Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 134725 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 539(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134725 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 539(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
And then it hit me again. So strange! I was here. On another planet. In a home with a man. And I was not terrified. For some reason, I just wasn’t.
My heart skipped a beat as it struck me that this was a father who’d likely lost his wife and that would have meant Ollie had lost his mother. And they’d chosen me. Me. Thirty-eight women and he ran for me like he’d known he’d do it when the gate opened. Gallant. Sure of himself. Wow. The whole idea of it was unbelievably sexy and romance novel hero-esque.
But… huge but – I didn’t know how to be a mother. I didn’t know how to be a wife. I didn’t know how to pleasure a man. I didn’t even have a cat. I’d only ever taken care of myself. The only man I’d even tried to have a sort-of relationship with had been a gay man who was in the closet. How long before Zane realized that he’d probably made a mistake with me as his choice? What would happen then? My heart sank a little.
The planet was a contradiction. It was evidently more technologically advanced than ours, but the disaster that was that cocktail party felt so primitive, so barbaric.
Perhaps the upcoming conversation would shed some light. I was able to tamp down the fear trying to settle in my gut.
“One moment, Tanya,” Zane said, giving his head a shake, as if he’d been remiss. He stepped back inside and left me out there to survey the absolutely stunning landscape.
The yard was lush, large, and filled with pastel-colored flowers in flowerbeds that actually sparkled with color. Pretty shrubbery framed the large yard. The yard was bordered by a high stone fence and beyond it was nothing but lush greenery for what had to be miles before a mountain range climbed up toward the pink sky. The mountains were the color of red brick, but flecked with glitter. A whole lot around me was sparkling. Including me. My skin and clothing were all glittery. This house was white stone flecked with silver sparkles throughout it.
Zane’s neighborhood was filled with castle-style homes. His was at the end of a row beside a tree line blocking my view in that direction, in the other direction were more homes, and then more forest.
The sky was darkening a little. It was turning night, the sky tingeing a violet shade. But it was still brighter than dusk would’ve been back at home with such vivid color. My belly dipped at the implication. Night. Bedtime.
But, saving graces … Ollie had said they made a room up for me. I was going to have some privacy.
I felt relief. But just for an instant, because what about my vaccination? If they were so technologically advanced, why didn’t they just inject it into us?
Because they want sex, Tanya.
I chastised myself for my naivety. I had 70 hours, if I was correct in my estimation that we’d landed about two hours earlier. 70 hours to get vaccinated. 70 hours or less until I lost my virginity. Otherwise… deadly space flu.
Something caught my eye. The house next door. This one was like the one I was in, but the stone was brick red instead of white and it looked similar to Zane’s house, but smaller, only two stories, and far enough away to not be on top of one another. I saw motion from a terrace similar to the one I was on.
There was Ollie, in his dark overalls with a light blue shirt and he jumped up and down, waving at me. I recognized the clothing and the mop of dark curls, so I waved back, excitedly, finding his enthusiasm contagious. It made my fear vanish for some reason.
Zane stepped outside with two glasses of wine in his hands and offered me one, smiling and waving to his son across the way. The boy then disappeared indoors.
My eyes met the arctic blue ones looking down at me.
“Hi,” I greeted.
He smiled wide. Those dimples. Oh lordy. My belly fluttered.
I shyly looked away, chewing my lip and catching a ray of light glinting from the glass in my hand. It was a large and beautiful turquoise translucent goblet the color of my late mother’s pottery collection in my apartment. Oh wait; no longer in my apartment. I’d sent everything in a moving truck to a storage facility near the campus of the university I was supposed to be transferred to. I was offered a dorm room for the first month so I could house-hunt upon arrival. A clever ruse, evidently, to help me disappear into thin air.
“Cheers,” I said, touching my glass to his.
What would happen to my things? I’d miss my books. There were fourteen crates of books in the storage unit and those were just the ones I couldn’t part with. I’d dropped off seven boxes at a local charity shop (after having written all the titles down so I could begin collecting again in my new city).