Candidate (Selected Book 4) (35 page)

"You are my new secret weapon," she said. "I should have taken you six years ago."

"Mmmmm mmm,"

She laughed and released me. "I want you to do a few more interviews."

"I have two left."

"I have three more for you. One is mine. The other two are Cedar's."

* * * *

Laurel spent the entire interview crying quietly. I explained everything and then leaned across the table and lifted her chin.

"Laurel, you don't want to fight, do you?" She shook her head slowly. "Your other choice is to accept willingly. I promise he'll treat you well, but if you don't like him, he'll let you go home. In the meantime, you'll have a heck of an adventure. That won't be so bad, will it?"

"No," she said.

"I need you to say the words. You'll accept willingly?"

"I'll accept willingly," she said.

And Jasmine walked in.

* * * *

Alisha, the stunning black doctor, was a different story. She was spitting mad, and it was all four guards that brought her in. They shoved her into the chair, and I missed with swallowing her twice before I caught her. I only missed once on her hands.

Then they stepped back but didn't leave until I nodded to them.

She struggled with the restraints. I walked over to her and said, "Doctor Stanley, my name is Andromeda Hayes. I am a human and arrived here ten days ago the way you did last night. If you can calm down just a little, I can take this hood from your head."

She stilled, but I could see her muscles quivering. But she nodded, and I gently removed the hood. As soon as I did, she looked around the room until she saw me. She was sweating and her hair was matted, but she looked stunning.

And amazingly angry.

I moved to my seat and sat down. "I know you're angry, Doctor. I don't blame you. I was, too, although you're better at expressing it than I was."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means it didn't take four guards to bring me to this room ten days ago. Let me tell you just a little about myself then explain what is going on." I paused. "You can hate me if you want, but our situation isn't that different."

She listened without comment.

"This is fucking bullshit," she said. "I'm a doctor. I'm in my first year of residency. Do you have any idea how hard I've worked?"

"That was what I said when I saw your profile, Doctor. And do you know what the aliens asked me."

"Oh, enlighten me."

"They asked me whether you'd like access to alien technology."

"Fuck," she said. "Just fuck you." But she leaned back in her chair. "You're serious."

"I'm just the messenger," I said. "But that's what they asked me."

She turned away. "I want to hear it from one of them."

Jasmine didn't walk in. I signaled her. "I need you."

"Coming."

"All right," I said. "The administrator is coming." I explained about Catseye and was just finishing when Jasmine walked in. I introduced them, and she sat down.

"I was just telling Dr. Stanley what I know about alien technology. It isn't much."

Alisha turned to Jasmine. "Are you messing with me?"

"No, Dr. Stanley," she replied. "But it wouldn't be up to me. It would be up to your husband."

"Fuck that," she said. "That one said some of you are as gay as I am. No husbands."

"I might be able to arrange that," Jasmine said.

"So you're saying it's her choice, my new wife's. I don't have a say in the matter?"

"I can't imagine you remaining silent," I said.

"But she's going to want, what? Me to pop out fucking babies or something? I hate babies."

"Are you telling me you wouldn't carry a baby if the woman you deeply loved begged you to?" Jasmine asked.

That shut Alisha down, and she leaned away from the table, her arms stretched out. She rattled her arms. "Do I have to sit like this?"

"It took four guards to bring you here," Jasmine said. "So yes, I'm afraid so."

"Fine, whatever." She leaned forward again. "Right away? I want to get my career going. You can't tell me I went through went years of school and then wham! Baby factory."

"It would be a negotiation with your future mate," Jasmine said. "Perhaps you could come to an agreement."

"Like what?"

"Well, it wouldn't be for me to say."

"Like hell," I said. I turned to Dr. Stanley. "Tell her you want an updated education and to get your career going. Shit, you'll have alien tech. You can have babies for decades, and you could afford a year to pop one or two of the rugrats out. Tell her what the word Governess means, if you don't want to take care of them yourself. Pop out a baby ten years from now in exchange for an education no doctor on Earth has ever had."

She looked back and forth, her gaze settling on me. "You're a, um. Mating candidate. What are you doing here then?"

"Well, I made my own arrangement," I said. "I agreed to give her what she wanted if I got what I wanted."

"What's that?"

"A job."

Alisha stared at me for a moment and then began laughing. But then she sobered and turned to Jasmine. "What do you think about what she said?" She gestured with her nose to me.

"I think you would have to talk to your future mate."

"That's like Mom saying 'maybe' she really means 'no'."

"Come on, Administrator," I said. "You can't take someone fresh out of medical school and say 'fuck you, you're now a baby machine'. Even you aren't that heartless."

Jasmine made what I realized now was a well-rehearsed disgusted sound. "I could talk to the potential mates on your behalf and negotiate something fitting." But she looked at me. "But this concept of waiting decades is ridiculous."

"One decade," said Alisha. "Let me learn. Get established. And I need to keep my skills sharp, even if I'm down and out for a few months."

Jasmine studied her. "And you'll go willingly?"

"Are you kidding? You didn't have to do all this. You just had to ask." But she paused. "But."

"Oh, there are no but's, doctor."

"I like femme's," she said. "Do you know what that means?"

"Yes."

"And she better be damned good with her tongue," Alisha added. "If you get what I mean."

Jasmine studied her. Then she surprised me. I heard an unzipping sound, and then her tentacles emerged. I watched for a moment then turned to Alisha. She was staring.

