They stayed together in a tangle of limbs for a long time, and when he finally eased himself off her, it was only to flop down beside her with a contented grunt.

“I second that,” she murmured, nestling into his side. It was another minute before she had the strength to open her eyes and look at him. His eyes were the colour of molten gold, now. “Your eyes look incredible.”

“As do yours.” He stroked his thumb over her cheek. “Do you wish to see for yourself?”

“Wait, what?” Adrenaline surged, erasing her post-coital fugue in an instant. “What about my eyes?”

“Humans mated to Pyrosians often have their eyes change colour, too. That information was to be revealed when Princess Maggie, Lisa, and Gwen arrived at the Gathering.”

“But I’ve seen pictures of the princess and the woman spokeswoman for the agency, their eyes weren’t gold.”

“Pictures can be altered, and contact lens were used to conceal the truth during live interviews.”

“You people sure have a lot of damned secrets.” She looked around the room for a mirror. “I want to see my eyes. What do they look like?”

He spoke some kind of command in his own language and a few seconds later the wall behind the bed turned into a mirror. She stared at her reflection in disbelief. “My eyes are gold?”

“They are.” Torel moved in behind her, looking into the mirror as well. “You look even more lovely this way.”

“But. Gold.” She waved at her reflection. “That’s going to be a little hard to explain to my parents. They already don’t approve of my life choices, and this little plot-twist isn’t going to help. Hey Mom and Dad, I banged a hot alien and these were a side effect. Surprise!”

He stared at her through the mirror, his expression suddenly stormy. “Why wouldn’t your parents approve of your choices? You are an intelligent, well-spoken, and attractive female. What choice did you make that they didn’t approve of?”

“If we’re going to talk about my parents, I’m going to need booze.”

“Booze?” he queried.

“Uh, liquor? Any kind of alcoholic beverage. Surely your species has that.”

“Ah, I see. Yes, we have alcoholic drinks. But, you really shouldn’t consume any, yet.”

“Why not?” The answer dawned on her a split-second later. “This is about my head injury, right?”

“It is. The medications you’ve been given would be impeded if you drank alcohol. You are not one hundred percent healed and won’t be for another day or so.”

“I find your diagnosis a little suspect. If I’m not healed enough to enjoy a drink, how can I be well enough to be doing the horizontal tango with you?”

This time, he caught her meaning without help. “If we hadn’t mated, we would both be suffering right now. It was a calculated risk, one I didn’t take lightly. If any of my colleagues had disagreed, I would have placed myself in stasis and waited for you to recover. That situation is currently playing out with another male who found his mate in the aftermath of the bombing. She was badly injured, and her recovery has been complicated. Keth had to be placed in stasis for his own protection.”

“Protect him from what, exactly? You said it would get very unpleasant for both of us if we didn’t mate.” She turned from the mirror to look at him directly. “You didn’t tell me everything, did you?”

He wrapped her in his arms and kissed her gently before answering. “If you had refused to mate with me, there were only two outcomes for me. Insanity, or death.”

“You should have told me!” She cradled his face in her hands, trying to understand why he hadn’t said anything.

“If I’d told you, would you have considered saying no?” he asked.

“Of course not!”

“And that is why I didn’t say anything. It had to be your choice.”

She stared at him, dumbfounded. “You’re crazy. It’s just sex, right?”

“It still had to be your decision. I saw what happened the last time we came to Earth. The females did not react well to their lack of choices. In the end, all of them chose to stay with their mates, but it was not an easy transition. Our situation is different, because, as you say, it’s a temporary sexual relationship, but I still wanted you to have a choice.”

“What would have happened to me if I’d said no?”

Torel was quiet for a long moment. “That is a question I can’t answer. You only have a small amount of Pyrosian genes, but it was enough to initiate the Scorching and change your eye colour. I didn’t consider the risk to you.” He bowed his head. “Forgive me.”

She nudged his chin back up so she could look into his eyes. “There’s nothing to forgive. This Scorching thing packs a serious punch. Neither of us has been thinking clearly.” Considering she’d just had sex with an alien from another planet, that might be the understatement of the year.

“This clarity of mind will not last long, either. Before it fades, I want to know why your parents aren’t proud of you.”

“If I can’t have a drink, how about something to eat? We can have a bed picnic while I tell you about my parents, and you can tell me something about yourself, too. We’re going to be together for two more days. I’d like to know more than just your name.”

“Food is a good idea.” He raised his head higher and spoke in his own language again, then lowered his voice and explained. “I just requested the computer send a service droid with a selection of food choices approved for human consumption.”

