4
Later, she’d lost track of how many times they had mated, of what hour or day it was. None of that mattered. The only thing she cared about was her mate between her thighs and the delicious way he made her feel.
His arms were corded steel as he held himself over her, idly tracing his lips up and down her throat, across her collarbones and then back the other way to the point of her shoulder. His red eyes burned whenever he looked at her. It felt easy and desperate, as if she was always on the edge of hunger and he was always feeding her. It was primordial, like heaven or hell. All that was real was being naked in this bed with him, everything else was a dream, and all she had to do was breathe, and touch him, and moan.
“Kez…” she murmured, unaware of what she was going to say before she said it. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d spoken. “Do you want kids?”
“Hmm?” he murmured, the noise almost animal, a questioning trill.
“Kids, children… Do you want to get me pregnant?”
He muffled a grunt against her shoulder, and his next thrust was harder, deeper, rocking her up the bed. “Now is not the time to talk about that.”
“Why not?” she almost whined, her voice taken over by the surge of pleasure. He’d made her cups of the contraceptive tea like he always did, and she’d drunk them even though they were nasty, but just then she couldn’t remember any of the reasons they had for not letting him just breed her.
“Because-” He was interrupted by a gasp as her body tightened around him. “Because you might talk me into it.”
“Is that bad?” she panted, tilting her face up to his.
“Yes.” He stopped for breath. “We’ve already… made our decision.” Another pause. “And we shouldn’t change it when we’re…” A grunt. “In heat.”
She nuzzled into his throat and he groaned. “But you’d like to, wouldn’t you?”
“Bia, stop,” he rasped.
“Wouldn’t you?”
He shifted his weight to one hand and cupped her jaw with the other, his claws tender on her face even as his eyes narrowed and his expression twisted with a wicked smirk. “You bad girl. Of course I want to pump you full of me until you’re so swollen with my child you can barely walk.”
Bia whimpered. “Do it, do it,” she begged with her lips against his, close enough to touch. Kez shook his head, and Bia dropped back to the pillows. “Why not?” she whined again, her body crying out for it, demanding it.
“Because it’s only your heat talking, it’s not what’s best for you.” He moved again, repositioning her thigh higher on his waist and changing the angle of his cock so that she gasped. “And I always give you want you need,” he hissed, his eyes blazing. “Before I give you what you want.”
Bia squirmed under his quiet domination. She knew he was right, in the back of her mind. She knew it was only because he denied her when it mattered that she could act as spoiled as she did the rest of the time. She knew he was taking care of her, but that didn’t mean she had to make it easy for him. She grabbed his ass and pressed her face to his throat and bore down on his cock inside her until he shuddered and shook, and the burst of his come put out the fire inside her.
Her muscles turned to water as the need disappeared for a moment of clarity and she slumped against the mattress. Kez pulled himself out of her and collapsed onto his back beside her. They were both breathing hard, and for a moment neither of them spoke.
“Are you upset?” Kez asked quietly.
“No.” Bia turned her head on the pillow to look at him. “You did the right thing.”
Kez made a noise and tugged on her hand, so she rolled over to spread her limbs across his body as he welcomed her under his arm and into his side. She rubbed her face over his chest just to feel him.
“It could happen on its own,” he said quietly. “Every time we do this, we’re taking a chance. We don’t need to rush into it.”
Bia looked up at him, resting her chin over his heart. “But someday?”
She watched him consider her. “Is that something you want? With me?” he murmured, his lips so still she barely heard him.
She wrapped his ribs with her other arm and squeezed. “Yes. Do you?”
He blew out a breath and stared at the ceiling, frowning a little as he thought about it. “The idea of being a father still scares me…” he said, then turned his eyes back to her. “But making you a mother doesn’t scare me at all. Why is that?”
Bia shrugged, then smiled. “Because you love me?”
Kez returned her smile, his soft in a way he rarely showed her outside of their bedroom. He ran his hand over her head. “I do.”
