I promise, I'm working as fast as I can to get the next book out. In the meantime, here's another excerpt:
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With Myshtal
promising not to foretell any more of the action, we went back to watching the
movie. However, we’d only been watching a few minutes when the phone rang.
There was a cordless extension in the theater room, and – knowing that Mom was
working and that my grandparents were probably in bed – I teleported the phone
into my hand.
I switched the
phone on and gave a perfunctory “Hello.”
“Hey,
handsome,” said a honeyed feminine voice on the other end of the line.
“Hey,” I
replied as I came to my feet, smiling at hearing my girlfriend’s voice. I
gestured to Myshtal that I needed to take this call, then began walking towards
the door after she nodded in acknowledgement.
“What are you
doing?” Electra asked.
“Thinking about
you, of course.” I stepped out of the theater room and closed the door behind
me.
“Good answer,”
Electra said, giggling. As always, her laughter was intoxicating and
infectious, making me chuckle along with her. “Seriously though, are you busy?”
“No – just
watching a movie.”
“Feel like
hanging out?”
“Is that a
trick question?” I asked, causing her to laugh again. I had rarely, if ever,
turned down a chance to spend time with her. “Should I pop by your house?”
“No, not
tonight,” she said, causing me to frown in confusion. Why ask me to hang out if
she really didn’t want to? Then she added, “Just buzz me in.”
“Huh?” I
muttered, more confused than before.
“Buzz me in,”
she repeated. “I’m at the gate.”
Smiling now, I
pressed the digits on the phone that would cause the large, wrought-iron gate
at the embassy entrance to open.
“Be there in a
sec,” I said, barely waiting for Electra to acknowledge my statement before
hanging up the phone and setting it on a nearby table. I then teleported outside, to the bottom of a
wide stoop which consisted of about a dozen set stone steps that led up the
embassy’s front door.
It was a rather
dark night; what little illumination there was came mostly from a couple of
ornate post lights – one at each end at the foot of the stoop. Looking down the
driveway, I saw a pair of headlights headed in my direction. A few moments later, a car pulled to a stop
in front of me, the engine turned off, and Electra got out.
She was dressed
in jeans, black boots, gloves, and a hooded parka that neatly framed her face. Seeing
her bundled up made me mindful of the fact that it was chilly outside and a
stiff breeze was blowing. As was typical, Electra wasn’t wearing makeup, but
she had an inherent, natural beauty that didn’t need to be enhanced by
cosmetics.
We moved
towards each other, both of us smiling, and then shared a short kiss as we met.
Eyes twinkling, Electra moved closer and wrapped her arms around me as I
embraced her as well.
“Well, this is
disappointing,” she droned a second later. Rubbing her hands quickly up and
down the sides of my torso, she added, “Come on – do your thing.”
I laughed,
understanding what she meant. On cold days, when I haven’t dressed
appropriately for the weather, I tend to compensate by raising my body
temperature. On this particular, I had come outside without grabbing so much as a
light jacket. However, I hadn’t been outside long enough for the cold to start
to affect me. Nevertheless, I did as requested and raised my core body
temperature.
“That’s my guy,” Electra intoned,
snuggling in close and placing her head against my chest. She had explained
before that being next to me when I was like this was akin to cuddling next to
a warm, cozy fire with a blizzard raging outside. “You’re so nice and toasty that I could stay
like this forever.”
She then looked
up and gave me a kiss – this time longer and more lingering than before. When
we separated, breathless, a few moments later, she smiled and then pulled in
close to me again.
“You know,” I
said, “You didn’t have to drive all the way over here. I would have been happy
to come to you.”
“I know,” she admitted,
“but I wanted to. You shouldn’t have to come to me all the time.”
I smiled but
didn’t say anything, understanding what the meaning was behind her actions. In
terms of spending time together, Electra had once equated dating me to having a
rich boyfriend: sure, the guy could afford to pay every time they went out, but
occasionally the girl wants to – if only to show the guy what he means to her. That’s why she had chosen to drive and see me
on a cold, dark night rather than have me come to her (which, frankly speaking
would have been much easier). Basically,
it was a way of telling me I was worth it, and I loved her for it.
“So, how’d the
mission go?” she asked, breaking my chain of thought. She also stepped back
slightly as she posed the question, allowing us to see eye-to-eye.
“Uh…” I
muttered. “It’s a bit of a mixed report, to be honest.”
I then
telepathically shared with her the pertinent mission details. As expected, she
groaned in disapproval at certain actions on my part. Upon finishing, I decided
not to give her an opportunity to verbalize any criticisms.
“So,” I blurted
out, “how was your shopping jaunt?”
“Nice try at
changing the subject,” she said, making it understood that she knew what I was
trying to do. “But it was fine. I think I found the perfect dress.”
“Oh? What does
it look like?”
She laughed.
“No, no, no, no. You’re going to have to wait until tomorrow. I want to see the
look on your face when you first catch a glimpse of me in it.”
I frowned.
“Well, how does telling what it looks like change that? I still won’t see you
in it until tomorrow.”
“Because I want
your complete reaction. I won’t get that if you have an idea of what to
expect.”
I shook my
head, nonplussed. “Smokey’s right. I really don’t
understand women.”
Electra laughed
at that. “Good. That’s the way I like it.”
I raised an
eyebrow inquisitively. “You want me
confused about women?”
She grinned.
“No. I just don’t want you thinking you fully understand me, because the second that happens you’ll–”
Electra stopped
abruptly as the sound of hinges creaking drew the attention of us both. Almost
in unison, we separated and looked towards the top of the steps – to the front
door of the embassy. With light from the
interior behind her, we watched in silence as Myshtal stepped out.
