Touchdown Daddy (45 page)

Two Months Later

Ella stood at the end of a wide aisle. Her white dress clung tightly to her body around her chest, then flared loosely to the ground in layers of chiffon, leaving room for her growing belly to peek out in a gentle bulge. The top layer was covered in glittering gems, like a veil of stars cascading over her. Her hair was swept high on her head and twisted into curls, more gems tucked amongst the strands.

The aisle before her was strewn with white rose petals and glitter. The wind blew cool against her skin in the evening air. She glanced behind her, through the glass walls of the elevator. From her position, she could see only clouds and the darkening blue sky behind her, and ahead, the same sky, but with a layered circle of people in chairs beneath it. And at the end of the aisle, Jesse was standing beside a minister in his white tuxedo. Candles flickered along the edge of the aisle and along the altar.

“That’s your cue.” The wedding coordinator fluffed her veil and train one last time, then stepped aside so Ella could walk out of the elevator.

There, on top of the tallest building in the city, the place where they had first flown to, the place where Jesse had proposed for the second time, they would be married. They both loved this place. It was so high above everything and so quiet once the hours for the observation deck had passed. They often flew up here to watch the world below, to make love, to talk. It had seemed like the perfect solution. Trying to get a church or other popular ceremony venue was too daunting to Ella, so they had opted for this instead. Jesse had made one phone call, mentioned his name once, and it was done. After paying them a nice sum of money, of course.

Armed security guards stood on either side of the elevator and were placed throughout the venue. Ella had been right about Charlotte’s reaction. When the media got hold of the information about their actual engagement and real pregnancy, she had gone crazy. Charlotte had called what seemed like every media outlet there was to try to smear them. It took one press conference, where Jesse showed the media the restraining orders they both had against Charlotte and explained how she’d cheated on him and had been pissed he’d broken up with her. He’d confirmed that Ella and her had been friends once, but that they were no longer. And that was it. The tabloids still played up the story, but no one else seemed to care.

The guards were a precaution only. They would have had them even if it weren’t for Charlotte, Jesse had said. Mostly, they were there to keep the press at bay. One thing Charlotte’s craziness had done was put them in the spotlight. The media loved them. They loved the story of the dog walker who’d been covered in mud the first day they met and how they’d fallen madly in love and had found out they were expecting soon after getting engaged. Of course, plenty of stories speculated that they were only getting married because they had to. It was ironic that that had been her plan once. But Ella loved their story. Every twisted bit of it.

She knew that Jesse loved her and wanted to be with her. No tricks of the heart, no magical spells were needed. He had proposed and she had accepted when they thought she wasn’t pregnant, and finding out she was had only increased their joy and their love. Well, once she had stopped freaking out over it and was able to enjoy the new life growing inside her.

Jesse was already a perfect father. He went to every doctor’s appointment with her. He waited on her constantly or made sure he paid someone to in his absence. She always had whatever she needed—chocolate, tea, massages, the best healthcare around. Most evenings, he would rub her feet and back and they would read baby books together before making love and lying in bed, cuddling.

Then they’d started planning the wedding, and their days were full of dress fittings and cake tastings and meetings with the wedding coordinator. Everything had come together exactly how Ella had dreamed it. Though in her childhood dreams, she had never thought her groom would be so handsome, so rich, or a dragon shifter. Their shared magical ability had only made them closer. And once the baby grew bigger, its presence drew them together more, giving off some sort of magical presence that Jesse assured her was the baby’s own magical essence. They could feel him already.

The baby stirred inside her now. She put her hand on her belly and he pressed back against it, saying hello. She closed her eyes and sent warm feelings of love toward him. He flipped inside her and she felt the warmth flow back. When she looked at Jesse, he wiped a tear from his eyes. He could feel it, too. A wave of joy rushed over her, coming from his direction. She grinned and took in a breath as she stepped forward.

The white petals rustled in the cool breeze. Ella stepped from the elevator as the music grew louder. The crowd stood to face her. Jesse beamed.

She walked forward slowly, toward him, and toward her magical future.

*****

THE END

Bonus Book 9: Abducted by the Alien Dragon

By:
Abella Ward

Description

A curvy lawyer ready for adventure PLUS a sexy alien who is a dragon shifter PLUS a baby who holds the future of an entire species...

Out-of-work lawyer Gemma Watson thinks she has finally found her one true love in Shay. He's sweet, intelligent and makes her laugh. It doesn't hurt that his sexiness is off the charts. And when he's happy that she's pregnant, everything seems just perfect.

Except Shay isn't who he appears to be. He's a stlozyn, a member of a dragon-like alien species. The stlozyn are suffering from a terrible disease which causes them to become infertile, and if they can't find a way to cure it, their culture will disappear within a few generations. Shay is convinced he will find the cure locked in human DNA.