“How do you know which stuff to approve?” Once the Scorching was over, Haley was going to sit down with Torel and anyone else she could find and start asking questions. Lots of questions. She was already envisioning a running series of stories about the Pyrosians and their quest for mates. There was so much to tell. It wouldn’t be an attack piece, but something informative, and hopefully interesting. This was going to be how she was going to prove herself to her father.

“I’ll tell you if you lie back down and rest while we wait for our meal.”

“Is this your subtle way of trying to tell me what to do again?”

“I wasn’t trying to be subtle. You need to rest while you can,” he said, gesturing to the bed.

“Bossy Torel is not my favourite. He’s not even in the top two,” she declared, but she settled back on the bed. The truth was, she did feel a little tired. Not that she was going to admit it.

“You don’t have to like him, but I hope you’ll listen to him anyway.” His tone softened as she did as he asked. “What are your top two, then? Or is that who? My language lessons didn’t include speaking about different parts of my own personality.”

“Oh, that’s easy. Growly Torel is my favourite, followed by the version of you that actually makes jokes and laughs. I’m not a fan of super serious Torel, either.”

He stretched out beside her on the bed and covered them both with a portion of the blankets. “I don’t think you’ll be seeing too much of him. For the next two cycles, I have been stripped of all duties but one – taking care of you.”

“Stripped of duty?” She didn’t like the way that sounded. “Why?”

“It’s a rule. No one experiencing the Scorching can be on active duty unless circumstances are dire. I can’t care for my patients properly if I’m only thinking about you.”

She nodded. “Makes sense. I wish some of the doctors on Earth had a similar rule. If Jeff’s doctor hadn’t been going through a nasty divorce, maybe he would have caught the cancer early enough to save him.”

“Jeff?”

Shit. Why did I bring him up? “Jeff was my husband. He died of cancer a few years ago.”

Torel hugged her but released her quickly when she didn’t return the hug. “I’m sorry. That must have been a very difficult time for you.”

“Thank you. It was awful, but I got through it with the help of a dear friend.” She had learned to dread people’s reaction when she told them she was a widow. They never seemed to know what to say. They might babble, or they’d stop talking altogether. The worst were the ones who told her she’d find someone new or that everything happened for a reason. She’d lost someone she loved, watched him suffer and fight for months, and in the end, the grief had nearly killed her. If there was a reason for that, then she wanted to know what the hell it was.

“Your friend, was she the one with you yesterday?”

“One of them, yeah. Aria was here to meet her match. Not that she wanted to be matched. It was an accident. By the way, you guys really need to put an undo button on your app. If you had one, she would have been able to back out gracefully. Not that I think she should have. I mean, what if the guy really was her perfect mate? What if he was okay with her having a baby already?”

Torel’s golden eyes widened. “Your friend has a child? That…we never considered that scenario.”

“She’s got an adorable ten-month-old daughter, which she thinks will be more than enough of a reason for her match to reject her.”

He shook his head. “On the contrary, I suspect most males offered a chance to have not only a mate but also a daughter to care for would be ecstatic.”

“Really? You guys are that keen on kids?” She frowned. “Are you? Keen to have kids, I mean.”

He looked at her in bemusement. “Until a few hours ago, I had not considered even having a mate. Offspring were not something I’d contemplated at all.”

“That’s not an answer.” Before she could press him for a more decisive one, there was an electronic three-note warble. “What was that?”

“Our meal is arriving.” Torel pointed to the wall beside the door. Part of it vanished, and something that looked like a cross between R2D2 and a room service cart wheeled in through the gap. It was laden with covered dishes, bowls of fresh fruit, and several pitchers, some covered in condensation, indicating the contents were chilled.

“Can I get one of those to take home with me? I seem to live on takeout these days.”

“You should take better care of yourself than that. Though I confess, I would probably be in the same situation as you if I didn’t have service droids to purchase, prepare, and serve my meals on schedule. I often get so caught up in my work I forget to eat.”

“Sign me up for service droids. Maybe you can bring me one the next time you visit.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

“You know, I’m not the only woman on the planet who doesn’t want the whole committed relationship thing. Maybe you should consider bringing some of your unmatched males to Earth next time you visit. There aren’t enough women on your planet, right? So, they can’t be getting much uh…quality time with a woman until they’re mated. They could even stay on Earth to act like sexy goodwill ambassadors.”

She’d been joking, mostly, but Torel didn’t crack the barest hint of a smile.

“Come on, that was at least a little bit funny, wasn’t it?” Had she hit a taboo subject or something?

