Blue Dawn (22 page)

that Cody has been abducted by little green men from outer space—I don’t know what to think.

Worse, I don’t know what to
do
with all this stuff.”

“Mrs. Firetta didn’t say Cody was abducted by little green men,” Erik pointed out.

Allie turned eyes bright with sarcasm on him.

“Not in so many words, but she may as well have.

I mean aliens. She said
aliens
. Aliens abducted Cody! Can you believe it?”

Erik didn’t know what to say. The Firetta woman’s comments about blue light and an alien abduction hadn’t bothered him anywhere near as much as Allie’s absolute rejection of the idea of alien abduction.

It bothered him because he had planned to tell her everything tonight—about himself, about his world, and about the destiny that meant she must accompany him to Zura as his mate. It had never occurred to him that she might not believe him.

He had finally accepted the fact she might not
like
what he proposed. But to not even believe him? For his plans to succeed, it was crucial she believe him.

He cleared his throat. “Does that mean you don’t think it’s possible what the woman said is true?”

“Are you kidding?” Allie laughed, then turned a puzzled gaze on him. “You’re not saying you think it’s true?”

Erik hedged. To maintain control of the situation, he had devised a timetable, and he had no intention of telling his story until this evening, at the appropriate time. “Perhaps. There is a lot Earthlings don’t know about the universe.

Besides—”

“Earthlings?”

“Yes. People from Earth.”

Allie laughed and shook her head. “I
know
what Earthlings are, Erik.”

Flustered by his slip-up, Erik pressed on. “But what about that blue light Mrs. Firetta mentioned seeing? Didn’t you think you saw a blue light around Cody’s car too?”

A streak of perversity he hadn’t know he possessed made him push further. Or perhaps it was the first sign of his desperation to make her believe. “And what about the blue light you saw glowing from my hand? At the car, and then Monday night.”

Allie frowned, then worried her bottom lip with her teeth. “That’s the one thing I don’t get. I
did
think I saw a blue light around Cody’s car, and your hand that night too. But didn’t we conclude that it was a reflection from a passing truck? And really, how could it be anything else?”

She reached for Erik’s right hand and turned it palm upwards. “And the other night?” She looked up at Erik and smiled. “We both know I have a great imagination.” She winked. “And your love-making leaves me so light-headed and dizzy I’d probably swear to seeing just about anything.”

She raised his hand to her lips and kissed the palm. “I see a great hand,” she said huskily, looking at him from below lowered lashes. “A talented, sensitive hand, in more ways than one.

But nary a trace of blue.”

She bit the side of his hand, then released it.

With an iron will, Erik controlled the spurt of sexual need in him that might have released the blue light once more.

Allie left flirtation behind. “I’m not saying that glow around Cody’s car couldn’t be something besides the reflection from a passing truck. And I’m not saying Grace didn’t see something odd too.

But an alien abduction? That’s a pretty big leap.”

Allie leaned back against her Honda. Her golden hair swung with the motion. “You know,”

she said, “You’re the last person in the world I’d expect to even consider such a notion. You don’t strike me as gullible, flaky or open to that kind of idea. You’re more the solid, down-to-earth type.

You know, a real
Earthling
.”

She sidled closer, flickered her long lashes, and shot him a come-hither smile. “Sexy as all get-out, and horny as a tiger in heat, but with your feet planted firmly on the ground.” She reached for his hand once more and squeezed it. “And I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“Maybe you don’t know me as well as you think,” Erik said stiffly. Despite the touch of her hand, he felt frozen, frozen into what more and more was beginning to look like a collision course with devastating results. How was she going to react tonight when he told her the truth?

“Maybe not, Mr. One-Syllable-Man,” Allie zipped back. She held both his hands, and regarded him mischievously. “But we can change all that. Tonight. Your place. Seven sharp.”

It was still early evening when Erik unlocked the door to his room and pushed it open. Allie brushed past him and waltzed inside to the suite-sized room. She spared barely a glance for the stunning view of Lake Michigan and the July sky visible through the sliding doors to the balcony.

Instead, she looked around slowly, from the queen-size bed to the kitchenette and around the room past each of the pleasant but ordinary appointments.

