by Poppy Rhys
“Anyway, do we got a deal, big guy?” Her voice was thinned, strained, and she cleared her throat.
I’d wager we were both thinking about the same thing: my tongue doing dirty deeds to her body.
Would she squirm? Grab at my horns and tug? What sounds would come out of that mouth?
My voice was gruff when I finally said, “We’ll have to make it look real.”
What the fuck am I doing?
At her questioning expression, I put my hoof further into my mouth. “If you want them to believe we’re really a couple.”
“Oh. Right. You have a point...”
“First thing you should work on? Stop backing away when I get close.”
“I don’t.”
I canted my head. “You’re doing it now.”
She stopped in her tracks and glanced down at her feet as if she didn’t even realize. But now a jittery, panicked look entered her eyes as I drew closer until barely any space remained between us.
Her eyes stared up at me, her shallow breaths gently disturbed the fur on my chest, and I could smell faint traces of her shampoo though it’d been stronger yesterday.
“Your family won’t be shocked to see you with a non-human?” I reached out, giving into my urge to twist a frizzy lock of hair around my fingers.
It was as soft as I anticipated. Softer, even.
“N-no. I-I mean, they’re not prejudiced if that’s what you’re getting at.”
She nibbled at her bottom lip, watching my fingers as they played with the ends of her hair. They grazed just above her left breast and, trust me, that didn’t escape my notice.
I should stop. Touching her hair only made me want to touch her skin. And who knew where the hell that would lead.
Holly wouldn’t be the only one who had to work on this. Yeah, it’d been... hundreds of years since I’d fucked anyone, but that didn’t change anything.
This was an arrangement.
I dropped my hand.
A means to an end. A deal struck between two people who wanted something.
Don’t fuck it up, Kye.
TEN
HOLLY
“What are you doing?” Kye asked, standing with his arms spread, just like I instructed after we’d both showered.
Separately.
I held my comm up and circled him.
“Taking your measurements.”
“Why?”
“Because no boyfriend of mine would walk around without clothes.”
Well, in public, anyway, but I wouldn’t say that to Kye. My nerves were still shot from earlier. It was silly. He’d just fiddled with the ends of my hair, but I swore I felt it all the way to the tips of my toes.
“I have pants. The bits are covered, isn’t that enough?”
Great. Now I was thinking of his bits. Thankfully, I was at his back so he couldn’t see me shake the images out of my head. “No.”
Judging by his long-suffering sigh, I thought maybe he was regretting this deal.
I circled to his front and, even though I kept my eyes on my comm, I could feel his heavy gaze follow me. That was my imagination, right? A gaze couldn’t feel weighty... yet it almost felt like a physical touch.
Like magnets, my eyes drifted upward to his. The dash pupils expanded, almost rounding and appearing less alien. The red-flecked turquoise was so ‘other’.
Even though I’d resembled a wild animal straight out of hibernation earlier, (I’d freaked myself out once I finally passed a mirror) Kye had looked at me like he wanted to do more than touch my hair.
Which... crazy. He was already pulling this boyfriend role off perfectly. Not even George had gazed at me so intensely.
“All done!” With a few keystrokes, I sent the measurements to the local tailor with a run of the mill order of some wardrobe staples. “Should only take a few hours with Riq’s new machines, then we can go pick them up.”
“Great.” Except his great sounded about as enthusiastic as someone about to get a tooth drilled. “Time to decorate.”
Instant groan.
“Can’t we ease into this? It’s been a while. Be nice with me.”
If his gaze could get any more intense, it did. “Easing into things? Not my style.”
No. No, no, no.
I walked right into it. His rumbly voice insinuated his version of ‘things’ was not my version of ‘things’.
We needed to get our ‘things’ straight or I’d be tongue-tied all damned day!
“Consider me eased into it now! So, closet.” I headed that way, followed by his taunting chuckle that rolled in his chest, but never got farther than his throat.
I pinched my eyes shut against the warm lick of fire that caressed parts I didn’t want to acknowledge.
Bursting into my storage closet—which was honestly a spare room I’d just converted—I grabbed the first tub and started yanking on it. One by one, we brought the bins out and I hated every second.
Okay, so the old me who loved Christmas was insane. How many tubs of decorations could one person have?
I stared at the bins littering my whole living room.
This... this was ridiculous.
But I wasn’t backing out of my end of the deal. This was the easier part, as hard as it was. Finding how to free Kye...? That would be harder.
It sounded overwhelming. I didn’t even know interdimensional prisons existed, yet he wanted me to jailbreak him.
Could I comm-search that?
I’d try later.
“Tree first,” Kye suggested, pulling my everlasting fir out of storage like it weighed nothing. My jaw slackened, ball ornaments dropping from my hands into my lap as I tracked him.
It always took three of my cousins to help me setup that tree, yet Kye shouldered it as if it were a small child.
“How about that corner? In front of the window?” He turned. “Holly?”
Oh, right, words. “Sure...”
“You alright?”
“Yeah, it’s just... isn’t that heavy?”
He grunted, proceeding to prop it near the window and set up the base. “Little bit.”
Little bit.
This guy wasn’t human. Literally and figuratively.
