Mia noted the direction of his gaze. Captain Kirk was focused on the pumpkins instead of the alien girl. Unacceptable. Mia swirled around the pumpkins and propped her leg beside him. “No humanoid can resist the Orion girl’s dance.” She hit the switch on the remote and slowly raised the dimmed lights. She kept her eyes on his face, so she could enjoy the moment he realized she was green.
Chapter 19
Alexi’s eyes widened in horror, then brightened. Good enough. She lowered her foot, twirled her hand, and crooked a finger at him. “Join me, humanoid. We have time to hand out treats before the crew arrives.” She headed for the door.
Alexi rubbed a fingertip lightly on her arm. “What is this?”
She shivered. “Alien skin. Leave it.” She said the opposite of what she wanted to say. How many times a day did people have to do that? She’d been doing it a lot lately.
Alexi followed her downstairs, reaching over to lift the edge of her costume. She slapped his hand. Their crew was already in the foyer, posing for Hope—Lauren in a red dress as Uhura, Quinn in a blue tunic as Spock, Jake and Maddie dressed as multi-legged aliens. Mia didn’t know where Niko was tonight, but she was glad he wasn’t there to see Quinn staring at her. He so would have wanted her to change.
Lauren held out her fist to bump. “Red-heads rock.” Their knuckles brushed, and Lauren rushed out to the limo. “Red-heads first.”
“Blonds next.” Maddie tried to squeeze through the door, and one of her many arms caught.
Mia shoved her in, waved the boys in after her, and then climbed in last. She paused at the sight of the clean leather. She hadn’t quite thought this through. “Let me go get a towel. I don’t want to get the seats all green.”
“I’ll help you out.” Jake held up his hand, and the fake alien appendages attached to his sleeve jiggled at her.
Alexi encircled her waist with his arms, and pulled her onto his lap. “We saw the movie. I believe you sit with me.”
Mia sat carefully, trying to limit the amount of green transfer. How did Quinn keep from getting purple hair dye on everything? Were his streaks permanent dye? Surely not. The car jolted into motion, pushing her against Alexi, and she gave up trying to limit touching him. “I knew that you couldn’t resist my alien dance. No humanoid can.”
His hands moved to her hips.
Quinn selected the music, and Lauren tossed out drinks from the minibar.
“Make me a margarita to match my skin,” Mia said.
Lauren held up a mini airplane-sized bottle of tequila, a pap
er packet of salt and a lime wedge. “This is as close as you’re getting.” Lauren waved a white salt packet pointedly at Mia’s green skin and shook her head. “Good luck getting a guy to lick that off you.” Lauren handed her the three items.
“Lick that off you?” Alexi whispered to Mia in English. He repeated it in Greek while frowning at Lauren.
So conservative. Mia smiled at Alexi and unscrewed the bottle of liquor. She leaned toward him with a wicked expression.
He shook his head. “I’m not licking that green makeup.”
Mia slicked her tongue wetly across his neck.
Chapter 20
Alexi froze and tightened his hands on her hips. She rubbed the gritty salt granules against the same spot then licked his warm skin again. After that, she sat back, tossed down the tequila and bit the lime. He tasted like heaven, like late nights, and temptation, like something she couldn’t have and was forming a terrible longing for. Alexi rubbed his hand against her hip. His gaze focused on her.
The car rolled to a stop.
“We’re here,” Maddie said. Her thick blonde hair was curled around a thin black antennae. She always had the best cheer curls. “Let me go through the door first, so I don’t tear a leg. Maddie had a solid commanding tone, and was a junior. She’d make a good cheer captain next year. “Watch that antennae, Jake.”
“Yeah, I’d hate to lose one,” Jake said.
Alexi and Mia stepped into the night air last, neither having made the move to jump up. She followed him up the drive, eyeing the significant green smears on his clothing. For someone so particular, he didn’t seem to mind the transfer at all. They headed in.
Willow’s house was large, inside one of the McMansion neighborhoods not too far from Niko’s. Willow opened the door wide. “Welcome, welcome, six thousand square feet and there still doesn’t seem room enough for all of us.”
Lauren stood on the tiptoes of her tall black boots and peered into the mirror above the sideboard. She tightened her high ponytail, and then waved backwards. “Maddie, watch out for those knicknacks.”
Maddie dodged a small table full of porcelain shepherds. “Sorry. Man, this place always seemed huge until I saw Mia’s new house.”