He noted the faint flicker of disappointment that crossed her face. “Is something wrong?” he asked. “You were expecting something more palatial?”

Allie shook her head. “Not on a photographer’s salary, even if
The Streeter
is putting out for a percentage until you find a permanent place.” She smiled. “Which I haven’t done a very good job of helping you find yet, have I?”

She scanned the room once more. “No, it’s not the room.” Her expression turned accusing. “I was hoping to see some of your personal belongings.

You know, photos of your family, old girlfriends, Australia. Maybe even your old teddy.”

“My old what?”

“You know, your old teddy bear. I’ve still got mine, even if Sharkey plays with him more than I do.”

She raised her hands in exasperation. “But you! Anybody could be staying here. There isn’t one item in sight, or anything about this room that says, “Erik Berenger lives here.” She sighed.

“I thought coming here would be a chance to find out some of the things that make you tick. To find out your secrets. Everyone has secrets . . . even I have secrets.”

Erik forced a smile.
Yes, I’ve got secrets.

Secrets you’re going to discover this evening. Secrets
I suspect you won’t like.
But instead of telling her immediately, he raised his eyebrows in mock surprise. “You? You have secrets?”

Allie grabbed a pillow from the bed and threw it at him. “Ha! I know I talk a lot, but I don’t tell everyone
everything!”

She straightened and changed her tone in the quick-fire manner that so disoriented and fascinated Erik. “Anyway, men are unsentimental.

Especially you.”

“Yes,” Erik agreed.
At least I am.
But not, he thought, unsentimental enough to do what he should do and get it over with so his destiny could unfold. Not unsentimental enough to kidnap her, now, and take her back to Zura immediately, and curse her Earthly feelings, her responses, even her feelings for him. Along with his growing doubts and uncertainties.

Allie sashayed over to him, her auburn locks swinging. “But it doesn’t matter.” Her eyes smoldered; her voice lowered. “I’ll find a way to worm everything I want to know out of you. If Lois Lane can do it, so can I.”

“Lois Lane?”

“Of course.” She slid her hands up his bare arms. “Superman may have been from another planet, but he still couldn’t resist Lois’ charms.”

Confusion blunted Erik’s response to her touch.
What other planet?
he wondered. He had a sudden startling vision of some highly unrealistic planet unlike anything he’d ever seen.

She caressed the back of his neck, then rose on tiptoe and brushed her lips along his. “You know,” she whispered, ”the old sexual torture bit.

I’ll tie you up with silk scarves and torment you until you beg for mercy.” Her eyes gleamed and she wet her lips. “And then I’ll only give you what you want after you’ve told me where you’ve hidden the family jewels.”

“The family jewels?” What in the love of Zura was she talking about now? Erik didn’t know and, he realized as he lowered his head towards hers, he didn’t actually care. He captured her lips in a demanding kiss, trying to imprint in his memory forever everything he loved about her.

Finally he pulled back a little and rested his forehead on hers. He looked deeply into the emerald eyes he spent far too much time thinking about. “There are a lot of things I want to tell you,” he said slowly. “Things you need to know.”

Allie cupped his face with her cool hands, then stood on tiptoe and kissed him deeply. Pleasure rippled through Erik, overwhelming him with the incredible feeling of being loved and desired by the most fascinating creature in the universe.

Allie drew back, her fingers resting lightly on his shoulders. “But first the torture,” she whispered. “No secrets until after I’ve tortured you thoroughly.”

In the luminous light of the moon streaming through the open balcony door, Allie lay curled against Erik, her head on his chest, her hand resting on his hip. A light breeze cooled their heated, naked bodies. Erik nuzzled her fragrant hair, and brushed his lips across her forehead. He stroked her arm. The feel of her body, so close and warm, and the sound of her rhythmic breathing, filled him with a momentary sense of peace.

But not for long. No matter how hard he tried, he could not forget what he had to do. There was no avoiding it. He had to tell her the truth, and he had to tell her now.

His hand stilled. He took a deep breath and began marshaling his thoughts and preparing the words with which to start. He could try to do it telepathically, but it seemed more practical to do it verbally.

