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  They spoke for several minutes and the group of girls beside Iris eventually drifted away, leaving her standing alone on the bridge. She tried not to stare at the objects of her observation, but her eyes darted back to them every few minutes. The last time she spared a look, her heart leapt to her throat. Yormas was looking right at her, like he could see through her and knew exactly what she was doing. Their gazes locked for several seconds and the grin he shot her could only be described as evil. But then his Oscavian companion said something and the ambassador looked away. Iris took that as her cue to escape.

  Now, more than ever, she was certain that Yormas was up to no good.

  Chapter Eight

  WHEN IRIS MADE IT BACK to their room she seemed shaken, but insisted that she would be fine after a shower and dinner. Though it may have been wiser to keep all discussion of their mission confined to the room, Toran was eager to take her out and never once considered changing their reservation time. True to her word, by the time she’d cleaned and changed Iris seemed more in control of herself, so Toran suspected that whatever had happened, it hadn’t been serious.

  There were dozens of restaurants on Gamma Station, and though part of him wanted to show off and take Iris to the finest establishment in the place, he’d booked them a table at one of the more casual venues. When they walked in the door, something in Iris’s posture relaxed and Toran knew that he’d chosen correctly.

  The place wasn’t packed, and the booth that the android attendant led them to was tucked away in the back of the restaurant, giving them an intimate sense of privacy.

  Once the android was gone, Iris shot him a look. “Did you bribe one of the androids for the seats?” she asked with a grin.

  “Have you ever tried to bribe an android?” He smiled back, and for a moment, let himself pretend that they were only two people, two mates, sitting down to enjoy a simple meal together.

  “I don’t know, maybe there’s a Detyen trick to it. What are the androids like back on your planet?” Her grin slipped as she realized what she asked. “I’m sorry, that probably sounded terrible.”

  “We don’t have androids back home. It’s not the kind of place that needs them.” Maybe Detya had been staffed by those kind of robots, but Detyen HQ was far too utilitarian. The familiar pang of longing squeezed Toran’s heart, but this time it was mitigated by the presence of his denya. He could never hope to recapture the past, but the woman in front of him could give him a future he’d never dared to hope for.

  “I saw... you know who while I was out,” Iris said casually. She bit her lip and glanced around, as if to make sure that they were still the only two people in their section of the restaurant. “He was talking to an Oscavian, but I couldn’t hear what they were saying. He...” She trailed off with a shake of her head.

  “He what?” Had she put herself in danger? He would not let Yormas touch her, no matter if it put the mission at risk.

  “He looked at me,” she said, shuddering. “He’s creepy, I don’t like him. And I didn’t like the way he looked at me, but there’s no way he knew. I doubt he’s ever seen me before.”

  “You were at his party,” Toran pointed out. They’d both been there, that encounter more memorable than anything else.

  “We never spoke,” she said. “But I’ll be more careful next time.”

  They were sitting beside one another and Toran reached over to lace their fingers together. They hadn’t figured out anything else in their relationship, but this simple contact made sense, and Iris seemed to feel the same. She gave him a small squeeze in reply and her lips flirted with a smile.

  “I have questions,” she said. She darted a glance his way before staring forward once again and tipping her head down to read the menu on the table.

  “Whatever answers I have to give, they are yours.” He couldn’t bring himself to reveal the truth of the soulless, not now, maybe not ever. But anything short of that was hers for the asking.

  “Were you ever going to tell me about the denya thing?” She untangled their fingers and pulled her hand away, and though there was only a hand span of space between their bodies, Toran felt cold for the distance.

  “It took me by surprise. I like to think that I would have said something before we bond...” He trailed off, still keenly aware of how misspoken words could push her away. But he’d promised her answers, and he could not back out now. “Before we bonded.”

  “Bonded? That sounds kind of complicated, and permanent.” Her finger traced the edge of the paper that the menu was printed on, flicking it back and forth like she needed something to do with her hands.

