was like pulling one’s own fingernails out. She couldn’t imagine how painful that must have been. “Do they grow back?”
“For some.” A sad smile moved briefly over his lips. “Mine just haven’t had a reason to.”
Evren took his words in stride before turning her attention back to him. It was strange looking at him. The only thing that told her she was looking at Kyro was his eyes. He had the same gray eyes.
The same eyes that were in the skunkat and the same eyes in the gray body he’d projected. Those same eyes were looking at her now from a completely different body.
“How do you do this? I still… I’m looking at you but it still seems impossible,” she murmured.
She watched his throat move. He still seemed hesitant…guarded.
“My skin,” he started, “has light-sensitive cells that can change pigment.” He paused. “I can copy. Camouflage.” As if to demonstrate, he changed his skin to match her complexion. The change was so sudden, her eyes bugged out.
When he changed back, she blinked at him. My God.
“Go on,” she whispered.
But he paused once more, searching her face as if he believed she’d shrink away with each word he said.
“Go on, I want to know.”
Kyro’s throat moved again.
“My bones, my cells…I can make myself smaller. Bigger,” he said.
“Just by thought?”
He nodded. “Just by thought.”
It should be nerve-wracking but, instead, she couldn’t help but stare at him in awe.
He let her look at him, allowing her to take in her eyeful before she noticed he began changing back, the gray slowly creeping in.
“Wh-why are you changing back?”
“Do you not prefer the Kyro you know? I have not seen myself, my true self, in decades. I do not expect you to accept me.”
“Oh, Kyro.” She rose and wrapped her arms around his neck. Planting her lips against his, she sucked his bottom lip into her mouth, closing her eyes as she did so. “Don’t change back unless you want to. I would love for you to remain like this, your true self. But I won’t force you to. It’s ultimately your decision. I’ll be here either way.” She smiled, burying her face into his neck. His unique pine scent was even stronger now that he was in his original form.
A growl rumbled through his body and then they were falling back into the bedding.
“Evren,” he groaned, her name coming out as if he was experiencing some deep emotional ache.
“Kyro?”
Her arms were untangled from his neck in an instant they were pinned above her head. With one movement, his lips were on hers again, ravishing her and making a moan tumble from her lips unto his.
When she finally got the chance to look at him, she realized he hadn’t changed back. He’d remained in his true form.
His message was clear.
For this moment they had together, he was going to be with her wholly.
It was a gift she hadn’t expected to get but one that told her that after tonight, leaving him would be one of the hardest things she ever did in her entire existence.
“Hello, Kh’Ziami Ch’Mora Ch’Anan.”
27
“Vidi...” Kyro murmured. “Engage Earth simulation 1506.”
He was looking at her with such intensity she could feel her breath picking up.
At his words, the light in the room suddenly dimmed and candles appeared out of nowhere, lighting up the room in a dim glow.
“Vidi?” Evren squinted.
“Artificial intelligence synced with my datapad and this room.”
She couldn’t help but marvel at the candles lighting up the space. It looked like a room decorated for birthday or Valentine’s Day sex.
“It’s a simulation,” Kyro said, as he buried his face into her neck and inhaled deeply. “Something I read humans did in times like this.”
Evren fought to clear her throat.
It was hard concentrating as he ran his nose slowly up along the curve of her neck, his breath tickling her skin.
“Times like what?” she croaked, biting her bottom lip between her teeth as she did. She was feeling all kinds of ways. Deep down between her legs, she could feel she was already wet from mere anticipation and the way he was pinning down her hands was only alerting every nerve ending in her body that he meant business.
“So, we’re doing this...” She closed her eyes, swallowing hard. “We’re sleeping together?”
He rose his head over hers then, the bridges of their noses touching. “Sweet, Evren...I do not intend to sleep.”
A chuckle left her lips as she stared back into his brilliant grays. “Back on Earth, when I imagined aliens, I imagined anal probes