Amy Redwood: My AlienThreesome

Earth, Year 2217

“Is the room okay?” The greasy-haired punk moonlighting as a porter at the harbor docking motel threw open a door. “It’s our last one.”

I made a turn around the shoebox-sized room, checking for possible death traps but really just trying to be blasé about the only piece of furniture inside the place—a narrow, single bed.

“We’ll take it,” Garrett said, quickly completing the check-in process.

My throat grew tight. Twelve weeks of keeping my feelings close to my chest and I was still hoping that my crush on Garrett would eventually evaporate into nothingness. Would evaporate into thin air like the toxic fumes my space glider emitted at each start and landing. And now this .

Bar noise wafted up to our room—music and slurred voices from travelers and other pilots stuck in this hole for tonight. The punk left, but not before taking a final look at Garrett, his face twisting to a ratlike grin as if he had just spotted a juicy corpse.

“You sure it’s safe to stay overnight?” I asked, switching on the bathroom light.

“Got a better idea, Kyra?”

“We could stay on board,” I said, knowing that this would violate the harbormaster’s law, and the penalty could include grounding my ship for days . All ships needed to be vacated at night—security reasons.

“It’s only for a few hours.” Garrett adjusted the screen that blocked the window view. Outside, the docking station was brightly illuminated, and somewhere out of view was my girl, my space glider, held captive for the night. “I’ve secured us the first starting permit next morning.”

I nodded, watching a ship taking off as another touched down. The floor beneath my feet vibrated lightly. I cursed anyone who held a special permit that allowed them to ignore the nightly curfew.

Garrett pulled a rolled-up mat from his bag, spread it out on the floor in front of the window.

I met his gaze. “You can have the bed. I actually don’t mind—”

“Drop it.” He disappeared into the bathroom, leaving me to wonder why the room with the single bed made me so jumpy. When he came back, his dark hair was slick with water, his face glistening with it. He’d taken off his shirt and vest, taken off his communicator and earpiece. “All yours,” he said, stretching out on his mat below the window.

All yours, I thought, looking at his lean, muscled torso. If only.

I escaped with my bag into the bath, washed, changed into fresh clothes for the night. The bedroom was dark after I switched off the bathroom light. Dark except for a patch of light underneath the window where the glare of the security lights filtered through the screen. Beams of light hit him, illuminating his bare chest, the stretched-out legs, the muscled arms folded behind his head.

And standing hidden in the dark, I let my guard slip like a coat too heavy with rain.

I soaked in the sight of him, allowed my longing to be naked and unrestrained. I’d feel better come morning, when we returned to business as usual. But for tonight, our routine broken, I longed for something more with this man. More than sharing flight plans, job contracts, gains, losses and the next lunch. I felt a hot flush warming my face just thinking about how it would feel if he would touch me, not casually, but with intent.

My hands balled to fists. Work and love didn’t mix—it was a rule I didn’t dare break. I wondered if I should get up and get a couple of drinks downstairs. Get laid. Something to take off the edge.

Instead, I slipped between the sheets, closed my eyes and tortured myself by imagining how he’d look above me, naked, thrusting.

“Kyra, I think we have to talk.”

I tensed, feeling caught, then relaxed. He had many skills, but even he couldn’t read minds.

“Can’t it wait ’til morning?”

“Did you know that as a child, I was nearsighted?”

“So what?”

“So before I turned sixteen, I went and had that fixed.”

“Fascinating,” I said. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to catch some sleep.“

“I upgraded the procedure to get night vision as well.”

“Well, good for you.” It was a costly procedure, but pilots went to great length to be the best at their profession. I’d considered it myself, but so far, the risks outweighed the benefits. But his dark eyes hadn’t suffered, hadn’t lost their spark or turned lifeless. Thank the stars. “That all?”

“No,” he said, sounding amused for reasons beyond me.

I pushed the sheets away from me, got up. “I’m not tired after all. I’ll grab a drink downstairs.” I slipped into my boots, not planning to return before morning broke. I’d go crazy with unfulfilled lust otherwise.

“Kyra?”

I fumbled around in the dark, snapped my belt closed and pocketed my weapon. He said my name again, and I spun around, taking a deep breath before I calmly said, “Yes?”

“You’re not going downstairs to get laid, are you?”

“None of your fucking business,” I said, my heart pounding in my throat, then laughed to take the sting out of my words. I was already at the door when he closed his hands around my shoulders. I hadn’t even heard him move.

“I can’t let you do that,” he said, his breath warm at my neck. “It’s too dangerous downstairs.”

“I’ve been in worse places,” I said. “Simply imagine that I’m a guy, Garrett, if that makes you feel better.” I shook off his hands. “Don’t treat me like I’m a little girl.”

“That’s the last thing I want to do,” he said in a matter-of-fact voice. “Remember, night vision? I saw how you looked at me.”

I blinked, puzzled, turned around but couldn’t make out the look on his face in the dark. “What are you talking— Oh,” I said, my mind scrambling for a witty line that would bring us back to the comfortable level of communication we usually shared.

“There’s something I wanted to do for a while,” he said, his fingers sneaking around my neck, pulling me close, brushing his mouth across mine.

“Don’t,” I whispered, thinking about my stupid rule as he snapped open my belt. “It will fuck up everything.”

Ten weeks later

It was still in the middle of the night when I left my apartment. I picked up the sleep-aid Jana would need for a relaxed flight then grabbed a cab to fly me directly to the docks. At fifty stories above the ground, the chilled night wind whipped mercilessly across my face. I paid the cab, took a deep breath, wondering what the next days would bring me.

I’d lie if I didn’t admit to myself that I was excited. Dezra. I’d never imagined that I’d be able to visit the planet. One just didn’t waltz uninvited into Dezrian territory. Few pilots could boast that they went there and lived to tell the tale. I’d already prepared my girl, my glider, for the trip, stored away a few personal items, so there was nothing else to do than wait for Jana to arrive.

Across from the docks, a three-story-high screen blared the news into the night, and it was Jana’s face that flickered across the screen. High ranking Dezrian takes Earth-born commoner as wife. For thirty-two credits, I could download the complete story that promised some juicy gossip on top of it. It made me grin. I had a minor celebrity as a friend.

I wondered if Garrett would ever make the news, and if this would be how I’d see him again. On a three-story-high screen while I stood shivering in the cold. Alone.

That night, that cursed night ten weeks ago…

We overstepped boundaries that night. I knew sleeping with him would fuck up everything good we had. I knew that our relationship would end up shipwrecked. But I had thought that it would happen gradually until we couldn’t stand working together anymore. What I hadn’t counted on was that it would happen overnight. That waking up the next morning, alone and abandoned, would destroy my heart.