Page 9 of Ensnared By the Rabbit Genius
“I designed the shuttle’s propulsion engine,” I found myself saying without meaning to. I wasn’t bragging but stating a fact.
“Really?” He smiled so sweetly up at me.
I nodded, memorizing his face.
He took a step closer to me and, in addition to being able to hear the way his heart beat increased, I could scent the growing fragrance of his arousal. Goddess, but if it wasn’t for our audience of guards, I would do my best to convince Ellis to let me take him here and now.
I licked my lips and felt a shiver go through me at the way his gaze tracked my tongue. “Tell me where we might go to be alone together. Would you prefer that we remain on Earth?” Hopefully, my voice didn’t sound as desperate as I felt. “Where do you reside?”
He bit his bottom lip and shook his head. “I have two roommates and one of them works from home.”
“So we wouldn’t be alone?”
“Yeah. Thin walls, too.”
“My quarters on the ship are private and soundproof.”
Ellis huffed a little laugh and took another step toward me. Did he realize he was doing that? One more step and he’d be pressed against me. I resisted the urge to close the gap myself.
“If you think it’s alright to take me up there,” he said as he peeked at me through his lashes, “then we can go. I…” he licked his lips. “I really want to be with you.”
I cupped his face in my hands and kissed him. Ellis gasped before our lips met and his posture stiffened, but then he quickly melted against me. My poor mate seemed starved for proper attention. Though he had all of mine in this moment, I couldn’t help remembering that the shuttle pilot wouldn’t leave until I said to.
Tapering off the kiss, I watched Ellis slowly blink his eyes open. He had no idea how much time I was going to spend just looking at him. My mate was beautiful, and I couldn’t wait to view all of him.
“Sit down,” I whispered, “and strap in.”
He gulped, and I let him go as he nodded. I leaned into the doorway to the cockpit and spoke in Norlish, telling them, “Take us to the main landing bay and alert them to the fact that I’m bringing a guest.”
“Yes, sir,” the Lago pilot said. “Please take your seat.”
I sat beside Ellis this time, since the warm scent of his arousal was being replaced entirely by the sourness of his anxiety. I didn’t need to smell him to know he was nervous since he was also starting to sweat and breathe faster, his eyes wide and flicking all around the shuttle. Aiming to distract him, I took his hand in mine and tried to think of the most reassuring aspects of the shuttle’s construction.
Ellis paused all over before he made me turn my hand over. He seemed to lose himself in tracing the fur between each of my finger pads and along the two lines cutting across my palm. It tickled and I couldn’t stop the way my fingers flexed and clawscame out. When he looked up at me with his bottom lip caught in his teeth, grinning at me, I wondered if he might want to spend a great deal of time looking me over as well. The minutes flew by as he silently explored nothing more than my hand.
The shuttle touched down in the landing bay with a thump, and Ellis jerked hard and snatched my hand to his chest like a lifeline.
“It’s alright,” I told him. “We’re here.”
“What? Here where?” He looked around frantically, but there wasn’t much to see through the windows over our heads.
“We’re on the ship. In the landing bay to be?—”
“Oh my fucking god!” he exclaimed as the ramp descended.
I chuckled at him and tried to undo his buckles with only one hand, the other still held hostage against his chest.
“I didn’t evenknow,” he said. “Like I didn’t feelanything. Shouldn’t we have been weightless?”
“We were without gravity for three minutes.”
“We werenot.”
I chuckled at him. “Ellis, I need my other hand.”
He gasped and let me go. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine.” I finished unbuckling him, freed myself, and then I offered my hand back to him as I stood. “Come on.”