He never expected to fall in love with Gemma, but after he learns she's pregnant, he wants her to know everything about him. Including his alien origins. So he decides to take her to his home planet.

The only problem is Gemma isn't happy with being abducted, and there are scientists on Shay's home world who think that her baby holds the key to eradicating the disease that is ravaging their people.

When they suggest the unthinkable, both Gemma and Shay have to decide: what sacrifices are worth making, and does love truly conquer all?

Her mouth tasted like old carpet. Gemma Watson wrinkled her nose, running her tongue over her teeth. They had a slightly furry texture she didn't like. Her eyes stayed firmly closed–she had hardly been able to sleep at all the previous night, too wrapped up in the pink slip her boss had handed her.

It wasn't like she hadn't expected to be fired from her small-time lawyer gig. The business had been slow for a while, and she was the newest hire. But it still stung, and now that she was out of a job, she didn't know if she should continue in law, or go back to school for something she enjoyed more.

There was also the fact that she was pregnant.

She had only been seeing her boyfriend, Shay, for a year, and she was pregnant.

After one failed relationship after another, Gemma thought she finally found the one who would be with her forever. Shay actually listened to her, actually cared about her. A smile crossed her lips at how happy he had been when she told him he was pregnant. In all fairness, she had been expecting him to turn tail and run, just like all her past boyfriends did when things turned too serious for them. Shay was different.

She reached over towards him, her eyes still closed. Her hand met air. Not even the other side of the bed. Just air.

Gemma's eyes snapped open.

"What?" she muttered groggily, lifting her head.

The ceiling above her was not
her
ceiling. She'd just painted her little one-bedroom apartment, giving herself something to do while the small law firm she worked at was going through the dry spell that ultimately ended in her being fired. She'd put clouds above her bed, and a bright yellow sun peeking out from behind them.

This ceiling was gray.

Gemma bolted upright. "What the hell?"

This wasn't her apartment. There was no carpet, the bed was a narrow cot jutting from the wall and a single, thick blanket lay over her body. She was still in her flannel PJs, at least, but Gemma's heart pounded in her chest and she swiveled from side to side, gaze sliding over the gleaming white walls that surrounded her. Other than the cot she lay on, the room was utterly bare.

A swishing sound came from the wall opposite her. Gemma leaped to her feet as the wall opened, sweeping open like the curtains being drawn back into a theater. Her fists raised, recalling the self-defense classes she'd taken, but they dropped just as quickly when she saw who it was.

"Shay!" Gemma rushed forward, throwing her arms around him. She buried her face into his shoulder, inhaling his smoky scent. If Shay was here, it couldn't be so bad. "I think I'm having some sort of bizarre stress dream."

Thick, muscular arms wrapped around her, pulling her closer. "You're not dreaming, Gemma."

He grasped her shoulders and pushed her back a step. His warm, dark eyes bored into hers and a shiver ran down her spine.

"What do you mean, I'm not dreaming?"

Shay's fingers traced her jaw. She leaned into his touch, sighing as she did so. His skin was always so warm, she loved it.

"I regrettably lied to you. I'm not from Europe, as I told you. In fact, I'm not human."

Gemma's first instinct was to laugh at him, but it got choked in her throat when she saw the serious look in his eye. Shay
never
joked. Her heart beat faster once more and she pulled away from him, shaking her head. This had to be a dream. There was no way what he was saying could be true, so she must be having one bizarre stress dream.

"Gemma?"

"If you're not human, what are you?" Her hands trembled. She tried to laugh, because if this was real, she didn't know what she would do.

"I'm a member of a species known as stlozyn, from the planet Bronæl."

"Really?" Had he gone insane, or was this a continuation of the Gemma Watson curse, where she only picked losers? Only this time she'd picked a real nutcase. Or she was the nutcase.
How am I going to find a new job if I don't have all my mental faculties about me?

Shay watched her, the pucker above his left eye giving away just how worried he was. "I should have told you before—"

"So if you're an… not human…" Gemma couldn't say the word 'alien'. "What are you on Earth for?"

"I think you should sit down."

"Well, I think that you should tell me what's going on. Right now." Her stomach was churning by this time. At any minute she was going to completely lose it. The stress was really getting to her.

"There's a disease causing infertility among my people. It infects our genetic material." He shook his head, sighing. "You wouldn't understand all the details. Suffice it to say, I am a scientist, and I believe that human DNA holds the key to our cure."

Gemma blinked at him. Nausea started swirling in her stomach and she had to swallow back bile. The floor beneath her feet felt too real, and when he put his hand on her arm, the weight of it was too detailed, too warm, to exist in a dream. But what he was saying couldn’t be possible. It just couldn't. Sure, she had always believed that aliens existed. It just made sense that somewhere in the vast expanses of the universe other life forms existed.

