She was glowing with happiness again. Even the shadow of the frown was gone from her face. He couldn’t deny her now. He couldn’t reject her and steal that smile.
“I should get back to work,” Grace said, pushing her hair over her shoulder again.
“Yes, of course.” And he needed to go beat himself over the head for giving in immediately without even a hint of resistance.
But if she was asking to spend time with him, she couldn’t have a mate. Right?
That hopeful realization was somehow more powerful than the bad thoughts, driving them away as he was instead focused only on her joy and the breath of relieved delight that swept past her pink lips.
Filled with a strange sense of elation and regret, he left the office. Trying not to look as rushed as he felt. He wanted, more than anything, to go eat with her. But he needed to get a grip on these new desires plaguing him so violently before he saw her again.
He was trying to be a better person. A proper farasie. His kind wouldn’t think like this. A farasie male shouldn’t be like this.
She deserved that much. She deserved much more.
Chapter 6
Grace
“It must be a human talent to lure in males so easily.”
“Huh?” Grace looked up from her small mirror, not at all surprised to see Reetak had come to stand by her desk again. Hip popped against the corner, she looked down her long muzzle, giving Grace a subtle, smirking, ratchi grin.
Reetak used one of her three fingers to indicate to the stuff Grace had spread across her desk. Make up. Scented creams for her hands and face. Tools to primp and polish her hair, her lashes, her teeth, her lips. Grace pouted, gathering them back up.
“I finished my work. There’s nothing wrong with doing this here. I do it in the morning sometimes too when I miss my alarm.”
“Yes, but you told me yourself you don’t like to use the bright colors on your lips.” Reetak picked up the pretty, petal red stain in question. “You said it made males focus too much on your lips rather than you and that’s why you prefer neutral colors and light pinks.”
Grace snatched the stain back, cheeks burning. Makeup, out in space, was as varied as the many species that made up theCoalition. Reetak’s people, the ratchi, for instance, didn’t really use it. Some species, though, would paint their entire bodies for formal occasions. Others considered using products like makeup to be a form of costuming, falsifying looks, or even blasphemous. And those that did use makeup didn’t all have the same style. Domini, for example, wore their makeup more like it was war paint.
There were stores and supplies for every type and style. It took Grace some trial and error, but she’d eventually found a regimen that wasn’t bad for her skin, didn’t cover like literal paint, and was something she could apply without changing her human skills all that much.
That being said, Grace tried not to do it very often. Being human, she always drew attention. After so long away from Earth, it was something she was used to experiencing. However, especially for work, it wasn’t something that she wanted to encourage. She put enough on her face that she didn’t think she looked pale and lacking sleep, but she’d seriously pulled back on her lip color selection, her lashes, and even the nude look.
‘Nude’ just meant enhancing her natural features. Which was the problem in the first place! So, if she was wearing makeup, she’d use bright, vibrant colors on her eyes instead of subtle smoky looks. It was just easier, and it was actually pretty fun. She could draw a star over her eye like it was the 80s and go out like that and no one would look at her askance because there was some species or race or culture somewhere that would consider that normal. Therefore, in the melting pot that was Coalition space, wearing outrageous, eye catching, and vibrant makeup was normal.
Her lips, however, were another story. Kissing wasn’t the same across the board. Some species didn’t kiss at all. But enoughdid that it was still a well known thing. Bringing attention to her glittery eyes did no harm, but her lips were too much of an invitation.
So, this was the first time in a while that Grace had gone back to her tried and true human methodology of enhancing without distracting. Her lashes were long and curled up, shaping eyes that had been gently smoked out with neutral tones so that they appeared bigger and brighter without actually adding color. Her cheeks were touched with blush, the high points dusted with highlighter, and her lips, yes, were stained with a lovely red. Not so bright that it was obviously fake, but bright enough that it drew the eye.
Which was her whole intention. She wanted Sway to direct his gaze there. He said he was station raised, and the farasie were one of the species that kissed naturally, so either way, he would know about it. She wanted to make sure it was on his mind. All the things she didn’t want others to do or think, she wantedhimto do and think.
She’d also taken advantage of her dock master status by forgoing her uniform today. She had a date right after work, so she’d dressed in anticipation of it already. Her first date in a long time. Since before she even came to Hir-Fallow. She was as giddy as a teenager meeting the cute guy from math class on Friday afternoon.
Since she had asked him out, and she lived on the station and thus knew it better, she sent Sway the name of the restaurant and the time they should meet up. Maybe it was a conflict of interest to be dating a client, but that was really only a rule on Earth. The Coalition as a whole, and Uver Prime specifically, didn’t care so long as everyone remained professional when it came to the work itself.
In a culture where your mate could be right around the corner and you had no choice but to fall for them, being separated by being coworkers was just foolish if not outright cruel.
Dressed up, giddy, and eager, the marks had ticked by agonizingly slowly while Grace worked. But, finally, the last of her crews finished their tasks for the day and left for their homes. No one was expected to come in for docking until tomorrow. She was now free to leave herself since there was nothing left to coordinate. They did have a night dock master who would watch over all the docks for emergencies, but that wasn’t her problem.
It was time to apply her makeup, freshen up, and go meet her date!
But while Grace had done her makeup at her desk in the mornings sometimes, she never did it in the afternoon. Which was what drew Reetak over with that sauntering swagger and annoyingly knowing grin.
Grace had not at all been subtle in her interest in Sway yesterday. And, according to Reetak, both of them smelled like arousal. Which was a statement that would have been humiliating a few years ago when she’d just left Earth. But she’d long accepted that some species had much more sensitive noses than others, and they could be highly attuned to what a person was feeling based on scent alone. And hearing her say that now, Grace beamed.
“He was aroused?”
