Alien Diplomacy Read online

  Before we’d become parents, our foreplay could last hours. Now we’d gotten trained to take advantage of available alone time. Not that I minded. Foreplay was great and I loved it, especially the way Jeff did it, but nothing was better than when he was inside me.

  I gasped as he entered me, and his head reared back a bit. He had the jungle cat look on his face again. “This is what I’ve really wanted to do since I picked you up from class.” His voice was a low purr, and it made me moan as much as him being inside me did.

  He covered my mouth and ravaged my tongue with his, while he slammed into me. I wrapped my limbs around him while I screamed my orgasm into his mouth.

  Jeff was a sexual god, and his opinion always seemed to be that it just wasn’t good enough unless I had a variety of screaming orgasms. Needless to say, I considered this one of his finer traits. He spun us around and deposited me onto our bed, still moving inside me. I’d have marveled at his skills, but I was too busy yowling my head off.

  I managed to take a semiactive role by running my hands over his chest. He had just the right amount of hair to be manly without being a rug, and I wanted my mouth on his pecs. Happily, he knew and leaned closer to me. I attacked, the feel of his chest against my mouth drove me wild and my body writhed against his. “Mmmm, you’re such a good bad girl.” He drove into me harder and faster, and another climax hit.

  He flipped us over while I was still screaming, so he was lying down and I was riding him. His hands stroked and fondled my breasts while he gave me the best ride on a bucking bronco in the world. My wailing was at an all-time high. Fortunately, the Embassy had amazing soundproofing, a contrast to everywhere else we’d lived, so as long as the com wasn’t on and the baby was in another room, I could do my thing. I’d never been able to be quiet while even making out with Jeff, let alone doing more. Again, he didn’t seem to mind.

  He slammed up, and I rocked back, and he exploded inside me at the same time my strongest climax crashed over me. I hit a level where I could shatter crystal, and he roared as our bodies shuddered together. Each throb from him made my orgasm spike, until the room started to spin.

  Jeff shifted so I’d fall forward. His hands were still on my breasts, and he moved me gently down until I was lying on top of him, whimpering quietly while the spasms in my body quieted.

  He stroked my back and kissed my head. “I love you, baby,” he said softly.

  I snuggled my face into his neck. “I love you, too, Jeff. I’m sorry I didn’t do what you said and ended up putting us both into the river.”

  He chuckled as he pulled the covers up and over us. “As long as you’re safe, still mine, and in my arms and my bed, I don’t really care about anything else. Including you being you and ignoring anything anyone tells you, including me.”

  “That’s my kind of détente.”

  CHAPTER 22

  WE BOTH FELL ASLEEP, which wasn’t all that surprising. I woke up a few hours later because my breasts were torpedoes. Did a quick search and retrieved Jamie from Doreen and Irving.

  I fed the baby, Jeff did the diaper check and change, and we tucked her into her bassinette, which we put by my side of the bed, just because we were both feeling a little jumpy about exploding cars and river swims. Then we all went back to sleep.

  Jamie woke us up a few hours later, we did the feeding routine, and then all collapsed back into bed. I marked swimming in the Potomac as being something we wanted never to do again, either individually or as a family.

  The sound of Maroon 5’s “Must Get Out” woke us up hours later. One of the nicer things about living in the Embassy was that we continued to avoid the standard A-C Morning Militant Bell Ringing that was so popular with everyone but me. We got to have an actual alarm clock and one of my backup iPods lived there. I had this one continuously tuned to my Hate This Place playlist because, well, why not?

  As Maroon 5 shared my sentiments about D.C. and what it was doing to us, we gave Jamie her morning feeding. The music changed to Pink and Steven Tyler singing “Misery.” Yeah, I loved it here, I really did.

  Once Jamie was burped and resting in her crib, we showered, quickly. These days, our long showers were for when the baby was with someone else or asleep. Once we were clean again, we stayed in our robes while Jeff prepared and we ate breakfast. It was sort of a decadent thing to do, but it made both of us feel more like we were on vacation than relegated to an assignment we both hated.

