Maggie wasn’t going to ask him if he was okay. She knew what he’d say. Ditto if she asked him what was bothering him. She had to find out for herself.
“Has your housing allocation changed?” she asked out of the blue, hoping to catch him off-guard.
He looked up at her frowning in confusion. “No,” he replied.
She shrugged. “Just wondering. I know people are still getting moved around and you have that flat to yourself.”
“There aren’t as many Balin as others. There is less demand for accommodation underground.”
“Oh, see? I didn’t know that. How come?”
“Fewer Balin evacuated. We believed we were safe underground.”
“Were you?”
“No.”
There was something terrible in that word, but Maggie persevered. He was talking.
“So why did you leave?”
At that, Ro took a moment to reply, fidgeting with his menu briefly, and he didn’t meet her eyes. “Without my crest, no Balin female would accept me. I thought a human might.”
Maggie blinked. It was her turn to struggle for a response. “And you found me.” If she had been in his position, she would have done the same thing, but she didn’t like the sound of it, as if he had just grabbed the first woman who came within reach. And wasn’t that exactly what had happened? He’d been on Earth less than a week when they’d met, and for most of that time he would have been at the dorms with other Teissians. She sat across from him all day, and unlike Lucy or Nina or Alex, Maggie had been instantly attracted to him. She’d shown him around and trained him. She’d been an easy mark.
Had it always been about sex for him? No, no, because he hadn’t wanted her to know about his heat. Even if it had been some kind of ploy, and Kez had been in on it, they would have had to have been very good actors, and Maggie could always tell when he was lying. And it would have been so unnecessary; she had already wanted him. And what did Kez get out of it? The answer flashed up in her mind before she could stop it. The money she had seen Kez putting away.
Maggie felt sick. It couldn’t be true. It didn’t feel true. She was just being paranoid. She was upset because of how he was acting, and it was making her crazy.
“Well, lucky me,” she said, forcing a smile. It didn’t feel very convincing.
The waiter returned, and they ordered. Once the waiter took their menus and left, Ro reached for her hand.
“I have hurt you,” he said softly, looking and sounding like his old self again. He stroked his thumb over her knuckles. He pulled her hand back towards him and pressed her palm to his cheek. “I am the lucky one,” he said, closing his eyes as he turned into her hand. His eyes fluttered open again, pinning her under his gaze. “I hope you are happy with me,” he said.
“I am,” Maggie said immediately without hesitation. It was a moment just like they used to have, as if he had never changed. “I love you.”
Ro smiled. “Really?”
“Yeah…”
“I love you too,” he replied easily, and it was amazing how those four words seemed to change everything for Maggie. He loved her. He couldn’t be angry or disappointed or frustrated with her if he loved her. A surge of silly, soppy joy burst through her, and she grinned, and blushed at him. Everything was alright after all. They would be alright.
“On Teiss, love is rare. When I heard how freely humans give it, I had hope. I wondered if I could get a woman to give it to me.” His words were still soft and kind, but Maggie stilled. He talked as if love didn’t mean anything on Earth, as if it was something that could be traded for. Like an experiment.
“Tell me more about Balin relationships,” Maggie said.
“What do you want to know?” he replied.
“You said love is rare. What makes two people stay together then?”
“We don’t. We find a partner for our heat. The males display, the females pick. If the females conceive, the male provides for the child but that’s it.”
“Don’t you have families?”
“We have clans.”
“But your mother raised you?”
He gave her an indulgent smile. “Females have many children. They give their attention to the youngest, who need her the most.”
“So… Why did you want to find someone? A female?” Maggie felt as if this one conversation was unravelling her relationship. Did he understand what she meant when she said she loved him?
Ro dropped his eyes, tracing grooves in the table top with his claw. “I wanted someone to care about me,” he said. “Everyone ignored me because of my injury. I felt as if I was barely there.” He scowled, and Maggie noticed he was actually clawing little spirals of wood out of the table.
She quickly covered his hand with her own to stop him. His anger was coming back and she didn’t want it to. She could feel it like a change in the air. She couldn’t remember him having mood swings like that before.
“Well, you found her,” she reassured him with a smile. “Why did Kez come to Earth then?” she said, trying to keep him talking.
His eyes narrowed. “Why are you asking about Kez?”
Maggie was taken back by his confrontational tone. “Just curious. Was he looking for a woman too?”
Ro snarled, leaning across the table. “You will not go to Kez,” he said. “I will kill him first.”
“Jesus, Ro!” she whispered, looking around, catching the waiter looking at them, obviously on alert. He collected their plates from the kitchen counter and brought them over.
“Here we go!” he chimed in a cheery voice, forcing Ro to sit back again as he stood on his side of the table to put the plates down. “Everything alright?” he asked.
“Yes, fine thank you,” Maggie said, smiling, picking up her cutlery.
“I’m just over there if you need anything,” the waiter said, and Maggie thought there was a note in there that was directed at her. Then he left.
She turned back to Ro. “That’s not what I meant!” she said. “I was just making conversation. I’m not interested in Kez in the slightest.”
Ro watched her for a moment as if evaluating her honesty. “Good,” he said at last. “He is a criminal. He had to leave Bala or he would have been executed.”
