Aton

by Cara Bristol

The best chance for a positive outcome was to keep everything under wraps.

  I called Megan and had her cancel my morning appointment and ran to the parking lot. Aton had promised he wouldn’t speak to Jessie, but what if he let something slip? She didn’t seem conniving, but what if she tricked him?

  Chapter Ten

  Aton

  Jessie, the female with the Intergalactic Dating Agency, was in her office. Caid, the interloper, watched Earth vids in the waiting room. I paced the hall, my kel boots squeaking. I squinted to block out the flickering overhead lights. The strobe effect was giving me a headache.

  On the phone, Toni had sounded concerned I was at the IDA, but her anger had cooled, for which I was grateful. Still, I anxiously awaited her arrival. I needed to fix matters between us.

  I blamed myself for what had happened. I never intended to place Toni in any kind of jeopardy—I’d only tried to find a solution to a dilemma. If I’d followed the rules, I wouldn’t have been permitted to come to Earth, and I wouldn’t have met her.

  Toni burst out of the stairwell—this hut didn’t have one of those metal boxes that moved between floors. “Aton!” Relief and joy gladdened her voice.

  I caught her in my arms. “I missed you so much.” I inhaled her wonderful scent. We turned our heads, and our mouths clung in a kiss that made everything better.

  “I’m sorry I broke the rules, threatened your work, and made you angry.” I regretted having to do what I did, although I didn’t know what I could have done differently and still come to Earth. If I’d guessed, my former friend had intended to dash my chances, I never would have asked him for a recommendation, but how could I have foreseen that?

  “No, it was my fault. I overreacted. I’m happy you’re here—by whatever means it took.” She grabbed my head between her palms and stared into my eyes. “I love you, Aton. Having met you, I can’t imagine my life without you in it.”

  My heart swelled with happiness, and I pressed a hand to my chest. “You are the life in my existence. I was afraid you hated me because I jeopardized your work.”

  “Never. I’m so sorry for making you feel that way.” Grabbing my arm, she glanced at the door leading to the waiting room outside Jessie’s office, before drawing me away a couple of steps. “However…we need to be cautious about what we say. What have you told Jessie so far?” she asked in a hushed tone.

  “Only that I’m your mate—not Caid.”

  “And you didn’t mention anything about your lack of a visa?”

  “No.”

  “What exactly did you say?”

  “I told her you were unhappy with me, and I wanted to make things right between us. Before I could say more, Caid walked in, we growled at each other, I almost punched him, and she called you.”

  “Here’s the plan: we keep quiet about the visa and how you stowed away. If we’re lucky—she’ll assume your comment about making it right means you want to get rid of Caid.”

  “I do want to get rid of Caid.”

  His affections were as fickle as the storms on Dakon. After showing up at Toni’s hut and attempting to claim her, he’d strolled into the Intergalactic Dating Agency and tried to woo Jessie with terms of terms of endearment and flattery. I’d heard that type of behavior was called flirting, and men who did it weren’t truly interested in the object of their attentions.

  He acted like Jessie was the most beautiful female on two planets, when in reality, while very congenial, she was unassuming in appearance, with unattractive orange hair, washed-out blue eyes, and polka dots scattered across her too-pale nose.

  Better that he pursued her, and left my female alone, but his mercurial behavior proved he couldn’t be trusted.

  “Caid is going to be the answer to our problems. We want Jessie to focus on him and not you.” She looked up at me. “When we see her, please let me do the talking. Just agree with whatever I say. The facts are what they are, but we need to draw her attention away from them.”

  “Isn’t that lying?”

  “No. I am going to be honest, but selective. Besides, all’s fair in love and war. We’re about to go into battle for love.”

  “On my planet, we say all’s fair in love and courtship.”

  * * * *

  Jessie stood up as Toni, Caid, and I entered. “Thank you all for being here. Please have a seat.” She gestured to some chairs. One of those ubiquitous screens all the humans used took up a big portion of her work table.

