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But then he did step away, clearing his throat.
“I’ll run the laundry down. But wait for me,” he said. Even in the darkness, I could see the flash of his yellow eyes. I nodded, then he bundled up the rags and our two aprons, opening the door and charging downstairs. A moment later, he was back.
“Why’d you want me to wait?” I asked, almost breathlessly. He was so fucking big. And we were so close...
“I’d like to walk you back. Gregor isn’t going to try anything. I know that. But it would make me feel better.”
I bristled, just a little, wanting to tell him that I was a big girl who could handle myself. And really, there were people everywhere on Elora Station. It wasn’t like somebody could snatch me out of the glittering holiday crowds.
But when I saw the dark, almost pained expression on X’s alien face, I realized I had to give him this. Besides, I wasn’t ready for this moment to end, anyway. I wanted to spend more time with him. Stretch this evening to its very limit. Wring out every minute of it.
Before my days off.
Back on Terratribe 1, I’d always looked forward to my days off. They were my golden shining light in the endless days of manual labour drudgery. And even now, with a whole fantastic station to explore, everything bursting at the seams with festive things to tantalize the senses, I found myself just not all that excited.
And I realized it was because I wouldn’t be spending the days with X.
Uh oh. That was probably a bad sign. Only a few days with the guy, and I already didn’t want to spend a day without him.
It’s probably just because you don’t have any other friends on the station. He’s the only one you know...
But wait. That wasn’t quite true. There was Novara-Lei, whom I still wanted to visit.
I resolved to see her tomorrow. It would give me something to do, and it would help me realize that the intensity of my desire to be next to X was beyond stupid.
X held the door for me then locked up behind us.
“Where are your quarters?” he asked brusquely as we began to walk.
“Level 200. Room 2670,” I said.
X shot me an odd look.
“What is it?” I asked. But he just gave a non-committal grunt in return. I grinned, elbowing his arm as people practically dove out of our way.
“You’re so surly, you know that?” I laughed. And then I laughed harder, at myself. I just elbowed a fucking Chimera and called him surly. I remembered back to the first moment I’d seen X, when I thought he would turn the lights out on me forever for spying on him.
“This isn’t even close to me being surly,” X replied, in, I had to admit, quite the surly tone. “This is downright peachy."
“Peachy!” I cried, laughing again. We stopped at the bars at the centre of the level. A few seconds later, a hover-vator shot down and opened for us. It was empty, and we stepped inside. I quickly said my floor, and we zoomed downwards.
“That is definitely not peachy,” I teased, this time poking him instead of elbowing. I was having trouble controlling my limbs, apparently. I couldn’t stop touching him.
“It is for me,” he said, turning those yellow eyes, with their reptilians black pupils, on me. I flushed and stepped a little closer, right to his chest, tipping my head back to look at him better.
“Then I guess I should consider myself lucky,” I said.
“You should. Because you’re the only one who gets to see my peachy side,” he said sternly. And this only sent me into another fit of giggles. The thought that this hulking death machine had a peachy side was just too fucking funny.
“Are you going to be alright?” X grumbled. He crossed his arms over his chest in front of me, and I leaned my forehead against them for support, weak from laughter and exhausted from the day. A split second later one of those arms moved, slipping around my back like a bar of iron. It was just to steady me; I was sure it was nothing more than a courtesy, but it sent my heart hammering up into my throat, killing off my laughter instantly.
“I was worried about all that laughing. Now I wonder if I should be more worried about the fact that you’re not laughing,” X murmured, more softly than I would have thought him capable of. I shook my head, my face rubbing against the crisp pull of the fabric of his shirt. This close, I could see just how cruelly his bulk strained the buttons. In fact, the one right in front of my nose looked like it was held on with a differently-coloured thread than the others. As if someone had sewn it back on.
Someone?
“Do you have a girlfriend?” I blurted. I was kind of glad my face was basically buried in his chest so that he couldn’t see the hot gleam of my cheeks. His hand tightened around my back, almost imperceptibly. Why didn’t I think of this before? He may be a Chimera, but he’s a cool fucking guy. He’s attractive and a hard worker and has the most talented freaking hands I’ve ever goddamn seen. There’s no way he’s single. How could I even possibly think -
“No.”
