by Stone, Layla
Growing up on Yunkin with parents who were admirals, she had been taught to always be serious.
Which might be why she enjoyed Z’s light side. Giving herself permission to play back, she responded, “I’m pretty sure that’s not possible. I’m not a love-at-first-sight kind of girl.”
Z made a noise in his throat. “It’s not love at first sight with my shower, Pet. It’s love at first touch. I doubt you’ve ever experienced a shower like mine.”
She bit her bottom lip to keep from laughing. Another flush rushed through her. She was enjoying herself. Walking hand in hand, she marveled at how she didn’t mind touching his skin. She didn’t generally like being touched, but in that moment, she was not just okay, she actually soaked it in.
Z pushed open a door and walked into a dark marble bathroom. The shower was big enough to fit more than one person comfortably.
“Clothes off.” He clapped his hands.
His comment took her by surprise, and she crossed her arms, refusing to do so.
He chuckled. “It was a joke.” He pointed to the sink with the long counter. “You can leave your clothes there. I can get them cleaned later.”
He would clean them later? Wait a minute. “You don’t have to do that. I can clean my own clothes.”
Speaking as if he didn’t hear her, he added, “There is some fully versatile soap inside. It’s unscented so it won’t mess with your natural allure. Towels are in that closet.”
“Thank you?” Natural allure? Is he flirting?
“You’re welcome,” he said back.
He didn’t move to leave.
She didn’t take off her clothes.
He crossed his arms.
She hooked her hands on her hips. “You can go.”
“I’m lovely company. And I’m here to make sure you don’t take advantage of my showerhead.”
She forced herself not to smile. “I promise to be a proper lady and keep my hands to myself.” She watched him fight his own smile. She liked that. Which was why she added, “But if he’s naughty, well, I will have to put him in his place.”
That’s when Z’s eyes lit up. Lust, profound and hungry shone there. She hadn’t imagined it. He wanted her. Her.
She didn’t move, afraid of what she’d started, yet a small piece of her was devilishly excited that she’d been able to turn someone as handsome as him on.
“All right…” he said tightly. Then, just as stiffly, he turned to the door. Adelia glanced down and noticed that she really had turned him on, and that was no small thing.
10
How to Ruin Breakfast
Zane’s dick hurt. It was needy and swollen and there was nothing he could do. His stomach was also deprived, yet he had to wait for that, too.
It was like Adelia had been sent by Seth to torture him.
Back in the office, he powered on his Minky desk and looked for the nearest clothing shop. Once he found one, he pressed for a voice call.
Five minutes later, he ended the transmission after ordering Adelia a full set of clothes: a blouse, bra, skirt, panties, and shoes.
Ten minutes later, he was no longer interested in taking Adelia in the shower. Images of sustenance kept flashing in his mind. All his favorite foods, drinks, and desserts.
Twenty minutes later, Adelia’s clothes were dropped off, and she was still in his shower. Walking into the bathroom, he announced, “You’re going to wrinkle your pretty skin.”
The water turned off, and Adelia’s freshly showered face peeked out from the side of the stall. “Did you really just come in here?”
Holding out the clothes, he said, “Did you violate my showerhead?”
She glanced at the clothes and then looked back at him before answering. “Yes, but he wanted it.”
Zane’s blood thrummed. Hunger still shouted in his mind, but everything else urged him to rip off his clothes and join his naked body with hers.
Her small index finger pointed to the countertop. “Can you leave them over there?”
“Yes.”
“Thank you.”
So polite. If Z weren’t so twisted up, he probably would have told Adelia that she owed him, but he was too fixated on getting to breakfast. He placed the items on the counter and walked out without looking back.
Then he waited three seconds and peeked back in. She was still in her spot. Her eyes laughing.
“All right. I’m going.”
This time, he did.
* * *
It was a little cooler. The star at ten degrees from the horizon. Just a little past daybreak. He usually felt refreshed after a few hours of sleep. But not today.