  Horns twitching, Caid paused in front of it. “Hello again, gorgeous. Did you miss me?”

  Jessie gave him a brushoff with a little shake of her head. “Sit down, Caid.”

  He flashed an unrepentant grin and sprawled in a chair.

  Jessie folded her hands on the table. “Let me apologize to each of you for the mix-up. I assure you this is the first time two men were matched to the same woman.” She nibbled on her lip, and the open gaze she fixed on my mate appeared sincere. “From what I’ve gathered from Caid, you’re interested in dating Aton, is that correct?”

  “Yes,” Toni replied, “I’ve already established a connection with him.”

  “You’re fully satisfied with the match?”

  She smiled at me. “Absolutely.”

  “We’re mates,” I couldn’t resist adding, although I’d promised not to speak.

  “Then, we’re good there. For Caid”—she glanced at him, and then averted her eyes—“we’ll find someone else. The database of women seeking men is much larger than men seeking women, so I’m sure we’ll identify someone quickly.”

  “That won’t be necessary.” Caid straightened. “I’ve since met my female.”

  “You have?” The bridge between Jessie’s colorless brows creased as if her head ached. “Who?”

  “You.”

  “I’m flattered, but I can’t be your date.” She let him down more gently than he deserved. “That would be against the rules. The Intergalactic Dating Agency has policies against staff fraternizing with clients.”

  “I don’t want to fraternize with you. I want to have relations with you,” he said. “I would like to caress your beautiful plump body and—”

  “OMG, he’s a hashtag waiting to happen,” my mate muttered.

  “Caid!” Jessie blushed pink to the roots of her orange hair. “That is inappropriate. Please don’t say any more. You completed the assimilation class, didn’t you? Didn’t the instructor go over how to talk to women?”

  He nodded. “But, she also said etiquette relaxed with one’s female—and that’s you, sugar.”

  “I am not your female or your sugar, but the agency is going to find you a woman. I’ll oversee this project personally to ensure you get the best match as fast as possible.”

  “I would like to be your project.” His voice lowered, and his horns twitched suggestively.

  Toni smothered a laugh. “He’s like a duck—he imprinted on the first woman he saw.”

  “Then, I’m like a duck, too,” I whispered. “Because I imprinted on you when I saw you for the first time. It is like that with Fated mates.”

  Jessie rubbed her temples. “I’m glad that everything worked out for you two, but the glitch concerns me. The system shouldn’t allow two matches; it defaults to the one with the highest compatibility rating. I would hate to see this happen again. Some aliens can be territorial. I’m hoping this occurred because of the immigration visa error. I don’t know why the department didn’t notify us of Aton’s approval.” She sighed. “I’m going to file a trouble ticket. I hope nothing I did caused the double match, but if it was, I’ll accept full responsibility.”

  “There’s no need to file a report,” Toni said.

  “Well, it’s required procedure, and I need to get to the bottom of this. I stake my reputation and honor on the integrity of the matches I oversee.”

  “How long have you been with the Intergalactic Dating Agency?” Toni asked.

  “Five
years—the last two as match coordinator.”

  “And what does your job involve?”

  “I review the computer matches. We rely on personality assessment testing to pair our couples. A computer program analyzes the data and makes the selection, but a real person—an IDA match coordinator—reviews it. The personal touch is especially important in hard-to-place cases.” She glanced at Caid.

  He winked.

  She sighed.

  “Do you enjoy your work?” Toni asked in the same tone she used in court.

  “It’s my dream job!” Jessie’s face lit up. “I love helping people find true love and live happily ever after. It’s the most rewarding job in the galaxy! I would hate to lose my position.” Her mouth drooped.

  “Like if they found out you made a big mistake?” Toni asked.

  “Yeah. I might be reprimanded, and a mark would go on my record. Or, I could get demoted or fired.”

  “How many matches have you reviewed in your two years as coordinator?”

  “Oh, thousands—at least. Twenty-five hundred maybe?”

  “In two thousand five hundred matches, how many mix-ups of this nature have occurred?”

