“Intimacy! Can you believe it? He said I craved intimacy. Intimacy from him, of all absurd things. As if, right?”

Jay’s eyes were the size of saucers. “Could we back up to the part where Vair said several powerful Krinar Council members were upset about your article? Did he assign a number to several? Or did he just say several?”

“Just several.” I frowned at the empty wine glass in my hand from my seat on the couch as Jay nervously refilled his own at the kitchen island. “Did you hear what I said about the intimacy part?”

Jay nodded absently and took a liberal sip of red wine.

After Vair had dropped me off, I’d stayed in my own apartment only long enough to pack an overnight bag and to obsess over the many places where Ks could’ve hidden cameras. Then I’d hightailed it over to Jay’s Soho micro-loft. The unit his parents had bought for him was in a swanky building with twenty-four-hour doormen. And while logically, I knew no one was safe from a K, rich people places always felt safer somehow.

“I have a friend from college who wound up at the CIA… I think,” Jay mused aloud, pacing the small space of his living room with a full wine glass in his unsteady hand. “Maybe he can help us?”

“Um”—I waved my empty glass in the air—“you mind?”

“You can’t go back to his club tomorrow night.”

“Duh!”

“He could be planning anything.”

“Agreed.”

“You’d be walking into a trap.”

“No shit.”

“He could do anything to you in that club and no one would stop him.”

“Jay, my insufficient buzz is already wearing off. This conversation isn’t helping.” I tilted my glass in indication once more.

“We’ve got to get you out of town tonight, baby girl.” He grabbed the wine bottle from the kitchen island and came toward me. “Tomorrow morning at the latest.”

“It’s not that simple,” I said as he refilled my crystal stemware. “I can’t risk that video footage being released.”

“But it doesn’t add up.” Jay shook his head. “Why wouldn’t he just let you retract what you said or issue a public apology? How does you going to his club appease angry Council members more than a retraction would?”

I managed a shrug as I tipped my wine back.

“It doesn’t,” Jay concluded, his brow furrowed in concentration as he sank down onto the coffee table in front of me. “You know what I think? I think he knew we were reporters the moment we arrived at his club.”

“I’ve thought that, too. He did personally let us in and escort us inside. How many club owners do that?”

“Exactly. And then he was all over you the whole time. I mean the guy never left your side for even a minute. If I hadn’t been so distracted by Shira—fuck, do you suppose he meant for Shira to distract me?”

It had never occurred to me, but Jay was right. He and I had been more or less separated immediately upon entering Vair’s club. The alien Barbie had captured Jay’s attention and swept him away from my side within moments of Vair introducing her to us.

A strange, disconcerting realization seemed to cross Jay’s features as he slowly eyed me up and down. It looked out of place on his characteristically jovial, pretty-boy face.

“What?” I glanced down to check that I hadn’t spilled red wine on myself or on his cream-colored couch. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

He chewed his lip, his frown deepening.

“You’re freaking me out, Jay.”

“I’m remembering an exchange between Shira and Kyrel,” he answered slowly, as if he was still processing the memory. “You know, the male K she and I hooked up with?”

I smiled as a welcome giggle bubbled up in my chest, alleviating some of the tension in the air. “Oh, I remember. You’ve over-shared quite a few memorable stories about him as well as Shira.”

Jay didn’t laugh. Or even crack a smile as he scanned me up and down again, as if he were seeing a problem. “Fuck. You really are hot, Amy. You know that, right?” He said this like it was bad news.

“Um… yeah? I’m okay-looking, sure. Thanks. So? What did Shira and Kyrel say?”

“When I was dancing between Kyrel and Shira, and I first realized you’d left the dance floor with Vair and were nowhere to be seen, I panicked. I tried to break away, saying I had to find you. Shira stopped me, telling me not to worry, that Vair would take great care of you. Then Kyrel laughed and said, ‘Yes, for all eternity, in fact.’ I didn’t think much of it at the time, assuming it was just—I don’t know, the alien expression equivalent of Kubrick’s ‘me love you long time’ joke or something.”

I released a breath as my stomach settled in relief. “That’s what you’re freaking me out over?”

“No, it was the part that came after that. Shira laughed along with him, and then she said something about how Ks could be exceptionally possessive. She joked that I was lucky I hadn’t been holding your hand in the hallway outside the club, or else I might be dead or minus a hand at the very least.”

“What?” My sense of relief was short-lived. “She actually said that? And you took it as a joke—coming from a female alien who literally could tear your hand off?” My eyes flew to the ceiling in disbelief. “And you still hooked up with her.”

“Look, give me a break. I’m pretty sure her hand was already on my junk at that point. Anyway, who am I to judge an extraterrestrial’s quirky sense of humor? Besides, she was a fucking goddess. Hottest woman I’ve ever seen up close.”

“Krinar,” I corrected him. “Hottest Krinar.”

“Whatever. She was all woman, believe me. And she was warning me about Vair’s possessive tendencies, not her own. Because Kyrel cautioned me a moment later that I should be careful never to lay a hand on you if I wanted to go on living. He said”—Jay’s brow rose meaningfully, as if this were the key part—“that he’d had to calm Vair down by pointing out that our body language quite obviously said we weren’t together when Vair first spotted us waiting in the hallway.”

