Bia grinned. She didn’t need him to say “I love you” when he said things like that. She kissed him, enjoying his chest under her hands and his arms around her waist a little too much because he pushed her away, his crest half up, and she realised it hadn’t been the quick kiss she’d intended.
He pushed the plate of food towards her and cleared his throat. When he spoke, his voice was deep and rough. “Take that. We need to fill you up.”
Bia’s insides clenched, and her eyes flicked to his face.
He hissed low and quiet. “With food. With food,” he repeated, as if he needed to convince both of them.
“And that?” Bia said, pointing at the punch. None of what he’d given her to eat was Christmas food, it was all just normal stuff she could get at the canteen. She wanted Christmas.
“We can share one,” Kez caved, unable to deny her after a kiss like that. He poured a cup, and hurried her over to a table with a hand on her back.
They sat down, and he watched her eat like he thought her life depended on it. She forced him to take a few bites. He needed his energy as much as she did, and she resolved to go back for more in a rare rational thought breaking through the fog of hormones in her brain. He sipped the punch, pulled a face, then pushed the cup toward her. She eagerly helped herself. It was warm, with a sharp, fruity taste, seasoned with spices. She’d watched enough day-time cooking shows to guess at cinnamon or nutmeg, and cranberry. It felt like it softened inside her, warming and easing. She drank some more while Kez picked off her plate.
She looked around the room. They hadn’t been there longer than half an hour by her guess, and there weren’t many people. The music was playing, but people were too self-conscious to dance yet. There was a Volin standing next to a Volon in the opposite corner, and Bia wondered if she had to be wary of them smelling her heat. She didn’t think so, or Kez would be sitting much closer. They might smell it, but even if they knew what it meant, they might not be interested. It had been a shock to her, alright, when she first learned on the transporter ship that some people could have sex all the time and didn’t have heats.
Maybe Kez noticed her looking, or maybe he was lost in his own thoughts, because he asked out of the blue, “Has a male ever danced for you, shalzai?”
Bia looked at him, but his expression was pensive more than anything, wistful maybe. He didn’t seem to be offering, or asking out of jealousy. She knew Balin males got together to dance and show off in the days before a heat to entice a female to pick them as their partner but…
She shook her head and looked down at her plate, fiddling with it and tearing a leaf into strips. “The Balor don’t,” she said. “My parents would have chosen my husband for me…” Her parents had been killed when the Ypex, the invasive bug species destroying Teiss, had reached their home. She had fled underground, thinking of the Balin as farmers or servants of her family, people who would help her, not understanding they were being forced to work against their will and hated the Balor. She’d begged for help in the dark, listening to voices discuss whether or not they should just kill her, before Til had shown pity and taken her in. “And the Balin… didn’t. I was kept away, when heat was coming. The tribe made it pretty clear I wasn’t welcome, and while I might have been able to- to pick up a straggler, Til made sure I knew that any male I mated with would probably be angry after heat was over. No one wanted a Balor mate.”
Kez grunted. “Or a half-Balor child,” he said, pointing his thumb back at himself.
Bia looked at him. She supposed that was something they shared, being rejected. Bia preferred all the other things they had in common to that, but… If the Ypex hadn’t come to Teiss, and none of them had been evacuated… If she’d somehow stayed with the Balin, would she have had a child like Kez? Would her children have struggled as much as he had?
No, she resolved. He had told her that his mother had loved him as best she could, but that her life had been easier after she had pushed him out of her home. Bia would have loved her child more than that, even if their imagined Balin father hadn’t. She would have made sure of it. Even if the rest of the world rejected them, Bia would have made them a family.
Then, she realised with a jerk, if she had children here, now, in this life… Of course they would be like Kez. They would be his children. Because he was her mate and she would never have another.