Almost
immediately, there was tension in the air. More to the point, where there had
been lighthearted mirth and amusement a moment before, I now felt a flurry of
heated emotions coming from Electra that included resentment, spite, and
annoyance (to name a few).
Myshtal wrapped
her arms around herself against the cold. At that moment I noticed she appeared
to be wearing something short, sheer and form-fitting. She obviously hadn’t
dressed for the weather, which suggested she wouldn’t be out here long –
something I considered a blessing.
“Hello,
Electra,” Myshtal said, giving my girlfriend a congenial wave. “It’s nice to
see you again.”
“Yeah – you,
too,” Electra said flatly, although her tone suggested that it was anything but nice.
It was
undoubtedly a cool reception on my girlfriend’s part, but about the best that
could be hoped for under the circumstances. Ever since their initial meeting
after I returned from Caeles – and had to tell Electra about my contracted
nuptials – the relationship between the two had been nothing short of frosty.
“I’m sorry for
intruding,” Myshtal said, turning to me, “but I just wanted to ask if you
wanted me to pause the movie, Jim?”
I felt, rather
than saw, Electra jerk her head in my direction. At the same time, a volcano of
emotions erupted within her – mostly bitterness and displeasure, blanketed by
layers of anger and frustration.
“Uh, no,” I
said, purposely avoiding looking at Electra. “You can just let it play, or
watch something else if you want.”
“Okay,” she
said with a nod. “Goodnight, Electra.”
My girlfriend
grunted something inaudible in response as Myshtal turned and headed back
inside. A moment later the door closed.
“Is that what
you were doing when I called?” she demanded. “Watching a movie, with her?”
“Yeah, we were
watching a movie,” I said defensively.
She gave me a
smoldering look. “So the two of you were having a date night?”
“What?!” I
asked, flabbergasted. “No! It was just a movie!”
“Really? So who
else was there?”
I cut my eyes
away in impotent anger. I didn’t say anything, but I didn’t have to.
“That’s what I
thought,” Electra said as she indignantly crossed her arms.
“That still
doesn’t make it a date,” I stressed.
“And what about
what she was wearing?”
“What about
it?” I asked.
“It was
practically lingerie!”
I frowned in
concentration for a moment. I hadn’t really gotten a good look at what Myshtal
was wearing when she came to the door. I
suppose it could have been a negligee…
“That’s not
what she was wearing earlier,” I insisted, and it was true. If memory served me correctly, she had
previously been dressed in some kind of skirt-and-blouse combo.
“Oh?” Electra
intoned, raising her eyebrows in faux surprise. “So you’re saying that for the
movie, she decided to slip into something more comfortable?”
“That’s not
what happened at all. You’re twisting the facts into something sordid.”
“Or maybe
you’re just being blind to the truth,” she countered. “Can’t you see what’s
going on here?”
“Yes, I can.
And what I can confirm is that there’s absolutely nothing going on.”
She shook her
head in disbelief. “You can’t be that naïve, Jim. She’s prancing around in
front of you in a negligee – you think she’s doing that for her health?”
I let out an
exasperated breath. “Even if what you’re suggesting is true – and I don’t
believe it is, but even if it were – you can’t possibly think I’d be more
interested in her than you.”
“In all
honesty, I don’t know what to think any more,” she said softly. “You two could
be doing anything, and I wouldn’t have a clue.”
I stared at her
in dumbfounded amazement for a moment. “You’re kidding, right? Between my mom,
Gramps, and my grandmother, we’ve got like a million chaperones – all of them
psychic! There’s nothing going on in that house that they don’t know about or
condone.”
Electra seemed
to mull over my statement, then let out a long sigh and said, “Okay, but why
does she even have to stay here, under the same roof as you?”
“Where else is
she going to stay? She literally knows no one else on the planet.”
“Just check her
into a hotel or something. Plus, I hear they’re fixing up a place for her at
League HQ.”
“Come on,
Electra. Only a handful of super teens have ever stayed at the League full-time.
And with her limited experience with Earth culture, I can’t just stick her in a
hotel – even a resort. I promised to
look after her.”
“Yeah,” Electra
scoffed disdainfully. “Dressed like she was a moment ago, I imagine you’re
doing a lot of looking – and not just
after.”
I bit my tongue
to avoid blurting out my instinctive response, which was to deny what was being
implied. Electra’s last statement was
bait, and any denial on my part would lead to her asking a question along the
lines of, “So you’re saying you’re not attracted to her?” Having already been painfully hooked by that
lure several times in the past few weeks, I wasn’t falling for it again.
“Look,” I said
calmly, “in addition to everything else, Myshtal is a guest in my family’s
home. Even if I was willing, they wouldn’t let me stick her away out of sight,
any more than they’d let me do it to you if your positions were reversed. And
in case you forgot, her great-great-grandmother rules an interstellar empire,
and Myshtal is her favorite. You don’t think the queen’s having her watched?
Having me watched?”
“There wouldn’t
be any watching if you hadn’t gotten
yourself into this mess,” she stated stonily. “Did you even try to say ‘No’ to
this shotgun wedding?”
“We’ve been
over this before. This was the deal I had to make to get home. Or would you
prefer that I be stuck on Caeles for decades like my grandmother?”
“What I would
prefer–”
“Shhh!” I
hissed, putting a finger to her lips. She immediately went quiet.
I looked around
warily. Just as Electra had begun
speaking, I had picked up an emotional spike from nearby – a mix of excitement
and elation mingled with trepidation. Somebody was watching us. Acting on
instinct, I stepped protectively in front of my girlfriend.
“What is it?” she
whispered.
“We’ve got eyes on
us,” I answered over my shoulder.
