutt and acted like a three year old after a gallon of root beer. She would have tried to make it work.

  And Georgia, oh, Georgia.

  Georgia, who decidedly did not want to fall in love, who had a clear and fast plan for her future - she had been matched with Rocky.

  As if on cue, she heard someone on the stairs.

  Sure enough, Rocky burst in.

  “Georgia,” he said, his tone conveying both concern and relief.

  She turned away so as not to notice his hunky build and his dreamboat eyes. But hell, his voice had already done the job, the deep tone seeming to vibrate to the strings of her heart.

  She wished she could stop dreaming about him and at least find some peace from her feelings while she was sleeping.

  “What’s going on out there?” she asked.

  Posey slipped out of her room, her face a neon green.

  “Posey, are you okay?” Rocky asked.

  “It’s a mask,” Georgia explained to Rocky.

  Probably something with avocados or cucumbers, judging from the vegetable aroma. Posey was very interested in spa treatments. It was her goal to open her own spa one day. And if Bond managed to knock her up, that day might even be this year. The $9,500 participation fee in the alien bride project went up to $95,000 if you and your match mated for life and had a child.

  “I see,” Rocky said, nodding, but still looking confused. “Is she in disguise? Is this the day of Halloween?”

  “It’s for her skin,” Georgia explained. “You can soak your skin in… vegetables and stuff to make it soft.”

  “Oh, Posey your skin was… hard?” he asked.

  “Something like that,” Posey replied distractedly and turned to Georgia. “What’s going on out there?”

  “No idea,” Georgia said.

  There was banging at the door upstairs. And the sounds of revving motors that she’d heard earlier were louder.

  Bond and Magnum burst in from the stairs just as Rima stumbled out of her bedroom.

  “What’s going on?” Rima yawned.

  Georgia pushed past them all and dashed up the stairs.

  Dr. Bhimani, their host and Rima’s mom, was standing still in the open doorway, cold air buffeting her long nightgown against her slight body. She looked out onto the lawn that stretched to the boxwood hedge that lined the lane leading to the old observatory they were all calling home.

  Georgia’s gaze follow Dr. Bhimani’s and she saw several men on motorcycles out in the yard.

  “Listen you old loon, Carlton Briggs is calling in your mortgage,” one of the men yelled in a deep throaty voice that suggested a generous coating of beer and cigarettes. “You better get ready to pay up or get out.”

  There was a rousing cry from his compatriots and the gunning of engines as they made circles and figure eights on the long grass of the yard.

  Then they were off, following the moonlit drive along the boxwood hedge and back toward the village.

  “Dr. Bhimani, are you alright?” Rocky’s deep voice asked from behind Georgia.

  Georgia had been frozen in place, analyzing the threat on the lawn.

  But Rocky had been thinking of the frightened lady who had been the target. Now he put his arm around her and guided her to the sofa.

  Dr. Bhimani sat and put her head in her hands.

  She looked so young with her long black braid running down the back of her nightgown.

  “Mom?” Rima called breathlessly from the top of the staircase.

  “I’m okay, Rima,” Dr. Bhimani said, sitting up quickly and composing herself. “It was just some silly boys from the neighborhood. Let’s all go back to bed. We’ll figure it out in the morning.”

  “Mom, we should call the police,” Rima said, horrified.

  “No, no, honey, they left and they won’t be back. Go to sleep. We’ll have pancakes tomorrow,” Dr. Bhimani said, getting up and heading toward her own room.

  2

  Rocky

  Rocky watched Dr. Bhimani walk slowly off to her bedroom. After a moment, Rima bit her lip and headed downstairs. Everyone was taking Dr. Bhimani’s advice to get some rest.

  Only Georgia remained with him.

  His beautiful auburn-haired mate held herself still in the center of the room. She was obviously deep in thought. Unlike her friends, she did not pace or wring her hands. Georgia stood proudly, her feet a bit apart, as if she were confronting something physical.

  Rocky was pleased at her strength but also disturbed by it. A creature so fearless might get itself into a world of trouble by taking on too much of a challenge.