“What kind of place are we going to?” Adelia asked while keeping pace beside him. The diner was a five-minute walk away, and parking was horrible, so he always walked. But five minutes seemed too long today.
“It’s a diner. Specializes in Terran food.”
“Terran? You miss home?”
Wasn’t that an odd question? “No. Terrans are our biggest customers. We don’t grow our own food, we ship it in. Most of our produce is from locally-run Terran farming moons.”
“You talk as if you’re not Terran.”
Clever female. He’d slipped. “Grew up here.”
Past the parking lot, he held his hand out to stop her from crossing the driving path. It was getting close to fifteen degrees, and most everyone in Eastend would be up. By twenty degrees, the diner would be packed.
Adelia stayed quiet until they were just outside the restaurant. “Teeda’s,” she said, reading the sign over the front door. “Is that the name of the owner, or does it mean something?”
Z grabbed the door and pulled it open. “Owner.”
Adelia walked in, and he followed. The room smelled of cooked meat and sweet breads. The walls were dark and speckled, the booths brown leather. Ten out of the sixty tables were full. The booths were stacked on top of each other so the place could fit more people. It was a brilliant design.
Z saw his table, noticed it was open, and walked to it.
Most mornings, he liked to talk to the other patrons, but he was past the point of being friendly today. He needed food.
Adelia didn’t look at him when they sat down. Picking up the menu from the table, she scanned the front and the back, then flipped it over again to read the front once more. He didn’t bother to pick up his own, he always got the same thing. The waitress, Sasay, walked over and grabbed his menu.
He was relieved that Sasay had walked over when she did. “Morning, Z, going to have your usual?”
“Yep. And make it a double order.”
“You got it.” She made a note.
Sasay gave Adelia the same friendly smile. “And you?”
“I have no idea what any of this is,” she muttered while reading the menu with pinched eyebrows. “Seriously, is this in another language?”
Born and raised on Yunkin and then spending time on a Krant ship, he hadn’t considered that Adelia wouldn’t know any Terran food. “Do you like sweet or savory foods?”
The menu tipped down, and he saw her narrowed eyes. “I like both.”
“What do you usually like to eat?”
“What I like isn’t on the menu.”
“I know, that’s why I’m asking. I can tell you food that’s similar.”
“I like salot pods topped with resspier sauce, cooked mahlt and neyna with crystalized sweetener.”
Sasay’s nose curled up. Zane knew that she didn’t know what any of that was, but it sounded like bacteria or a disease of some sort. “She’ll have a star breakfast plate and a cup of coffee with lots of cream and sugar.”
Sasay wrote down the order and took the menu. “Thank you, Z.”
He nodded at the female. The owner was a Red Demon, and he had plucked her up when another demon dropped her. She had been working for Teeda for at least ten years now. She was Terran, rounded, and in her late sixties. At her age, she was lucky she had such a good job with a
decent Demon.
Sasay walked back with their drinks. Z’s mouth was already watering for it. He took the glass of Demon liquor and milk and drank the whole thing. Then he set down the cup and burped.
Something strange happened when he did. He wasn’t satisfied. The drink didn’t do anything to push away his hunger.
“You must have the stomach of a scathy barbist. Alcohol and dairy sounds terrible.”
“I take it you’ve never had it.” He wished he had another glass, but he didn’t drink more than one before work. After work, he drank as much as he wanted.
“No, I’ve never had jubriaan with dairy.”
His mind and body were rioting for food now. Deciding against his norm, he looked around the room for Sasay. When he saw her at the counter, he held up his glass and pointed. She held up two fingers. He nodded, hoping that she understood that he wanted another, not two of them.
He watched as she poured the drink and brought it over. She set it down and grabbed his empty glass. Once she’d left, he pushed the glass in front of Adelia. “Try some. The dairy evens out the burn.”
She took the mug of coffee he’d ordered for her and put it to her lips. “No, thank you.”
