Page 1 of 20% Stud 80% Muffin (Alien Fated Mates #1)

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Earth…the not-too-distant future

I s running away to another planet really the best option?

“Earth to Geo.” Ginger tapped her manicured nails on the café’s darkened vid-screen table, scrolling the breakfast menu. I squinted. How did she paint those tiny little cherries on them?

Saturdays at Toni’s Café with Ginger were nonnegotiable. Every booth was packed, and the air was thick with the tang of toasted sourdough and cinnamon-dusted lattes. Toni’s was the only place in this dive town with espresso that wasn’t too sour or acidic—Ginger’s words, not mine—and it was a tradition going on eight years.

Dressed in silver lamé, she literally shone as she sipped her Italian espresso. Her black-tipped bangs were framed by stick-straight silver-white hair. Opposites in so many ways, I scuffed my worn steel-toed boots against the floor and fingered the hole in my frayed jeans, sighing as I recalled loosening my belt another notch that morning.

She pushed the off-planet employment brochure toward me the same way she did every week. Constantly scanning them for costume design inspiration, Ginger always had the latest one. “C’mon. Now’s the time.”

At least three of these brochures lined the bottom of my recycling bin at home, and I’d unstuck one from under the popcorn bowl earlier.

She leaned over the table between us, knocked the brim of my Space Invaders cap from my head and rustled my overgrown curls. “You’re too cute and just too amazing overall to let Cameron keep bringing you down.”

My ears grew warm as I pulled my hat back down over them.

“You need a change. It’s time to kick that douchebag to the curb.” Ginger didn’t sugarcoat.

“You trying to get rid of me, Ging?”

“Not in a lifetime, but it’s resonating in my bones. You’d be so perfect for this. They’re recruiting an archbuilder…” She paused before her eyes grew cartoon-character wide. “Plus”—her voice softened—“I know you don’t want to hear it, but Cameron looked awfully cozy in his social feed last weekend.” Her knuckles turned white around the tiny espresso cup. “Who the hell is that guy anyway? Wasn’t Cameron away on business?”

I shook the numbness from my fingers, but my stomach roiled. Whenever Ginger pointed out one of Cameron’s indiscretions, I folded my emotions and refolded them before safely slotting them into a locked box, like a ballot to be dealt with never .

I sighed, the earnestness of her words hitting harder than usual this time. “’Kay, you got me. What the hell’s an archbuilder?”

“I researched the shit out of this, Geo.” She smacked the rolled brochure into her palm. “It’s a home builder. You’d be doing what you love, acting as a project manager, but on another planet. How cool is that?”

My mind flicked from one far-fetched image to the next and landed on a picture of Tatooine—beige, plagued by windstorms, sandworms and…fictional.

“You could try it for a year. It pays so well, you’d have enough to start up your own construction company when you got back.”

My fingers drummed the table. Could I really leave it all behind?

Outside of my work crew, if I were kidnapped tomorrow, I could count the people who would notice on one hand—two fingers, to be exact. Ginger and Cameron. And Cameron wouldn’t miss me so much as he’d miss how much I babied him.

“They have an orientation session this weekend at the Center for Interplanetary Accessibility.” Ginger’s sing-song voice carried over the sharp whistle of the café’s milk steamer.

My jaw tightened and I twisted my fingers around my coffee mug. “Ging.” I swallowed the hard knot in my throat. “You think they would let me take Charz and Pika?”

Ginger reached across the table and took my hand. “Maybe…you could negotiate it into your contract?” Despite her lethal fingernails, a wave of comfort filled me. She paused for a second. “You know I love those little rats. I could keep them for you for a year.”

My eye twitched over leaving my dogs behind, but no matter how unlikely, visions of aliens with large teeth and no manners swallowing them whole horrified me more.

Besides her persistence about sending me off-planet, Ginger’s advice had always been sound. Still, the outrageousness of this proposition blindsided me as if I were the star of a blooper reel. My resolve weakened, and my heart raced at what the future might hold. Cameron would finally appreciate me if we had time apart. Right? Plus, my own company, shiny and new—just a year away.

“But what about my house?”

Cameron loved living in my house, but he sure as hell didn’t take care of it.

Ginger’s brazen smile, hidden behind her espresso cup, flashed in her eyes the way it always did when she got her way. “You just leave that to me.”

I scratched my three-day-old stubble as Charz and Pika pawed at my legs. The two eager Jack Russells yipped for my attention. I crouched low, and my socked feet slipped on the kitchen tiles. “Damn it.”

