Her Cold-Blooded Master

by Lea Linnett

“I… may have ordered it a little while ago,” he said, carefully. “I was hoping you might wear it at the closing ceremony. When the program finishes.”

  Ellie turned wide eyes on him. “Really?”

  “You made this for me, after all,” he said, gesturing at himself.

  Her mouth opened and closed voicelessly. She kept raking her eyes down the garment, but she wasn’t smiling like Helik had hoped she would.

  “You don’t have to wear it, of course. I mean—”

  Ellie turned to him, clutching the dress a little closer. “No, I… Of course I’ll wear it. It’s just, I don’t think I’ve ever owned something so nice,” she admitted, and finally a smile curved her features.

  Helik breathed a sigh of relief, stepping forward as she placed the dress back into its box. He pulled her close, not noticing the gentle frown on her face.

  When Ellie looked up at him, her smile had turned playful. “I’d offer to try it on, but I have a feeling the rest of your apology is going to require a few less clothes,” she purred, toying with the silken tie that was still knotted around his neck. She undid it as easily as she’d tied it a few days earlier, when she taught him how to knot it himself, and then her fingers were skating down the clasps of his shirt. She paused halfway, pushing aside the material to press a gentle kiss to his chest, where his heart beat like a drum.

  She lingered for a moment, looking up at him with an unreadable expression. He leaned in to capture her lips, and as her nimble fingers flew to his trousers, he let his own roam around to the small zip that hid at her back.

  “Your feeling would be correct,” he said against her mouth as the garment dropped to the floor. Without warning he leaned down, scooping her up until she straddled him in mid-air, and he ignored her squeal of protest as he walked her carefully round to the side of the bed. “You have no idea how torturous it was to be so close to you all night and be unable to touch.”

  Ellie shivered in his grip, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Oh, I think I do. If there’d been a few less donors and a few more drinks on hand, I would’ve dragged you into a restroom at the first opportunity.” She leaned in, her lips hot against the unprotected flats of his ears. “You in this soot? It does things to me.”

  He kissed at her jaw, moving cautiously to tuck a knuckle beneath the seam of her panties, and felt the unmistakably wet warmth of her arousal.

  “It sure does,” he crooned. He collapsed onto the bed with her, loving the way her hands flew to his clothes as she squirmed against him.

  The bed dipped beneath them, sending the garment box flying off it. Both of Ellie’s dresses lay forgotten there on the floor, where they were soon joined by the multi-textured fabrics of Helik’s soot.

  26

  Ellie’s eyes flew open when the large body covering hers jerked awake, but the alien didn’t get far. Helik had fallen asleep the previous night with his arms wrapped around her midriff, his head resting on her stomach, but now his arm was trapped beneath her, and he was staring at her navel with a horrified expression. She stared at him, and panic laced her tone when she asked, “What’s wrong?”

  “Was that you?” he said, his voice uncharacteristically high-pitched.

  She frowned at him. “Excuse me?”

  At that moment, Ellie’s stomach rumbled, her belly quivering with the force of it. God, she was hungry. She’d lost herself in pattern-making for one of Anna’s new dresses the night before, and forgot to eat dinner. When Helik had then crept into her bedroom with fattened pupils and wandering hands, food was the furthest thing from her mind.

  Helik looked from her belly to her face, a shocked expression on his features. “That!” he yelped indignantly, and she was so happy to see him acting so earnest that she broke out into laughter.

  “Th-that’s my stomach,” she said through gasping breaths, which only worsened when his brow plate wobbled in confusion. “It means I’m h-hungry!”

  The levekk blinked slowly. “You ate yesterday.”

  “Yeah, in the afternoon.”

  He shook his head, freeing his arm from where it was caught between her and the bed so he could run his claws lightly over her exposed skin. “I don’t understand how your species survives,” he muttered, not for the first time.

  She grinned. “Pure stubbornness, I think.”

  They both calmed, and in the ensuing silence, Ellie realized that the apartment wasn’t as warm as it usually would be. Across from her, Helik shivered, his gaze distant.