  Jeff made some calls, during which he spent a lot of time grunting. When he finished, I made the standard inquiries. “What’s going on?”

  He sighed. “The cluster acted just like the one in Paris a few months ago. There were no rage indicators. Based on what happened before, James and Tim knew Reynolds would want to get at least a sample of the superbeings to study.” He didn’t look happy.

  “But they all blew up before our teams could either blow them up ourselves or get a superbeing captive, right?”

  “I married the smartest girl in the galaxy. Yes. And there were no signs of outside attack. Just like in Paris.”

  “So, they were set to self-destruct. We need to find and stop whichever lunatics are behind this supersoldier project.”

  “If that’s what it is.”

  “I know that’s what it is, Jeff. And so do you, if you’ll be honest with yourself.”

  “Maybe. We have something much more pressing to deal with, though, baby. The President’s Ball is tomorrow, and barring Reynolds and your mother having extracted something useful out of the prisoners, we’re still likely flying blind.”

  We were interrupted by Walter on the com. “Excuse me, Chiefs, but Mister Katt is here.”

  “Please ask him to give us a couple of minutes before he comes up, Walter,” Jeff said, as he stood up.

  “Will do, Chief.”

  “Why’s my dad visiting without calling first?”

  “He did call first. He just talked to me yesterday, not you.” Jeff started getting dressed. Clean clothes, which included everything we’d been wearing the day before, were in the closet, courtesy of the Elves. I really hoped they didn’t hang out and catch our sex life live and in person, but I decided the five-star maid service probably made up for it if they did.

  “Oh. What about?” I asked as I rummaged through the closet for an appropriate outfit for today’s festivities. I settled for another pair of jeans, a Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers T-shirt, and my Bon Jovi hoodie. I didn’t want to risk another piece from my Aerosmith collection, but I still felt the need for some rockin’ support.

  “Something I think you’ll be happy about.”

  “Why all the mystery?”

  Jeff grinned. “I like to keep you guessing.” He was, of course, in the standard black suit, white shirt, and black tie combo. You’d separate an A-C from their formal dress and their beloved Armani only if the entire safety of the world depended on it. The Diplomatic Corps were supposed to wear other, regular-type clothes, in order to blend in, but so far, Jeff had managed to make the suit work for everything.

  There was a knock at our door. Jeff went to get it, I got Jamie. “Papa Sol’s here for a visit, Jamie-Kat!” She did the Happy Baby Dance, which consisted of her sort of bouncing in my arms and making little squealy baby sounds.

  I heard what sounded like dog snuffles and cat hisses. Sure enough, we got through the bedroom door and were attacked by a tide of canines. “Dad, why are all the animals here?” I managed to get this out without Duchess, our pit bull, getting her tongue into my mouth, but it took some work on my part.

  Dad graciously took Jamie out of my arms. Jeff was otherwise occupied. Dudley, our Great Dane, had his paws on Jeff’s shoulders and was giving him a friendly face wash while Dottie, the Dalmatian, had her paws on Jeff’s waist, the better for him to pet her while also being mauled by Dudley. Duke, our black Lab, was trying to shove Duchess out of the way so he could monopolize my attention.

  “Argh! Sol, a little help?”

  “Sure, Je
ff. Dogs, sit.” My father’s command garnered the typical response—the dogs ignored him entirely.

  I channeled Mom. “Dogs—SIT!” All four dog butts hit the ground. “That’s better. Dad, again, not that it’s not great to get a dog bath, and it’s still better than being in the Potomac, but what’s going on?”

  “Jeff didn’t tell you?” Dad asked, far too innocently.

  “Um, no. Jeff hasn’t told me anything. Something about not wanting to ruin a surprise.”

  “Oh. Um. Well.” Dad looked guilty. “Your mother hasn’t said anything?”

  “No. When I’ve talked to her, Mom’s been busy with all the excitement—”

  Jeff cleared his throat in that “shut up, shut up” sort of way. “Yeah, Angela’s been tied up, Sol. So why don’t you tell Kitty the good news?”

