Page 31 of Blood and Bone
“Where are we?” Ari said, looking around and noticing several semis parked on the big lot. “Is this a truck stop?”
“Yeah, not one of the larger ones but the gas is cheaper here and they have a great selection of energy drinks in the cooler, better than the Flying J.”
“Okay, I could use one too,” Ari said. He reached for the car door handle when Eoghan stopped him.
“Hang on…there’sah…something you should know about—”
A loud rapping at his window almost launched Ari right out of his seat. He looked up and spotted a beautiful woman with long, red hair standing just outside his door, bending down just low enough for him to glimpse her ample cleavage. He stared at her boobs for just a second before lifting his gaze to her eyes. She smiled widely at him, then pursed her bright red lips in a kissing moue before she spoke.
“Well, hey, good lookin’. How’d you like a date?”
Ari gulped as he stared into her eyes. They were the most gorgeous shade of green with amber rings surrounding the irises. He rolled down the window and she immediately leaned closer, putting a hand with brightly painted nails on the door, half inside the car. The odor of cheap perfume hit him in the face like he’d been sprayed with it.
“Oh, ain’t you a gorgeousss man?” She made a purring sound with a little bit of a hiss thrown in for good measure. “Where’d you get thossse beautiful hazel eyesss?”
He heard Eoghan move behind him, and he glanced over at him to find that he’d ducked his head and was leaning across the center console so she could see him. The smirk he wore on his face was devilish.
“He’s not interested, Laycee.”
She ducked her head so she could see him, and when Ari looked back, the woman’s eyes were glowing so neon green, it almost scared him to death.
“Well, if it ain’t Eoghan Sssapphire? How unhappy I am to sssee you!” The deepest voice Ari had ever heard came bellowing out of the woman, freaking Ari out even more. He scrambled away from the window as she stuck her hand into the car and flipped Eoghan off with her middle finger, tipped with a scarlet talon-like nail. “Asshole!” she shouted as she turned away from the car.
Ari clamped his hand over his heart which was thudding in his chest so hard he felt like he’d just run a marathon. He watched the female—whatever it was—walk away wearing the shortest, tightest leopard-spotted dress he’d probably ever seen. Then he sat forward, blinking rapidly as he tried to clear his vision, unsure of what he was seeing as Eoghan roared with laughter beside him.
Ari stared in open-mouth shock as a long, green tail became visible at the hemline of her dress, seeming to get longer as she sauntered away. It swished back and forth behind her as she strolled back across the lot toward the line of trucks for a few seconds before retreating back underneath her dress where it was once again, hidden from sight.
When Ari could finally catch his breath, he jumped again as Eoghan’s hand landed on his shoulder. He winced as the top of his head hit the Charger’s roof liner and then turned back to his lover with a curse on his tongue when he homed in on the near hysterical laughter.
“Oh…my…God…” Eoghan gasped, laughing between breaths. “You should have seen your face.”
“Oh, my God! Youarean asshole!” Ari practically shouted. “What the fuck was she—ah—he—ah—that?” He shook his finger at the retreating figure.
“That’s Laycee, an alien cephalopod, basically a member of the molluscan class of Cephalopoda.”
“Cephalopod?” Ari asked.
“You know, squid…octopus…cuttlefish…nautilus…does any of this sound familiar?” Eoghan asked.
Ari hated the smile he wasn’t even trying to hide. “You fucking asshole. You couldn’t even warn me?”
Eoghan shrugged. “I tried.” He paused as he looked at him with something akin to pity. “What? If I warned you about every alien living in Central California, I’d never have any fun at all. Besides, Laycee has a filthy mouth but she’s completely harmless and a very popular lot lizard with the trucker crowd around here.”
Ari narrowed his eyes, wondering why he shouldn’t hate the beautiful man sitting in the driver’s seat beside him.
“Lot lizard?”
“Lot lizard…you know…a hooker who turns tricks with the trucker boys,” Eoghan replied with a smile.
“The trucker boys?”
“Yeah, mostly long haulers. Those guys are away from home and their women for days at a time, even weeks. They gotta get their entertainment someplace.”
“And they get their entertainment from the alien cephalo—whatever lot lizard crowd, do they?”
“Cephalopod,” Eoghan said, still chuckling. “I told you that you need to study up on your scientific classifications.”
“Yeah, and I somehow missed the chapter on alien lot lizards,” Ari said.