Chapter Eleven
Toni
Aton’s heart drummed in my ear as I curled against him, my arm thrown across his shoulders, my thigh hooked over his leg. I sighed. “I love Saturdays and Sundays. Weekends in general.”
“Here I assumed you loved me,” he joked.
I gave him a squeeze and another kiss. “I enjoy any day that I don’t have to work, and we can spend time together. When we can make love, cuddle, watch TV, do nothing.” I smoothed my hand over his chest. When I could touch him as much as I wanted.
“And see Earth. I’ve enjoyed our trips immensely.”
Right after our meeting with Jessie, Aton had moved into my house. Often on weekends we went sightseeing. We’d gone wine tasting in Napa Valley, visited the tall trees at Sequoia National Park, hiked in Yosemite, cruised along the coast to Monterey Bay. He’d been like a little kid at Disneyland.
“What would you like to do today?” I asked. “We could catch a ferry to Catalina Island—or hit a few museums in New Los Angeles. Maybe we could stay in and…” I lifted my head to leer at him. “You know.”
“Again?” With a dramatic arch of his eyebrows, he feigned surprise, but his horns pulsed.
I giggled and hugged him.
“I don’t care where we go. Your choice, as long as we you know again before we go,” he joked, but then his expression turned pensive. “I understand you have to work, but I wish we had more time together.”
“I wish we did, too.” It seemed like we had to cram all living and loving into nights and weekends. “Maybe…we should take a vacation?”
“What’s a vacation?”
“It’s when people go away somewhere.”
“We’ve been going lots of places.”
“Farther away for a longer period, like two weeks,” I said, getting excited. “It will take a while to arrange for the time off work, but let’s do it!” I’d have Megan work on clearing my calendar. “Is there anyplace in particular you’d like to go?”
“Someplace cold? Where there is snow?”
“You miss your planet, don’t you?” I loved him and would move anywhere for him, but if I had to leave my home, I would miss it a lot. He’d sacrificed everything to come to Earth.
“Sometimes,” he admitted. “I never would have guessed I’d miss blizzards and the icy cold, but sometimes I do. Earth is so warm.” He stroked my cheek and stared into my eyes. “But you mean more to me than all the snow on Dakon.”
Our kiss was long, slow, and sweet.
“We’ll go someplace with snow, then!” By the time I could get free, it would be late fall anyway—just in time for cold weather. But, where to go? The north got snow, but we’d been all over New California already, and I wanted to take him someplace special, out-of-area with grand vistas, a true vacation where we weren’t driving all day, where we stayed in a fancy hotel, overindulged at restaurants. So, Swiss Alps? Norway? Iceland? Alaska? Canada?
All those places would require commercial air travel and or identification. Aton had no ID. I’d put off doing something about his lack of documentation because I’d been reluctant to risk triggering an investigation. We couldn’t delay forever, though. One challenge, one demand for ID by someone in authority, and Aton would be screwed. And, it hindered the ability to travel.
My attorney friend, Maridelle, had returned my call, but by then the dust had settled, so, without going into detail, I’d told her everything had turned out fine, and I didn’t need her services. I’d phone her again and ask some discreet questions. I had a suspicion acquiring “legal” documentation might require forgery. Keeping silent about an illegal act was one thing, but I drew the line at committing a crime.
If I couldn’t get the ID situation worked out in time for a winter vacation, we could drive to Colorado, Idaho, or Montana. In the long-term, I could buy a cabin at Lake Tahoe. “I am going to get you some snow!”
“I would like that.” He shifted me onto my back and rolled on top of me. His thigh slid between my legs. “Now, about our plans for today…you know?” He nuzzled my throat, his warm lips teasing the sensitive pulse points. Desire thrummed through my body. I arched my neck and rubbed my thigh against his hip. His penis hardened.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
Aton and I both jerked. He lifted his head. “What’s that?”
“Somebody’s at the door. Ignore it. They’ll go away.” I wound my arms around his neck.
A chime sounded throughout the house. Now they were ringing the darn doorbell.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
Mind over matter. “Kiss me,” I said. Our mouths met in a slide of lips and a dance of tongue, but he’d stiffened—and not in a good way—and listened, waiting for whoever it was to give up and go away.
More chiming, more knocking. They were insistent buggers.
I groaned. “I’d better see who it is.”
Aton rolled off me. “It could be important.”
I slipped out of bed and into my robe, tying it around my waist. “For their sakes, it had better be. If this is some missionary come to convert me, they’re going to get to meet Jesus a lot earlier than they expected.” I stalked out of the bedroom.
I couldn’t imagine who would be banging on my door on a Saturday morning. Anybody who might drop by would call first. Unless…the Intergalactic Dating Agency still had me listed as unmatched, and its computer had kicked out another date. Aton and Caid both had just shown up. However, I was sure—well, almost sure—Jessie would have caught it in her review.
Four uniformed men stood on my porch.
“Yes?” Anxiety shot through me, but I pasted on a neutral expression. I pretended to lean on the door to surreptitiously close the gap so they couldn’t see inside.
“Are you Ms. Antoinette Gates Sutterman?”
“Depends. Who are you?” I eyed them, memorizing faces.
“I’m Officer Malcolm with Extraterrestrial Immigration.” He flashed a realistic-appearing badge. “Is Aton here?”
My stomach dropped to the floor, and my chest constricted. “Who?” I gripped the door tighter. Stay in the bedroom. Please, Aton, stay out of sight.
“Aton of Dakon.”
Which lie should I tell—that I’d never heard of him, or that he’d been here but had left?
Immigration had my name and had turned up on my doorstep, so they’d connected the dots between us. However, suspicions didn’t count—it only mattered what they could prove.
Saying Aton had been here would be admitting I knew him, and I could be charged with harboring an illegal. However, if I could convince them he’d been and gone, they might go away long enough for him to sneak out and me to call Maridelle. I wished I’d spoken to her when I had the chance!
How had immigration found out? The only thing I could think of was that Jessie must have manually updated the IDA database, linking Aton’s name with mine to prevent the computer from kicking out another match. It probably triggered a notification to immigration. No doubt automated checks and double checks were built into the system.
“You missed him. He went to Shop-Mart,” I said and cringed. Nobody in my affluent zip code went to Shop-Mart.
“We need to verify that if you wouldn’t mind.” He motioned as if to enter.
“Actually, I do mind.” I tightened the belt around my waist and my grip on the door. “I’m not dressed; I’m getting ready to take a shower. You’ll have to come back later.”
“Toni? Who is it?” Aton said from behind me. “What’s going on?”