My heart was beating furiously in my chest as I stepped through the doorway, with Jay on my heels.

Inside, the room was large, dimly lit, and completely empty. No furniture and no people—except the man who’d opened the door for us. He stood there calmly, watching us with his dark gaze.

The door behind us slid shut.

I surreptitiously wiped my sweaty palms on the front of my dress, hoping the man didn’t notice my nervous gesture.

“Hi there,” Jay said, stepping up to stand next to me. To my surprise, my friend’s voice was steady, and there was a flirtatious smile on his face. “We heard there’s a party here. Is that true?”

The man didn’t reply for a moment, causing my anxiety to spike. Then he spoke, his deep voice filled with amusement. “You could say that.”

“Great.” Jay beamed at him. “That’s what we’re here for.”

I felt a wave of admiration for my friend. I’d always known Jay was great in social situations, but this was far from a typical party setting. For all his reluctance to be here, Jay had clearly brought his A-game.

“Both of you?” the man asked, still sounding amused.

“Yes.” I forced a bright smile to my lips. If Jay could do this, so could I. “We’re very… curious.”

“Ah.” The man laughed, a low, sensuous sound that sent a shiver down my spine. “Curious, indeed. Well, follow me.”

He turned and began walking toward the far side of the room. My heart skipped a beat. Like the Ks I’d seen on TV, the man didn’t just walk; he flowed, his every movement filled with inhuman power and grace.

There was no longer any doubt.

I’d just met my first Krinar.

Jay touched my arm, and my gaze flew up to his. On his face, I could see the same awe and excitement I was feeling. “Oh, my God,” I mouthed at him, and he nodded, his eyes wide with shock.

“Come on,” I mouthed again, jerking my chin in the direction of the K, and we both hurried after him, nearly running to keep up.

The K stopped in front of a wall at the far end of the room and waved his hand in a brief motion. To my shock, the wall dissolved, creating an oval, man-sized opening. I barely suppressed a gasp. I’d known that the Ks had more advanced technology, of course, but I’d never seen it in action.

This was definitely going into my article.

As I mentally composed the first paragraph of my story, the K stepped through the opening and disappeared inside. Not wanting to lose him, I stepped through the opening too, with Jay following.

We ended up in a darkened hallway. After walking a dozen feet, we found ourselves in front of another wall. The K waited for us to catch up, and then he created a second opening, through which I could see multi-colored lights and hear pulsing music.

“Here we are,” the K said, his English as perfect as any American’s. I had always wondered about that—how the aliens knew Earth languages so well. It was speculated that they had some kind of neural language implants, but no one knew for sure.

It might be another thing for me to investigate tonight.

“Wow, how cool,” Jay exclaimed, playing his role of a ditzy party-goer to perfection. “I love the way you do that, man.”

The K lifted his eyebrows but didn’t dignify that statement with a response. Instead, he went in, walking with that startling, animal-like grace. Jay, who seemed to have gotten over his cautious spell, followed him without hesitation. After a momentary pause, I went after them, my heart pounding with a mixture of trepidation and excitement.

We were officially inside an x-club.

The first thing I noticed was the music. Outside the opening, I’d caught just the pulsing beat, but as soon as I stepped inside, I could hear the weeping undertones of some unknown instrument mixed in with the sharper vibrations. The music wasn’t particularly loud, yet it enveloped me, made me feel cocooned within the melody.

Over the music, I could hear laughter and a hum of conversations. The spacious room was filled with people—although I wasn’t sure “people” was the right term, given that many of the individuals present were Krinar. The aliens were easy to spot: all of them were tall, dark-haired, and had the kind of stunning beauty one usually observed in supermodels. For a while, there had been rumors that the Ks weren’t biological beings at all, and I could see how those rumors had originated. Not only were the Ks incredibly strong and fast, but they were also almost too perfect to be real.

Or at least too perfect to be human.

The room itself was sparsely furnished, with circular tables standing in each corner. They appeared to be the K version of bars. I could see both humans and Ks milling around those tables, holding glasses with various drinks.

The lighting in the room was soft, several hues of warm colors blended together. It flattered the light-colored clothing worn by the Ks. The clothes themselves weren’t particularly exotic—pale, floaty dresses for women and shorts with sleeveless shirts for men—but they suited the aliens, emphasizing their golden skin tone and fit, graceful bodies.

Before I could absorb any more details, the K who’d brought us in turned to look at me. There was a mocking half-smile on his full, perfectly shaped lips.

“Curiosity satisfied?” he purred, staring at me, and my breath caught in my throat as I got a good look at him for the first time.

The Krinar standing in front of me had a dark, satyr-like beauty that was both alluring and disturbing. His black hair was glossy and straight, long enough to cover his ears and fall carelessly across his forehead. With his masculine nose and strong jaw, he could’ve posed for an army-recruitment ad—except no soldier had a mouth so wickedly sensuous or eyes that spoke of such carnal pleasures.

Beautiful, thickly lashed black-brown eyes that were even now traveling over my curves with unabashed male interest.

For the first time in my adult life, I blushed. I couldn’t help it. It felt like the K was stripping me with his gaze, leaving me standing there naked and vulnerable. My body felt uncomfortably warm, and my breathing quickened, my pulse speeding up.

The K wasn’t just looking at me; he was devouring me with his eyes—and my body was reacting to his stare as if to a physical touch. My nipples hardened, and liquid heat began to gather between my thighs. The air was so thick with sexual tension I could practically taste it. As the K’s eyes came up to rest on my face, all I could do was stare at him, hopelessly caught by that dark, all-consuming gaze.

