Page 34 of Alien in the Depths

“Is that so?” Sofia asked, her nerves starting to get the better of her. Her flirtation was beginning to get dangerous, and she knew if Vexis got impatient, she might not be able to rein him in.

Instead, she took another sip of her drink and tried to figure out what to do. She figured she only needed to keep him busy for another half hour or so, and then she could make some excuse to leave or slip out while he was buying another drink.

“Never had an Earthling girl, though,” Vexis continued, looking her up and down again. “I look forward to finding out what that’s like.”

“You’re very confident, I see,” Sofia teased, trying to slow him down. The pulse of the music below was getting faster now and so was the beat of her heart. Not only that, the singe was making her head spin a little.

“You want the job, don’t you?” Vexis asked, raising an eyebrow. “That’s how things work around here.”

Sofia panicked a little, but outwardly, she remained cool and calm.

“And here I thought you liked me for my personality,” she joked, letting out a low, sexy laugh.

Vexis seemed to enjoy this, and he grinned at her again, downing the rest of his drink in one shot.

“Come on, no more teasing,” Vexis told her as he smacked his lips. “I want to see you dance for me again.”

“Here?” Sofia asked, a little relieved. He might have been asking for a private show, but it was a hell of a lot better than him dancingwithher. At least this way she could keep her distance.

Vexis nodded and leaned back in the booth again, gesturing with one hand for her to get up.

Setting down her half-finished singe, Sofia made a show of getting up slowly, the way she had at his house the day before. She could feel his eyes on her as she stepped out of the booth, as she adjusted her dress, as she took her place in front of him.

Like last time, she started by shaking her hips, each movement getting more and more pronounced with every beat of the music. The look on Vexis’s face told her he still liked this move, and she shot him a sultry smile to make sure she was holding his attention. The longer she could dance, the less she’d have to put up with him touching her.

As the bassline bounced, Sofia began to swivel her hips and run her hands up her sides, stopping to caress the skin that showed through the dress’s cutout. Vexis literally licked his lips at this, and Sofia instinctively turned away to grimace.

Thankfully he didn’t appear to notice, and instead, she worked the turn into her moves, giving him a spin to show off her body. When she turned back, though, she started. Vexis was making to get up from his seat and Sofia dreaded what would come next. Her skin crawled at the thought of him trying to kiss her, or worse, but she still had at least twenty minutes to kill for Zaraq to make it out safely.

A bright, high-pitched tone suddenly cut through the thumping bass, and in the dim light, Vexis’s wrist comm lit up, casting the mezzanine in a ghostly blue glow. The call stopped Vexis in his tracks, and Sofia watched as a scowl crossed his face.

“Hold that thought,” he told her before sitting back down and tapping the comm to answer.

Sofia let out a breath of relief.If this call lasts a while, I might get out of here unscathed.

“This better be good,” Vexis barked into the device, his mauve skin turning a dark purple by the light of the comm. “I’ve got an alien girl practically begging for it over here.”

Sofia felt another surge of disgust and anger rise in her, but by then she was practiced at swallowing her vitriol and fluttering her eyelids at the sleazebag, which was exactly what she did.

“Boss, someone broke into your place!” came a gruff voice over the comm, and Sofia’s blood suddenly ran cold. “The guy took something from the gun cabinet and get this… I think it was Zaraq!”

Sofia knew she should run, but the sound of his name made her freeze, and when Vexis turned his flaming gaze toward her, she couldn’t react fast enough. Her purse was still on the table, the blaster safely inside, but before she could reach it, Vexis was out of his seat. A split second later, his enormous hand was clamped painfully around her arm, and his face was right up in hers.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” he yelled at her, spittle flying from his mouth. “Nobody plays me and gets away with it.”

“What are you talking about, sweetie?” Some part of Sofia hoped she could still fake her way out of this, the way she’d faked her way into it, but even as she spoke, she could hear the guilt in her own voice.

Vexis was having none of it. “Save it. I’m not as dumb as you think.”

With that, he grabbed her purse off the table and yanked her toward the stairs. As she stumbled along, she caught the eye of the security guard who had let them pass.

“Help, please!” she pleaded, hoping that someone in the throng of hundreds of people would see what was happening and help her.

But the security guard simply turned away, acting as if he hadn’t seen her. The rest of the patrons and staff did much the same—either too inebriated, too jaded, or too well-trained to make a fuss over her. To Sofia, it was clear a helpless woman being dragged from the club was business as usual.

Outside Goendir, Vexis shoved Sofia into his pod, slamming the door behind her. She considered, for a second, making a run for it, but even if the door was unlocked, which she doubted, where would she go? The club clearly offered no sanctuary.

An abrupt noise beside her startled her. Vexis had thrown open the driver’s door, and the pod visibly dropped as he deposited his enormous frame into the seat beside her. He threw her purse at his feet before turning to her with a scowl.