by Cara Bristol
“Even? For what?”
The bartender, a Dakonian, slid over and set a glass of rosé in front of Invisi-man. “On your account?”
“Please.”
The bartender glanced my way. “What can I get you?”
I motioned to Barb’s drink. “I’ll have a Starflight. But I don’t want a virgin one. Make mine slutty.”
He laughed. “One Starflight with loose morals coming up.” He moved away to pour and shake my drink. With a pair of tongs, he reached into a freezer and then dropped a couple of cubes of dry ice into my drink. Apparently there was nothing otherworldly about a Starflight, although the bar patrons were another matter.
“We’re even for you neglecting to inform me a Barbecue Today reviewer visited the restaurant, and you steered her away from the tofurkey,” Barb said. “You should have told me immediately.”
I shrugged. “I’m the assistant manager. You pay me to manage.” I watched out of the corner of my eye as the alien swallowed his wine. I could see the liquid slide down his throat and splash into his stomach.
“Manage the restaurant. Not me.”
“Okay, we’re even,” I agreed. I might have overstepped my authority a tad by not telling her about the reviewer.
“Braxx doesn’t care about your infertility,” she said.
Pain lanced through me. The bartender set the Starflight on a cocktail napkin, and I took a big gulp of fruit juice and rum. The vapors from the dry ice tickled my nose. “He wants kids. He cares.”
“He wants you.”
“Yeah, right. That’s why he wouldn’t return my calls. Why he rushed out without speaking to me when Addison told him I couldn’t have kids.”
“He rushed out because of a problem with Anthony—”
“What kind of problem?”
“I don’t know. But then his phone broke. He didn’t get your calls. And when he tried to call you, you didn’t answer.”
“I didn’t get any calls.” I thought for a moment. “How did he call me if his phone was broken?”
“Maybe he borrowed somebody’s phone? You’re missing the point.”
I went still, my blood pounding. If I’d had transparent skin like Invisi-man, you’d be able to see my heart jumping. I had received calls from unfamiliar numbers…what if they weren’t all robocalls? What if some of them had come from Braxx?
“You’re not being fair. That man is crazy about you. He’d do anything for you. He’s devoted and hot. You at least owe him a face-to-face chat.”
Without intending to, I’d treated him the way I’d been treated in the past—shabbily. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have blocked him, but the situation hasn’t changed. Barb, he’s going to want kids. Maybe not now, but later. Being mated or married will delay the inevitable—breaking up.”
“I still think you should talk to him. Will you at least call him so he’ll stop hounding me and Kord?”
“All right. I can do that.”
“Thank you. I’ll be right back. I gotta pee.” Barb slid off the stool and headed for the restrooms, identified by a sign displaying images of what I assumed were male and female aliens, but I couldn’t tell the difference. Barb would figure it out one way or another.
“Excuse me,” said Invisi-man. “I couldn’t help overhearing your conversation.”
He’d been eavesdropping? How rude. But then maybe, as Barb would say, we were even. I’d been surreptitiously staring at him the whole time.
“I apologize for listening in, but”—he paused and chuckled—“as a social anthropologist, it’s kind of what I do. From the conversation, I’ve gathered you might have a health condition of sorts?”
“I’m not sick. Not now anyway. I got an infection causing severe scarring, which left me unable to get pregnant. Now I’ve met the man of my dreams, but I can’t commit to him because he really wants kids, and I can’t have them.” Why was I telling him this? It was none of his business. I hadn’t spelled the details out that clearly with Braxx. If I had…
On the other hand, there was no harm in spilling my guts to a stranger. It might even be therapeutic. Usually it was the bartender with whom you shared your deepest, darkest secrets, but in a pinch any alien patron would do. I’d never see Invisi-man again. I snorted at my own pun. I could barely see him now.
“And Earth medical…science can’t help?” His tone implied medical science was an oxymoron, and I didn’t completely disagree. He took another drink, and I tracked the liquid’s short journey to his digestive organ. This guy was a walking, er sitting, alien anatomy lesson. While Dakonians and Earthlings were more similar than different, this dude ranked in a class of his own.
