Apprentice (Galaxy Circus, #1)

by Lexie Winston

As happy as I am for her, there’s just something about Mark that rubs me the wrong way. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it’s like he tries too hard to be my friend.

“Welcome, welcome.” The suited one with the shorter tousled hair steps toward me with his arms stretched wide. I take a little step back, not ready to go there yet, and he stops, looking a little abashed. “Yes, well, I’m John Adams, and this is William—buzz cut—and Eric—man bun.

She has shoulder-length, curly red hair, with freckles and brown eyes and a slender build that I envy. As a ‘wannabe gymnast,’ I always wanted to be slim, but unfortunately, I ended up all tits and ass. I’m happy now, but my fifteen-year-old self was devastated. Like the woman, the man has freckles and curly red hair, but his is cropped short. He’s also on the slender side, though part of that could be due to his height. The two of them look similar enough that I would put them as possible siblings, including the fact that neither of them looks thrilled to see me. In fact, I would say they both look angry for some reason.

I can’t remember the last time someone hugged me or showed me any other kind of affection apart from Susie. Mark tries, but I get this icky feeling every time he touches me.

He raises an eyebrow then growls at me under his breath, “Be nice.” I scowl at him, not sure why he would think I would be anything other than nice, responsible, and totally capable of taking over the circus. Sure, my mouth dropped open a little bit when I saw the other guys. And, okay, I might have hit someone in the ass with a lightning bolt. And if aliens believed in sexual harassment—do they believe in sexual harassment?—I might have already harassed their doctor. Plus, there is the matter of falling asleep instead of actually doing the research they asked me to do. Okay, you know what, maybe this does make a tiny bit more sense.

Damn it, I wish I could ask about it, but that would just be fucking rude. Even I know that. You can’t just ask people if they have faces, Lila. Those kinds of questions probably end with dueling at sunset or something else to make amends.

I’ve watched anime tentacle porn before, and it definitely lit some kind of fire in me. Freaked out is the exact opposite of how I feel right now; honestly, Caspian’s personality is much more of a deterrent than his egg-laying tentacle. Wonder how krakens feel about ball gags?

New rule of thumb: Boundaries belong to people whose cum isn’t currently dripping out of my body.

Whoa, this just got all soap opera-like.