Nanny for the Alien Lord by Tammy Walsh
Belle
As the nightgrew later and later, we drew closer and closer.
It didn’t matter the music was the same high tempo, the same frantic rhythm it had been when we first began to dance.
In a sea of writhing bodies, we clung together as if we were adrift in a storm.
The music faded and the MC took up the microphone.
The year was drawing to a close.
“Ten!”
The crowd cheered and punched the air with fists at each count.
“Nine!”
“Eight!”
I looked up at him, cuddled so close I never wanted him to let me go.
He was so warm, calm, strong…
“Seven!”
“Six!”
“Five!”
He raised my chin toward him, so close I could practically taste him.
I felt his breath on my face.
I shut my eyes and went up on tiptoe, closing the distance between us.
He buried his lips on mine.
I tasted him, savored him…
Relished him.
“Four!”
“Three!”
“Two!”
We parted and peered around at the others.
“Looks like we were a little early…” I said.
“We wouldn’t want that, would we?” he said.
He swept down on me, wrapping his arms around me completely until I was cocooned within his powerful embrace.
“Happy New Year!” the crowd roared.
We were blind to the celebration.
He was the only celebration I saw.
And he was looking right back at me the same way.
I realized I hadn’t drawn a breath for a minute or more.
He’d drawn it from me.
I wanted to remember this moment forever.
Every line of his gorgeous face, the sharpness of his suit.
That hungry look in his eye that reflected my own desperation.
And I knew in that instant that this moment had to mean something.
It had to mean more than the kiss we shared.
I could sense it, like a blanket wrapped around the two of us, and unless I missed my guess, he sensed it too.
“Who are you?” he gasped.
“I’m Belle—”
“No. I mean, where have you been?”
I was momentarily thrown by his question.
How could I begin to answer it?
I’d been where I was.
Where else could I have been?
He closed on me, extinguishing any space between us.
He cupped my face in his hand.
“I’ve been in a pit of despair for three years and yet I’ve only just found you. My light. Where have you been?”
I opened my mouth to respond, to tell him I felt the same way.
I’d lived a life of the barest existence—living hand to mouth, splitting my time between work and sleep, leaving no time to date or meet anyone.
“Tauas…” I said.
I didn’t get another word out as an announcer took to the stage.
“Everyone having a good time?” he said.
He was portly and balding but his horns were taller and longer than I’d ever seen.
“To usher in our new year, how about we bring the sponsor of this event onto the stage?”
The crowd roared so loud it almost drowned Tauas’s words out:
“Oh God, please no.”
The announcer raised a hand to his eyes to block out the worst of the spotlight and peer at the crowd.
He grinned and pointed.
“There he is!”
Tauas shirked back but before he could take another step, the spotlight found him.
“Come up here!” the announcer said. “Come on! Don’t be shy!”
My eyes widened in shock and I stepped back, my hand clasped over my mouth.
“You’re… You’re Tauas Choer?”
“I was going to tell you.”
“He’s too shy!” the announcer said. “How about we give him a little helping hand?”
The DJ slammed a fist on the console and the spotlight shifted, the light turning solid.
Tauas’s hair and clothes began to float as the tractor beam yanked him off his feet and he sailed overhead toward the stage.
“Belle!” he yelled. “Wait! Belle!”
The audience cheered as he passed overhead.
He spun end over end until his feet met the stage.
He peered at the crowd to locate me but he wasn’t going to have much luck.
I was already halfway to the exit, and by the time he began to speak, I was already gone.