Cameron always put the dog treats in the far reaches of the floor cabinet. As I struggled to reach them, his fresh-from-the-shower scent drifted down the hall. Next, he’d pull on some sweats—the ones that dipped low enough to show his v-line and perfect abs—pocket his cell phone off his bedside table, then turn the house upside down to find his glasses. Lastly, he’d dig through the dryer for some socks. Good luck there. I hadn’t done the lazy bastard’s laundry this week.

“Gah, that man turns me into a raging bitch.”

I tossed chicken sticks, their favorite, to Charz and Pika. My empty hand clenched. Their tails slapped like happy whips, heedless of my annoyance. Without Ginger, the only unconditional love and acceptance in my life would’ve come from them.

So what if their love is artificially bolstered by treats?

“Geo, did you put my glasses somewhere?” Cameron called from the laundry room.

No, I didn’t put your glasses anywhere.

“They’re on the kitchen counter.”

Where you left them last night, after conveniently ignoring that it was my turn to pick the show? Instead, we watched three episodes of yet another athletic endurance competition, where every contestant had the same over-the-top charisma to match their over-the-top ego. Now that other planets had contacted Earth, the contestants might be green or horned, but not much else had changed since my grandmother’s time.

I picked up his glasses and pushed the silent vacuum cleaner to the laundry room before I passed them to him.

He glanced up. “Thanks.”

My head used to rush when he pushed the frames over his long, straight nose. A Superman to Clark Kent moment—his perfect features made more human. But that old lightheadedness was gone.

“Er, did you happen to throw any of my clothes in when you did yours?” His eyes flicked a little sheepishly to the vacuum now stored in the wall hanger.

“No.” I stood there, rocking from one socked foot to the other, as he maneuvered around me out of the laundry room. The clink of the leashes and the harnesses he knocked together alerted Pika and Charz of an imminent walk. Their tiny nails clicked like a troupe of miniature tap dancers across the hardwood floor. The floor we’d agreed he would clean today.

Mired in defeat, I reminded him again. “So…you said you’d do the floors today?”

“Damn it, Geo.” He eyeballed the too-small shirt I’d put on this morning. “Isn’t it enough that I walk your dogs for you? You could use the exercise.”

I pulled back my shoulders and sucked in my belly, even though no amount of sucking in would prevent it from poking out under the hem. Daily physical labor at the construction company I co-owned built muscles, but I enjoyed bread and beer, and my abs were buried under a thick stomach. “ Our dogs.”

“Whatever.” He dragged out the ‘er.’ “I do enough things I don’t want for you.” Cameron strode away.

Like a happy family, the three of them slipped out the door without a backward glance, and yet again, cleaning the house fell on my shoulders. This time with my heart cowering like a kicked dog’s .

Is he worth it?

The corner of a familiar off-planet employment brochure peeked out from under the vid-screen controller on top of the coffee table. After I’d resolutely blocked all the electronic junk mail Ginger spammed me with, these paper versions still showed up on the regular.

An out-of-place image of two aliens stood out among all the pictures of space shuttles, foreign landscapes and heavy equipment. Blue, with long tails, the taller one had an arm wrapped around the shorter one’s shoulder. The goofy grin he wore transcended species. I wasn’t sure if it hurt more to know love existed beyond Earth or if it hurt more to hope.

Inhaling deeply, I raised my gaze to the vaulted ceiling and scanned my home. A smile formed on my lips. House proud, I’d renovated the entire upstairs, removing the second bedroom and adding a huge en suite bathroom and a walk-in closet. I walked over to the open window and inhaled the sweet fragrance of the native plants I’d relandscaped with. Honeysuckles, wild roses and overripe blackberries wafted through the screen.

Slightly calmer, I finished cleaning the shit out of the house. And because Cameron wasn’t home, I did it blasting retro Lizzo remixes. Forty minutes of pondering intergalactic love later, the house shone, and now with the busy work out of the way, reality returned.

I scrubbed my palm over my beard. On more than one occasion, Cameron had said, “There are more important things in life than a clean house, Geo. I’ll do it later.”

Maybe he was right. I threw together a quick picnic lunch and hoped for the best. Roast beef on fresh sourdough for me, microbe-infused spinach wraps and kimchi for Cameron. After filling a water bottle for us and the dog water bottle Cameron had forgotten, I placed everything in my backpack.

Dahlias bloomed alongside my driveway. Not wanting them to nosedive with nothing to cling to—a metaphor for my life—I reminded myself to buy supports. Then, I headed to the local park .

Winding up the path to my favorite hilltop perch, I spotted my little family on the multi-purpose track below. I placed the picnic pack on the ground and sat on the manicured grass. Spectators cheered for a soccer game on the nearby pitch, and fried onions lingered in the warm breeze from the hotdog vendor beside the fountain.

