Page 38 of Sol Survivor

He released her but watched her scoot across the bed to yank on her dress.When she bent to tug on her boots, he snatched her into his arms and pinned her to the wall again.His kiss was heaven, the taste of him, and the heated dominance of his tongue.For someone who hadn’t known what a kiss was, he’d learned fast.Hoisting her legs up, he plunged into her.Too close to her last orgasm, she exploded, riding pure pleasure that left her disinterested in returning to the ice hauler and what Nikko had done to her.Instead, she clung to Drafe as he fucked her hard enough to bounce her off the wall.Sweat glistened on his obsidian skin, and when she buried her fingers in his mane of hair, he bellowed, his body twitching.He arched, keeping her in place with the power of his hips.

“I mean it, Vic.Ten minutes to departure.”

Drafe staggered back, his cock still hard and a delicious black and cream color.She would love to explore the ridges on the top, and the pointed tip of his cock too.On trembling knees, she managed to don her boots.With a last lingering kiss, she slipped out of the room, then burst into a run, taking the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator.

Sprinting and weaving through the crowds, she bounced her leg when she had to take the one elevator to the docking level.Dieter waited on the ramp, his brow furrowed as he searched for her.

Grinning, she strolled the final few meters.“I’m here.”

His shoulders slumped.He beamed.“Cutting it fine, Vic.”

“You’re not going to garner any favors for helping me.If Nikko wanted me off, he won’t appreciate this.”

“Captain’s my boss, and he told me to call you.”Dieter pressed a red button as soon as they stepped into the cavernous bay.The mechanical whine of the ramp retracting merged with the squeal from the lowering bay door.

She had hoped Nikko hadn’t sold her out.Why had she thought she didn’t need to guard her back as she had at Carne?“Yeah, I think we have a ‘who’s boss’ problem.”

“Want to finish the tour now?”Dieter flicked his gaze over her.“Might as well get your uniform too.”Walking backward along the passage, he studied her.“What took you dockside?”

“Oh, just had to see a man about a promise I made,” she chuckled.

Drafestaredattheclosed door then sat on the edge of the bed.Holy Osnir, he was bereft, still aching, his symbiotes zinging along his veins in tormented bliss.As explosive as this had been, it hadn’t been enough.He needed more time with her, more of…her.While snapping on his boots, he relived her kisses, the addictive sounds she made that caught in her throat, and the feel of her engulfing him.Never had he been this energized.His symbiotes reacted to her in ways he struggled to understand.

In his village, there were too few females for mating, especially for pleasure.And traveling to other villages for such a task was done only once a season.The males who did so had to accept that their symbiotes recorded their dalliances for all generations to witness.He was not such a male.

He licked his lips and savored her flavor, better than the sweetest of water, the freshest of vasquva, or the fragrance of the morning sun hitting the Nadaar dunes.Summoning his armor, he strolled out of the room but not before he drew in a lungful of their union.He wanted to capture the moment.Growling, he stomped into the descending box and across the lounge.His glower silenced anyone curious enough to glance his way.

TheAroagniwas close, not that he cared when he cut a wide path through the crowds.

“What has you so miserable?”Vaen guarded the entrance, his scowl a deterrent as well.

“I…lost something.”How else could Drafe explain the darkness enshrouding his soul?

“Oh?”Vaen studied Drafe.“You have your blaster and a strange black strip around your wrist.”

Lifting his hand, Drafe twisted his wrist.He could talk to her, so that was something.She said he could find her after they had learned who killed the ots.He need only focus on that.

“Ulvus is most displeased with your departure.”Vaen fell into step beside Drafe.“Aehort awaits you in the command room.”

“I know where it is.You need not escort me.”Drafe glared at Vaen.He was hoping for a moment alone, to gather his focus, and remember the honor of Qaldreth came first.

“Aehort was most specific.”Vaen grinned and thumped Drafe on his shoulder.

“Fine.”He shrugged, trying to dislodge Vaen.“Cease touching me.”

Vaen drew in a deep breath.“You smell…good, like Qaldreth sunlight baking the rocks around the Aguura salt plains.”

Fire exploded inside Drafe and across his vision.“My…” His what?His scents?His personal space?His…Vic?He’d lain with her twice.She wasn’t his but was a free female, without filial responsibilities, alone… Yet, she had said she would be honored.The perfect response.His armor hardening should have warned him, but instead, he threw Vaen off.

“Whoa.”Vaen held up his hands, stepped back, and allowed Drafe to enter the command center first.

Aehort met Drafe’s gaze for a minute before nodding.“So it has begun.”He gestured to the circular table in the center of the oval room.Holographs rose, building a three-dimensional representation of the star system around their location.

“The data shows these carry the explosives.”Thousands of blue dots popped into the model, moving as they traveled outward.“They have no predetermined destination.A few collide with meteors, asteroid belts, debris, a few are collected by astro-hoppers—what the humans call those who mine the asteroid belts.A few of these pods encounter planets, habitable or otherwise.”

“Do we know what’s inside them?”Drafe spun the model as dots blimped out of existence.

Aehort zoomed into a dot, analyzing the pod-shape of it.“No, which is why we need to capture one.”

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