My name is Noelle, and I'm an elf.
I was minding my own business, testing a newly installed engine on Santa's sleigh when it suffered a slight malfunction. I found myself spiraling out of control. Then a bright beam of light hits from above, and I'm taken on board a spaceship.
Jaxar is a sexy, to-die-for, green-skinned alien who thinks I'm stealing his salvage.
He's never met an elf.
Well, I've never met an alien.
With no way to get home, I need Jaxar's help. Can we work together to fix Santa's sleigh in time to save Christmas?
A short, steamy, happy-for-now romance between a quirky elf and a brooding alien.
Excerpt:
After the creaking of metal silenced, the sleigh bumped against something solid. The sensation of floating dissipated. Again, I was firmly entrenched in my seat.
The light vanished. Everything went black. I blinked several times, panic rising when I suspected the bright light had blinded me completely. I couldn’t see anything until I spotted the red light flashing from the console.
No, I wasn’t blind. I was in some dark place where I could no longer see the stars.
Unsure what to do, I remained in my seat.
Had I died? Did the sleigh crash? Was this what happened after elves died? Humans often spoke of light at the end of a tunnel. Well, I had seen a light. Not so much a tunnel, but—
Light flickered on around me, illuminating a rather spacious room.
Okay, so I wasn’t dead.
The room was expansive. Far larger than the biggest workshop at home. I’d never been in such a room. There were no windows. Only two doors, one on either end of the large space.
The light came from fixtures on the ceiling, spaced evenly apart.
Piles of metal cluttered the area on the floor. Random parts of twisted machines. Wait… Was that a rocket at the other end of the room?
I tapped my finger on the wheel and bit my lip.
“Um…”
Where in all the land of peppermint was I?
And then a man appeared in one of the doorways.
Well, I thought it was a man. He looked like a man at first glance, but as he approached, I realized how wrong my assumption was when I saw smooth green skin.
My jaw dropped. I couldn’t help it. I’d never seen a man with such skin. It glistened as he strode forward, his body moving like an animal stalking prey, smooth, fluid movements, his muscles bunching in anticipation of attack.
It was mesmerizing to watch.
Other than the tantalizingly colorful skin, he wore clothes as any other man would wear. Well, maybe not many human men. This one wore brown trousers and a leather vest revealing his large, well-cared for green abdomen and biceps.
As he closed the distance between us, I could better see his facial features. He had dark eyes, a strong nose with a strange bumpy ridge near the top, and a determined chin covered with a dusting of dark hair. His black hair was sheared short and a silver chain dangled on the lobe of his left ear.
He had the look of a green-skinned pirate. I shivered in anticipation as he approached. I had never been struck by a man’s appearance before, but this one knocked my candy-cane striped socks right off from under my booted feet.
“Who are you?” I asked as he drew closer, grateful it had taken some time for him to reach me so I could find my voice. “What is this place?”
I swept my gaze around the overly large room as my rather small in comparison sleigh sat off center.
The green-skinned alien lifted his arm to point a cylindrical metal object at me. I’d never seen a ray-gun before, but I assumed this is what one might look like.
I raised my hands at the intense expression on the alien’s face.
That’s what he was, wasn’t he?
An alien?
I tried to piece together the facts as my brain fought the evidence right before my eyes.
A bright light beaming me up.
A green-skinned man with a ray gun pointed at me.
Yeah. I’d been abducted by an alien.
Wait until the elves at the North Pole heard about this one.
“What is your purpose here?” The alien barked, keeping the ray gun leveled at my chest.
I swallowed hard as I watched the sexy alien hold a weapon at my heart.
“My purpose?” I frowned. What did he mean by that?
“What are your intentions?”
My frown only deepened, but a spark of irritation lit, chasing some fear away.
“My intentions?” I lowered my raised hands, feeling foolish for standing there like I was some criminal. I had done nothing wrong. In fact, I’d been minding my own business until he abducted me. “I intended to fly my sleigh to test the engines. Everything was going like plum pudding until you came along with that bright-ass light of yours.”
The alien’s mouth quirked, but he kept the weapon trained on me, stepping closer.
“You were flying an unknown spacecraft above Seattle. I’ve seen nothing like it. Again, I ask, what are your intentions with this planet?”
“My intentions with this planet?” I scoffed. “This is my planet. I live here. I intend to live the rest of my life here unless you end it with that ray gun of yours.” I crossed my arms over my chest as if to protect my heart should he shoot me. “What about you? You’re not from around here. What are your intentions?”
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