  “The bond is sealed with sex. It’s common, or it was back on Detya, for mates to bond upon first meeting. Most choose to stay together, but even if they don’t, having a sealed bond ensures survival.” He’d heard of mates who abandoned one another; his uncle’s own mate had left him and the legion before Toran was born. But having met Iris, he couldn’t understand it. He wasn’t sure that he could ever leave her.

  “So it’s not like a magical love thing? It’s just survival sex.” Her tone gave nothing away as she made the statement.

  “It’s not just anything.” Even he could hear how defensive he sounded, but the look Iris shot him was more amused than angry.

  “If sleeping together would save your life, I’m not exactly opposed.” Even in the dim light of the restaurant, he could see the blush painted across her cheeks, and she was studiously looking back at the table again. “It wouldn’t be a hardship.”

  “And if it were more than merely sex?” Dryce would probably punch him for pushing like this and potentially losing out on a night with his mate. But Toran wasn’t Dryce, and he didn’t know if he could pull back.

  Iris finally managed to look at him, and she was no longer blushing. Something unreadable sparkled in her eyes and Toran wanted to kiss her. “That might take a bit more discussion.”

  When the android attendant returned to them, they placed their orders and their conversation shifted to more casual matters. Iris told him the story of her first vacation with her parents. They’d taken her to view a famous waterfall, and she’d tried to slip their supervision and climb onto one of the hovering docks that let visitors stand over the falls and get a close look at the drop.

  “People used to go over those falls in wooden barrels,” she laughed. “I can’t imagine it, but if it weren’t so suicidal I think it might’ve been fun.”

  And in return Toran found himself speaking of his own parents, even though they’d been dead since he was a child. Before they passed, before the tragedy of that explosion, they’d been close. They’d wanted to show him the universe, and though they were members of the legion, neither of them had been willing to sacrifice family for their people.

  “Something happened to them, didn’t it?” Iris sensed his melancholy and placed her hand on his arm.

  Toran savored the touch and nodded. “We were on a supply run, I was just a child. Probably too young to have been with them, but my parents hated to leave me behind on easy missions. It should have been safe, they’d made the same trip a dozen times before. But they fell into the path of a pirate ship. My father was wounded in the initial blast. My mother put me in the escape pod and programmed it to find the legion vessel that trailed not far behind. I thought she would be in the pod behind me. But only moments after I cleared the ship, the pirates struck it with something powerful and it blew up. We couldn’t afford the time to try and recover their bodies. Likely there would’ve been little left of them. After that, my uncle raised me. He loved me, of course. He treated me well, but they were my parents.” He could still see the blast of the explosion when he closed his eyes, and he could almost imagine feeling the heat, even though he hadn’t. For years he’d had nightmares about that day.

  Iris’s arm slid around his shoulders and she held him close as he recounted that trauma from his childhood. Most of the time he kept the memory locked away, he forgot about the years whe
re he would wake up in the middle of the night screaming out for parents who would never find him. He didn’t cry. His tears had been shed long ago, but he welcomed the comfort of Iris’s touch and leaned into her warmth.

  “My folks split up when I was a kid,” she said after a moment. “Mom got sick after college and passed about four years ago. My father is still alive, but I can’t remember the last time I saw him. We weren’t close. Aren’t close. I can’t imagine what happened to you. It sounds terrible.” She leaned her head against his shoulder, as if her presence could give him the comfort that her words could not.

  “Let us speak of happier things,” he suggested, unwilling to sacrifice the night to sadness and regret. Not on this first night with his denya. “Are you finished with your meal? If so, I would love to take a walk. The station is supposed to be beautiful at night.”

  TORAN WAS RIGHT, THE place was gorgeous at night. They walked side-by-side down the same hallways that she’d traversed earlier in the day, but with the lights dim and faint music playing in the background, the place was transformed into a magical oasis. Iris didn’t have any destination in mind, and when Toran led them down certain pathways he seemed to be choosing at random. Their talk turned from the deep and painful conversation at the end of dinner to the light banter of people watching.

