Chapter 26
UNINHIBITED FLIRTING OBJECTIVES
I spun toward Sky. Forgetting, for a second, his mostly naked state in lieu of panic.
The knock faded into silence. Sudden, waiting silence filled only by the hissing rain and my own unsteady breathing. Neither of us moved for a full ten seconds.
Then I broke free of the shock and whirled to face the stairwell instead. My pulse stuttered. The microwave clock read eight-thirty at night. Who would be stopping by now?
Amelia hadn’t answered my text, had she? A glance at my phone told me no.
“Are you expecting anyone?” Sky asked, eyeing my phone grimly when I set it back down. His shoulders had bunched. The vivid ice-blue chips in his eyes looked brighter than normal.
“No,” I whispered, like my words could carry down the stairs and through the door. “I texted Amelia a while ago, but she never answered.”
“Okay. Get behind me.” Without waiting for an answer, he strode around me and headed toward the stairs.
It took me a heartbeat to catch up. “Wait—hang on!”
He didn’t, so I surged forward and grabbed his arm, pulling. He paused at the top of the stairs and, at my tug, turned. I tightened my grip on his forearm. The tense muscles felt like iron.
I took a deep breath. “If it’s Bob or Amelia…
” I didn’t know how to put my reluctance into words, but I wasn’t ready to explain this to anyone.
Explain him. Being here. Not yet, anyway.
I licked my lips. “Just let me check first, okay? I don’t want you answering my door.
Especially with you…well, this.” I gestured vaguely at his half-open shirt and all that other… stuff.
He looked down, then back up. A flicker of complete confusion crinkled his forehead, like I’d just handed him a math problem in Sanskrit. Except he could’ve probably figured that one out.
He eventually figured this out, too.
“You’re…embarrassed to have me here?” He said it slowly, like the concept was foreign. He blinked at me once, twice. “Why? Nobody knows what I am. Except you.”
I flushed. Especially because his reaction brought back, in vivid HD, that one time I’d told him I didn’t want his number.
“Do you not usually bring people here…?” Sky stilled suddenly, like something had occurred to him. His gaze darted to mine. “Do you have a boyfriend or—”
“No!” I blurted, a strangled laugh escaping me. I realized I was still holding his forearm and released it hastily. “No, I bring…well, I have brought…sometimes…”
I trailed off. Sky was studying me intently, and I couldn’t for the life of me determine what he was thinking. Not that it mattered. I was not talking to him about my love life. Or lack thereof.
Especially not when there was a potential threat at my door.
Flustered, I pulled my cardigan closed and set my phone back on the counter. We were up here having a discussion, and the FBI could be at my door.
“I just want to answer my own door, okay?” I told him. “I shouldn’t have to explain myself.” I wasn’t sure I could. “You can come down with me, but I’m answering it. So stay back.”
He held up his hands as I brushed past. His footsteps were quiet as he followed me into the stairwell.
We’d made it halfway before another knock sounded, sharper this time. Impatient and loud enough, I jolted and snatched the banister, narrowly avoiding tumbling down the rest of the way.
“Careful,” Sky murmured.
Yeah, no kidding. Licking my lips, I called out, “Just a second!”
No one answered. I sensed Sky sticking close as I made short work of the rest of the stairs. My heart thudded against my ribs by the time I reached the bottom.
My hand hovered over the deadbolt. Note to self: install a damn peephole. I hesitated and glanced back. Sky had joined me in the narrow entry, standing off to the side and out of sight, ready and waiting. He gave a single nod.
Here went nothing. At least killer robots probably didn’t bother knocking.
I unlocked the door and eased it open. Relief hissed out of me like a popped tire. Amelia stood there, scowling.
“What the hell, Rae?” She adjusted her sleek black umbrella, her cheery yellow raincoat gleaming under the porch light. “Took you long enough. It’s pouring. What were you doing in there?”
Arguing with a shirtless alien. A slightly deranged laugh got stuck in my throat, but just then, Amelia moved to step forward. I leaned out to block her.
She stopped. Her eyes narrowed. “What’s going on?”
So much. I couldn’t think of a single lie. I tried to smile. “Sorry. I was, uh…in the shower.”
“Ri-ght.” She snapped her gum, very obviously taking in my dry hair and loungewear. “I was around the corner studying at Joanie’s when I got your text. I thought you were working tonight. So can I come in or what?”
“Now’s not…a great time.” I could feel Sky behind me. He was quiet but impossible to ignore. Just like our unfinished conversation.
“You texted me to come over like an hour ago— Wait.” Amelia’s amber eyes narrowed further into slits, then flew wide. Her lips curled into a slow, delighted grin. “Is somebody in there with you?”
