Free Forbidden Love by Kaye Manro Page B

gone wrong. The Astro Space Association conducted numerous, stupid tests in the rural desert regions. She’d like to kick their pompous asses. They should have realized a research project was under way near here. They’d just destroyed the lizard creatures’ habitat, something she worked hard to preserve.
    She scoffed. If the decision makers listened to her father’s advice and spent more time developing astro-technology instead of putting so much energy into fighting wars, their blundering attempts at space travel might succeed. Throwing her annoyance aside, she strode forward, deciding she should render aid to the injured Astro pilot. Once she got home, she’d put in a call to the ASA in case they were too dumb to realize where their latest experiment landed. After seeing that the pilot had no obvious injuries, she dragged the limp body to her Jeep and headed toward her Adobe style home.
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Two
     
    Thanks to her research grants, Maya had a fully equipped lab to conduct wildlife studies. She tugged and pulled until she’d hauled the unconscious pilot onto an exam table. Then, she started cutting away the spongy, tight material encasing his body.
    Her heart pounded when she saw what lay beneath. She couldn’t believe it. Translucent, miniscule scales covered his russet and blue-tinged skin. A striking face boasted contoured features with a smooth, high forehead and gentle sloping nose. Shiny, ginger-black hair hung over his sinewy shoulders.
    No way had he’d come from the ASA Space Program.
    A chill rose inside her. Where the hell did he come from? Incredible. She stared at the handsome male with traces of what appeared to be reptilian DNA. Stumbling backward, she tried to quiet her stunned mind. Oddly enough, she wasn’t afraid. In fact, a curious sense of calm discovery pervaded her.
    All her life, Colin primed her for it, pounded it in her head even though the scientific community, as well as those ASA bastards, shunned her father’s theories. He searched until the day he died. He believed intelligent life existed everywhere in the universe and that it had evolved from diverse species—primates here, reptiles there, even aquatics. It looked like her dad’s Reptilian Evolutionary Theory must be true after all. Damn it, she wished he could be here right now to witness this phenomenon. It would validate all he had lived for, even if only for his own satisfaction. And hers.
    She stared at the unconscious alien. He was an alien; she knew it, though she didn’t know how he came to be here or why. A sexy alien from who knew where, right here, right now, lying on her exam table.
    “He’s not from around here,” she mused. Nowhere near. He had to have come from some other planet.
    Then, it donned on her. He’d caused the massive sand storm, or rather his spaceship had. A little closer with his descent and he would have landed smack on top of her. She bet that was exactly what hid beneath the strange, mammoth sand dune. How had he hid it? Stealth technology advanced beyond the capabilities of this world for sure she guessed. She wondered if he was a nonviolent alien. He had no weapons she could detect.
    She decided to toss caution aside and go for peace, a lesson she’d learned well from her anti-establishment father. She wanted to believe in a non-aggressive universe, not in the old cliché of aliens enslaving cultures and taking over a world kind of stuff. She squelched any remaining trepidation and turned back to her patient. He hadn’t moved and his body looked lifeless. He needed her help.
    After sucking in a large gulp of air, she went to work setting up heat lamps around him and checking his body for injuries. If he were anything like the reptilian species here, his cool blood had to have warmth. Excitement coursed through her as her fingers moved over his chameleon-like skin, hairless and silky under her touch. It felt like cool, wet velvet. Her hand grazed the slightly scaled