  There were all sorts of people at Gamma Station, and most of them seem to see style as the most important thing. Iris chose her own clothing for function and affordability, but the outrageous patterns and complex construction of the materials they saw the men and women wearing on the station were anything but comfortable or affordable.

  In the distance there was a pulsing thread of music echoing down one of the halls. Iris tugged Toran in that direction, their fingers laced together once more. She seemed to keep holding his hand, and the more she did it the more natural it felt. But he didn’t mind, and she found that she liked the warm press of his palm against hers.

  She expected to encounter people in the hallway as they got closer to what sounded like an exciting party, but they must have chosen a less traveled path since they were the only two people there. As they got close enough to see the door with flashing lights faintly lighting up the windows, a sensor in the ceiling beeped and the light above them flashed green, as if their identities had just been confirmed and approved to go further.

  “What’s that?” she asked, eyes rolling up to glance at the ceiling.

  “Some areas are age restricted at night,” Toran replied.

  Neither of them suggested turning back; they were both adults and there was no reason to fear an age restricted party. Besides, Iris wasn’t sure that she was ready to go back to the room. Not after that talk about mating or whatever. Sex would change everything, would complicate everything. And things were already complicated enough. Toran would literally die if she didn’t go to bed with him. That was a line she would have never thought that she would believe. But the story was too outlandish to be anything but true. Even so, it wasn’t like he was going to die tomorrow, and though he’d spoken openly, nothing he said made her feel pressured by him.

  She put thoughts of mating to the back of her mind, she’d deal with that later. Tonight they were getting to know one another and they could deal with the deeper relationship complications later. As long as she didn’t think about sex everything would be fine.

  They made it to the doors which slid open to reveal a mass of dancing, sweaty bodies. The place smelled of writhing humanity and some kind of perfume that Iris couldn’t identify. As she and Toran stepped into the room, the doors slid shut behind them. And as her eyes adjusted to the dim light, intermittently interrupted by strobe lights, she bit back and ironic laugh and buried her face in one of her hands.

  The universe had it out for her. They’d just walked in to an orgy.

  It wasn’t all sex, that was the only thing that kept her from turning around and bolting. But in the darker corners of the room she could see the entangled limbs and flashes of flesh that people normally kept covered. She looked at Toran out of the corner of her eye, and he seemed just as dumbfounded as her.

  “We can go somewhere else,” he offered as soon as he tore his eyes away from the entangled couple nearest them.

  The beat pulsed in Iris’s blood, and the overwhelming scent of the place made her head spin in a good way. She would have never gone to a place like this on Earth, not knowingly. And given the choice, she would have never stuck around. But she wasn’t on Earth right now, and she didn’t need to be the girl who ran away when things got a little uncomfortable. She was on the moon, on a base designed to cater to all the hedonistic pleasures of life. She was with an alien who said they were fated to be together. It was time to live a little.

  “Let’s dance.” It was a challenge, both to him and to herself. By staying in this room, she wouldn’t be able to keep sex off her mind, but the longer she spent in Toran’s company, the less she cared about that. He was the hottest guy she’d ever seen, human or alien, and he said he wanted her. That mate stuff made it complicated, but it didn’t need to be. Not tonight. Tonight they could just dance and see where the evening took them. And if it ended up with her pressed up against one of those walls, his lips on her neck as he pushed himself into her, maybe that was meant to be.

  A thrill of arousal shot through her at the thought. She’d never been an exhibitionist before, never wanted to share the intimate details of her love life with anyone in that way. But to be claimed so publicly by Toran? To show everyone on this base that he was hers and that they couldn’t have him? Yes, she found herself warming up to the idea.

