“Not exactly.” He gazed into her eyes and blinked once as if releasing a stranglehold on his voice after being tied down all night. “Maximilian Cornelius Vandervere the Fourth. I used to go by Ilian.”
Ruby smiled. His expression shifted. Clearly, he hadn’t expected her to smile. She crossed her arms and studied him. “I don’t know. You look more like a Max to me.”
“So, now you know.”
“Are you a famous alien or something?”
“Sort of. In some circles. Probably the terminfamousis more accurate.”
“Infamous. Wow. I can’t wait to hear that story.”
A small smile replaced the frown shaping his mouth. “Well, there is definitely a story.”
She made an encouraging sound, trying to get him to spill already.
He ran the fingers of one hand through his blond hair and huffed out a short sigh. “Sorry for being so difficult. I’m used to having people see the mark and look at me with disgust.”
“Where? Back on your planet?” Weird to say that out loud, even though she knew it was true. She had been slow to believe in extraterrestrials, but the evidence was irrefutable. Humans believed witches, vampires and dragons to be the stuff of myth when they were very real. So why not aliens?
Her sisters-in-law Bianca and Isabel were from the planet Alpha-Prime by way of a small town in Arkansas called Alienn. Most Alphas had some level of telepathy with non-Alphas. Bianca could read Ruby’s mind sometimes, even though she was a full-blooded witch.
Isabel didn’t have any mind-reading skills because she wasn’t pure Alpha. The other half of her heritage was Dre, another extraterrestrial species.
Ruby looked at Max. He seemed much more serene than before, even as he studied her very intently.
“Are you reading my mind?”
He frowned. “How did you kn— I mean, what makes you think that?”
“You have the same look Bianca gets when she tries to peek inside my mind. She always has to focus and try really hard to get in.”
“Yes. You are very difficult to read.”
“That’s another thing she says. Supposedly, being a witch makes it impossible for aliens to read me. I wonder why you and Bianca can when you work at it.”
“Huh. Don’t know.”
“Is that all you have to say?”
Another grin shaped his mouth.
Suspicious, she asked, “What else did you see inside my head?”
“You like me.”
“What?”
“And you think I’m handsome.”
“Of all the conceited—”
“I’m not conceited!” he said quickly. “Wait. What does that word mean again?”
“It means you have a very high opinion of yourself that not everyone else shares.” Ruby stood up, changing the subject and its trajectory. He got to his feet, too. “Will you follow me to my office? I still need to give you that package.”
“Nope. I don’t want it.”
“What? Of course you do. I have to give it to you.”