It was a risk she had stopped thinking about. They had shared a few heats now, and the tea he gave her seemed to be working, he’d never got her pregnant. He insisted she was too young, that she should do other things first, and she had accepted that. She felt young, sometimes, and she’d only just got Kez to herself, she didn’t know where a baby would fit. She wanted to be the one he took care of for a little longer before they added to their family. She didn’t know what pregnancy would do to her body, she didn’t know how to look after a baby, and she didn’t know how to be a mom instead of just Bia.
But.
She knew Kez would make an amazing father. She wanted a little one of him. She wanted to see him holding a baby she’d made for him, that they’d made together. How freakin’ adorable and sexy would that be? Kez caring for her child? She knew she wanted that. Maybe not yet, but in a year or two. She knew the tea only decreased the chance of pregnancy, and wasn’t a sure thing, so they’d really only been lucky so far, a fact neither of them really talked about. If she got pregnant from this heat, she knew Kez would accept the child, of course he would. It might be inconvenient, but she wasn’t afraid of it.
In fact, with her hormones spiking as they were, she could definitely see the attraction in letting him put a baby in her. Her heart was racing, she was too warm, and every time she looked at him she just wanted to rip those robes off. She knew already just how easily they could come apart. Was it just her or was his crest thicker than usual?
He caught her looking and his eyes seemed to spark with dark promise, and she wished he didn’t have to wear his lenses so she could see their red. He laid his arm across the table to let his hand sit on hers, his claws stroking and sending vibrations up her scales. “I would dance for you, shalzai, but not this close to our heat. It is safer for everyone here if I stay by your side. Maybe another time.”
“It’s okay, I wasn’t thinking about that. I’ve already chosen you anyway.”
“Then what were you thinking about?”
She smiled, slow and subtle. “Guess.”
He made a low noise halfway between a growl and a purr and leant forward, for what she didn’t know, because he was interrupted by a woman with frizzy brown hair and big glasses appearing at their table.
“Kez?” she said, sounding surprised, but then sucking on the drink in her hand as if she couldn’t care less.
“Liz?” Kez replied, looking up at her from where he sat. He seemed surprised too.
Bia didn’t know this woman, and if Kez had taken his hand off hers, she might have been angry at her for interrupting them.
“I didn’t expect to see you here.”
“No, well… I’m here with my mate, Bia,” he explained, nodding at her. “And Ro and Maggie wouldn’t let me miss it.”
Liz nodded, her eyes appearing to both stare and see nothing through the thick glass. She flicked a glance at Bia, but didn’t say anything, her next comment directed to Kez. “It was bullshit that they fired you over office supplies.”
Bia froze, watching the exchange carefully, ready to tear this woman apart if she hurt her mate’s feelings.
But Kez seemed to be handling it. “I quit.”
“Good for you, wish I could quit,” Liz said, taking another drink.
“Is Jason here?”
“I haven’t seen him.”
Kez grunted in acknowledgement, and for a moment they just nodded at each other.
“Are you doing anything fun now?” Liz continued, as if she didn’t feel the strain.
“I work mostly with the Teissian community, buying and selling, that sort of thing.”
>
Liz hummed. “Well, it was nice to see you again anyway. If anyone deserved to get out, it was you.”
“You could quit,” Kez said.
She shook her head. “Bills. Kids.”
“Okay, then.”
Liz looked between him and Bia. “It was nice meeting you,” she said, then walked off without waiting for a reply.
Bia looked at Kez, startled by the strange woman.
“That was Liz. She sat opposite me when I worked here.”
“She doesn’t seem happy,” Bia said as delicately as she could.
“We had that in common. That’s probably why I liked her the most.”
Bia stared after the woman. She wasn’t jealous exactly, she knew Kez would be spending his heat with her, but… Kez had liked Liz the most out of his colleagues, and from the little Bia had seen of her, Liz didn’t seem to be anything like her. But maybe she was a little like Kez? Did that mean anything?
Before she could take the thought any further, Kez stood and pulled her to her feet. “Come. If I sit still, I’m worried more of my old team will try to talk to me.” He pulled her into his arms and over to the dancefloor.
