Page 8 of The Pleasure Contract

“I am not!”

Goddess, but she is cute when she’s flustered.

“If you say so, human,” I tease, turning and starting to walk away again. “You know I will gladly give you my full Permission, don’t you? And that way you may see me all you wish.”

Lois bustles along beside me, trying to keep up with my much larger Xaviann stride. She even holds her skirts bunched up in her hands to prevent her from falling over them in her haste.

“I do not want your Permission, Az,” she insists. “And I wasn’t staring.”

I say nothing, only smile. But once we reach a doorway I must go through to break away from her and reach my quarters, I turn to face her again, pushing the door with my behind and bowing with a flourish. “Farewell, Lois. I will go to dress. But let me give you this-” I say, fishing out one of many Permission tokens I have created and kept on my person for the past few weeks for this very reason. I would have given her all of them a thousand times over – never mind she only needs one. “Here,” I say, gripping the glowing blue token between my fore and middle finger.

She takes it, likely not knowing what it is. I back away through the door with the biggest grin.

* * *

After quickly washing and dressing, I walk into the dining hall, both my hands clasped behind my back. Lois is the first to spot me. She bustles over, an adorable pinkness staining her cheeks.

“This is your Permission thingy, isn’t it?” she hisses, trying to shove the token back into my hands – hands that are staying firmly behind my back. “Take it back, Az!”

“Why? Are you afraid you’ll use it?”

Members of royalty, nobility – hell, even professional athletes are not meant to hand out their Permissions. It’s not advisable to share yourself in that way with others when you’re in the public eye. Collect them from others? Sure. Go ahead. Knock yourself out. I have lost count of the number of times that, as soon as I’ve stepped outside the palace, an enthusiastic fan has asked me to sign their horncaps in one breath, and shoved their full Permission into my hand in the other. Sometimes I don’t even have to go outside the palace walls for this kind of thing, either. There are a few ex-staff members who lost their employment by covertly leaving their Permission tokens where I would find them – and when I scan the token, lo and behold, it’s a Permission set up just for me. Regrettably, I would have to report these kinds of things. It’s not that I’m a spoilsport or anything, but it would feel like crossing the line to actually use those Permissions. Those are our staff members. It didn’t feel right. I would, of course, offer a personal reference to them for future employment. I just hope they learned their lessons.

Lois, on the other hand… Lois is the first person I have ever created a Permission for. I want her to use me. In any way she wishes.

But she won’t even accept the damn thing.

It’s hardly polite.

Before I deactivated them all, I had Permissions hanging around in my collection, never used since I came of age. Sometimes you’re just not interested. But to completely refuse the token – to their face? Kind of unheard of among polite society. But then again, I have to remind myself that Lois comes from a planet where they mate in the flesh, so things are bound to be different.

“Accept it,” I tell her, gently enclosing my much larger hands around her delicate little human ones, curling her fingers around the token. “I will not be offended if you do not use it.”

I will be distraught.

How do other people do this all the time?

That sinking feeling in my gut returns. I have developed a protective shell against this feeling over the past few years. Taunts about me only getting to where I am in my career because of my royal connections and privileges used to sting as much as a giant kethrix wasp. I think because I knew, to a certain degree, they were speaking the truth. But it just meant I needed to work harder to prove myself worthy of my place on my principality’s team.

And I am more than willing to work doubly hard for any kind of chance I might have with Lois. Bruised ego and all.

She looks up at me with those pretty, human eyes, and the rest of the room melts away around us. She has these little golden spots on her skin, like the Goddess San has dusted her with sunlight. I have been reliably informed they are called ‘freckles’ and that only some humans have them. I think it is just another thing that makes my Lois special. I see them on her face, her neck, her cleavage, and wonder to myself if they go all the way down…

My fangs start to descend at the thought of mapping them out like constellations – with my tongue perhaps? Yes, that would be-

“Az!”

My geliklik brother, K, calls me over, his smile so wide it makes him look stupid. He is always smiling like that these days. Now that he has his Niska.

I duck my head and leave my Lois standing there with a murmured, “Keep the token,” for only her to hear. I leave her there, not looking back at what I know will be the pretty sight of her blinking after me walking over to where Kiahn is standing with his arm slung around his female as he talks with Zann.

“Have you heard his latest grumblings?” K asks, that big, dumb smile permanently etched on his face. “Tell him what you just told us,” he says, nudging Zann with his elbow.

On the contrary, Zann’s face looks less amused. Which is an odd sight, to be honest. Zann is always the one to make light of every single situation going. But, perhaps like me, he’s just as unnerved at K’s uncharacteristically cheery expression, too.

Zann’s jaw works, and he sucks on his teeth before answering. “I have been informed that while I am away, working on what sounds like a delightfully dull, backward swamp of a planet-” he pauses to take a breath, only to huff it out his nose. When he continues, the words are said so quietly, and in such a rush, I barely catch them. “Iwillbeoverseeingtheartificialwombs.”

I blink at him. “What?”