Loving Kale

Going Steady

I woke up again and stretched , raising my arms and pointing my toes before flopping back down. I stared at the ceiling a silly smile on my face. Damn I need to take Shaye’s advice more often I thought as I got up from the bed. I paused wondering where Kale was but then i heard movement coming from the bathroom. ‘Kale?’ I called rolling to the edge of the bed and sitting up. “ Good you're up” he called back “ I ordered us some breakfast. It should be here soon” I could feel my tummy rumbling mmmmmm breakfast  I got up the rest of the way and  headed into the bath room as he was leaving out. I went up on my tip toes and accepted the kiss he gave me, turning my head at the last second so it landed on my cheek. “Morning breath” I explained and laughed a little when he rolled his eyes. I closed the door behind him and headed to the shower, determined to wash quickly, wanting to see what food the Selkrian would have ordered.

I dried off and dressed pulling on a pair of faded jeans and a tank top. I glanced at the clock as I walked out the room seeing we had a few hours till check out. He really had knocked me out with sex. I grinned to myself as I walked to the dining room table, unable to feel any regrets. “Hey’ he said walking over and giving me a quick kiss “go on and sit down I'll just grab the drinks.” I nodded and sat noticing the in room dining cart standing next to the table, and seeing he had already unloaded most of the items. I took a moment to compose my face, I wanted to grin sooo badly! He had ordered another of my favorites, Belgian waffles, sausage,scrambled eggs and he was bringing over a pitcher of oj.

“I’ve had a great time with you this weekend” he said looking up at me as he cut up his waffles. “ I hope you’ve had fun as well”

I nodded, smiling slightly “ Oh yes, it’s been fantastic” It was the truth, I couldn't lie, I would love to spend more time with him and really explore this chemistry we had together. But if he just wanted to leave it like this I wouldn't cling.

“I’m very interested in seeing more of you, your smart and funny…” His voice lowered and his eyes turned bright, beginning to glow slightly. “ And I haven't paid your body the full attention that it deserves”

I stared at him wide eyed, my forkful of eggs hovering my by mouth. “Ok” I squeaked, then cleared my throat and lowered my voice “ sure, sounds good”

He winked at me and resumed eating.

We checked out the hotel a couple of hours later and were waiting downstairs for valet to pull the car around to us.Kale was standing next to me on the phone, his arm slung around my shoulder. When his phone had rung earlier he had glanced at the screen, grimaced and apologized saying he had to take the call. He had started out in english and it seemed like there was a problem with one of his manufacturing plants but then the conversation had switched to what I assumed was selk. It sounded beautiful, the consonants flowing together lyrically. I could tell though that it wasn't a happy conversation as he was very tense next to me. I pulled away from him as our car came to a stop in front of us. I thanked the valet as he held the door opened for me and sat down in the car. He got in next to me and smoothly pulled out into traffic.

“Is everything ok?” I asked curiously, he looked a bit perturbed, his brow was lowered and he was chewing on his bottom lip.

“No not really” he glanced at me quickly before looking back at the road “ I’m sorry to do this, as I had originally planned to take you out tonight, but I must fly to one of my plants in Texas tonight. There seems to be a major problem, there are rumors of the workers planning to go on strike soon.”

“Oh wow. Why are they doing that?”

He grimaced “ Seems they are not happy to be working for an alien.  I’ll go down there and meet with the union rep, see how this can be smoothed over.”

I nodded “I hope that helps. Be careful, you never know how some people may react to your presence there”

The smile he sent my way was warm “ No worries, I’ll watch my back” he caught my hand with his and rubbed his thumb across the back of it  “ I would like to see you when I come back though, maybe dinner at my place?”

I smiled back at him “Sounds good”

KALE

I grumbled silently to myself as I dropped Mia back to her house, saw her to her door and kissed her senseless before driving away. I had to hurry and get to the airport so that I could travel over to texas and see about this unrest that was brewing. I was by no means a dictator but if my workers were this unhappy that there were rumors of a strike happening, I needed to get to the bottom of it and fast. I was resentful that the business was pulling me away from my Ke’ola though. After last night I knew for sure that’s what she was, I had to struggle so hard not to bite her as instinct demanded. I had almost slipped this morning, biting a little too hard but stopping myself before I broke the skin.

I grinned to myself, practically giddy at the fact that I had finally, finally, found her. I had given up hope when I first came to this planet as we had no idea if humans were compatible to us in that way , then when we found out they were, we were unsure if they would be our fated mates. Over the years we had discovered as one by one different selkrian spread out across the globe had bonded to humans. There were some who disapproved, believing humans to be inferior to us or that we should stick to our own kind. I’ve never enforced that with my hale, as long as all relationships were consensual, they could mate as they pleased. I took a deep breath already feeling the need to be with my Ke’ola, to ensure she was safe and happy.

This would get worse once we had claimed each other, we would be unable to be apart for long without experiencing extreme discomfort. I thought back to when I’d slipped and called her Ke’ola, wincing to myself when I thought of what I would have said if she had caught me and asked what it meant.I didn't want to lie but I could tell she was not ready yet for that level of commitment. True she had spent some time with me and had given herself to me, but hearing promises of forever and always ...it was too soon for that. I would need to ease into this a little and in the meantime until she was ready, fight the urge to fully mark her as mines.