Chapter 29 #2
Scarlet hadn’t been certain exactly what to expect from the post-debate gathering.
It wasn’t really a formal event, but all the representatives were invited to attend.
It wasn’t a requirement, but they all showed up because they wanted another chance to argue their cases before voting started in a few days.
That made the dinner, which, ostensibly, was for relaxation, a work thing.
Only, this time, the representatives were with friends or family or mates – whoever they brought with them that weren’t involved in the daily arguments.
The hall they occupied was in the central city of the Coalition District – not the same one that held the opening ceremony.
It was big enough for all of them but had no glass ceiling this time for news drones to watch from.
This wasn’t supposed to be about work – technically – so they weren’t being recorded – supposedly.
Scarlet was no politician, but she wasn’t na?ve enough to believe that.
It was clear, just looking around the shiny event hall, that work was exactly what was going on.
Couples and friends and colleagues moved around the room, chatting and laughing and doing business.
Because there were those not afraid to outright buy the votes they needed.
“It is bribery though,” Havali was explaining to her as the two of them stood back and watched one such interaction from a distance. “And it is illegal. However, being friendly is not.”
“And friends do favors for each other,” Scarlet summarized, grinning. “Some things never change.”
Havali chuckled, his hand roaming down her back, making her shiver.
He hadn’t kept his hands from her since they met up back at the compound. Completely ignoring Atem’s protective growls and Alanna’s indulgent chuckles, he always either had his hand on her shoulder, back, hip, waist – anything but her hand. That, she had to take for herself.
Which she did. Often.
Once they arrived at the hall, they were directed to their reserved table, but very few were actually sitting.
The food hadn’t been brought out yet, so everyone was lingering in the spaces between tables, along the open space that, ostensibly, could be a dance floor, but seemed to be the schmoozing and mingling floor tonight, while sparkling lights, like stars, floated overhead and cast beautiful, shimmering, colorful flares along the ceiling.
“So, is that what Alanna and Atem are doing right now? Being ‘friendly’?” She asked, looking across the room where the other half of their delegation was going around.
Peony couldn’t make it tonight. She tried.
She got dressed and was ready to go but just couldn’t bring herself to leave her nest. She struggled against it until she cried.
Atem had nearly gone out of his mind because she was stressing so hard.
Finally, she agreed to just stay home, though it clearly bothered her.
Her only solace was that she definitely wasn’t going to miss the polar lights tomorrow.
That was the only way she agreed to remain in her nest.
So, instead, it was just Atem and Alanna going around together. Tuvo was making his rounds on his own. That left Scarlet and Havali to find a corner to stand in and people watch, occasionally greeting those who came over to talk to them.
Mostly, however, they were sipping on something that was definitely a gas in a strange, reverse funnel shaped bottle, that became a tingly, citrus flavored liquid when it hit the tongue, while they talked and touched each other with innocent little caresses.
“The domini do not do such things,” Havali said, holding his head tall. “We are honorable, and we will do this honorably or not at all. Atem and Alanna are being friendly, but they are changing minds with logic and morality, not bribery.”
Scarlet chuckled, a bit amused at his high-handed response, using that to cover her nervousness at them not using every tactic at their command to get what they wanted.
That might just be the human in her though, because Havali’s disdain for underhanded techniques, even harmless ones, was exactly what she would expect from a domini.
“Do you not need to be helping them?” She asked, trying to sound casual and not filled with the anxiety she suddenly felt.
Havali didn’t answer, but a flash of guilt did cross his face briefly.
“You do,” she fixed him with a look.
“I would rather spend time with you,” he growled.
Scarlet shivered, enjoying the sound, but she remained focused. “Havali, the fate of my entire planet is at risk here.”
“Can you blame me?” He took one of the curls escaping her updo and turned in it his fingers. “I haven’t been able to spend any time with you in tendays.”
“That’s selfish.”
“I am very selfish when it comes to you, Healer. Have you not noticed that yet?”
She shifted her weight, doing her best not to be pleased by that statement.