"What in the fuck are those?"

"Um. Tentacles," I said.

"She's a fucking octopus?"

Jasmine moved one of the tentacles to rest on the table, the end pointed in the air with the tip just at eye level in front of Alisha. Then she wriggled it. I thought it was damned sexy, actually, and I found myself staring at it.

"Imagine what I can do with one of these," Jasmine said slowly. And then she added the rest. "And I don't have one. I have four."

Alisha licked her lips. "What species are you again?"

"Catseye."

"You were hiding them earlier."

"A lot of humans freak out," Jasmine said.

"She's not freaking out," Alisha said with a nod to me.

In response, I grabbed one of the tentacles. I thought about kissing it, but that implied too much. Instead I set it on my arm, and Jasmine wrapped it around, the tip coming to a rest just behind my ear.

"I want to feel one."

"I'm not letting your hands go," Jasmine said. "I might start trusting you, but not yet."

"Fine. My arm. My face. Whatever. I want to feel one."

Jasmine had four. She kept one on me. Another she wrapped around Alisha's arm, and a third she used to caress her cheek and tease her ear.

"It's not slimy."

"I can produce an oil," Jasmine said. "I come with my own lubrication."

"She gives amazing foot massages."

Alisha looked back and forth between us. "Are you two..."

"No," I said. "But she gave me a foot massage. It was amazing. Best I've ever had. The hugs are pretty impressive, too."

"Are you married, Administrator?"

"I can't give you what you want," Jasmine said. She lowered the tentacle across Alisha's face but kept the one on her arm. "I live and work here. We have a medical facility, but it is small. You want someone to take you to the space station. You can become a doctor there, if you want, or go into research."

"Fine. Are there any Catseye from the station?"

"A few."

She looked down at her arm, at the tentacle on her arm.

"We like to touch," Jasmine said. "If you don't liked being touched, we're a poor choice for you. Andromeda, stand up and turn around."

I climbed to my feet and showed my back.

"We like bare skin," Jasmine said. "Andromeda has begun accepting hugs from her Catseye friends, and I have asked her to dress like this for us. This is touch between friends, not necessarily lovers. But if you accept mating with a Catseye, she will want you to dress like this for her, and she will touch you a great deal."

I turned around and sat back down. Alisha looked a little stunned. Then she nodded. "I'd like to meet these Catseye."

"I cannot promise they will be interested, and you may not care for the individuals."

"We won't know until we meet."

"Administrator, they'll be far more interested if she knows how to accept a Catseye hug." I turned to Alisha. "This is weird, and you might think it's a little gross. But it's been growing on me."

"Is this going to fall into the category of too much information?"

"You're a doctor," I said. "Is there such a thing? Jasmine, shall we?"

"Yes, you're right." She unwrapped from Alisha, and then we both stood up, facing sideways. I stepped into the hug, and soon I was wrapped in tentacles. Then I turned my face towards Alisha, and that was when the tentacle came across my mouth. I kissed, and in it went.

"Oh my god, you're
sucking
on it. I thought you two weren't a thing."

"We're not," Jasmine explained. "This is between friends." She withdrew the tentacle and slowly unwrapped. I smiled and sat back down.

"It tastes weird, but they tease my tongue. It's a little sexy." Then I switched to Pig Latin. "Okay-way, it-way is-way a-way ot-lay exy-say."

"What was that?" Jasmine asked. I thought she probably knew.

"Hey, you speak all your languages. We humans have a few you don't know yet. Species secrets and all that."

"I want to taste," Alisha said.

"I want a promise," Jasmine said. "Several, actually."

"Fine. What?"

"Do you promise to accept this willingly?"

"If she will give me what I want, and we like each other, yes."

"You will open your heart and give her a proper chance."

"Yes, but she better treat me the way I like being treated, and if she's an idiot, it's not my fault if I vote her off the island."

"If you what?"

"Reality television show reference," I said. "Keep going."

"You will give me no more trouble," Jasmine continued. "No more fighting the guards."

"Fine."

"You want a taste."

"Yes."

"If you bite me, I will give you to the most horrible male I can find for you, and he'll drug you into oblivion and force child after child out of you. You will be nothing but a mindless baby factory. Am I clear?"

"I won't bite." She looked at me. "It looked like you sucked though."

"Just a little. No teeth. And it really tastes funny, especially the first time. But it's growing on me, and I only accepted it the first time last night."

"From her?"

"From my other Catseye friend," I said. "But she's mated."

"Right." She looked back at Jasmine. Jasmine considered her then moved to the other side, walking around to sit next to Alisha. Then she moved slowly. She began by caressing her. Alisha watched all this and barely reacted. She didn't have any more xenophobic bones than I did.

"She's going to wrap it over your lips eventually," I said. "When she does, if you kiss, then she enters."

Alisha nodded. Jasmine reached further, wrapping her more completely, and then a tentacle moved up Alisha's face, caressing, then finally draping across her lips.

Alisha's eyes widened for a moment, then settled, and she made a clear little kiss. Jasmine slid inside, and Alisha wrapped her lips around the tentacle. Her eyes widened again, and I imagine she was deciding how she felt about the taste. But she didn't spit Jasmine out, and I saw little motions of the tentacle, suggesting Jasmine was teasing her a little inside.

Finally, quite some time later, it seemed, Jasmine withdrew, pulling all of her tentacles to herself.