by Cara Bristol
He leaned into the touch, and their gazes locked. His exotic scent grew stronger. She stroked his cheek with her thumb, and the next moment they were kissing. Warm, soft lips touched hers, and, like the walls of Jericho, all doubts fell, his kiss laying waste to any reservations.
His tongue met hers in an intimate caress as their mouths fused. He tasted like he smelled—warm and delicious, like an addictive sweet-and-savory spice. She pressed her mouth harder against his. He stroked her hair and face, trailing his fingers over her skin and through her curls, igniting tingles that spread through her body.
She touched his horns and found them to be more like cartilage than bone—and sensitive. He groaned as she stroked, and he kissed her harder.
Leaning close, he scooped her off her chair and onto his lap. The hardness of his erection pressed against her bottom. Arousal hummed between her thighs, and she pulled his head down and kissed him again. She couldn’t get enough of him. He warmed her from the inside out, filling her with a sense of homecoming, as if the waiting had ended.
Crazy. She should get up, find her common sense, and give herself a good scolding. She would do that. One more kiss first…
Cupping her head, his fingers threaded through her hair, he held her close against his heaving chest. Yep—two hearts were beating. Racing.
Her breath caught in her throat as his adoring expression melted her into a puddle of goo. No man had ever looked at her like she added up to the sum of his existence. “My genmate, I’ve waited my entire life for you,” he said.
“That’s like a life partner.” She recalled he’d referred to her that way before.
He nodded. “Life partner and more. I tried to explain in my letter. For ’Topians to bond with a partner, the dyads must share the same genetic marker. When they meet, biology binds them.”
She frowned. “So you’re at the mercy of your biology? You don’t have a choice?” That didn’t sound very romantic.
“Who better than our own genetics to pick our perfect partner?”
“Huh,” she said.
He touched the underside of his jaw. “When a male meets his perfect match, the mating glands in the throat swell.”
She had noticed the slight lumpiness but had figured it was normal for him. She wasn’t sure if she should be offended he’d been programmed to desire her or flattered he thought she was perfect. All she knew was that his massaging hand on her nape felt so gooood.
“We like to think we make intelligent decisions—but how often do our choices end up being bad ones?” he added.
She couldn’t deny the logic since Trenton offered living proof of her poor choices. She cocked her head. “So you’re saying we have the same mating gene? How is that possible?”
“Eons ago, Xenos collected DNA samples from Earth for their projects. While they were here, they altered the human genome.”
Her jaw dropped. “So we humans are part alien?”
He shook his head. “A few of you. The Xenos couldn’t alter an entire population—they weren’t here long enough. Most likely, they experimented on a small group who reproduced and passed on the mutation.”
Could this account for the existence of soul mates, explain why some couples got lucky and instantly connected? Did it explain her crazy idea that her Mr. Right had been searching for her? Mr. Genmate. She wasn’t convinced yet, but, as she studied Inferno from under her lashes, she recalled her very first reaction to him.
Before she’d caught sight of him, his voice had stirred her libido. His horns and red face had freaked her out, but her body had still responded—as well as on the other two occasions that she’d encountered him.
Her rational mind tried to discount his explanation, but truth resonated deep in her bones. Defining and labeling could occur later. Their chemistry could not be denied. “This is a lot to process.”
“I understand.”
She leaned in close and sniffed his throat. She couldn’t help it. He smelled so good. She had the oddest urge to rub against him and mark herself with his scent.
“What are you doing?”
“Smelling you. You smell good.”
“I like the way you smell, too.”
“What do I smell like?”
“Spring flowers and midnight dreams. Hope fulfilled.”
Her heart stopped. “That’s the sweetest thing anybody has ever said to me.” She had the oddest urge to weep.
“I mean every word.” His lips met hers in a tender but heated caress. She shifted on his lap to wrap her arms around his neck and pour her emotion into the kiss.
“Ahem!” A grinning Meadow entered the great room. “Excuse me for interrupting, but we’re all having banana splits in the kitchen if you’d like to join us.” Without waiting for an answer, she skipped from the room.
“You want to?” Inferno asked.
She’d prefer to keep kissing him, but she needed to rein in her careening emotions and process what had happened. Plus, she’d like to get to know his friends better. “Would that be okay?”
“Anything you want is okay with me.”
She kissed him then, and they almost got sidetracked, but they broke apart, and she slipped off his lap. He laced his fingers through hers. They smiled at each other, and she was sure her grin was goofy, but she’d never felt happier.
Chapter Nine
“I found these in the vestibule. I assume they’re meant for you.” Uncle Mike set a huge bouquet of red roses on the desk. He grinned. “Unless I have a secret admirer.”
“Oh my gosh!” Geneva sniffed the flowers and then removed the little card from the envelope. She recognized the name of a Coeur d’Alene florist. You mean the world to me, the card read.
She couldn’t remember the last time a man had sent her flowers.
“Anybody I know?” Uncle Mike asked.
“The man you met in the parking lot the other day.”
He arched his eyebrows. “I didn’t realize you were an item.”
