As she leaned over him, he raised his head and sniffed her hair. The sound he made, low in his throat, transcended the language barrier. He liked the way she smelled. And she liked the way he felt.
Intergalactic race relations were off to a good start.
Chapter Five
Alli braced herself on the sink, taking the weight off of her aching back for a moment. Absolutely no more sleeping on the floor, she thought. It wasn't fair that her guest could heal a bullet wound overnight and she would be sore for days because she drifted off in a fetal position on the rag rug next to the bed.
She sighed and looked at the blue gem he'd given her. It lay on the white counter top, gleaming in the late morning sunlight. She couldn't for the life of her, figure out why he wanted her to eat it, but his gestures had been unmistakable. He wanted her to put it in her mouth. Maybe that was how his race controlled their slaves. Perhaps it was a tranquilizer that would make her pliable so he could do what he wanted with her.
Get a grip, she reminded herself. Just because you're in an episode of the Twilight Zone doesn't mean it's okay to become completely irrational.
She picked up the gem and examined it again. It was about the size of an aspirin and when she squeezed it between her fingers she found it had a slight give to it. It wasn't a stone at all.
Before her self-preservation voice noticed what was happening, Alli popped the jewel into her mouth. It had no flavor, which was good. She rolled it around for a moment on her tongue, then took a glass down from the cupboard above the sink and filled it with water.
Here's to cheap labor, she thought as she threw back a gulp and swallowed. If her guest had terrible things in store for her, it might just be better all around if she was compliant, right? And besides, this was all a dream anyway, so why not play along?
Nothing happened.
Alli washed the dishes and waited. She straightened up in the living room and waited. She swept the back porch and waited.
Nothing.
Maybe he'd been trying to pay her to go away and let him rest.
* * * *
At half past three she peered around the bedroom door and found him stretching his right arm experimentally. She could see by the careful way he moved that it still hurt, but at least the bleeding had stopped completely.
When he saw her, she gave him a tentative smile and let herself into the room.
"Give it time," she said softly. "Don't rush it."
He swung his head in her direction and gave her a look that froze her to the spot.
"Thank the stars you've stopped yelling at me, woman."
"Huh?" Alli nearly doubled over in shock. He spoke perfect English? What was all that gesturing about then?
"You've been yelling at me as though I were deaf. Don't you see these ears?"
"You understand me?" Her voice was a croak now.
"Of course I do. And now that you've wisely swallowed the translator I gave you, you can understand me, too. You don't have to yell anymore."
Alli hadn't realized, but now that he mentioned it, she had been using her 'talking to a foreigner' voice. It was a natural instinct to speak slow and loud when trying to converse with someone who didn't speak your language.
Alli felt lightheaded. For some reason the sound of his deep, cultured voice wrapped around words she could understand slammed home the notion that it was all real. She wasn't dreaming.
She teetered a little bit and put her hand against the doorjamb to steady herself.
"That was a translator?" She gaped.
"Of course. I thought I made that clear." As he spoke, one of his ears swiveled sideways and the perplexed expression on his face would have made her laugh if she hadn't felt so foolish.
"A translator in pill form ... amazing."
"It uses nanotechnology. Small microbes travel to your brain and restructure a particular branch of neurons--"
"Stop." Alli held up a hand. "Spare me the details. It works. I'd rather not think about microbes taking over my brain, thanks."
She advanced further into the room and gave him a long, hard look. Now that they could understand each other she wondered what to say. What was the first thing you asked an alien?
"What are you doing here?" That was a good place to start.
"Hunting."
Alli's throat closed. Of course. A creature like this would probably find great sport in chasing puny human beings around.
"Hunting ... us?"
"No." He growled the word as if the notion insulted him. "Hunting the same animals your kind hunts."
"Why?"
His brow ridge lifted and Alli guessed he thought the answer should be obvious. "For sport?"
"We study what we hunt. We don't kill for the sake of killing, if that's what you want to know."
"Why in the middle of the night?" Another dumb question. Duh, Alli.
"Normally we have no problem avoiding detection."
"You weren't counting on Jeb Staller."
"Jebstaller?"
"The dope who shot you." Alli remembered Mr. Frye. He'd mentioned Jeb had seen something in the woods. Jeb was no sterling citizen and with any luck at all, no one would believe him either if he said he saw aliens in the woods at night.
Alli crossed the room, calmer now that she could communicate with her patient. She bent over him to get a closer look at his wound. The hole was perhaps an inch wide now and the edges were very clearly beginning to knit together over the raw flesh underneath.
"This is amazing," she said. "I might have something for the pain, but I don't know if it's safe for you to take our medicines."
"The pain is bearable now," he replied. "I don't need treatment." His voice was low and there was a sultry quality to it that once again made Alli self-conscious.
"Good." She sat on the bed, careful to keep her thigh just far enough away from his that she couldn't feel the heat of him. Even from there though, his warm, male scent reached her and she found herself leaning a little closer than she'd planned to. His eyes drifted down from her face to her breasts and then a little lower.