“Wha-? Kez!” They had never danced like this, or danced together, or ever really… danced.
“You don’t want to? After begging me to bring you here, you don’t want to dance?”
“I-I don’t know how…”
“If Ro and Maggie can do it, so can we.” Bia heard his typical competition with Ro in his voice, and she smiled indulgently. She watched the humans around her, trying to find the beat of the music, and moving her feet in such a way that she wouldn’t step on Kez’s, and it was all so much harder than she’d expected! Especially when his arms kept her caged chest-to-chest and belly-to-belly with him, his thick robes shifting with their movements, making promises about the body underneath. She pressed a little closer, unable to stop herself from searching for his dick, just in case.
He growled in her ear, and her temperature spiked. She was so hot and ready, he could do anything to her on that dancefloor and she wouldn’t care. She just wanted- She wanted-
A noise behind her, a second voice, made her stiffen and turn, pressing into Kez as she did because she knew before she consciously realised that it was another male. She didn’t recognise him but he was Balin, almost-black with yellow colours. He smiled down at her as she did her best to broadcast that she was only interested in Kez.
“So, Kez, this is your little Balor. I heard you two had mated.”
“Dau,” Kez almost hissed, letting the other male’s name serve as all the greeting he was going to get.
“Hello, princess,” he teased her in Balor, holding his hand out for a shake. He was standing much too close. Bia hid her hand closer to Kez, and he was already moving to intercept her, taking her hand and covering it with his own.
“She doesn’t want to be touched,” Kez growled.
Dau’s eyes glittered wickedly. “That’s not what my nose tells me.”
Bia tightened her hold on Kez, though he probably didn’t notice with how hard he seized her against him. His crest sprung up, and he hissed for real.
Dau held up a hand, a lazy submission. “I won’t challenge you for her. I just wanted to meet her. I see it’s a bad time, though why you’re even here, I don’t know. Just take her home if you don’t want a fight.”
He stepped back, turning slowly, walking away from Kez’s challenge but not like he was in any hurry.
“Take me home,” Bia said.
“You’re sure?” Kez was still watching Dau, making sure the male didn’t come back.
“Yes, I’m ready now.”
3
That got Kez’s attention. He looked down at her sharply. Seeing him defend her against another male and win, even in the polite way required of them on Earth, made her want him in a way she couldn’t put off. The party meant nothing anymore. The decorations, the music, the food, Christmas… It was all on the periphery, just a stage for what really mattered, which was her mate, her heat, and how much she needed him.
Kez nodded, pulling her off the dancefloor.
“We need to say goodbye to Ro and Maggie!” Bia reminded him even as her breath grew shallow and fast.
Kez curled his lip in a snarl at the delay, or at another male’s name on her lips, but he diverted their course and shuffled her along to where Ro and Maggie were standing.
“We’re going now,” he said, interrupting whatever conversation they were having.
“Alright,” Ro said, nodding, and Bia suspected he knew why.
“Thank you for the party,” Bia forced out. She stepped away from Kez for a moment, his hand catching at her side, but he didn’t drag her back when he saw it was Maggie she was going to hug. Maggie was small and soft as Bia draped her arms over her shoulders, leaning on her for a second. Bia realised she really shouldn’t be standing at this point. She wanted to lie down. Her strength and coordination was failing her.
Maggie patted her on the back. “You’re welcome, Bia. I hope you had a good time.”
Bia pulled herself away and staggered back to Kez, who caught her and propped her up with his arm around her waist again. Bia smiled, focusing on appearing normal.
“Thanks for making an effort, Kez, I know it’s not really your style,” Maggie continued.
“What?”
She pointed at his robes. “The red and green?”
He glanced down. “Oh. Yes. We must leave now.” He wasted no more time, turning Bia and hustling her to the door.
Bia let him take her weight. “Did you really dress in Christmas colours on purpose?”
He scoffed. “No.”