I picked up the ornaments and tucked them away, sure that I didn’t want to use the pink ones this year.
Pink.
No idea what possessed me the Christmas I used pink ornaments. Instead, I pulled out the smoky blue and shiny gold and silver ones, realizing I had shapes of every kind.
Insane, I tell you. No wonder the marketing clerk at Comet’s Christmas Collectables always sent me ‘we miss you’ spam messages. Judging from all my ornaments, I’d spent a ton of credits there.
Ugh.
I pushed the tinsel aside, keeping it out of Skully’s reach, before scratching behind his fluffy ears while we covertly watched Kye finish the base and steady the tree.
Something nagged at me and I chewed the inside of my lip.
“Why do you like Christmas decorations so much? I thought Krampus hated Christmas.”
Kye’s grunt sounded irritated. “That’s what the nikolins wanted humans to believe. And that term is considered offensive by some of my people.”
“Oh, sorry.”
“Doesn’t bother me.”
Tapping the bell ornament, I handed it to him. “Nikolins?”
“Santa,” he drawled sarcastically, taking the bell and adding it to the tree.
“Everyone loves Santa!” Well, everyone but me. Current me. Not old me. Old me loved Santa too.
Again, he grunted, none-too-pleased. “That’s what they love hearing.”
“So we shouldn’t love Santa?” That seemed... unheard of for a Christmas lover.
“I didn’t say that.” He stood back, checking the tree for any untoward limbs, straightening the fluffy foliage in spots. It took up so much space, I forgot how big and beautiful it was.
Not beautiful. That’s something old me would say. Current me hat
ed it. Hated Christmas.
“Enlighten me?”
“It’s just an old feud between the kramps—my people—and the nikolins.”
Kramps. I inwardly chuckled. What a weird name.
“We both came across humans well over a millennia ago. Back when your people were still on Earth using primitive weapons, covering themselves in clanky armor, and using animal dung as a contraceptive.”
I gagged.
“Anyway, the nikolins are an arrogant race. They love admiration and don’t like sharing it. My people enjoyed the celebrations of the winter solstice early humans observed. They were similar to the old ways of my people.” He shrugged and crouched nearby, looking through my obscene amount of ornaments.
“The nikolins became jealous that my people and the humans got along. They hijacked it you could say. Vilified us. Easy to do when we have these features.” He gestured to his face and horns... basically all of himself.
“We became the nighttime story parents told their wayward younglings to scare them into behaving. Meanwhile, the nikolins appeared more human, trustworthy, and garnered fondness. It morphed over the centuries, but Santa is what you know them as today.”
My eyebrows hit my hairline. “You’re saying there’s a whole race of Santas?”
He nodded sagely. “And a race of elvshkin who serve them.”
Elvshkin!
I leaned in, my gears ticking. “Are elvshkin short?”
Nod.
“Green skin?”
Slow nod.
“Pointed ears and super cheery dispositions?”
Kye tilted his head. “You’ve met them?”
“Chyeah!” I shot to my feet, disturbing Skully. “They come to the school every year. For as long as I can remember. Even back in my grandparent’s day. That’s how I got the cube!”
Now I really had Kye’s attention. He stood. “An elvshkin gave you the crystal? Are you sure?”
“Positive. What was her name...” I snapped my fingers in the air, trying to remember, but it wasn’t coming to me. “Shit. I’ll think of it. It’s on the tip of my tongue...”
Kye scrubbed his horns, seemingly frustrated, like nothing was making sense. I’d been in that same boat the past couple days. Nothing made sense. Everything was skewed.
A knock at the door drew our attention.
Skully barked.
“Shhhh!”
I was about halfway to the door when panic caught up with me. “Shit. Shit, shit, shit!”
“What?”
“This.” I gestured to all the decorations. “That!” I pointed at the tree. “You!”
No one could see this. How was I going to explain the tree? What was my excuse for all the Christmas decorations strung about?
What would I say about Kye? No one knew he was here yet! I had it planned in my head that I was going to make a big show of him knocking on the front door and, surprise! My boyfriend (that no one had ever heard of) came for Christmas.
This wasn’t the plan!
Another series of knocks, louder, and Skully barked again.
“Coming!”
Arrrrg! The worst timing.
I stood against the door, glad I locked it. “Who is it?”
“It’s Gretta! Open the door, I want to see you.”
I turned, plastering myself to the wood, my eyes bulging as I tried to telepathically convey to Kye that my favorite aunt was right on the other side of my door.
He raised his hands like, what?
Clearly the telepathy failed.
“Aunt Gretta!” I exclaimed cheerily through the door, not daring to open it. “When did you get here?”
“Last night. Why aren’t you opening up?”
“I-I...” My brain raced. “I’m naked! Yeah, I’m naked. Sorry, you caught me at a terrible time.”
“It’s the middle of the day?”
“I uh,” fuck, “enjoy walking around naked occasionally. It’s very freeing. You should try it sometime. With your doors locked.”
Kye rumbled a laugh and I gritted my teeth. I couldn’t think of anything better? If my aunt didn’t think I was a weirdo, she would now.