Torel rose from the bed to fetch their meals without responding to Haley’s comments. The idea of having ambassadors on Earth was intriguing, but unlikely to come to anything given the way the Gathering had been attacked. Coming to acquire more matched females and conduct trade was one thing, but allowing males to remain on the planet alone would be a serious risk to take. It wasn’t until he turned back with the first tray of food that he realized she was looking at him expectantly. “I’m sorry. I started thinking about your suggestion and failed to reply.”

“Yeah, you did. I was starting to wonder if I’d upset you somehow.” She took the tray from him and started re-arranging the blankets to make a makeshift platform for their food.

“Not at all. It was an interesting idea.” He continued talking while going back for another tray. “The sexual ambassador aspect wouldn’t work, though. Unlike you, we can only reach sexual release with our destined mates.”

Behind him, Haley made an alarming choking noise that had him at her side in seconds.

“What is it? Are you in pain?”

She gave him a wild-eyed look and sputtered again. “Only with your mate? Holy shit, Tor. You’ve never gotten off before? Ever?”

It took him a moment to work out her meaning. “Not until just now, with you.”

“I’m starting to think your Gods have a mean streak. What happened in the days before you had genetic testing and databases? How many of your people went their whole lives never finding a mate or even getting to enjoy sex?” she demanded.

“Not as many as you’d think. In those times, Gatherings were held often, and those who had yet to find their mates would attend as many as possible, often travelling long distances. It’s an imperfect system, but so are the courtship rituals of your world.”

“Well, you’re not wrong about that, but at least we can still have orgasms. I still think your Gods are assholes.”

He chuckled. The Gods had dragged both of them into this mating without consideration for their feelings or plans. “You’re not wrong about that, either, though my mother would scold me if she heard me say so.”

“I bet she wouldn’t. You’re everything a mother could want in a son. Handsome. Successful. Clearly affluent enough to have your own fleet of service droids taking care of you. I bet she’d forgive you just about anything.”

He finished bringing over the food and dishes and then wheeled the droid close to the bed so they could reach the pitchers of liquid. Serving others wasn’t something he did, but there was something about Haley—He pushed the thought aside. It had to be the Scorching. That was all. These feelings would fade once the mating fever ended. Mates travelled separately all the time. This wouldn’t be any different.

He reclaimed his place at Haley’s side and started uncovering dishes. There was a wide variety, including some of his favourites, both entrees and desserts. “My mother thinks I work too hard and do not give the Gods enough credit, and while she is proud of me, she has made it clear I’m the one she worries about the most. Apparently, she wants more from me than a life of duty and research.”

“Like a mate?” Haley asked around a mouthful of thickly iced brownie.

It was one of the desserts Gwen, Kash’s human mate, had taught the palace kitchen staff to prepare. He hadn’t been surprised to see it had made it to the menu of the Firebrand. “I don’t think she’s concerned about the specifics. She just wants me to enjoy life more. I think that’s what most parents want for their younglings, isn’t it?”

“Not my parents. They think they know exactly what I should be doing, and with who. My mother gave me exactly three months to mourn for Jeff, and then she started pressuring me to find someone new. Preferably one of the men she had selected for me. Wealthy, elite, corporate types, for the most part. All card-carrying members of her social circle, of course. She never approved of Jeff, and she is determined not to let me make the same mistake again.”

She did her best to hide it, but he could hear the pain behind her words. “She called your choice in mates a mistake? Why? Weren’t you happy?”

“I was very happy…and very broke. Jeff was an environmentalist. I met him when I was doing a story about the activists trying to block a major oil pipeline. He was arrested the first time we met. He had so much passion for his cause, and for life in general. He was like no one I’d ever met before. My parents were horrified, and I didn’t care. In fact, it made him even more attractive to me.”

He wanted to hear more, but it also bothered him a little to see her so animated about another male, even one who was no longer among the living. “So he was from a different class than you and your parents. I thought such issues were no longer important to humans, at least, not the ones from your geographic location.”

“Oh, it still matters to some people. Especially the ones who come from old money like my parents. My mother never worked a day in her life, and my father inherited the family business, a newspaper. The only reason Mom got over the idea of me working at all was because I was their only child, and Dad wanted me to learn the trade so I could take over someday. The day I told them I was engaged to Jeff, Dad gave me an ultimatum. Leave Jeff or leave the newspaper.”

Stunned to silence, Torel set aside his meal and moved in closer to Haley, nearly upsetting several of the dishes on the way. He set his hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently. “You deserve to be happy. Why wouldn’t they want that for you?”

