She gathered the feathers at the back of his head into her hand, pulling them through her fist, and leant her forehead against his. With her heels against his thighs, she bumped his hips closer. “You only had to tell me you like my dress.”
“I don’t like your dress,” he said, and she flinched in his arms, about to pull away. “It draws too much attention. I should be the only one to know, to imagine what you look like naked.” He considered her breasts again, this time weighing them in his palms, his thumb claws over her nipples. The clinging fabric did nothing to mask their fullness and he hated it.
“Do you want me to change?” Lois said, her voice a little breathless.
“No. Never change.” Then he kissed her, seizing her lips as if he could own them forever, wanting every male who looked at her to know.
She gripped him to her hungrily and opened her mouth, inviting his tongue.
“What are you doing?” one of the girls said in a horrified tone behind him.
Zir drew back and caught his breath. Interrupted again, not that he was going to mate Lois on the dining room table. She released him, pushing him back. “I was kissing your mother,” he explained, turning to see Lia and Nia staring from the doorway. They looked between them with wide eyes as if making sure the adults did nothing further.
He and Lois had discussed this, too. It was healthy for the children to know that he and Lois loved each other physically. Kissing in front of them was fine. It would teach them to love healthily and happily when they were older. And they had decided to give themselves the title of mother and father, but leave it to the children to use ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’. So far, the children had stuck with their names.
They seemed at a stand-still. Lia and Nia weren’t walking away, as if they didn’t want any more kissing to take place once they were not standing guard, and Zir refused to act guilty or ashamed. He held Lois’ hand and stood beside her as she slid off the table, straightening her dress.
Luckily, the doorbell rang, and the impasse was broken when Zir went to answer it, sliding past the girls who gave Lois one last suspicious look before continuing on their way to the living room.
Zir opened his door to his brother waiting on the other side, his arms tucked into the sides of his T-shirt. Xin was a familiar face, but Zir knew there wasn’t much of a resemblance between them. Lois had said it was mostly in their mannerism and expressions rather than in their physical features. He was still Volin though, green-scaled with a feathered crest of mottled brown and yellow, his shirt sliced open at his sides to allow his membranous wings to drop if he felt the need.
“Welcome,” Zir said, pulling Xin into a one-armed hug. “Thank you for caring for the children tonight.”
Xin grunted. “It’s not a problem.”
“Hello, Xin,” Lois said, coming up to them as Zir shut the door behind Xin. She hugged him with her arms around his chest, and Xin draped his arms loosely over her shoulders and let her go quickly. Lois made a point of hugging Xin, worrying he didn’t get much affection outside the family. As long as Xin didn’t enjoy it too much, Zir didn’t comment.
“Lois,” Xin returned with a nod, pulling his arms back into his shirt.
“Uncle Xin!” cried Bor, his claws sliding on the wooden floor as he took a running leap onto Xin’s chest.
“Sneak attack!” yelled Taz, performing the same manoeuvre and landing on Xin’s thigh, quickly scrabbling higher up his body.
Their combined weight sent Xin staggering a couple of steps back, but his face lit up for a second at the boys’ antics. With one arm he pushed Bor up to his shoulder where he giggled, then set about digging Taz out from where he was tangled in his shirt.
“Hello, boys,” he greeted them in Volin, smiling. “You’re getting so big!”
Zir met Lois’ eyes. They had nothing to worry about. She got her coat down from the hook and put it on.
Zir gave Xin a pat on the shoulder. “There is money on the counter for take-out. We should be back by around eight o’clock. If you need us, you have our numbers. Just feed them and make sure they do their homework.”
Xin nodded, holding Taz up as he wriggled. “Have fun.”
“Thanks again, Xin,” Lois said, and Zir took her hand as the door closed behind them.
“One day those kids are going to eat him alive,” she said.
“We will have to keep them well-fed.”
Lois laughed. “If the girls ever decide they like him, he’s done for.”
Zir knew what she meant. It was hard enough for the two of them when all four of the kids wanted attention at once, Xin wouldn’t stand a chance, especially not with how scheming and crafty they could be when they worked together. Zir told himself it was good, that it meant they would never want for anything, and not that his children were little super-villains.
It felt odd to head back to the DETI building when they’d already put in a day’s work, especially now that it was so de-populated and most of the lights were off. Still, they went through the security check and headed into the conference room where the party was being held.
It wasn’t their first of these parties and the decorations were more or less the same every year, but still the sheer coverage of the space was impressive. The whole ceiling was hung with snowflakes, there were fairy lights, a tree surrounded by Secret Santa presents, white tinsel and fake snow, snow men, menorahs… It was still early, so it wasn’t too busy. This was the after-work crowd who would go home soon to have dinner with their families, so they were mostly standing in small groups to talk. The after-dinner party-goers would come later, the ones intent on drinking and dancing. Zir and Lois would leave before it got too wild.
They went to the catering tables to get drinks and their first plate of bite-sized foods, then they looked around for people they knew. Zir did not understand the attraction in so-called Christmas music, it annoyed him, but he didn’t say anything. All the humans he’d spoken to about it, regardless of whether they enjoyed it or not, agreed it was mandatory at a Christmas party.
