Valentine Kisses: A Kiss to Last a Lifetime Read online

  “Why didn’t you tell me I was about to be paraded in front of hundreds of people?” I asked Morgan through clenched teeth. “I haven’t even washed my face.”

  He chuckled, pulling me close to whisper in my ear. “Enjoy it, Lola. Today is a day these people will never forget.”

  Morgan took me to an office that overlooked the giant room through a large window. I plunked myself down in a cozy, leather chair. He sat next to me, and covered my hands with his. He couldn’t seem to stop touching me.

  “Who are all those people?” I looked out the window. The activity seemed to have amped up a notch.

  He gave me a steady look, bracing me for what he was about to tell me. “We are refugees from a far away place called Merdonia. Our ship crashed here nearly thirty years ago. We’ve been stranded ever since.”

  I nibbled my lip nervously. I’d always been a terrible student. I’d snagged my high school diploma by the skin of my teeth, mostly because beauty school had loomed on the horizon like a pretty, pink, fluffy cloud. Hair dyes had been my passion, not geography. I’d never heard of Merdonia, but I did know some basic facts about Pittsburgh.

  “We’re inland. Unless your ship sailed on the Ohio River, I doubt it crashed here. But that’s beside the point. Why don’t you just get on a plane and go home?”

  Morgan’s grip on my fingers tightened. Not a good sign.

  “Merdonia is not another country, Lola. It’s another world.”

  My brain, not the fastest organ in my body to begin with, slowed to a complete halt. “Like another planet? Are you freaking kidding me?”

  Before Morgan could answer, I hopped out of my seat and began pacing, my Christian Louboutin heels making a click-clack sound on the bare concrete floor. A thick, oriental area rug covered the area near his desk, but I avoided it. The sound of my heels tapping on a hard surface always helped me focus. He smiled at the way I paced.

  “Your mother used to do that, too. Walk back and forth. She said it helped her think.”

  “Really?”

  He nodded. “She paced in this very room, although her shoes weren’t quite as…remarkable.”

  The idea of my mother being in this actual room made a lump form in my throat. Then another thought occurred to me.

  “Wait a second. Are you saying I’m one of you? A Meridian?”

  He looked pained. “Merdonian. I think you know the answer to that question already, Lola.”

  I paused and stared out at the people rushing about below the giant window. “Do they all have twelve toes?”

  “Yes.”

  I put a hand over my heart. “Do they shock people, too?”

  Morgan shook his head and my newly budding feelings of euphoria took a nosedive. “There are no other Channellers.”

  “A whole room full of mutant aliens, and I’m the freak?”

  I rubbed my arms with my hands, producing enough friction to create a warm popping sound. I even shocked myself sometimes. That was the exact level of my strangeness. Morgan came up and put his fingers on my bare shoulders, calming me instantly. It happened every time he touched me. I started to think this might not be a coincidence.

  “What’s your special talent, Morgan?”

  “I am a Neutralizer. That is why you can’t hurt me. I neutralize energy.”

  “Just energy? Why do I always feel calmer when you’re around?”

  “I can neutralize emotions, too, and thoughts.”

  “That must come in handy.” I tilted my head to the people in the room below us. “Are they all like you?”

  “No. Most Merdonians are Nils, with no positive or negative charge at all. They are basically like average humans on Earth.”

  “But with twelve toes.”

  “Exactly.”

  I looked down at all my twelve-toed brethren on the floor of the warehouse below, and felt a kinship I’d never experienced before. Even if I was the only Channeller in the bunch, I was still more like them than I’d ever been like anyone else in my life.

  “Why can’t I neutralize people?”

  “Channellers are different. You send out energy, like a lighthouse on a dark shore.”

  That might explain the whole beacon of sluttiness thing, the way I attracted bad men like flies to honey. Maybe I emitted more than I realized. “Would regular humans have felt that energy, too?”

  “Of course. And it may have frightened them a bit. The energy which attracts people to you is often the same thing that sends them away. But even if you can’t neutralize emotions, you are very good at reading them, aren’t you Lola?”