  Wonderful, Mom was hiding the fact that she was doing active fieldwork from Dad again, and that probably meant no one had told him about everything that had happened the day before. Plus, he wasn’t freaking out and demanding to ensure that Jamie was in one piece, so the likelihood was good that Dad was being protected for his own peace of mind. Wondered how long that would last with the current situation going on and gave it no more than an hour.

  “So, what’s the news that has you and all the pets here?” A horrible thought flashed through my mind. “Oh, my God, Dad, did they attack you or the house?”

  “Did who attack me? The pets? No, of course not. No, they’re here so you can take them.”

  “Excuse me?”

  Dad coughed. “Jeff said it wouldn’t be a problem.”

  “We’re pet sitting? Where are you guys going?” Where could Mom possibly be planning to go, with us at the terrorism alert level we were at?

  Dad chuckled. “We’re not taking a trip, kitten. We’re just coming here.”

  “Dad, yesterday was a long, stressful day, and I haven’t been up long enough nor ingested enough Coke to be able to catch the most obvious of innuendos. I’m clueless.”

  He sighed. “Kitten, the Office of the President has been asking your mother for this for a long time. Before you met Jeff she was able to legitimately stay in Arizona. But now that you’re here, the President can’t see any reason for her not to be as well.”

  “Mom’s here all the time.”

  “Yeah,” Jeff said. “And she’s having trouble explaining how she’s showing up in less than a minute when someone needs her, when it should take her hours.”

  My parents had a gate installed in their house. It made a lot of sense, but I could see how the regular use of it could cause Mom, and us, some awkward explanations. “Um, so?”

  “And, what with our little Jamie-Kat here,” Dad went on, as he kissed her head, “it just seems to make a lot of sense. We’re going to be in a no-pets building, and Jeff said you had plenty of space and staff to help.”

  “Dad, really, what the heck are you talking about?”

  Dad smiled at me. “We stayed in Arizona because it was a safer, more normal upbringing for you. But now that you’re here, your mother is acquiescing to what the President’s people have been asking her to do for years. Your mother and I are moving to D.C.”

  CHAPTER 23

  “OH, DAD, REALLY? THAT’S SO GREAT! But what about our house?”

  “Oh, we’ll still keep it. It’s paid off, after all. But, we’re going to rent it out to Tim and Alicia.” Alicia was Tim’s fiancée. They were getting married soon, and Alicia wasn’t ready to stop working for the airlines. Living in a regular house made sense for them—Tim was one of the few human males working for us who’d actually chosen to marry a human girl. They were totally exotic for our generation of A-C agents.

  “That makes sense. But what about your job? Won’t it be the same issue as for Mom, only reversed, if you’re going back and forth to ASU all the time?”

  “I’ve taken a sabbatical for this semester, so I can get us settled and see how things go. Professors do it all the time, kitten.”

  “They usually have more going on than moving cross-country.”

  “I do. I’m doing a in-depth study of this region with a focus on Washington’s secret pathways and underground tunnels, separating fact from fiction.”

  “Like your own version of National Treasure? Sounds interesting.” Somewhat, but I wasn’t going to tell my dad that I was more interested in using those tunnels to escape Washington rather than study it. “So, when are you moving out here?”

  “This week. That way, we can babysit our little Jamie-Kat and see you and Jeff and Amy and Christopher all the time.”

  I chose not to mention the fact that we saw them all the time already. Gates or not, I wasn’t used to being this far away from my parents, and having them close would mean I could run and hide with them if I screwed up too badly.

  Because Amy had been one of my besties since high school, and also because her parents were both dead, my parents had stepped in and were covering all the parental duties for her as well. So far, they gave Amy a lot less guilt than they did me, but since Amy’s dad had been Operation Confusion’s Big Bad, and she’d discovered then that he’d murdered her mother years before, Amy probably needed the slack they cut her.

  “We’ll be glad to have you guys close. Hopefully the pets will get along with the Poofs.”

  “I’m sure it won’t be any problem,” Dad said with utter confidence. I didn’t share it, but then again, the Poofs were fully able to take care of themselves, and the cats and dogs had heretofore shown good self-preservation instincts, so I hoped for the best.

