Tess Harding knew what a good job looked like and she had made a GREAT job of her first Christmas with the Valentis. First Christmas? She shook her head. When had she started thinking in those terms? It sounded as though she planned to stay a while. That was clearly impossible.

She watched Jim Valenti and Amy DeLuca flirt with one another, the ease of long acquaintance paving the way for a budding relationship. Jim looked ten years younger... and Tess patted herself on the back. They deserved some happiness together.

When she turned away from watching the older couple, Tess became aware of Kyle's eyes on her. She turned to meet them and was surprised at how happy the smile in them made her. Her own blue eyes beamed back. "Want to help me clean the kitchen, Buddha boy?"

He pushed away from the counter, looking startled. "Oh. Uh. I assumed you could just... uh... you know... make it all go away." His smile was ingenuous.

"Kyle," her voice was patient. "You don't want me to make it all go away. We might like to use these dishes again. So... why don't you start by putting the leftover food in the fridge right after I cover it? OK?"

"Sure." He awkwardly waited as she covered successive food items and deposited them as requested. When the last of it was put away, he offered, "Do you want to wash or dry?"

Tess walked up to him, put her arms around his neck, and murmured low. "Let's do this another way. You block the doorway for me and keep an eye on them." She nodded toward the couple on the couch.

Kyle, relieved to be given an easy task, turned toward the living room and barely had time to wonder what he was watching for when Tess said from behind him, "Done." He turned back to see a spotless kitchen.

A slow smile spread over his features. "I thought you didn't plan to do it that way."

Tess shook her head. "No. I said we didn't want me to make it all go away..." Her smile echoed his.

Amy got up and stretched. "Well... it has been lovely and it was so nice of you to invite me back for coffee after the service... but I really need to be getting home."

"Shall I go with you?" Jim offered.

"I drove."

"I know."

"How will you get home?"

"I'll walk."

"It's snowing."

"Well," he smiled, "somehow I don't see you throwing me out into the snow."

Amy grinned in response. "No. I don't think I would."

He helped her put her coat on and escorted her out.

Kyle watched them close the door and wondered who they thought they were fooling. Then he looked at his usual bed, the couch, and glanced toward the door of his old room, where Tess had retreated. Just the thought of her made his jeans feel tighter and he knew he wasn't deceiving anyone either. He took his shirt off over his head and threw it vehemently on the couch. Not that it made any difference. He reached over and turned off the light.

The bedroom door opened and he turned toward it as a moth follows a flame. Her blonde curls picked up the glow of the oil lamp she had lit. His favorite lamp and the scented oil he used in meditation. Except that the girl in the doorway did not make him think about his beliefs. She defied virtually any belief system on Earth. He wished he had never met her. She took his breath away and he could not look away from the doorway. Not for all the world would he have missed knowing her.

Tess wore one of Kyle's football jerseys. She came out of the room and took his hand. Without saying a word, she pulled him into the bedroom with her and closed the door. "Buddha boy, this is one night when we are going to trim the lamps and get our flames under control. No one will interrupt us this time." She pulled his lips down to hers and he was instantly aware of what had been just a guess and a hope. The jersey was all she wore.

Instantly his jeans became intolerable, but her hand was already unzipping them and they dropped unheeded to the floor as the jersey followed them. Kyle gathered her in his arms and each soft breast filled his palms as though sized just for them. He kissed and sucked each nipple, not with the fire of long repressed lust, but with the reverence due such treasures freely offered.

She let her head fall back and moaned softly. When he paused and looked into her blazing blue eyes, she moved closer to his chest and surprised him by returning the favor. He gasped, unaware that his nipples would also respond to stimulation. When she dropped his briefs as she caressed him, he was barely aware of it.

Kyle ran his fingers over her blonde curls and pulled the soft body close for a moment before kissing her thoroughly. Visions of another world flooded his brain and he felt curiously entwined with her on a level he had never experienced. Somehow none of his previous sexual escapades seemed to apply here. It was all new.

He lowered Tess to the bed and spread her legs. His lips and tongue traced the insides of her thighs and he tasted all of her flavors.

Tess had never known the sensations he evoked. Her body was on fire and her fingers tangled in his hair. His tongue touched her body and her passion crested. She was sure these sensations were the height of her existence as an alien/human hybrid.

Then Kyle moved up her body, took both her hands in one of his and held them above her head on the pillow as he teased her nipples with his tongue. "Ready?" he asked.

Tess could only nod and drew in a ragged breath as he entered her. For a moment Kyle was startled. He had never guessed that she would be a virgin. He swallowed and forced himself to move slowly. "You never told me."

She blinked away what might have been tears and pulled him closer, "Oh, Kyle..."

He took the time to take her back into ecstasy with him and they moved, locked in a perfect rhythm. For them both the universe rocked even more than their connected bodies. They had known an attraction but had taken it for simple lust.

As he took her again and again to heights she had never dreamed of, Tess' unity with him was sealed. She looked into his eyes and was aware that Kyle, also, could see their destiny together. This was no lamp to trim, but an eternal flame.

Other expectations be damned. Max Evans and his disinterest in her be damned. Tess Harding reclaimed her independence so that she could give it as a gift to the man she loved. Sending her mind briefly out into the entire cosmos, including the planet she hailed from, she broadcast just two words. "I quit."

The End