“It should be said, I have been hoping you would choose me,” he said, his eyes flicking over her face, from her eyes to her lips to her hair, and her cleavage. “I too was thinking of this when you were in my home, and in the market, and when you let go of my hand on that bench.”
His hands were still on her hips. She could feel them through the fabric of her skirt and she wanted them on her skin.
“Let me show you kissing with tongue,” she almost panted. “Open your mouth.”
His gaze burned when their eyes met, and when she pulled him to her again, he relaxed his jaw and she nudged his mouth open, sending her tongue to find his. He pushed against her, slanting their mouths together hard and holding her still for him with his hand in her hair. She gripped handfuls of the stupid sweater and tried to pull him even closer as their tongues slid over one another, wet and intimate, making her give short little moans with every breath to make sure he didn’t stop. She didn’t care how desperate she sounded, she finally, finally had him.
Eventually they had to break for breath, both of them panting, foreheads resting against each other. She looked up into his eyes and he seized her again, carrying her under like a wave when she’d just got her head above water. His hand ran up and down her back, testing her skin, and she moaned again. She wanted that hand to do more, she wanted it on her bare skin, to squeeze her ass or her breast, to show her how much he wanted her. She hooked her feet behind his legs and pulled, one of his feet slipping forward as she dragged him closer.
When they broke again, they waited until they both had their breath back.
“Wow,” she panted.
He hummed in response, tracing his lips over her face as she held him.
“I think you’ve got it. You know how to kiss.”
She felt him smile against her cheek. “I disagree. I think I need more lessons. I’m sure I can improve with you as my teacher,” he said, his voice making her shiver and melt.
“Ro,” she said, and kissed him again, and again. Not the big, deep kisses, or the light, soft kisses, but somewhere in between, wet and shallow, open-mouthed but brief. She couldn’t let him go, couldn’t leave him alone now that she had him, even while she knew she should because it was late and if they didn’t stop, she’d follow him home, and that would be a big jump, first kiss and sex on the same day. As much as she wanted him – and she did, desperately – she wanted to savour this.
She forced herself to push him away, licking her lips to catch the last taste of him. He watched her, patiently waiting for her next idea.
“I’m going home for the holidays,” she said, jumping ahead.
He frowned a little, confused by her thought process.
“It’s just for a week. I have to, I’ve already told them I’m coming and bought my tickets and everything. But I’ll be back on the 29th so… We could do New Year’s together?”
He still looked confused. “New Year’s?”
“New Year’s Eve, the last night of the year. Everyone stays up until midnight and there are fireworks and parties. We could do it together.” She pressed her lips together to stop herself.
Ro seemed to figure it out and his face spread in a slow smile. “I understand. It will be a date?” he asked.
“That’s what I was thinking,” she confirmed.
“And we will kiss more then?”
“Uh…” Oh, what was the point in even trying to deny it or playing coy? “Yeah, yes, I imagine so,” she said.
He swept in for another kiss, a quick press to seal the deal. “And that means we are dating, and dating means we are in a relationship, and that means we belong to each other only,” he reeled off as if repeating a lesson learned from a book. “And you will only kiss me and I will only kiss you, and we will kiss each other any time we want to…” He kept smiling, but he was clearly getting distracted with all this talk of kissing, his mouth lowering to hers as if drawn there by gravity.
She kissed him again for a long moment, then remembered they were supposed to be talking. “Right, yeah. Oh, but, we probably shouldn’t do it at work,” she said.
His mouth fell open. “Why not?”
“Because we’re on the same team and I trained you so… A relationship like that could affect our work. It’s a bit messy.”
“I don’t think it’s messy,” he argued, leaning in for another kiss.
She turned her face to the side so she wouldn’t get distracted but that didn’t stop him, he just kissed a path from her cheek and down her neck, sucking gently, licking over her pulse. “Call it a human thing… Oh my god…” Her eyes almost rolled back in her head as he continued to work her throat. Her eyes closed and she swayed, and his hand settled between her shoulder blades as if he thought he might have to catch her.
He showed mercy and stopped, despite her hands having balled up his sweater again. He grinned at his handiwork as she blinked at him. “You are so soft all over,” he mused, tracing the back of a claw over her cheekbone. “Skin is so interesting. I like it.” He ran the filed point of his claw down her neck and goosebumps tingled in its wake. “Ooh!” he said excitedly, his eyes widening at the reaction.
“So New Year’s Eve… Shall I come to yours?” Maggie said, her voice husky with want.
“Yes, I would like that,” he said, nodding.
“Great,” Maggie grinned. “And Ro?”
“Mm?”
She gave him another kiss. “Merry Christmas.”
Chapter 16
Maggie’s visit home with her family went well, but she couldn’t stop thinking about Ro, about his hands on her and the way he had kissed her. They messaged each other almost constantly, wishing each other goodnight and good morning, keeping each other posted on what holiday special they were watching. Maggie sent him a picture of herself in her own silly seasonal sweater, and the family Christmas tree. He sent her a picture of himself with a group of Teissians, all of them wearing paper Christmas hats. She wished she could call him, but being in her parents’ home made her feel like a teenager again, and she didn’t want to be overheard.