There was silence on the other side of the door. “Aunt Gretta?”
“Alright, Mouse...” Her nickname for me. “If it helps your energy, then be free. I’ll be prepping third meal with your mother. Come visit me. I even brought my ullek disks! I’ll do a reading.”
Stars, no!
The last time she used those alien fortune cards to ‘read’ me, I got a tentacle monster, nine-hearted grig cup, and an upside-down saucer. That was the day George told me it was over.
There was no way I was letting her read me again.
No fucking way.
“Sounds... fantastic!”
I dug the heels of my hands into my eye sockets.
“Walk around naked...” Aunt Gretta’s voice faded, like she was talking to herself as she moved down the hall, laughing to boot.
My chest deflated of air and I stared flatly at a smirking Kye.
“You handled that well.”
“Zip it.”
ELEVEN
HOLLY
The cube burned a hole in my satchel as it sat on my hip, slung across my body.
Not literally, but I found myself checking every few minutes for signs of smoke. Who knew what was possible now that interdimensional prisons were a thing?
Kye was still in with Riq, the tailor, getting all the last minute deets squared away and making sure it all fit.
We’d escaped down the back and I thanked my lucky nebulae that none of my cousins had been in the garage.
Had I really been living under a rock to not know about interdimensional prisons? Was this common knowledge?
I needed insight on this from someone who might know because time was ticking. I had my end of the deal to uphold and, besides that, how awful.
To be stuck in a prison, alone. Kye’d described what it was like. Yet... I still hadn’t bolstered the courage to ask why he’d been imprisoned in the first place.
It was there, on the tip of my tongue, begging to be asked but I’d be a liar if I said I wasn’t nervous as hell about the answer.
What if it had been an inexcusable crime? What if I’d blindly agreed to help free an intergalactic criminal?
I groaned, dropping my face into my cupped palms. That would be just my luck too...
Despite the real possibility of that being the case, I just... couldn’t wholeheartedly get behind it. Maybe he was a huge criminal, maybe he wasn’t, but something inside me said no.
“I’ll just have to ask,” I mumbled aloud.
“Ask what?”
I jumped, turning to find Kye standing there. “You scared...” My eyes dragged down to his black-capped hooves and traveled back up, giving him a thorough once-over. “Wow.”
Kye cleaned up well.
His black pants fit snuggly around his thighs and I tried not to focus on the bulge at his crotch that proved he was all male.
His fitted, cream colored sweater cut into a V at the neck, showing his fur, and a brown leather jacket with white wool lapels draped off his broad shoulders and drifted to his knees.
“These clothes are unnecessary,” Kye grumbled and I noticed his horns looked... shinier. Buffed, maybe?
A slow grin split my lips. “Really? Because I think you look good in them.”
Kye’s eyes narrowed and he rolled his shoulders, adjusting his jacket before picking up the luggage bag Riq had kindly offered. It would play perfectly into my plan, since Kye was supposedly traveling to see me.
In a gruff, dismissive voice, he said, “Thanks.”
Why was I still staring at him with a stupid grin on my face?
Silly thing was, I’d actually been relieved he’d agreed to my plan. Yeah, I needed someone to play Krampus because I’d be damned if I was going to let down the women of Tinsel who wanted playful spanks. But more importantly, I was so tired of showing up at even
ts alone.
I’m sure I could’ve gotten a date, had I tried, but at my age, most people weren’t just dating to have fun. They were dating to find their partner and build a future.
Maybe I wanted that too. With someone. I just hadn’t met them yet.
“Aren’t we going to be late for third meal?”
“Oh, shit!” I snapped out of it and checked the time. Third meal would be in forty minutes. “We’ve got enough time to make one more stop. This is important. C’mon.”
We stopped at a shop and, after a quick perusal of the right liquor, I handed that and a bouquet to Kye.
He looked down, turning the items over in his hands with a pinched expression. “Er... thank you?”
I snorted and set the transport for home. “They’re not for you.”
He looked relieved.
“You’re going to give them to my parents.”
“Why?”
“Because my mother’s a walking cliché and loves exotic flowers. If you show up with these,” I flicked one of the yellow petals on a flower that was bursting purple stamen from its center, “you’ll get on her good side. And if you get on Mom’s good side, my dad will automatically like you but just to be safe, we’ll sweeten the pot with that Ser’Lune brandy.”
Weird logic, I know. But my mother was hard to impress, and life could get real miserable for Dad if his wife was unhappy.
Happy wife, happy life.
My parents were oddly old-fashioned and lived by that adage.
Too soon we were ambling down the long driveway and my nerves were hitching higher and higher.
This could go so wrong. So many things I still didn’t know about Kye. One slip and this farce could fall apart.
Stay positive.
I stood at the bottom of the steps, looking up at the sprawling log and stone estate I’d called home my entire life.
“Ready?” I asked Kye.
“As long as you’re holding up your end of the deal,” he gruffly responded, eyes roving the estate, “then I’m ready.”
We climbed the stone steps, a fresh dusting of snow kicking up as I opened the front door and ushered us in. We were met with a hum of conversation and laughter and clanging of dishes.
Thankfully the house no longer smelled like gingerbread.