  She placed her hand on his. “Are you cold?”

  He blinked up at her, and then grabbed at his shoulder, as if he’d only just realized the temperature. “A little. Something must have bumped the thermostat.”

  But when they went to check it, the display still read an even eighty degrees. The numbers changed when Helik fiddled with it, but the corresponding air that flowed from the vents was as cold as ever. He turned the whole system off with a huff—better to have no air coming in than the chilly stuff the heating system was producing.

  “This is ridiculous,” Helik grumbled once he’d called reception to arrange for a maintenance team to be sent up that afternoon. “I get that it’s an old building, but this is the kind of thing that should be kept up-to-date.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about, it’s fine,” Ellie teased, stepping into his arms and entering the cocoon of blankets that he’d brought downstairs with him. He looked adorable with his scaled face poking out into the open air—nothing like the imposing senator she’d met on her first day in the Senekkar.

  “Ugh, you’re so warm,” he moaned, pressing her naked skin to his. All the windows were closed—including the glass covering the entrance to the balcony—and they’d felt bold enough to forgo their clothing for the morning under the privacy of the one-way glass.

  “It’ll be hours before anyone is sent up,” said Helik, his voice deepening to a playful growl. “And the heat room runs on a separate system. We could spend a few hours in there.”

  But Ellie’s stomach felt like a chasm, and she shook her head. “I’m so hungry. Let me cook something. That’ll warm us both up.”

  Helik agreed—after a moment of shivering pathetically—and soon Ellie stood by the stove, boiling some oats in synthetic milk. It wasn’t the most exciting breakfast to make, but the hard body pressed up against her back and the levekk’s experimental sniffing over her shoulder lightened the experience.

  She’d spent a lot of time with Helik since the Christmas party a few days earlier. Neither of them had left the apartment once, and despite the heat that usually permeated the place, it had started to feel like those long, snowed-in weeks that she spent with Lena and Augusta, huddling by the electric heater and doing nothing but talk, sew, and eat. With a whole lot more sex, of course.

  Grinning down at her cooking, she rolled her shoulders against Helik’s chest. It almost felt like when they’d first began this relationship, when her days were filled with nothing but work and Helik. It was easy to forget that she’d been so mad at him at the party, although she still hadn’t tried on the dress he bought her. She’d spent much of her time naked since then anyway, and Helik didn’t seem to mind that she wasn’t getting much work done.

  It would be nice to go out somewhere, she thought. Maybe on her day off—whatever that meant anymore—she could arrange to meet up with Cara and Anna.

  For now, she was content to stay inside. Especially with Helik pressing his hardened cock into the small of her back like he was, both of them wrapped up in the blankets with only Ellie’s arms poking through. It was probably a fire hazard, but she didn’t care a bit.

  “So, does this taste any good?” Helik asked, sounding doubtful.

  “Ehhh.” She shrugged. “It’s more like one of your protein bars,” she admitted, shuddering at the memory of the tasteless morsel that she’d once tried. “I spice mine up with some sugar to make it palatable.”

  “Oh.” Helik sounded more than a little perturb
ed, and when she looked over her shoulder, she found his nose wrinkling beneath its plate.

  “You really don’t like sweet things, do you?” she asked.

  “No, I—”

  At that moment, the front door to the apartment beeped, quickly followed by the sound of it slamming open and shut, and Ellie almost knocked the pot of oats over as Helik stiffened against her back.

  “Don’t come in!” he started to yell, but by the time they turned it was already too late. Standing in the entrance to the living room like an inky shadow was Roia, her bearing tense. Her eyes looked wide, but not with shock.

  “Roia,” Helik croaked, as Ellie fisted the blanket in her hands, making sure her body was covered. She was reasonably sure she was hidden, but that meant nothing with both of their heads sticking out of the same lump of blankets. “This isn’t—”

  “Don’t make excuses, I already know.”