Nevertheless, her mother noticed almost immediately the way she carried her Gadgit everywhere, checking it constantly, grinning stupidly at every message and replying instantly. So naturally, she wanted to know who Maggie was talking to, if there was a man in her life. Her sister, Willa, nagged her and tried to spy, but Maggie told them to mind their own business. She’d tell them about Ro eventually, but she wanted to have their first official date before letting her family make a big deal out of it.
Like every year since she was a kid, Maggie ate too much and spent most of every day watching the seasonal programming and cuddling her parents’ terrier, Ajax. Willa was younger than Maggie, and was in a graduate programme in Seattle which she complained about. They all quizzed Maggie about what it was like to work for DETI, what had changed after the Tiberius, what was going to happen next. They seemed to think she was privy to government secrets, when really she didn’t know much more than they did, and she didn’t tell them about any of the rules that had been bent to get as many refugees on the ground as possible before the borders closed.
She described the different Teissians she knew to them, probably talking about Ro a little too much. They ate it up, though some of the things her parents said made her a little uncomfortable. They were a bit too obsessed with the physical differences between Teissians and humans, and weren’t as interested in what they were like as people, like who was funny and who was smart, who liked ice cream and who had eaten a spoonful of salt on a dare.
Leaving to go home at the end of the week was bittersweet. She loved her family, as much as Willa annoyed her sometimes, and she promised to visit again soon. At the same time, she couldn’t wait to get home and start preparing for her date with Ro. New Year’s Eve with fireworks and champagne and a man she was madly attracted to? It felt too good to be true. She knew just what dress she was going to wear, a tight, short, glittery thing that she’d only worn
about twice in all the years she’d had it. It was going to be romantic and magical, and they were going to ring in the new year as she hoped they meant to continue: together.
It was almost hard to wait until the 31st to see him, but she kept herself occupied with unpacking, doing her laundry, cleaning her apartment and ordering groceries, all the things she needed to do to catch up from being away. Two nights in her own bed should refresh and relax her for her date. Ro had told her that the Teissians were all going to watch the city’s fireworks from the roofs of the dorms, and that there would be dozens of parties going on.
He was expecting her at 9, so after dinner she showered, and put the screen in her bedroom on to the TV broadcasts while she did her hair and make-up. She wasn’t really paying attention, she just wanted the noise to distract her from the butterflies in her stomach.
The show was an annual recap of all the events of the last year. All the big channels would have something similar in the run up to the turn of the year, so she couldn’t be bothered to try to find something better. This one was formatted like a talk show, with celebrity guests invited on for different segments, singing or doing sketches. Maggie liked to see the famous faces all in their tuxedos and ball gowns, laughing and having a good time. The backdrop behind the sofas was a giant clock.
Maggie sang along to the songs she knew as she made sure her makeup was perfect, dotting just a little glitter under her eyes in honour of the occasion. Then the show got onto the Tiberius, taking a solemn tone as they held a moment’s silence in memory of the human crew. Maggie paused, unable to look away even as her happy mood saddened.
The presenters then announced that they were diverting to their “experts”. There was a man who introduced himself as the journalist who covered the story for a huge national paper, a representative of the government in DC, though Maggie wasn’t sure exactly what his role was there. There was also a captain who had flown transporter missions to Teiss, and a woman who worked for DETI’s offices in Denver. They were joined on the sofas by two of the show’s regular hosts, a man in a shiny grey suit and a woman in a red dress.
The male host turned to two of the guests. “So we all know the story: the Ypex got onto a Tiberius dropship when it was on Teiss, which somehow still managed to dock with the transporter itself with them on board. The Rhacahr fired on the Tiberius to kill the Ypex and stop them spreading. My question is, was there really nothing the Rhacahr could have done to save, well, anyone from the Tiberius? Did they even try?”
“What you have to understand is that Ypex are worse than any animals we have on Earth. They would have killed everyone on board. My apologies for the bluntness of the truth here, but the Ypex attack anything alive. The victims wouldn’t have made it either way,” said the government woman.
“But don’t the Rhacahr have weapons that can kill an Ypex? Couldn’t they have boarded the Tiberius and fought them?” countered the female host.
Maggie didn’t know why they were rehashing the same old arguments, raking over old tragedy to stoke people up, that night of all nights, when people should be looking to the future and feeling optimistic about what was to come.
“The Rhacahr won’t risk their own lives when they can shoot from a safe distance,” answered the captain, her tone bitter. “We simply don’t matter to them. The Tiberius was just another target.”
“No, no, I can’t allow that,” argued the woman from DETI. “The fact is humans, especially civilians, can’t understand the Ypex the way the Rhacahr do. They have been fighting them for generations. If they fired on the Tiberius, it was because it was the only solution.”
“But you know, don’t you, that the Rhacahr didn’t contact the UNE or any other ship to consult? They gave the Tiberius no warning. They destroyed a UNE ship that cost billions and billions of dollars, killing a thousand humans and a million Teissians. That could very easily be considered an act of war, but they didn’t even seem to hesitate,” said the female host.
“More proof that it was the only option,” said the DETI woman.