Before he could manage more than a coherent thought or two, Allie sat up. She leant over him, the rosy peaks of her breasts grazing his chest.

He groaned.

She smiled. “Had enough, is that it?” She folded her arms across his chest and propped herself in a position to gaze into his eyes. “I love you, Mr. Erik Berenger. I love everything about you, but especially how you can’t resist me.”

Abruptly she straightened. “You know, I’m going to tell you a secret.”

His chest tightened. “I thought I was the one who was supposed to be telling secrets.”

Allie grinned. “Ladies first. You’ll get your turn.

Besides, I want to get this out of the way. If you’re going to think I’m crazy, I want to know it now.”

She twisted a lock of his hair around one finger, then looked down. “You know, almost from the first time I met you, I heard this strange humming in my head. It was like that buzz you hear from electrical wires on a hot day. Whenever you were around, it started up. That and, well, almost like a physical tug towards you.”

She bit her lip. “I know this sounds crazy. But that night I threw you out of my apartment—the first time we kissed—well, the humming and the attraction were close to unbearable. All the time we were walking around, I wanted to touch you so badly I couldn’t think straight. And don’t laugh.”

“I’m not laughing,” Erik said solemnly. Allie had unwittingly provided the opening he needed to begin his tale of their destiny.

He swallowed. “You should know I experienced the same humming, the same tug towards you, though perhaps not as strongly because I’m not an . . .”

He had been about to say Earthling, but decided at the last second to proceed more cautiously. “ . . . not as emotional as you are.”

His gaze roved over her. Her earnest face, her full lips, the rosy tips of her breasts, the flat belly and shapely legs curled under her. Did she have any idea how much he loved her, both physically and with his new-found emotions? Did she have any idea how much he feared losing her love?

Certainly, he had had physical relations before, at the bordellos run by Zalian authorities to satisfy the needs of their unmated citizens. But nothing like this. If someone had told him three months ago the difference love would make, he would have dismissed the idea as sheer foolishness. But not now. Now he knew.

He continued quietly, setting forth the first brick in the foundation of his explanation of who and what he was. “Perhaps we both experienced this humming, this mutual attraction, because we are destined to be together.”

“Destined?” Allie’s eyebrows rose. “You mean our relationship was written in the stars?”

He nodded. So far, so good.

A smile of delight crept across her face. “Maybe we
are
getting somewhere with this secret business. I’ve just discovered that you, Erik Berenger, are a closet romantic. Destined!” Her smile broadened. “You’re the last person on earth I’d expect to buy into that idea. But it is kind of cute.”

“You mean you don’t believe in destiny?” The words escaped before he could stop them, or stop the shock chilling his blood. Intergalactic Research had indicated that Earthlings harbored beliefs concerning the universe, destiny, and fate.

Perhaps not as strong as Zalian beliefs, but constant and real. Wasn’t that what the astrology business in newspapers and magazines, on phone lines and television, indicated?

But if she didn’t believe in destiny? What did that do to his arguments? To his chances of convincing her to leave the family and land she loved and come with him willingly because it was her destiny as well as his? Could love possibly be enough?

“Nope.” Allie shook her head, sending her golden hair swinging about her face and his hopes plunging. “Just like I don’t believe in aliens. Or psychics, or any of that paranormal stuff. It all gives me the creeps.”

Erik’s hopes crashed.
She didn’t believe in
destiny.
She didn’t believe that creatures such as himself even existed. Had all his efforts been for naught? Was he doomed to repeat the same horror his grandfather had wreaked on his grandmother?

He managed, but only just, to suppress a shudder. He reached for Allie’s hand, and lifted it to his lips. With the deliberate thoroughness of a man on the brink of despair, he kissed her knuckles, her fingertips, and finally her palm, drinking in her warmth, her taste, her fragrance.

He regarded her palm intently. “There are many things about me you don’t know,” he said. “And you will know them all, in good time. But first there is something I have to say to you.”

He raised his head. The smile on her lips halted, then faded altogether as she noted his somberness. He could tell she hadn’t expected such gravity.