Claimed by the Alien Bodyguard: A SciFi Alien Holiday Romance (Aliens Among Us), page 1
Claimed by the Alien Bodyguard
Aliens Among Us: A Christmas Story
Tiffany Roberts
Contents
Blurb
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Author’s Note
Also By Tiffany Roberts
About the Author
Want More?
Silent Lucidity Sneak Peek
A retired alien bodyguard. A luscious human female he craves. He’ll do whatever it takes to make her his by Christmas.
Gabriela Romero is a single mother struggling to make ends meet. With Christmas fast approaching, she’s lost work, she’s late on rent, and the zeroes in her bank account are on the wrong side of the decimal point. Fortunately, she has a couple bright spots in her life—her amazing daughter, Ana, and her brief interactions with her gorgeous neighbor from across the street, Mason Lee.
He’s big, strong, kind, and he’s great with Ana. Plus, he looks at Gabriela like he wants to devour her. How could a man like him be real? When he finally asks her out—and an unexpected job comes her way—it seems Gabriela’s luck is finally turning around.
Until the universe decides to give her a reality check and disaster strikes.
In Gabriela’s most desperate moments, Mason rushes to the rescue. But her savior isn’t what he seems. He’s a seven-foot-tall alien with horns and glowing violet eyes. Did she run into the arms of an otherworldly demon or will this unusual being save Christmas—and claim Gabriela’s heart in the process?
Copyright © 2020 by Tiffany Freund and Robert Freund Jr.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be used or reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form by any means, including scanning, photocopying, uploading, and distribution of this book via any other electronic means without the permission of the author and is illegal, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, contact the publishers at the address below.
Tiffany Roberts
authortiffanyroberts@gmail.com
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or people, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Cover 2020 by Mayhem Cover Creations
Created with Vellum
To you, because you’re all I want for Christmas.
One
Gabriela Romero stood in front of the big block of gray mailboxes with her key in the keyhole of her box. She drew in a shaky breath, shoved aside the knots twisting in her belly, and opened the door. Atop a pile of bills and junk mail lay a plain white envelope. It had no postmark, no address or return address; just Gabriela’s name and that stupid stamp her landlord loved to use so much—URGENT in red ink.
She had known the notice would come. Hell, it had probably been sitting in her mailbox for a week by now.
It didn’t matter how much she’d hoped that envelope wouldn’t arrive, it didn’t matter that she’d prayed her landlord would show an ounce of compassion and understanding so close to Christmas and cut her a break. That had all been nothing more than wishful thinking. She didn’t have that kind of luck.
That wasn’t how real life worked. Problems didn’t just disappear, they didn’t just resolve themselves. If anything, ignoring them only made things worse.
And it wasn’t even like she was always late paying rent. She’d been getting those payments in on time for years. But this past year had been rough, and money was tighter and tighter every month. She’d cut expenses every way she could just to make sure she and her daughter had the essentials.
She knew exactly the unhelpful advice many people would’ve offered her—that she should just find a new job or move to a more affordable area if she was struggling so much. But high-paying jobs weren’t exactly abundant in areas that thrived on tourism, and it wasn’t exactly easy to move when you had no money in your bank account to cover first month’s rent and security deposits.
This house had been a steal when she’d started renting it, but when Allen Jensen, her current landlord, had bought it from the old owner a few years ago he’d immediately raised the rent. He’d bumped it up a little more every year since. And the ridiculous thing was that her rent was still considered cheap for this town.
Gabriela reached into her mailbox, removed the envelope, and quickly tore it open, just like ripping off a band aid. She removed the letter from within and unfolded it. Tears filled her eyes as she read. Though there were many words, only one, written in bold letters, stood out to her—eviction.
This was her fault. Rather than scrimping and saving for just in case, like she’d known she should have, she’d made a decision based on money she had expected to earn. Buying a Christmas tree and a few decorations should’ve been no big deal. It should’ve fit into her budget.
But then a property management company had cut a deal with one of Gabby’s clients and taken management of four vacation homes she normally cleaned—switching those properties to their own housekeeping service. The blow to her income had been too much. Had nothing changed, she would’ve been able to cover her bills, buy the Christmas stuff, and have a tiny bit left over. Now she was a hundred dollars short on rent, and Allen Jensen had made it clear that he would not accept partial payments.
All Gabriela wanted was for her daughter to have a good Christmas. Ana rarely asked for anything. She was an amazing little girl; bright, sweet, funny, and so compassionate. Gabby wanted to give her something more than the few small presents she’d purchased during the fall, but she didn’t know how she was going to accomplish that with Christmas only a week away.
Gabriela sniffled, chest constricted as tears spilled down her cheeks. The cold winter air made those tears burn.