“And who is this, Vair?” A woman’s voice broke the spell, intruding into the sensual bubble that seemed to have formed between me and the K.

Grateful for the interruption, I drew in a shuddering breath and tore my eyes away from the Krinar, turning toward the newcomer.

It was another K. The woman was smiling seductively, her attention focused on Jay—who was gaping at her with the same helpless fascination I had just experienced.

Crap. This was not good. This was not good at all. Jay wasn’t exactly known for his self-control around temptation—and the female Krinar standing next to him was nothing if not tempting.

Dressed in a short white dress, she was nearly six feet tall, with bronzed, toned legs that seemed to stretch into infinity. Her body was perfectly proportioned, slim and feminine at the same time, with a waist that was almost too small for her frame. “Alien Barbie” was the thought that popped into my head.

A very sexy alien Barbie.

“These are a couple of strays I found in the hallway,” the K—Vair—responded to the woman’s question. His lush lips curved in a sardonic smile as he said, “Shira, meet curious girl and curious boy. Delicious, aren’t they?”

Before I could figure out how to react to that insulting—and rather alarming—statement, Jay stepped forward and extended his hand. “I’m Jay,” he said in a husky tone. “It’s a pleasure to meet you… Shira, is it?”

The woman laughed, her voice low and throaty. “Yes, indeed, sweet thing. It’s Shira. Why don’t I show you around?” And clasping Jay’s proffered hand with her long fingers, she led my friend toward one of the bars, her body moving as sinuously as a cat’s.

Jay went with her without a word of protest, apparently too mesmerized to remember his earlier concerns—or the fact that he was here to help me with the story, not to be some K Barbie’s sex toy for the night.

“Don’t worry,” Vair said, as though reading my mind. His voice was filled with dark amusement. “Shira will take care of him.”

Reluctantly, I turned toward him, my heartbeat accelerating as our eyes met once again. “I’m not worried,” I managed to respond. “We’re here to have fun, after all.”

“Of course you are, darling.” Vair’s teeth flashed white. “And fun you shall have. Would you like something to drink, or would you prefer to dance?”

I blinked at him. “Dance?” The music had a good tempo, but it wasn’t exactly dance-floor loud. And no one around us was dancing.

Not to mention, I wasn’t going within touching distance of Vair if I could help it. The club may have been a place to hook up with Ks, but that wasn’t what I was here for.

“Yes, dance.” His smile widened at my incredulous look. “Like this.” He made a small gesture with his hand, and all of a sudden, the room darkened, the soft light taking on a reddish-purple hue. The music picked up the pace and grew in volume, the throbbing beat permeating my body. All around us, I could feel the energy of the room changing as conversations trailed off and groups coalesced into pairs, beginning to sway in unmistakably dance-like movements.

Startled, I stepped back. “What? How—”

“I own this place,” Vair murmured, moving closer to me. “Did I neglect to mention that?”

I swallowed. “Um, yeah. I think you did.” Holy fuck. This was the club owner—and he seemed to want me for some reason. This was either a big problem or a big opportunity.

“How long have you owned it?” I asked, my inner reporter deciding that it was the latter. This was an excellent chance to get some information—even if it meant I’d have to put up with an alien’s sexual advances.

Which weren’t nearly as unwelcome as I would’ve liked.

“A while.” Vair stepped even closer, stopping less than a foot away from me.

I sucked in my breath, tilting my head back to gaze up at him. It was like looking up at a mountain. I’d known he was tall, of course, but I hadn’t realized how freaking large he was. The K was well over six feet in height, with muscles that would’ve done a bodybuilder proud. He towered over my five-foot-five frame, making me feel as tiny as a child. Even as a human man, he would’ve been incredibly strong, and the Krinar were known to be much, much stronger than humans.

My belly clenched with fear and arousal as I reflected on the fact that he could do anything he wanted to me. Anything at all. Like Jay had said, the Ks were, for all intents and purposes, above the law.

“How long is a while?” I persisted, doing my best to ignore my skyrocketing pulse. “Ever since you guys arrived?”

He laughed. “No. Only since things settled down.”

Ah. We were finally getting somewhere. I guessed that “things settling down” was a euphemism for the end of the Great Panic—the dark months that had followed the Ks’ arrival on Earth. By that timeline, the club had been around less than eighteen months.

Mentally jotting down that tidbit, I gave Vair an encouraging smile. “How amazing. And what prompted you to open one in New York? I thought that you don’t like our cities—”

“Why wouldn’t I like your cities?” He quirked his eyebrows.

“Not you personally. I’m talking about your people. The Krinar.”

He looked amused. “I can’t speak for the Krinar as a whole, darling, just like you can’t speak for the entire population of Earth. I’m just one individual, and I happen to like this city of yours. I find it very… stimulating.” His eyes slid down my body again, leaving no doubt about the kind of stimulation he had in mind.

A treacherous warmth kindled in my cheeks as my body reacted to that look again. “Right, of course,” I murmured, racking my brain for a way to turn the conversation to a less sexually charged topic. “So why—”

“Why don’t we dance?” Vair interrupted, and I realized that nearly everyone around us was swaying and gyrating to the music—including Jay and his Barbie on the other side of the room.

And before I could figure out how to refuse, Vair closed the remaining distance between us, pulling me into his embrace.