  “I guess so. I always seemed to know what hairstyle a person wanted, even if they had trouble explaining it. I could just sort of…feel…what they were trying to say.”

  “Exactly.” His face darkened. “What a terrible waste. On Merdonia, you would have been trained from an early age to become something important and valuable to society. A diplomat. A leader. It saddens me you weren’t given any opportunities. That you had to earn your living in such a demeaning fashion.”

  “Demeaning?” I asked with a frown. “I don’t like your tone, mister. I love what I do, and my shop means everything to me. I even bought a house of my own. I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished, and I certainly don’t need your pity.”

  He gave me a formal little bow. “I apologize. That was inconsiderate of me. You’ve done amazingly well, under the circumstances.”

  My gaze went back to the window, wanting to change the subject. “What are they building?”

  “A portal.”

  “Like a door?”

  “Yes. To take us back home.” Morgan grew very still, his expression shuttered. “The portal can only be opened once every thirty years, when our planets align. The next time we can open it is in one week.”

  “Wait…on Valentine’s Day?”

  “Yes. February 14th. Why do you ask?”

  “No reason. I’d always hoped for some excitement on Valentine’s Day. Of course, by excitement I meant a gift or some chocolates, maybe. Not meeting aliens who planned to open a door to the other side of the universe.”

  Now Morgan looked like he was getting a headache. “It’s a very serious matter, Lola. If we lose this opportunity, we will be trapped here for another thirty years.”

  “That’s a long time,” I said softly. “No wonder everyone looks so frantic.”

  Morgan came so close I could feel the warmth of his body next to mine. “They are not frantic. Not anymore. They’re excited. Locating you has changed everything. You have given us hope, Lola.”

  I frowned at him. “Why?”

  “Because you are the only one who can open the portal and send us back.”

  #

  Finding out you’re an alien is bad enough. Finding out you are the only alien who can help a whole bunch of aliens go back to their alien home was a lot of responsibility for a girl like me. Of course, I agreed to help them, but I was terrified.

  Science and math have never been my strong suits. Wormholes, physics, and tunnels through space were completely beyond my comprehension. I could barely solve third grade addition problems. I’d tried helping Maria’s oldest boy with some last week, and he’d ended up feeling kind of bad for me

  Morgan seemed to understand. He explained things slowly, using small words, as he walked me back to my room.

  “Only a Channeller has the power to open the portal. When the Hunters killed your mother, they effectively trapped all of us here.”

  “And they targeted her because of that? Because she was the only other Channeller?”

  He hesitated, but only for a millisecond. “Yes.”

  I thought I understood the reason for that brief hesitation. “Or so they thought, right? Because they didn’t know about me?”

  He gave me a crooked smile. “No one knew about you. We all assumed you had been killed long ago. Sadly, your mother died never knowing the truth. She would have loved to have met you.”

  A pang of gri
ef sped through me, so sharp it caught me completely by surprise. For all the outrageousness of this whole situation, I believed Morgan Slade. I had trouble wrapping my mind around the whole “Lola-is-an-alien-from-Merdonia” thing, but the part about Muriel not being my real mother? Best news I had ever heard. The idea that I’d once had a mother, no matter how briefly, who had loved and cared for me, made tears prick behind my eyes.

  I sniffed and cleared my throat. “Tell me about her. What was she like?”

  “Beautiful. Bold. Strong. Brilliant A lot like you, I suspect.”

  I almost laughed out loud. He was so completely wrong. “Was my father a refugee, too?”

  “No.” He shook his head, but didn’t make eye contact. I’d just met Morgan, but I could already tell when he was hiding something.

  “He was a Nil?”

  Morgan looked shocked. “God, no. A Channeller would never marry a Nil. That would be completely unacceptable. A huge waste of power. Channellers, if they marry at all, normally choose Neutralizers. Your mother was a bit of an exception. A rule breaker, so to speak. She chose another Channeller.”