  “Just this one.”

  “You’ve done an exceptional job. Aton and I are happy together. Caid will get his mate. It would be a shame if someone who loves her job and is as good at it as you are got fired. Maybe…maybe…you don’t need to report this? I won’t say anything. Aton won’t say anything.” She glanced at Caid. “I don’t think Caid wants to see you lose your job.”

  “I will do anything to protect my mate,” he said.

  Jessie nibbled on her lip. “I have a responsibility…”

  “Do yourself a favor. You deserve it.”

  “I guess I could wait and see what happens…if it occurs again, then I could file a report.”

  Toni nodded. “That’s a good way to proceed.”

  “We don’t want to see you get into trouble,” I agreed.

  “Absolutely not,” Caid said.

  “That’s what I’ll do, then. Thank you so much for your discretion. I appreciate it,” Jessie said.

  The meeting concluded, and the three of us left her office. Caid proceeded to the stairwell, leaving Toni and me alone in the hallway.

  “You were good,” I said in awe. She’d never once uttered an untruth, but steered the situation in our favor.

  Toni blew on her fingernails and polished them against her shoulder. “Thank you.” She grinned.

  Chapter Eleven

  Toni

  Aton’s heart drummed in my ear as I curled against him, my arm thrown across his shoulders, my thigh hooked over his leg. I sighed. “I love Saturdays and Sundays. Weekends in general.”

  “Here I assumed you loved me,” he joked.

  I gave him a squeeze and another kiss. “I enjoy any day that I don’t have to work, and we can spend time together. When we can make love, cuddle, watch TV, do nothing.” I smoothed my hand over his chest. When I could touch him as much as I wanted.

  “And see Earth. I’ve enjoyed our trips immensely.”

  Right after our meeting with Jessie, Aton had moved into my house. Often on weekends we went sightseeing. We’d gone wine tasting in Napa Valley, visited the tall trees at Sequoia National Park, hiked in Yosemite, cruised along the coast to Monterey Bay. He’d been like a little kid at Disneyland.

  “What would you like to do today?” I asked. “We could catch a ferry to Catalina Island—or hit a few museums in New Los Angeles. Maybe we could stay in and…” I lifted my head to leer at him. “You know.”

  “Again?” With a dramatic arch of his eyebrows, he feigned surprise, but his horns pulsed.

  I giggled and hugged him.

  “I don’t care where we go. Your choice, as long as we you know again before we go,” he joked, but then his expression turned pensive. “I understand you have to work, but I wish we had more time together.”

  “I wish we did, too.” It seemed like we had to cram all living and loving into nights and weekends. “Maybe…we should take a vacation?”

  “What’s a vacation?”

  “It’s when people go away somewhere.”

  “We’ve been going lots of places.”

  “Farther away for a longer period, like two weeks,” I said, getting excited. “It will take a while to arrange for the time off work, but let’s do it!” I’d have Megan work on clearing my calendar. “Is there anyplace in particular you’d like to go?”

  “Someplace cold? Where there is snow?”

  “You miss your planet, don’t you?” I loved him and would move anywhere for him, but if I had to leave my home, I would miss it a lot. He’d sacrificed everything to come to Earth.

  “Sometimes,” he admitted. “I never would have guessed I’d miss blizzards and the icy cold, but sometimes I do. Earth is so warm.” He stroked my cheek and stared into my eyes. “But you mean more to me than all the snow on Dakon.”

  Our kiss was long, slow, and sweet.

  “We’ll go someplace with snow, then!” By the time I could get free, it would be late fall anyway—just in time for cold weather. But, where to go? The north got snow, but we’d been all over New California already, and I wanted to take him someplace special, out-of-area with grand vistas, a true vacation where we weren’t driving all day, where we stayed in a fancy hotel, overindulged at restaurants. So, Swiss Alps? Norway? Iceland? Alaska? Canada?