  Beneath the blanket, Helik’s claws gripped Ellie’s waist almost painfully as they both stared at the xylidian in horror. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean I guessed,” she said, crossing the floor and leaning against one of the sofas in the living room. “No one else knows, you’re very good at hiding, all of that.” She waved her clawed hand dismissively. “That’s not why I’m here.”

  “Roia!” Helik barked, his voice stronger now, although it wobbled with panic. “I didn’t give you access just so you could barge in here at a moment’s notice!”

  “Well, I wouldn’t have unless it was an emergency.” Her tone was deceptively calm, but her red eyes strained as she stared at them. “I tried to call.” Ellie realized with horror that they’d both left their wristlets on the bedside table upstairs. Helik had called reception using the door comm.

  “What the fuck—”

  “Helik!” Ellie turned in his arms, pinching his side hard enough to make him wince. “I think you should listen to her. Something’s wrong.”

  Roia gave her a grateful look, and she was reminded of what the xylidian said about Helik’s moods. How he didn’t know what to do with his emotions sometimes.

  “It’s Devis and Scott.”

  Ellie gasped. Helik said nothing, but she felt his frame tense against her back.

  “We have a big problem. Have you looked at the headlines?”

  Above her, Helik shook his head mutely. The whole room seemed to pause, as if no one wanted to be the one that broke the silence.

  “What happened?” Ellie finally caved. Images of Scott’s bruised and battered body assailed her. He’d been lying the whole time, Devis was abusive, and she’d finally done more than he could recover from, she was sure.

  “They’re fucking,” Roia said flatly, and it was as if the air was sucked from the room.

  Ellie’s legs suddenly felt weak, and she leaned back against the levekk on autopilot. He swayed precariously under her weight, just as shocked as she was.

  “W-what?” Helik squeaked, sounding very unheroic.

  “They’ve been having… relations,” Roia mumbled. “That fucking reporter—the one from the conference—did an article on them.”

  “Well, he’s lying. Isn’t he?”

  She shook her head. “They have… photos.”

  There was a hissing sound as the pot behind them boiled over, and Ellie raced to disentangle herself from the blanket and pull it off the heat. She realized belatedly that she was still naked, but turned to find Helik holding the blanket out like a pair of batwings, shielding them both from Roia’s gaze.

  “You two should get dressed,” Roia said, and Ellie felt a bit giddy at the amused edge to her voice. “Then we’ll go over there.” She hesitated. “I’ll wait in the transport.”

  She swept from the room, but Helik didn’t drop the blanket until the front door snapped shut. He looked almost catatonic as Ellie pressed her hands to his stomach, staring up at his blank face.

  “Are you all right?”

  “They’re… Devis and Scott. Really?” His eyes flew to hers, as if she might have known.

  “I don’t know!” She bit her lip. “Scott was acting weird. I thought they might hate each other.”

  Helik said nothing, only hummed distantly.

  “Maybe it’s a mistake,” she said. “Just the other night, Scott was saying he’d never touch a levekk…”

  Helik frowned. “You spoke about it?”

  “No, one of the other humans brought it up. It was… kind of gross. The way they all talked about it.”

  “And what did you say?”

  “I didn’t say anything,” she replied, her eyes narrowing.

  Helik blinked stupidly, and he sounded hollowed out when he finally said, “It’s over. This’ll sink the whole program.”

  “Helik, no. It’s probably a misunderstanding.”

  “You don’t understand. People don’t forget these kinds of stories. It doesn’t matter whether it’s true.” He started to step around the kitchen counter, his claws catching on the discarded blanket at their feet.

  “Helik. Helik!” Ellie grabbed his forearm, forcing him to look at her. “It’ll be okay. We’ll get cleaned up, head over there, and find out what happened.”

  He froze. “No. We can’t go over there. We need to make a statement. Something official. I don’t want any rumors that we’re involved in this.”

  “Are you kidding me?” she hissed, voice rising. “Devis is your friend! You’re always seeing her. We have to go over there.”

  “No, we—”

  “Helik.”

