Addy Barnes was having a hard time staying focused.

She stared at the trees zipping past outside the window and tried to ignore the tempting heat of Remington’s big body pressed against hers in the crowded backseat.

Addy’s roommate, Nikki, and Remington’s brother, the tall dark and handsome Indiana, were somehow squeezed into the backseat of the old station wagon as well. In the front seat, Addy’s other roommate and best friend, Honey, drove while Remington’s second brother, Kitt, sat beside her.

Kitt was half-turned to face Honey as she drove, as if he couldn’t take his eyes off her. To be fair, Addy was pretty sure if Honey didn’t need to keep her eyes on the road, she would have been doing the same. The two had been practically insufferable since they became a couple.

The car bumped a bit over the gravel road that led from Maxwell’s employee parking lot out to the main road.

Remington put a hand on Addy’s knee, ostensibly to prevent her from flying into the front seat, though of course she had a seat belt on.

His warm touch sent a jolt of desire through her, so strong it made her gasp.

How was this possible?

The one guy who was off limits to her was the only one who had ever been able to affect her so deeply.

“You okay back there?” Honey sounded positively jovial from her position in the front seat. And well she should. She was practically engaged to a hunk that she’d met all of three days ago.

The whole thing was a cautionary tale for Addy.

Don’t mess with aliens.

Not if you want to go to med school.

Problem was, her body wasn’t listening to that excellent advice, and neither was her imagination.

“Fine, Honey,” Addy replied distractedly.

Her mind was already in fantasy land. She leaned her head against the cool glass of the window, and let her eyes slip closed.

* * *

Addy was naked and covered in jewels. The purple sand of an alien planet slid between her toes as she waited for Remington.

He was naked as well, though still resplendent in nothing more than the thick collar that encircled his muscular neck as he studied her with those piercing blue eyes. His chest was covered in small tattoos and his blond hair had grown long enough to brush his broad shoulders.

Addy reached her arms out to him.

Remington moved toward her, murmuring something in another language. The purple sand swirled around her ankles in a breeze that carried with it the scent of an ancient sea.

She felt a buzz at her throat and reached up to find a leather collar, similar to his. It was clear the collars were communicators of some kind, because as it buzzed, his thoughts were right in her head.

Need you, want you, beautiful mate…

He stopped when he was nearly touching her, then reached out to gently cup her cheek in his hand.

She turned to kiss his palm, greedily inhaling the masculine scent of him.

He gasped, then pulled her close, kissing her passionately.

Addy wrapped her legs around his waist, whimpering with hunger for the pulsing throb of his cock against her heat.

Instead, he laid her down on a floating cushion.

Beautiful woman.

He stroked her hair, and lovingly removed a diamond-encrusted pendant from around her neck.

His light touch left trails of pleasure along her collarbone and chest.

Addy sighed with pleasure, her nipples stiffening, begging for his touch.

But Remington took her hand and slid an emerald ring from her finger, then clicked open a silver cuff bracelet with a loud pop and slid it off her wrist.

He turned his attentions lower, plucking a diamond from her navel.

Addy held her breath as Remington’s rough fingers slid along her hips releasing a strand of pearls.

He knelt between her legs to retrieve two golden cuffs from around her ankles.

She looked up into the velvet sky. The stars seemed so close. Three moons moved in a slow waltz just above her.

At her feet, Remington made a small sound of satisfaction in the back of his throat.

She was free of the jewels. Free of everything that separated her from him.

He slid his big hands up her calves and thighs, parting her legs, allowing his thumbs to brush the hollows between her thighs and her sex.

Addy could feel herself growing slick with need.

Oh, my mate…

He leaned in and lapped at her without penetrating.

Addy whined and felt her hips lifting of their own accord.

Remington growled and parted her with his thumbs, feasting on her tender flesh, plunging his tongue inside to taste the creamy evidence of her desire.

She cried out, sliding her hands through his hair.

Remington turned his attentions higher, flicking at her clit lightly with his tongue as his index finger pressed inside her.

Addy felt the pleasure coiling up inside her, the tension pulling at her like a weight. She just needed a little more contact with his teasing tongue to push her over the edge.

Addy.

* * *

“Addy,” Honey said loudly. “Earth to Addy.”

Everyone was laughing.

Oh god, she had been completely lost in her thoughts. What was wrong with her?

“Yeah?” She pretended to be annoyed.

Hell, she was annoyed. That fantasy had just been getting to the good part.

“We only wanted to know if you were okay with going to the diner,” Nikki said kindly.

“Sure, wasn’t that the plan?”

“There’s an Italian place that just opened on Spruce,” Honey said. “But I think we all prefer the diner. Right, Kitt?”

“Yes, my love,” Kitt said from his place in the passenger seat. The way he looked at Honey, like he wanted to devour her, was enough to make Addy want to tell them to get a room.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the back seat, Indiana had an arm around Nikki. Nikki looked a little uncomfortable, but she wasn’t exactly asking him to remove it.

Indiana noticed Addy looking and winked at her.

She smiled back. Indy was a funny guy. He seemed really comfortable in his new human skin, a born mischief maker.

Remington, on the other hand, sat stiffly beside her. He was staring between Kitt and Honey, out onto the road ahead of them. God only knew what he was thinking about.

Of the three men, Remington seemed the most alien. Maybe that was what made Addy so hot for him - the contrast between his very human, very masculine biology and that otherworldly look in his eyes.

Kitt, Indiana and Remington were all aliens from a planet called Aerie. They had been migrated into human bodies so that they could learn more about Earth.

But once they arrived they’d been kept in a lab instead.

Honey’s friend Posey had busted them out and sent them to Honey at Maxwell’s Family Resort in the Catskills where she hoped they would be hidden in plain sight, masquerading as exchange students from Andorra.

And of course Posey also hoped they would find human mates. The leaders on Aerie planned to determine whether the human race was worthwhile based on their men’s experience. If they clicked into their new human bodies - something that seemed to happen only when they made a true mate’s connection with a human female - they would become permanently human.

And if it happened to enough of them, Earth would be considered salvageable in Aerie’s eyes.

The only problem was that Addy’s friends seemed to be falling for the big aliens themselves instead of acting as interstellar matchmakers.

That was all fine and well for the other two, but as far as Addy was concerned, she had no business looking for love for herself.

Summers at Maxwell’s were her only break from the grueling pre-med program at Tarker’s Hollow College. All year long Addy studied and worked, pulling regular all-nighters in the campus library.

But in the summertime, she came to Maxwell’s and swam, partied, hooked up with a cute lifeguard or two, and got all her lighthearted twenty-something-year-old living out of the way. Her mom had forbidden her from taking summer classes of any kind. So she thought of summers as a hibernation of sorts - a way to recharge her batteries for the next grueling semester.

Here at Maxwell’s, Addy was known to be really laid back and fun. But when the leaves changed their colors, she went back to her regular life of work and study.

Good enough wasn’t an option for Addy Barnes. If she wanted to get ahead, there was no time to actually fall in love. And certainly no time for babies, which were apparently part of the deal. That would all come later, in her thirties.

She hoped.