Page 16 of Love Galaxy

Chapter Nine

Sorin

“Cut!” John Smith stomps his way down the stairs, followed by his assistant. “You two haven’t met yet. Remember?”

“Have you already met?” Roan demands.

I grit my teeth, ignoring the look of betrayal on Roan’s face. Had the kitchen not been playing host to five cameras, I would have launched myself over the table at Killan for touching Briar.

Killan, completely unaware that my heart is beating inside my chest with such strength that I can feel almost nothing else of my own body, returns to his seat at the table, arms crossed over his chest as if touching Briar meant so little to him.

When she tripped down the stairs, it should have been me to catch her. Not my brother.

“Sue me,” Briar snaps at John Smith. “I made a mistake.”

She is wearing fewer clothes than when we first met, now wrapped in one length of pale green fabric that hugs the shape of her body and falls gracefully to her feet. She is curvaceous inways Ril’os Females are not, from breasts to waist to hips and thighs.

Her hairs are tied back, with a few strands left loose to frame her face. Her lips have been painted red, reminiscent of her hairs and in stark contrast to the green of her dress. And her arms are bare, displaying a tattoo at the crook of one elbow, bright lines against the paleness of her smooth skin.

Last night, I tossed and turned.

Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Briar.

Every time I tried to sleep, I heard Briar’s voice, as if she’d been standing outside my room. As if she had been haunting me.

“Hey, can we have a moment, just us women together?” Briar asks John Smith. “You know, to get our heads around everything that’s happened.”

“No.” John Smith grabs the front of Briar’s dress and yanks it down, exposing another inch of pale skin along her collarbone and the top of her full breasts.

“Oh, very classy!” She pushes at his shoulder, trying to shove him away from her, but the Drah’os does not even acknowledge her attempt.

“Do not touch her.” The words are out of my mouth before I can stop them, and suddenly I am standing on the table, having moved faster than conscious thought. I cross the distance between us and jump off the other side, landing before Briar and the Drah’os.

“Hey, I can understand you today.”

“Briar—” I reach for her, not quite knowing what I am going to say but wanting her to know I will protect her if she asks it of me.

“I’m fine,” she says, infinitely more articulate. “Don’t get yourself into trouble because of me.”

“Get back over there,” John Smith interrupts, gesturing at me to retreat across the table. “We need continuity.”

“Or else our audience will realize LOVE GALAXY is staged,” Briar says.

“It is not.” Roan stands, the legs of his chair scraping against the flagstone floor. “LOVE GALAXY is real. And how come you two have already met? You did not tell me.” He shoots that last accusation at me.

Everyone looks at him, and the edges of his scales tinge blue with embarrassment.

“It is real,” he repeats, stubbornly.

“Exactly,” John Smith says forcefully, pushing on my arm, trying to push me back to my original position. “It is real, and if we could continue filming, I want to get the introduction scenes finished before all twenty days have passed!”

It is only because John Smith does not again reach to touch Briar that I manage to return to the other side of the table, my hands clenched into fists that I want to sink into the Drah’os’s stomach.

“Start fromhi,”he instructs Briar. “Introduce yourself to the group and then take your seat at the table. Followed by some light banter and flirting.”

“Introduction, sit, light banter,” she repeats. “And then we’ll get a break?”

“Sure. Whatever. Action!”

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