Kraving Khiva by Zoey Draven

Chapter Fifteen

Eve made it home an hour before she was due at the shop for opening. But the moment the driverless car pulled up to her townhouse in the Garden District, she saw the shimmering gold of Genni’s hair. Her friend was sitting on the stone stairs of her porch, clicking away on her Nu device.

Eve frowned, wondering what she was doing there, but then she froze, thinking about her knotted hair and reddened lips and silk dress that she would have no reason to wear that early in the morning.

“Damn,” she whispered as the driverless car stopped, smoothing her dress over her thighs. Genni’s head snapped up, her bright blue eyes narrowing, though she couldn’t see her through the tinted glass.

With a deep breath, Eve opened the door. While she was going to tell Genni eventually that she’d visited one of the Krave to lose her virginity, she hadn’t planned for her friend to be sitting outside her door the morning after it happened.

Selfishly, she would’ve liked the keep Khiva to herself, even if it was for a little while longer.

When she righted herself on the pathway leading up to her house, the car humming quietly as it slid away, Genni stood, an annoyed, yet relieved, expression on her face.

“Where the hell have you been?” Genni demanded, stalking down the pathway towards her. “I’ve been so worried!”

Eve sighed, knowing she should’ve brought her Nu device with her. But she hadn’t wanted any distractions with Khiva, so she’d left it inside her townhouse.

“I’m sorry, Genni,” Eve said. “I didn’t have my Nu on me. I didn’t know you were trying to reach me.”

“Where the hell…” Genni trailed off, coming into arm’s length, her blue eyes scanning her over. Realization hit her friend and Eve sighed as Genni took in her appearance. “Oh my God. You…you…you’ve been fucked!”

Eve bit her lip, looking around the quiet block of houses in the Garden District. It was a small block and the neighbors were known to eavesdrop. Hell, Eve had done it a few times if she’d heard an argument outside, shamelessly putting her ear to a window. The sound carried down the street easily.

“Let’s go inside,” Eve suggested, steering her friend to her front door.

“What…what the hell is going on, Evelyn?” Genni asked. When Genni used her full name with that tone, she knew she was in trouble.

Eve scanned her face at the reader of her front door. For a moment, she had a stray thought that the reader wouldn’t recognize her face, wondering if it sensed how different, how changed she felt. She couldn’t possibly have the same face of the woman who’d left the evening before. But the bolt unlocked from the inside without issue.

She pushed open the heavy wood, Genni trailing behind her, and then she shut it. The familiar smell of her townhouse hit her and she breathed it in deeply. It was a comfort. It seemed like ages since she’d last been home. Time had seemed to stand still with Khiva…until the morning came and reality rushed back in.

Eve walked into the sitting room off the main foyer and Genni followed, demanding, “Tell me what’s going on, Evelyn. Are you…are you alright? Who was driving you home?”

“It was a driverless car. And yes, I’m fine, I promise,” Eve said, sinking down in the dark brown leather armchair, her familiar place. “I really am sorry if you were trying to reach me, Genni. I just didn’t think about it.”

Genni wasn’t even dressed for her job at the salon, which made Eve feel guilty. She must’ve been really worried about her.

“I was about to notify Patrol, Evelyn,” Genni said, frowning. “I hadn’t heard from you since yesterday afternoon and Mr. Wrenton said you’d left to go home early from the shop, but you weren’t here.”

Great. Her employer, Mr. Wrenton, was involved.

“I thought the worst,” Genni said, studying her. Crime, while low on Everton, wasn’t unheard of. The Patrol was strict with any crime. They had to be on a small colony. “I think you owe me an explanation.”

Eve bit her tongue. While she was grateful that Genni had been worried about her, she didn’t have an inherent right to know everything about her life. She’d only been gone for the night. One single night, out of the entire time that Genni had known her.

Eve thought it likely that something happened with Genni’s new lover and her friend had wanted to vent, only to find her unavailable.

That’s a bitchy thought, she chastised herself. But Eve wouldn’t put it past her. Genni probably believed that she didn’t have a life outside of her work and her friendship.

It’s…true though, she thought, frowning, looking down at her lap. Or at least it had been.

Eve sighed, knowing there was no way she’d be able to hide where she’d been last night. Genni already knew she’d been with someone.

That someone just happened to be one of Madame Allegria’s Krave.

“I, um, was with someone last night,” Eve told her softly, confirming her friend’s suspicions. “And I didn’t bring my Nu device, so I didn’t realize you were trying to reach me.”

“I just saw you a couple days ago,” Genni pointed out. “You didn’t tell me you’d met anyone.”

“Because I didn’t meet him exactly,” Eve said softly, squirming a bit in her armchair. When she moved, she caught a whiff of Khiva’s scent. He was on her skin, permeated through her hair, in the silk threads of her dress. Everywhere.

“Will the cut the bullshit and just tell me who it is?” Genni asked, annoyed once again.

Eve bit her tongue again, but decided to just get it over with.

“I booked a visit with one of Madame Allegria’s Krave.”

Genni’s mouth dropped open almost comically, but no sound emerged.

“I, uh, first went to him last week, but we didn’t have sex,” Eve said, swallowing. “And then I saw him again last night…and we did.”

Genni stared at her, those bright blue eyes piercing what felt like every pore of her skin.