Excited yips narrowed my focus to Charz and Pika, where they tugged on the leash Cameron held, trying desperately to get to me. The cropped shirt he wore highlighted the swath of golden skin above his low-riding sweats as he not-so-absently scratched his six-pack.

Damn, why hadn’t I changed my shirt? My hand automatically reached to stretch the fabric away from my gut.

Oblivious to the dogs, Cameron chatted up a jogger stretching beside him. His grin glowed in the distance. He’d done this before.

My heart lurched, but I always gave him the benefit of the doubt. Cameron loved me.

The jogger rose from where he stretched, leaned in, then held Cameron’s bicep as he tapped his number into Cameron’s phone. My toes curled against the soles of my flip-flops, bracing for impact. He’d never taken it that far before. Not in front of me, anyways. It usually amounted to harmless flirting—part of Cameron’s personality.

I tucked my knees into my belly and rested my chin on them. A cold shiver ghosted over me despite the midday sun.

He says he loves me, but…

When we’d first met, he’d showered me with attention. I never could quite grasp what a guy like Cameron, with his charm and supermodel good looks, wanted with me.

Yanked by our yapping dogs, he turned in my direction. He jumped back from the jogger when he spotted me .

I gasped. His guilt hit like a virtual punch to my gut. His fingers fluttered at shoulder level in an awkward wave, then his long stride ate up the distance between us, his mouthwatering smile firmly in place.

Running his fingers through the long part of his hair, he raked it out of his eyes and sat beside me. A trail of goose bumps pricked my skin where he bumped my arm with his. Then he cupped my calf as he wrapped his other arm low around my back, and my muffin top squished in his hold.

Cameron kissed my cheek, all smiles, as if I hadn’t witnessed his obvious attempt at a pickup. “Hey, I didn’t think you were joining us today.”

Give him the benefit of the doubt. Although I wanted to reply with a snarky ‘clearly,’ instead, a shy “I made us a picnic” came out.

“Yes, I’m starved!” He pumped his arm, dove for the backpack and passed me the doggie water bottle. I opened and filled the shallow dish compartment. The pups attacked the dish before I placed it on the grass, slopping cool water into my lap.

Cameron rolled his eyes when I dabbed my lap with a napkin. “You’re such a mess.” He dug in.

I shifted closer to kiss his temple, and my soft belly pressed into his hard side before I murmured, “Cameron, did you give that jogger your number?”

He sighed so long that both dogs chimed in. “About that…” His forefinger circled idly around my kneecap. “Remember our conversation about going non-exclusive?”

Ah, no. What conversation?

The lump in my throat grew so large I could barely swallow. “You’ve been dating other people?”

I shifted out of his reach, my skin stretched too tight, like a snake near shedding.

“Don’t make me out to be the villain, Geo.” Cameron stood abruptly, jutting one hip to the side, framed by dramatically placed bent arms. “You agreed.”

What’s he talking about ?

How long had he been, to use his words, “non-exclusive?” “When…when did I agree?”

As much as I didn’t want him to answer that question, I needed him to say it. My hands fisted at my sides as I rose to stand. The dogs circled my ankles, whining at my distress. Cameron’s elbows locked, his nonchalant gaze narrowed to one of concern.

“Why so serious, silly?” He reached up and booped me on the nose. “I still love you.”

But how many others do you love?

“When. Did. I. Agree?” The words bit like venom and pumped adrenaline through my veins.

Cameron stumbled back a step. “For my last conference. You…you said it would be…fine if I went with Mikiao.”

“As fucking friends, Cameron! To share a room and costs. Not to sleep with.”

Months. He’d been dating other men for months. My heart pounded inside my ribcage, imprisoned behind bars. I shook off his hand when he reached for me. He’d been my jailer for too long, and his time to return the keys had expired.

I seethed but steeled myself against his charm. There would be no second-guessing myself this time. “I’m going to Ginger’s.” My chest heaved as I attempted to keep the emotion out of my voice. He would get nothing else of mine. “I want you out of my house by Monday morning.”

His mouth gaping as I spun away from him would be forever etched in my memory.

The mirrors that covered two walls of Ginger’s studio, now an impromptu guest room, told me nothing I didn’t already know. Peering back at me was the same short, hairy guy with a short, fat… Finding another man who would love this package—so not happening.

I flicked the corner of the brochure I’d brought to bed to study. The idea of a new job on another planet took form under my fingertips. My eyes laser-focused on the two blue bodies in an embrace on the front, drawn in like a magnet. Cameron may have shoved me over the line, but Ginger’s dogged persistence had finally found a foothold. A quick search on my phone led me to an online application. Two minutes later, the ‘successful orientation registration’ notification flashed.