Before Adam could even think what he could have possibly meant, there was an image of a green-and-blue planet in his mind. It looked a little like Earth, but it clearly wasn’t. It was a lot greener, for one thing. It had only one continent, for another.
“This is my home planet,” Harry’s voice said in his mind before the image disappeared.
Adam shook his head slowly. He was seeing things. He must have been hallucinating. There was no other explanation.
Maybe he was dreaming and Harry wasn’t even there.
“You are not dreaming, Adam,” Harry said aloud, smiling at him uncertainly. “I’m really here.”
Adam stared. “Are you reading my mind?”
Harry bit his thumb. “Sorry. I just wanted to prove to you I was telling the truth.”
“And the truth is you’re an alien,” Adam said without any inflection.
Harry nodded with a hopeful look. “Do you believe me now?”
Adam stood, walked to the window and opened it, allowing the cool evening air into the room.
He closed his eyes, trying to make sense of it all. A part of him was still certain this must have been a joke, that Harry was going to laugh any moment now and say he was kidding. But he had heard Harry’s voice in his mind. He had seen Harry’s planet in his mind. Unless he was going insane, he would have to seriously consider the possibility that Harry was telling the truth—that he was an alien.
An alien.
Fuck, the mere idea was ridiculous, but Adam forced himself to consider it seriously. An alien. That would certainly explain a few things about Harry. More than a few things.
Adam bit the inside of his cheek as he thought about the fact that his MI6 friend couldn’t find a person matching Harry’s appearance in any country—or the fact that Harry seemed so completely oblivious about most basic things any human would just know. Or the fact that Harry had always been shady when he talked about his home and his family. Or the fact that Harry apparently produced natural slick when he was aroused. Or the fact that the bones in Harry’s knee were oddly shaped. Or the fact Harry had the most unusual porcelain skin that didn’t even seem human at times. Or the fact that Harry’s hair had always seemed silky-smooth. Or the fact that Harry had very unusual violet eyes. Or the fact that Harry had always been unusually passionate about aliens and the way they were portrayed in the media.
Or the fact that Harry had literally told him he was an alien after they had met.
Adam opened his eyes and turned around. “Please tell me you aren’t actually from a star system in the Sagittarius constellation,” he said with a pinched look.
Harry gave him a sheepish smile. “No? We don’t call it Sagittarius.”
“But you’re really an alien from the Sagittarius constellation,” Adam said tonelessly.
Harry nodded. “We don’t call it that,” he said again. “Stars look different from different planets.”
“We,” Adam repeated. “Who is that?”
Harry cocked his head to the side and eyed him warily. “Calluvians,” he said. “Or to be precise, Cal’luv’vians, but the planet’s name was standardized when we became part of the Union of Planets, because most other races couldn’t even hear the whole word—” Harry cut himself off. “Sorry. I’m babbling. It’s probably not interesting to you. Are you really taking it well or are you going to do this thing humans often do when you laugh for no reason?”
“I don’t know,” Adam said with a crooked smile. “Probably.”
Harry pouted. “I thought you believed me.”
Sighing, Adam raked his hand through his hair. “You do realize how insane all of this sounds, right?” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Okay, let’s say I believe you. You’re an alien. Great. What are you doing here?”
“Here?” Harry looked around and then down at his half-naked body Adam was trying hard not to look at. He couldn’t afford to be distracted. It was already hard enough to wrap his mind around all of this.
“On Earth,” Adam clarified before chuckling. “Are we being invaded or something?”
Harry gave him a disappointed look. “I really don’t understand why humans are so fixated on the notion of aliens being interested in invading you. I thought I told you my thoughts on this.”
“Ah, yes,” Adam said, not without sarcasm. “I remember us discussing the totally hypothetical subject of aliens.”
Harry, to his credit, had the grace to look ashamed.
“I never wanted to lie to you,” he said quietly. “I just couldn’t tell you anything. There are laws, you know. Earth hasn’t yet reached the technological and cultural level required for Contact.”
Adam suppressed the urge to look around for some hidden cameras. Despite the telepathy, despite everything Harry had told him, a part of him still couldn’t believe that what Harry was telling him was real.
Harry—the cute, quirky guy he’d met at the coffee shop and fallen in love with—couldn’t possibly be an alien. Aliens were supposed to be ugly, with big gray heads and creepy black eyes. Aliens were supposed to be evil and creepy, not... not kind and ridiculously endearing.