“What?! Seriously?”
Ro nodded. “He was a thief. He took bets and cheated at gambling games. He traded in dangerous things. The clan got sick of him. We have no prison among the Balin. The elders overlook small things, but it was how he supported himself. He wouldn’t stop, so they would have killed him.”
“Oh my God…” She wondered if DETI knew. She wondered if it made a difference. He had an honest job now, and she hadn’t heard of him doing anything he shouldn’t. She kind of felt sorry for him. By all appearances, he hated her, or at least disapproved of her, but he hadn’t wanted to come to Earth. He had been forced to leave his home, but at the same time, it had probably saved his life. She wondered how he processed that.
Maggie got the impression Ro was only telling her this to make Kez unattractive to her. It was unlike him to share someone else’s secrets, and Kez probably didn’t want her or anyone to know about his past life. But Ro was treating it like some scandalous, unsavoury gossip designed to turn her off, even though Kez was his best friend. She wondered if he knew Kez thought she wasn’t good enough for Ro.
She didn’t like the implication that she could be swayed by something like that anyway. She loved Ro and didn’t care about his past life, but he apparently didn’t understand that, at least not in the mood he was in.
“He’s your friend though, isn’t he?” she asked.
Ro hummed. “He and I are from different clans, but we were on the same transporter. We both found ourselves outcast. We spent a lot of time together.”
“He cares about you though. He’s protective of you.”
Ro laughed. “Males do not protect each other. We are always in competition.”
“Earth is different. I think Kez likes you
. I never see him with anyone else. I’m sure he considers you his friend.”
Ro shrugged. “To that extent, we are friends.”
“What does that mean?”
Ro took too long to answer.
“I thought you liked him.” Maggie found this new subject unsettling, the way Ro didn’t seem to care about Kez, despite Kez obviously caring about him. She refused to believe it, this was just his stress or whatever it was talking. The Ro she knew was kinder than this. She didn’t want to hear anymore.
Maggie started eating, processing her thoughts as she chewed. She had thought for a moment they had been back to normal, but that dark expression was back on his face, like a tension between his eyes, like he was in pain. He had said he loved her, and replaying it in her mind still made her smile and smoothed her worries. It couldn’t be that bad if he loved her. As long as they loved each other, they would get through it.
“Ro… You understand what I mean when I say I love you, right? It means you’re important to me, and I want to stay with you.”
He stared at her. “Of course. You will stay with me. I am doing everything I can. I am trying to please you.” He took her hand again, his claws pricking her wrist.
He was trying to please her? Was he? So why the bad attitude?
“And I’m pleasing you, right? You like being with me? I’m not doing anything wrong or missing anything out? If you want something, we can talk about it,” she pressed.
He squeezed her hand. “You’re perfect,” he said.
Half of Maggie was pleased. She was incredibly flattered. No one had ever called her perfect before, unless it was in the context of “You’re perfect for this job”. She, herself, as a person, had never been perfect before. If that was what he thought, and she thought the same about him, they must really be in love. It made her feel like she was sitting on a cloud, bathed in sunshine.
The other half was still worried. His words didn’t match up with his behaviour. He was grouchy, aggressive, angry.
Maggie smiled at him, took another bite, cleared her throat. “And everything else is going okay? You got your citizenship, right? I hope it hasn’t been held up by the last arrivals.”
He took his hand back, scowling again, looking suspicious. “I have my citizenship,” he told her, his voice guarded.
“That’s good! I was just asking, you didn’t mention it at the time.”
Ro grunted, taking a bite of his own meal, and Maggie worried she’d offended him. She probably had. But she had to fish because he wouldn’t tell her what was going on. She’d covered his housing, his VISA status, his relationship. He didn’t seem mad at her or at Kez particularly. She knew nothing was going wrong with his job because she was now technically his superior.
She didn’t know what to do, where else to go. He was determined to remain a mystery. Maybe there really was nothing wrong, and he had just changed.
Chapter 27
Their conversation stayed stilted for the rest of the night, and dinner didn’t last very long. Maggie asked questions, and Ro gave short answers. They didn’t stay for dessert. When they left the restaurant, Ro invited Maggie back to his apartment, but she said no. After the night she’d had, she didn’t feel like making love to him. Her head and her heart were still too confused. She wanted to be all in, to believe that he loved her like she loved him, and just be happy, but there were too many unanswered questions. Why had he fought with Kez? Why was he acting differently, and why wouldn’t he talk to her about it?
Ro didn’t like being told no again, but Maggie was firm, and he left her alone. They parted ways and Maggie went back to her apartment, not sure if the night had been positive or negative. She was only getting more confused.
He came to work late the next day. Not very late, but enough for her to have noticed. As far as she could remember, it was the first time, and he looked rough. His shirt and pants were crumpled and his tie was askew, and he looked bleary-eyed and uncoordinated, almost to the point of being non-responsive.