Rude. “Try it.”
She drank her coffee instead. At first, she sipped it, then she curled herself into the drink as if it were fulfilling a piece of her soul. In a way, he was offended. No, he was jealous. He wanted her to feel that way for him. He pushed the drink at her again.
She ignored his efforts. “This is really good. What did you say it was again?”
For a moment, he was tempted to take the coffee and drink the rest himself so she had to drink his jubriaan. But he was not a lunatic. “Coffee. But mine is better. Try it.”
She shook her head. “I don’t like jubriaan.”
He knew that, but at this point, he wasn’t going to give up until she tried some. “Try it.”
She pushed back his glass. “I can’t. My saliva, remember?”
He didn’t remember. But that struck him. Her saliva. The glass he’d drunk from yesterday…could that small amount have actually affected him?
“Oh,” he said to himself, suddenly feeling uneasy.
Time ticked by, and his stomach rumbled.
Sasay brought the food and set the plates on the table. Forgetting about his drink, he unrolled the silverware and began cutting into his steak and eggs. He shoveled the food into his mouth, chewed and forked in more. Tasting nothing. Enjoying none of it. Not stopping until he was done with the plate.
When he was finished, he set the empty plate aside and spared Adelia a glance to see her plate. He noticed she was eating just as quickly as he had. Maybe it wasn’t her saliva, and he really was hungry. That put his mind at ease.
Taking the second plate, he pulled it in front of him and began cutting.
He was chewing the last bite of his second plate when Shine walked in.
His friend moved through the tables and clocked Adelia. Concern crossed his face but was gone before he grabbed a chair and pulled it up to sit at their table. “Knew I’d find you here.” Pointing at Adelia, he said, “Guess you decided to blitz after all, huh?”
Adelia had a piece of waffle speared on a fork, halfway to her mouth. She stopped and used said fork to point at Shine. “I don’t like you.”
Shine looked perplexed. Zane swallowed his food and kept his amusement in check.
Adelia shoved the waffle into her mouth and kept her head down to finish the food on her plate.
“Okay,” Shine said slowly, giving Z a what-in-the-hell look before he called out, “Sasay! Going to need a pulsar plate over here, and a jubriaan sunrise.”
“Another male with a scathy barbist stomach.”
Shine scrutinized Adelia. “I’m not sure if you’re complimenting me or insulting me. For your sake, I will take it as a compliment.”
Then, to Zane’s amusement, she picked up her mug and tilted it at Shine. “Let’s go with that.”
Shine drew his eyes from her to Zane. “I don’t like her.”
“I offered her a job last night.”
“Sounds like a horrible idea.”
“I’m sitting right here,” Adelia cut in.
Shine moved his hand to cover her face as he whispered loud enough for her to hear, “Between me and you, you didn’t mean it, did you?”
Adelia cleared her throat. “Sitting right here.”
Shine ignored her. Hand still in the air, he added, “And can you smell that? It’s like working next to a human-sized bag of potpourri.”
“Excuse me?” Adelia hissed.
“She smells like honey and pim to me.”
Shine sniffed. “Ah, that’s what it is. Pim fruit. Nasty stuff.”
“Hey!”
“I like it. It’s my favorite fruit,” Zane admitted, enjoying how riled up Adelia was getting. And he knew that Shine was enjoying it too, but the male kept a straight face. This was Shine’s payback to her for saying that she didn’t like him.
A Demon thing.
“You can’t hire someone based on how they smell,” Shine argued.
“I didn’t. She hasn’t officially accepted.”
Shine dropped his hand, finally looking at Adelia. “Good.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I’m officially accepting Z’s offer.”
Shine’s expression fell.
Sasay walked up to the table just then to drop off Shine’s drink with a big smile. Shine smiled back. “Thanks, Sasay. You are by far the best and most reliable worker I know.”
“Thanks, Shine.”
