Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 52915 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 265(@200wpm)___ 212(@250wpm)___ 176(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 52915 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 265(@200wpm)___ 212(@250wpm)___ 176(@300wpm)
Now I am on my way with an eighty dollar tip, on top of the hundred he already owed me. It was good night’s work, but it left me a little sad, both for Chip and Mrs Taunton, and the alien king and his missing princess. He never did find her before Chip went to bed.
I could call an uber, but I decide to walk. Uber cuts into my earnings quite a bit if I use it too often, and I’d like to save my guilty-cheating-husband money if I can.
At the end of the lane, there is a car. Or at least I think it’s a car. It has two headlights; that’s all I can see.
“Princess…” a deep male voice calls to me.
“Excuse me?” I stop and look over at him. I’m used to guys around here calling me all sorts of things. Sweetheart, princess, baby, whatever they feel like saying as the mood takes them. Usually they say it in a more directly creepy way.
A guy is leaning against a van, his arms folded over his chest, his head cocked in a dashing sort of way. He looks muscular. The way his hoodie is pulled tight over his shoulders, chest, and upper arms tells me he’s built. He’s tall too.
As I get closer, and he lifts his head to look at me, I see that he’s handsome. Very. Very handsome. He has dark hair and green eyes that catch the streetlight and seem to almost glow. This is the kind of guy I’d never have the nerve to talk to, and the kind who would usually never talk to me. I feel a flush of nerves, and almost forget that I am being propositioned by a stranger in the night.
“It is I,” he says. “Your king.”
I let out the breath I started holding the moment he called out to me. All the nerves of potential excitement dissipate as I realize he’s just another hot creep. The world seems to be full of them.
“Okay. Well.” I sigh a little, because as frightening as this could be, all I can really think about is the fact that my term paper is still not done. I’m going to fail my course, lose my scholarship, and have to drop out if I don’t get it done. “It’s nice to meet you, my king, but I am really busy right now.”
“You have summoned me from distant stars. Long have I roamed the universe seeking you.”
As pick up lines go, that’s a good one, but hot as he is, I am not up for this. The hairs on the back of my neck are rising with the eeriness of this encounter. There’s something about him that’s just not right. My gut is telling me to be careful.
“I really don’t think I did,” I say, pulling my bag a little closer, and reaching into my front pocket where my house keys are. I push several of them between my fingers so if I have to punch him, I’ll do some real damage. This is a quiet residential street. I should not be able to be abducted from here. Not twenty feet away, people are sleeping. But the night is growing darker and the mist is getting thicker, almost as though it is more like smoke, swirling around our feet.
“I have to get home. I have a paper to write.”
“You summoned me, princess,” he insists, taking a step toward me, blocking my passage on the path. I am now stuck between a vehicle, a hedge, and a man who thinks himself a king.
“I’ll scream fire if you touch me.”
“… because you will catch on fire?” He is confused. And that makes me confused, as a violent abductor would probably know what I meant.
“Come,” he says, talking over my last point. “We do not have much time. The dragon is coming.”
“What dragon?”
“You know the dragon. I heard you telling the child about it. You knew my name and you knew…”
I realize he’s talking about the stories I told Chip tonight. “I made up those stories.”
“Stories cannot be made up. They can only be discovered. You found mine, princess. You found me. Now quickly, we must away. The dragon is coming.”
“There is no such thing as dragons,” I say. It is freaking me out, because he must have been lurking under the window in order to hear me telling Chip a story. This man must be unhinged in some fundamental way, probably definitely on drugs, and I need to get away from him.
“There’s always a dragon,” he says, echoing Chip, I hope unintentionally, though I think not. This is some kind of stalker, maybe a dangerous one. No. Definitely a dangerous one. Nobody this big, this powerful, and this handsome can help being a danger to me.
Charming
My princess is beautiful and intelligent, sweet and wonderful, just as I knew she would be. Of course she is confused, she has not been raised in the proper way. She has not been taught needlepoint nor swooning when her king comes to claim her. Instead, she keeps talking about a term paper. I do not know what sway this infernal document has over her, but it will not stop me from claiming her.