Page 45 of Across The Stars
“I don’t know what that means.”
I shook my head. “Never mind. Wait. A few days? Am I sticking around?”
“For a while. Until you are fit to travel or we figure out if the path back to the Nexus is cleared of gek.”
Standing up straight, I felt my body trying to slouch and blinked rapidly. Vahko released me from his hands, but not his eyes. His gaze pinned me and I found myself sinking deep within that stare again, unable to stay afloat. My pulse vibrated, sending heat waves all through my skin until I was sure I was turning bright red. My eyes followed the strong lines of Vahko’s features to his lips and I felt my core swell with desire.
I was either horny and desperate or this alien was giving off some kind of pheromone because dizzy or not, I really wanted to touch him. In fact, without knowing it, I rose on my toes, pressed my hands to his chest for support, and stretched toward him, stopping only an inch from his mouth. Shit, I wanted to kiss him. I took in a deep breath, filling my lungs with his scent, and parted my lips with surprise.
Shit…
“Uh,” I muttered. “Sorry.”
I lowered myself back onto my heels, brows furrowed. I had to be high on drugs. Embarrassed, I cleared my throat, about to step back when Vahko’s hand flattened lightly to the small of my back and kept me close. I looked up at him, questions whirling inside my head. My eyes darted back and forth between his, waiting for something to happen, but he looked almost as confused as I was. A surge of wild heat rained along my skin anddispersed through every part of my body. Plenty of those tingles gathered between my legs and I trembled at the sensation.
“Holy shit,” I whispered. “Are you doing this?”
Vahko slowly shook his head, his gaze dropping to my mouth. “No.”
He really needed to stop doing whatever he was doing. Every time he looked at my mouth, I wanted to kiss him and that wasn’t normal. Even if I was some desperate, affection-starved woman.
“So, you feel it, too?”
He blinked, swallowing. “It must be that you’re not acclimated to the planet’s atmosphere,” he said.
I shook my head, glimpsing at the trace amount of skin at the top of Vahko’s chest that was exposed behind his clothing. My fingers trailed up until they brushed his bare flesh. I was entranced by the swift ripple of color that shot out from beneath my fingers and traveled up his neck. He shivered, sucking in a sharp breath like I’d stung him.
“Don’t,” he said, but the way his grip on my back tightened said differently.
“What the hell was that?”
Closing his eyes, Vahko forced himself to release me and stepped away, pulling up the closure on his shirt so his skin was hidden behind the high collar.
“Clearly you are feeling well enough to speak,” he said. “Which means you can explain yourself to the valerian council.”
“E—Explain myself?” I said.
“Yes. We need an account of what happened. So far, you’re the only survivors from the attack that we’re aware of.”
“Are you serious?” My heart sank at the thought. Penny. Quinn. Omar. There were a lot of people on that freighter. I took a look around the room as if it would have changed in the lastfew minutes. “Where’s my friend? The little one?” I needed her right then.
“Safe. She’s been giving Salukh a hard time, but that means she’s feeling better, I assume. She’s been getting treated for sickness.”
“Motion sickness?”
“She was running a mild fever and since we don’t have human disease here, my people are taking precautions.”
“Oh.”
“I assure you, she’s fine.”
“Good. Good. That’s good. So, is she going to the council, too? I mean, when she’s better?”
Vahko paused a moment. “She’s been deemed unfit to appear before the council, so no.”
“Unfit?”
“She’s… violent. On top of having a cold.”
