An Office Alien Christmas Collection (Office Aliens Book 5)

by V. C. Lancaster

  “You look so cute!” she cried.

  “But also hot and fearsome, right?”

  She laughed. “Right.”

  He readjusted the hat on his head, and then they worked through the rest of their gifts in the stockings. Helpfully, many stores had marked their ‘stocking-filler’ sections, and so he had bought Maggie a bag of chocolates shaped like snowmen, a small bottle of perfume with a cartoon princess on it, a pen with a big fluffy creature on the end, and a stack of sticky-notes that had ‘I’m gorgeous’ written across the top. He had liked that. She could take them to work. She laughed and cooed and thanked him for each one.

  She had bought him a box of pink choba that made his jaw drop. She chewed her nail as she watched him. He couldn’t remember ever seeing so much in one place.

  “I had to get a box, that’s why it’s taped like that,” she said. “I hope it’s still good. They said I didn’t have to put it in the fridge but-”

  He kissed her, hard, until she fell over backwards and he followed her down to the floor. He was quite happy to lie on top of her on the carpet and show her his appreciation, but she broke the kiss with a “Mmph, you like it then?”

  “I love it.” He’d become a bit more accustomed to receiving gifts on Earth, but this… Pink was his colour, but the choba was one of the most expensive. On Teiss he could never have afforded this much, and certainly no one would have bought it for him. He’d thought those days were over, that no one ever would.

  “You have other presents too…” Maggie prompted him, and for her sake he sat up to open them. He could have kept kissing her, if it was up to him, but he was starting to warm to Christmas gifts.

  Inside his stocking, in their paper, was a selection of things that told him Maggie had gone shopping in the Teissian market at the dorms. There was a new file for his claws, more oil for his scales, a Balin pen in a box with choba inks. He thanked her for each one, as she watched him and worried her nails with her other hand.

  With their stockings empty, Ro picked out the small box from the pile under the tree and put it beside him, half out of sight.

  “I thought that was for me?” Maggie said.

  “I want you to open it last. Open the others first.”

  They took turns. Maggie opened a set of pink flannel pyjamas. He did love her in that fabric, and looked forward to cuddling her in them. She laughed and handed him a big soft parcel that turned out to be a fluffy black bath robe. From the way she reached out to pet it, Ro suspected her motivation had been the same as his.

  With that thought in mind, he passed her a narrow box roughly a foot long. When she unwrapped it, her eyes widened and she laughed again, but this time her cheeks stained red.

  “Wow…” she struggled, reading the details on the vibrator’s box. It was pink, like his favourite, but had more features. It promised great results. Maggie seemed lost for words though.

  “Is it not a good gift?” Ro worried.

  “Maybe more of a Valentine’s Day thing, I wasn’t expecting it on Christmas, but…” She kissed his cheek, and when she spoke again, her voice was a little huskier. “I’m sure I’ll love it.”

  His next gift was a pair of Balin shorts she’d clearly had made specially for him. They were black, with thick cuffs and waistband embroidered with pink and glittering thread. They were fit for a clan chief. He traced the patterns with his claws for a moment. This, on top of the choba… Maggie made him feel like a king. He knew he wasn’t, but that was how she made him feel.

  He thrust two of her presents at her, eager to repay her, his words failing him.

  One was a charm bracelet he’d had strung with single beads in black and pink for him, and brown and blue for her hair and eyes, with crescent moon charms dangling either side of a little silver telephone, commemorating how they had met.

  Maggie blinked back tears and put the bracelet on as if she intended to never take it off again.

  “I love it,” she whispered. Ro thought she might feel about the bracelet the way he felt about the shorts, except he almost didn’t dare put them on.

  In the other box was a pair of earrings, crescent moons studded with pink and black gems. When Ro had been thinking about what to get her, there seemed to be a theory that women liked jewellery for Christmas, and it looked like it was true. Maggie didn’t put the earrings on right away, but she did hold them up to the light and say “Now we match.”

  “Now you can carry me everywhere with you, and everyone will know who your mate is.”

