by Linda Mooney
“No. Just him and me.”
“Who’s older?”
“He is. By almost two years.”
“What about your parents? Where are they?”
“They were killed before we escaped.”
She lowered her face as she absorbed what he told her. He continued to stare at her face, hoping for some sign she was accepting what he said. That she wouldn’t ultimately reject him as he knew she would. As she eventually would.
“Why are you here?”
This would be the hard part. “We escaped. We killed our captors and fled in a lifeboat. All of us did.”
“All?”
“There were over two hundred of us on that ship.”
“But you said there were thirty-one of you,” she reminded him.
He nodded. “On the Arran ship. We revolted. We all managed to escape … or so I was led to believe. We dodged the Arra for more than two years before arriving in your airspace. By that time our fuel was gone. Our food was gone. We had no choice but to attempt a landing and hope we could assimilate into your world.”
“What about the others? The other, uhh, hundred and seventy or so?”
He shrugged. “We don’t know what happened to the others. For all we know, we are the last survivors. The last of our race.”
“Last race of what? What did you call yourself? Roo-what?”
“Ruinos.”
Her eyes roamed up and down his body. “What I’m looking at now, that’s not the real you, is it? That … thing … that’s what you really are, isn’t it?”
“Yes. What you saw is my true self.”
She gave him a puzzled stare. “How are you able to do that?”
“You mean, change the way I look?”
“Yeah.”
“I don’t know. All of my kind have the ability. Of course, there are restrictions.”
“What kind of restrictions?”
Somehow Jeb managed a small, humorless chuckle. So far Hannah had emitted a faint, smoky scent because of her suspicious nature. It was a promising sign. “Well, for one thing, there are certain kinds of creatures we can’t imitate. Certain life forms that are impossible for us to manipulate. We were very, very lucky to land on a planet where the inhabitants closely resembled us.”
“Your real you looks nothing like us,” Hannah almost snapped.
“Compared to other species and races, yes, you do.” He gave a big sigh. “Imagine the trouble we would have if we tried to look like a jellyfish. Or a spider. There are civilizations out there in the universe that live on gaseous planets that would kill us, even if we managed to change our outer appearance to look like them. To blend in with them. Much less try to live the rest of our lives among them.” He lowered his head as he recalled some of the life forms he had met. And the difficulties he had faced.
“You guys are stuck here for the rest of your lives?”
His head jerked up. “Yeah.”
“So … what did you mean when you said you were tired of running?”
“I said that?”
“Yeah. At supper. When you told me you loved me, you said you were tired of running,” she reminded him.
He groaned softly, unaware he had done so. “We managed to escape, but the Arra are still out there. Still looking for us. And they won’t stop until they find us all.”
“How do you know that?”
“We don’t. Not for sure. But they have been decimating our species for hundreds of years. Kidnapping us off of our homeworld until there was no one left. A whole race of beings … wiped out.”
Hannah stared in shock to see his hands shaking. She looked up to see he had noticed where her attention had been centered. “Why did they hunt you?”
“One reason is because of our ability to shapeshift. Because most of the time we can blend in with the species of whatever planet we’re on.”
“Why would that make a difference?”
“It makes a lot of difference, Hannah, when you’re sold into servitude.”
She gasped. “Slaves?”
“Or … food.”
This time she turned white. Her eyes became enormous blue circles in her face. “They ate you?”
“The Arra find us quite tasty. In fact, we are considered a delicacy. We’re as highly prized for our meat as your kind prizes lobster and other rare dishes.”
“No!”
“I would not lie to you.”
He waited for her breathing to slow and the color to come back into her face. Her eyes remained locked on his hands resting on the back of the chair in front of him, but her gaze was turned inward. After several moments, she sniffed. “How did you know what to turn yourself into when you came here? I mean … how did you become you? The way you look now?”
“It took us a couple of days to come across one of you and realize you were the dominant species on this world.” He smiled at her. “It took us by surprise to see all the similarities. After that, it was only a matter of deciding what we should look like. What different attributes we should adopt, like hair color and all.” Jeb snorted softly.
“What?” she smiled. For a split second, he felt a spark of hope.
“I need to tell you that we are locked into our forms during the daylight hours. The sun keeps us from changing, whether we are in human guise or not. It’s after the sun goes down that we go back to our Ruinos forms.”
“Is that why you got restless after dark? Because you wanted to change back?”
“Somewhat,” he acknowledged, nodding. “We can’t stay locked into an unnatural form. At some point we have to revert back, whether we want to or not. But mainly we change because it feels good to have the wind and rain on our bare skin. Our real skin.”
“That’s why you wanted me to take those sleeping pills. You wanted me to stay asleep so you could be in your real form at night.”
“Yes. Exactly. I would wake up right before sunrise and turn back into my human self, the one you see right now, before the sun locked me into this.”
“What if the sun rose before you got to change?” Hannah wondered aloud.
“Then I would be locked into my Ruinos self until sundown.”
There was an odd sound in his voice that she noticed. “Has that ever happened to you? Been locked into your real self during the day?”
