Page 50 of Holiday with the Aliens

Tav grabbed one of her hands and laced their fingers together, trying to ground her with touch, to calm her down. “I care, too. This is important to you. You want to see it done right.”

She rolled her head sideways and grinned at him. “This wasn’t how I imagined spending the night with you.”

And just like that, Tav’s cock woke up and reminded him that this woman was his mate and he should claim hernow.His brain agreed with the plan, if not the timing, and told his cock to calm down until the time was right. “We’ve hours yet before we need to report for duty.” He leaned in and brushed his lips against hers, cradling her cheek and nuzzling against her neck when he pulled back. He dragged in her scent, the intoxicating smell of woman overwhelming the scent of the station around them. He could roll around in it until he was indelibly marked as Molly’s own.

She leaned in close and her eyes drifted closed. “Are you angling for an invitation to my room, sir?” Heat and seduction rolled through her words and any thoughts Tav had of controlling his cock went right out the airlock as he imagined her spread out on her bed, ready and writhing for him.

“If I am?” His fingers curled in her hair, the strands soft and bouncy.

“I’d say the sooner we get up, the sooner we can get naked.”

They might have been confused for participants in a footrace if anyone saw them sprint back to Molly’s quarters. At some point they must have crossed an invisible barrier as they began to see a small trickle of people around them, people they had to dodge to avoid trampling in their mad dash towards the promise of sex.

Tav almost didn’t hear his communicator beep while Molly was unlocking her door, but when he pulled it out of his pocket, his hopes crashed as he saw a message from Juuno.

Dansin’s done a runner and dipped into the ship funds first. Need you to talk to security.

“Gods be damned!” he hissed.

Molly looked around and her smile fell. “What happened?”

He calmly put his communicator back into his pocket and took a deep breath. “You’re not the only one with a theft problem. My second in command has disappeared with some of my ship’s funds. It needs to be reported to security and my engineer needs me back there tonight. I—” There was so much more that he wanted to say, but every moment he waited put his own people at risk. “I will do my best to return to you tomorrow.”

“If this is the end…” She was trying to put on a happy face, but Tav could feel the reluctance.

He stepped in close and cupped her cheek again; he loved the soft feel of her skin under his fingers. “You have my word it is not. Once this is dealt with, I will return to you. We will have our time together, and throw your amazing party, and catchyourthief. Believe me.”

“I do. God help me, I think I do.” Despite the abrupt end to the night, she smiled.

Tav dipped his head and stole a final kiss before forcing himself to let go and walk away. He would deal with this, and then Molly would be his. There wasn’t any other possibility.

An investigation that fizzled out, a hook up cut short by responsibility, and a million little things that needed to be done put Molly at the far edge of her patience by lunchtime the next day. She barely slept the night before and knew that the bags under her eyes might scare away anyone who got too close. Tav didn’t show up to work in the morning, but she couldn’t say shewas surprised. In two days he’d managed to be a big help, and she was feeling the loss of his assistance just as much as her body was feeling the loss of what they could have had between them.

Last night she’d believed him when he promised they’d see each other again. This morning? It was harder to have faith. Everything seemed to be falling apart. She’d yelled at Qavis for something that wasn’t his fault, she’d stubbed her toe on a misplaced table, and when anyone asked her where those pipes that she’d set up the day before were, she had to count to ten slowly before she bit their heads off. How had everything gone to hell so quickly? The party was fast approaching and she wasn’t sure she’d make it that far. She just wanted it to be over at this point.

“The musicians are here to set up.” Qavis approached her timidly, keeping plenty of distance from her, as if he wasn’t an eight foot tall alien who looked like he could lift her up and throw her across the room.

“Musicians?”

“They said they needed to test the acoustics.”

She wasn’t going to scream. Shewasn’t. Molly forced in a deep breath and let it out slowly. This was fine, things like this happened. “Is the stage set up for them?” she asked.

“I think so?” Qavis still kept his distance and he didn’t look away from her to check, as if he was afraid she might attack.

“Okay. Let them do their thing. We’ll just have some entertainment this morning.”

Qavis nodded and went to shepherd the band to their place. The music made Molly’s headache even worse, and the fact that she couldn’t stop gritting her teeth couldn’t be helping. She just wanted this day to end! She wished Tav were with her. Even if he couldn’t make the work go faster, smoother, he made her feel better. It was crazy to want him so much already, but Molly wasso mixed up with the party that she’d take any island of peace that she could.

Thinking of Tav reminded her of her goal the night before, and that reminded her that she had to call security and report the theft. It went about as well as expected, and if her communicator didn’t contain most of her schedule for the next week she would have chucked it across the room and smashed it into a million pieces in frustration. Security didn’t seem to care that her things kept going missing, and when she mentioned that they’d placed a tracker on the items and could tell them exactly where they were, the guard promised he’d check it out.

Eventually.

Yeah, she didn’t have much hope from that quarter.

“I think it’s time for you to take a break.”

The smooth masculine voice that had wormed its way inside of her had her jumping out of her seat and launching herself at Tav as if they hadn’t seen each other in months, rather than hours. He clasped his arms around her and held her up and it felt so good to be held that Molly simply melted against him, letting all of the tension go for the first time since she’d taken on the job. She hadn’t realized just how much she’d been holding until letting it go made her feel like she could fly.

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