“No. Medical science has done enough for me already.” I held the family planning clinic partially responsible for my condition. Medical science had invented and implanted the birth control device, which had led to the infection, which had resulted in scarring and infertility. Of course, most women didn’t suffer complications. Lucky me.
“I’m not supposed to interfere,” he said. “The Galactic Council of Advanced Sentience forbids it. In one of your Earth movies, they call it the Prime Directive. Alas, to fix what is so easily fixable is an ever-present temptation, to which I’ve succumbed on occasion. I was sanctioned by the Council and demoted. That’s how I ended up here.”
“Bummer. Sorry to hear that.” I could read between the lines. He’d fucked up, gotten caught, and been banished to Earth as punishment. Nice. I felt more than a little insulted some alien council considered being sent to Earth as punishment. The nerve. Dakonians wanted to come here. Braxx…
Invisi-man finished off his wine. A pool of pink liquid sloshed in his innards as he stood up.
“I’ve enjoyed conversing with you and appreciate your candor. I wish I had more time to speak with you at length, but I must leave to attend one of your human sporting events.” He stuck out his six-digit right hand as if to shake.
Did I dare touch him? What if his transparent skin was caustic? What if I got electrocuted? What if he did some sort of Vulcan mind-meld on me? On the other hand, how often I did get to touch an alien anyway? I didn’t know any aliens except for Kord and Braxx, and other than their horns and height, Dakonians looked pretty much human.
“Uh, it was nice to meet you.” I shook his hand. It felt cool, a little scaly, but nothing too weird. He covered our clasped hands with his other one. For a moment, he closed his eyes—or maybe it was just a slow blink, and, for a split second, I maybe, kinda, sorta felt a little jolt, but I wasn’t sure because I got distracted when the air around him rippled.
Then he released my hand and stepped away. “That ought to fix it.”
“Excuse me?”
“Live long and prosper,” he said. “I love your Earth movies. They are so pithy.”
I stared after him until he vanished—into thin air. Boy, Barb missed a doozie. What the hell was taking her so long, anyway? Was she painting the bathroom? Maybe I ought to check on her. I shifted my gaze to the hall leading to the restrooms.
There stood Braxx.
Just as I suspected—a setup. The two of them had planned this. I would strangle Barb.
He strode toward me, and my knees went weak. My heart fluttered. I wished I could blame my reaction on the Starflight or getting zapped by the weird alien dude, but I knew it stemmed from seeing him.
I collapsed onto the barstool and braced for the showdown.
Chapter Twenty
Braxx
I’d waited in the hall while Barb advocated on my behalf. We’d concurred Holly wouldn’t appreciate being tricked, so the plan was for Barb to “cool her down” before I showed myself.
She must have been really angry because the cooling down seemed to be taking a long time. I paced, my anxiety growing. I tried biting my nails the way I’d seen some humans do when they got nervous, but it didn’t help, so I resumed pacing in between peeking around the corner. I wasn’t supposed
to let Holly see me until Barb gave the go-ahead.
Finally, she slid off the barstool and met me in the hall. “Okay, she’s all yours.”
“Was she very angry?”
“No more than expected. But she’s better now. This is about as good as it’s going to get. Good luck!”
“Thank you for everything,” I said.
Barb sneaked out the back door to return home, but when I went to meet Holly, she was engaged in conversation with Alar! I needed her all to myself, so I ducked back into the corridor.
As soon as he left, I charged into the bar before someone else claimed her attention. At my approach, she resumed her seat—at least she didn’t intend to run from me. Although her expression seemed wary and sad, physically she had never looked better. Color bloomed in her cheeks, and her skin glowed with health. Her hair framed her face, and she brushed it back, revealing the delicate curve of her neck.