Aaron, the I.T. co-ordinator, was there with his boyfriend, so they chatted to him for a while. When more I.T. staff joined them, the conversation turned to work, and Lois touched his elbow to let him know she had seen somebody else she knew and was going to talk to them. She took her leave with smiles and nods and “Happy Holidays”, then Zir returned to his conversation.
Maybe twenty minutes later, Zir realised Lois was still gone, so he searched her out in the crowd, talking to Susan, her friend from Intake. He put his arm around her waist and spoke into her ear, so as not to be rude to Susan. “I thought the point of this was to spend time with each other?”
“Hey, Zir,” Susan said.
He straightened to return her greeting.
“Having fun? How are the kids?”
“Yes, and they are very well.”
“Have you got a sitter for tonight?”
“My brother is with them.”
“Next year you should bring him to the party! I’m sure everyone would love to meet him.”
“He doesn’t work for DETI.”
“Still! Sneak him in,” Susan said, and then she winked.
“Then who will watch our children?”
Susan sighed and looked at Lois. “Okay, forget I said anything,” she said, and Lois laughed.
Zir frowned, feeling like he was missing something. “If you want to meet him, I can ask him to visit me at work.” Though he didn’t understand why she would care.
“That’s okay, I’ll just picture him exactly like you.”
“He is not exactly like me. His crest is darker.”
“Okay. I’m sure he’s great.” Susan grinned at him, and Zir’s confusion deepened.
“Zir, why don’t we go dance?” Lois said, putting her empty cup on the nearest table. “I’ll catch up with you later,” she said to Susan, and pulled him onto the dancefloor.
Zir gladly took Lois into his arms, even if he was not a keen dancer.
He wasn’t going to waste this opportunity though, when there were no children that needed feeding or cleaning. He looked down at her, and he couldn’t remember the last time he’d had the time to just stare at her face.
“You were right,” Lois murmured, resting her head on his shoulder. “Tonight was supposed to be for us. I see Susan every day.”
“You see me every day as well.”
“But I feel like I talk to her more than you lately. There’s always so much to do at home. When was the last time we had a proper conversation?”
Zir dipped his head to nuzzle her temple. “We talk at lunch. It is not that bad.”
“No, I suppose not, but still… I miss you.”
He held her tighter. “I have missed you too, and I have missed having you to myself, and feeling your body against mine.”
Lois laughed. “I know what you mean… We came close this morning though.”
“Not as close as I wanted.”
She grinned. “It’ll happen. Maybe the girls will make friends at school and get invited to a sleepover, and we can put the boys to bed early… It’ll be easier once they’re a bit older and don’t get up at the crack of dawn, and don’t put up so much of a fight at bedtime.”
“Then I look forward to mating you again in six months to a year.”
She laughed again, and he was glad she’d recognised the joke, because there was no way he was waiting that long.
Just then another couple bumped into them, sending Zir back a step and into someone else. He turned to apologise as Lois steadied the couple that had bumped into him.
“Sorry,” he said to the male Balin, expecting to move on.
“It was nothing.”
Zir looked at him more closely. Something about his pink marks on black scales was familiar. “Don’t I know you?”
“I don’t… think so?”
“You…” Zir pointed, nodding. He did know this male. He worked at DETI, which was not remarkable since Zir visited desks all over the building as part of his job, but this one had left an impression on him. There should be a human female with him somewhere… He spotted her, exactly as he remembered, shorter than Lois with fluffy brown hair instead of straight. “Your mate?”
“Yes.” The Balin replied stiffly.
Zir smiled. “I thought I recognised your…” He didn’t know the word for the markings on his cheek, rubbing his claw against his own instead. “I am Zir, I set up your phone when you started work. I work in I.T. I also have a human mate.” He found Lois behind him and pulled her into the conversation, resting his arm across her shoulders as if to back up his claim. “This is Lois.”
“Hello,” Lois greeted him. “Zir, that was rude, I was talking to someone.”
“I am also talking to someone. He has a human mate too.” It wasn’t rare, but it wasn’t exactly common either. In the DETI building, Teissians and humans mingled freely, but there were only a handful of mixed couples that stayed together for longer than a couple of months.
“It’s not a special club,” Lois argued.
Zir frowned. He thought she would like to meet others like them, she was always saying she wished she had someone to ask for advice about being a human mother to Teissian children. More to the point, her statement was demonstrably false, because earlier that year they had participated in a mass reveal of mixed couples posting pictures of themselves kissing online. “We took pictures,” he reminded her.
The Balin’s mate joined him, and he introduced her, cutting off Lois’ reply. “Maggie, this is Zir and Lois. Zir works in I.T.”
“Hello.” She held out her hand and they shook it. “I work in Enquiries,” she told them.
“I know,” Zir said. “I was just saying that I set up the phone line…” He realised he didn’t know the Balin’s name.
“Ro.”
“That Ro works on.”
“That was last year! You must have a good memory,” Maggie offered with a smile.