  “They’re perfect.” She laid them back in the box and put them carefully to one side, her voice thick. “Let’s open Kez and Bia’s gifts.”

  She passed Ro his two, and laid her own in her lap. Ro had been surprised that Kez wanted to exchange gifts this year. He strongly suspected it was Bia’s doing, especially when Maggie insisted he also get something for Kez, saying Bia had told her Kez would get him something. It was clear which gift was Bia’s, practically mummified in pink ribbon, and he eyed Kez’s sober brown lump with something close to trepidation. What would a male like Kez get his best friend for Christmas? He had reformed a little after mating Bia and leaving DETI, but Ro had no doubt he still had all his old connections.

  Maggie opened her gift from Bia first. “Uhh… I’m not sure if this is lingerie or if she expects me to wear it out…” She held up an assortment of sky blue string by what could be shoulder straps, and looked to him for help. There was at least the suggestion of breasts in the structure, but honestly, given what he had seen Bia wear, he wasn’t sure either.

  He ran one of the vertical strands between his claws. “We will have to experiment…”

  Maggie snorted. “Yeah, right, mister.”

  “No?”

  “Let’s just see what she got for you.”

  Ro swallowed, then unwrapped a little two-bottle kit of nail polish, labelled ‘Strawberries and Cream’, with a sheet of gems tucked behind them.

  “Aww…” Maggie said, leaning over. “Pretty!”

  Ro met her eyes, catching the glint of mischief there.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll show you how. You can borrow my top coat!”

  He hummed, not wanting to engage and provoke more teasing. “What did Kez get you?” he asked, changing the subject. He watched her unwrap it, feeling a prickle of jealousy at another male buying his mate a gift. If it was too nice, he might have to claw Kez the next time he saw him.

  It was a small book, and when Maggie read the title, she frowned, then clapped her hand over her mouth, looking at Ro as if she didn’t know if she should laugh.

  “What?”

  She turned it to him. How To Care For Your Lizard, with a photo of some small Earth reptile. Just like Maggie, Ro was confused at first, then he realised he was supposed to be the lizard for which Maggie was to care. He made sure to look unimpressed. He could just imagine Kez laughing himself silly over it.

  “Very funny, thank you, Kez,” he said, taking the book from Maggie’s hand and laying it down with her other gifts.

  “What did he get you?”

  “Let’s find out.”

  He’d bought Ro ‘heat pads’, evidently intended to soothe muscle pain, but Ro knew exactly what Kez was thinking by getting these, that they might be a safer alternative to the stimulant that had put Ro in the hospital.

  “Mm-hmm.” Maggie took them out of his hands, her lips turned down, and put them behind her out of his reach. “You can have the lizard book.”

  Ro and Maggie had gone shopping together for presents for Kez and Bia. Maggie had wanted Ro’s advice as a Balin. In the end, Maggie had bought Kez a new belt for his robes while Ro had bought him a decorative Balin box. For Bia, Maggie had bought her a necklace, and Ro had bought her some foreign coffee that looked fancy.

  There was one present left under the tree, not counting the small one Ro was guarding. It was a box for Ro, and Maggie pushed it towards him with a smile.

  “One left,” she said.

&nbs
p; He didn’t want it to end. He didn’t know what would happen next. He knew Maggie was planning on cooking a big meal, but would Christmas be over then? He didn’t want it to be, he was enjoying it. And after this present, he had to give Maggie hers. And now he was nervous. He hadn’t been before, but now the moment had come… What if she didn’t like it?

  He peeled off the paper on the box, revealing a headset that promised to fit Teissians. He had a special earpiece at work, but he wasn’t allowed to take it home.

  He smiled. “Thank you, Maggie.” She was so thoughtful. Even now, she tried so hard to make his life easier.

  Her smile faltered. “You don’t like it? I know maybe it’s a bit boring but-”

  “It’s not that. Of course it’s not that.” He leaned over to kiss her cheek, his claws getting tangled in her hair for a moment. He brought her last gift around. “You have one last present too.”