Jeb nodded in answer.
She lifted her knees, crossing her arms on top of them before resting her chin on her hands. In the meantime she never took her eyes off of the man sitting a dozen feet away. “Jeb … or do I call you Jebaral?”
“I prefer Jeb when I’m human.”
“Okay. Jeb. Gosh, there’s so many questions I want to ask you, but I don’t know where to begin.”
Spreading his hands outward, he conceded. “I’ll answer as many of them as I can. I won’t hold anything back. Not anymore.”
“Good. So explain to me one thing.”
He waited silently for her to continue.
“I take it you weren’t expecting to fall in love with a human, were you?”
A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “No.”
“But you did.”
“Yeah.”
“Does Simon know?”
This time he nodded. “Yeah. I called and told him about you.”
“What did he say?”
Jeb laced his fingers together. “He said that if I ever told you the truth about me, to let you know he was the handsomer one.”
Hannah giggled in response. The crystal scent of fresh rain sparkled in the room, bringing more hope to his parched soul.
“Does he approve?” she asked with a grin.
“Approve?”
“Of me. Of you falling for a human female,” she clarified.
“He is skeptical, but he promised he would offer up prayers in my favor.”
“He’s skeptical? Why?”
Jeb stared at her in disbelief. “Why? Oh, come on, Hannah. For the same reason I was hesitant to tell you about myself from the beginning. B
ecause I’m afraid you’ll reject me now that you know the truth.”
A moment of silence stretched into the longest minute of his life. Silently he watched as Hannah unfurled herself and got up from the bed. His breathing literally stopped as she approached him, stopping right in front of the chair.
“Stand up.”
Slowly he stood. The top of her head barely came to his shoulders.
“Now … change.”
“Hannah—”
“I want to see Jebaral. I … I have to see him. All of him.”
His fingers felt numb as he unzipped his jeans and let them fall to his ankles. Kicking the pants out of the way, he locked his gaze on Hannah’s face.
And changed.
Her eyes widened, as he expected, but the tiny amount of fear he saw in them did not alarm him. It was a natural fear. One of self-preservation.
And a moment later, it was gone.
He sucked in a quick breath as her hand reached out and touched his chest. Her fingers were cool on his burning skin.
“You’re warm,” she observed, commenting mostly to herself. She placed a palm over his ribs and stepped forward to place an ear against the chest cavity. “One heart?”
“Yes.”
Moving back, she stared up into his face. “Your eyes … they didn’t change.”
“No, they don’t. It’s the only outer attribute that remains the same.”
She squinted. “You don’t have any eyebrows or lashes. Not much of a nose, either. Why are your teeth pointed if you don’t eat flesh?”
“The food on my world is tough and very hard to chew.”
“Kinda like eating tree bark?”
He nodded, smiling. “Kind of.”
“And you don’t have hair.” Her eyes dropped below his waist, then she gasped. “Uhh, anywhere.” Her examination of his male reproductive anatomy was not making him uncomfortable. Just the opposite. He could feel himself begin to thicken the longer she gazed at it.
“No. No hair.”
Tearing her eyes away, she lifted one of his hands and laid hers on top of it, judging its size. “Oh, Grandma, what big claws you have.”
Grandma? The analogy eluded him, but he nodded again. “We are a very powerful people. Heavy manual labor is what we do best.” She tapped a thick claw with her fingernail. At her inquiring glance, Jeb said, “We’re often required to dig in the ground.”
“With hands like this, and as big and strong as you are, I would think they would put you in an arena or something like it somewhere and have you fight other species.”
“Like your ancient Rome?”
“Uh-huh. Like gladiators.”
“It’s been done, Hannah,” he told her gently.
She glanced up at him in surprise before releasing his hand. Slowly she walked around him, taking in every inch of his sculpted body. There wasn’t an atom of wasted flesh on his nearly six-foot-four-inch frame. “Jeb, for a green guy, you’re a hunk.”
“Hunk?”
“What’s this?” he heard her ask just as she touched the bubbling sore on his back. Searing fire exploded inside him, and Jeb jerked away from her touch with a hiss. “Oh, God, did I hurt you?” She peered around his hip and looked up at him apologetically.
He managed to remain on his feet. “I was not what you would call an obedient slave.”
“They tortured you?” She peered around from the side once more. “I thought you said you landed five years ago.”
“They used an adjac on me. Wounds from that device take years to heal.” He managed a weak smile. “You should have seen it right after it happened.”
She continued examining him; her sharp eyes not missing a thing. “You’re completely naked, right?”
“Like the day I was born.”
“Then what’s this?” She ran her hands over the tough, thicker exterior skin covering his shoulders. To her surprise it reacted to her touch. “It looks like some kind of covering, but … I dunno.” Hannah waited for his explanation.
“I guess you could call it natural padding. It’s more like body armor. Many times we have to go places where it’s very cold but we can’t wear any kind of outer garments. The extra skin insulates us.” He turned his head to look at her. “It also helps give me a little protection against thorns and rough brush when I go running. I’m sorry. I can’t explain it any further. I don’t understand it myself.”
