Chapter 3
After a few daysworking in the Orb wing, I felt like I was getting the hang of it. A lot of them just wanted to do their consumption time in peace and be left alone. None of them had asked me to keep them company like Kroven had.
Which made me think. I'd tended to several of his kind at this point and I hadn't felt suddenly attracted to them or like I didn't know what to say or do when I was around them. It was just Kroven. He hadn’t been back since that first day I tended to him, and I was starting to wonder if I'd put him off with how weird I'd been acting around him. I couldn't blame him. Maybe he’d noticed the prominent boner I was sporting throughout most of his last appointment. Maybe he just really didn't like my nervous energy when he was trying to relax and absorb the nutrients that kept him alive.
All of that went out the window when one of the girls who worked with me in the Orb wing came up to me in a cloud of huffed annoyance. I thought her name was Ronnie but I didn't know if I was supposed to know that. It sounded like a nickname and I hadn't bonded with anyone enough to use one while being assigned to the Orb wing yet.
“What's your name?”
I blinked back at Ronnie from behind the main desk of the Orb wing. I was going over my list of appointments for the day, glad that I'd be having yet another day without embarrassing myself in front of Kroven.
“Bas.” I said back with a nod.
“You're being requested by my ten o'clock. Can we switch?”
Requested? I didn't even know that the Orbs could make requests. That little kernel of information must have escaped Babs. “But my ten o'clock hasn't arrived yet.”
“It's cool. This guy said he only wants you.”
It had to be Kroven, right? I took the chart from her but didn't bother looking while I made my way to the waiting area. Why would Kroven request me? Maybe he really did just enjoy having me there.
A beautiful name for a beautiful man.
Kroven had said that to me. I blushed at the thought of Kroven wanting to see my face again.
Sure enough, I looked down at the chart in my hands right before I breached the double doors of the lobby and saw his name. I burst through the doors, feeling giddy as I spotted him, this time close by instead of in the corner like he had been during his first visit with me here. When I called his name and smiled, he just nodded and let me take him back to one of the consumption rooms. It was a different room than the last time he was here, but the contents within were identical.
He took his seat on the couch and I didn’t even bother closing the door this time. Kroven opened his mouth to speak, but I spoke first.
“AB Negative again?”
Kroven’s naturally too-red lips curled in amusement. “You remembered.” He laughed to himself and feigned a hand over his chest. “You flatter me.”
“How could I forget my first?” As soon as I said it, I knewthat it sounded way flirtier than I’d intended and I only hoped that Kroven didn’t read into things way more than they needed to be like I did. I made sure the next words out of my mouth were totally even and lacked any underlying sexual charm. “I heard you requested me specifically.”
“That’s right, I was your first.” He cooed, completely ignoring me as he focused on the part of the conversation he was seeking to tease me with and I could already feel myself straining not to blush. “Lucky me.”
“Um, so the AB Negative? Or do you want to switch it up today?”
Something flitted across Kroven’s face just then, something I couldn’t quite make out. It looked as if he wanted to say more but thought better of it. This dude was really making it hard to do my job, in multiple ways. I shifted on my feet to avoid another embarrassing boner moment.
“Yes, more AB Negative, please.”
“Right away.”
I left in a hurry, because I was coming around to the fact that there was something about this handsome ass Orb that turned me into a teenager again. Was it my limited exposure to Orbs that had accumulated over the years and latched onto Kroven because he was the first one that I’d been able to interact with? My tendency to stay in was known but had it stunted me into being ready for Orb interaction?
Kroven made me curious, made me want to ask questions when I was so used to keeping quiet. I’m sure it was a fluke, all my fascinations taking form in an exaggerated attraction to him. Yeah, that was it. It had to be.
I returned to Kroven’s room with a tray containing two pouches of AB Negative and handed them to him with a subdued smile. Once again, he set the tray on the coffee table and looked up at me with his grey eyes. I wondered how long hekept his sight once he drank and added it to my growing list of questions I wanted to ask him.
“Would you indulge me again?” Kroven asked, gesturing a sweeping hand next to him on the couch. “I’d love more time to satiate our mutual interest in one another.”
Why did he have to say things in a way that made me hard? Because that’s exactly what was happening. I took his chart with me this time as I nodded and sat on the couch, having at least something to cover up with if it kept happening.
He said mutual interest. So he had his own questions about humans that he’d love to be answered. That made me feel better, like we were both getting something out of it. I didn’t want him to think I was using him like an Orb search engine.
“Sure.” I finally said. “You didn’t really get to ask me anything last time, so why don’t you start?”