  “Oh.” She took the box, small enough to fit in her palm. She worked the paper off and smiled at the small velvet case. She popped the lid back, and her mouth fell open. “Is this… Is this a diamond ring?”

  She looked at him and he smiled. “Well, I hope so. They said it was.”

  She was still staring at him as if waiting for something more, as if it didn’t make sense. He didn’t like that look, so he dropped his eyes and cleared his throat, and scratched the point of his claw against his foot.

  “Is it… Ro… Is this an engagement ring?” she whispered.

  “Oh, right!” he suddenly remembered, and arranged his legs so that he had one knee on the floor, like he’d seen on TV. Not easy for a Teissian. “Is this right?” he asked.

  Maggie looked like she’d fall over if she wasn’t sat down. “Are you asking… me… to…?” She covered her mouth with her hand as her eyes took in his pose, jumping back to the ring.

  So she wasn’t saying no. She just didn’t know what he was asking. He’d seen women on TV say yes without the words being spoken, if a man got down on his knees and showed her a ring, but clearly Maggie needed to hear the words. He took her free hand, lifting it gently in his, and it was limp with shock. He didn’t know if that was good or bad.

  “Maggie… My life was nothing before I met you. You have changed… everything for me. You have made this new world a paradise. You make this life the dream I never thought I would get. I… I couldn’t live without you. I wouldn’t want to. It would be a nightmare. I need you in my life to ever be happy. So please marry me.”

  Her hand closed over his, squeezing his knuckles, then she launched herself into his arms. She hugged his shoulders and cupped his head as he pulled her into him. “Yes! Yes, I’ll marry you! I love you, Ro.” She sniffled in his ear, and his eyes closed in relief. She was his, she felt the same way.

  Maggie pulled back to see his face. “Are you sure? It’s a human custom, and you call us mates already, and I don’t mind that, or if you have a ceremony you want to do instead-”

  He pulled her back in, touching her forehead to his. “We don’t. The Balin don’t have… forever. This is forever, that’s what I want.”

  Maggie laughed, her cheeks wet with tears. “I love you,” she said again, kissing him. “Best Christmas ever!”

  She kissed him again, but now she had said yes, even with her lips against his, Ro began to second guess it. Surely she didn’t mean it, surely she hadn’t considered every angle? He broke away. “You don’t mind a husband who can’t see in daylight? A basement bedroom for the rest of your life? I can’t give you children, or have sex with you-”

  “Shhh,” she interrupted him, her expression soft, but her tone fierce. “I don’t mind any of that. I love you as you are. I don’t mind your lenses, your eyes are magical in the dark and they feel like my little secret. I don’t mind sleeping in the basement, it’s cosy. I’m too young for kids yet, and we have options for the future. And you do have sex with me. What we do together, that’s sex, that’s making love, however we do it, whether you’re in heat or not, okay?”

  He nodded.

  She stroked her thumbs over his cheeks, her fingers down the back of his head, his neck. “I’ve never had anyone take care of me the way you do, love me the way you do,” she whispered.

  “Maggie, you… you’re…” Ro shook his head. He couldn’t think of the words. She was too perfect to be real and he was never going to let her go.

  She kissed him again, slow and gentle, letting their tongues meet and touch just as their feelings crossed the space between them to settle in each other’s hearts.

  Adult Balin weren’t physically capable of crying, but when Maggie finally pulled gently away from him, and it hit him again that she had said yes, he understood why she was. He felt heavy with it, a love he could barely carry, the weight of hers almost too much on top of his own; almost, but not. It would never be too much.

  She reached behind her, looking over her shoulder as he clung to her until he found a new balance, a way to carry this new weight. “Now where’s my ring?”

  He loosened his hold enough that she could reach it, pulling it from the box and sliding it onto her finger between them, both of them staring at it. It was loose on her ring finger, so she switched it to her middle finger.

  “We’ll get it resized,” she said, pecking his lips with hers before he could apologise.

  He chased her, kissing her slowly and deeply, trying to tell her everything he felt. When they broke apart, there was nothing more to say. ‘I love you’ had been said a hundred times, and would be said a hundred more, and even then it wouldn’t say enough.