“You okay?” someone asked in a deep, gruff, familiar voice.
Gabriela started, keeping her face forward.
“Oh! Yeah,” she said as she hurriedly wiped her cheeks and eyes with her coat sleeve. She forced a laugh. “It’s the cold. Kind of burns my eyes sometimes, you know?”
She took in a deep breath that stung more than her tears had and she turned toward Mason Lee, her sexy neighbor from across the street.
He stood several feet away from her, but that distance couldn’t disguise how big the man was. At five foot two, Gabriela was used to looking up at people, but Mason towered over her. She swore he was over six and a half feet tall. Though he’d lived across the street for a year, and she saw him on a regular basis, she was always stunned by his size.
Mason wasn’t simply a tall man—he was big and broad all over, like a bear. And he was beautiful in an otherworldly kind of way. Long black hair framed his masculine face, hanging well past his square jaw. Dark, thick brows rested above his unique violet eyes, and he had full, sculpted lips that Gabby had dreamed of kissing.
Those lips were currently turned down in a frown so slight that it had no right seeming as severe as it did, and those eyes were fixed on her with an unmasked blend of skepticism and concern.
He was going to press her, was going to pry, and Gabriela wasn’t sure if she had the emotional energy to pretend for much longer. The last thing she needed right now was to break down in front of her gorgeous neighbor.
But Mason just grunted and said, “Good weather for a hot drink.”
Though his English was excellent, he had a noticeable accent. Gabriela had never been able to place it; to her, it had a hint of Russian or Eastern European, but there a touch of something in it that just couldn’t be identified.
Gabriela smiled. “Hot chocolate does sound pretty good.”
He stepped closer, close enough that Gabriela could almost feel the heat radiating from his big body, close enough that she had to tip her head back to maintain eye contact. For a few seconds, he looked into her eyes. A thousand crazy thoughts tumbled through her mind—a thousand desires that seemed wholly inappropriate given the circumstances.
Is it so wrong to just want to be held by a big, brawny man?
Except she didn’t want it to stop at that. She wanted more. It’d been a long, long, long time since she’d been intimate with a man.
And this man had taken part in many of her most recent fantasies.
Mason lifted a hand, and Gabby’s breath caught. But instead of cupping her cheek or slipping his long, strong fingers into her hair, he proceeded to insert his key into the keyhole of his mailbox, unlocking the little door and swinging it open.
“Sorry,” she said, grabbing the stack of mail from her box, closing the door, and removing her key. She stepped back, giving him some space to retrieve his mail as she shoved h
He turned his gaze to his mailbox as he reached inside. “There’s a place on Third that’s supposed to be good.”
Gabriela’s brow creased, and she tilted her head. “Good for what?”
“Hot chocolate.”
“Ohhh. I…I’ll have to take Ana there sometime.”
Mason closed the door on his mailbox, the sound of it loud enough to echo in the winter sky, and winced. “I, uh, meant that I could take you.”
For a moment, everything went quiet and still. Gabriela stared at him, unsure if she’d heard him correctly, but his words kept replaying inside her head.
Is he…is he asking me out?
Well, don’t just stand there and stare at him!
Heat flooded her face. Gabby ducked her head, dropping her gaze to the snow piled around the mailboxes’ posts. She shuffled her feet, nudging aside a chunk of snow with the toe of her boot, and peeked up at him with a smile. “Are you…asking me out, Mason?”
He tugged back some of his long hair and released a heavy breath that emerged in thick cloud. “Yeah.”
“I would like that.”
His eyebrows rose, and his oddly entrancing eyes widened. “Really?”
She chuckled. “Really.”
Mason waved back toward his home with the stack of mail in his hand, lowering his other hand to stuff it in his pocket. “We can take my truck.”
Gabriela looked toward his blue pickup, and something clicked in her mind. Her eyes rounded as she returned them to Mason. “Wait, you mean now?”
“You’re cold now.”
She laughed. “Yeah, I am, but I need to pick up my daughter from school in…” Reaching into her purse, she dug around the seemingly bottomless pit until she found her phone. She pressed the side button to check the time and gasped. “Shit! I’m late. I was supposed to leave ten minutes ago.”
How long had she stood there staring at her mailbox?
Gabriela looked up at Mason as she walked toward her house, turning to keep her eyes on him. “I am so, so sorry. Thank you for the offer. We’ll….we’ll have to plan for it another time, yeah?”
He remained in place, his expression taut with lips slightly downturned, his hand still in his pocket. “Yeah. Another time.”
“Thank you!”
She spun around and ran the rest of the distance. Her car was sitting in the driveway. It was a small, bronze Honda Accord, a little beat up but dependable. The best part? It was hers, something she’d paid off in full.