She crawled up his body to kiss him gently, straddling him and settling her weight on her hands and knees. “I love you too,” she told him. “Let me do it this time.”
He nodded, pushing his hands under the pillow under his head, his eyes becoming focused and intense, so she wriggled back until his cock was under her sex, then pushed him inside her again, her eyes rolling back with a moan.
****
Bia woke up, their heat over, and fumbled around for her Gadjit. She was tired and sore and thirsty, and she didn’t know what time it was or even what day. She lit the screen, and jerked back, her eyes going wide. It was the 25th! Christmas day!
She looked to the other side of the bed to tell Kez. He was still asleep on his back, his face turned towards her, his claws curling into his palm with his hand outstretched between them. He looked so peaceful, her words caught in her throat.
It might be Christmas, but…
She held her Gadjit up, getting him in frame. She snapped the photo, grinning as she examined it on her screen.
Kez growled, woken by the flash. “Still?” he grumbled, reaching for her arm and pulling her down on top of him without even opening his eyes.
Best to change the subject. “It’s Christmas!” Bia squealed.
Kez groaned and looped his arms around her waist to hold her to him. “We need to bathe, shalzai. I need to change the sheets, make breakfast…” He trailed off as if he was falling back to sleep.
“Noooo, Kez! It’s Christmas! We have to get up and- and-” And what, she wasn’t sure. Do Christmas. There should be presents and a tree and stockings and snow and sweaters and food, but Bia didn’t know if there really would be any of those things when she went upstairs. She had presents for Kez and Til, and Ro and Maggie had given them gifts too, but… Kez hadn’t shown any interest in making any preparations before their heat, and now they were out of time. “We have to at least go say hi to Til.”
Kez opened his eyes, blinking at the ceiling. He took care of Til as much as he did Bia, if in different ways. Bia knew he would want to make sure the old female was alright after three days on her own. His arms loosened around her and Bia grinned in victory, sliding off him and looking for something to wear. Her body was covered in his dried seed, but that didn’t bother her, not so much that she needed to race to the bathroom before she did anything else.
Kez groaned as he stood up and followed her, throwing a robe around himself and cinching it before turning back to the bed and stripping it.
Bia didn’t want to wait for that, leaving the bedroom and running up the stairs. Til normally slept later than they did when they had to get up for work, but it was already late in the morning, and as Bia looked around at the top of the stairs she heard her mother’s dry cackle.
“Still walking, I see,” she rasped in Balin, hobbling out of the living room to meet her. “That male of yours needs to try harder if he doesn’t want you to find another to give you a babe.”
Bia hugged her. “We’re not trying to have babies yet, Til.”
“Why not? Best way to keep a male around.”
“I’m not going anywhere, crone,” Kez said, coming up behind them and covering a yawn. “Best get used to me.”
Til just cackled again. “Good morning, Hashittekezaru. Where’s breakfast?”
“I’ll make it now,” he said, walking off to the kitchen.
Bia turned back to Til. “Merry Christmas, Til!” she cried, locking the hunched female in another hug.
Til huffed. “Christmas! What’s that? Human holiday.”
“It’s fun!” Bia said as she walked through to the living room, trying not to be disappointed when she saw there was, in fact, no tree and no pile of presents. She had her family, and that was what Christmas was really about.
Kez came in from the kitchen, a strange look on his face. “With all due respect, Mother, what the hell have you done in the garden?”
Til’s expression turned defiant. “What? You said a tree.”
“The tree is supposed to go inside the house.”
“Inside? That’s foolishness. You expect me to cut it down and carry it in? I’m too old for that.”
“What are you talking about?” Bia interrupted, her ears pricked at the word ‘tree’.
Kez sighed, and he smiled at her. “You should look outside.”
