Chapter 4
Drake stood in the bushes outside Jamie's one bedroom apartment, his eyes trained on her bathroom window. Not for the first time, he cursed the shades that obscured his view of the Earth woman.
His nerves were still frayed from their earlier encounter. His rage had overwhelmed him when he'd seen that asshole put his hands on Jamie. He'd sworn to himself that he would never reveal himself to her, despite the desire he might have to drag her into his arms and explore every inch of her delectable little body.
Still, he couldn't let those goons touch her. They deserved what they got. And more.If my mission weren't so critical, I would have killed them both and disposed of their bodies.
Then I would have carried the luscious Jamie Cohen back to my room and worked her body over for the next century or so.
Drake tried to push those thoughts from his mind while he stared at the steamy bathroom window. It was difficult though since he knew that right behind those shades and that pane of glass was a beautiful woman, submerged in warm bubbly water.
Would her skin flush pink with the heat of the water? Would her nipples grow hard as she soaped those perfect breasts?
Drake almost groaned aloud, his cock starting to thicken at thoughts of the Earth woman. Once she'd forgotten to close the blinds completely, and he'd seen her in her bath, soaking, her red curls piled atop her heads, her eyes closed in the candlelight.
He still didn't understand his attraction to the female. He'd never felt anything for any of the other human women he'd interacted with. He'd had a normal working relationship with them, nothing more.
But Jamie Cohen was something else entirely. Her pale skin resembled the rare flowers that blossomed on the tops of the reefs on his home world. They bloomed only once a year, under the light of thirteen full moons. Drake bet her skin was as soft as their petals.
But you'll never know because you won't be touching her again.
Drake scowled. He couldn't risk revealing himself to her. It had jeopardized his mission just stepping in earlier tonight. She was his only hope at gaining access to the inner circle at NASA. That had to be where the Hareema had focused their efforts.
Jamie Cohen could come and go at headquarters with impunity as Dr. Sylvia Cohen's irate sister. And she would be his key to infiltrating the enemy. If only he could figure out how...
From inside the house, he heard the faint ring of her phone.Probably her wretched fiancé. Just the thought of the handsome astronaut had Drake’s fists clenching.
The bathroom light clicked off, and in a few moments, the bedroom light clicked on. Jamie was getting dressed for another night on the town, on the arm of NASA’s most eligible bachelor.
It was impossible to trust any member of NASA’s hierarchy, but he distrusted Lance Cargraves more than any other. It wasn’t just his ability to touch the woman Drake wanted more than he wanted his next breath. It was his entire persona.
Dashing, handsome, and massively intelligent, Cargraves was a legend at NASA and frequently featured in the glossy holo-magazines Jamie flipped through when she got tired of swiping through her phone. Once humans had discovered faster than light space travel, NASA had rebounded from a dwindling federal agency to a symbol of hope for a better future.
And Lance Cargraves had become NASA’s perfect poster boy for a brave new space program.
Someone that well positioned with NASA was an excellent target for the Hareema. Impersonation of Cargraves would give a Hareema operative the ability to come and go at the highest levels of NASA, as well as sway within the public arena.
It also got the Hareema close to Drake’s obsession. The thought of an enemy infiltrator’s hands on Jamie’s skin drove Drake mad. And yet, he could do nothing but watch. He didn’t have enough information to make his move yet, no matter how much he wanted to cave in that handsome face.
The risk was too great. If Cargraves was a lynch pin of the Hareema invasion of Earth, Drake couldn’t tip his hand so soon.
So here he stood, lurking outside Jamie’s window like a creep.Enough, he thought, shaking his head in disgust. It was clear that he would learn nothing new from standing around outside her apartment tonight. Being careful to not make any noise, Drake pushed his way out of the bushes and onto the street, making certain that no one would see him and make a note of his stalking.
He made his way back towards the Metro line, but barely noticed when he walked past it, continuing down the bustling streets as the sun set over the nation’s capital. As he walked, he shoved thoughts of Jamie and her fiancé out of his mind, focusing instead on the facts as he saw them.
The Hareema had to have a presence on Earth. Their captured operative had admitted as much, even if Drake didn’t trust everything the creature had said. He’d raged against the Zantharians, laughed and threatened, and eventually, with test after test sapping his strength, he’d retreated to the corner of his cell in silence.
Until the scientists had dissected him.
Without the Hareema’s death, Drake couldn't be here now, in a disguise created from the dead operative’s remains.
Drake wasn’t bothered by wearing the enemy’s carcass. It allowed him to sneak around this planet without exposing his over-large frame and color-changing skin. And he’d been fighting the Hareema so long, his sympathy for the race was now non-existence.
They held me prisoner. Played with my mind like it was a child’s toy. They’ve killed untold numbers of victims, taken over world after world to fit their agenda of commanding and controlling the galaxy.
I will fight them with every fiber of my being, even if that means parading around inside a Hareema corpse.
Whatever it takes.