"Do you have a name?" she asked to distract herself from his blatant perusal.
"I do, but you can't pronounce it."
"Try me."
The sound that came though his lips was definitely untranslatable. It might have been something like K'vshtin, but with a few extra syllables and no definite vowels. Alli nodded.
"How about if I call you ... Adam?" That was a nice, strong, sexy name. Her favorite, in fact.
"I told you you couldn't pronounce it." The sound he made resembled a teasing chuckle and his gaze returned to her face.
"I can," she insisted. "I just don't think it suits you. You look more like an 'Adam' to me. Now, next question. Where are you from?"
"Sha-Shiri."
At least that she could pronounce. "Were you here alone?"
"No. There were three in my hunting party."
"So there are two more of you still out in the woods somewhere?" Alli fought panic. If Jeb Staller managed to get any one of his demented friends to believe him, the mountain would be crawling with heavily armed psychos looking to bag themselves an alien.
"No. I'm alone now."
Alli released her breath. "The others left? Are you sure?"
"Yes. It's our way. They believe I'm dead."
"But you can call them and let them know you're not--right? And they'll come back to pick you up?" Which was worse? One stranded alien, or two that might come back looking for their companion?
"No. Because of this, this area of your world will be off limits for decades. They won't chance being captured alive by your paranoid government."
"Oh." Alli sat a little straighter and contemplated him. "So you're stranded here?" What had she gotten herself into?
"Yes. Will you attempt to turn me over to your government?" Once again she saw the barest hint of fear in those luminous eyes. Even someone as capable and dangerous as he looked would be right to
fear capture by the authorities. They'd take him apart piece by piece to study him.
"No! Of course not." She waved the notion away. How could she get someone to believe her anyway? "You're not planning to enslave earth, are you? Because if that's the case, I suppose it would be my patriotic duty to--"
"Enslave earth?"
"And use humans as cheap labor in your power plants."
Why the hell had she listened to Mr. Frye?
"Power plants?"
"I'll take that as a no. In that case, no, I won't turn you in, but hiding you won't be easy."
"You won't have to hide me forever," he said. "Just until I regain my strength completely. Then I will leave if you prefer."
The thought left Alli somewhat bereft. Even with that nagging voice in her head begging her to come to her senses and run for her life, it bothered her to think of him wandering off and never coming back. Of course the thought of running an alien bed and breakfast for the rest of her life didn't exactly thrill her.
"Let's worry about that later, right now we've got to iron out some better sleeping arrangements."
Adam's lips formed a strange expression that might have been a smile. He eyed the wide bed and then his gaze fell somewhere below Alli's hips.
"There's plenty of room here for both of us," he said. "You needn't sleep on the floor."
"No, I needn't." She made a huffing noise at him and blew a stray fringe of hair out of her eyes. "The couch should be ... long ... enough for you."
He rolled to his feet in a fluid motion and moved toward her and despite her determination to get over her fear, she backed up, just a single step.
"Show me this ... couch."
"It's ... downstairs. Crap. It's probably not a good idea for you to be down there. You're safer up here ... and no, we're not sharing the bed."
Was that disappointment she saw in his eyes? "I suppose I will stay here, then."
She sighed and placed her hands on her hips. "For now," she conceded. "Until I come up with something else. I guess I'm on the couch."
Adam turned back to the bed and gathered up the crocheted afghan. He handed it to her unceremoniously.
"You may have this. I find it ... constricting."
"Gee. Thanks."
Chapter Six
Ben Walters' black and white Crown Vic pulled up the dusty drive at noon the next day. Alli was on her stomach in the cool grass on the shady side of the house with one arm under the porch. Adam was asleep again and she had decided to get some chores done to keep her mind off how she was going to replan her life to include hiding an alien in her house.
The flashlight she held barely illuminated the mounds of rubble beyond the broken latticework at the side of the porch. Alli saw spiders, broken cinder blocks and ancient debris that had probably been there since the house was built, but there was no sign of the skunk she was pretty sure had been setting up housekeeping in the dark recess beneath the front of the house.
She pulled herself up to her knees and wiped dirt onto her cutoffs as the police chief's booted feet hit the gravel. Her heart skipped a beat as he sauntered up behind her and she only prayed Adam wouldn't venture down into the living room again before she managed to send Ben away.
"Ben!" Her greeting sounded unusually friendly. Ben was a nice guy for the most part, but she'd done her best to keep him at a professional distance since she'd come to town. No entanglements. No one was allowed close enough to hurt her the way she'd been hurt before.
"Alli." Ben tipped his hat and smiled. He had even, white teeth, the rugged complexion of a cowboy and nice eyes, which were usually hidden behind the mirrored sunglasses that were an integral part of his uniform. She smiled back and noted that his squad car, parked at the very edge of her drive, was still running. He wasn't planning on staying long, thank goodness.
"What brings you up here?" she asked as she leaned casually against the porch rail.
"I'm just checking around. Jeb Staller had a bit of a run in Friday night in the woods and I've been asking around if anyone saw or heard anything unusual."