  He paused, and finally his eyes seemed to focus on hers. He looked so lost, his lips parted, and Ellie took strength from the fact that at least this was Helik with her, and not one of his masks.

  “You have to talk to her. And I want to check on Scott. Please.”

  “You can’t come with me,” he croaked. “It’ll look suspicious.”

  “Oh, don’t even try to give me that.” She stretched up onto her tiptoes, pressing her lips to his with more confidence than she really felt, and was relieved when he eventually kissed back. His hand went to her back, clutching like one would a life-raft, and for a moment, she felt like one. She needed to be clear-headed, for both their sakes.

  She broke the kiss, somewhat breathlessly.

  “I’m talking to Scott, even if I have to walk there myself.”

  27

  They were all silent in the transport on the way to Devis’ place. Ellie kept her eyes on the buildings flying by her window while Helik sat beside her, scrolling through the headlines on his wristlet and talking with Roia while she drove.

  “Ugh,” Helik grunted after a while, a queasy expression crossing his face.

  Ellie reached out to run a knuckle over his arm, frowning when the touch made Helik jump. “What is it?”

  He grimaced. “I found the picture.”

  “Oh.” She knew she shouldn’t look—it had been posted against Devis and Scott’s wishes after all—but her curiosity proved too hard to ignore. “Show me,” she said, already feeling guilty.

  Helik did so, turning the holographic display in her direction, and she felt her cheeks redden as her eyes made sense of the grainy picture. That was definitely a bedroom, taken from a strange angle, as if the camera had been mounted by the ceiling. On the bed was the unmistakable figure of a human, naked buttocks on display, with a scaled levekk curled beneath him.

  Ellie looked away. Great, now she’d seen Scott’s ass. She felt stupid for being surprised—what the hell had she been expecting?

  “It’s probably not fake, is it?” she mumbled, as Helik swiped away from the picture.

  He was silent for a moment. “Probably not.”

  She felt sick with worry, despite not knowing the other couple very well. She’d hung out with Scott a few times, but he rarely let anyone get too close to him. She laughed humorlessly to herself; Cara was probably the one who knew him best, what with all the fighting they did.

  They pulled up in the bowels of Devis’ buildi
ng before long, and Ellie had to duck down beneath the window until the gates shut tight behind them, hiding from the gaggle of reporters that milled around outside. Helik glanced sympathetically at her as she resurfaced but didn’t apologize. He was taking the risk of her being tied to this seriously, it seemed.

  Ellie led the way, Helik and Roia blocking anyone’s view of her as they entered the elevator, and they made swift progress up to the thirty-third floor.

  “Devis, what the fuck is going on?” Helik barked as soon as they’d reached the safety of her apartment.

  Ellie winced, hanging back with Roia as the levekk stormed into the living area, where Devis sat on a sofa, alone.

  “I’ve never seen him this mad,” Roia said in a low tone that only Ellie could hear, but she didn’t have time to reply as the xylidian went to join the others.

  She followed at a slower pace, glancing around for any sign of Scott.

  “Don’t fucking yell at me, Helik. You’ve seen the articles.”

  Helik’s mouth dropped open, his hands coming up in the purest expression of frustration that Ellie had ever seen—in any species.

  “So, it’s true?”

  “I made a mistake—”

  “You certainly fucking did! What were you thinking, jeopardizing the program with a—”

  “The mistake,” Devis growled, cutting through Helik’s screaming, “was getting caught.”

  Helik made a strange hissing noise—were those words? Ellie wondered—and gestured wildly with a claw. Devis leaped from her seat, a thunderous expression on her face, and suddenly it was as if two titans had stepped up to battle each other.

  “Don’t even try to take that road!” Devis roared, thankfully switching back to Trade so the rest of the room could understand. “You don’t get to say shit like that when you’ve been doing the exact same thing with her!”

  Ellie had been drifting round the room to peek down a dark corridor, but she froze on the spot when Devis pointed a white claw in her direction. Helik went blissfully silent, and something in his face slackened.