Thayer thankfully accepted this as an explanation. “Well, good for you. How about that one guy that kept dancingbetween us?” I laughed, recalling the guy that wasn't too subtle about wanting us both. “I swear he was ready for the threesome if I had remotely hinted at it.”
“I know,” I agreed. “What a wild night. That I am now painfully paying for.”
In more ways than one, I told myself.
I'd just made things worse with Kroven by fleeing from the club. I'd essentially just done the same thing to him that I'd accused him of, only worse because I was drunk and then throwing myself at him like I was starving and he was a medium rare steak.
Now it was messy as hell and all my fault. What the hell was I going to do if he showed up at the blood center now? He would have to, wouldn't he? So we could talk about the hot as hell kiss. I'd confronted him about him bailing and he'd have to confront me about kissing him.
Apparently I was too much of a sappy hopeful.
I spent the rest of the weekend in my bedroom, alternating between reading books on my iPad and gaming on my Nintendo Switch. I hadn’t experienced such an awful hangover in years and I didn’t start feeling halfway decently until late Sunday evening.
Thayer had been a godsend, making sure that I ate enough and drank enough water because I could barely leave my bed. By the time I fell asleep while he was at work late Sunday, I was dreading how work was going to be the next day.
Luckily, once I got to work that next morning, the workload was fairly lighter than normal, making it possible for me to nurse the remnants of my hangover. I sure wasn’t making the best impression on my still new co-workers in the Orb wing with my unkempt appearance, but I didn’t care.
My thoughts were tangled up in Kroven and our encounterat the club, even now, days later. What did our kiss mean now? He’d vanished from coming to the blood center and then I accosted him in the club. My face warmed as I thought about the fact that Kroven had very obviously kissed meback. I could still feel his hands on my ass from when we’d been kissing if I closed my eyes for long enough.
Trying to will my dick to stay soft, I stood up from the chair behind the desk of the Orb wing station, hitting print on the computer so I had my list of appointments for the day.
Was Kroven thinking about our kiss as much as I was? Even if he was, he wasn’t coming to this center anymore, his name noticeably still absent from my list of appointments as I attached the list to my clipboard. What did he make of our mutual attraction to one another? He’d said that the reason he’d left abruptly his last day here was because he was attracted to me.
Kroven wasattractedto me. I knew it because I’d felt how much he wanted me through our kiss. If he wanted me as much as I wanted him, why the hell was he avoiding me? Would he stay away from me even more now that we’d breached contact?
God, I wanted him. I didn’t even care that it wasn’t societally normal for humans and Orbs to mingle romantically. I justwantedhim. Every thought I had since the club went back to how he felt pressed up against me, how good it felt to have his arms enveloping me. It was the kind of kiss that cut through everything and I didn’t ever want it to vacate my memory.
Did it feel that way for Kroven too? I needed to know, I decided, as I finished getting ready for my first appointment of the day. I had no idea how I would even find Kroven if I wanted to talk to him about it. It’s not like I had his address or anything.
I froze mid-step, turning back to the computer. Actually, that wasn’t true. We kept files on all the patients. If I wanted to, I could pull up Kroven’s file and see if he had registered his home address in the blood center’s system.
Thankful that I still had a few minutes before I had to start calling back my first Orb of the day for their consumption appointment, I slid back into the chair and furiously got into the file keeping system. My foot tapped eagerly against the wheel of the chair as I typed Kroven’s name and waited.
It brought up a new page and I saw information about Kroven I already knew. His height, his weight, any physical descriptors such as hair color, piercings, or tattoos. But when I scrolled down to the address information, it was blank. I sighed. We didn’t require Orbs to give us their address, just in case they ever felt that their safety was in question.
So I was out of luck. No way to track down Kroven and ask him if he was feeling as out of sorts about us as I was. Begrudgingly, I stood back up, grabbing my clipboard in preparation of using work as the perfect distraction, per usual.
That's when I heard the sounds of yelling coming from the waiting area.
I bolted toward the waiting area, where it looked like one of the sangamar was trying to get through the double doors. I recognized the one trying to stop the sangamar from getting back as Ronnie.
“Ronnie, what's going on?”
She snarled at me, but I could see relief in her eyes. “Good, you deal with him!”
Ronnie ran past me, retreating to one of the employee only areas of the Orb wing, and I gently pushed the double doors open to see who was causing the hysteria.
Kroven immediately softened once he saw me emerge from the double doors, looking at me with already fed eyes of scarlet.
“Bas,” Kroven said, looking less irritated and no longer aggressive. “We need to talk.”
Chapter 7
I glaredbetween Kroven and the rest of the sangamar that were staring at us in the waiting room, unsure of what to do or say. I needed to think fast. As much as I had wanted to talk to Kroven about what was happening between us, I sure as hell didn’t expect for him to show up here and cause a scene in order to do so. Assuming that was why he was even here. I cleared my throat, trying to ignore the looks from the other sangamar and squared my sights on Kroven.
“What's going on?" I questioned, taking in the current Kroven, who looked less like a patient and more like a forlorn lover. “You haven’t been by in a while and as I'm sure you know, we can't skip people who already have a scheduled appointment." I said the last part with a decided bite, because I was hoping that he understood that bringing our drama to my workplace like this wasn't the best move. Even though our drama started at the workplace, so I guess I was a hypocrite.
“Bas.” The longing in Kroven's voice made my belly burn with want.
