Alien Diplomacy (38 page)

I hugged her again. “I love you, Mom.”

“I love you, too. You’ll be fine tomorrow, kitten. Just do what you do best, and don’t let the people who’d never have the courage to face what you do on a regular basis get you down.”

“Turkey opinions shall be avoided, I promise.”

Mom kissed my cheek. “That’s my girl.”

M
Y PARENTS LEFT, AND JEFF AND I
settled in to take care of Jamie. The dogs only tried to help a few times. Jeff found this unsanitary and freaky, but Jamie didn’t seem to mind at all. Me, I’d grown up with dogs shoving their noses into anything I was doing, so no biggie from my side of the lounger.

Feeding, bathing, and the rest of the nightly routine over, we put Jamie to bed. She was just starting to transition from bassinette to crib. Some nights she wanted to be in the bassinette, others she wanted the space. Tonight was a crib night, presumably because she had extra Poof companions. Poofs on guard duty were not an issue.

We tucked her in with her half of the baby monitor, closed the nursery door, got into our nightclothes, made sure our half of the baby monitor was securely on the nightstand, and snuggled under the covers. I’d gotten used to the sleepy purring sounds the Poofs made, and the cats were similar. The dogs were louder, but it was a comfy sound, four dogs snoring, dreaming, scratching.

“Why weren’t the animals more upset about being left by your parents?” Jeff asked as he turned off the light on the nightstand. Since we were in a “human” building, so to speak, we actually had windows and got to turn the lights on and off. I’d gotten used to the night light glow, but since we kept a night light on in the nursery, I made do.

“They’re my pets, too. And they adore you. I’m sure the dogs and cats are looking at this as a cool vacation. We’ll know if they start to get homesick.” I’d been homesick for three months, so I was sure I’d recognize it in the pets should it overtake them.

Jeff hugged me. “I know you don’t like it here. And nothing that’s happened these past couple of days has helped.”

“Getting Len, Kyle, and Pierre here has. Just haven’t had any time to enjoy them being here, really. And I don’t feel like we’re doing anything useful or helpful anymore. We used to matter. Now, I don’t know.”

He sighed. “I do know what you mean, baby. I sometimes wonder if Richard was insane when he suggested this.”

“I know. I miss kicking butt.”

“You kicked some yesterday and today.”

“Not really. You did a lot more of that than I did.”

“Not really. And not effectively.”

This was getting morose. I decided a conversation switch was probably in our best interests. “I made a new friend. At least, I think so.”

“Yeah? Who?”

“One of the moms in my Mommy and Me class. Her son is a couple of months older than Jamie. She’s an adjunct at Georgetown, and her husband is a law professor.”

“Does she know what you do?”

“Yeah, she knows I’m an ambassador. She didn’t seem overawed by it. Or like she was being friendly to suck up. She seemed like…me, really.”

Jeff hugged me. “Good. So you have a friend in each of those classes. That’s great.”

“Mommy and Me is a lot more fun than the Washington Wife class. And I doubt anyone in it is going to try to kill me, or anyone else, either.”

“You never know. You’re the one who likes to point out how the cops don’t like to go to domestic disputes.”

I laughed. “True. Bernie’s call was the only one I enjoyed.”

“Bernie?” He didn’t sound happy. “I thought you said it was another mother.”

“Whoa there, big fella. Rein in the needless jealousy. Her name is Bernice. Her nickname is Bernie. Her husband’s name is Raul.”

“Ah, okay. What’s their last name?”

“You know, I didn’t get it.”

“Oh, well, doesn’t matter. What was she calling for?”

“To make a play date for her son and Jamie.”

“Sounds nice. When are you going?”

“No idea. She was hoping we could go tomorrow. I said no because, well, frankly, who the hell knows what’s going to happen tomorrow, especially after what’s happened the last two days?”

“Yeah.” Jeff sighed. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not. You’re unhappy, and you finally have someone who made you feel normal and happy, and our jobs are preventing you from getting to do normal mother things.”

“Not really. I mean, our current job almost begs me to do the normal mother things so we fit in here. It’s our old jobs, which we both miss more than I know we want to admit to each other, that are causing the issue.”

“Yeah. Maybe we should leave it for the others to handle. And I just don’t mean tonight. I mean in general.”

“Maybe.” I thought about Mom’s parting admonition. “I don’t want people to die just because you and I are trying too hard to fit in or gracefully stepping aside while others take over our roles. We’re not exiting CEOs of a corporation. We’re part of the team that protects this world on a regular basis.”

Jeff chuckled. “Thanks for the pep talk, baby.” One of the dogs started having a noisy dream, and Jeff jumped.

“You going to be okay with all the animals sleeping in the room with us?”

“I think so.” Jeff cleared his throat. “How, ah…how do they react when you’re…”

“Having sex?”

“Yeah.”

I snuggled next to him and nuzzled his neck. “Well, honestly, there’s only one way to find out.”

“Very true,” Jeff purred as he pulled me closer to him. This was definitely a better conversation. “And let me mention again that I love how you focus on the priorities.”

“It’s a gift and a skill.”

J
EFF PULLED MY TOP OFF WITH ONE HAND
while his other stroked my breasts. He moved his mouth to my neck, and I moaned. He nibbled, and I moaned louder. The soundproofing in the Embassy truly lived up to its hype—we’d never woken Jamie once, and considering I was sometimes shattering crystal, it was the one good thing about living here.

