“Where…where are we going?” she asked, her voice hushed and uncertain.
“We need to talk,” Slade told her. “My vehicle is parked not far from here.”
In fact, he was fairly certain he was parked illegally. But Brandi’s emotions of fear and her thoughts that her boss was a threat had gotten so strong as he flew down to Earth that Slade hadn’t bothered with local road laws—he’d been in too much of a hurry to get to her.
As they came up to the place Slade had parked his shuttle, there was a male with a tow truck and a chain, just about to get to work on it.
“Hey man, don’t say a word,” he said without looking up at Slade—he was busy fitting the towing mechanism to the shuttle’s bumper. “You parked in a loading zone and it’s clearly marked so don’t beg me not to take your car—you asked for it.”
“The only one begging is going to be you,” Slade growled, glaring down at him.
At the sound of his voice, the tow truck operator looked up slowly and his eyes widened. He swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his skinny throat.
“Hey man, I didn’t know—”
“I only parked in the restricted zone because it was an emergency,” Slade explained, still frowning. “My mate was in danger and I had to get to her. So can you please get your vehicle the fuck away from my shuttle?”
“Uh, sorry—yeah. Sure, of course man.”
Nearly tripping over himself in his haste, the truck operator removed the towing mechanism, hopped into his truck, and drove away as fast as possible.
Brandi laughed delightedly.
“Wow, do you have that effect on everyone? I’d love to have you around the next time I’m late on a payment.”
“You can have me around any time,” Slade told her as he opened the passenger door of the shuttle and deposited her gently on the seat. “We are bonded, after all,” he added, and went to get into the driver’s side.
“Is that how you knew I was…was having problems? Because we’re bonded?” Brandi asked, giving him a sidelong look as he started the shuttle, which now had wheels like an Earth vehicle, and pulled smoothly out into traffic.
“Yes,” Slade said, keeping his eyes on the road. Human traffic patterns were somewhat unpredictable because humans themselves were more than a little illogical. “I felt that something was wrong with you and I had to come to you.”
“You had to?” A quick glance at Brandi’s face showed wide uncertain eyes. “You couldn’t just…ignore it?”
“That would be like asking me to ignore it if my own hand was on fire,” Slade said, frowning. “Like it or not, you’re my mate, sweetheart—or that’s how my body sees you. My protective instincts are aroused when you’re in danger. I can’t fucking help it.”
“So…would you rather not have come to me?” she asked in a small voice. “Did I drag you away from something important?”
“More important than stopping that bastard from raping you? Hell no!” Slade growled. The Rage tried to rise in him again. “That son-of-a-bitch—I wish I’d killed him.”
“Yeah, I could tell you wanted to,” she said dryly, but her voice trembled just a little. “Thank you for saving me, by the way—I don’t think I said that yet. He, uh…he’d never tried anything that blatant before. He was mostly content with just trying to cop a feel when I was making copies.” Her face twisted. “And I just put up with it.”
“Because you felt you needed the job,” Slade said softly. “I know—I heard you thinking about it on my way here.”
“Through our, uh, bond-thingy?” she asked.
“That ‘bond-thingy’ is considered sacred by my people,” Slade pointed out in a growl. He felt like she was taking the situation too lightly. “And it’s a life-long commitment.”
“Life-long?” Brandi’s big brown eyes widened. “But…but I don’t even know you,” she sputtered.
“Not exactly true—I’d say we got to know each other’s bodies extremely well the other day.” Slade spoke the incendiary words in a mild voice. He wasn’t coming on to her or harassing her—she’d had enough of that to last forever, he was sure—he was just stating the facts. “Which is why I think it’s time for us to get to know each other in other ways,” he went on when she opened her mouth to protest. “Would you have Mid Meal with me?”
“Have what?” Brandi was looking at him like she didn’t know how to feel about him.
Well, fine—the feeling was mutual. Part of him still thought he ought to be angry with her for getting the two of them into this impossible situation but another, bigger part just wanted to hold her close and protect her. And after seeing her bastard of a boss trying to rape her, his protective, possessive instincts towards her had grown exponentially.
“Mid Meal—the meal you eat in the middle of the day,” he explained patiently. “Don’t humans eat it? Or do you just eat First Meal and Last Meal and fast in between them?”