  His desire to protect her seemed to grow each day, in spite of the fact that she had not yet acknowledged that he had chosen her. In order for their union to be successful, she would have to choose him in return before they could move forward.

  “She has money problems,” Georgia said at last.

  Rocky had no opinion on the matter, so he listened instead of responding.

  “This whole thing was a mistake,” Georgia said, her voice cracking a little.

  That he could respond to, and the sadness in her tone necessitated a response.

  “Whatever her problems, we will share in them and help her,” he told Georgia. “You have not made a mistake, you are a thoughtful person.”

  She turned to him and the unshed tears in her blue eyes overpowered him with emotions he hadn’t felt before. Georgia was never one to express her feelings this way.

  The need to comfort her overwhelmed him, but he knew she did not want his touch. Or rather her body desired it greatly, but her mind did not.

  Humans were complicated creatures.

  “Walk with me?” He offered her his hand.

  He watched emotions warring on her face.

  She extended her hand to him, and he led her to the outside door without having a single plan in mind for where he was taking her.

  “Are we going after those guys?” she asked, her voice making it sound like she was not afraid, and felt it was a reasonable plan.

  “No,” he told her. “We’re going to sit on the dock.”

  He realized once it was said that it was just the right thing to do.

  She didn’t argue, so he opened the door for her.

  The air outside had been so warm and pleasant when Rocky had arrived on this planet with Bond and Magnum. But now it was cold. Dr. Bhimani had told them that soon it would be impossible to venture outside without thick garments.

  Georgia was bundled in a bathrobe so fluffy it looked like a blanket, but she wore sadly thin coverings on her feet.

  “May I carry you?” he asked politely, trying not to think of that first night.

  She nodded and his heart soared.

  The night of the choosing ceremony, he had hoisted her up most unceremoniously and run into the night after someone attacked them with a projectile weapon. At least she had not been badly injured.

  He swept her up in his arms gently now, marveling at how good her weight felt against his chest, how her hair smelled like summer flowers, how his own body reacted to hers just as before. Her warmth was both calming and stimulating.

  Rocky focused on ge
tting down the stairs, then traversing the field. The long grasses had been blown flat by the breeze and turned silver by moonlight.

  Georgia tucked her nose into his neck and he bit back a hum of satisfaction as he stepped onto the wooden dock.

  In the summertime he’d sat here, swinging his feet into the murky water of the pond and watching the wildlife. When he sat still and patient long enough, the animals returned to their business and he would see the frogs and fish and even sometimes a mother deer and her fawns, or a raccoon. Once he saw what Dr. Bhimani told him must have been a silver fox.

  Rocky lowered them to the wooden planks of the deck and they sat in silence for a while. It was too cold for dipping their feet into the water.

  The pond lapped the shore and the tiny stars reflected merrily on its glassy surface.

  The stars were so far away from this planet.

  Georgia settled in, leaning back against him, his arms wrapped around her as if he were a mother kangaroo and she were in his pouch.

  He waited for her to speak, hoping that, like the other wild creatures, his mate might find her courage if he were calm and patient enough.

  For a long time, she was still in his arms.

  Then she spoke.

  “It’s so beautiful,” she said.

  “Yes,” he agreed, fighting the urge to tell her that she was the most beautiful thing about the place.

  “But I don’t belong here,” she said.

  “Why not?” Rocky asked.

  “This is a special opportunity, I know it is. I’m grateful to have met you and your brothers. But I have a plan for my life, and it doesn’t include falling in love and having babies right now,” she told him.

  Somehow, the words did not ring true to Rocky’s ear.

  “It was not right for Dr. Bhimani not to tell you why you were coming,” Rocky said, pleased that he knew enough of humans now to recognize a wrong moral choice.

  But how could a good, kind person like Dr. Bhimani make a moral error?

  “No, it wasn’t right,” Georgia agreed, seemingly unaware that Rocky was processing the situation. “And she is still not telling us the truth, because if she has money trouble, it means she can’t pay us.”