Aliena Too by Piers Anthony

to intercept that.
    â€œThat was amazing!” the director said as the show concluded. “You have surely performed professionally many times before! I am amazed we haven’t heard of you.”
    Gloaming opened his mouth. Lida almost threw herself between them. “My husband is tired. I must get him home immediately. You understand.” She bustled him off before the director could protest.
    She took him out the back way and got him to the car. Sam and Martha appeared, running interference. The four of them bustled into the car and drove off.
    â€œI had to do it,” Lida said. “His origin would have been exposed.”
    â€œIt may be too late,” Sam said as he drove. “They are already converging on the house.”
    â€œDamn! We can’t go home. I should have thought of this before I volunteered him for the role. It never occurred to me that success would be a problem. I was worried about failure.”
    â€œWe need to decide where else to go where we won’t be found for a few hours,” Martha said. “Until the authorities get a handle on the situation. We sort of threw them a curve.” She was busy with her cell phone, contacting key people.
    Lida had a flash of inspiration. “The beach!”
    â€œAt night?” Sam asked.
    â€œYes! It is time.”
    Sam didn’t argue. He headed for the beach. It was a two-hour drive, but certainly it was not where anyone would guess they were going.
    Lida took Gloaming’s hand. “You were magnificent!”
    â€œYou are pleased?”
    â€œOh, yes! I am going to show you how pleased I am. But now rest, until we get there.” She held his hand, as for sleep.
    Gloaming obediently slept. She had learned how to manage him in such respects.
    â€œWhen we get there,” she murmured to Martha, “let us go to the water and don’t interfere. This is special.”
    Martha nodded, understanding.
    They reached the beach at midnight. The lights were on near the resort areas, but the water was black in the night. Lida squeezed Gloaming’s hand, awakening him. “Take off your clothes. We’re going for a swim in the sea.”
    â€œThe sea!” he said, suddenly alert. He quickly got out and doffed his costume, which there had not been time to change.
    Lida got out of her own clothes and stood beside the car, naked. The night was warm and she knew the water would be too. That was ideal. “We’ll go together.” She took his hand and guided him toward the water.
    â€œLida, you know the effect the sea will have on me.”
    â€œI do. Gloaming, I love you.”
    He stared at her in the lamplight. Then he began to hum. It was a high single note, long sustained. He was singing, his style. It was the song of joy.
    They ran together to the water. They plunged in. Then he clasped her, still humming, and bore her down in the surf. He kissed her, still sounding the note, and his member plunged into her eager body. She felt the almost instant heat of his emission within her. It triggered her own response, and she climaxed around him, kissing him all the while.
    Then they subsided, while the waves surged around them. “Oh, Lida!” he said at last. “I have longed for this moment.”
    â€œSo have I,” she said, adjusting her glasses, which had somehow remained in place. That meant, of course, that Aliena knew. “But I couldn’t make my heart hurry.”
    â€œNow I am happy.”
    â€œSo am I.”
    â€œIf I may ask—”
    â€œIt was what I learned at the space station. Aliena is lonely and wants human company. She wants to be with Quincy, and he wants to be with her. But they couldn’t do it until I gave my leave, and I couldn’t until I was ready to love you. So it was time. Then when you performed so well in the opera—” She spread her hands in the water. “It was time,” she repeated.
    â€œIt was time,”