As he pushed out of the conference room and into the cool and quiet corridor, Bia noticed a strange feeling between her thighs as she walked. She slowed to a stop. It didn’t hurt, but it was sensitive, and felt as if it might hurt soon.
“What? What is it?” Kez asked, stopping with her.
“I… I think I’m…” This was silly. Why couldn’t she tell him? He was her mate. He knew her body. Why was she embarrassed? Was it because he had told her she shouldn’t go to the party, that she was pushing her luck, and she hadn’t listened? Was it because they were both fully dressed, standing in the open in a well-lit government office where she worked, and normally at this stage they were safely in their bed, naked with just each other to think about?
He stepped closer, concern plain on his face. “What?” he asked quieter, sensing her embarrassment.
She tilted her mouth to his ear. “I’m open.... and my scales are rubbing…”
His crest twitched and she heard his breath catch. He looked at her, his eyes darting over her face and down her body as she shifted awkwardly. She didn’t know what to do. She didn’t know how far she could make it. She didn’t want to rub herself raw before they even started mating. She couldn’t afford to hurt herself now when she had a three-day heat-fevered mating-frenzy in front of her.
It was just that normally she didn’t have to walk around at this stage. She’d messed up. She should have just listened to Kez.
“Oh… shalzai…” he breathed.
She sucked her lip into her mouth, waiting for him to fix it like he always did.
“Can you make it outside?” he asked. “Carrying you now would attract too much attention.”
She glanced in the direction of the doors. She’d have to make it to the end of the corridor, and then across the giant lobby. She didn’t see what choice she had. She nodded. Kez pressed a quick kiss to her temple.
“Okay, hold on to me.”
He wrapped his arm around her waist again, and she put her arm across his shoulders. She focused on walking, trying not to hurt herself, while he made an effort to appear as if everything was normal. It didn’t quite hurt, but the sensation, the stimulation where she was most sensitive, so sensitive now, in her heat… She whimpered, and Kez adjusted his hold on her. She needed him. She needed him now. The ache
was starting low in her belly, the fire that only he could put out, like a weight settling that she knew would turn sharp.
“Kez…” she moaned, turning her face to him and nuzzling his neck.
She felt him shiver against her. “None of that, shalzai. Just wait a few more moments.”
They made it together across the marble and out of the glass doors. It was still early evening and the light hadn’t faded yet. Kez slipped out from under her arm, holding her hips as if making sure she could stand on her own.
“I’ll bring the van there,” he said, pointing down the sloped concrete.
“No, Kez,” she complained, chasing him, trying to get back into his arms.
“Ssh, five minutes,” he said, pushing her away again. She could see how much it pained him to leave her, and that brought her back to herself for a minute. She couldn’t be selfish yet. She had to hold out a little longer.
She nodded, looking down so she could let him walk away.
“Here.” There was a pause, and then his top robe was draping around her shoulders. She looked up again, startled, her hands already settling it around her. She wasn’t cold, but it smelled of him, and if she was going to be left alone and in heat, even for a few minutes, she’d rather be wrapped in the tent-like excess of fabric that hid her entire body, even her toes.
Kez was left in the robe he wore underneath. It was full-length too, but it was sleeveless and thin, and Bia stared at him as if he’d stripped to his underwear. Not that he wore underwear, but… He looked revealed.
“Hurry,” she said, and he jogged away, his stride long and rushed.
Bia cuddled his robe around her, breathing his scent in and feeling the first weak stab of the pains that would assail her if they didn’t mate soon. She hoped no one came out and found her like this. The thought of the Balin from earlier approaching her when she was alone scared her. It wouldn’t normally, but heat changed things. All she wanted was to be alone and safe with Kez.
His van rocked to a stop at the base of the slope and she hurried to it. He pushed the passenger-side door open from the inside and she climbed in, letting out a breath of relief. She smiled at him tentatively. They’d made it. Kez pulled the van away and drove back into the parking lot, towards a far corner. It was mostly empty, since it was after normal working hours.
An Office Alien Christmas Collection (Office Aliens Book 5) Page 9