“Mmmm,” he said against my neck. “Last night was too long ago.” He bit my neck, and I yowled my agreement while my hips started bucking. Jeff stopped the lovely things his hands and mouth were doing. “What was that?”

“Um, me?”

He looked over his shoulder. “Ah, no. We have company. Interested company.”

I sat up. Sure enough, Duchess was at the side of the bed. “Good girl, back to bed.” She gave a doggy sigh and went back to her bed. She settled in, but she was watching. “Stay. Good girl.” I lay back and pulled Jeff onto me. “We’re good.”

We started back up, I yowled happily, Jeff stopped. “We are not alone.”

I looked around. The three cats were all awake, watching. I sat up. Duchess was still in her bed, radiating long-suffering good dogness. The other three dogs, however, were covering the “watching from the side of the bed” portion of the festivities.

“All dogs, back to bed!” I got three more dog sighs, but they did as they were told. “Stay! I mean it.” I lay back down. “Ignore the cats and they’ll get bored.”

“Really? You’re used to this?”

“Yeah. Trust me, I know my parents still do the deed. I think they’re interested because it’s us, and it’s all new, in that sense.”

Jeff looked around. “I’m not really used to an audience.”

“They’re dogs and cats. We do it in front of the Poofs all the time.”

“The Poofs have the decency not to look, or at least not to let me know they’re looking.”

I looked closely at his expression. Sure enough, he was embarrassed and freaked out. And, sadly, no longer even close to being in the moment.

I pondered my options. It wasn’t as though this was the first time I’d ever been in this situation. I rolled out of bed and went to the pantry in the kitchen. “Deluxe dog biscuits, large size, flavored for preference.” I opened the pantry. Sure enough, the Elves had the pantry covered as well as the refrigerator. There was a large box of biscuits sitting on the shelf. “You guys rock. Whoever you are.”

Went back into the bedroom, tossed four biscuits each to the dogs, grabbed the parent side of the baby monitor, and jerked my head at Jeff. “Come with me, quickly.”

Jeff hypersped out of the room, and I shut the door, leaving the dogs munching happily. I put the box back and the monitor on the counter. “Okay, now, let’s relax while they eat. They’ll all settle down with us out of the room.”

“You’re sure they won’t bark and wake the baby?”

“I’m positive.” If the soundproofing here ensured my cat-in-heat yowling didn’t wake the baby, it was unlikely the dogs were going to manage it. “Okay, I’m going to get a Coke, then we’re going to go to the living room, sit on the couch, and relax.” And, hopefully, reenact pleasant times from the Lair.

“Okay.” Jeff didn’t sound convinced. I decided not to focus on that. We’d managed to get past my freaking out about waking Jamie during sex. We just needed to get past his freaking out about dogs and cats being around. We could do that, right? I stretched while I tried not to worry. I opened the fridge and bent over to grab a Coke.

Before my hand closed around the can Jeff was up against me rubbing in a very pleasant, interesting, and insistent manner. “Mmmmm, do that again,” he growled.

“Do what again? Bend over? Stretch? Get a soda?”

He picked me up and flipped me so my legs went around his waist. “All of the above.”

Well, this had been my plan, so I wasn’t going to argue. I stretched and bent back, so I could close the refrigerator door. Why
waste the electricity? Besides, we didn’t need the light—windows or no, there were night lights all over the place. I passed on the soda. I planned to have my mouth otherwise occupied.

Earth-friendly actions over, I straightened up to find Jeff definitely purring, with the “jungle cat about to eat me” look on his face. I loved that look. He buried his face in my breasts, and we reenacted the first orgasm he’d ever given me. I was all over this kind of nostalgia.

I’d sort of figured we’d head to the living room and a couch, but Jeff had other ideas. Still ravaging my breasts and squeezing my butt while I ground against him and did my best to get his T-shirt off, he took us into the formal dining room. He flung a chair aside and laid me back onto the table, so my behind was at the edge.

Before I’d met Jeff I’d had a fantasy about being ravaged on a conference table. Since meeting him I’d had that one fulfilled more than once. But it never got old, and a big dining room table resembled a conference table in more ways than one.

Jeff had his shirt and my pajama bottoms off now, though he was still in his. He grabbed my wrists and held them up over my head. “I’ve heard you’re unhappy with your current job. I think you need to apply for a new position.”

“What sort of work experience are you looking for?” I was managing to talk only because he didn’t have me completely insane from desire. I didn’t figure speech was going to remain in my repertoire long.

He gave me a slow smile as he slid the fingers of his free hand over my neck, playing with the spots he knew make me incoherent. “I like to train up. Show you how we do things around here.” His fingers stroked my breasts and gently rubbed my nipples.

I gave up on speech. Moaning was taking all of my vocal capacity. Jeff’s mouth followed his hand. As his tongue curled around my breasts, I gave up and let the yowling begin.

He trailed his tongue down as he let go of my wrists and slid his hands to my thighs. As his mouth went between my legs, he spread them wide. My yowling hit High C. Still keeping my legs wide, he gently flipped me over. I grabbed the sides of the table as he nipped my behind and went back to making me hit all the high notes.

I lost track of time, and orgasms, until Jeff’s tongue trailed up my back. He bit the back of my neck as he entered me and all I could do was gasp and moan as his body’s weight held me captive while he pounded inside me.

“That’s right,” he growled in my ear. “Let’s see if you can handle
the pressure this job entails.” He lifted his body off mine, slid his hands under me, cupped my breasts, and lifted, so my body was curved. I let go of the table and pulled my arms in, so I was resting my head on my forearms.