The problem was, he had absolutely no idea who she was. Which, given they were on a secret alien base built by scary aliens without the other scary aliens knowing, was a fucking problem. He grabbed the first weapon to hand, the sauce spoon, and brandished it at her.
“Who the fuck are you?”
Sauce dripped and hit the floor.
She frowned, gaze flicking between him and the kitchen utensil. “You’re bigger than I thought you’d be.”
Fuck yeah, he was big. The urge to comment she could find out for herself how big he was stayed firmly unuttered and he narrowed his eyes at her. Miisan had done an in-depth scan of the base not long after they’d arrived. They were the only lifeforms aboard. So where the hell had she come from? The bodies from the tubes… His blood ran cold. Then he realized that none of them had been as tiny.
Her lips pursed, dragging his attention to them and taking his primal instincts on a joyride. “Or is it because I’m smaller? That must be it.”
She smiled and his higher brain functions stuttered to a stop.
“I’m sorry…” Even amid the most unconventional first contact ever, his manners auto-deployed. His mother would be so proud. Actually, no… the cold bitch had never been proud of him for a moment in his entire life. “Do I know you?”
He couldn’t know her. He didn’t know any strange wome…
“Fuck! Keris?”
She smiled and that completed the mental shutdown. His gaze wandered down her, stunned. The metal body was gone, replaced with a petite, delicate little brunette with the most kissable lips he’d ever seen. And she was naked.
A flush on his cheeks, he yanked his gaze back up to her eyes.
“You like looking at this body?” she asked, taking a step closer, a graceful hand out to push the spatula out of the way. He moved it, dropping it in the pan to avoid getting bug sauce on her. “But you are embarrassed to be caught doing so. Why?”
“What the… Sound the Intruder alert,” a deep voice growled from the doorway. “Who the draanth are you?”
“No! Don’t!” Jay sprang into action, yanking Keris closer and shielding her with his body as Seren stalked into the room, blaster leveled at the petite woman’s head. “It’s Keris! Stand down!”
His heart pounded as he looked over his shoulder. A desperate need to protect the delicate woman in his arms rolled through him as Nyek piled through the door behind Seren, weapon in hand.
“What’s going on?” he demanded, eyes narrowed as he looked at the little scene. Indra and Gracie peeked around him from the corridor, and both gasped as they spotted Keris.
“Oh my god!” Gracie squealed. “The printer worked.”
Oh. My. Goddess. Jay was utterly gorgeous.
Keris looked up at the big human male, her eyes wide. As she’d said, he was far larger than she’d thought. His features were… had been… saved to her long-term memory banks. Now it was like she was seeing them for the first time. Which, she guessed she was. And she couldn’t look away.
He was tall and broad-shouldered, brown hair cropped short with mussed up spikes on top the way it always did when he’d just woken up. Heavy stubble covered his jaw, but unlike some males, it wasn’t a scraggly mess. Instead, it was as if he’d been designed with precision, the light beard highlighting the strength of his jaw and drawing attention to the sensual line of his mouth. All she wanted to do was lift on her tiptoes and press her lips against the skin to see if it was as prickly as it looked or if it was softer.
He registered her attention and looked down. Their gazes locked and she couldn’t look away. His eyes weren’t dark, as they looked from a distance, but somewhere between blue and green that changed with his mood. She’d spent weeks watching him and noting the differences. Right now, they were switching between the two colors. As he looked at her, they warmed to green.
The dark slashes of his eyebrows snapped together.
“You’re naked,” he growled, the deep tones sending a shiver down her spine and she tried to pull away in confusion. All his physical reactions, the way he’d looked at her, said he liked looking at her unclothed body, yet now he sounded annoyed.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t…”
Realization kicked in. Biologicals preferred to be clothed when around others. She knew that. And humans seemed more conservative than Lathar. Rynn had often been naked in front of her when she was part of his ship, but she hadn’t found him half as interesting as Jay. Hadn’t needed to monitor him the same way she had Jay, noting every little thing about him… just because she wanted to. Because she had to. Unlike the Latharian warrior she considered her brother, she’d never seen Jay naked. He always covered up, dressing in the cleansing facilities even if it was just a pair of shorts.
“There were no clothes in the lab,” she finished unhappily. “I didn’t mean to offend you with my nakedness.”
“What?” His hands shot out to stop her moving away and yanked her closer against him instead. She was sheltered by his larger form… preventing the others from seeing her unclothed body.
“You haven’t offended me. Why would you think that? You’re naked…” His jaw clenched, a tiny muscle in the corner pulsing as a battle raged behind his eyes. She watched, fascinated. “And I don’t want these assholes seeing you that way. Vulnerable.”
He was protective. She wasn’t prepared for the quick rush of warmth through her chest at the realization.
“Oh…” her lips formed a small “o” in her surprise, and his gaze flicked down, latched onto it. His nostrils flared and the sudden dark heat in his eyes made her want to squirm against his chest. His arm around the back of her waist tightened for a second.
“Don’t move,” he ordered, keeping her pinned against the counter as he let go. She was treated to a front-row seat as he stripped his shirt off, twisting and lifting the hem.
She may have whimpered. Full-on whimpered as the carved muscles of his chest and his rock-hard abs filled her view. She didn’t know all the rules of social interactions between human males and females, but she was pretty sure that licking his chest broke at least a dozen of them.
She blinked as he dropped his shirt over her head, watching him as he pulled her arms through the sleeves like he was dressing a small child. Fussing over her, he ensured the skin-warmed fabric covered everything, stepping back to look at her in assessment. He nodded, apparently satisfied, and stepped aside for the others to approach.
Indra and Gracie were first, their expressions filled with excitement and wonder.
“Keris? Is that you?” Gracie asked, taking a step forward. Her lips curved into a wide smile. Keris blinked, forced to alter her mental perception of the tall, slender woman. Given her previous body had been over seven-foot, everyone seemed huge now.
“Yes. It’s me… Keris, I mean. I’m Keris,” she added and then was overwhelmed as Gracie whooped and raced at her. Before she could prompt her new body into any form of defense, the human female had pulled her closer, crushing Keris against her.
“Oh… this is… is this… a hug?” she asked, her voice muffled against the other woman’s shoulder. She’d seen humans embrace before, mostly Indra and her friend Madison back on the Izal’vias but had never thought she’d be the recipient of one. It was… nice. Warm and… She closed her eyes and leaned into it—her first hug in her new body. The shudder rolled through her, but she was too busy experiencing the sensation to analyze it.