The alien hesitated as she backed away from him, continuing to circle her hand, indicating that he was to go with her.
Finally, he stepped after her, and she quickened her pace as she did her best to lead him to safety.
“Fuck, I’m an idiot,” she said under her breath. Her heart beat wildly, and adrenaline pumped through her veins. “What am I doing? This is stupid. What am I doing? What am I…?”
Chapter Six
What was the Earth woman doing?
Ice debated on whether he could trust her. This could be a game to see what he’d do. The woman had captured him, brought him here with the others, and now she helped him? It didn’t make sense. Then again, nothing on this weird planet made sense.
Oh, how he missed the isolation of his frozen home world. To think he’d thought it a good idea to come here. He should never have agreed to this trip.
What else could he do though? He didn’t know his way around the alien facility, and this woman was the only one who appeared to have any kindness in her. She held up her hand. He kept walking. She stepped in front of his path and pressed her palm hard to his chest before wrapping her hand over his mouth. She wanted him to be quiet. When he did as she indicated, she relaxed, pointed at her ear and then at the turn in the corridor.
He tilted his head, hearing footsteps. He tensed, lifting his arms to fight. She motioned at him and kept still. The sound grew fainter and was followed by a loud bang as if a door closed.
She nodded at him and leaned to look around the corner. Soon he found himself following her in a strange rhythm—run, stop, hide in a tiny room with many toilets, run, duck, pause, hide in a shelf-filled room with stacks of material, strange bottles and containers.
She grabbed black material from a shelf and thrust it at him. “Put this on.”
He looked at it and then her.
“I can’t do anything about your skin color, but I can try to hide you until we make it out of here.” She took the material from him and unfolded it to reveal a shirt. She threaded her hands into the armholes before grabbing his. She pulled his arms through the holes. Then she finished dressing him by forcing the material over his head.
As the material remained bunched on his chest, not fully falling to his waist, she returned to the shelf and came back with pants. She hesitated as she looked at his waist. She reached for him as if she would pull the white pants from his hips. Her breathing deepened, and he thought about kissing her again.
Sure, it would be stupid, but he wasn’t exactly thinking with…
Oh, so that’s what the human words “thinking with your little head” meant. Now he understood the phrase.
Clever, clever humans.
She pulled his shirt down all the way and tugged on his waistband, leaving the pants he wore in place before handing him the black ones. He thought about pretending he didn’t understand what she wanted him to do. But then, considering the circumstances, playing games right now wasn’t the best of ideas.
He pulled the pants from his hips, kicking them aside.
She made a small noise, and he glanced up to see her eyes focused on the nearby shelf a little too hard, giving the metal rack more attention than it deserved.
Ice hid a smile as he dressed.
“I hope you know where to meet your ship because I don’t have a clue where to take you,” she said. “The men haven’t been successful in finding the other aliens that you landed with, so hopefully they’ve made it home safely.”
Ice felt relief in knowing his brothers weren’t here. Though, he couldn’t help but wonder if that was why she’d released him. Did they think to use his obvious attraction to her against him? Did she think he’d lead her to his family?
Either way, it didn’t matter. As soon as he was free of this place, he would rid himself of the woman and find his family on his own—even if he had to search the entire planet.
She glanced at him and, seeing him dressed, took shoes off of a shelf. She leaned over to put them on his feet.
“You’ll need this jacket and,” she placed a cap on his head, “this.”
When he didn’t put on the jacket, she grabbed his arms and threaded them into the sleeves. Glancing over him, she nodded. They went to the door. She looked out—and suddenly pushed on his chest to make him back up before continuing out the door.
“Hey, Ken, they got you out patrolling the border?” her muffled words came through the door. He leaned his ear against it to better hear.
“What gave it away?” came a wry response.
“My bad,” the woman quipped. “I should have known you wore desert camo to pick up drunk chicks at the local dive bar.”
