This Alien Soul

Chapter 29

Amber

I should have know better than to leave him alone in my room. Not that I had had much choice in the matter. I couldn't tell my parents 'no' to dinner, and the only other option would have been to have Alek leave. .

I hadn't been ready for that. A week alone had been more than enough. And if he left I didn't know when I would see him again.

Even now, pissed as I was, the thought that he would be leaving soon had my heart racing.

He didn't even seem remorseful that he had been going through my notepad. Lucky for him, there was nothing personal in that pad. Still, I marched over to where he was sitting in my desk chair holding the pad to some doodle drawings I had made during a boring school lecture.

"Really, no 'sorry for the intrusion of your privacy'?" I attempted to snatch the pad from him. He pulled it out of my arms reach and snagged me around the waist. With one strong tug, I found myself off balance and in his lap, where he held me still with one arm.

"Why did you draw these?" He held the pad directly over my chest. It was turned to a page of swirling patterns.

"I was bored during my homeschooling lecture on Romeo and Juliet." I shrugged my shoulders. My mom must have brought the notepad and my laptop up when she came to get me for dinner. But I didn't see the big deal in the doodles. "It's just some doodles."

"These are not just doodles." The seriousness on Aleks face was starting to scare me. What was the big deal about these drawings?

"Are you just trying to distract me from the fact you can go all invisible, or something? Because it's not working." I had a million and one questions and he wasn't going to get out of answering them.

The hour I had spent at the dinner table, choking down a chicken salad, had been torture. I had whiled away the time coming up with a list of questions for Alek. I would get them answered.

"Amber, look at me. These are not just doodles." He grabbed my chin in his forefingers, turning so his blazing green eyes were focused on my own. "What made you draw these?" He again asked.

"I told you, I was bored during lecture..." I huffed out, a little annoyed at the questioning.

Before I could finish talking Alek set me aside so he could stand and pull his shirt off over his head.

I'll admit it. My brain temporarily short circuited. But who could really blame me when I was faced with a shirtless Alek.

I wasn't sure if it was just a Zionian trait or if he had to work for his body. Either way, he was honed perfection. Muscled and lean while broad at his shoulders and chest. His skin was tanned from time spent outside with markings that seemed to dance over his body.

I found myself stepping forward, wanting to trace each marking with my fingers.

I was reaching for his chest when it hit me. These markings, they were the drawings he was freaking out about. This is why he was questioning me.

"How?" I raised a shaking hand to my lips, as I searched Alek's face for an answer. "I've never seen these before."

"I know." He again held up the notepad. "So how did you draw them?"

"I...I..." I had no clue. "What's going on?" My words came out in a whisper as the room started to swim around me.

"Whoa, you ok, Princess?" Alek caught me up against him when he noticed my knees going weak. "Didn't realize the sight of me shirtless would affect you so much?" He teased, obviously trying to lighten the mood.