Maggie let him sit down and get logged on, noticing the others shooting him looks as well. They weren’t so strict in Incomings that Maggie would be expected to reprimand him for being ten minutes late, but it was normal to offer an excuse or at least an apology, and Ro did neither. Maggie bit her lip. She couldn’t say anything as his supervisor, not when they were also dating and there was tension in their relationship. If she mentioned it, he might make it personal. But if she didn’t say anything, he would be getting preferential treatment because they were sleeping together.
This was the problem with office romances, but it hadn’t mattered before she got promoted.
Not liking it, Maggie decided to let him off, and only bring it up if it happened again. It was the first time after all.
She looked at him again, and gasped, accidentally drawing the attention of the entire team. She shifted uncomfortably when she realised what she’d done, but she knew she had to say something or they’d only get more suspicious.
“Ro, do you have a black eye?” she said. Everyone looked at him. There was no visible bruise with his black scales, but one eye was a little swollen.
He sighed, almost hissing. “It’s nothing.”
“How did that happen?” asked Ben.
“One of my neighbours… They took offence. I don’t know.”
Maggie wanted to get to the bottom of it, but she knew it was better if the others did the talking. Then their personal or work relationship wouldn’t matter. Ben probed for more details, but Ro wouldn’t give anything up, insisting it was a misunderstanding. Because it was nothing to do with his work, it was out of her jurisdiction as his supervisor to demand answers about it.
She sent him an email. Was it Kez?
She had to wait for a reply until the others left him alone and went back to work, and he checked his inbox.
No, was his reply.
Maggie resolved to keep an eye out for Kez anyway, and see if he showed any signs of having been in a scuffle. She didn’t want Ro to be lying to her, but she didn’t like to think he was being attacked at home. She already knew Ro and Kez were in the middle of some disagreement; she would prefer to think it was the only one. But if he had some kind of domestic situation going on, it could account for his mood.
And why he didn’t want to be home alone in the evenings.
Maggie shifted in her seat, and resolved to go home with him that night if he asked her. She’d never seen or heard anything when she was at his place, but maybe whoever it was knew when he was alone. As much as she hated to admit it, she was relieved. If something was going on at the dorms, then his bad mood wasn’t because of her. He really did love her. And she was one step closer to finding out the cause of the problem and fixing it.
After lunch, she was back at her desk when Kez walked back from his lunch with Ro. They still ate together every day, despite their little altercation, which just solidified Maggie’s idea in her mind that, however Ro felt about Kez, he had a lot of patience for Ro at least. If Kez disapproved of her a little less openly, she might have considered talking to him about what was going on with Ro. She knew Kez must know more than she did. But there was never an opportunity to get him alone, and if she did, she was pretty sure Kez wouldn’t help her.
She studied Kez as he walked back to his desk. He wasn’t limping, she didn’t see any swelling or discolourations or bandages on him. He looked as he always did, his clothes still neat and tidy, unlike Ro’s. She was forced to accept that he hadn’t been involved when Ro got his black eye. Ro hadn’t lied. Now all she had to do was get him to tell her the rest of it. It should be easy when she knew what to dig for.
At five o’clock, she let the rest of the team pack up and go home, dawdling and hanging back until she and Ro were the last ones. He had waited for her as she expected he would. She took his hand as they left the department together, and he looked at her in surprise. Maybe her suspicion had been making her treat him coldly too. He shouldn’t be surp
rised she wanted to hold his hand.
“Where are we going tonight?” she asked quietly, bumping his shoulder and smiling, giving him a look she hoped told him what she meant.
His expression brightened, some of the tension between his eyes relaxing. “I have an idea,” he said, stopping and walking back a few steps, pulling her with him.
She giggled. “What do you mean?”
He stopped at the door to the stairwell. “Why don’t we stay here?” he purred. He shouldered the door open and pulled her inside.
The stairwell was deserted. It had been designed to be pleasant, with large windows that caught the sun and wooden bannisters beside the concrete steps, but most of the staff took the elevators anyway. Twenty minutes after closing, Maggie would be surprised to find anyone in here, and if anyone was coming, they would be able to hear them from storeys away.
Ro pulled Maggie into his arms, his hands going to her ass, his claws sinking into her flesh, cushioned by her clothes so it didn’t hurt. He ground himself against her and growled.
Maggie gasped, enjoying his need for her even though she had to push him away.
“We can’t,” she breathed. “There are security cameras in here, and we’re on the ground floor. Anyone could come in.”
“Hmm,” Ro purred, letting her slip out of his arms and directing her to the stairs. “Alright. Let’s see if anyone is watching. There are bathrooms on every second floor. Run to the ones at the top. If no one comes to save you from the dangerous Balin chasing you, out of his mind with lust, we’ll assume no one is watching.”
“I can’t run up six flights of stairs,” Maggie protested, even as he herded her up the first couple of steps.
“If I catch you before then…” He shrugged. “You’d just better hope there’s a bathroom on that floor,” he said, his voice dropping at the thought of what they would do. Then he grinned at her, lips splitting wide, showing his dental ridges and his pink tongue. His eyes sparkled wickedly even through his lenses. He looked serious and predatory, like he was joyfully anticipating the chase. He leaned against the bannister, putting his elbow over it and clasping his hands.
The New Guy (Office Aliens Book 2) Page 22