Damn it. She knew me way too well.
I tried to summon a denial, but she tipped closer and dropped her voice to a stage-whisper. “You have a guy over or something?”
I recoiled. “What? No.” Not technically a lie. Pladians didn’t count as guys, did they? I laughed, and this time it sounded genuine. Mostly. “Nobody’s here.”
She rocked onto the heels of her rainboots with a dramatic sigh. “Damn. I was really hoping you were finally taking a shot at that sexy bartender you work with.”
Lightning flashed across the sky like a bony hand ready to slap me into the next dimension. Which could be exactly what I needed. I gawked at her, horrified.
Oh…oh no.
A soft thud sounded behind me, like Sky had bumped against the wall. My pride shriveled up and died. I shook my head frantically, mouth working, but words wouldn’t come.
Luckily for me, Amelia didn’t have that problem.
“I haven’t gotten a chance to talk to you about this!
I saw you guys dancing before you ghosted me at Crescent.
I get it now. You weren’t kidding when you described his ass.
” I lifted a hand like I could physically shove this conversation away, but Amelia only tilted her head, peering at me from beneath her dripping umbrella.
“You should do it. Go after him. You’ve spent the last year panting for him, and I bet he’s a good time.
They say if a guy can dance…” She grinned like the devil herself.
Which made sense because this was hell. I was in it. I gazed at her, arm falling limply to my side. My throat had closed. Helpless, I tried to will her into silence with my eyes, but it didn’t work.
She plowed on like a charging bull dressed in couture. “That’s what you need, you know. You’ve been super stressed. And it’s been, like, ten months since you’ve gotten laid.”
What? Ten months?
That was enough. I tried to scoff, but it got stuck, and instead I choked out a garbled correction. “No, it hasn’t. It’s been four!”
Okay, six. Fine, seven.
Purely a coincidence that’d been when my last relationship had ended and…when I’d started at Oasis.
Fine. I’d been too stuck on Sky since then to entertain the idea of anyone else. I wasn’t admitting that right now, though.
With him. Hearing all this. I wondered if it was too late to call the Enil to come crush me.
Desperate to derail this descent into my own personal nightmare, I spewed words. “I’m not— I mean, I’m over him. I definitely have not been lusting after him.”
“What are you talking about?” Amelia snorted in disbelief. “Uh, yeah, you have. Last time you got drunk, you spent half the night having ChatAI name your future children.”
Well, I was going to die now. Killed not by alien murder robot, but by humiliation. I closed my eyes. Any minute now, my ghost would leave my body. Death was imminent. I welcomed it.
“That…I never did that,” I whispered. Cold sweat beaded on my forehead.
When I opened my eyes, I saw she’d raised a brow. “You did.”
“Right, but that was before.” I tried for a scoff. “Really, A, I’m over it. He’s got some real, um, issues. The kind that make him very, very…not someone I’d want to do…that…with.”
“Yeah, well,” snap went her gum, “as long as his issues aren’t bad dick—”
“Okay!” I said loudly, cutting her off as Sky let out a shocked laugh behind me. Hopefully the storm drowned him out. “Well. I’ll keep that in mind! Thanks for stopping by. I’m fine. Great. Everything’s fine.”
Amelia angled her head to the side. “You’re acting weird.”
“Yes!” I smiled. It felt like baring my teeth. “You know me. Just weird. Going to take a bath. Early night. Alone. Very alone.”
“I thought you just took a shower.” I stared at her with wide eyes, and she took a step back, pursing her lips. “O-okay. Whatever. Well, text me if you need me.”
“Will do. Bye!” I slammed the door shut and slumped against it, forehead to wood. I could feel Sky’s eyes burning into my back. My face was on fire again. My neck, too, this time. Everything. My whole life. One big dumpster fire.
“I’ve changed my mind,” I muttered. “You can go ahead and kill me now.”
Sky chuckled softly. The sound was unfairly sexy. Talk about kicking me while I was down.
“Oh, come on. It wasn’t that bad,” he said, but I could hear the smile in his voice. Maybe even a little smugness. Like that’d been good for his alien ego.
That was great for him. It also happened to be the single most humiliating experience of my life.
Did she have to mention the ChatAI night? I’d completely forgotten about my hypothetical children, Hamilton and Stella Acosta.
I groaned, burying my face in my hands. “That wasn’t...what she said wasn’t what it sounded like.” I winced into my palms. “Would you believe me if I said she was talking about a different bartender I work with who I also happened to dance with at Crescent last weekend?”