The easy truth of it in his eyes. She was trying to help the entirety of Earth and the whole of the human species.
Havali wanting to put her above that shouldn’t make her happy.
Knowing he always wanted to be with her, even to the detriment of others, shouldn’t be thrilling.
She had seen what had happened when a guy got that obsessed with her already and it wasn’t good.
But she never felt threatened by Havali.
She wasn’t uncomfortable with him. Even when she knew his eyes were on her through combots, she wasn’t uneasy or anxious.
He already explained he did occasionally look in on her while he was in the rotunda and she was on the compound, but he didn’t do it constantly, not like when she visited the nearby city.
Since talking to him about the idea of consent, she would get a message in the mornings asking if he could watch her that day.
She said yes, each time. She was becoming so comfortable with it that she was thinking about giving him blanket permission to watch her if he wanted.
Though, she hesitated only to make certain she could trust him with that privilege.
Strangely, his staring didn’t bother her. She didn’t mind him watching her.
In a way, it was comforting.
Scarlet was used to being alone. In victory or defeat, she was alone.
She had friends, but their celebrations were always more of one born from the convenience of proximity.
There hadn’t been anyone to really be with her through her high and low moments of life.
And there certainly had been no one with her through the daily little moments that really defined her.
But knowing that, somewhere, Havali – no one else but Havali – was watching her, made her feel not so alone anymore. Someone was out there with her, by her side, no matter what.
It should have been threatening. It would have been, if it had been Tony Fletcher.
But not Havali. He asked permission. He would stop if she told him to.
He had no bad intentions. He just wanted to protect her.
In the same way, funnily enough, as Atem did.
Though Atem would have hated to hear it since Havali had dropped significantly in his estimation.
And to the domini, there was no sense of possession tied up in being protective.
They protected her because she was family, not because they owned her somehow.
The difference was a subtle one and, sometimes, hard for her human brain to completely understand, but Havali simply wouldn’t think in terms of owning her.
She was important to him, therefore she was worth watching and protecting.
“We should talk to people,” she insisted, smiling at him. “Being antisocial in a corner isn’t going to help our cause.”
“But you do not want to mingle with people.”
“It’s not always about what I want.”
“It is for me.”
She smiled, warmth filling her chest at the simple way he spoke. “How about this: I go that way; you go that way. We talk to, er, let’s say, twenty people each. We meet in the far corner there, and then we go back home.”
“For what purpose?” He asked, looking intrigued.
“Because we have to talk to people. We have to put in some effort.”
“No,” his eyes darkened as his hand trailed up her hip, her waist, to let his thumb barely brush against the underside of her breast. “I mean, to what purpose will we go home?”
Scarlet grinned, running her fingers down his chest. “Surely, I don’t have to explain the logistics of the act to you.”
He growled, sending delightful shivers up her spine. “You tease me, Healer.”
“It’s only a tease if I don’t follow through.” She grinned, leaning in closer to him. “But my room is clean and freshly secured and ready for you. And I stopped my cycle, so you don’t have to worry about getting me pregnant.”
He smirked, fangs glinting, as he hovered his lips over hers. “Ah, my Scarlet, if you mean to inflame my desire, telling me I cannot breed you is not how to do it.”
She chuckled. “Of course. Aliens have breeding kinks. I forgot.”
“There’s nothing kinky about wanting to seed your female and watch her belly grow,” he growled right in her ear, making her shiver. “But if you aren’t ready for me to bring life to your womb, I’m willing to wait. And practice. Until you are.”
“Confident, are you?” She deliberately leaned back. “Talk to people first. See you on the other side?”
“How about ten instead? Twenty seems like so much.”
“Fifteen, final offer.”
He saluted her. “Very well. See you on the other side, Healer.”
Scarlet grinned, enjoying the view of his backside as he turned and immediately launched into a conversation with the first delegate he came across. He had a really nice ass. She wanted to bite it, then grab it with both hands as he pounded her into the mattress.
Duty first, she reminded herself firmly as she turned to talk to her requisite fifteen people.