“We weren’t then. It kind of happened suddenly. He helped me after my car broke down last night.” Her face heated as she remembered how they’d kissed.
“Jesus was watching over you. Have you heard anything about Wanda yet?”
“Not yet.” She shook her head. “The mechanic promised to look at her today and give me an estimate. I’m not expecting good news. I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to buy a new car. The money from Trenton is coming at the right time.” Almost. It would take a couple of weeks for escrow to close.
“The good Lord provides.” Uncle Mike nodded.
Actually her ex-husband had provided, but she wouldn’t argue the point. An atheist couldn’t convince a believer there was no basis to his ideology or vice versa. “I plan to kick some tires this afternoon and figure out what I might like. Inferno is picking me up.”
“Good—I can meet him.”
“You’ve already met him.”
“That was before you started seeing him.”
She shot him a wry smile, envisioning Inferno being grilled like a high school prom date. “I’m not a teenager.” Forty loomed on the horizon.
“That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t check him out and ensure his intentions are good.”
“If it will make you happy.” Uncle Mike considered himself a good judge of character, and she had to give credit where credit was due—he was rarely wrong. After the divorce, she’d learned he hadn’t liked or trusted Trenton.
His previous encounter with Inferno had been brief. During a longer meeting, would he notice Inferno’s distinctive facial features? She fingered one of the red rose petals. “Can I ask you a question? Do you believe in aliens?”
Uncle Mike chuckled. “That’s a change in subject.”
Not really.
He removed his glasses and polished them on his shirt. “You mean like the ones reportedly living near Argent?”
Exactly them. “Yeah.”
“I’ve never met any of them, but I don’t discount the possibility. It would be arrogant to assume God created only us. He created the universe, so why not life on other planets?” He donned his spectacles. “Do you believe in aliens?”
“Yes.”
Uncle Mike blinked. “Now that surprises me.”
“Why?”
“You’re such a skeptic. You require proof of everything before you’ll accept it.”
“I suppose…sometimes,” she said.
“I’m aware you don’t share my faith. That you’re an atheist.”
Her eyes rounded. He knew? How? She’d never said anything.
He chuckled. “You’re pretty transparent, sweetheart—and I didn’t fall off the turnip truck yesterday. Most of the time you don’t attend the service, and, on the rare occasion that you do, you sing the hymns, but I’ve never seen or heard you pray. You never speak of God or attribute anything in your life to him.”
Her face heated. “Me being a nonbeliever doesn’t offend you, bother you?”
“Offend me? No, never. Bother me? Of course, I wish you had accepted Jesus, but it doesn’t bother me because I have faith in God. He has a plan. It’s not a coincidence you’re working as my secretary. He hasn’t given up on you.” He winked. “Give a shout when your young man arrives.” Chuckling, he left.
Geneva reeled. She thought she’d hidden her true feelings. Uncle Mike was one of the most perceptive men she knew. She’d better warn Inferno to keep his hat on. It would be up to him to reveal himself—his secret wasn’t hers to tell. However, it wouldn’t surprise her to discover Uncle Mike had already guessed.
I thought I had everything under wraps. She shook her head. The past week had taken several unexpected turns—the visit from Trenton, a windfall, proof aliens did exist, getting closer to Inferno, and now the revelation from Uncle Mike. What else would be coming down the pike?
* * * *
“More? You’re so extravagant!” Geneva gasped.
On the church steps, Inferno peered from around a huge bouquet of daffodils, tulips, and gerbera daisies. “Meadow told me flowers were appropriate.”
She thanked him with a kiss and took the bouquet. He’d called her and relayed he would be arriving, and she’d dashed outside to meet him.
“My hover scooter is hidden around the corner.”
“I should put the flowers on my desk—although I’m running out of room!” she joked and kissed him again. “Why don’t you come inside? My uncle wishes to meet you.”
“Didn’t I meet him the other day?”
“Yeah, but that was before we got…involved.”
He grinned. “Involved. I like the sound of that.” He removed his hat as he passed through the vestibule.
“If Uncle Mike sees your horns, he’ll figure out you’re an alien. You should put the hat back on.”
“Aren’t I supposed to remove it?”
“It’s considered respectful, but it would be okay in this instance.”
“I want to be respectful, and besides, I am ’Topian. If safety is not an issue, which it isn’t with your uncle, then I am good with him knowing. I can only be what I am. I would dishonor myself to deny my people who perished in the bombardment.”
They cut through the nave to the office area. She poked her head through her uncle’s open door. Pecking at his computer with two fingers, he was putting the final touches on his Sunday sermon. “Inferno is here,” she said.
Peering over his bifocals, he widened his eyes. “Somebody’s getting a lot of flowers.”
Hugging the bouquet to her hip, she grabbed Inferno’s hand and pulled him into view. Her uncle stood up. His gaze flicked to Inferno’s horns, and then he smiled. “Hello, it’s nice to see you again. Thank you for rescuing my niece the other night.”
“I’m glad I happened to be in the right place at the right time,” Inferno replied.
She touched his arm. “I’ll put these on my desk. Back in a sec.”
