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“I do not give coal to females I wish to be friends with.”

“Oh. Well, I like it.” Heather stared at the coal. “I read in a report that coal is given to forge bonds.”

Loka looked at the ground. He still wasn’t certain why he was giving her regular gifts of coal. He was not looking for a mate. He had to keep reminding himself that.

He found himself unable to speak. Instead, he opened his mouth and a low, deep bellow rumbled from his chest.

Heather stumbled back and hit the door. “Stop doing that! The bots will hear you. You’ll draw attention to us.”

He lowered his head. A sense of release filled him. Loka had wanted to bellow for some time. Keeping it in made him tense. “It is to show my feelings. I like you.” He raised his head again, meaning to issue another bellow.

Heather dashed forward. Her hand clamped across his mouth. “No! No more bellows. We’ll draw all the crazy bots to us if they hear you.”

Loka poked his tongue out and tasted the flesh on her palm.

She yanked her hand away and stared at it. “Did you just lick me?”

Loka felt his ears heat. “I was curious as to your taste. Your palm has a sweet, salty tang.”

She wiped her palm on the back of her jumpsuit. “Don’t do it again. It’s weird.”

“Your hand was over my mouth. What did you expect me to do?”

“Not lick me.” Heather’s expression turned curious. “And quit the bellowing. It’s lovely that you like me. I like you too when you’re not telling me off for messing with your experiments. Bellow at me later if you have to. We need to get out of here.”

Loka’s shoulders sagged. He’d expected a more enthusiastic response. It was the first time he’d directly given her a piece of coal. He was used to placing it by her office or quarters and scuttling away like an adolescent Picar, who didn’t know his way around a supernova. All Heather had done was told him to keep quiet. And she’d also stuffed the piece of coal in her pocket. She didn’t cherish it like she was supposed to.

The door to the lab slid open.

Loka yanked Heather toward him, expecting to see bots on the other side. Instead, it was Hoan.

Hoan froze as he saw the two of them in the room. “I was looking for you.” His gaze went from Loka to Heather. “Something odd is going on.”

“We know.” Loka relaxed his hold on Heather. “We have been investigating.”

Hoan nodded. “What did you discover?”

“Not much of value. We were about to head to engineering. I wanted to check on our work before we did so.”

“Are the experiments holding?” Hoan peered around Loka to the chiller cabinet.

“For now. If the power remains off for much longer, we will have to begin again.”

Hoan groaned. “Let’s get to engineering then and see if we can lend a hand in getting things back online.”

“Are there any bots in the corridor?” Heather asked.

“They attacked us earlier,” Loka said.

“None that I noticed. The whole place is quiet, like everyone is in hiding.” Hoan looked down at Heather. “I recognize you from the matchmaking agency.”

Loka cleared his throat. “This is Heather. Heather, this is Hoan, my colleague.” He had not said much to Hoan about his interest in Heather, but Hoan was quick to pick up on any female he discussed, as he tried to figure out who Loka was giving his pieces of coal to.

Hoan’s brows rose. “So, this is Heather.”

Heather smiled. “I am.”

“It’s an honor to meet you.” Hoan lowered his horns as a mark of respect.