Taken by the Alien Next Door (Aliens Among Us #1) - Tiffany Roberts Page 0,69

ecstasy she craved from him.

“Is that, um…why you ran off?” she asked.

“Yes. It seemed best not to involve you in my…condition at the time.”

Tabitha tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “I wondered why you ran off like that.”

Zevris smiled, and that ache in his groin intensified. In that moment, he longed to walk up behind her, wrap her braid around his fist, and tilt her head aside to skim his lips and fangs across her delicate skin. To nip at the ear she’d just bared, to trail his tongue along her jaw, to taste her lips with his.

He was beginning to wonder how long he could resist his desires even without the effects of the lily of the valley clouding his mind.

“I never intended to flee,” he said, voice sounding just a touch strained to his own ears.

She pressed her lips together for a moment, dropping her gaze. “I didn’t mean to run from you, either. Well”—she reached into the box and removed another stack of bar soap—“not the first couple times, anyway. You know, before I saw your, erm…” She mumbled something, the words so low and muffled that they were difficult to make out with any real certainty.

But to Zevris, they’d sounded suspiciously close to sexier side. He told himself that first word must have been alien, not sexier, though he wasn’t quite convinced by that explanation, however probable it seemed.

His tail swept from side to side behind him. It felt good to have someone around whom he could be undisguised. He’d not had to hide that he was a faloran during every operation he’d conducted, but he’d always had to keep his presence mostly hidden. Being himself, being out in the open, even if it was only with her, was a refreshing and welcome change.

Tabitha owned a collection of books about human females being taken by aliens as mates, and her desire for Zevris was apparent almost every time she looked at him. He would use that to his advantage as often and heavy-handedly as he could.

He pushed away from the doorframe and was about to enter the room—with imaginings of his imminent seduction of Tabitha coursing through his mind—when his pocket vibrated. Zevris halted.

The vibration did not repeat, but it didn’t need to. He knew it had come from Tabitha’s phone. She’d received a message of some sort, and he would need to address it in order to deflect any potential suspicions.

He could not do so in front of her.

“I’m going to take Dexter out back,” he said after a moment’s pause. “I’ll return shortly.”

Tabitha turned her face toward him. Zevris didn’t miss the way her eyes dipped along his body before they met his gaze. She smirked. “Okay. I don’t plan on going anywhere, so…see you in a few.”

He snickered, appreciating her humor. It was clear that she wasn’t entirely satisfied with the arrangement they’d made—not that he was, either—but she’d been so much more vibrant in the hours since breakfast.

He hoped he would witness such excitement and joy on her face every single day, until all his days had been spent.

Forcing himself to turn around, he walked away from the room. Every step was heavier and quicker than the last. As he neared the back door, he called for Dexter.

The dog bounded down the hallway to join Zevris at the sliding glass door. As soon as the door was open, Dexter darted outside, lowered his nose to the ground, and sniffed around.

Zevris closed the door and reengaged the forcefield. With a single glance back to ensure Tabitha wasn’t watching, he strode along the patio to a spot where he’d be out of sight, only taking her phone out of his pocket when he was away from the windows.

The screen flashed on, displaying a text message from Mia.

Zevris glanced over at Dexter, who had his front paws over the concrete curbing that separated the flowerbed from the grass.

“No,” Zevris said firmly. “Keep it in the grass, Dexter.”

Dexter released a drawn-out whine that ended with a huff. One paw at a time, he backed away from the flower bed.

Returning his attention to the phone in hand, Zevris tapped on the message and entered the passcode.

Mia’s name had a small picture beside it, a woman with brown hair and skin. She’d texted, Everything good, Tabby? Hope Dex didn’t get you in too much trouble yesterday!

Frowning, Zevris scrolled up, scanning the messages previously exchanged between Tabitha and Mia. Fortunately, both women seemed to use relatively