Page 3 of Star Bright
“What the hell?” she whispered again.
The little robot wheeled toward her. “Patron or staff ident please.”
Darcy blinked. “Sorry?”
“If you do not present patron or staff identification, you will be tagged for memory wiping. Please hold still…”
“Tagged for—what? No way!” She scrambled back. Impossible, alien concepts were coming at her fast and furious, but “memory wiping” seemed easy enough to understand.
Ug growled, and the robot paused. “All Intergalactic Dating Agency patrons and staff must complete full disclosure, disclaimer, and discovery accounts. No closed worlders may be admitted.”
Ug growled some more, and when the robot reversed course, Darcy suddenly decided she liked the not-dog’s snaggle teeth.
“This will be reported,” the robot said.
Darcy snorted. “To who? Brin told me it’s almost impossible to get a signal out of Sunset Falls, especially in winter. She said I’d be on my own while the center is closed.” Thinking back and trying to remember what else Brin hadactuallysaid, Darcy wondered if maybe her friend hadn’t said “New Age” conference center but rather “space age”. A fairly significant difference, in retrospect, although Darcy hadn’t cared at the time, wanting only to get away from anything that would remind her of Christopher in the Caribbean.
Well,thiscertainly qualified.
Hesitantly, she edged toward the sprawled figure. Ug growled again, but softer, not so much a “watch it” growl like he’d given the robot, but more “watch out”. But he didn’t try to stop her. Since he’d protected her from the falling branches, she’d just hope he wouldn’t let her do anything too foolish.
Although why she hadn’t already run away screaming, she wasn’t sure.
Maybe because she had nowhere else to go. If she had, she’d not be all alone in Big Sky Country.
But she wasn’t really on her own anymore, was she? Not with the whiny robot, the universe’s ugliest dog—and of course the alien man.
She crept close enough to stand almost over him. From this close, he was…even more intriguing. The skin of his bare arms and the formidable wedge of visible chest had a faint satiny sheen that made her fingers tingle with the urge to touch. Okay,that was even more impossible than aliens. Her fingers never tingled like this unless she’d been gaming too long and her extremities had started to go numb.
Beneath the mussed strands of his gold-brown hair just off-center of his wide brow, a big swelling abrasion marred his skin. If he’d hit his head hard enough to leave such a mark, no wonder he’d gone down so hard.
Oddly mesmerized, she started to reach for him. Would his skin be hot or cool? But as her hand hovered, while she wondered, his lashes fluttered, and he opened his eyes to stare up at her.
Those twin rings of fire she noticed before blazed so bright she gasped. Then he blinked, and when his eyes opened again, they were a dark gray, like guttered embers.
He said something in a language she didn’t understand, although the cadence sounded like whatever language the little robot had used.
The whine of a servo behind her told her the little robot had returned. “He’s asking what happened.”
Darcy crossed her arms, tucking her tingling fingers into her armpits. “Tell him that’s what we want to know.”
“You attacked me,” the alien said in halting English though with a strange accent.
“Attacked you? No we didn’t,” Darcy protested. “You crashed right on top of us.”
The robot started to translate, but the alien replied, “Crash?” He struggled to wedge an elbow under him. “Where are—?” And then he swooned, crashing once again into the dirt
Darcy, the not-dog, and the little robot exchanged glances.
“Well, I guess we need to get him out of the elements at least, though I don’t know how to tell if he’s truly hurt or what.”
Apparently agreeing, Ug shoved his snout under the alien’s slack arm and gave her a little grunt. She levered theunconscious man over Ug’s back and then held the big, lax form in place while they half carried, half dragged their burden back to the lobby.
Fortunately he was lighter than he looked, as if his bones were mostly air. Certainly his musculature wasn’t missing, as she couldn’t help but notice with his bare shoulder under her bracing palm. The fabric of his sleeveless V neck tunic was tough but silky, and his skin felt the same—but also hot.
Uh-oh, the tingling in her fingers was back.
She couldn’t pull away or he’d fall again, this time on the pavement. They maneuvered him through the door and then to the pillow fort she’d made. Straightened out, he took up a lot more room in the fort than she did.