Vair had questioned me directly about my relationship with Jay that night. In truth, it had felt strangely possessive at the time—given the fact we’d only just met. But clearly, he’d merely wanted to hook up with me and hadn’t wanted any obstacles in his path.

“So… Krinar males are competitive and susceptible to male ego and pride, same as human men? Got it. I’ll make that the topic of my next K article.”

Jay let out a huff. “Don’t you see? Vair saw us before he let us in. As did Kyrel, apparently. So they must’ve been viewing us on surveillance cameras as we were waiting that long-ass time in the entry hallway.”

I recalled how Jay and I had stood there, staring nervously at the big metallic gray door for what had felt like an eternity. I’d had to work up the courage to knock several times before Vair had finally answered and opened the door for us.

I didn’t get what Jay thought was so revealing in all of this, though. It was hardly unusual to screen visitors via hidden surveillance at an exclusive Manhattan club, let alone a K sex club.

He groaned at my nonplussed expression, setting the wine bottle down next to him with a heavy thud. “Amy, what if Vair staked his claim on you before we even entered his x-club? What if this blackmail thing has more to do with him wanting you than it does the Krinar Council being upset over your article or wanting to exact some sort of punishment for it?”

My stomach flipped with a level of schoolgirl excitement that was disturbing and altogether embarrassing, given the absurdity of Jay’s theory, not to mention the sheer sordidness its entire premise was built upon.

It wasn’t as if I actually wanted Vair to want me.

No, what I was feeling was simply the natural relief that anyone would draw from the notion of someone wanting them versus the scarier and yet more likely notion of someone planning to ship them off to a Costa Rican alien labor camp. Because from a purely logical standpoint, this made the terrifying prospect of having to go to Vair’s club tomorrow night seem a bit safer—albeit more nerve-racking at the same time.

I shook my head. “I really don’t think that’s the case, Jay.”

“Why not? Hell, he’s already caught on to your intimacy issues.”

My jaw dropped and I whacked him squarely in the shoulder, coming dangerously close to sloshing my wine all over us both in the process. “Take that back!”

“Annnd”—Jay laughed at my attack, wielding a triumphant forefinger—“he didn’t come in your mouth tonight. Baby girl, that alien has got it bad for you.”

“Oh, my God, shut up!” I’d known I’d regret telling Jay too many details from my limo encounter with Vair. But I’d been in a vulnerable state and had needed to vent to someone. “That is the most absurd logic ever.”

To redirect the conversation away from aborted blowjobs and my perceived intimacy issues, I asked, “Why didn’t you tell me about what Shira and Kyrel said?”

“Don’t know. Guess I just didn’t think of it after everything else that happened that night. It was already a lot to talk about. Like being bitten by a K.” He wagged his brows. “That shit was like the best drug ever. Besides, nothing ever came of it. We both made it home safely from the club, and aside from the fruit basket after your article came out, you hadn’t heard from Vair until today.”

I nodded. It was all too much to contemplate. I felt my body crashing, the adrenaline that had fueled me all evening rapidly waning. Yet my mind remained keyed up. No doubt I’d enjoy a special state of exhaustion combined with insomnia tonight.

“Look, it’s just a theory. Don’t panic, okay? We’ll figure something out.”

I closed my eyes, pulled my glasses off, and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Got any Advil? Tylenol?”

“I’ll do you one better. Hang on.” I heard Jay rise and cross in the direction of the bathroom.

I chuckled dryly to myself, betting he’d be back with some proprietary blend of pharmaceutical-grade marijuana oil.

Blindly, I set my glasses down on the coffee table in front of me. Those things had been bothering me for weeks. I likely needed a new prescription. My vision somehow seemed to be worse whenever I wore them lately, and it was causing me headaches.

What if Vair actually did want me?

Though why would he? For what? He had NYC supermodels and actresses clamoring for his attention.

Besides, it wasn’t as if our species were compatible. At least, I didn’t think we were. Not really. I pushed aside the memory of how “compatible” we’d felt sexually. It was irrelevant. A farce.

He’d bitten me. That was what had caused the aphrodisiac high I’d experienced with him.

“You look flushed.” Jay’s voice pulled me from my thoughts as he reentered the room. “I’ll get you some water.”

He returned with a glass of water and offered me a Xanax pill.

“Jay, I can’t take that.”

“It’s the best thing for my headaches.”

“Yeah, ’cause you’re passed out.”

“It’ll help with your anxiety. Amy, we’ve got less than twenty-four hours to come up with a plan. You can’t go back to Vair’s club tomorrow night.”

“But I’ve had wine.”

“So have I, and I’m taking one. It’s the lowest dose. My doctor says it’s fine with a little alcohol.”

I was about to ask whether that advice was from the same doctor who prescribed his medicinal marijuana, but instead, I gave in and downed the little white pill before I lost my nerve. It was doubtful I’d get any sleep tonight otherwise, and I needed all the mental sharpness I could muster tomorrow to devise a way out of going to Vair’s club.

“Take my bed,” Jay offered. “I’ll take the couch.”

“No way. I’ll sleep on the couch.” Lord only knew who and what had happened in Jay’s bed this week and whether his cleaning lady had washed the sheets since.

I was already feeling woozy and swaying on my feet as I brushed my teeth and washed up in Jay’s bathroom.

I’d just managed to pull my pajamas on and climb atop the couch Jay had made up for me when I succumbed to the state of blissful, dreamless darkness that only pharma-induced sleep provides.