Trying not to hope too much in case it wasn’t what she thought, Bia went through into the kitchen to look outside, and gasped. One of the trees – not a pine tree, Bia knew that – was strung with tinsel and hung with baubles. Bia brought her hands to her face, looking behind her at Kez and Til.
Kez stepped up beside her, putting a hand to her lower back. “Til did it,” he said simply.
“I followed your instructions,” Til argued back, as if she didn’t want the blame.
“Oh, it’s beautiful,” Bia cried. She didn’t know who to hug first. The tree might not have been a pine tree, but it was still a Christmas tree, her Christmas tree. “Can we go outside?”
“You can look but I’m staying inside until I’ve washed,” Kez said, curling his nose.
Bia opened the back door and rushed outside. At the base of the trunk, their presents looked small and forgotten. Bia looked up into the branches. Til had wrapped one with coloured blinking lights, and tossed tinsel over the others so that it hung like willow. Baubles were wedged into the leaves. Bia had no idea how Til could have done it. She must have stood on a chair, and even then, she’d only been able to reach the bottom-most branches, so the full effect could only be had by standing directly underneath and looking up. It was beautiful, even in the middle of the day and washed out by the San Diego sun.
She turned back to the house and saw her mate and her mother watching her from the doorway. Kez was leaning against the frame, his arms folded and ankles crossed, and they both had soft, indulgent smiles on their faces. They had done this for her, she knew. Neither of them were interested in Christmas, but they had done it for her.
She ran back to them and seized them both in a hug. “I love you!”
Til returned her hug, Kez patted her back, probably trying to get her to release her chokehold.
“Merry Christmas, child,” Til said softly.
“Merry Christmas,” Kez repeated, and Bia squeezed them harder.
She pulled back after a moment longer. “I’m going to wash up so we can open presents!” she said, clapping excitedly, then rushing to the bathroom where she turned the hot water on in the shower. Normally Teissians washed their scales with oil and a cloth, but after a heat, hot water was the best way to rinse off what Kez had put on her, and it felt good on her sore muscles too. She liked to take baths and play with the bubbles and use bath bombs to turn the water fun colours, even if Kez grumbled about her drying out her scales, but she didn’t want to take that long today, not when Christmas was waiting!
She had been under the spray for about five minutes when the door opened and Kez climbed in with her.
“Kez!” she squeaked, affronted.
“What? You don’t want to?” he asked, reaching out to gather water in his palm then rubbing it over his crest. Bia hadn’t seen him do that before and it shut her up. He looked so handsome when he closed his eyes and tilted his face into the spray, his chest pressing against her back with his arm around her stomach to keep her steady. He shook the water off his face. “You’re shy? You don’t want me to see you naked?” His eyes twinkled, teasing her, reminding her without words that they’d both just come out of a heat when they’d done a lot more than see each other naked.
Bia didn’t reply, turning away so he wouldn’t get the satisfaction of seeing her give in. Kez unhooked the shower head and started washing her, the drag of his scales making her shiver. He went onto his knees and made her turn to face him, and the hot water drumming between her thighs meant she had to catch herself on his shoulders before she collapsed. It was almost as good as his tongue.
When he was satisfied every last speck of his seed was gone from her scales, she made him stand still while she did the same for him. She’d had him constantly for three days, so much her body throbbed from it, and yet as she ran her hands over his chest and he watched her with half-lidded eyes, she still wasn’t used to him. He still thrilled her.
When they were rinsed clean and out of the shower, Kez oiled a cloth for their scales, but Bia was too impatient for that.
“Kez, come on!” She tried to evade him, but the bathroom was too small for her to dodge around him to the door, so he got a few swipes in before she shook him off. He sighed as she pulled on her clothes and skidded out of the bathroom, tending his own scales instead.
Bia found Til in the kitchen. While the old female could prepare her own food, she preferred Kez to do it, and there was no sign she’d eaten anything that day, so Bia went looking for something quick in the fridge. From the looks of things, Til had already cleaned them out of Balin food over the three days she’d had to fend for herself.
