Page 17 of Sway’s Peace (Delivery Service #2)

Grace

“It must be a human talent to lure in males so easily.”

“Huh?” Grace looked up from her small mirror, not at all surprised to see Reetak had come to stand by her desk again. Hip popped against the corner, she looked down her long muzzle, giving Grace a subtle, smirking, ratchi grin.

Reetak used one of her three fingers to indicate to the stuff Grace had spread across her desk. Make up. Scented creams for her hands and face. Tools to primp and polish her hair, her lashes, her teeth, her lips. Grace pouted, gathering them back up.

“I finished my work. There’s nothing wrong with doing this here. I do it in the morning sometimes too when I miss my alarm.”

“Yes, but you told me yourself you don’t like to use the bright colors on your lips.” Reetak picked up the pretty, petal red stain in question. “You said it made males focus too much on your lips rather than you and that’s why you prefer neutral colors and light pinks.”

Grace snatched the stain back, cheeks burning.

Makeup, out in space, was as varied as the many species that made up the Coalition.

Reetak’s people, the ratchi, for instance, didn’t really use it.

Some species, though, would paint their entire bodies for formal occasions.

Others considered using products like makeup to be a form of costuming, falsifying looks, or even blasphemous.

And those that did use makeup didn’t all have the same style.

Domini, for example, wore their makeup more like it was war paint.

There were stores and supplies for every type and style. It took Grace some trial and error, but she’d eventually found a regimen that wasn’t bad for her skin, didn’t cover like literal paint, and was something she could apply without changing her human skills all that much.

That being said, Grace tried not to do it very often.

Being human, she always drew attention. After so long away from Earth, it was something she was used to experiencing.

However, especially for work, it wasn’t something that she wanted to encourage.

She put enough on her face that she didn’t think she looked pale and lacking sleep, but she’d seriously pulled back on her lip color selection, her lashes, and even the nude look.

‘Nude’ just meant enhancing her natural features.

Which was the problem in the first place!

So, if she was wearing makeup, she’d use bright, vibrant colors on her eyes instead of subtle smoky looks.

It was just easier, and it was actually pretty fun.

She could draw a star over her eye like it was the 80s and go out like that and no one would look at her askance because there was some species or race or culture somewhere that would consider that normal.

Therefore, in the melting pot that was Coalition space, wearing outrageous, eye catching, and vibrant makeup was normal.

Her lips, however, were another story. Kissing wasn’t the same across the board. Some species didn’t kiss at all. But enough did that it was still a well known thing. Bringing attention to her glittery eyes did no harm, but her lips were too much of an invitation.

So, this was the first time in a while that Grace had gone back to her tried and true human methodology of enhancing without distracting.

Her lashes were long and curled up, shaping eyes that had been gently smoked out with neutral tones so that they appeared bigger and brighter without actually adding color.

Her cheeks were touched with blush, the high points dusted with highlighter, and her lips, yes, were stained with a lovely red.

Not so bright that it was obviously fake, but bright enough that it drew the eye.

Which was her whole intention. She wanted Sway to direct his gaze there.

He said he was station raised, and the farasie were one of the species that kissed naturally, so either way, he would know about it.

She wanted to make sure it was on his mind.

All the things she didn’t want others to do or think, she wanted him to do and think.

She’d also taken advantage of her dock master status by forgoing her uniform today.

She had a date right after work, so she’d dressed in anticipation of it already.

Her first date in a long time. Since before she even came to Hir-Fallow.

She was as giddy as a teenager meeting the cute guy from math class on Friday afternoon.

Since she had asked him out, and she lived on the station and thus knew it better, she sent Sway the name of the restaurant and the time they should meet up.

Maybe it was a conflict of interest to be dating a client, but that was really only a rule on Earth.

The Coalition as a whole, and Uver Prime specifically, didn’t care so long as everyone remained professional when it came to the work itself.

In a culture where your mate could be right around the corner and you had no choice but to fall for them, being separated by being coworkers was just foolish if not outright cruel.

Dressed up, giddy, and eager, the marks had ticked by agonizingly slowly while Grace worked.

But, finally, the last of her crews finished their tasks for the day and left for their homes.

No one was expected to come in for docking until tomorrow.

She was now free to leave herself since there was nothing left to coordinate.

They did have a night dock master who would watch over all the docks for emergencies, but that wasn’t her problem.

It was time to apply her makeup, freshen up, and go meet her date!

But while Grace had done her makeup at her desk in the mornings sometimes, she never did it in the afternoon. Which was what drew Reetak over with that sauntering swagger and annoyingly knowing grin.

Grace had not at all been subtle in her interest in Sway yesterday.

And, according to Reetak, both of them smelled like arousal.

Which was a statement that would have been humiliating a few years ago when she’d just left Earth.

But she’d long accepted that some species had much more sensitive noses than others, and they could be highly attuned to what a person was feeling based on scent alone.

And hearing her say that now, Grace beamed.

“He was aroused?”

“Oh, yes,” Reetak chuckled, the sound a deep, hissing rumble in her chest. “The poor male was positively stupid with desire. You should have crooked your little finger at him and see how long it took him to come running.”

Grace giggled, kicking her feet under her desk.

She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been so interested in a guy, or this excited about meeting one. He was so cute! And that shy, sweet smile just drew her in. Best of all, he was a farasie. That meant he was safe.

Grace wasn’t a tall girl, even by human standards, and humans were short by alien standards.

She was constantly surrounded by people much bigger and much, much stronger than herself.

While she knew, with relative certainty, that she was safer than on Earth, she was also in greater danger.

If someone wanted to hurt her, there really was nothing she could do about it.

But farasie were pacifists. Everyone knew you could trust a farasie not to hurt you. There was no one more trustworthy in the Coalition.

He was cute and he was safe, but he was still an adventure! The kind of small, safe adventure she liked. It was like he had been specifically designed for Grace.

Was this…

Maybe…

She swept her makeup supplies back into the kit as her heart thumped excitedly in her chest as she considered the possibility.

Humans recognized their mates by sight, after all, and she had been attracted to him immediately.

And sure, humans were notoriously terrible at recognizing their mates, but they still had them.

Grace knew it was a possibility she’d never meet her mate since, statistically, you were far more likely to mate within your own species.

But there was still a chance…

How did farasie recognize their mates? She didn’t know.

She should look it up, but part of her was scared to try.

To learn that he might be sight or scent triggered or something, and he would already know that she wasn’t his mate, but he was going along with her anyway.

The farasie, she knew, weren’t one of those that only gave themselves to their mates.

He could want nothing more than a good time while he was in port.

That very real possibility stayed her hand when it came to finding more information on him.

If that was what their fate held in store, she didn’t want to know right now.

That reality might be waiting for her, another disappointment to add to her life, another person for whom she wasn’t enough, but she didn’t want to know.

For tonight, until she was forced to confront the truth, she just wanted to enjoy this. Whatever it was, whatever it might be. For now, it was a bright, sparkling joy in her chest that she wanted to savor.

She stowed the kit in her desk and turned off the console, all the holodisplays winking away. The entire desk went to sleep as she stood. Straightening her dress, she took a steadying breath, and glanced at Reetak.

“How do I look?”

“Beautiful, of course,” her friend grinned. “But you better get out of here quickly. Covor just spotted you and he looks ma-a-ad.”

Grace wanted to ask why that mattered, but then she looked to their right where Covor was coming into the room. He had his own office space above theirs, fully private and separate. She rather enjoyed it, because that meant he wasn’t constantly hovering over her.