“Not tonight, Jepp.” He smiled in what he hoped was a placating way and slid the pizza toward him.
“It be your loss,” Jepp sang, but T’arq shook his head, and the bartender gave a dramatic sigh before heading down the bar.
A strangled noise came from Zac.
“What?” T’arq managed around a mouthful of pizza.
Zac’s eyes swum with amusement over the rim of his drink. “Nothing.”
T’arq swallowed. “No, really. What?” For once, he wasn’t laughing.
Zac sighed. “It’s like you can’t help it. They just fall at your feet, don’t they?”
T’arq refused to answer, shifting slightly on the bar stool. His stomach growled again and, to avoid answering, he picked up a second slice of the tasty pepperoni and cheese concoction.
“You know what people say about you?” Zac persisted. More’s the pity.
T’arq swallowed and considered wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, before picking up a napkin from a stack on the bar and using that instead. He wasn’t a complete animal. “Why would I know that?” He wasn’t sure he wanted to know, truth be told.
“You like to have… fun.” Zac turned on the stool and leaned his back against the bar, drink in one hand, one elbow resting on the bar.
T’arq’s brows drew together as he contemplated taking a third slice of pizza. “And? What’s wrong with that?”
Zac’s expression lost all humor. “When you have as much… fun… as you do… well, you get a certain reputation.”
“Huh?” T’arq looked up from his plate. A reputation? T’arq’s idea of fun was to have a drink and relax with some friends. Maybe take someone back to his room. What was wrong with that? Nothing, or there hadn’t been. He didn’t want to admit that something might be wrong, so he just shrugged.
“Just be careful.”
T’arq shot him a questioning look. “Is this about Krystal, again?”
Their eyes held for a long moment.
“You two seem pretty cozy,” a feminine voice said at the same time as a hand clapped T’arq on the back. T’arq looked away, the uneasy moment not entirely forgotten.
“Hey, Laila. Welcome back.” T’arq wiped his hands and slid from the barstool to wrap the human woman in a hug. She, along with Zac, was the co-leader of their covert operations team, though her official title was more of an ambassador from Earth. She and Zac were also a couple, having married in a traditional human ceremony a few months earlier.
The day that T’arq had met Laila’s sister, Krystal.
“Did you come to join us?” T’arq asked as Laila stepped away.
She moved to slide an arm around Zac’s waist and leaned into his side. The contrast between the two was striking; Laila’s brown hair was braided tidily, and her amber eyes were warm as she looked at her mate, Zac’s heavily scarred face gave him a permanent scowl, even if his bright green gaze roamed hotly over Laila as if it had been years and not minutes since he had last seen her.
“We got back a few hours ago. I’m just catching up with my sister.” Laila nodded toward a table to one side of the room where a human woman with a mass of curly brown hair was sitting, engrossed in a tablet. “I’d best get back to her.” She picked up a pair of tall glasses filled with a strange-looking liquid and headed back across the room.
T’arq's stomach flip-flopped. Krystal.
He had met her at Zac and Laila’s wedding, and the curvy little human had been a bundle of nerves, having only arrived in Taurean space the day before. They had danced, her much shorter frame fitting neatly in his arms, her head barely reaching the middle of his chest. But since then? He had caught only fleeting glimpses of her, usually with her head buried in a tablet, hair pushed back in a wide headband. And whenever he had seen Krystal, she had been with Zac and Laila.
He might feel lonely in his quarters, but it was worse to sit here looking at a woman that could never be his. Zac had made it abundantly clear that he was to stay away from Krystal, which normally would have made T’arq laugh. She was an adult woman who could make her own mind up, surely. But in this case, he agreed with Zac. He would stay away, not because his friend asked him to, but because he suspected she would demand more than he could give. And she was far too good for a mixed heritage, outer planets time waster like him. Best if he just stayed away.
His appetite suddenly gone, he pushed away from the bar and, bidding Zac goodbye, headed for his room.