She dashed to her office, scooted the roses aside, set the spring bunch next to them then darted back in time to hear her uncle demand, “So what are your intentions regarding my niece?”
“Uncle Mike!” she gasped. She hadn’t expected him to grill him for real!
“My intentions are to make her very happy,” Inferno replied.
“I like that answer.” Her uncle nodded. “So, have you been on Earth long?”
“About one of your Earth years.”
She allowed her uncle a couple of minutes leeway then jumped in to rescue Inferno. Linking her arm through the crook of his elbow, she said, “We’d better be going. We have a lot to do today.”
When they got outside, she apologized. “Whew, sorry about that. He insisted on meeting you.”
“There’s nothing to be sorry about. Your uncle loves you and wants the best for you.”
He led her to a vacant lot then halted and glanced around.
“Did you forget where you parked the scooter?” As she recalled from her first glimpse of it before she’d passed out, it wasn’t a vehicle easily overlooked.
“Just ensuring we’re alone.” He waved, and the vehicle materialized out of thin air.
She gaped. “How did you do that?”
He revealed a small device in his palm. “Remote. We keep the scooter cloaked. It doesn’t blend well in your world.”
“No, no it wouldn’t.” There weren’t any winged rockets on the road. If spotted, the vehicle would stop traffic for sure, possibly cause an accident.
He strode to it and swung his leg over the seat. “Hop on behind me.”
“Don’t we need helmets?”
“No. You’re more protected on a hover scooter than you are in an automobile. The same technology that renders it invisible to the naked eye forms a protective field. You couldn’t fall off if you tried.”
“But can’t somebody run into us?”
He shook his head. “If it were parked, and they didn’t see it, they would hit the force field. But because it hovers, the vehicle can move up and down and sideways besides forward and back. When it’s running, its sensors detect if something gets close, and the scooter moves out of the way.”
“Okay, then!” She slid on behind him.
He pushed a button, and the air pressure changed, going heavy then much lighter. “Are we invisible now?” she guessed.
“Yep. Hang on tight.”
“I thought you said I couldn’t fall off.” She grabbed his waist.
“You can’t.” He twisted around to grin at her. “I just wanted your arms around me.”
“Well, then.” She hugged tighter.
He did something to the controls, and the hover scooter lifted off the ground. She squealed and squeezed tighter.
He chuckled. “You’re safe. Promise. But you can keep hugging me.”
The scooter pivoted and headed away, following the street, not riding on the asphalt but flying over it, by her estimate, about a foot or two off the ground. Unlike being on a motorcycle, there was no sensation of movement, no air blowing in her face. “It’s like being in a bubble.”
“That’s a good way to describe it. Where to?”
She rattled off a few auto dealerships and then said, “But let’s stop at the mechanic first. Hopefully, he’s had a chance to check out my car.”
They cruised along Main Street to the highway, veering south toward Coeur d’Alene. It offered a surreal experience to zoom by oblivious motorists. Freaky. Scary, she amended. I would sure hate this technology to fall into enemy hands.
With that disturbing scenario rattling around in her brain, her thoughts drifted to the ’Topian’s situation.
“I’m a bit surprised at how open you are about being an alien. Aren’t you worried about the Xenos? Argent residents have contact with out-of-towners who have contact with others.”
“To hide ourselves away, to never mate, would not be living. We have to balan
ce the risk of discovery with life. The odds of being found are infinitesimally small. Chameleon did more than cover our tracks, he erased them. The Xenos have no idea where we are. We vanished into the vastness of the universe. They could spend eternity searching and never find us—and that’s assuming they’re willing to expend the effort to search for six escapees. However, you are correct in your prediction that news of our existence will travel beyond Argent to other humans. From there, it could spread to other extraterrestrials who maintain contact with their home worlds, who have alliances with other nation planets.
“Thus, we have begun contingency planning in the unlikely event the Xenos do find us. You may have heard of Edwin Mysk?”
“The tech magnate?”
“He’s ’Topian. He fled when we did, but, due to the time warp of jump space, he landed on Earth half a century ago. We’ve been working with him to develop early detection devices as well as defensive weapons.”
“That degree of preparation doesn’t sound like you think discovery is unlikely.”
“What are the chances your house will burn down?” he asked.
She frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Don’t humans buy fire insurance even though they expect never to file a claim?”
“If the Xenos came, could you defeat them on your own?”
A long silence was followed by a worrisome sigh. “No. If the Xenos found us, they wouldn’t just come after us. They would scorch Earth like they did ’Topia. Beating them would require the cooperation of your Earth governments, their militaries, and their space forces.
“However, Tigre and Mysk both feel, and the rest of us concur, that involving your government prematurely would cause the catastrophe we’re trying to avoid.”
The hover scooter swerved around a slow-moving motor home and zipped by a couple of bikers on Harleys.
“How so?” She frowned.
“Your government would react in one of two ways: they would discount the threat completely or cause a worldwide panic. Either way, we ’Topians would become more famous than the Kardashians. Everyone would talk about us and debate whether the ‘alien invasion’ was real or a hoax. Interplanetary chatter would mushroom.