Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 51862 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51862 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
Emily
He’s so hot.
He’s the most attractive creature in the universe. I can’t believe he’s into me. I can’t believe I slept with him. I can’t believe I’m not a virgin anymore. I can’t believe any of this.
But it’s all real anyway.
I feel his scaled skin beneath my fingers and I know that he, and this, are as real as anything that has ever happened to me.
Zain looks down at me. His smile as my eyes meet his is broad and genuine. I feel an intimacy between us that is not just about sex. It’s also not, not about sex. I don’t think I can be near him without it being about sex.
I let my fingertips trace over his arm in a light, exploratory caress. I want to touch him constantly. While he was dealing with Bart and the others, I couldn’t take my eyes off him.
This has to be what love feels like. I’m connected to him, even when I’m not touching him, and when I’m not touching him, I feel a yearning need to touch him.
I’m obsessed.
The others are talking about what needs to be done, trying to take control of a situation that Zain already has under control. All they have to do is what he tells them. It’s all I want to do… I think it might be all I ever want to do.
“We must hide him,” Deek says. “All evidence of the ship. The authorities must never know what has happened here. They will come and they will take this town apart. They will take the people away to the cities. They will interrogate. They will burn. They will…”
Every inhabitant of the village knows these things. We all have a great many reasons to fear what our human brethren will do to us. We live simply and wholesomely, but outside the law — whatever law is left in these lawless times. The existence of a town like ours is only permitted due to its remoteness and the fact that nothing of any interest resides here. If we had minerals, ores, oil, or a reservoir of alien technology, we would be immediately overrun and absolutely destroyed. Anything that comes from outside our borders is an enemy to be destroyed. I know that. And I also know that Zain came from outside our borders, which means there will be those among us who want to hurt him.
“Nobody goes inside the ship without me present,” he orders. “It is not safe for unsupervised humans. Anybody found on the ship without my permission is going to be punished.”
I feel a thrill when he growls that word, punished.
I’ve always been so good. I’ve always followed all the rules. Everybody in town knows me as a very nice girl. My mother was a very nice girl too, and her mother before her. That’s why I live in our nice family cottage and keep it nice. I’ve never dated anybody. I’ve never even been kissed. Up until Zain took my virginity, I was the purest girl in the village.
I don’t think I’m pure anymore. I think he’s taken my purity and made it something else. I don’t feel like being a sweet, nice girl anymore. I feel like doing very terrible sinful things of the kind Pastor Jay used to warn us about.
I also want Zain to be safe. I want him to be just as safe as he makes me. If it wasn’t for him, we would all be being swept away to some kind of alien slavery. But I know there are people in the village who will maintain hostility toward him. We really don’t like outsiders, and there is nobody more outside than him.
“Which of these dwellings is yours?” He asks me the question, seemingly unconcerned about the alien ship now that people are beginning to rush around gathering materials to cover it. Some of the grandmothers are getting blankets and sheets in the effort to turn the massive spaceship into a very large blanket construction.
“Over there,” I say, pointing.
“Show me,” he says, taking me by the hand.
I feel the eyes of the village on me as I lead him to my house. I know there will be gossip. There is always gossip. Today, the town really has something to talk about. Those who were sucked up into the ship, those who came upon the body of the pastor, those who don’t believe any of it happened though they see the ship now with their own eyes. There will be an endless array of opinions, all expressed with rich vigor.
I don’t want to hear any of them. I just want to be with Zain.
“I still don’t feel like this is my house really,” I explain as I approach the front door which is festooned with hollyhocks standing nearly as high as me, bright red and pink and purple flowers welcoming around the old wood door. “But it has been in my family for a very long time, so I guess it is.”