“Even though I screamed when I saw you and forced you out into the cold with no clothes on?” she joked, but her behavior still horrified her.
“Even though you shot me with pepper spray.”
Pepper spray? She’d never shot him with pepper spray—only the… “You were the bear?!” She sprang up. “In the woods?”
He nodded.
“I was afraid you were going to eat me!” She pressed a hand to her naked chest.
“I never would have hurt you. You were getting too close to the spaceship. The crew sent me out to chase you away.”
“This huge fireball came streaming across the sky. I worried it might start a forest fire.” She shook her head and chuckled. “You were the bear.”
“Why is that funny?”
“Because you had blue feet! I thought I had imagined it.”
“It’s easier to mimic a life-form similar to what I am,” he explained. “Personifying the bear took a lot of concentration.”
“You had me fooled.”
“I’m sorry I scared you. We didn’t know what reception we’d get from the local populace, so we were being cautious. The Intergalactic Dating Agency has brought more aliens to Earth than people realize, but they tend to live in urban areas.”
She nodded. “Big cities tend to be more diverse, making it easier to blend. And if you do stand out, nobody cares.” She pressed her thumb and forefinger together and zipped them across her mouth. “I won’t tell anybody about you and your friends.”
“Thank you. You never considered joining the IDA?”
“I’ve seen their Internet ads—but…no. Until meeting you, I’d sworn off men.”
“Because of your husband.”
“Yes.”
“He was never worthy of you.”
“No, he wasn’t!” she agreed vehemently. However, her late husband had left her with a fortuitous parting gift—a box of rubbers hidden in his glove box. She’d discovered them while sorting through his possessions after his death. In addition to his marital crimes and misdemeanors, Dayton had been unfaithful. She should have thrown the condoms away. Instead, she’d shoved them into a drawer. Using them felt like karmic justice.
Speaking of which…they should probably discard the used condom. She squinted. “Is your semen blue?”
Cam glanced at himself. “What other color would it be?”
She handed him a couple of tissues from the box on the bedside table. “You can take that off now.”
He pulled off the condom, and she could see his semen was bright blue. “If you were personifying a human man and had sex, what color would your semen be?”
“Still blue, but I’ve never had sex while in a personification. I don’t think I could. I wouldn’t be able to maintain the concentration required to hold the form. At the critical juncture, I’d lose it.”
She could imagine the reaction if he’d been having sex with someone who believed him to be human, and then at the height of orgasm, he transformed into a bright-blue alien with a tail. Smothering a laugh, she slid off the bed. “How about we shower together?” Hopefully her cranky hot water heater would be in a good mood.
They padded down the hallway. Kevanne flipped on the light and stepped inside, making room for Cam to enter the tiny bathroom. She turned around, caught sight of herself in the mirror, and let out a squeak.
She looked like she’d been hit by a blue paintball. Stripes and swirls of cyan splattered her chest, legs, neck, and face. “Why didn’t you tell me I was all blue?”
Cam’s mouth twisted with chagrin. “Sweat.” He rubbed at her cheek with his thumb. “My perspiration is blue.”
“Are all your bodily fluids blue?”
He nodded.
Were her lips blue from kissing him? She peered at the mirror. Didn’t look like it, but her saliva could have washed away his. She grabbed his cheeks and laid a long and deep wet one on him, and then stuck out her tongue at her reflection. Blue.
Kevanne laughed.
Chapter Fourteen
“Where have you been?” Tigre’s mouth formed a grim line, and his facial stripes had darkened.
Shaking his head with disgust, Wingman leaned against the console. Inferno and Shadow scowled, and Psy, his lone ally, appeared disgruntled.
“I attended an Earth event called a crafts fair. A spring fling,” Chameleon said.
Tigre stared at him like he’d lost his mind. “For almost two days? You left yesterday morning. We were starting to wonder if something had happened to you.”
“I’m sorry. I hadn’t planned to be away so long.” He’d gone to the spring fling to see Kevanne one last time—he hadn’t expected to be invited to her house for dinner or to have sex with her. He’d spent the night, had sex with her again the following morning, then accompanied her to the spring fling to help her man the booth. After they tore it down, they grabbed take-out burgers from Millie’s, and then went back to her place and had sex again. He would have spent the night—he’d been invited—but he’d figured he’d better report in. Apparently he’d waited a little too long.
“How do we know you haven’t contacted the consortium and told them where we are?” Wingman accused.
“With what? An Earth telephone?” He should have notified them he’d be gone for a while, but the accusation of betrayal hurt. Hadn’t he proven himself yet? “I’m fed up with your crap! If I’d wanted you captured, I wouldn’t have brought you to the Castaway.”
“Unless you needed somebody to help you pilot it,” Wingman said.
“Maybe I should have left you on ’Topia,” he fired back.
Wingman shoved off from the console. “Once a Xeno, always a Xeno.”
“Knock it off, all of you! Fighting among ourselves won’t solve anything.” Tigre shot a quelling glance at Wingman. “I doubt Chameleon would bring us this far to betray us now, but”—he turned his attention to Chameleon and folded his arms—“I do want to know what you’ve been doing for so long.”
Chameleon massaged his temple. “I apologize to all of you. I shouldn’t have disappeared. I should have gotten word to you. It won’t happen again. Remember I told you I’d gotten a job as a handyman? I went back to check on the woman who’d hired me.”
“I thought she asked you to leave,” Shadow said.
“And we don’t need jobs anymore,” Psy added.
“I’d scared her, and I wanted to check on her. I helped her sell lavender at the fair. Afterward…we went to her house. I spent the night there.” He could feel a crawling sensation indicating his color was changing. He glanced at his hands. Blue skin had turned purple.
Doubtful expressions turned to wide-eyed surprise.
“You dirty welhound!” Inferno smirked and slugged him in the arm.
“Is establishing a…relationship…wise?” Tigre asked. “We voted to leave Earth as soon as we can and reunite with the other ’Topians.”
“He’s not ’Topian,” Wingman said.
“He’s a target,” Tigre said. “Xenos don’t like to lose, and they’ll try to capture every last refugee. Since Chameleon helped us escape, there’s probably a galactic bounty on his head.”