She looked up at him, and for one brief second, he saw a flash of hurt and confusion but as quickly as it came, it was gone again, replaced by a sardonic smile. “You’d have to ask them. Jeff’s gone, I work for my father again, and they still haven’t forgiven me for my little rebellion.”

“You went back to work for your father after what he said? Why? Perhaps you should come to Pyros. No one would try to curtail your choices there.” The words slipped out before he could stop them.

She stiffened, and her next words came out clipped and terse. “I went back because there wasn’t any point in fighting with them any longer. Jeff was gone, and our plans died when he did.”

“As for going to Pyros, what the hell would I do there? I don’t even know your language. It’s hard to be a journalist if you can’t write in a language anyone can read. Besides, neither of us wants the messy reality of a mate, remember?”

“I remember.” Torel wasn’t even sure why he was discussing this. They had an arrangement already. She would stay on Earth and live her life, he would return to Pyros and his work. Simple. Uncomplicated. If she were on Pyros, things wouldn’t stay simple.

“And how would it be on your world? Do mated couples often live separately there? I bet they don’t. I wouldn’t be escaping my problems, I’d just be exchanging them for different ones.”

“I don’t like the idea of you being unhappy, otama. We may be mated in name only, but the bond will still be there. I will know when your parents cause you upset.”

“But you’ll be halfway across the galaxy, how can you be sure the link will even stretch that far?”

“Your eyes turned gold. That’s an indication your Pyrosian genes are no longer dormant.” Yet another reason they were going to need some distance between them, it should weaken the effect of their bond.

“So, not everyone’s eyes do this?” she asked.

“No. In fact, there’s only been one other human whose eyes have turned gold…” He stopped as he realized there was something he’d forgotten to mention.

“What. What happened to the other woman?”

“Her name is Gwen, and she’s fine. It’s just that I failed to mention another possible outcome of our mating.” He got out of bed, took a few steps away from her, and extended his hand. “I’m not actually sure how to—” A flame appeared in the middle of his palm. “Well, that was easier than I expected.”

“What the flaming fuck are you doing?” Haley demanded, staring at his hand.

“My ability to manipulate fire has been unlocked by our mating. It will take some time for me to be able to control it fully, but it shouldn’t be an issue. As a precaution, all the furnishings and linens on this ship were made from fireproof materials.”

“Hello. What about me? I’m not fireproof!”

“As my mate, you’re immune to my fire.” He snuffed out the flame and turned to face her. “As I am immune to yours.”

“Mine? My what?”

“As I said, the only other mated human female I know with gold eyes is Gwen. She is also the only human female I know who can manipulate fire like a Pyrosian.”

“Well, shit.” She held her hand up. “I really hope this doesn’t work.”

He stayed silent as her brow furrowed and focused on her hand. Nothing happened. She shook her fingers and tried again, but no flame appeared. “Looks like you were wrong. No smoke. No fire.”

“It might be too soon. You could try again in—” She cut him off.

“Nope. It’s not happening. I have exceeded my capacity for weirdness for the year already. No Firestarter roles for me.”

“That’s not how it works.” As much as he hoped she never manifested that ability, or anything else that indicated their bond was too strong to ignore, he knew her logic wasn’t sound.

She fixed him with a determined stare. “Yes, it is. And even if it isn’t, humour me and pretend. I just want to eat, talk, and hopefully get a little sleep before the Scorching makes us both lose our minds again.”

He smiled and sat back down on the bed. She was clearly overwhelmed. Given how much she’d been hit with since waking up, she was coping amazingly well. He could humour her, for now. He pointed to one of the dishes. “I think you’ll like this. It’s Pyrosian, but many of the human females enjoy it. Apparently, it is very similar to something your people call a perogy.”

She speared one of the dumplings and sampled it with obvious enjoyment. After that, they both did their best to keep the conversation light. By the time they had eaten their fill and set the dishes back on the service droid, Haley was yawning.

“It’s time to rest, otama.” He pulled back the covers and gestured for her to climb into bed.

“What’s an otama, anyway?”

He settled in beside her and covered them both with the blankets. “It’s a term of endearment that doesn’t really translate into your language. I suppose it would be something close to sweetheart.”

“If you’re going to keep calling me that, I should have a nickname for you, too.”

“You already do. You are the only person in the galaxy to ever call me Tor.”

She snuggled into him with a contented sigh. “How long do you think we have before round two starts?”

“Long enough for us to get some rest.” He draped an arm around her waist and pressed a kiss to the curve of her shoulder. “Sleep well.”

“You, too.”

As they both drifted off to sleep, Torel found himself wondering what it might be like to go to sleep every night with Haley in his arms. Not that it mattered. They weren’t going to be together that often.