The waitress walked away, and Shine took a long drink. Zane watched, curious at their interaction. He knew that Shine’s comment to Sasay had been meant as a barb to Adelia. By the look on her face, she noticed too.
Zane had to put a stop to the conversation. Mainly because he was still hungry. Which meant that it wasn’t actual hunger. It had something to do with the Grach withdrawal.
He’d never known what that kind of withdrawal was like. He’d assumed it was the same as with Terrans when they detoxed from drugs or alcohol.
Hunger was a strange symptom. It made no sense.
Zane looked at his empty plate and glass. Adelia’s plate was cleared, too. They were done. “We’ll meet you back at my place.”
Sasay dropped off Shine’s food.
“Be there in ten.”
Adelia stood up when Zane did. Z grabbed a slice of bacon from Shine’s plate and shoved it into his mouth. He paid for his, Adelia’s, and Shine’s breakfasts and headed back to the warehouse, feeling even more hungry than before. He had to tell Adelia. Or, better yet, use the container.
The walk back was faster than their stroll to the diner. He was eager. Adelia kept up, but when they hit the parking lot of his place, she slowed down. “Okay, I’m done speed-walking, I’ll see you inside.”
“I wasn’t walking that fast.” The denial came naturally.
“Okay, sure.”
Instead of arguing, he slowed and walked next to her. She stopped several feet from the door and pointed at his shirt. “Um, I was serious. I’ll take the job, I need the money.”
“I was serious when I offered it to you,” he said, knowing she needed the money. Playing dumb was so much more satisfying.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” That was two times in one day. He could get used to her politeness. Demons were less polite and constantly weaving webs of lies.
His gaze lowered to her mouth, and he wondered if he should just tell her, and maybe get her to kiss him to see if it took away the gnawing irritation. If not, he always had the container.
His thumb tapped the side of his thigh as he spoke. “What do you know about the withdrawal symptoms for your kind?”
Dark eyebrows pulled together. “Why?”
“Because I may have accidentally drunk out of your glass last night after you left. I’ve been feeling…”
“What are you f
eeling?”
“Hungry.” He moved closer and lowered his head so they were inches apart.
He felt her small hands touch his chest, but she didn’t push him away.
“For a blitz?”
“No.” He didn’t elaborate. He moved his hand behind her neck, not pulling but holding. Then he lowered his mouth and brushed her bottom lip. “If I promise to be good, will you let me kiss you?”
“What do you consider being good?” she said back, breathing deeper. Her hand no longer just touched his chest, she gripped his shirt.
“I won’t hold a gun to your chest.”
“You’re going to have to do better than that.” She nipped his lip, and he felt his pants tighten. Sexy.
“I’ll treat you better than my showerhead.”
“Okay.”
Okay? He nipped her lip.
Her lips pressed together, she closed the distance. He brushed his lips against hers, feeling the softness. He wasn’t even inside her mouth, and he was already sure he could taste her. Z pulled her in closer, deepening the kiss, coaxing her to open.
Adelia gave in, opening her mouth so he could slide his tongue in. His taste buds fizzled as they took in her sweetness. He needed more. He took more, demanded more.
His blood buzzed, his chest warmed.
His body was alert and ready to take this to the next level. There was no way she didn’t notice, and he didn’t hide it.
He claimed and devoured her. She was not practiced, rather she was shy and hesitant. He doubted she had been kissed often. Thank Seth she was his to keep and train and consume.
She kissed back though, and it felt amazing. Her scent intensified, and it was as if it were seeping into his skin.
Her eagerness and his need collided, and he found himself pulling her into his center, letting her know what was going to happen next.
“You two still haven’t made it inside?” Shine called out.
Adelia jumped back, pushing against Z’s chest as if she had been caught doing something wrong.
Inwardly, he cursed Shine’s unfortunate timing. He glared at his friend to let him know how much he didn’t like being interrupted. Shine was unmoved and just kept talking. “There are easier ways to secure a blitz, Z.”