Taken by the Alien Next Door (Aliens Among Us #1) - Tiffany Roberts Page 0,42
exaggerated expressions could not hide the smiles in their eyes. Another showed the two on a beach with the ocean behind them, their hair swept to the side by the wind.
Realization struck him suddenly—the young female was Tabitha in her youth, and the older female must’ve been Nan. The happiness on their faces in all those pictures was in total contrast to the sorrow in that final text from Tabitha.
He picked up one of the picture frames and tilted it to eliminate the glare on its glass. The photo was of Nan and Tabitha—the latter clearly younger than she was now, but not by much—holding a little dog in their arms as it licked at Tabitha’s face. The position of Tabitha’s right arm suggested she’d been holding the camera that had captured the image.
Zevris looked at Dexter, who was lying on the floor near the food and water bowls. “You were cuter as a pup.”
Dexter released a huff that flapped his lips before lowering his chin onto his paws.
Zevris placed the picture down carefully and swept his gaze around again. This time, it stopped on a small splash of green and pink over the kitchen sink—the cactus he’d gifted Tabitha, sitting on the windowsill. He smiled to himself. Perhaps it was of no real significance, but seeing his gift there, on open display, instilled him with a bit of pride and satisfaction.
He continued his perusal of her home with unbridled curiosity. As much as he felt like an intruder, as bad as he felt about what he’d had to do, he could not pass up this chance to learn more about Tabitha.
Her workroom was on the ground floor; he could tell by the smell as he approached the closed door. He only peeked in for a moment, glancing over all the supplies and containers that were neatly arranged on shelves along the walls. Even if the rest of her home was not quite put together, she’d made sure her workspace was prepared. Her passion for her work warmed his heart.
Zevris climbed the stairs and entered her bedroom. The tightness inside him now centered on a different spot—his groin. Despite all the other smells present, Tabitha’s scent was so strong here that Zevris could do nothing more than stand in place and breath for several seconds, each inhalation heating his blood a little further.
He could not wait for his bedroom to take on her fragrance, could not wait for her to be the only thing he could smell.
Her bed was positioned with its headboard against the wall, centered between two windows. The bedframe was a distressed white and gray, with intricate flowers carved at the top of the headboard. The bed was neatly made, with white, gray, and purple decorative pillows laid atop the billowing white comforter. A pair of matching nightstands flanked the bed. One was topped with a lamp, the other with a violet vase of fake flowers. Her dresser stood against the opposite wall.
Two bookcases were situated along the wall beside the door, with boxes stacked on the floor in front of them. Zevris walked to the boxes and opened one of the flaps, tilting his head as he surveyed the contents—books. That shouldn’t have been surprising in itself, but it was the apparent subject matter of those books that stood out to him.
The covers bore images of males with naked chests and no heads, or of males and females together, clutching one another close, their expressions mixtures of possessiveness and pleasure. Other covers displayed inhuman characters—a male with a scorpion-like body; a tentacled, gray-skinned male holding a female; muscled, blue men with horns and tails; part-machine, part-animal males apparently called Cyborg Shifters.
He picked up one of the books, this one featuring an alien with green scales, four arms, and four eyes. He opened it to the middle and scanned the words. His brow furrowed as he read, and the heat that had been pooling in his loins intensified. He’d assumed there were written versions of those instructional mating videos, but what he was reading here went well beyond anything he’d seen watching pornography.
This was not merely describing sex between a male and female, it was describing their emotions during the act, describing their connection in terms far deeper than the physical. He read faster, turning to the next page.
Perhaps the task before Zevris was not so daunting as he’d believed. His female apparently found appeal in the notion of mating with inhuman males. A slow grin stretched