Page 110 of Stardusted

I assumed it was rhetorical because hell if I knew. We both stared as the silver dissolved, his skin becoming tan and whole and…human once more. His abs flexed when he craned his neck to watch his own stomach smooth back out.

It was like it hadn’t happened. Well, almost.

Orange light leaked from the cracks between my fingers. The light flickered rapidly, though, dimming like a dying flashlight. Within the span of one heartbeat and another, gloomy shadows swallowed the stairwell again. And us.

The reality of the entire situation crashed back. I slapped my unmarked hand over my mouth.

Holy shit. I’d been dry-humping an alien in my stairwell.

Somehow, that seemed like the least of my worries. Flattening myself against the wall, I tried to process the glowing hand, the silver skin. But that kiss...

Could it be physical contact that caused the marks to glow? My own raging hormones? Because they were raging, all right. Still. Despite the fact he’d gone partial Pladian on me.

Or maybe it washishormones?

He’d kissed me. I’d kissed him.We’d kissed.

Sky spoke then, and I jerked, wrenching my gaze up from the hand I’d just had pressed to his silver abdominals.

I’d just touched alien skin. After kissing an alien.

“It has to be the halix’s latent energy somehow affecting the synth-skin,” Sky muttered, running a hand down his torso, as if checking to make sure everything was back to normal. In a daze, I followed the movement a little too closely. “It only happens when you touch me.”

That brought my eyes back to his, and I nearly let out an incredulous laugh. Oh, I’d been doing a lot more than justtouchinghim.

I’d wanted to keep going, too.

I crushed the back of my hand to my mouth, the other pulling my sweater back into place and tugging it closed. My lips still tingled. His taste lingered on my tongue.

A clearly confused, traitorous bolt of need shot through me again.

He was an alien. And yet…

When I didn’t say anything, he looked up. His strange eyes hadn’t returned to normal. They glittered in the dim light, eerie and jeweled.

“Are you all right?” he asked softly.

I lowered my hand. I couldn’t look away from that mesmerizing blue. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. Has this,” I motioned to his exposed torso, “happened before?”

“Just at Oasis, but?—”

“No,” I cut in, a blush crawling its way up my neck. “I mean, like before, when you were—ifyou…I mean…” I licked my lips and tried for a casual shrug. “I mean…have you…with humans?”

Sky blinked once, mouth parted. My blush reached thermonuclear levels, and I quickly held up a hand, wincing. “Sorry. I’m sorry. Don’t answer that. It’s none of my business.”

What kind of a question was that? I studied my stocking feet and the tile floor beneath them. I blamed the exhaustion. Words just keptfallingout.

Silence stretched. Long enough, I reluctantly raised my head. The blackness had bled from Sky’s eyes. His star-flecked indigo gaze was trained on me, his face unreadable.

“I’ve been on this planet for over a decade,” he said quietly. “I’ve spent that time learning what it means to be human and…” He paused, glancing up at the stairs. Looking away, like I wasn’t the only one uncomfortable. “I’ve, uh, had the full experience. I’ve…” He exhaled, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’ve slept with humans in this form. And no,” he indicated his abdomen, “that’s never happened before.” His eyes pinged to mine, then away again. “I think it’s safe to say it’s related to the markings, Rae. The halix’s energy.”

Safe to say. Yeah. I pursed my lips and eyed the shapes on my palm to distract myself from my raging blush.

Well, that answeredanotherquestion, too. That hadn’t been wishful thinking before.Things worked the same.With this version of him, anyway.

Which I’d assumed because I’d felt his hard?—

I squeezed my eyes shut. I did not need to be thinking about hard anythings right now. That was decidedly not appropriate with, you know, a glowing crisis on our hands.