  He didn’t move a muscle until she tugged on his hand again and they dove into the mass of people. His arms went around her and he fit her tight against his body as if that was where she belonged. The bass thumped a fast beat, but she and Toran swayed together slowly, learning each other’s rhythms before attempting anything else.

  Time melted away, and though she was aware of the people around them, no one mattered but Toran. The beat turned sensual and Iris ground her hips against his, moaning at the feel of his hard length pressing against her. She wanted that, wanted him. Whatever the complications, he would be worth it.

  She kissed Toran’s neck and he groaned. He pulled her even closer, something she hadn’t realized they had the space to do, and if he had felt close before now there was not room for a molecule of air to pass between them. Her kisses traveled up, tracing a line of the dark markings on his flesh and over the ridge of his jaw. And when their lips met, she didn’t know why they’d waited so long. She’d had good kisses before, even from Dan. But as Toran’s lips moved over her, as his tongue swept into her mouth and she tasted the unique flavor that was her powerful alien, those memories melted away and were replaced by all of the possibilities that this man offered.

  His hands were on her hips; one dipped back low and cupped her ass. Iris let out a little yelp of surprise and found herself smiling against the wave of lust he brought out in her. It was an intense kiss, one she wasn’t sure she could easily describe. She couldn’t even explain what made it so special. But it was him and her, and for the first time it was them. And though she’d felt a pull to him since the first moment they met, now she could understand just what Toran said when he spoke of the bond between them.

  Her back met a wall and she hadn’t even realized that they’d been moving. But Toran’s body trapped her there, shielded her from the rest of the room as he worshiped her mouth and showed her exactly how much pleasure he could bring to her. She gripped his shoulders tight and wrapped one of her legs around his waist, moaning against him as she felt his hardness brush up against her through the too thick layers of their clothes.

  Why were they wearing clothes again? This would be a whole lot more fun naked, and all those crazy thoughts about waiting, about complications, were long gone. The only questions Iris now had were about when they could do it and for how long.

  Hands brushed her wrist and
Iris was confused. Toran’s own fingers were playing against her hips and ass, and unless he’d been cleverly hiding a third hand, that meant someone else was touching her. She reached out and tried to push him away, but whoever was trying to join in on the fun seem to think her interaction was an invitation. She pushed harder and unbalanced herself, ending up draped against Toran as her lips were torn away from him.

  Her eyes snapped open and she glared at the pale man with bright blue hair and eyes so green they had to be enhanced by either surgery or contacts. “Back off,” she said, glaring at him.

  Blue Hair looked confused, as if the fact that they were making out in a room as public as this meant anyone was invited to join in. “It’s more fun with two.” His eyes shifted to Toran, and he licked his lips and offered her man a flirtatious grin. “I can make it good for both of you.”

  In a flash, Toran was between them, his giant body shielding her from whatever threat or offer Blue Hair was making. “She’s mine,” he growled. “We don’t share.”

  Heat should not have suffused her at that barbaric declaration, but if there was any question about how she and Toran would be ending the night, he’d just answered it in those words.

  Blue Hair held up his hands and took a step back with a recalcitrant smile. “Sorry, sorry, I misunderstood.” He faded back into the mass of bodies on the dance floor, but suddenly the heat of the room was too much for Iris.

  “Want to get out of here?” she asked.

  Toran grinned and she saw that his eyes had gone red. “I thought you’d never ask.”

  Chapter Nine

  MAYBE SHE SHOULD HAVE learned from their near miss in the orgy dance club, but Iris didn’t want to waste time getting back to their room. Ten minutes of walking was far too long when she was sure she was about to combust from the chemistry between them. They walked back down the hallway that they’d come through, and their hands were just as entwined as they’d been before. But this time whatever space they’d been letting stand between them was gone. Iris’s shoulder brushed against Toran, and she half leaned into him as if she were too drunk to stand up straight. But what she was feeling now had nothing to do with alcohol. It was all down to the man beside her.