  “Figure the jocks can walk the dogs when you’re not out,” Jeff said.

  “I think that’s kind of below their pay grade, honestly.”

  He shrugged. “Don’t care. Someone’s got to do it.”

  “They like you best, Jeff.”

  Jeff shot a glare at me almost worthy of Christopher. “I’m sure I’ll walk them with you. However, we’ll worry about dog walking schedules later.”

  “I’ve got it all written down,” Dad said, handing Jeff a stuffed folder. “Feeding schedule, exercise, play times. I’m sure you’ll do fine. Walter has all the animals’ equipment; he’ll have it brought up shortly.”

  Jeff gaped. I was saved from having to make a comment by another knock on the door. I went to get it to find Tito standing there. “Hi, what’s up?”

  I got the Long-Suffering Doctor look. “You, Jamie, and Jeff are scheduled for tests today.”

  We were? “Tests? What tests?”

  He gave the Long-Suffering Doctor sigh. “The standard tests we do monthly to ensure the three of you are…progressing properly.”

  “Oh, you mean the ones where we make sure we’re still more like the X-Men than the Thing?”

  “Something like that, yes. I need the three of you in the medical bay. You were supposed to be there fifteen minutes ago.”

  I managed not to say that Walter hadn’t reminded me. Walter might be stuck running my calendar, but this really wasn’t his responsibility. “Sorry, my dad arrived with the pets, and it just sort of washed it out of my mind.” Not that I wouldn’t go for the easy blame lay if I could do it, of course.

  “We can’t just leave the animals here,” Jeff said, making me wonder if he’d comprehended what my dad had told him and he’d apparently agreed to.

  “Oh, they’ll be fine,” Dad said cheerfully. “But if you’re worried, just call in some of those nice agents who always escort me to the Bases. They love the pets.”

  I doubted that very much, seeing as the A-C agents who got stuck with dog and cat duty always seemed like they’d rather be fighting a fugly than dealing with our animals. But I knew enough to keep my yap shut.

  Jeff made the call, and four agents who’d clearly drawn the short straws arrived to pet sit. Dad insisted on coming down for the icky tests, so he carried Jamie.

  We joined Christopher and Serene, who also had Surcenthumain running through their veins, in Tito’s Lab of Horrors. Actual
ly, his setup was nice. His rooms were right next to the infirmary, and he’d made it rather cozy, if you ignored the Mixed Martial Arts and UFC posters that adorned most of the walls. Tito liked to combine his favorite hobby with his life’s work, which I couldn’t argue with. I liked the posters, but they didn’t exactly say “lie back and relax” to most people.

  Melanie and Emily were there, as well. “You two really get around. I thought you were still science side.” All the Dazzlers were trained in medicine; some were better at it than others, but it was considered a natural part of their education, the way learning a foreign language was for humans.

  Melanie laughed. “You know these medical tests are top secret. Who is Doctor Hernandez going to ask to assist him other than us?”

  Emily nodded as she took Jamie from me and gave her lots of cuddles. “Besides, our little darling here loves her Aunties Emily and Melanie.” She gave her a kiss. “Jamie wants us all ready for the next hybrid babies to come.”

  Since said babies belonged to Doreen, Lorraine, and Claudia, I couldn’t argue. Just as my parents had taken Amy under their wing when she’d lost her family, Melanie and Emily and their husbands had done the same with Doreen. The A-Cs were already one huge, extended family, but several of us were getting closer and more compacted in some interesting ways.

  Jamie and I went in first. Blood was taken, orifices were probed, brains were scanned, and reflexes were checked. Because we had two Dazzlers on duty, they did the analysis and such at hyperspeed, meaning we had instant results for Tito to look at and make the Doctor Frowny Face over.

  “You’re still able to switch from human to enhanced easily,” Tito commented. “That’s good in some ways, but it means one or the other isn’t reflexive, so you’ll have the natural reaction most often.”

  “I think I’m having human reactions that way. Normally, I mean. At least for me.”

  “Good, and makes sense.” He tickled Jamie, then did the same fun stuff with her. “She’s really learning fast. She’s well beyond what most three month olds should be able to do.”