Page 94 of The Pleasure Contract

He winces at his father calling his name. “I will make this right. I promise,” he says, finally ducking his head and leaving the room.

The patient room is quiet for a beat or two, everyone looking at one another, silently asking if we all just witnessed the same thing.

“We did it,” Lois says in a whisper, like she doesn’t want to say it out loud through fear it might change things. “We did it. We got him to agree to help!”

There’s a murmuring of congratulations, but I only have eyes for her.

“You did it,” I correct, sweeping Lois into my arms. She giggles, and it is the most beautiful sound to my ears. “You got his support, just like I knew you would.”

Wrapping her arms around my neck, she presses her lips to mine for a kiss – a kiss that starts as a series of small plucks, but soon evolves into something deeper, something teetering on the edges of desperation. I groan into the kiss and pull her body impossibly close.

My mouth moves lower, loving the little gasps of pleasure she gives me when I ever-so-softly nip along her jaw with my fangs.

With Lois still in my arms, I walk over to the far wall and blindly mash at the keypad there. After some beeping and a lot of button fumbling, I finally complete my objective – a fresh, sanitized patient bed folds out of the wall.

Gently, I lay my female out on it, standing to appreciate her sprawled out for me.

Someone clears their throat.

Ah, yeah.

My teammates.

“Let me guess,” Jorren drawls. “You’re going to order us out of the room so you two can mate in the flesh?”

I gesture to my Lois. “Can you blame me?!”

A few of the guys laugh and move to leave, but Ral pipes up, “No, but I was hoping we could stay and watch this t-” before he’s yanked out the door by Varrex, who has taken it upon himself to herd them out.

Lois is in fits of giggles on the bed, but she sobers, smiling up at me as I lean over her. “I know I’ve told you before, but you really can’t just order everyone out whenever you want to have time alone with me, you know,” she says, reaching up to stroke the side of my face.

I take her hand in mine and press a kiss to her palm.

“Watch me.”

41

EPILOGUE Lois

“So he’s convincing everyone that it was all planned? That you and both teams agreed to it? The fight, the bite, and the public kiss, everything?” Niska asks, her face floating in mid-air as I talk to her over video comms.

“Yeah,” I say, holding various dresses up to my body, trying to decide which I want to wear on this very special day. “Like some kind of entertainment stunt to highlight the plight of humans. He’s even telling everyone that Pax wasn’t the real Pax, and that it was his Permission that Az beat the shit out of. Had to pay some of the hospital workers to keep quiet, too. It’s all lies, and who knows if the public will buy into it? But at least he’s backing us now. Which one do you think suits me better? The blue or the pink?” I ask, showing her the dresses.

Niska narrows her eyes. “You never ask my opinion on what to wear. What’s going on?”

I whip the frocks of flowing silk and chiffon away from my body and shove them back in the wardrobe. “Nothing! Never mind.”

She doesn’t buy it, but doesn’t probe further. “So you and Az, huh? The real deal?” I nod my head, grinning. “So do you guys…” she shifts in her seat, “do you let him…”

“There are too many variables to how you could possibly end that sentence, Nis – choose wisely, because you know I don’t believe in TMI.”

She laughs lightly but shakes her head before leaning close to her comms camera and tugging down her silk collar – a silk collar covering a very fresh Xaviann-looking bite mark.

I smirk and mirror her, revealing my own.

Niska giggles. “Girl.”

“Girl.”