  All those places would require commercial air travel and or identification. Aton had no ID. I’d put off doing something about his lack of documentation because I’d been reluctant to risk triggering an investigation. We couldn’t delay forever, though. One challenge, one demand for ID by someone in authority, and Aton would be screwed. And, it hindered the ability to travel.

  My attorney friend, Maridelle, had returned my call, but by then the dust had settled, so, without going into detail, I’d told her everything had turned out fine, and I didn’t need her services. I’d phone her again and ask some discreet questions. I had a suspicion acquiring “legal” documentation might require forgery. Keeping silent about an illegal act was one thing, but I drew the line at committing a crime.

  If I couldn’t get the ID situation worked out in time for a winter vacation, we could drive to Colorado, Idaho, or Montana. In the long-term, I could buy a cabin at Lake Tahoe. “I am going to get you some snow!”

  “I would like that.” He shifted me onto my back and rolled on top of me. His thigh slid between my legs. “Now, about our plans for today…you know?” He nuzzled my throat, his warm lips teasing the sensitive pulse points. Desire thrummed through my body. I arched my neck and rubbed my thigh against his hip. His penis hardened.

  Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

  Aton and I both jerked. He lifted his head. “What’s that?”

  “Somebody’s at the door. Ignore it. They’ll go away.” I wound my arms around his neck.

  A chime sounded throughout the house. Now they were ringing the darn doorbell.

  Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

  Mind over matter. “Kiss me,” I said. Our mouths met in a slide of lips and a dance of tongue, but he’d stiffened—and not in a good way—and listened, waiting for whoever it was to give up and go away.

  More chiming, more knocking. They were insistent buggers.

  I groaned. “I’d better see who it is.”

  Aton rolled off me. “It could be important.”

  I slipped out of bed and into my robe, tying it around my waist. “For their sakes, it had better be. If this is some missionary come to convert me, they’re going to get to meet Jesus a lot earlier than they expected.” I stalked out of the bedroom.

  I couldn’t imagine who would be banging on my door on a Saturday morning. Anybody who might drop by would call first. Unless…the Intergalactic Dating Agency still had me listed as unmatched, and its computer had kicked out another date. Aton and Caid both had just s
hown up. However, I was sure—well, almost sure—Jessie would have caught it in her review.

  Four uniformed men stood on my porch.

  “Yes?” Anxiety shot through me, but I pasted on a neutral expression. I pretended to lean on the door to surreptitiously close the gap so they couldn’t see inside.

  “Are you Ms. Antoinette Gates Sutterman?”

  “Depends. Who are you?” I eyed them, memorizing faces.

  “I’m Officer Malcolm with Extraterrestrial Immigration.” He flashed a realistic-appearing badge. “Is Aton here?”

  My stomach dropped to the floor, and my chest constricted. “Who?” I gripped the door tighter. Stay in the bedroom. Please, Aton, stay out of sight.

  “Aton of Dakon.”

  Which lie should I tell—that I’d never heard of him, or that he’d been here but had left?

  Immigration had my name and had turned up on my doorstep, so they’d connected the dots between us. However, suspicions didn’t count—it only mattered what they could prove.

  Saying Aton had been here would be admitting I knew him, and I could be charged with harboring an illegal. However, if I could convince them he’d been and gone, they might go away long enough for him to sneak out and me to call Maridelle. I wished I’d spoken to her when I had the chance!

  How had immigration found out? The only thing I could think of was that Jessie must have manually updated the IDA database, linking Aton’s name with mine to prevent the computer from kicking out another match. It probably triggered a notification to immigration. No doubt automated checks and double checks were built into the system.

  “You missed him. He went to Shop-Mart,” I said and cringed. Nobody in my affluent zip code went to Shop-Mart.

  “We need to verify that if you wouldn’t mind.” He motioned as if to enter.

  “Actually, I do mind.” I tightened the belt around my waist and my grip on the door. “I’m not dressed; I’m getting ready to take a shower. You’ll have to come back later.”

  “Toni? Who is it?” Aton said from behind me. “What’s going on?”