Gabriela opened the driver side door and got into the car, tossing her purse onto the passenger seat. It wasn’t until she’d shut the door and placed a hand on the wheel that she registered what she’d just done.
I turned Mason down.
She looked back toward him. He was already across the road, walking to his front door with his jeans hugging his tree trunk-like thighs and sculpted ass.
I turned Mason down…for a date.
“Jueputa!” Gabriela clutched the steering wheel in both hands and banged the back of her head against the head rest.
The first man—a damn fine man, at that—to show real interest in years, a man who’d asked her out, and she’d left him hanging.
“You didn’t turn him down, Gabriela, you just…rain-checked it. You didn’t say no. You just have responsibilities and a kid. He understands.”
Except he’d looked like a man who’d been rejected.
That tightness seized her chest again. Gabby buckled her seatbelt, pulled her keys out of her purse, and stuck them into the ignition. She took in a deep breath to calm herself before starting the car. Cold air blasted from the dashboard vents. She reached forward and switched the dial to defrost, shivering.
As she backed out of the driveway, she once more glanced toward Mason’s house. He was no longer in sight.
“Way to go, Gabby,” she muttered as she faced forward, put the car into drive, and followed the private street out onto the main road, which was thankfully well maintained and clear of snow and ice. Though it snowed a lot in McCall, Idaho, the city did a great job keeping the roads safe.
When she reached her daughter’s school, the pick-up lane was already empty, allowing Gabriela to pull right up to the main doors where Ana was waiting with a couple other students. As soon as Ana caught sight of Gabby, she turned to her teacher, waved, and ran to the car.
Gabriela snatched up her purse and tucked it between the two seats, atop the parking brake.
“Hi, Mom!” Ana said as she pulled open the door and dropped into the passenger seat. After a brief struggle make sure her backpack and coat were fully inside the cab, she pulled the door shut.
“Hey, mija.” Gabriela reached out, tugged her daughter close, and pressed a kiss to her head. “How was school?”
“Boring,” Ana said, shoving her backpack onto the floor between her legs before turning up the radio.
Gabriela laughed as she pulled away from the curb. “You always say that.”
Ana flashed a big smile, revealing the same dimples in her cheeks that Gabriela had, as well as the gaps between her teeth where her canines had yet to grow in. “Because it’s always boring.”
“You’re just not being challenged enough, that’s all. You’re too smart.”
Ana blew on her fingernails and rubbed them against her chest. “Damn right, I am.”
“Ana! Language!”
Ana laughed. “Mom, damn isn’t a bad word.”
“It is under my roof.”
“But you say it all the time.”
Gabriela chuckled, glancing at her daughter. “Is this where I tell you do as I say, not as I do?” She shook her head. “Are you excited for tomorrow at least? Last day of school before Christmas break?”
“Yes! Mrs. Connelly said we’re going to watch a movie and have snacks. We get to wear our pajamas to school and bring blankets, too. Julie said she has an amazing Pegasus onesie she’s going to wear to match me better.”
“That sounds fun.”
“Can I bring a snack for the class?”
Gabby’s smile died, and she squeezed the steering wheel. “Ana…”
“It’s okay if I don’t. Just thought I’d ask. I…know we don’t have much money.”
Gabriela curled her lips in and bit them. Her eyes burned, and it took a lot of effort to blink away the blur of tears without crying. She felt like a failure as a mother. Ana went without so many of the things her classmates had, things Gabriela just couldn’t afford—even things as simple as treats for the class.
“I’m sorry, baby,” she said softly, throat tight.
“It’s okay, Mom. Really. I understand.”
And Ana did understand. Even on those rare occasions when she asked for something, she never whined, begged, or threw a tantrum when Gabriela said no. The little girl just accepted it, often graciously. Though things had never been easy, Gabriela wouldn’t give her daughter up for anything. She was proud of the young lady Ana was becoming.
Gabby only wished she could give her daughter more.
The rest of the fifteen-minute drive was quiet save for the music. Ana sang along to the radio as she watched the snowy, wooded landscape pass by through the window. When they arrived home, Gabriela pulled into the driveway and killed the engine, handing the keys to Ana.
“We’re home!” Ana unbuckled her seatbelt, threw open her door, and hopped out, slinging her backpack over her shoulder as she ran toward the house.
“Ana, you forgot something,” Gabriela called.
Her daughter came to an abrupt halt, did a one-eighty, and hurried back to the car to shut the passenger door.
Gabby shook her head and smiled to herself. Unbuckling her own seatbelt, she picked up her purse, opened her door, and stepped out of the car. She stood up just in time to see Ana unlock the front door and disappear inside the house.