  “Merry Christmas, Maggie.”

  “Merry Christmas, Ro.” She jerked in his arms, eyes flying wide. “I have to call my parents!”

  He tightened his hold on her. “Not yet,” he said. “Stay.”

  She relaxed again, and for the rest of the morning, they just held each other, ripped wrapping paper and presents lying ignored on the floor, food in the kitchen remaining uncooked. The chores could wait, Christmas could wait, the whole world could wait as Ro held his mate, and soon to be his wife, in his arms and discussed what they wanted for their wedding. Maggie said a Christmas wedding would be the most romantic, the most meaningful for them. Ro didn’t think he could wait another year, and argued that a spring wedding would also be nice.

  “Weddings take a long time to plan, you know. There’s no way everything would be available by spring. We need a venue, I need a dress-”

  “Maggie, what do you want? Do you want a Christmas wedding?”

  She looked down at the ring glinting on her finger, turning her hand so that the diamond caught the light. “I think so,” she answered quietly. “It would be so romantic! We could have glass beads on everything like ice, and everything would be white and silver, and-”

  He squeezed her to interrupt. She turned her face up to him, her eyes big and worried. “If you want a Christmas wedding, then it will be a Christmas wedding,” he promised her.

  “You’re sure? You don’t mind?”

  “I don’t mind. You’ll just have to keep me entertained until then,” he purred.

  She smiled. “I can do that.”

  Bia

  1

  Bia was very careful this time, and had made sure to turn off the sound effect on her Gadjit’s camera. Light was the problem in their dark basement bedroom. She hadn’t yet figured out a way to light the space enough for a good photo without waking Kez. This morning, she was testing whether the Gadjit’s flash would be brief enough not to wake him.

  It was hard enough for her to see to get into position, but Balor weren’t totally without night-vision, it just wasn’t as good as a Balin’s, or in Kez’s case, a half-Balin’s. When she woke up in the mornings, she could generally see well enough to creep around to his side of the bed. Sometimes he felt the bed move when she got up and she had to pretend to be going to the bathroom. Sometimes she woke up with his arms around her and knew she wouldn’t be going anywhere.

  Today, sh
e’d been lucky. She stood crouched by his side of the bed, carefully getting the framing right on her photo. If it was up to her, she’d prefer the sheet to be a little lower, but she couldn’t risk moving it and waking him.

  Kez was asleep on his front, his face turned to the camera, and his arms wrapped around the pillow. The sheet sat at his waist. The muscles in his back and arms made Bia a little giddy, but she held in her squeal of delight. She was not going to blow this opportunity.

  She took a moment to appreciate it. Her mate was seriously smoking hot. Even if he was older than her and everyone else acted like they couldn’t see it, she could, and she thanked the gods, the fates, whatever, for marking this male as hers so she would know from her first sight of him.

  It was a moment too long.

  “Bia,” he growled, not opening his eyes or indicating in any other way that he was awake. “What did I say?”

  Bia made a snap decision. She could hide her Gadjit and fake innocence, or she could get her photo.

  She pressed the button, a white flash blinding them both and making Kez groan. He pressed his hand against his eyes. Bia tried to blink away the spots.

  “Stop taking pictures of me sleeping!” Kez snarled, lunging from the bed to grab her and pull her down on top of him, making her shriek. “Give me that!”

  “No!” Bia flailed, laughing, trying to escape and save her Gadjit, but Kez’s arm was like iron across her stomach.

  “Delete that photo!” he growled in her ear, wrestling her down and trying to pin her, but he only had one arm free and she could keep it out of his reach.

  “Never! I’m going to make it my background!” she yelled.

  He fought her onto her back then straddled her stomach, the silk shorts he wore to bed hot from being under the covers with him all night, and Bia licked her lips, momentarily distracted. Kez used that lapse in attention to lunge over her head and grab her Gadjit.

  “Noooo, Kez! Don’t delete it!” she cried.

  He paused, looking at her with narrowed eyes. She pressed her hands together in prayer and tried to make herself look cute, her eyes big.