“Who the hell are you?” Genni asked slowly.

Eve’s eyebrows rose. “What?”

“The Eve Tesler I know would never do something like that. She would never visit a brothel to lose her ‘V.’ To an alien whore no less,” Genni stated, crossing her arms over her ample chest. She hadn’t yet taken a seat so Eve felt like she was towering over her.

Fierce anger consumed her and Eve couldn’t believe the words that were coming out of her friend’s mouth.

“How dare you say that,” Eve said, standing from the armchair, “when you were the one saying that you’d give anything to spend a night with one of them. Don’t be such a hypocrite, Genni!”

Genni looked taken aback at Eve’s raised voice, but then the blonde’s scowl deepened. “I was joking! I would never visit one of them. Do you know how many women they fuck a week? That place is probably crawling with diseases.”

“Oh really?” Eve asked, so angry that her hands were shaking. “You think that the women who pay 900 credits a night go there for the diseases? Get real, Genni. That establishment is so clean you could lick the floor.”

“You didn’t even think about it, did you?” Genni questioned, lips tightening at Eve’s surprising retort. “You’re having sex with an alien whore and did you even ask what they do for disease or I don’t know, if you got pregnant?”

It angered Eve even more that she couldn’t give her friend an answer. Because no, frankly, she hadn’t been thinking about it. Because she’d never had sex, she’d never needed a contraceptive. She’d never needed to worry about it.

And it was no secret that human women tended to be biologically compatible with many alien species. There were hybrids spread across the Quadrants, though Everton and the other Earth colonies liked to deny it.

“Again…” Eve said quietly, trying to calm down because screaming at her friend would get her nowhere. Genni had a mean streak and a temper. “Do you honestly believe that Madame Allegria wouldn’t address those possibilities, given her clientele?”

Genni sneered but only said, “The richies have good doctors.”

Eve raised her brow and even though it was a dig, she replied, “And so do I.”

That dig hit home. Genni had always been obsessed with marrying rich, though she’d often made Eve feel guilty for having an inheritance.

Genni huffed out a short breath, her hands going to her hips. “Then I hope for your sake you don’t need them, after your night with your whore.”

“Stop calling him that,” Eve said quietly.

Genni sprung on her words like the bloodhounds bred for hunting. A deceptively sweet, pitying smile crossed her full, pink lips. “Oh, Evelyn. Please don’t tell me you have feelings for him.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Eve said through slightly clenched teeth. “I’ve only visited him twice.”

Genni studied her and sometimes Eve hated how well her friend could read her. Although at that moment, Genni didn’t truly feel like a friend.

“You do,” Genni said, realization coloring her tone. “You have feelings for a Krave.”

Eve sucked in a slow, steadying breath, trying to get her hands to stop shaking from the adrenaline and fury running through her veins. The morning was just going from bad to worse.

“Sweetie,” Genni said, purposefully using that word to sound condescending, “get your head out of Everton’s orbit, okay? I’m just trying to look out for you.”

“Oh, so that’s what you’re doing,” Eve murmured slowly, her tone dripping with sarcasm.

Genni’s nostrils flared. “Evelyn, listen to me. He works for Madame Allegria. He is paid to fuck human women for credits. And he must be damn good at it if he’s got even you spun in his web.” When Eve tried to protest, Genni cut her off with, “Yeah, I’m sure that he’s nice and you’ll say ‘he’s not like that.’ But don’t mistake a good business tactic for genuine romantic feelings, Evelyn. The Krave need repeat clients. That’s just good business and don’t doubt that Madame Allegria pushes that on them. They’ll do and say anything to get you to come back. That’s the simple truth.”

Evelyn thought back to her first visit, when she’d been about to leave. How Khiva had almost begged her to return…

She wasn’t a fool. Of course, she’d always known it in the back of her mind, but she hadn’t cared. She liked the fantasy of it, the pretending.

So why did the thought that Khiva was only vying for her continued business make her stomach hurt? Why did the knowledge that Khiva would most likely be having sex with another woman later that night, when he’d woken up with her, hurt so much?

How many women did he have sex with from week-to-week? From month-to-month?

Stop, she told herself. She had absolutely no right to be jealous of nameless, faceless women, especially when she’d paid him to fuck her, especially when she’d known exactly what she was getting into.

She just hadn’t counted on liking him so much. She hadn’t counted on liking the way he called her leeldra, whatever that meant in his language, or liking the small trilling sound he made when he was amused.

She wondered how many women he called leeldra on a regular basis. All of them?

“I have to get ready for the shop,” Eve said quietly, not quite meeting Genni’s eyes.

Genni was already walking to the door. She left the sitting room, but in the foyer she said, “Glad to know you weren’t murdered by a street lord, Evelyn, and that you were just fucking a Krave. I won’t worry next time!”

Eve closed her eyes, breathing out a sharp exhale through her nostrils.

“Oh,” Genni yelled from the front door, “and thanks for caring but Erik and I broke up!”

The front door slammed behind the temperamental blonde and Eve stood in the middle of her sitting room for another moment, watching Genni stalk down the street through the window.

Well, I was right about one thing, Eve thought, turning towards the stairs, shaking her head.

Genni had truly just wanted to vent about Erik.