Eyeing himself in the mirror once he was changed, he noticed that the teal shirt brought out the green in his blue-green eyes. They looked even more surreal now. Looking at the closed bathroom door, he hoped the effect didn’t make Missy’s interest in him worse; she was probably already picturing him naked. For a split-second, Kai wondered if Jessie would like this color on him. Pushing that thought aside and shaking his head to clear his wandering mind, he grabbed his regular clothes and opened the door.
Missy was staring at the door when he stepped through, and her pale eyes were narrowed intently, like she’d been trying to see through it. Lifting her gaze to his face, she didn’t seem even remotely bothered that she’d been caught. She fanned her face when she noticed his eyes, and Kai sighed. She definitely found the color appealing, and was even more intrigued by him. Kai was beginning to think that Missy might make his days here pretty long.
She gave him a broad smile that showed almost all of her teeth; her expression, plus her frazzled hair made her seem wild and untamed, much like the wilderness around them. “Holy crap, you are one attractive man.” Stepping right up to him, she casually asked, “You want to take me out?” Again, she didn’t look embarrassed in the slightest for being so forward.
While Kai pondered how to politely get out of this, Missy moved even closer, her hands reaching out for him. Backing away, he quickly told her, “I wish I could, but…I don’t date coworkers.” Frowning, she dropped her hands. Kai bit back a smile as he tried to look remorseful. “Sorry, personal rule.”
Missy eyed him up and down, then exaggerated a loud sigh. “Oh, too bad.” Brightening, she bumped Kai’s hip with hers. “Well, if you ever have an itch that needs…scratching, I’m your girl. No dating involved,” she added with a wink.
As Kai wondered what the hell he was supposed to say to that, Missy spun and turned away from him. Pausing at the exit, she looked back over her shoulder and said, “And, just so you know, I do…everything.” Her gaze flicked down to his pants, then she grinned and left the room.
“Jesus,” Kai muttered to himself. So far, Colorado had been very welcoming to him. Odd. Yes, he’d had his share of admirers in Hawaii, but nothing to this extent. Maybe his looks were just unique here. Back home, every third person looked similar to him. Well, maybe in coloring. He’d always been told that his eyes were unique.
Straightening, Kai raised his chin and adjusted his shoulders. He was a man, and he could deal with these forward women. Besides, he had no intention of taking Missy up on her outlandish offer. He was here to work, and that was it. But as he exited the room, he was a little curious what “everything” meant.
Thankfully, Missy was nowhere in sight when he stepped out of the supply room. Having left his regular clothes on a shelf in there, he adjusted the belt and equipment that Missy had left out for him. Feeling like a full-fledged member of the team, he looked around for his new boss, Mason Thomas. Not seeing anyone in the empty hallway, he made his way to the back, where Louis had indicated the labs were.
Right in front of a set of hermetically sealed double doors was a row of hooks with crisp white lab coats hanging off them. Kai slipped on a coat before entering the clean room. When the doors hissed open, Kai stepped in and took a look around the stark, white room. There were several cages holding small forest animals; most of them were waiting to have their health checked and recorded by a busy researcher before being released. Sizes, sexes, general health and diet samples, were all things they would be tracking. Keeping an eye on the welfare of the smaller creatures, gave the scientists an idea on the welfare of the larger creatures, right on up to humans.
Seeing stations set up for running those tests, along with various others, Kai spotted an older man standing by a honeycomb of bees encased in glass. It was getting close to the bees hibernation cycle, but Kai figured some swarms would still be active until the first frost. The bees outside in the hives were fumigated with smoke when researchers needed to study them. It didn’t hurt the bees, but drove them into a feeding frenzy. While preoccupied with eating, in preparation to flee from the approaching fire, the bees were mellower, less protective of their hives, and easier to capture.
The older man was bent over a table where he had a few bees pinned down. Not wanting to startle the man while he was obviously deep in thought, Kai stepped behind him and softly cleared his throat.
Straightening, the man twisted to face him, and Kai was the one startled. The older man appeared to be in his mid-fifties, his dark hair streaked with gray along the sides. He had the healthy tan of someone who spent a lot of time outside, his face lined and lived-in, and he was around Kai’s height and build. But none of those things had surprised Kai. It was the man’s eyes. Kai had never met anyone with eyes anywhere near his shade before. Most blue eyes that he’d seen were either a pale, sky blue, or fell into the blue-gray category. Kai’s were more blue-green, like a tropical ocean. The man meeting his gaze now, had eyes the exact same shade as Kai’s.