  “And that’s strange?”

  “A Channeller needs a Neutralizer for balance. A union between two Channellers would be highly unstable, but it would be powerful. The fact that you are the daughter of not only one but two Channellers makes you remarkable indeed.”

  “Hooray. Another reason I’m weird.”

  “Not weird. Exceptional. As a Channeller, you’re extraordinarily sensitive. In tune with the whole universe.”

  I could barely find my car when I parked it at the mall. I had no delusions about my own capabilities, and Morgan’s obvious regard and respect for my powers confused me.

  “I thought it meant I could shoot sparks out of my hands and guess what kind of haircut someone might like.”

  He frowned. “You’re so much more. You harness energy, too. You harvest it, in fact. Think about all the times you were stuck by lightning. That was your body demanding energy.”

  “But what does the energy have to do with reading emotions?”

  “You absorb those just like you absorb electrical energy. School was difficult for you, wasn’t it? You could probably barely concentrate on what the teacher was saying. You had to focus on drowning everything else out.”

  He’d just described my K-12 experience exactly. “I thought I was just stupid.”

  He looked at me in shock. “You were thrust into an alien environment with no guidance or coping mechanisms. You are not stupid. You’re amazingly resilient.”

  His dark eyes met mine, his expression intense and powerful. “I can teach you so many things, Lola. You can learn to manipulate the amount of electricity that comes out of your hands. You won’t have to wear gloves ever again. You’ll be in control.”

  I didn’t feel very in control when Morgan slapped his hypnotic gaze on me. I turned away from him so he’d stop using his Neutralizer mojo magic on me and started walking down the hall.

  “That’s great, but I need to go back and check on my shop. Maria is probably frantic. I was fully booked this morning.”

  Everything about Morgan grew icy in an instant. “You are not going back to your shop.”

  I was on the stairs and almost lost my balance. “Excuse me?”

  “You can’t risk your life over a few silly haircuts. You are far too valuable to us.”

  “Silly haircuts? But it’s my shop. Mine.”

  Morgan reached out his fingertips, trying to do one of his neutralizing tricks on me, but I backed away. He put his hands on his hips and glared at me.

  “This is life or death. Did you forget about the Hunters? You’re being nonsensical.”

  Normally that word would have made me laugh, but I wasn’t in the mood at the moment. “What about Maria?”

  “She thinks you won a cruise and gave her time off until the baby comes.”

  I scowled at him. “She would expect me to call.”

  “You texted her. You had poor reception on the cruise ship.”

  “What about my customers?”

  “Nadia took your appointment book. We’ve notified everyone that due to unforeseeable circumstances, the shop is closed for remodeling. We called the necessary people in to do repairs, and they are fixing it up as we speak. It’ll be as good as new. Better. I promise.”

  “And my house?” I asked, thinking about my white cottage with the pink shutters and rose bushes in the front yard. “I need to make some calls.”

  He let out a long sigh. “We already contacted your neighbor, Mrs. Finkelstein. She said congratulations on the cruise. She’ll pick up your mail and look after your house. Does that make you feel any better?”

  “I guess so,” I said, chewing on my lower lip. I had to admit it wasn’t a bad plan. He seemed to have everything covered. “Seven days. Just until Valentine’s Day.”

  I watched Morgan closely. He stretched and flexed his fingers like he was eager to touch me, but he still hadn’t given me the confirmation I wanted. I cleared my throat and tried again.

  “Seven days and I can go home, right?”

  Morgan paused. He seemed measure his words carefully.

  “Seven days. That is all we ask. No more. No less.”

  I should have remembered seven had never been my lucky number.

  #

  Classes with Morgan involved getting zapped by bolts of electricity. He’d given me one of the ugly tan jumpsuits to wear, and I hated it, but my dress needed to be washed, pressed, and probably disinfected. It was either the jumpsuit, or show up naked. I chose the jumpsuit.

  At least I’d showered. Morgan had, too. He smelled soapy and nice, but I couldn’t really enjoy it because he kept hitting me with little, contained, lightning strikes.

