Alien Diplomacy

handled.”
    “Gotcha.” We hung up. Eugene and Nathalie looked at me. I smiled brightly.
    “Well?” Eugene asked. “Do you think we’re actually in danger?”
    I took a deep breath. “I think—”
    But I didn’t have to share any thoughts. Five A-Cs arrived out of nowhere, looking extremely official. “Please come with us,” one said, taking my arm. The others flanked Eugene and Nathalie.
    “Where are we going?” Eugene asked.
    “My husband is a member of the House of Representatives,” Nathalie added.
    “I’m lost,” I tossed out, in part to not give away that these were my guys and in part because it was true.
    The agents led those two off rapidly. Not at hyperspeed, but still, fast enough. The agent with me waited until they were out of sight, then walked me to a set of doors that clearly led into the ballroom. “Ambassador Martini would like you to rejoin him, ma’am.”
    “Will do, and thanks for the assist.”
    The agent smiled, nodded, and walked off. I heaved a sigh of relief and looked around. No one I knew was nearby, including Jeff. Oh, well.
    I walked into the room. I was a few feet from the dance floor when someone’s arm went around my waist. I looked up, expecting to see Jeff, Reader, White, or someone else from our group. But it wasn’t them. I was in the embrace of Guy Gadoire.
    “Ah, Madame Ambassador, how wonderful you look tonight,” he said grandly, Pepé Le Pew voice on full. He twirled me around and put us onto the dance floor. Train’s “If It’s Love” was playing. Gadoire smiled widely. “Could it be love, Madame? I was so taken with you when we first met. Can I hope you might have felt a few flutters when meeting me?”
    “Excuse me?” I managed not to gape, but it took effort. I’d felt flutters, all right. Flutters of nausea. They were threatening to come back at any moment.
    “Vance has told me how feisty you are. A true original.”
    “Thanks, I think. Um, where is Vance?”
    Gadoire winked at me. “Oh, waiting hopefully.”
    “Hopefully for what?” I had a weird feeling about this. “Um, maybe I’m getting your signals wrong, but aren’t you and Vance, ah, married?”
    “Oh, we are, we are. And very much in love.” He winked again. “Love you might share in, yes?”
    “ Excuse me?” I wanted to ask him if he’d actually looked at my husband when he’d come by our Embassy, and if he had, how he thought he had a shot of measuring up. Then again, Nathalie was doing the deed with Eugene, so maybe bizarre pairings were the in thing in D.C.
    “Vance heard through the grapevine that you take the French view of experimentation outside of the marital vows.” Apparently Marcia and Nathalie had shared their theory about me and White. Lucky me.
    Apparently they hadn’t shared that White was, like every other A-C, amazingly hot to look at. Then again, perhaps Gadoire was going for the whole “try something you’ve never had” idea and was hoping I hadn’t ever done dog meat. Which I hadn’t, and I wanted to keep that record intact.
    “Um…”
    “And, since your little country’s views are so lenient…” His voice trailed off leadingly.
    “Um…”
    “We were hoping you would join us.”
    “Us? You mean you and Vance?” He nodded encouragingly. I stared at him. “You’re suggesting a threesome, the two of you and me?”
    “We’d prefer it, yes. If Madame is shy, however, we would be happy to take it slowly, have you just with each of us alone, until such time as you felt comfortable to join us fully on our bed of love.”
    Caroline was right. Being married to an alien was totally normal compared to the people I was meeting in this town. Admittedly, if Reader and Gower had made this suggestion, Jeff would have real cause to be worried. But Vance and Gadoire were about as far away from Reader and Gower as a girl could get.
    “Have I scandalized you?” Gadoire asked, sounding a little concerned and a whole lot like he thought he was earning the Casanova for the New Millennium title. I managed to shake my head. I didn’t trust myself to speak.
    “Ah, then, let us retire and speak with Vance.” He led me off the dance floor, keeping his arm firmly around my waist. I considered bolting, but I was still too shocked to go for it. Besides, maybe this was some sort of bizarre ruse to get me to let my guard down or something.
    But no. There was Vance, lounging against one of the pillars, looking expectant. He grinned at me. “So glad