She bit her rosy lips. “I owe you an apology. I should have dealt with the situation directly and taken your calls. I was angry; I thought you were dodging me. I should have known better. I’m sorry for the way I treated you.” She took a deep breath. “However, I can’t change reality. I can’t give you what you need. You should move on and find a woman who can give you children.”
“I love you. You’re my mate. You are what I need. Only you.”
A hopeful light flashed in her eyes, but she shook her head. “You say that now, but your feelings will change.”
My feelings would change. Every day I would love her more.
“A year? Three years? Five years? Eventually the longing for kits will take over,” she continued. “That’s why you came to Earth after all. You’ll start to resent me.”
“No. I came to Earth to find a female, and I met my Fated mate. Of course, I assumed that would involve kits, but kits or no, I will always want and need you. You’re my present, my future, my all.” I stepped closer and took her hand in mine. My horns throbbed.
“I don’t want you to regret mating with me,” she said.
“The only thing I would regret is living a single day without you.”
“I didn’t mean to mislead you about my infertility…”
“You didn’t. I misunderstood. It was all my fault.”
“We would never have a family. What do couples do when they don’t have kids?”
“We will spend each day of our lives loving each other.” I slipped onto an adjacent stool and met her gaze. “I’ll ask you again. Will you be my mate and my wife?”
“Are you sure?”
“I’ve never been surer of anything in my life.”
Her eyes filled with tears. “Yes. Yes, Braxx, I will!”
“Obah! Obah!”
I meshed my mouth to hers and pulled her off the barstool and into my arms. Long kisses, short kisses, fast and slow. I couldn’t get enough. I knew she still had doubts, but I intended to make convincing her of the rightness of our union my personal mission until she believed it wholeheartedly.
Patrons at nearby tables hooted and cheered. Aton rang a bell mounted over the bar. I suspected the two of us were destined to be public spectacles. I didn’t mind. I wanted the whole galaxy to know how I felt. She was my one and only. But when we separated, she blushed bright red.
“Do you want to get out of here?” I asked. My horns were throbbing.
“Yes, please.”
I signaled Aton. “Put her drink on my tab.”
“It’s on the house.” He grinned. “Congratulations!”
* * * * *
As soon as the door to Holly’s apartment shut, we meshed mouths. Happiness, desire, and relief entwined into one inseparable overpowering emotion. Our mouths clung, our tongues caressed all the while we tugged at our clothing. I heard a tear as something ripped. Shoes flew. Her breast harness hooked on the lamp, and then we were naked.
I ran my hands over her body, revisiting and reclaiming what I’d almost lost. “My mate. Mine.” I pressed my lips to the crook of her neck and smoothed my hands down her spine to squeeze her buttocks. She dug her fingers into my arms, pressed herself against me, and wiggled.
“My mate,” she said on a breathy moan. “I’m so sorry I was so stup—” I smothered her self-recriminations with another hard kiss. There was enough blame to go around; we’d both made mistakes.
“Let’s focus on the future,” I said and led her into the bedroom.
We fell on the mattress. The covers were in a tumbled roll, and I kicked them to the floor. “I didn’t make the bed today,” she said.
“We’d only mess it up.”
“I like the way you think.”
I pulled her up and over me so I could capture a nipple in my mouth. As I suckled the hard tip, she grasped my shaft, squeezing and stroking. A wave of heat shot from my groin to my horns. I growled, and she smiled then pulled away, scooted down my body, and took my shaft in her mouth.
Soft breasts brushed my thighs as she sucked. Pleasure coiled low in my belly, and my horns pulsed with every pull of her mouth. Pleasure intensified, ratcheting upward. I allowed myself a moment to savor the sensation coursing through my body, before I rolled us over.
I wanted to bring pleasure to her, to demonstrate with my hands, my lips, and my cock how much she meant to me. I skimmed over her delicate collarbone, the mounds of her breasts, the indentation of her waist, the curve of her spine, her thighs, her knees, her toes. When I stroked upward and curled my fingers between her legs, she arched.