But she had never believed that they would be six feet tall, with muscles that bulged and roped beneath smooth, warm skin, or have a brilliant smile that flashed pearly-white teeth. If anybody had told her that one day she was going to be pregnant with an alien baby, she'd have laughed at them. Even now she felt like laughing–hysterically, but still laughing.

"Okay," Gemma said, stepping back as she shuddered. "So this is a prank, right? You had somebody come in and change up my apartment so you could what? Is this for YouTube? Where's the camera?"

Shay ran a hand over his face.

"This isn't funny!" Gemma put her hands on her wide hips and tossed her auburn hair over her shoulder, trying to hide how much she was shivering. "I like pranks as well as the next girl, but you, what, drugged me so that I wouldn't know I was being moved? I don't care. Get out of here before I call the cops!"

Shay was a goner. Just like her cheating ex-husband, his ass was dropped. She wasn't about to stick around with a man who wanted her to think she was crazy.

Shay took a step back, holding up his hands. "Gemma, everything I have told you is the truth. I'm not human. We're not on Earth."

"Bullshit."

Maybe she was overreacting a smidgen to his prank. Maybe it wasn't actually that bad. Shay was patient and kind, and he didn't mind that her thighs rubbed together or that she had wobbly bits under her arms. She dropped her hands and took a deep breath.

"Okay, I'm just going to give you one more chance to come clean, because up until now you've been a perfect boyfriend. Where am I?"

"I thought you wouldn't believe me. I had hoped to wait, but…" He began unbuttoning his shirt.

Gemma crossed the space between them and jabbed him hard in the chest. "Hold it right there, buster. I don't care how sexy you are, you don't get to try to make me think you're an alien that abducted me and then seduce me. No way, no how."

"I'm not—"

She narrowed her eyes. It was easier not to be afraid if she was furious with him. "I want to go home right now. Understand?"

"You once asked me about this," Shay interrupted, touching the fire-red tattoo of a dragon that was over his heart. "I told you that I got it to commemorate my grandfather. The truth is that it is an implant that produces a shimmering cloak to hide my true appearance. For my research, it was necessary to blend in."

He pressed his fingers to either side of the tattoo. Gemma stared, her heart in her throat. She still didn’t want to believe, but was unable to find another explanation as the tattoo actually
detached
itself from Shay's skin. His form blurred for a moment, glowing red, before focusing again. Gemma gasped.

He was still six feet tall with rippling muscles bending his arms and neck. He still had the same lips, nose and ears, the same dark hair curled against his skull. But his skin had changed. No longer smooth and taut, it was a glittering emerald-green, the light catching off of hundreds of tiny scales and reflecting it back to Gemma. So utterly not human.

Worse yet were his eyes. They were red as blood, staring out at her from that alien face.

Gemma stepped back, wanting to scream but unable to pull in a breath to do so. Her head spun. She tried to think of something else to say, some explanation for this, but couldn't. Her legs gave out and she collapsed onto the narrow cot again, hands clutching the blanket.

Shay stepped forward but stopped when she flinched. "I wanted to tell you the truth about myself from the moment I met you, Gemma. It was a very strange emotional response. Please understand that I hated to lie to you. But things have changed. I did not think that our species could procreate but we can… when I told you that I loved you, I was telling the truth."

Gemma pressed a hand to her stomach. She was pregnant. With an alien's baby. She wanted to vomit, but her body wasn't responding to any of this. She couldn't feel herself sitting on the cot. It was like she was drifting in an endless sea, tossed by waves that bruised her but that she couldn't actually feel.

"Gemma?"

"I want to go home."

"I know. I know, and I'm sorry that you can't. Not right now, at least. There are too many unknowns. But I swear I will take care of you and the baby. I will make sure you both are okay."

A shiver ran down her spine. "Why wouldn't we be okay?"

Shay's gaze dropped. "We are two separate species. Subspecies at least. There are always dangers associated with hybrid offspring. We have the same ancestry, but with the hundreds of years and genetic modification that has separated stlozyn and humans, there are risks."

"What sort of risks?"

"The greatest is that the baby won't be viable. But I will not let this end badly. I swear to you. Even if we have to do genetic surgery. I am highly intelligent, and I command this ship."

"This ship." Gemma let out a high-pitched, hysterical giggle. "We're not on Earth anymore."

Shay winced and shook his head.

Gemma's voice lowered to a whisper. "You kidnapped me."

Another wince. "I wasn't thinking clearly. I know I should have told you before, but I was just…"

He trailed off, apparently recognizing that there was nothing he could say to make this better.

Gemma stared at him, not speaking. Her mind raced around in circles, unable to land on anything that felt solid. She wanted to tell him to get out, wanted to tell him to hold her, wanted to scream and wanted to cry. Wanted to laugh, to not believe. Eventually, she did the only thing she could. She turned her back on Shay and lay down on the bed, pulling her blanket over her head.

She squeezed her eyes shut tight and pretended that she was still sleeping, and this was nothing more than a dream.