  “Ow,” I said after one particularly strong one.

  Morgan had on safety goggles and a pair of black pants that hugged the curves of his bottom. His crisp grey shirt was buttoned nearly to the neck. I’d unzipped my jumpsuit far enough that he could catch a glimpse of the electric blue push up bra I had on underneath. A rather expensive purchase at Lady Linda’s Lovely Lingerie Emporium, but well worth it. Lady Linda knew what she was doing. Morgan’s dark gaze kept going to my cleavage, or at least they did when he wasn’t shocking me. Or yelling at me.

  “That did not hurt you, Lola.”

  “It kind of did.”

  He took off his goggles and slammed them onto a table. He stood behind a wall of safety glass, aiming something that looked like a giant ray gun at my chest. Maybe my bra wasn’t all that fascinating to him. Maybe he was just trying to hit the target.

  I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the glass divider and screeched like a monkey in the jungle. “Morgan Slade. What have you done to my hair?”

  He’d zapped me so many times my hair nearly stood on end. Morgan turned me away from my reflection.

  “It’s fine.”

  “It’s not, and I can’t even fix it. I don’t have any equipment. I don’t have make-up. I don’t even have a clean pair of undies. I’m going commando at the moment. This is what you’ve reduced me to.”

  He blinked in surprise at the commando comment, but recovered quickly. “We need to build up your energy supply so you are able to open the portal without harming yourself. Do you understand me?”

  I tried to look at my reflection again. “But my hair….”

  Morgan gave me a very stern look, the same look Maria gave me on a regular basis when I’d slept with the wrong guy or spent way too much on a pair of shoes. I knew that look well.

  “You think I’m silly and frivolous.”

  To my great surprise, a big, old lump formed in my throat. For some stupid reason, it mattered what Morgan thought of me.

  “It’s hair. It isn’t important.”

  “It might not be important to you, but I’m a really good hairdresser. Some people even call me an artist. This might be hard for you to understand, but hair is important to me
. As are clothes. And don’t even get me started on shoes. Shoes are very, very important. But hair is the…most…important of all.”

  My voice shook as I said the last words. Morgan tried to pat down my hair, making it worse. Now my lip quivered, too. He opened the door of the room with a frustrated groan and ushered me out.

  “This is pointless. Get some rest. We will work later.”

  I found my way back to my room and curled up on my bed. Morgan didn’t find me beautiful, bold, brilliant, and strong. He thought me an idiot, and he was probably right.

  I wanted to lock my door, but, oddly enough, the doors in this place only locked from the outside. Exhaustion overtook me and I fell asleep. When I woke, everything in my room had changed. Someone had been inside, fixing things. Making it homier. Like the story of The Elves and the Shoemaker, but rather than creating new shoes, they’d made my room more welcoming.

  Instead of a blanket made of itchy wool, I found myself covered in a warm, pink blanket. I had fluffy pillows under my head, and a lamp in the corner cast a comforting light around the room. A photograph of a pale, blonde woman with a delicate face and big blue eyes sat on the table next to my bed in a pretty frame. I smiled because I knew her identity right away.

  “Callista,” I said softly, cradling the picture in my hands and studying every detail eagerly.

  I sat up slowly, looking around, a little bemused. Someone had left me a bowl of fruit, so I grabbed a banana and began exploring. A vanity had been set up in the corner with a lighted mirror. On top of the vanity sat a hair dryer, several large brushes, and curling irons of every possible size and shape. None of them were professional quality, of course, but it was the thought that counted.

  A matching white dresser with gold accents had been brought in, too. Inside were clothes in exactly my size, including quite an assortment of very sexy lingerie. Morgan must have been paying very close attention to my body. He’d even gotten my bra size right.

  A soft rap sounded on the door. “Come in,” I said.

  Morgan stood there, serious as always. I flew into his arms, squeezing him around the neck. He didn’t hug me back. He detangled himself from my embrace and set me back on the floor.