The dew clinging to her curls dampened my fingers as I caressed the folds and valleys of her womanhood. Beginning with slow, gentle circles, I massaged the nerve center at the top of her sex, dipping into her channel for lubrication. As her hips began to move and she rocked against my hand, I increased pressure and speed.
We pleasured each other in tandem. My need, the urgency of my body, the tension in the base of my erection, the ache in my horns was its own rapture, but her cries of passion brought me the greatest joy.
When our hunger could no longer be satisfied with frantic touches and fevered kisses, I shifted onto my back and pulled her on top of me. She straddled my hips and lowered herself onto my length. She moaned in ecstasy, and I sucked in air through my teeth as our bodies merged with sublime perfection. As intense as the pleasure was, the physical almost ceased to matter. This was the mating of two beings. The union of two souls into one. When her hair fell forward, covering her face, I slipped my hand under the veil to cup her cheek. I focused on her eyes, glassy with passion, soft with love.
“Do you feel it? Our unity, our connection? There can be no doubt we were intended for one another.”
She raised herself then came down on my shaft, the heated friction a spiral of blissful sensation. “I love a man…who can avoid…avoid…saying I told you so.”
My bark of laughter ended on a groan as we moved together.
An old Dakonian legend said Fated mates came into life at the dawn of time as single beings until the Great Rift cleaved them into two. They spent eternity searching for their missing half. Fated mates did not meet, rather they found their way back to each other.
As we soared to the heights and the climax and rejoined in body, mind, and spirit, I knew the legend was true.
Reunited, we would never separate. Kits, no kits, miscommunication, misunderstandings, broken phones, missed messages, and machinations of those with ill intentions meant nothing. She might not fully understand the depth of my devotion, but she would. I had a lifetime to show her.
* * * * *
Holly lay curled against me. I drew gentle lazy caresses on her skin as I floated in a state of well-being and contentment. I’d asked her to be my mate—twice—she’d accepted—twice—and we’d consummated our union. She and I were bonded forever now. Let no man or kit put asunder.
The thought reminded me of the other part of our union, the husband-wife part. “Are you going to want a big wedding?”
When Kord and Barb had gotten married, they rented a section of a park. She’d worn a billowing white dress that dragged through the dirt. At least 200 people attended and pelted them with rice when they tried to leave. I thought it was kind of rude, and so did the wildlife advocates who filed a complaint against Barb and Kord because rice wasn’t good for birds. Fortunately, few birds attended the wedding, except for the one that bombed the wedding cake. Maybe he hadn’t liked the rice.
“No.” She wrinkled her nose. “I would like it to just be us. All we need to do is obtain a license and go to the courthouse.”
“I’ve heard the Intergalactic Dating Agency offers a wedding service,” I said.
“Will they marry us since we didn’t meet through the agency?”
“I think so. I’m still on the IDA client list.”
“Let’s do that, then! Soon. I don’t want to wait.” She raised up on one elbow. “I love you, Braxx.”
“I love you, too. The past is past.”
“Tell me about Anthony. Is he all right? Barb didn’t have all the details. What happened?”
I explained how he’d fractured his arm and then Alar happened to come by and mend it.
Her eyes widened. “The see-through alien? I met him at the Stellar Dust Bin! He fixed Anthony’s arm?”
“So well that his foster mother now doubts it was broken. She thinks he lied to get attention. He told me the other kids in his foster home are mean to him. His foster mother doesn’t seem to care. He’s so unhappy. I talked to Tyra, but she says there are too many kids who need homes to move them around on a whim. Other than try to see him as much as I can, I don’t know what to do.”
A smile widened over her face until it spread from ear to ear. “I know exactly what to do.”
“What?”
“We’ll adopt him! You love him. I love him. He’ll be our son.”
I sprang to a sitting position. “We can do that?”
“Yeah!” She nodded. “We’ll have to jump through some hoops. There will be paperwork, home visits, and screenings, and a bunch of other stuff I’m probably not aware of, but I think we have an excellent chance of getting approved since he’s an older kid with little chance of being adopted by anyone else.”