The hair on the back of Alli's neck stood up and every muscle in her body went tight.
"A run in?"
"He says he saw something in the woods. Thinks it was an alien." Ben snorted a derisive laugh and Alli settled a little.
"Sounds to me like Jeb probably had something a little stronger than a six pack before he went tromping through the woods in the dark."
"Granted it was a full moon, and I wouldn't normally take anything Jeb says to heart, but some people up Calder Road said they saw lights in the woods and heard some strange noises. I know you're out here late at night sometimes." He paused on that to emphasize his disapproval of her nocturnal activities.
"No little green men here," she said tightly. Her voice sounded hollow. At least that wasn't a lie.
Ben laughed. "How about big green men? Jeb said the thing he saw was about eight feet tall."
"No kidding." Alli would have laughed. Figures Jeb would exaggerate. "I heard a shot around midnight, but that's all." She prayed he couldn't detect the quiver in her voice. She didn't like lying, especially to the police, but she'd gotten good at it years ago, when she had to make up excuses to explain the bruises and black eyes. No officer, my husband never hit me. It had gotten so easy over time.
"Maybe you should stay in town for a couple of days," Ben suggested. He tilted his head back to scan the rolling hills and the back garden. "Just in case there's something going on up here."
"I'll be fine, Ben. I appreciate your concern."
"Well, if you do see or hear anything unusual, give me a call, all right?"
"Sure. No problem."
Ben turned with a nod and Alli sank against the rail. She froze when he turned back toward her.
"Are you all right? You look a little pale."
"I'm fine. Up late, slept bad."
He eyed her with a faint suspicion. "Anything--you can call me."
She knew he meant a little more by that, but she ignored the innuendo. "I'm fine."
This time he made it all the way to his car. Alli waited until the squad car roared away before she took another deep breath. Damn.
With Ben snooping around it would be even harder to keep Adam under wraps.
* * * *
Alli let out a low moan as a soothing spray of hot water sluiced over her skin. She placed her hands on the cool tile of the shower and let the strong jets of water soften the kinks in her neck. No more sleeping on the floor had seemed like good solid advice, but she hadn't counted on the sofa being so uncomfortable.
Maybe it was the tension of worrying about keeping Adam hidden until he was well enough to leave. Or maybe it was the constant awareness of him, his eyes on her whenever she moved, his fascination with her hair and the scent of her skin. She was so charged she could barely close her eyes and when she did, she dreamed of him and woke with her body aching for release.
She ran her hands through her hair to wet it thoroughly and nudged the temperature of the water just a little hotter until her muscles began to relax. Maybe if she stayed under the soothing spray long enough she could wash away the nerves and calm the jumble of conflicting emotions that roiled in her. Even if it was just for a few minutes, she had to stop thinking about what would happen if he left--and what would happen if he stayed.
She remained under the spray until the water started to cool and just as she reached to shut it off, a large, velvety black hand pulled back the shower curtain.
"Alliana?"
Alli almost jumped through the ceiling. She hadn't locked the bathroom door, but the last thing she expected was Adam to come looking for her. He'd been asleep when she'd crawled off the couch and made her way silently to the shower.
"What's wrong?" she asked ignoring the instinct to grab a towel. The appreciative glint in his eyes as he scanned her body made her suddenly unabashed. She wanted him to look.
"I was becoming concerned. You've been in her
e an unusually long time."
"I'm fine." She practically choked on the words. She was anything but. The water spilled over her flesh in rivulets and dropped off her suddenly taut nipples. Her skin prickled and she realized the moist feeling between her legs had nothing to do with the shower.
Adam's gaze raked down her body again and all logical thought fled like water down the drain.
"Do you want to join me?" she asked. All that water and her throat was bone dry. When he reached down and removed his belt and loincloth Alli's knees went weak. He pushed the curtain aside and stepped into the tub with her. His skin brushed hers as she moved back to make room for him.
Despite the cooling temperature of the water, Alli felt as if she'd been set on fire. The loincloth had hidden the largest set of male equipment she'd ever seen. His member was incredibly thick, slightly curved and completely erect.
She colored when she realized she was staring but he seemed completely unselfconscious. Why would he be? she thought as she stepped back again to allow him access to the stream of water. He's got nothing to be ashamed of.
When he reached one hand above her head to test the water, it brought his massive body into intimate contact with hers. Alli stood her ground, reveling in the sensation as the silky tip of his erection brushed against her thigh.
His feral groan was unmistakable.
"Let me," she whispered as she grabbed the soap. She lathered up and started at the thick muscles of his neck, kneading the white foam into his skin then allowing the water to sluice it away.
Slowly she worked her way down his chest, careful to avoid the still slightly raw bullet hole. Though it was mostly closed, she didn't want to cause him pain by putting pressure on the newly formed skin.
As she worked, one of his hands found her hip and his long fingers splayed across her skin. She drew in a steadying breath and moved one step closer. His hand dropped lower, cupping her butt and the immediate response in her body shocked her.
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