“Not really. He was easy to remember. He was wearing human clothes!” Some Teissians integrated human T-shirts, or wore modified uniforms like the one he wore to work, but he’d never seen a Teissian in shoes before. Just the thought made his feet ache. He checked to see if Ro was still wearing them, but he wasn’t. “Much better now,” he said, pointing.
Lois brushed her mouth against his arm, mumbling into his shoulder. “I think you’re being tactless, babe.”
Zir frowned. “No, I’m not, I’m being friendly.” She was always telling him to be friendly.
Lois ignored him, speaking to Ro and Maggie instead. “I’m sorry about him, he doesn’t mean anything by it, he’s just… blunt.”
“I was being friendly,” Zir said, crossing his arms, offended. “You just don’t understand Teissian body language. If I wanted to offend him, I would have raised my crest, like this.” He pushed his feathers up. It didn’t count as a challenge because he was facing Lois, so she could see the difference. Maybe Lois thought his crest was just for sex, since he had no reason to raise it at home.
But Lois started trying to smooth it back down again. “This is why I said we need to get out more.”
“We do not.” Zir didn’t see how this was in any way related. It was not going out that was the problem, it was staying in, specifically in their bed, uninterrupted.
“Anyway, we’ll get out of your hair,” Lois said, leaning against him with her hands to get him to move on.
He allowed her to push him away and leave the other couple alone, but he moved her hands so her arms circled him instead. “He does not have hair, Lois, now who is being rude?”
She laughed. “Honestly, Zir, sometimes I don’t know what you’re thinking.”
He turned to face her, stopping them where they stood, and looked down at her. “I said what I was thinking.”
“Then God help me.”
He didn’t understand what she was talking about, but she leant up to kiss him, so he let it go.
They stayed for a bit longer, checking in with people they knew, asking about holiday plans and eating and drinking the punch. Lois wondered if the kids were okay, and texted Xin for an update, but everything was fine. It wasn’t that Zir wasn’t enjoying the party. It was pleasant enough. But he kept thinking of how much longer they had left before they were due to go home, and then it didn’t really feel like he and Lois had made the most of their evening. They would go home and the opportunity would be gone. It was so rare that they didn’t have the children with them and they were spending the evening talking to the same people they saw every day.
Lois caught him checking the time again and must have seen his dissatisfaction on his face.
“What? What’s up?” she asked.
“Nothing. We still have an hour.”
“But?”
Zir sighed and considered her. He hadn’t wanted to complain about the party or the rare chance they got to be adults instead of parents, but as always Lois could tell when there was something he wasn’t saying. She always insisted on hearing his thoughts. “I feel that this isn’t the best use of our time,” he admitted, begrudgingly.
“What do you mean?”
“For once, we don’t have to mind the children. But we are here.”
Lois tilted her head, assessing him. She stepped up close to him. “And what would you rather be doing?”
He put his arms around her. “I want to fuck you.”
Her lips twitched with a smile. “Oh dear, can’t do that here.”
“No, nor at home.”
She mirrored his hold, her arms going around his waist to press their bodies together.
“We could… go somewhere else? I know we told Xin we’d be back by eight, but do you think he’d mind if we took an extra hour? We could leave here and… go to a hotel.” She bit her lip.
Zir looked at her, her face so close the tips of their noses could touch as he held her to his chest. “You are suggesting we leave the party and go to a hotel to mate instead.”
It would mean paying for a bed they would only use for a few hours, but Zir thought it well worth the expense. “That is an excellent idea. I agree. Let us go.” He took her hand and led her out of the room. Behind him, she laughed.
3
Zir had never stayed in a hotel before but he knew what they were, and they seemed perfect for what he and Lois needed: a bed and a bathroom. They simply chose the nearest one from Lois’ Gadjit, and Zir let her do all the talking when it came to purchasing the room. She was given a card to operate the door, and then they rode a small elevator up to the third floor. Zir’s claws twitched with anticipation as Lois fumbled with the electronic lock, his crest tensing. She got the door open and pushed inside, and Zir kicked the door closed behind them.
Lois turned to face him by the bed. The room was nicer than he was expecting, though smaller than their room at home, and it had a human bed rather than the cushioned hammock nest they usually slept in. There was another door he assumed was the bathroom, but his mind was on other things.
“Take off your clothes,” he ordered, then he pulled his shirt over his head and unfurled his crest. He could see how quickly Lois’ chest was rising and falling as she undid the gold belt of her dress and stepped out of her heels.
“Did you text Xin?”
“Yes.”
“And he’s okay with it?”
“Yes. We have three hours.” His toes clawed the rug as he waited for her to get out of her dress or motion him closer.
“Three?”
“Yes.”
“I thought you said an extra hour?”
“I told him more.”
Lois pulled the dress up her thighs, and then it seemed to occur to her to move more slowly, her eyes flicking over him as she slowed to an almost glacial pace, revealing first the red silk underwear between her thighs, then her belly, her hipbones, the tuck of her waist.
An Office Alien Christmas Collection (Office Aliens Book 5) Page 15