“Do you want coffee?” she offered, since she was going to make herself one before she did anything else.
Til gave her a flat look. Bia was still the only Teissian she knew of who liked coffee. “No, baanda,” she said, the endearment taking the edge off.
As the coffee machine started up, Bia found a new bottle next to the milk, a small single-serving of eggnog. Her eyes went wide. They had the syrup at the café as part of a seasonal line, and it was nice enough, but she’d never had the real thing. She hadn’t asked Kez to get any. It hadn’t seemed important.
“That was on your mate’s list, though I don’t understand why,” Til said.
“List?”
“List, list! He gave me a list, and money. I had to go to the big human store.” She shuddered. Til’s English was poor, and she hated going anywhere that wasn’t predominantly Balin, or at least Teissian. She wasn’t afraid of it, she just found human spaces ugly and nonsensical. Kez and Bia took her out once a month to try to get her used to it, but she was full of complaints about everything, from the noises to the building materials.
“Kez told you to buy this?”
“Yes, he said it was ‘Christmas’.”
“You’re ruining the surprise,” Kez said, coming into the kitchen.
Til grumbled.
“You really got Christmas things for us?” Bia asked. The tree was already much more than she’d expected. The prospect of more… She wanted to know what it was, she wanted to have it now. It was so sweet of Kez to do this for her. He already did so much, but this… The whole holiday was pretty much the antithesis of his personality. He didn’t like cheery things, or sweet things. He didn’t like singing, or sitting around doing nothing, and presents made him uncomfortable with his history of stealing. He liked bright colours as much as the next Balin or Balor, but the shaded lenses he had to wear dampened their impact. If it was up to Kez, Bia knew he’d rather spend the day working as usual.
But he did it for her. He’d researched Christmas and made a list of things they would need, and given Til instructions, and she’d done things she hated to make sure Bia had a Christmas.
Was it possible for a heart to break from happiness? For years she’d had nothing, and now she had so much, she had everything. She didn’t know how to handle it. She looked between her mate and her m
other, her family, the people who loved her, and balled her hands up against her chest.
Then she grabbed Til into a hug because she was closest, pressing her face to the top of her head. “I don’t know what to say! Thank you! I love you!”
Til clicked her tongue softly, patting Bia on the back. “You deserve it, baanda, a nice day once in a while.”
Bia heard Kez come closer and let Til go to wrap her arms around his chest instead, squeezing as hard as she could, hoping he would understand how she felt. “I love you, Kez.”
He stroked her head. “It’s just food…” he hedged, uncomfortable.
“And presents.”
“And presents.”
“And the tree.”
“Well, I didn’t buy the tree, just the decorations, and Til is the one who-”
Bia put her hand over his mouth. “Thank you for Christmas, Kez.” When she thought his eyes looked agreeable enough, she took her hand away.
“You’re welcome,” he said. “Let me make breakfast, or lunch I suppose, and then we can open presents?”
Bia squealed gleefully and hurriedly got down her big coffee cup, then poured the eggnog in. She sipped it and smiled. It was thick and sweet. Other Teissians would find it revolting, not being fans of animal products other than small amounts of meat, but Bia liked it. She’d adapted her pallet to what the humans liked, and now she took an adventurous pleasure in eating things other Teissians wouldn’t.
Before it was all gone, Bia topped it up with coffee. That was bliss.
“Do you like it?” Kez asked, chopping vegetables and getting out tubs of quinoa.
“I love it!”
He allowed himself a small smile. “Why don’t you and Til go and sort the gifts and I’ll join you in a moment.”
Til held the door open, and Bia trotted happily out to sit in the grass under the sun and make three smaller piles out of the presents under the tree. A few minutes later, Kez came out with three bowls of rich salad that Bia gratefully helped herself too. She was starving after her heat, she hadn’t eaten enough.
An Office Alien Christmas Collection (Office Aliens Book 5) Page 11