“You’re covered in welts and all kinds of scars. Especially on your back and buttocks.” She bit her lip. “More punishment?”
Jeb nodded silently.
“Would it hurt if I touched them?”
“No. Just the adjac wound.” To answer her unspoken question, he added, “It will take at least another two to three years before it’s healed enough to touch.”
Hannah finished her examination, finally stopping in front of him. Laying her hands flat on his chest, she slid them upward until she reached his neck. Without her saying a word, he already knew what she was going to do. And what she wanted him to do. Her lemony scent filled the room with its thick aroma, lifting his hopes into the stars and beyond.
“Kiss me,” she whispered against his lips.
His whole body tensed as he leaned over to take her lips. He kept his hands away from her, afraid of touching her, scared she would flinch at the feel of his huge clawed hands holding her. But she had given him permission to have her mouth.
He kissed her, savoring her, letting her taste and explore him as he breathed her odor. Her tongue gently swiped over his teeth and plunged inward to find his tongue. Minute irritation tinged the air. A second later, Hannah pulled back.
“I’m not made of glass, Jeb. Hold me, dammit.”
“But—” He sought her face to find her eyes drilling into his.
There was no mistaking the look in them that swept him deep into their maelstrom. Her body pressed hard against his as her voice whispered low and demanding, “I told you I loved you. I don’t care what the package looks like on the outside. Inside you’re still Jeb Morr. You’re still the person who loves me as much as I do you. That sweet, strong, brave man … or alien. Can you make love in your human self? Or do you have to be your real self?”
“I must be my real self,” he murmured, fighting the heavy need quickly overtaking him as he held her tightly against him. “That’s why I’ve held back. Why I—”
“Shh. It’s okay. Now that we got the introductions out of the way, show me how a Ruinos male makes love to the woman he wants to spend the rest of his life with.”
Chapter 13
Tenderness
If she closed her eyes, she could not tell the difference between when it was Jeb who picked her up and carried her, and when it was this enormous green-skinned being from another world holding her. He still smelled like Jeb; like a warm, pine-scented fire.
Iron-hard muscles took her over to the bed and laid her down on top of the covers. When calloused hands tenderly brushed hair out of her face, she opened her eyes to find him sitting beside her, leaning over her, and scanning her face with serious intent.
“What?” she whispered.
“I cannot believe my good fortune,” he whispered back in a voice filled with emotion. She saw the glitter of tears in his eyes, and she reached up to trap one on her fingertip. Jeb watched silently as she stuck the finger in her mouth. Her eyes widened in surprise.
“It’s salty.”
“Why does that surprise you?” he chuckled softly.
“I dunno. Maybe I thought it was going to be, you know, different.”
“My blood is red, as well.”
She shifted slightly, causing her thin nightgown to pull tighter across her breasts. His eyes dropped to the sight of them. To the view he had of her pale pink nipples trying to poke through the cotton fabric.
“Do Ruinos women look like me?” she asked in a tiny voice. The thin slits in his flat nose sniffed a second before he reached over to run the back of his fingers over her undamaged chee
k. She could see desire coming into his eyes. The golden flecks glittered with his growing need.
“In what aspect?” he questioned in return. “Other than the fact they have the same skin color I do and no body hair?”
“Yeah.” She nodded slightly. His fingers continued to stroke her cheek, moving down to include her neck and gently grazing the top of her collarbone. She could see his other hand where it lay on top of the headboard, supporting him as he leaned over her. The large hand with its long, thick fingers and enormous claws that almost looked like talons.
He had killed with those hands. He had rendered and shredded his enemies and other victims until the grooves on the undersides of those wickedly sharp tips were coated with dried blood. Yet as he touched her, she felt as safe as a small child in her mother’s arms. Hannah closed her eyes to revel in the sensation.
“Do you like that?” Jeb’s deep voice rumbled.
“It’s nice.” In fact it felt so nice, she could purr.
He moved slightly, and then she felt him trying to undo the tiny buttons on the front of her nightgown. She reached up to help him when she suddenly felt cool air rush over her skin. Opening her eyes in astonishment, she found herself looking directly into his eyes; his alien face so close to hers she could lift her chin and kiss him.
“Hannah, I don’t know what to do. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“Uh-huh. You’ve only made love to one of your own kind.”
“I had a joining of bodies,” Jeb quickly corrected her. “If the joining is not meant to become permanent, we go our separate ways.”
“Why?”
“Because without it becoming permanent, our females cannot reproduce.”
Giving him a puzzled stare, Hannah asked, “You mean, if you’re not meant to be together, then you can’t have babies?”
He grinned at her, and in that instant she could see vestiges of his human appearance. “Exactly.”
Which reminds me…
“Jeb? I’m not on the pill. I mean, you didn’t pack them when you took me away.”
“It won’t matter if we were not meant to be.” He lowered his face before answering her. She could see the top of his skull, the smooth, rich green skin. Impulsively she reached up to touch it.