“More proof that they didn’t care, you mean,” said the captain. “Could they have tried to exterminate the Ypex? Of course, but clearing a ship that size would have taken days, weeks, and why do that when you can be confident you’ve killed every bug by blasting the ship out of existence? The same can be said for an evacuation. If they had tried to save anybody, they would have been opening their own ship to possible infestation, and they simply wouldn’t do that, no matter how many lives it could have saved.”
“So what’s going to happen now? What’s changing?” asked the male host. It was as if he had questions written down, which he probably did, and he wasn’t even hearing the answers of the guests.
“Well, the installation of a permanent Rhacahr envoy has been confirmed,” said the journalist, shifting forward in his seat. “Evacuation of Teiss has resumed, with the Rhacahr filling in with their own ships as the UNE still haven’t okayed sending our servicemen and women back out there. Any Teissians in orbit have been cleared to land, as you know, but if the UNE ever decide to take over again, just getting our transporters off the ground is going to be a huge operation, and it’s really not clear how-”
Maggie changed the channel, not wanting to hear the rest. Everyone was talking in circles, and she didn’t want to think about it, not then. It was a tragedy, whether it was a mistake or the right thing to do. Hating the Rhacahr wouldn’t bring anyone back. All anyone could do was commemorate the victims.
Her mood tainted now, she didn’t sing along as she finished her make-up and got dressed. She was happy with how she looked in her party shoes with her hair dried in soft waves, so she ordered a podcab on her Gadgit and went outside to meet it. The roads were busy with people travelling downtown to see the fireworks, or to parties, but the little self-driven car navigated the traffic perfectly, and dropped her off outside DETI. She would have to walk to the dorms from there. She tapped her Gadgit against the podcab’s screen to pay for the ride and got out.
The night felt oddly quiet and a cool breeze lifted her hair as she walked. It felt like she should already be hearing fireworks and music and people having a good time. She could see that lights were on in the dorms and as she got closer she thought she might be able to hear something. She came to the security checkpoint and showed her ID.
“Going to a party?” asked the guard. He sounded bored more than anything else.
“Yes,” she answered. She wasn’t sure how much detail she was supposed to go into. She felt sorry for these men who had to spend the night working, stationed at a dull checkpoint. But she supposed they must be getting paid very well for it.
He handed back her ID. “Have fun.”
“I will,” she said, feeling just a little unsettled at having to be vetted to go to a party. She was used to it at work, in her work clothes, where she knew the guards by name and knew she had a right to be there. At the dorms, she half-expected them to say something, ask her why she was visiting Teissians late at night. She didn’t relish the prospect of having to walk past these men every time she wanted to see Ro.
But as she left the checkpoint behind, a new kind of nervousness gave her butterflies. She was going to see Ro again, after being apart for over a week, after all they had messaged each other, and she couldn’t wait.
The market was empty, all the people and merchandise inside for the night. The stalls stood stripped in the street light like a village that had been burned to sticks. Maggie looked around, remembering which tower was Ro’s, making her way to the entrance he had led her through months ago. He had messaged her instructions on how to find his building and what to do when she got there. They had decided that, given how poorly she could see in the Balin basement quarters, he would come to meet her at the door. She double- and triple-checked that she was at the right place before messaging him that she was there, then waited, grateful they were in California and she could stand to be outside this late in her short sleeveless d
ress.
A minute later she saw the light inside come on and then the door opened and Ro was there. The pink moons in his cheeks bent as he smiled at her, reaching for her hand to pull her inside. She grinned as soon as she saw him, taking his hand and stepping over the threshold.
“Hi,” he said, his voice making her insides go soft. The door swung shut behind them with a soft woosh. His hands stroked over her arms.
“Hi,” she replied, giggling. He was standing very close.
“We can kiss now?” he asked.
She nodded, already closing the small gap between them. “Yep.”
Her hand curled in his shirt as he pressed his mouth to hers, softly but not shy, testing her before his hands came up to cup her face and he tilted his head to slant his mouth against hers, his tongue licking against the seam of her lips. She opened her mouth and relished the gentle slide of his tongue against hers, pressing into his body. She let go of his shirt to run her hand up his chest and over his shoulder, feeling the firmness of his body.
They broke apart slowly, reluctantly.
“I missed you,” he said.
“I missed you too,” she replied. “Thanks for inviting me.” Though the words were polite, they had importance to her, because tonight they were not co-workers, they were two people trying to have a relationship. They were not in the office. She was dressed far from professionally. Tonight they would learn who they were when they weren’t worrying about propriety. She was looking forward to it.
He smiled at her. “Come on,” he said, leading her back to the elevator. “Where do you want to go?”
“I don’t mind,” she said.
“If we go downstairs, I can introduce you to the other Balin, my neighbours.” He sounded excited by that prospect.
“Will I be able to see?” she asked.
He laughed. “I have prepared a solution,” he said cryptically.
“Okay then,” she laughed. Now she wanted to see what he had come up with, and she definitely didn’t want to dampen his spirits when he seemed to be so enthusiastic about showing her off.
The New Guy (Office Aliens Book 2) Page 13